Chapter 5

Only when she left the classroom and the evening breeze brushed against her did Ye Shuangqi realize what she had just agreed to.

Teaming up with Zhu Jinyue?

She almost laughed out loud.
If Xu Jingzhe found out she had willingly agreed to form a group with Zhu Jinyue, who knew how long she would tease her about it? She could already imagine her deskmate’s mockery: “Didn’t you say you hated her? Why did you agree, then?”

Ye Shuangqi covered her face and smiled bitterly.
Forget it. Ye Zhiyun would be there too, wouldn’t she? However she looked at it, the two of them wouldn’t be alone together. She could endure it.

*

Zhu Jinyue really was the teachers’ favorite.
She had learned about an announcement that wasn’t supposed to come until the next day—and had even found something to blackmail her with beforehand.

Watching everyone else excitedly line up to put their names down, Ye Shuangqi yawned and turned away.

“I’m serious. Why don’t you join us?”
Ye Shuangqi made her case with heartfelt sincerity. “With a top student like Zhu Jinyue around, your grades are guaranteed to improve steadily. As for me, my grades aren’t bad either. Join the three of us, and your college entrance exam will be smooth sailing.”

Xu Jingzhe looked up and raised an eyebrow. “Really? Are you sure I won’t just end up listening to Zhu Jinyue scold you every day?”

Ye Shuangqi: “…At least you’ll have some drama to watch.”
Good or bad, she had to drag someone along to suffer with her.

“You have a point.” Xu Jingzhe was actually wavering.
Personally, she had never held out much hope stolen contentthat this would improve her grades. Her current results were already more than enough to get her into a good university, and joining a study group wouldn’t necessarily help her learn. Rather than join a group with an oppressive atmosphere, she might as well join Zhu Jinyue’s. At least she would have something entertaining to watch every day.
So she nodded and agreed.

Ye Shuangqi nearly burst into tears.
“I’ll never forget how you saved my life!”

She immediately dragged her over to Zhu Jinyue and announced, “We’re adding her to our group.”
This was rather a case of acting first and asking permission later. Feeling guilty herself, Ye Shuangqi quietly added, “Is that okay?”

Zhu Jinyue gave an aloof nod.
Beside her, however, Ye Zhiyun blinked, staring curiously at Ye Shuangqi’s deskmate. “Sister Jingzhe…?”

Halfway through, she wanted to take it back. But realizing she had said “Sister” rather than “Auntie,” and therefore wasn’t likely to give herself away, she let the rest tumble out.
She was supposed to call her “Auntie,” but Xu Jingzhe said that made her sound old and only allowed her to call her “Sister.” Ye Shuangqi, of course, had wholeheartedly supported this. “That makes your mom and me seem younger too.”

Ye Shuangqi turned to Xu Jingzhe in shock. “Since when did you get a little sister behind my back?”
Xu Jingzhe wore an indescribable expression. “She’s not my little sister.”

Ye Zhiyun immediately covered for herself. “I’m younger than all of you. Can’t I call you Sister?”
Xu Jingzhe nodded with great restraint. “You’re both surnamed Ye, but you’re much cuter than Ye Shuangqi.”

Ye Shuangqi’s brow twitched in displeasure. “Why do you call her Sister but not me?”

Because that would make a complete mess of the family hierarchy! Silly Mommy!
Ye Zhiyun grumbled inwardly.

But she kept smiling and forced herself to say, “Sister Shuangqi. Sister Jinyue.”

A hand came across in front of her, stopping her.
Ye Zhiyun’s gaze followed the fair arm upward until it settled on Zhu Jinyue’s face.

She looked a little speechless, though her expression remained mostly impassive. “You [stolen content]don’t need to call me Sister.”

Ye Zhiyun obediently nodded, then blinked at Ye Shuangqi. “What about you, Sister Shuangqi?”

“…”
Ye Shuangqi looked at Zhu Jinyue, then at Ye Zhiyun, and sighed. “Forget it. Don’t call me that.”

Hearing “Sister Shuangqi” from someone whose face resembled Zhu Jinyue’s so closely gave her goosebumps, however she thought about it.
She shuddered involuntarily and cleared her throat. “Then I’ll get going?”

The moment Zhu Jinyue nodded, she eagerly pulled Xu Jingzhe back to their seats.

“You’re like someone whose wife keeps her on a tight leash,” Xu Jingzhe remarked. “You even have to report to her before you leave.”
Ye Shuangqi said nothing. She had grown accustomed to being bossed around by Zhu Jinyue since childhood. There wasn’t much she could say in her defense.

Behind them, Zhu Jinyue’s gaze settled on Ye Shuangqi’s hand around Xu Jingzhe’s wrist.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds.

Then her gaze paused, and she looked away.

Her tone was unchanged. “Be careful not to give yourself away in other ways.”

“Got it, Mommy,” Ye Zhiyun answered promptly, then asked nosily, “Mommy, were you just watching them hold hands?”

“No.” Zhu Jinyue’s pen paused over the form.

“It’s okay if you were. Do you really have to hide it from me, Mommy?” Her voice was so quiet that no one else would notice how she was addressing Zhu Jinyue. “Don’t worry. Neither ​read the original at bailiantales.com​of them thinks of the other that way. Sister Jingzhe even told me that, when it comes to her type, she actually prefers you.”

Zhu Jinyue: “…”

Was she the only responsible one out of the three when it came to raising this child?

Unable to stand it any longer, she marched Ye Zhiyun back to her desk. “Work on your questions. Stop thinking about all this nonsense.”

*

The final evening self-study session lasted only half an hour and had now been reassigned to group study.
The students moved seats on their own. Once they had gathered into their groups, some studied quietly while others discussed questions together.

Dragging her chair along, Ye Shuangqi resignedly headed toward the front rows.

Knowing Zhu Jinyue, she would never consider coming back to join them.
But that was fine. Ye Shuangqi was happy to waste time on this anyway. So she had to be the one to go over. Whatever.

By the time she arrived, Xu Jingzhe was already seated beside Ye Zhiyun.

Seeing that the only space left at the two desks was beside Zhu Jinyue, she shot Xu Jingzhe a fierce glare.
So that was why she had come over so early!

She reluctantly sat down beside Zhu Jinyue.
Once she settled into her seat, however, what greeted her was a blank notebook.

She looked up and asked Zhu Jinyue what this was for.

Only then did Zhu Jinyue speak. “I’ll be the group leader. Any objections?”

Ye Zhiyun immediately shook her head like a rattle drum.
Xu Jingzhe silently nodded, accepting the arrangement.

Ye Shuangqi looked around.
What good would her objections do? Zhu Jinyue had already established a dictatorship!

Seeing that no one spoke, Zhu Jinyue continued, “To improve your grades, we first need to identify everyone’s strengths and weaknesses. To avoid wasting time, each of you should start by writing down your weak areas in the notebook. Apart from Ye Zhiyun, give me your papers from the most recent monthly exam. I’ll help identify the areas you need to work on.”

Xu Jingzhe immediately returned to her seat to look for her papers, leaving Ye Shuangqi dumbfounded.
Seriously? She had adjusted that quickly?

After glancing at Ye Zhiyun, who was already writing furiously, she obediently went to fetch her own papers too.

She never came out on top when she opposed Zhu Jinyue. She might as well accept the outcome.

Spreading her crumpled papers on the desk, Ye Shuangqi felt a little guilty.
Back when she had still wanted to beat Zhu Jinyue, she had studied diligently for a while. Later, after discovering that no amount of effort could dislodge Zhu Jinyue from her position as the top student in the school, she had completely given up trying.
She daydreamed in class and zoned out during exams. Occasionally, inspiration struck, and she could finish an entire paper with barely any mistakes. Other times, she ended up like this, leaving more than half the long-answer questions blank.

“It’s not that I couldn’t do them…” Ye Shuangqi stammered. “I just couldn’t be bothered to write them out!”

Zhu Jinyue pushed her papers back. “Finish them before you show me.”

Now that she had actually been given a chance, Ye Shuangqi looked miserable again.
She wanted to slump over the desk and [stolen content]chew on the end of her pen. Staring resentfully at the questions, she wondered which school administrator had dreamed up these study groups. Weren’t they worried about holding the good students back?!
Her mind gradually wandered again. Come to think of it, why had someone as obsessed with grades as Zhu Jinyue taken the initiative to bring her into the group? Wasn’t she afraid Ye Shuangqi would interfere with her studies?

She stole a glance at the person beside her.
Zhu Jinyue was looking over Xu Jingzhe’s papers.

Xu Jingzhe’s work was neat, her corrections tidy, and there weren’t many mistakes. Zhu Jinyue turned the page in less than two minutes, then wrote a few lines in the notebook.
The light fell across her face, making her look gentle and serene.

Ye Shuangqi looked away and returned her attention to her own paper.
After staring at it for a few seconds, she finally made up her mind, uncapped her pen, and began working.

Unexpectedly, her thoughts flowed smoothly.
The long-answer questions weren’t nearly as intimidating as they had seemed during the exam. Applying a few formulas and working through the calculations was enough to get the answers.

She worked with her head down for ten minutes, covering more than half a page of scratch paper and completing the two long-answer questions she had left blank. Only the final two subquestions remained beyond her. She checked her working from beginning to end once more, making sure she hadn’t made any careless mistakes, before pushing the paper back toward Zhu Jinyue.

Zhu Jinyue was recording Xu Jingzhe’s study situation in her own notebook. When Ye Shuangqi pushed the paper over, she set the notebook aside for the moment to look at it.
She scanned it from beginning to end, her brows shifting as though she were confirming something. Then she quickly picked up a red pen and began annotating and correcting the paper. Within a few minutes, she handed it back.

Ye Shuangqi took a look.
Zhu Jinyue had added some conditions for using the formulas. Several red lines struck out portions of her working, with a note beside them: “Redundant.”

Then Zhu Jinyue handed her the answer key. “Look through the last question yourself first. Ask me if there’s anything you don’t understand.”

Ye Shuangqi was surprised. “Everything I just did was right?”

Zhu Jinyue nodded.

Even Ye Shuangqi hadn’t [read the original at bailiantales.com]expected that.
Getting Zhu Jinyue’s approval was harder than killing someone.

Zhu Jinyue had already turned back to her own work and had no time to spare for her. Ye Shuangqi could only stare at the answer key and lapse into her old habit again—daydreaming.

For some inexplicable reason, the back of her neck kept itching today, so it seemed only natural to look around at her classmates’ napes.
They had all turned eighteen, and most of the class had finished differentiating. Nearly invisible suppressant patches were neatly affixed to the backs of their necks.

Only a few remained undifferentiated.

Like Zhu Jinyue, sitting at the same desk.
As for Ye Zhiyun… Huh. Had Ye Zhiyun differentiated yet?

She stole a glance at Ye Zhiyun.

Who knew where she had picked up the habit, but halfway through working on her paper, she had slumped over the desk, exposing the bare back of her neck.
Ye Shuangqi couldn’t detect any pheromones on her either, so she guessed that, like Zhu Jinyue, she had yet to finish differentiating.

Just then, Zhu Jinyue spoke again, interrupting her thoughts.

“Ye Zhiyun’s math is decent. Her top priority is catching up in English. Xu Jingzhe, you need to pay more attention to the minor subjects. They bring your score down every exam. As for Ye Shuangqi…”
Her gaze lingered on Ye Shuangqi for so long that the other girl grew nervous. Only then did she slowly say, “For the next few days, follow the plan I’ve written in the notebook. We’ll adjust it based on how well it works for you.”

Ye Shuangqi stared, dumbfounded, at the neat, elegant handwriting in her notebook.
How had she managed to do so much in such a short time?

There was no way she could have written that entire page in those ten minutes just now, was there?
Ye Shuangqi eyed Zhu Jinyue suspiciously. “Do you have a crush on me?”