Chapter Five: The Cunning Maiden Spirit

  A happy life may not be identical, but the feeling of happiness can be similar.

  So on the second weekend afternoon, Yitian Xing saw a short-haired Zou Leran quietly leaning against his forehead, and once again felt the joy of picking up a broken black-and-white TV.

  Zou Leran is wearing a long skirt today, riding a blue bike, her hair combed to one side like a boy's, with an extremely clean face and straight eyebrows, looking refreshing.

  And this refreshing woman was now standing with one foot on the pedestrian path and the other foot on the bicycle pedal, her lips slightly open as she searched for Yi Tianxing's figure everywhere.

  From time to time, some classmates would pass by her side and invite her to walk together, but she just smiled and waited.

  Yitian Xing somewhat enjoyed this feeling of being waited for by others.

  So he pushed the big, rickety bicycle slowly out of the campus, gazing from afar at the short-haired girl, looking at her face, looking at her hair, feeling extremely comfortable in his heart.

  "Too slow." Zou Leran slightly frowned, and a very pretty wrinkle appeared on the bridge of her nose.

  "Uh-huh." Yi Tianxing smiled somewhat awkwardly, scratched his head, and thought to himself: "I like this girl."

  It was as if a command had been given, and from that moment on, Yi Tianxing liked Zou Leran. On that day, the wutong tree leaves at the entrance of the county middle school swayed gently, the sky above was a brilliant blue, and people walked leisurely on the street.

  Emotional things are sometimes just that simple.

  There were four dishes and one soup on the table at Zou's home today. Teacher Zou was actively responding to the propaganda from the unit above. Although the director of the residents' committee, hmm, let's just call her Auntie Pàng from now on... Although Auntie Pàng insisted that Yì Tiān Xíng didn't count as a guest and shouldn't be treated according to our party's reception standards, Teacher Zou was dignified in his demeanor and managed his household with integrity, firmly resisting Auntie Pàng's sarcastic yelling.

  Four dishes were braised small carp, stir-fried small bok choy, stewed potatoes with beef, and stir-fried broad beans. The soup was a fragrant and savory egg drop soup. Yi Tianxing ate while watching the argument between Teacher Zou and Auntie Pang at the table, his heart becoming unusually tender in a certain corner... But Zhou Lere seemed to have other thoughts on her mind, subconsciously poking at the rice in her bowl with her chopsticks, her eyes always intentionally or unintentionally staring at Yi Tianxing.

  Yi Tianxing felt a bit embarrassed. Seeing him embarrassed, Zou Leilei classmate stared even more intently, as if playing a fun game.

  After dinner, Yi Tianxing went to Zou Lelie's room as he had done several times before. It wasn't exactly a room, since Lelie lived on the balcony of her parents' bedroom.

  Yitian Xing sat on a small stool beside her bed, gazing at Lelai's delicate and dust-free face, smiling foolishly.

  Zou Lerer kissed him and suddenly asked: "When's your birthday?"

  Yi Tianxing was stunned and said: "April 15th."

  Zou Leran's face flashed a hint of discontent, and she muttered: "Actually bigger than me again."

  Yi Tian Xing's ears were incredibly sharp, and he smiled as he said, "Then just consider me your sister."

  "Cut!" Lere pretended to be unhappy, laughing and scolding: "You're just a stinky little sister." Suddenly seeing Yi Tianxing calm down, she thought she had touched his sore spot, and quickly lowered her head, muttering: "Just kidding, you won't be so petty, will you?"

  Yitian Xing suddenly thought of the story that night in the garbage dump with that little hoodlum, wondering if there would be any aftereffects. He didn't care what this little girl had to say, and it wasn't until she asked him that he snapped out of his daze. He quickly explained, "What were you thinking? How could I possibly be angry about this? Besides...I'm just a trash collector anyway." As he spoke, he made a silly face.

  "Never seen anyone as happy as you, a broken king."

  "It's all about doing things and making a living for oneself, isn't it better to be happy?"

  Lailai stared at his eyes for a long time without making a sound, and slowly said: "What are you going to do in the future? Which university are you planning to attend?"

  Yitian walked with a puzzled expression, thinking that this little girl was quite capable, and casually said: "Not very clear, but based on my grades, I might be able to get into a second-tier university." Seeing Lele's slightly disappointed eyes, he smiled and said: "You're the propaganda minister of our school's student union, your grades have always been in the top five, we might not be in the same class in college."

  Lailai furrowed her brow and stared straight at him, suddenly saying: "Can't you stop keeping things from me all the time?"

  Yi Tian Xing's heart skipped a beat for some unknown reason, and he forced a smile: "What have I ever hidden from you?"

  "Your ability." Zou Lelie smiled at him with a serious expression, saying: "Yi Tiancai, how long do you plan to deceive the world?"

  Yitian Xing waved his hand and made a exaggerated gesture, laughing: "You'd better just call me Monster Genius." He paused for a moment before continuing: "Besides, what genius am I now? In elementary school, I could skip grades, but back then I was stupid and listened to the teacher too much. Also, my classmates didn't want to play with me, so I had more time to study, and naturally my grades were better."

  "You're cheating again!" Zou Lelai was furious, and pulled out a stack of bills from her backpack, throwing them at Yi Tianxing.

  Yitian took a look and found that it was his own test scores from the past two years of high school. He carefully flipped through them, seeing that his grades were only average, and couldn't find anything special about them. Only then did he put his mind at ease, laughing: "What? Are you, a top student, actually envious of my terrible grades?"

  Zou Ler's cheeks were slightly red, her eyes clear and bright, staring at him tightly: "I'm envious, of course."

  Yi Tian Xing was taken aback for a moment, then dryly laughed and said: "You won't be having eaten too much tonight, will you?"

  Zou Leran smiled slyly and blinked twice, giggling: "You don't have to hide it from me, I've already found out."

  Yi Tianxing was slightly afraid and asked: "What is it after all?"

  Zou Leran said: "What about you? How many points did you get in your last math exam?"

  "One hundred and seven... Feed... This score isn't considered high, right?" Yi Tianxing explained with some confusion.

  "Hmph." Zou Leran smiled as she approached Yi Tianxing, then suddenly pinched his ear and shouted beside it: "How dare you still quibble!"

  "What sophistry is this?" Yi Tianxing cried and laughed at the same time.

  "What was the average score of our math class last time? Do you remember?" Zou Leilei looked at him with an unfathomable expression.

  Yi Tianxing whispered in a low voice, "This is not good." He forced a bitter smile and said, "How would I know?"

  "It's one hundred and seven!" Zou Leran laughed as if she had caught a big thief.

  Yitian's eyes widened innocently and he said: "Ah, what a coincidence?"

  "Pshaw! Is this a coincidence?" Zou Leran snatched the transcripts from his hand, laughing and scolding: "Chinese 98, English 104, Chemistry 101, which one of these subjects is not the average score of our entire class in the last exam? Do you still want to deceive me?"

  Yitianxing rubbed his head and knew he couldn't deceive this clever ghost. He smiled wryly, "Since you've figured it out, don't tell anyone else."

  Zou Leran blinked her big shining eyes and said, "Is it really true?" As if to confirm her own confidence. Suddenly she got up from the bed, turned around in a circle, patted the wall, and laughed: "Ha ha, I was right! You're still that weird genius as before!"

  "Just..." She suddenly furrowed her brow and asked, "If you can control your scores every time, I'm not an idiot, doesn't that mean you can score as much as you want? Getting a perfect score is naturally possible too, so why don't you do better?"

  Yi Tian Xing looked at her, crazy and dazed, unable to cry or laugh. Suddenly, his eyes caught sight of her two slender legs exposed outside her skirt. Just then, she turned around, her skirt fluttered lightly, and a flash of white jade entered his line of sight, causing the young man to feel dizzy for a moment.

  "Hey, it's impossible to get a perfect score in language class." He dryly laughed and said: "I don't want to draw attention to myself, so every time I take the test, I aim for an average score." But in his heart, he was secretly scolding himself for being stupid. If he didn't want to draw attention to himself, then why not just take it easy and get whatever score he could? Why did he have to get the same average score as last time? In reality, he didn't realize that these exams had become a kind of game in his subconscious mind. If there wasn't even a little bit of challenge, then the two hours on the exam might just put him to sleep. Maybe it was because of this desire for games that he, with his incredible memory, would choose a goal in the exams that even geniuses found hard to reach - "not wanting to draw attention to himself?" Zou Leran looked at the ordinary-looking boy in front of her with curiosity and asked: "Then what about during the college entrance exams? Are you really going to aim for a second-tier university?"

  Yi Tian Xing smiled and didn't say yes or no.

  Zou Lerer pouted and thought for a long time, suddenly issuing an order: "No way! I absolutely can't let you, this freak, go to those universities and ruin yourself."

  Yitianxing smiled and said, "What can I do? If in July when I take the college entrance exam, I suddenly get a very high score, others will think I'm a freak and maybe even the police will investigate me for cheating."

  Zou Leran suddenly smiled sweetly at him.

  Yi Tianxing secretly called out "not good", knowing that every time this little girl wanted to do something on her own, she would have such an innocent and harmless expression. He quickly turned his back, pretending to look at the books on her desk.

  A pair of warm and soft hands like jade gently rested on his shoulders.

  "It's almost time for the mock exam, this time do your best to take the test, okay?" Zou Leran's excited and curious voice came over, "I want to see how many points you can get."

  Yitian's heart softened a little, and he was about to speak up for himself, but before he could, Yatou said something that made him nod silently in agreement.

  "June 22nd is my birthday, when I got a birthday gift."

  Zou Leran patted him on the shoulder and said with a heroic tone.