Xu Yanmei was in a meeting room, discussing things like a mafia boss even though it was just a clothing wholesale market.

The room was filled with smoke.

"What the hell is this? Who the fuck is gonna buy this? Is it that I'm not speaking clearly enough or is he just stupid?"

Xu Yanmei extinguished a cigarette and pulled out another one from the box. With practiced ease, she bit it between her lips and lit it with one hand, the lighter making a "pah" sound as she tapped it on the table. "Who wants to join me on this job?"

She yelled out, completely unaware of the person who had just entered the meeting room.

"What are you doing."

Xie Yu stood at the door with several boxes of medicine, looking at her with a less-than-pleased expression. "Looks like you're having a great time smoking."

Everyone knew that Xu Yanmei, the top woman in Guangmao, was fearless in most situations, except when it came to this godson of hers. The others quickly made their exit, saying, "We're leaving first, Sister Mei, we're with you. Just give us a call, we'll be right there."

Xu Yanmei had nowhere to hide her cigarette. "Actually, I can explain..." she began.

Xie Yu frowned, not interested in hearing it. "Give me the cigarette," he demanded.

Xu Yanmei closed her mouth and handed it over.

Xie Yu immediately stubbed out the cigarette.

It's been a while since they last met, and this kid seemed to have grown a bit taller.

Xu Yanmei was suppressed, and Xie Yu immediately took the moral high ground, causing her to forget about his grades for a while. "Just you wait, you little brat. I haven't settled matters with you, if it weren't for Lei-zi telling me-" she said, before picking up a plastic hanger and hitting Xie Yu a few times.

"Where haven't you settled, you've been going on about this for ages," Xie Yu said.

During winter break, Xu Yanmei exploded in the WeChat group, followed by phone calls and video calls. If it weren't for him stopping her, she probably would have taken a taxi from City B in the middle of the night.

"You're still talking back."

"Okay, it's my bad," Xie Yu opened the window for ventilation and placed the medicine in his hand on the table. He continued, "I'll get you the first place in this mid-term exam."

There was always a group of students who excelled in every grade's exams. While others hoped that their grades would never be revealed, only this group eagerly awaited the release of their grades, eager to see who would come out on top this time.

However, this time, in addition to these top students, there were also dozens of students from Class 3 who were eagerly anticipating the early release of their exam results.

Monday arrived.

The students from Class 3 arrived early and gathered in the classroom to discuss their grades before even putting down their backpacks.

Occasionally, students from the neighboring Class 4 would pass by in the hallway.

The two classes stared at each other in silence for a moment. Although the students from Class 3 were unsure of their grades, they refused to lose their confidence and stood up straight.

"Do you think the grades will be released today?"

"Should be able to, right? The test papers should have all been graded over the weekend. Our school, No. 2, is known for its fast grading speed. Last time during the monthly exam, I wasn't even ready to die yet and the results were already out."

"But didn't Old Tang say it would take a few more days?"

"How about this, Wan Da, why don't you go check outside the office and see what's going on?"

Wan Da took on the important task and crouched outside the office door for a few minutes.

He vaguely felt that something was off inside, but couldn't quite put his finger on it. Maybe it was because it was too quiet. Just as he was debating whether or not to continue eavesdropping from his hiding spot, Old Tang happened to open the door.

Wan Da quickly tried to sneak into the bathroom.

Old Tang spoke in a deep voice, "...Don't hide, come over here."

It was peak time for going to school, and the school gate was crowded with people. The entire street was jammed with cars that parents had driven here.

Xie Yu leaned against the car window, the earphone cable extending from the pocket of his school uniform up to his ears. The English listening test on his phone had just reached the end, entering the questioning section, but it was drowned out by the chaotic honking at the intersection ahead.

He lowered his head, wanting to adjust the volume, and saw several messages from He Chao.

- Little buddy.

- Where are you?

- I'm waiting for you at the station.

After He Chao sent the messages, he waited for a while and was suddenly tapped on the shoulder from behind.

Xie Yu had one hand in his pocket, still wearing his earphones. People were coming and going around him, all wearing school uniforms. Although he didn't look any different from the others, he still stood out: "Let's go, what are you standing there for?"

He Chao didn't see any buses coming this way, so he casually asked, "Did you walk over here?"

Xie Yu replied, "The intersection ahead was too congested."

"Was it too congested or did you really want to see me?"

"Have some shame."

"I've decided to give my boyfriend one last chance."

"It's too congested."

Xie Yu walked ahead, then slowed down and answered again, "Wanted to see you, are you happy now, Brother."

The two of them walked to the bottom of the teaching building and just turned the corner of the stairs when they ran into Wan Da.

Who knew why Wan Da was squatting at the stairwell so early in the morning, and he startled He Chao, "Fuck, what the hell are you doing?"

Wan Da had been squatting at the stairwell for almost ten minutes, just to block them as soon as possible.

"Old Tang told me to squat here and block you guys."

Wan Da's feet were a little numb from squatting, so he leaned on the railing and stood up, asking, "Asking you go go to the office as soon as you reached, did you two do something wrong?"

They didn't exactly do something wrong.

At most, they just made each teacher eat several quick-acting heart-saving pills.

Wu Zheng stood by the water dispenser, took a sip of water, and still felt like he couldn't breathe. "Teacher Tang, do you have any more? Give me two more..."

In front of Tang Sen were not only the quick-acting heart-saving pills, but also several test papers - these test papers were either perfect or close to perfect.

He opened one of the test papers and looked at closely at the name column on the right side.

Examinee's name: Xie Yu.

Examinee's name: He Chao.

After finishing grading the papers, he and Wu Zheng sat silently in the classroom at No. 14 High School, facing each other for half an hour.

After so many years since its establishment, No. 2 High School had never seen such outstanding results.

Not only did they surpass the performance of the four other schools, but even in the top schools where Tang Sen used to teach, such achievements were rare.

......

Xie Yu and He Chao had been gone for half a day.

Wan Da was extremely curious. He couldn't help but wonder, "Are they skipping class? Where did they go? What are they doing?"

Liu Cunhao had been annoyed by his constant nagging all morning and had a headache. "Instead of sitting here, why don't you go out and do some eavesdropping during lunch break?"

Wan Da thought for a moment and said, "...Not a bad idea, Hao-zi. I'll do that."

As a result, the whereabouts of the two big shots in the class remained a mystery, but Wan Da discovered some unexpected news.

Wan Da was well-liked and knew many people in different classes. When he walked over to Class 7, someone had just come back from the office holding their homework. They patted Wan Da on the shoulder and casually asked, "Do you know what your class's average score is this time?"

Wan Da turned around, leaning against the window. "Huh? Our class average?"

"Yeah. It's amazing. I even doubted my own eyes," the person said, still in shock. "It's more than four points higher than the grade average."

Wan Da replied, "...You must be seeing things."

After confirming the accuracy of this information multiple times, Wan Da floated back to the classroom, his mind filled with only a few words: I must have done really well on this test!

No! Our Class 3 must have all done well this time!

Against all odds!

"He must have seen wrongly."

However, when Wan Da returned to the classroom, he was greeted with terrible scores in all subjects. The class representative had already handed out the exam papers, and Liu Cunhao had a gloomy expression as he slapped Wan Da's papers, which were hovering just above the passing line, in front of him. "He definitely must have seen wrongly. Look at this score, with just these how could it be four points higher, it's just a dream."

Wan Da refused to give up and fell into deep thought about his poor results. "...What about the other students in our class?"

Liu Cunhao showed off his own exam paper. "I'll pass on that honour."

Luo Wenqiang said, "Our strengths are balanced, and we are evenly matched."

"..."

"It's true," Xu Qingqing had just handed out the English exam papers when she heard them discussing the class average. After hesitating for a moment, she finally said, "It's true, 4.6, I saw it too."

Until the bell rang for class, the entire Class 3 still couldn't figure out where that "4.6" came from.

No one noticed that there were still two exam papers in the class that had not been handed out.

Luo Wenqiang, with his wild imagination, decided to believe in superstition: "Could it be that my lucky charm really worked?"

"Can you think in a more reliable direction?" Liu Cunhao said, immediately opening up a new line of thought. "Why don't we think about how poorly the other classes did on this exam?"

The two people whom Wan Da was anxious to know the whereabouts of were taking the makeup exam in an empty classroom at this time.

Xie Yu was not surprised by this arrangement at all. It would be hard for anyone to accept that two students who were at the bottom of their grades suddenly jumped to the top, creating an insurmountable gap in total scores compared to students from four other schools.

When the news of the retest was announced, Xie Yu didn't react much, only saying, "Teacher, I have a question."

Old Tang thought they were overthinking things and that their young hearts were hurt, so he quickly explained, "We don't distrust you, it's just that..."

"The test time is too long," Xie Yu interrupted.

"Ah?" Old Tang was taken aback.

"I don't need that much time. Half an hour is enough," Xie Yu said.

"..."

He Chao had no objections to the retest. The only thing he cared about was, "Why did I only get 148 in math?"

Upon hearing this, Wu Zheng silently clenched the bottle of quick-acting heart medicine in his hand.

"The two points deducted were for the presentation score," said Wu Zheng, pausing before continuing, "...You little rascal, you criticized the quality of the exam questions on your paper, and yet you still expect to get a score of 150?"