Chapter 53.2

Li Zhuiyuan sat back down and tried to game out the worst-case scenario.

Zheng Haiyang’s parents had gotten into trouble. As a close relative, maybe he’d sensed it. But if sensing it led to that kind of violent reaction… wasn’t that a bit too terrifying?

What kind of curse could damn your whole family and still, across the sea, reach your blood kin?

Tan Wenbin had rushed over right after his exam and burst in anxiously: “Did I miss anything?”

Runsheng shook his head. “No.”

Tan Wenbin didn’t believe it and looked at Li Zhuiyuan. “Xiaoyuan?”

Li Zhuiyuan shook his head too.

Finally, Tan Wenbin turned to Zheng Haiyang, who confirmed nothing had happened. Only then did Tan breathe a sigh of relief and mutter, “Good… good, nothing happened.”

Zheng Haiyang said emotionally, “Binbin, sorry to worry you.”

“Uh…” Tan Wenbin awkwardly looked away and gave his arm a pat. “We’re bros, man. Of course I’d worry.”

That evening, Sun Qing came again, just to make sure everything was still okay.

When she asked about Zheng Haiyang’s grandparents, Li Zhuiyuan said they’d gone home to cook and would bring the food back.

Seeing how many people were in the hospital room, Sun Qing didn’t question it and left.

Zheng Haiyang wanted to be discharged. To prove he was fine, he even got out of bed, walked around, and jumped a few times.

Tan Wenbin went to handle the discharge paperwork. Not long after, he called Li Zhuiyuan out.

“What’s up, Binbin?”

“I just saw Zheng Haiyang’s grandparents downstairs. They’re getting discharged too. Refused the doctor’s advice to stay longer—they said if their grandson went home and didn’t see them, he’d worry.

Xiaoyuan, this is way too weird. The whole family’s had an incident. So doesn’t that mean Haiyang’s parents…”

“Not something we should say.”

“Right. Should I keep going with the paperwork?”

“Yeah. Let Runsheng take him home.”

That night, Li Zhuiyuan rode home in the back seat of Tan Wenbin’s bike. Later, Runsheng came back and briefly explained: Zheng Haiyang and his grandparents had no idea the other had been in the hospital.

The next day, Zheng Haiyang came to school like nothing had happened.

The results from the monthly exams were starting to come out. Since yesterday afternoon, teachers had been grading while also invigilating. The hardest part was tallying scores, but they could send those to the lower grades and let younger students help.

During Sun Qing’s Chinese class, she began distributing the Chinese test papers, calling names and announcing scores.

Chinese was a strange subject—skip two months of classes and you might still score the same as last time.

At the same time, it was also hard to improve quickly through sheer effort. Barring the occasional fluke, students’ Chinese scores tended to stay within a stable range.

Tan Wenbin looked delighted when he got his paper—he’d broken the curse and jumped a tier.

His Chinese used to rank among the lower scores. Now he was in the middle, and he’d even aced the Classical Chinese section.

All thanks to Wei Zhengdao.

He’d been reading Strange Records of the Jianghu, though very slowly.

Li Zhuiyuan had breezed through several volumes in a day, enjoying the elegant calligraphy.

Tan Wenbin, on the other hand, had to slog through it page by page, struggling with rare characters and obscure terms, constantly flipping through a dictionary and making notes.

Li Zhuiyuan’s score was announced last. The class collectively gasped—just a few points shy of a perfect score.

This wasn’t elementary school Chinese. In high school, some deductions were inevitable—like the essay. A minor deduction meant an outstanding piece.

This score meant he’d basically gotten all the objective questions right.

Sun Qing smiled. “We teachers struggled with this one. A perfect score seemed excessive, but we couldn’t find a place to dock points either. Li Zhuiyuan’s paper may not have been perfect, but it was beautifully done. And his handwriting is very neat.”

“Alright, let’s go over the test.”

She didn’t hand the paper to Li Zhuiyuan. She used his as the example and started the lecture.

Tan Wenbin pushed his own test paper toward the middle of the desk, indicating they could share.

Then he immediately regretted it.

Letting Xiaoyuan see his paper felt deeply shameful.

“Bro, how’d you do so well?”

“Just follow the formula,” said Li Zhuiyuan, pointing to the reading comprehension. “Forget what the author meant. Just figure out what the question-writer wants.”

After all, even the original author probably couldn’t score full marks on their own reading comprehension questions.

Tan Wenbin scratched his head. “Kinda makes sense. Feels different from how I used to think about it.”

“You have to learn how to take the test.”

While they were whispering, Sun Qing stood at the front, but didn’t scold them.

Soon, though, Tan Wenbin noticed Xiaoyuan’s face darken.

Sun Qing had started reading his essay aloud—to the entire class.

If he hadn’t seen Xiaoyuan’s expression, Tan might’ve sincerely exclaimed, “Your mom is amazing.”

But instead, he asked, “So, how do you write an essay like that?”

“Keep it clean, use elegant phrases for the intro and conclusion, structure the middle carefully, and have good handwriting.”

“That’s it? What about emotional depth?”

“If the grader gives your essay more than ten seconds, they’re doing their job.”

“Damn!”

Sun Qing glared at him.

Tan Wenbin immediately bowed his head in apology, then leaned toward Li Zhuiyuan, eyes shining. “Bro, I think I get it now.”

After class, students began to gather around.

They’d heard of the prodigy before, but now they were seeing it firsthand.

Tan Wenbin spread his arms to shoo them off: “Back off, let my Xiaoyuan bro breathe some fresh air!”

His usual wild persona worked—it dispersed the crowd.

Next was math. Teacher Yan came in and immediately started reading scores and handing back papers. Li Zhuiyuan—perfect score.

The class stared at him in awe again.

This math test had been on the tough side, especially since only a month had passed since the start of the school year. Many old topics hadn’t been reviewed yet, and a lot of students had forgotten them.

Yan said, “Tan Wenbin, you did well this time. Keep it up.”

Tan beamed. His math score had climbed to upper-middle tier.

For a regular student, that wouldn’t be impressive. But for someone usually at the bottom, it was like tearing down the Berlin Wall.

Science questions for lower-tier students weren’t just hard—they were incomprehensible. They couldn’t even figure out how to begin writing anything.

“I thought those questions looked familiar. Heh, yeah, they definitely went easy on me. Left me a little dignity.”

More papers were distributed through the day.

During English class, everyone had grown numb—until Li Zhuiyuan’s score was announced, and the class blinked in surprise.

Teacher Su smiled. “Due to special circumstances, Li Zhuiyuan didn’t do the listening section. He got everything else right. Also, final rankings are out—he’s the clear number one in the entire school.”

“Alright, let’s go over the paper.”

Li Zhuiyuan quietly pulled out Wei Zhengdao.

The foreign language setting actually made it easier to concentrate, like having suitable background music.

After the third class in the afternoon, Li Zhuiyuan went to the restroom. Tan Wenbin tagged along.

“Haha, bro, I’m going home tonight!”

His total score ranked in the upper-middle for the whole grade.

“Nice, Binbin.”

Tan Wenbin started singing in a high-pitched voice: “What’s the use of wealth if you don’t show off back home—it’s like wearing brocade at night~”

He’d already planned it out. Go home, look miserable, and lure his mom into comforting him.

Then, just before his dad could unbuckle his belt for a beating—bam!—he’d throw the paper and score sheet right in Tan Yunlong’s face!

Wait.

Maybe he should take one belt hit first. That’d really make his dad feel guilty.

One way or another, he was getting a raise in allowance!

Back at his desk, Li Zhuiyuan laid down for a nap.

That night, he still had to practice drawing and study the dwarf-related stuff. He couldn’t focus all his energy on just reading.

Class monitor Zhou Yunyun walked up and stared at Tan Wenbin.

Tan had his arms folded under his head, leaning back and daydreaming.

Zhou Yunyun waited at the door for a while, but no one came out.

So she came back and kept staring at Tan Wenbin.

This time, he noticed. “What?”

“Come out for a sec.”

Since Xiaoyuan was sleeping on the inside seat, Tan Wenbin just propped one hand on the desk and flipped over it.

As they stepped out, classmates started whispering.

Out in the hallway, the two leaned against the wall. Passing students gave them curious looks.

Zhou Yunyun was a bit nervous. “Can I ask a favor?”

“Sure! Smile for Grandpa and he’ll help you out.”

Zhou Yunyun’s chest heaved in exasperation, but she couldn’t help laughing. Her lips wouldn’t close.

“Alright, what is it?”

“These problems—could you ask Li Zhuiyuan to help me with them?”

She handed him a notebook. Tan Wenbin flipped through it: seven problems, four math, three physics.

“These are all in the workbook Xiaoyuan gave me. And his are harder.”

“How many notebooks?”

“Loads. All subjects.”

“Could I… borrow them?”

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