Accepting help from a scumbag was out of the question. Looking at Jiang Yu's physics notes was absolutely impossible.
Until the exams ended, Jiang Yu's mistake notebook lay quietly in Lu Yige's desk, untouched.
Fortunately, Lu Yige was in good form during the exams, and most of the questions were ones she had already encountered. Even in physics—the subject she was least confident in—she only failed to solve one major problem; everything else went smoothly.
She roughly estimated her score at around 700.
Second-year exam questions were indeed relatively easy. Beating Jiang Yu this time should be a sure thing.
Lu Yige happily spent the next few days waiting for the results.
The scores were released quickly. She logged into the app, and a glaring 706 appeared on the screen.
She glanced at Jiang Yu, who was sitting on the sofa fiddling with his phone.
As if sensing her gaze, Jiang Yu said, "I got 693."
"I got 706." Lu Yige walked over, curiously eyeing his battered old phone. "Can this thing even check scores?"
Jiang Yu put the phone away and nodded. "Yeah. It's pretty fully functional."
"Have you thought about changing phones? This must be inconvenient."
"It's fine. It works well enough."
"I'll ask Mom to get you one."
"No need." Jiang Yu lowered his head. "Your family already covers my tuition and living expenses. I want to save up and buy a phone myself. I don't want to use your money anymore."
Looking pitiful yet resolute, he left Lu Yige speechless.
Wasn't this guy already too deep into the role? Hadn't he come to their family precisely for money and status?
Putting on this innocent, fragile act must be exhausting.
"Alright, I respect your decision," Lu Yige said, nodding.
An awkward silence followed. Just as Lu Yige was about to leave, Jiang Yu suddenly asked, "What rank are you?"
"My rank? I didn't check." As she spoke, Lu Yige opened the app.
Jiang Yu leaned over as well.
At that moment, a QQ message from Xu Lu popped up.
"Lu Yige! How many points did you get?"
"If it's under 700, don't bother replying! I'll look down on you!"
Lu Yige: ...
How perfectly timed. Just as she was about to turn off notifications, more messages came flooding in.
"Dead woman, reply now."
"What did you get in math?"
"I got 148—damn it, it's all your fault."
He typed pretty fast, huh.
Lu Yige's face heated slightly.
Jiang Yu withdrew his gaze and looked away. "Reply to him first."
"No need."
Lu Yige quickly tapped into the detailed rankings.
Second place.
So first place must be the one with 148 in math.
"I'm second," Lu Yige said.
"You're impressive," Jiang Yu said calmly. "I'm fifth. I can't compare to you."
It sounded a bit odd, but Lu Yige found it quite satisfying. Her goal was to crush Jiang Yu—especially since this scumbag thought she was weak in certain subjects.
"Thanks for the compliment."
She waved at him and returned to her room.
"Why are you so excited? Isn't 148 normal for you?" Lu Yige replied to Xu Lu.
"Normal my ass. It's all because you jinxed me that I made a mistake."
"That's called normal performance."
"If I didn't have a rule against hitting girls, you'd be in the hospital."
Lu Yige couldn't help laughing.
"With your one-meter-sixty frame, you think you could send me to the hospital?"
"Nonsense! I've already grown to 165!"
"Oh, a 165 frame—still four centimeters shorter than me."
Xu Lu sent a whole row of furious emojis.
"Stop changing the subject. What did you get in math?"
"150." Lu Yige typed three characters.
As expected, another row of knife emojis appeared.
"Don't be jealous. This was just my normal performance."
"Jealous my ass. I got 725. Do I need to be jealous of you?"
Seven hundred and twenty-five.
Lu Yige was instantly stunned. She remembered that in her province, even the top scorer in the college entrance exam had only gotten 710. Though the difficulty was different, scoring this high definitely put Xu Lu in the running for future valedictorian.
"Why aren't you replying? Shocked by my score?"
"Respect. Respect. Worthy of the title 'prodigy.'"
Lu Yige was chatting happily when a knock sounded at the door.
"Come in. It's not locked."
Mother Lu entered with a warm smile.
Lu Yige immediately rushed over and hugged her. "Mom, I got second in the grade."
Warm and understanding, Mother Lu was someone Lu Yige genuinely liked—she treated her as her own mother.
Mother Lu stroked her hair and smiled. "Yige is so smart."
Letting go, Lu Yige looked at her expectantly. "So what's my reward?"
"A reward?" Mother Lu thought for a moment. "You said before that once you felt better, you wanted to travel. Iceland, Paris, London... where do you want to go?"
"Anywhere's fine." Lu Yige shook her head. "But I don't really want to go abroad."
"That's true—I didn't think it through." Mother Lu smiled. "How about this: let's go downstairs and discuss it with Xiao Yu?"
Lu Yige nodded, though she felt Jiang Yu probably wouldn't go with them. He would likely stay behind for summer part-time work.
After going downstairs, Mother Lu shared the idea with Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu hesitated, then declined. "Auntie, I'm sorry. I want to work part-time over the summer to train myself."
"That's fine," Mother Lu said without forcing the issue, then turned to Lu Yige.
"Yige, how about we go to Shanghai? We can visit your father. You haven't seen him in months. He couldn't even make it back for your surgery last time."
At those words, Jiang Yu's expression stiffened.
"Okay. I want to see the Oriental Pearl Tower," Lu Yige said innocently.
"Silly child." Mother Lu laughed. "You saw it when you were little. You probably don't remember."
Lu Yige smiled, but her heart felt a little heavy. Lu's parents were not her real parents, and this familial warmth didn't truly belong to her.
She turned her gaze away—and saw the dark expression on Jiang Yu's face.
***
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