Chapter 58 Waiting for the Progress Bar

“Is that all?” Faced with Li Hua’s accusation, Jiang Nian began to play dirty. “So you’re such an innocent guy, the pure love brother. Didn’t you cry all night?”

The label of “pure love brother” was suddenly pinned onto Li Hua, throwing him into a panic.

He instinctively retorted, “No... no way. I was just casually flipping through. What you said really gives me the chills.”

“Sorry, sorry, my bad,” Jiang Nian apologized sincerely, dodging the interrogation. “You should catch up on some sleep. The first period is math class.”

Hearing this, Li Hua finally forgave Jiang Nian. He even grabbed a short, stout bottle of Sprite from his drawer and sneaked off to the window seat to quietly catch some rest.

High schoolers often shuddered at the mention of “pure love.” Not because they despised it, but because it was similar to the Japanese high school taunt: “You’re not a ‘chu,’ are you?”

Though such fragmented values didn’t exist in Chinese schools, having the pure love brother label pinned on felt like being stripped bare and left vulnerable—who wouldn’t be rattled?

Otherwise... you might think you’re someone who only cherishes one drop from the vast ocean, but in some eyes, you’re just a “pathetic old dog waiting for a girl’s pity to keep you alive.”

Exaggerating? Maybe a little. Let me just put on some armor first.

A newbie in the forum, a beacon of positive energy... (omitted 300 words of buff essay)

The bell rang for morning reading.

The morning commotion hadn’t drawn the class’s attention. Li Hua had slept through the entire morning self-study, utterly exhausted, curled up in the corner by the wall.

Even by math class, Jiang Nian still didn’t know what book Li Hua had been reading last night.

During the break, Zhang Ningzhi, who sat in front, turned around.

Thanks to Jiang Nian’s quiet help a few days ago when she was in a difficult spot, Zhang Ningzhi’s fondness for him had grown considerably.

The relationship was inching from reliable friend toward good friend status, the friendship bar turning red.

The girl nervously whispered, “Can I borrow your English test paper to check the answers?”

The English test paper had been handed out on Saturday night before the holiday. Jiang Nian had used most of the evening self-study to complete it and hadn’t even brought it home.

“Oh, wait a moment. I’ll find it.”

With that, Jiang Nian opened his desk drawer and started searching.

While waiting, Zhang Ningzhi kept turned around, her gaze wandering aimlessly until it landed on his lowered eyes and immediately blushed and looked away.

Time suddenly felt unbearably long.

“Here.”

“Thank you.” Zhang Ningzhi’s ears flushed red, bathed in the platinum sunlight.

She glanced down and noticed that Jiang Nian’s test paper was completely blank except for the answers—no notes or markings whatsoever. She couldn’t help but let out a slight “huh.”

“You just picked the answers directly?”

Jiang Nian was momentarily stunned. “What else would I do?”

Zhang Ningzhi was deeply struck. Even she hesitated a bit when encountering unfamiliar words. With long reading comprehension passages, forgetting the meaning of the previous section without annotations was easy.

“Do you... really understand everything?”

Jiang Nian: “Basically, yeah. Why?”

She spotted a different answer from hers, pointed to a passage, and asked what it meant. Jiang Nian glanced at it and immediately gave the explanation.

“You’re amazing.” Zhang Ningzhi’s eyes sparkled, and her frustration vanished instantly.

Enduring the admiration of the heiress from South Jiang Bay, Jiang Nian couldn’t help but curl the corners of his mouth slightly. Pretending to be impressive was a joy—who could resist such a test?

At that moment, the class bell rang. Zhang Ningzhi carefully put away the test paper in her drawer, checked the small timetable on the desk, and took out her Chinese textbook.

Li Hua yawned, pulled out volume three of the Dragon Clan series, and placed it beneath the Chinese book.

Jiang Nian glanced sideways—this guy really read every word meticulously. If Jiang Nan had readers like him, he could wake up at midnight and stab him again.

During Chinese class, Jiang Nian pulled out a physics test paper from under the Chinese book and started pondering over it. Half listening to the lesson, half solving problems, occasionally interacting with the homeroom teacher, Old Liu.

After class, he glanced at Li Hua again.

Good brother barely read a few pages in an entire period, yet managed to finish twenty to thirty thousand words in just one. “An Old Friend from the Arctic”—that reading pace was painfully slow.

The system should grant a fast-forward ability for designated projects next.

Urgent, urgent—fast-forward to the pure love part!

During the second class’s long break, after running exercises, Li Hua reluctantly got up. Carefully placing Dragon Clan volume three deep in the drawer, he turned to Jiang Nian.

“Hey, Jiang Nan really writes well!”

“If I were a girl, I’d seriously want to marry him!”

“Erii is perfect, surrounded by all these losers. Damn, you don’t know how sweet those chapters I just read were—I nearly laughed out loud in Old Liu’s class.”

Jiang Nian followed the crowd toward the sports field, sunlight streaming over his slender shoulders. Listening to Li Hua’s excited chatter, he barely restrained a smile.

He was thinking about recommending “The Two Thousand Years of the Poor” or maybe “There’s a Convenience Store by the Cloud’s Edge” in a few days—he hadn’t shared those two yesterday.

Not worried about whether he’d bite; curiosity would surely win him over.

Well, maybe spare him and recommend “My Wife is from a Thousand Years Ago.”

“Marry him, marry him,” Jiang Nian said halfheartedly, one hand in his pocket. “You and Jiang Nan hold a wedding, passionately kissing, exploring every inch of his body with your lips.”

“Damn! That’s disgusting!” Li Hua jumped back, keeping a safe distance. “Nian bro, don’t say that. I’m really scared.”

Jiang Nian shook his head. No worries, I’m just waiting for Erii’s progress bar.

On the sports field, on the red rubber track.

Taking advantage of the brief pause while organizing the running exercise, the sports committee member Liu Yang stepped to the front of the line. He shouted for silence, then began announcing the autumn sports meet registration.

“Our class is a science class with fewer girls. I hope all the boys will step up, show some spirit, bring glory to the class, and win prizes.”

From below, the chubby Ma Guojun scoffed.

“Again with the thermos cups, ping-pong paddles, badminton rackets. Can’t they buy something better?”

Li Hua patted Ma Guojun on the shoulder, grinning mischievously.

“What do you want? You want the principal to get you a small Fei cup?”

“Shut up!” Ma Guojun’s red cheeks flared as he tussled with Li Hua.

Jiang Nian absentmindedly rubbed the sole of his shoe, silently wishing the damn running exercise would be canceled. Running in summer left his underwear soaked; in winter, he’d sweat under the stifling cold.

Soon, Liu Yang came over with the registration forms.

They exchanged a glance, sharing an unspoken understanding.

“Nian bro, you’ve pretty much settled down. Fill one out!” Liu Yang pointed to the events. “100 meters, 800 meters—what do you want to enter?”

“What about shot put...” Jiang Nian’s eyelid twitched, quickly replying, “No shot put!”

The shot put judge, that old Ding, probably hadn’t changed this year. Seeing Jiang Nian flip and break the record again might give him a heart attack.