Chapter 65: You Handle the Class Monitor

Yu Tongjie stepped up to the fourth floor, finding the entire open-air corridor in a mess with puddles of water glistening on the ground.

A chilly wind swept past, causing him to pull his jacket tighter.

Looking up, he happened to catch a glimpse of Li Qingrong's profile as she entered the classroom, and his mood improved instantly.

He put away his umbrella and stepped inside.

Li Qingrong's seat was in the first section, not too far from his own. Due to the configuration of three desks per row, the classroom felt cramped, and the aisles were exceptionally narrow.

How should one put it? The aisles in Class Zero were wide enough for five people to kiss each other simultaneously.

The privileged treatment of top students.

Who could blame them when every single one of them was a guaranteed elite scoring above the top university entrance thresholds, the pride and face of Zhennan Middle School? The two classes combined had fewer than eighty students, and boarding students even enjoyed two-person dormitories.

Refrigerators, washing machines, all-inclusive board and lodging, plus a monthly living allowance. There were scholarships for good exam results and bonuses for winning awards. It was all about high-status prestige.

Yu Tongjie walked through the narrow aisle, and as he passed, he happened to see Li Qingrong looking up. On a sudden impulse, he greeted her.

"Morning."

"Morning," Li Qingrong replied, her gaze already withdrawing.

On the surface, Yu Tongjie remained expressionless, but inside, his heart had long since burst into spring, a massive surge of euphoria rushing from his limbs straight to his heart. Thump, thump, thump—his mind went blank for a moment, not knowing where he belonged.

As expected, his decision to sign up for the sports meeting was the right one!

Young Master Yu remained taciturn, never showing his emotions. It was only when he sat at his desk and lowered his head to take books out of his schoolbag that a flash of joy crossed his eyes.

He began to look forward to the sports meeting, and even Jiang年, who was wiping the blackboard for cleaning duty, suddenly looked agreeable to him.

Suddenly, Yu Tongjie realized that Jiang年 seemed to have signed up for the three-thousand-meter race as well.

His expression instantly became unnatural. Why was this guy everywhere? He'd better not be in the same heat. Besides, who knew what kind of athletic ability Jiang年 even had?

Long-distance races did not have preliminary heats; they went straight to the finals, though they were divided into batches.

The athletic meet organizing committee at Zhennan Middle School had never distinguished between sports majors and non-sports majors, nor between science and humanities students—only between male and female divisions. However, the sports students were mostly concentrated in the parallel classes.

Actually, this rule had no real impact on either the parallel classes or the key classes.

Did only your class have sports students?

But for classes above the Olympiad level, especially Class Zero, it did make a difference.

This wasn't about stereotypes.

Of course top students could be tall and athletic, but Class Zero had fewer people and held no advantage. The Olympiad classes had more people, but some were unwilling to participate in sports meetings and harbored a sense of resistance.

Naturally, Yu Tongjie felt that having anyone step up was already a good thing. Otherwise, if the sports commissioner Liu Yang was pushed to his limits, he would either have to step up himself or find a way to get Li Qingrong to deal with it.

So, for the three-thousand-meter race, was it about rankings?

No, it was about perseverance.

As long as one could finish the entire race, what did it matter even if it was last place? Looking past the surface to the essence, he wasn't competing for class glory anyway.

As long as he let Li Qingrong see that he had finished the entire race even in a disheveled state, even if she wasn't moved, she would at least look at him with a changed perspective compared to before.

That was only because it was Li Qingrong; for anyone else, he wouldn't bother risking his life to run it.

The third group.

Before the morning self-study session had even begun, Li Hua started stirring up trouble at his seat, "How did you even wipe this blackboard? There's still a dirty spot over there, can't you see it?"

Jiang年 put down the rag and silently walked to the back row. Two minutes later, Ma Guojun, Jiang年, and another boy came over together and directly carried Li Hua out.

"Ah! My bad! My bad! Bro! I'll wipe it! I'll wipe today's blackboard!"

In the corridor, the chubby Ma Guojun adjusted his glasses and chuckled.

"This guy is just asking for it, serves him right."

After a while, the group chatted in the corridor, bringing up the upcoming sports meeting on Thursday.

"I'll bring my phone then. Old Liu doesn't care those few days anyway," Ma Guojun adjusted his glasses. "We should be able to play movies in the classroom."

"Probably not the first day, right?" Li Hua leaned against the iron railing of the corridor, stopped gazing out, and turned around to say, "The first day will probably be strictly managed. They'll take attendance morning and afternoon."

"Old Liu will probably let the sports commissioner Liu Yang handle the attendance. We just need to get him to slack off a bit," another person said.

Ma Guojun's expression turned serious, "I'm afraid it might be the monitor."

Hearing this, everyone fell silent.

The other boy, named Li Jiawen, said, "Old Liu wouldn't be such a heartless bastard, right? If the monitor takes attendance, how would our three days of the sports meeting be any different from doing time in prison with her?"

"Hard to say. Old Liu hasn't done fewer heartless things normally."

"Li Hua, you go handle Old Liu!"

"Me handle Old Liu?" Li Hua was stunned.

"Then there's no helping it. Prepare to await death; we're definitely doing three days of prison."

"You guys don't have to be so pessimistic. What if it's not her?" Li Hua offered some high-emotional-intelligence comfort. "Besides, even if Liu Yang gets sidelined by the monitor, we still have Brother Nian."

Li Jiawen hesitated for a moment, "Let Brother Nian handle Old Liu?"

Ma Guojun took over the conversation, "You might not believe it, but Jiang年 just might actually be able to handle Old Liu. Let me tell you, whenever Old Liu sees Jiang年, he looks completely unnatural."

"I always feel like there's something going on between them that they're keeping secret."

"Stop talking nonsense, nothing's going on," Jiang年 cleared his rumors. "Old Liu just told me to be magnanimous, not to bicker with Yan Tongjie, and that harmony is precious among classmates."

"Precious my ass!" Ma Guojun was quick-tongued.

Truly worthy of being a Tieba forum green-badge holder.

"Total moron," Li Hua added.

"It really is quite absurd." Li Jiawen belonged to the outer circle of their small group, acting as a free agent among several cliques, so he didn't phrase it too harshly.

The topic ended there. Naturally, neither Ma Guojun nor Li Hua pursued other subjects, lest something unexplained leaked out one day.

"Seriously, Nian, you go handle the monitor," Li Hua patted his shoulder. "If the monitor really is taking attendance, all our brothers' well-being rests in your hands."

Jiang年 glanced at Li Hua and asked out of curiosity, "Why do you think my words carry weight?"

"Isn't that a fact?" Li Hua spread his hands, looking at Ma Guojun and Li Jiawen. "A universally acknowledged fact—who else can go eat meals together with the monitor?"

"Exaggeration, it was just a coincidence." Though Jiang年 said that, his mind involuntarily recalled what Li Qingrong had said in the corridor that morning.

[The boys in our class don't want to run the three thousand meters, and you were the first to sign up. Long-distance running relies heavily on pacing; if you need someone with relevant experience to pace and run alongside you...]

[You can find me.]

The monitor was quite responsible, just a bit rigid as a person.

Jingle bell, jingle bell.

Morning reading started, and the four of them entered the classroom one after another.

Today, the sixth group was in charge of sanitation. Because the school was lenient with the Olympiad classes, classroom cleaning could be done casually, and the assigned campus cleaning zone was also the easiest.

Therefore, Olympiad Class Three always integrated the classroom and cleaning zone duties, rotating by groups.

The classroom didn't need attention in the morning; they just had to make a quick sweep through the cleaning zone during morning self-study. Because of the rain... the six of them could only go out holding umbrellas and carrying brooms.

The sky was overcast, and a scattered drizzle was falling.

Zhang Ningzhi and Huang Fang carried iron trash cans at the back, while the four boys walking in front each held a red plastic broom, destroying plants and grass along the way.

Jiang年 suddenly asked, "Hua, how far have you read into Dragon Raja Three?"