Chapter 90 — Taking It Out on the Exam Papers

"Uh..." Kang Xiaofeng finally pulled his head back in. "No idea whether Tang Zhi's back yet or not."

"You think you've got a chance with her?" Wei Zhao asked bluntly, watching the look on Kang Xiaofeng's face.

"No." Kang Xiaofeng was refreshingly self-aware; he shook his head with absolute certainty.

"No chance and you're still staring—wasting your time?" Wei Zhao smacked him on the back of the head. "Get back and hit the books. Fail the college entrance exam and see what happens to you."

"It's not that I was thinking I've got a chance—but what about you, Boss?" Kang Xiaofeng said with a bitter smile. "I was thinking, today you played the hero saving the damsel, so maybe Tang Zhi would treat you differently. Who'd have guessed... differently is right..."

Hm? Kang Xiaofeng's words set Wei Zhao thinking about something else entirely. Could Tang Zhi have thought he was playing the hero saving the beauty? Or that he'd staged the whole thing through Zou Ruoming? If so, she might have mistaken him for another Zou Ruoming, out to court her. If that were the case, that whole string of strange behavior from Tang Zhi suddenly made sense.

What a fiercely self-protective girl, Wei Zhao thought, a faint, barely-there smile flickering at the corner of his mouth. Still—she was interesting. If not for the mission he was on, he'd have liked nothing better than to throw himself wholeheartedly into campus life and savor the hazy, subtle little entanglements that passed between students their age.

"Let's go, class is about to start." Wei Zhao gave Kang Xiaofeng a reminder and quickened his pace; the warning bell for the evening lecture had already rung.

Kang Xiaofeng did not dare linger either, and followed Wei Zhao into the Year Three, Class Five classroom.

Gu Mengyao and Shen Yushu had long since returned; the two of them were sitting at their desks now, heads together, murmuring about something. Seeing Wei Zhao come in, Shen Yushu glanced up at him, then lowered her head again and went on talking with Gu Mengyao.

What surprised Wei Zhao somewhat was that Zhong Yongliang was not in the classroom. His two underlings, Gao Xiaofu and Zhang Naipao, were both present, but Zhong Yongliang's seat alone sat empty.

Before long, though, Kang Xiaofeng came back from asking around with the news: a police car had pulled up to the school a little while ago and taken Zhong Yongliang away.

That result made Wei Zhao pause. Was it because of Brother Black Panther? If Black Panther hadn't held out and had named Zhong Yongliang, then the kid had simply been unlucky.

The evening tutoring session was another test. For the first hour everyone worked through a set of exam papers; after they handed them in, the study committee member took the stack, flipped them over to shuffle them, and passed them out at random. Then, while the teacher explained the questions, everyone graded each other's papers below, and at the end the scores were tallied up.

This way the teacher's grading time was saved. In senior year, when there were tests almost every single day, this method suited the tense, fast-paced life well enough.

What Wei Zhao hadn't expected, though, was that the study committee member was none other than Shen Yushu. So the girl was a class officer after all—he'd never noticed before. When the test ended, Shen Yushu took the stack of papers and began handing them out. When she reached Wei Zhao's side, she didn't so much as look at him; with a perfectly proper air she dropped a paper in front of him and moved on to the next person.

Only as she turned away did Shen Yushu sneak in a couple of sly little smirks—though she wiped them off her face quickly enough.

"Gu Mengyao?" Wei Zhao looked at the name on the paper and was momentarily speechless. How could there be a coincidence like this? He could now be one hundred percent certain that Shen Yushu had done it on purpose.

Most of the boys in the class secretly dreamed of one day getting to grade Gu Mengyao's or Shen Yushu's paper. It was only a single sheet of paper, true, but the thought that they had worked through it themselves, that traces of them surely still lingered on it—well, in this roundabout way they could claim a brush with beauty and indulge in a satisfying little fantasy.

Unfortunately, every time, Shen Yushu's and Gu Mengyao's papers were swapped between the two of them for grading. Over time this had begun to look like Shen Yushu abusing her position for a little cheating, but nobody was going to stir up trouble by calling it out.

This time, though, Shen Yushu had handed Gu Mengyao's paper to Wei Zhao, keeping his own paper and hers for last. She meant to leave Wei Zhao's paper to Gu Mengyao and manufacture a little coincidence.

Once the papers were all distributed, Shen Yushu carried the last two back to her seat, plunked them down in front of Gu Mengyao, and said with a grin, "Yao-yao, you pick one."

"What do you mean? Don't we always grade each other's?" Gu Mengyao asked, looking at Shen Yushu in puzzlement.

"Uh... this time... I accidentally handed your paper out..." Shen Yushu explained. "So..."

"Forget it..." Gu Mengyao knew that Shen Yushu always did things this way and was bound to slip up now and then—a moment's inattention and a paper could go astray. "Anything's fine. Either one."

Since it was not her own exam paper, Gu Mengyao naturally paid it no mind.

"Oh, then take this one," Shen Yushu said, tossing Wei Zhao's paper to Gu Mengyao, then quietly slipping her own paper out of sight.

"Wei Zhao?" Gu Mengyao glanced at the name on the paper and gave a slight start. Then, understanding dawning on her, she turned and looked at Shen Yushu, who was sitting there with her head down, solemnly pretending that nothing at all was going on. In an instant she knew it was her doing. "Xiaoshu—"

"Uh... what is it, Mengyao-jie?" Shen Yushu lifted her head with a beaming smile, the very picture of innocence.

"Let me see your paper." Gu Mengyao eyed the paper Shen Yushu was covering up so completely, and made a grab for it.

"Huh? What's so interesting about that..." Shen Yushu's conscience gave a guilty twinge, and she pressed her hand down all the tighter.

"Give it here." Gu Mengyao wrested Shen Yushu's paper away by force. Afraid the paper would tear, Shen Yushu had no choice but to let go. One look at the paper now in her hands told Gu Mengyao it was Shen Yushu's own, and she glared at her in a fury. "Xiaoshu, where did you put my paper?"

"Uh... I gave it to Wrigley-ge... let him have his fun with it..." Shen Yushu thought wickedly, yes, his fun...

"I'm so mad I could die!" Gu Mengyao was left rather speechless by this behavior of Shen Yushu's. Fortunately, she was used to her by now and knew she was the sort who relished chaos above all else, so she could hardly say anything more.

Even so, Gu Mengyao's eyes were fixed hard on Wei Zhao's paper. She picked up a red marker and, without giving it a second thought, began drawing "X"s all over Wei Zhao's exam paper—right or wrong, she did not care in the least; she simply marked it from beginning to end, and finally scrawled a great big "0" across the top of the sheet. Only then did she fling the marker aside and let out a long, heavy breath. She had vented all her anger on that paper.