After Becoming the Love-Brained Female Lead’s Best Friend - Chapter 38

A few more days passed, and finally it was time for the final exams.

Before the exam, Ye Wanyin watched Fang Shu put things into her schoolbag one by one. She was even more anxious than Fang Shu. “Did you memorize xx poem for Chinese? And that prose-poem too…”

She rambled on and on. Only after saying a whole bunch did Ye Wanyin realize Fang Shu had not spoken the entire time. Her voice paused. Looking at Fang Shu, who had already packed up and was standing beside her listening to her talk, Ye Wanyin froze for half a second, then slowly calmed down. “Just do your best.”

Fang Shu nodded.

The two of them went to their respective exam rooms.

Once the exams were over, summer vacation officially began. Final exam results usually came out later than regular exam results. Even at the earliest, they would only be able to see them after four or five days.

The day after the exams ended, Ye Wanyin finished her daily review. She flipped through the test papers beside her and hesitated a little. Generally speaking, right after an exam, Ye Wanyin would let Fang Shu rest for a while. Once the exam results came out, she would tutor Fang Shu in a targeted way.

But she glanced at the calendar. It was already almost July. The complaint result would come out by September at the latest, and at that time, she would very likely leave. Ye Wanyin was worried there would not be enough time.

As she hesitated and dragged things out, at noon, Fang Shu came out of her room yawning.

When she saw Ye Wanyin, she did not sit on the sofa where she usually stayed. Instead, she sat opposite Ye Wanyin, took out her phone, and said, “It’s been a long time since I drank milk tea. Let’s order two cups today.”

During this period, Fang Shu had been studying with Ye Wanyin all along and no longer drank milk tea once a day, or even twice a day, like before. Sometimes, she might not even drink one cup in a week.

So Ye Wanyin did not say anything.

Fang Shu took the initiative to cue her. “You want one too?”

Ye Wanyin was just about to say no when Fang Shu continued, “Every time, I’m the only one drinking. It feels so lonely…”

Ye Wanyin could no longer say the words of refusal. She watched Fang Shu scroll up and down through the shop, asking her whether this one was okay, whether that one was fine. By the time the order was finished, more than ten minutes had passed.

Because neither of them had eaten lunch yet, Ye Wanyin asked her to set a scheduled delivery time, then got up to serve Fang Shu food. She had hesitated for too long today, so the meal she made was also simple and filling braised rice.

After lunch, the two sat in their chairs for a while to digest. Fang Shu took the initiative to clear the table a bit, then threw the bowls and chopsticks into the dishwasher.

By the time the delivery arrived, it was already half an hour later.

During that time, Ye Wanyin held a test paper and asked Fang Shu, “Can you finish this paper this afternoon?”

Fang Shu looked at her and blinked. “Can I apply for a more efficient power bank?”

Ye Wanyin: “You can.”

And so Fang Shu dragged her chair over and sat beside Ye Wanyin. As she spoke, she counted on her fingers. “Holding hands, done. Hugging, done. The next step should be… cough, a kiss, right?”

Ye Wanyin looked at Fang Shu. This time, her silence lasted a little long. It was unclear whether she was shocked into confusion or had simply never thought about such a thing before.

Fang Shu waved her hand in front of her. “What are you thinking about? I’m talking about kissing the cheek. Where did your mind go?”

Ye Wanyin had not yet recovered from the kiss she had imagined. Hearing this, she asked somewhat dazedly, “Wouldn’t it be a little strange for two girls to kiss each other’s cheeks?”

Fang Shu thought of how she had once seen Xu Yang and the others kiss in front of the whole class, and afterward, they had not looked embarrassed at all. She felt the two of them should also push their progress forward a little. She did not ask for them to kiss each other’s cheeks in public, but at the very least, there should be some progress in private.

So she gave Ye Wanyin an example. “What’s strange about it? Don’t Xu Yang and the others kiss too?”

Ye Wanyin still felt it was a little strange. But before she could think it through, Fang Shu had already taken the initiative to connect her wire to this power bank.

The soft touch on her cheek was gone in an instant. Even after it completely left, there was still a trace of warmth.

Ye Wanyin suddenly felt a moment of panic rise from the bottom of her heart, making her instinctively tighten her grip on the milk tea in her hand.

But since the kiss had already happened, Ye Wanyin slowly recovered by herself. Then, looking at Fang Shu as if nothing had happened, she said with some difficulty, “I feel like… kissing… isn’t very okay.”

The middle word was spoken especially softly by Ye Wanyin, but Fang Shu still heard it. She took a sip of milk tea and looked at Ye Wanyin very innocently. “What’s not okay? Everyone’s a girl. What’s wrong with sticking close?”

Ye Wanyin looked at her, wanting to speak but stopping. On one hand, she felt what Fang Shu said made sense. On the other hand, she felt the feeling of being touched just now was very, very strange. The two sides fought in her mind for a long time, and in the end, reason still gained the upper hand. “All right.”

Seeing that Ye Wanyin had convinced herself, Fang Shu brought up another topic. She looked at the milk tea in Ye Wanyin’s hand, staring straight at her. “I want to drink your milk tea.”

Ye Wanyin subconsciously handed it to her. During this, looking at Fang Shu’s face, her mind uncontrollably recalled the feeling when Fang Shu had kissed her just now. Her hand nearly trembled and spilled the milk tea.

Fang Shu quickly pressed down on her wrist, then, holding Ye Wanyin’s hand in place, lowered her head and took a sip from the straw.

After drinking, she looked at Ye Wanyin and reciprocated by handing over her own milk tea. “You take a sip too.”

Ye Wanyin did not let Fang Shu hold it for her. She took it herself. Thinking of how Fang Shu had directly drunk from hers without any disgust just now, Ye Wanyin worried Fang Shu might overthink it. So she did not wipe the straw either and symbolically took a small sip.

Fang Shu watched her movement. There was no change on her face.

After the milk tea was finished, Fang Shu began working. Before she started writing, Ye Wanyin asked her, “How long can your battery last this time?”

Fang Shu thought about it. “At least four hours.”

That was roughly enough time to finish one test paper.

The uneasy feeling Ye Wanyin had felt from being kissed dispersed, and she even began thinking about what to do after Fang Shu finished this paper.

They were both girls. Kissing and hugging were very normal. She must have just been too nervous before.

After Fang Shu began doing questions, the living room quieted down again. Ye Wanyin felt it was about time, so she opened her phone and began translating sentence by sentence.

Fang Shu did not manage to finish before her battery was drained. The paper Ye Wanyin had given her was a monthly exam paper, and the question types were relatively comprehensive. She had learned most of the big question types, but she could not understand many of the smaller questions. After dragging it out for four hours like this, in the end, she still had one big question unfinished and several fill-in-the-blank questions left blank.

Ye Wanyin counted the time. When the time was up, she saw Fang Shu’s frowning expression and asked, “How is it going?”

Fang Shu glanced at Ye Wanyin. She really wanted to hand it in just like this and treat the rest as things she did not know at all. But she did not know whether it was because she had spent too much time with Ye Wanyin and had been infected by her. There were a few questions she felt she should be able to do; she just could not think of the solution right away.

After a battle between heaven and man in her heart, Fang Shu finally looked at Ye Wanyin firmly. “Give me a battery extension.”

Without much hesitation, Ye Wanyin kissed Fang Shu on the cheek. This stunned Fang Shu for a second. Then she put on a face full of battery and said to Ye Wanyin, “I’ll continue.”

Ye Wanyin nodded, then sat back down.

Different from being kissed, Ye Wanyin felt that when she kissed Fang Shu just now, it was as if she had kissed a piece of jelly. When the touch landed by her lips, the part that reacted more strongly than her lips was her heart—it gave a sudden jump, so fast Ye Wanyin wondered if it was an illusion.

Ye Wanyin recovered for a moment and felt that aside from the aftereffect being a little strong, this charging method was actually quite convenient.

At the very least, it allowed wireless connection.

That night, Fang Shu returned to her room with a tired head that had done two test papers and killed countless brain cells. Before entering their rooms, the two said good night to each other at the door.

Ever since Fang Shu had dreamed of her mother sending her an angsty novel, she had been unlucky enough not to dream her way back again. And so, her goal of violently beating up her mother had never been achieved.

This time, she fell asleep with an empty head. She had not expected to actually dream of her mother again!

At first, Fang Shu had no consciousness in the dream. She could only see the dream version of herself, just like back then, holding a full stack of novels and sitting with her mother on the carpet in the living room. The two of them picked and chose from the pile of books in front of them.

“I think this one is synopsis fraud.”

“I think this female lead is super handsome!”

“I’ve read this one. The beginning was really sweet, but the ending was a pile of ().”

Only after picking through to the end did the two each find a novel that looked relatively sweet and sit side by side to read.

“Ah~ This male lead is so handsome~ Shushu, in the future, find a boyfriend like this, okay? Handsome and charming~”

Fang Shu casually glanced at the plot her mother showed her, then commented, “If I can meet one.”

After the mother and daughter finished the novels, they leaned against the sofa together, heads touching, immersed in the plot they had just finished reading. Mother Fang said to Fang Shu, “I think I can still stay wild for another two years.”

Fang Shu glanced at her mother, then patted her shoulder. “You have to face reality. You’re already a married woman with a child.”

Mother Fang sighed faintly. “So I can only entrust my dream to you.”

“Shushu, look at the world more. Find a few for Mommy to see. Mommy will help you choose the best one.”

Fang Shu was silent for a moment. “There’s no way there are people as perfect as in novels.”

“I know. But my daughter should be matched with the best, right?”

At this time, Fang Shu already carried some of the confusion of adolescence. Most of the opposite-sex peers around her were not that outstanding in appearance—compared to those in novels—and their personalities all had some unpleasant sides. They were completely different from what Fang Shu imagined. She asked in some confusion, “The best… what would that be like?”

Mother Fang also got stuck for a moment. “…At the very least, they can’t look too bad, right? Mm, good temper, not too showy a personality…”

“Ai, forget it. Shushu, you should choose for yourself. There are plenty of men. The real skill is finding someone who can move your heart.”

Mother Fang had also once picked through crowds for a long time. It was not that she looked down on people, but that she had never met someone who could move her heart. Her young girl’s heart had been like a pearl covered in dust, always unable to find a suitable person to wipe it clean.

Fortunately, her family did not urge her too harshly. At most, they would say a few words during holidays. In the years after crossing the age of twenty-four, there had been a long period when Mother Fang felt that perhaps she would never meet true love in this lifetime.

Until she met Father Fang, and her nearly stone-like young girl’s heart finally beat once.

And so she said to Fang Shu, “If you like someone even a little, go after them. If you think they’re good, hold on tight. But you can delay the confession a bit. Before you’re certain of the other person’s feelings, you absolutely shouldn’t reveal your own feelings—”

Fang Shu listened seriously, waiting for her mother to continue preaching great wisdom. Then she heard her mother continue, “After all, being rejected is pretty awkward.”

Fang Shu: “…”

When the dream reached this point, Fang Shu had already begun to have her own consciousness. She knew this was a dream and also saw her mother in front of her. She felt that she had forgotten something important, and only after waking up did she remember.

She still had not beaten up her mother.

Fang Shu glanced at the time and decisively went back to sleep.

This time, she would definitely not forget.

The exam results came out earlier than expected. In only two days, the teachers finished marking the papers. On the day the results came out, the class group chat began to flood the screen crazily.

[I, a faithful woman, am willing to eat vegetarian for one day in exchange for a good final exam grade.]

[Study Rep: …I feel like your heart isn’t sincere.]

[Zhang Xiao: I, a faithful man, am willing to bring my girlfriend breakfast for a whole week in exchange for a good final exam grade.]

[Group notification: Zhang Xiao has been removed from the group by admin xx.]

[Group message: Welcome “Zhang Xiao” to the group.]

[Zhang Xiao: Damn, why kick me?!]

[Li Ming: Although I wasn’t the one who kicked you, can you have some self-awareness in your heart? (disdain)]

[Zhang Xiao: (picking nose) Sure enough, jealousy makes people unrecognizable.]

[Study Rep: The grades are out.]

[Study Rep: image.jpg]

[xx: Ahhhhhhh my eyes! Who sent that picture?! My eyes are going blind!]

[Xu Yang: As expected of the top student. I heard the grade’s second place only got 548. How many points did she exceed them by?]

[Li Ming: LMAO. Last time, some ** from Class Three said the top student only got that many points because of luck. This time the papers were so hard, and the top student still got that many points. (silly smile)]

[xx: I’m gone, brothers. I’m going to run away from home and leave this place of right and wrong that only cares about grades.]

[s: If you’re a man, face the storm bravely!]

[xx: ? I’m a woman!]

…

Fang Shu looked at the picture posted in the group and said to Ye Wanyin, “You got 730.”

Ye Wanyin nodded to show that she knew, then asked her, “How much did you get?”

But before Fang Shu could answer, Ye Wanyin picked up her phone and went to look at the report card herself. “Chinese, seventy-something. Math, seventy-something. English…”

After Ye Wanyin finished looking at the grades, she was silent for several seconds. “The questions this time were relatively difficult. It’s normal for you to get this much.”

Fang Shu looked at Ye Wanyin’s somewhat solemn expression and did not speak.

Ye Wanyin frowned in thought. She discovered that there was a problem she had always overlooked. She had been judging this world’s college entrance exam questions according to the standards of her own world. But in reality, college entrance exam questions could be difficult or easy. Even in her own world, exam papers differed between provinces and cities. In this world, they were even less guaranteed to be the same.

Ye Wanyin felt that this problem was a bit serious.

She asked Fang Shu, “Are your past college entrance exam papers here all difficult?”

Fang Shu thought about it. “Hard to say. Sometimes they’re difficult, sometimes they’re easy. I heard last year’s was pretty easy.”

Ye Wanyin’s brows furrowed even tighter. “Then are the national college entrance exam papers unified here?”

If they were unified, there was still some hope.

But Fang Shu shook her head.

The expression on Ye Wanyin’s face immediately became even more solemn. This situation was even worse than she had imagined. Since they did not know whether it would be difficult or easy, they could only practice according to the hardest region’s college entrance exam papers.

Ye Wanyin sighed and suddenly felt somewhat tired.

If that was the case, the remaining two months were simply not enough.

Seeing that her expression did not look good, Fang Shu asked, “What’s wrong?”

Ye Wanyin glanced at her and suddenly asked, “What’s the minimum number of papers you can accept doing in one day?”

Fang Shu tentatively held up two fingers. Ye Wanyin added two more fingers for her and asked, “Would four be okay?”

Fang Shu looked a little troubled. Two papers already made her work until the latter half of the night. If it were four papers, wouldn’t she have to wake up early in the future?

And that did not even include the time for explaining questions.

Seeing Fang Shu’s unwilling expression, Ye Wanyin did not make things too difficult for her. She only said that she understood.

Fang Shu suddenly had a flash of insight and asked her, “What if, before you leave, my grades still haven’t improved enough?”

That was exactly the question Ye Wanyin had been thinking about just now. However, she was not quite sure whether she should tell Fang Shu. She was afraid that if she made a promise, Fang Shu might still be disappointed when the time came.