Chapter 13: Father

Page 1/3

The combined science score was 201, averaging seventy points per subject. In the Olympiad class, this would be just average, but placed in the parallel class, it was extraordinary. Judging by the science score alone, he ranked among the top ten, even top five. Among six subjects, five had their performance bars glowing red.

Someone attentive calculated the rankings by adding the scores from five subjects. Surprisingly, a name that had never appeared before was among the top five.

Jiang Nian, with 432 points, ranked second.

The one ahead of him was the subject-specialist war god Wang Jie, with a combined science score of 210, Chinese 87, and math 140, totaling 437.

Zhou Yuting ranked third, with a balanced performance across all subjects: a remarkable 200 in science, 90 in Chinese, and 110 in math, totaling 400.

This was the norm in the science parallel class—weak foundations and severe subject bias.

That afternoon, Jiang Nian was applying medicine to Xu Qianqian’s wound.

Song Xiyun squatted nearby, watching with a shy smile playing on her lips. As Jiang Nian rubbed the ointment, Song Xiyun giggled softly like a little mouse.

“Hey, girl, are you feeling frisky?” he said, unable to bear it.

“Hmph, Qianqian, look how casually he talks,” Song Xiyun said coquettishly, throwing herself onto Xu Qianqian like a queen commanding her servant.

“He’s always like this; just ignore him,” Xu Qianqian replied.

“Hmm? Got it, castration,” Song Xiyun teased.

Xu Qianqian couldn’t hold back her laughter; she pinched Song Xiyun and said, “What are you talking about!”

“Hehe,” Song Xiyun watched with great interest, then turned to Jiang Nian and asked, “Still say it’s not castration? You’re already applying ointment—that scene only happens in romance dramas.”

“Cut back on the dramas; you’re hopeless,” Jiang Nian said with deadpan eyes.

“Jiang Nian, do you like Qianqian?”

At those words, Jiang Nian’s hand paused, and Xu Qianqian’s cheeks flushed faintly but swiftly.

“Yun Yun!”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Because usually only couples do this. Otherwise, why would you?”

Song Xiyun smiled mischievously, just wanting to enjoy the show, getting more excited by the minute.

“Oh, it’s because she calls me ‘Daddy,’ and you call me ‘Daddy’ too, so if you twist my hand, I’ll massage your feet,” Jiang Nian said indifferently.

Xu Qianqian was about to stop the two when suddenly a clear voice rang out.

“Daddy.”

The atmosphere froze. Jiang Nian and Xu Qianqian both turned to look at Song Xiyun.

Page 2/3

Song Xiyun blinked, looking shyly at the two.

“I’m just... trying to liven up the atmosphere.”

Damn it! The atmosphere just got even weirder!

After finishing the ointment, Jiang Nian left, leaving Xu Qianqian to seriously explain to Song Xiyun that there was no special relationship—it was just a math deal.

Song Xiyun: “(๑>؂”

Evening self-study.

The incomplete overall ranking circulated through the class. When classmates saw Jiang Nian ranked second, they were stunned and couldn’t help but think:

“Could he have cheated?”

“Maybe he went to a tutoring class over the summer or studied on his own.”

“Yeah, my friend’s class was like that too. Some students who were average last semester suddenly improved dramatically after summer.”

“Too strong!”

“I heard a rumor that Jiang Nian was triggered by something during the summer...”

“I love this gossip; tell me more.”

From afar, Zhou Yuting listened to the chatter with a deeper frown. She glanced toward Jiang Nian’s direction—could he really have been triggered by her?

The English scores hadn’t been released yet. The parallel class had only one spot for promotion.

Currently, Wang Jie’s English was terrible; scoring above sixty would be a miracle. With that, his total score wouldn’t surpass 500.

Zhou Yuting had 400 points, so if she scored 130 in English, she would reach the cutoff.

Jiang Nian’s English hovered around sixty to seventy points. Unless he scored a perfect 100, he had no chance to compete with her—but that was impossible.

Jiang Nian was distracted, correcting errors while yawning.

His task was done, and his account now had seven thousand yuan.

For a high school student, seven thousand was huge—like a player waking up to find 300,000 gold coins in their in-game mailbox.

He wished he could go back and slap those fools hard with the money, but he was a bit reluctant.

Lost in thought, a notification chimed in his mind.

[At age thirty-eight, to prepare for a date, you decide to change your image and lose weight. Task: Obtain a gym membership and purchase at least thirty classes.

Reward: 20,000 RMB.]

Looking at the task panel, Jiang Nian thought his future self was seriously troublesome. Losing weight meant going to the gym? Why not just jog in the park?

Some people really were harsh—even on themselves.

Page 3/3

Fortunately, the task only required signing up for the gym and buying classes, not losing a certain amount of weight or attending classes. After all, he was already at a perfect weight. Besides, with classes every day, where would he find time to run outside?

Otherwise, Jiang Nian would have been tortured enough.

He decided to sneak out during evening self-study to ask where the nearest gym was.

Taking leave was no problem; he was going to be promoted anyway. English had to be at least 130. If he couldn’t break 560 total points and get promoted, then forget it—destroy everything!

In the office, the homeroom teacher scrutinized Jiang Nian up and down, adjusting his glasses.

“Sick leave?”

“Meeh,” Jiang Nian replied sheepishly.

The teacher twitched his eyelids. Usually, he turned a blind eye when students lied about sick leave, especially good students. Jiang Nian’s latest grades...

He pulled the score sheet and saw 432, not including English.

The teacher thought about Jiang Nian’s usual English scores from last semester—uh, too average to remember.

“Jiang Nian, you did well this time. Worked hard over the summer?”

“Yes, read some books,” Jiang Nian scratched his head, feigning weakness while hinting, “Stayed up late studying, stomach... sigh, got sick.”

“Oh, take care then.” The teacher dismissed his act, shook the papers, and asked, “What was your English score last semester?”

“Around sixty to seventy,” Jiang Nian said anxiously.

“And this time? Expected score?”

“Uh, over one hundred,” Jiang Nian gave a conservative estimate.

“Hm?” The teacher’s hand trembled slightly. Adding the total, he suddenly realized something. His tone turned bleak. “Sigh...”

“What did you say?”

“Ah, nothing. Good job.” He forced a smile, losing interest in questioning further. “Bring your leave note, and be safe.”

...

On the third floor, in an Olympiad class.

Xu Qianqian saw Song Xiyun return with red-rimmed eyes, worry flashing across her face.

“What’s wrong?”

“My mom told me to wait after school and take me for a late-night snack,” Song Xiyun said. “I kept asking, and she finally said she’s planning to quit her job at the gym.”