Tong Xu could clearly see the disdain in Tong Bingran’s eyes, but he couldn’t understand why his own father was so annoyed with him. After thinking for a few seconds, Tong Xu changed the subject again, “Since Jiang Li performed so well in the entrance exam, the Feng family should be throwing her a banquet, right?”
Tong Bingran shook his head, “Who in the Feng family ever scored low? But their family is always very low-key. Although Old Master Feng dotes on his only granddaughter, they didn’t hold any coming-of-age banquet when she turned eighteen, so I doubt they’ll have a banquet this time.”
Hearing this, Tong Xu felt a bit disappointed. He had hoped to take advantage of Jiang Li’s graduation banquet as an opportunity to meet her and make his presence known.
Tong Bingran immediately saw through his son’s thoughts but was too lazy to offer any advice. With a blockhead like this, even if he did give him tips, this kid probably wouldn’t be able to win Jiang Li over. Besides, with how protective the Feng family was, he didn’t want to risk provoking them, which would only complicate matters. So it was better not to waste effort!
After Tong Bingran returned to his room, Tong Xu took out his phone and started scrolling #ThreeTopScorersInNineProvinces. The more he read, the more he frowned, feeling that social media users were getting too bored these days.
At the same time, Jiang Li was also browsing Weibo, scrolling topics about the top scorers. What she hadn’t expected was that some people, like these dedicated CP shippers1, could always find a way to create a ship out of thin air.
Since she and Qin Zheng were not only the top scorers this year but also from the same school and class, a few people started speculating romantic stories between them, describing everything in vivid, believable detail.
Some were even bored enough to dig into the school forum, found photos of her and Qin Zheng as flag bearers during a flag-raising ceremony, and posted them on Weibo, claiming that their expressions and gazes looked especially solemn, looking very much in sync.
“…” Jiang Li didn’t know what to say about this. Raising the national flag was a solemn event, is it not expected for her expression to be solemn?
She randomly replied to a few comments to refute, but the self-proclaimed shippers were too engrossed in their CP fantasies to notice the real person behind the screen. Jiang Li eventually gave up. She logged out of Weibo and opened QQ, where she saw people in the class group also discussing the comments on Weibo.
Fortunately, her classmates were very rational. Having been in the same class for at least two years, they didn’t believe there was anything between Jiang Li and Qin Zheng. To them, Prodigy God Jiang was invincible, and no ordinary person was worthy of her.
Qin Zheng, who was jokingly called an ordinary person, even joined the conversation, humorously admitting that he was just that. He claimed that luck played a large part in his scoring the same as Jiang Li.
Jiang Li: “…”
What on earth are they talking about? Are they trying to make her arrogant?
Just as Jiang Li was about to log out of QQ, someone in the group tagged her, asking about rumors involving another top scorer.
Jiang Li replied, puzzled: [What other top scorer?]
The person quickly responded:
[Check the fourth comment on Weibo.]
[Wait, it’s already been bumped up to the third now.]
Confused, Jiang Li logged out of QQ and went back to Weibo, where she found someone had uploaded a photo from her first year in high school when she participated in the IMO finals.
Of course, that’s not the point. The main point was that in the group photo from the finals, besides the supervising teacher, seven students were posing with medals.
Initially, the comments under the photo claimed it was photoshopped because anyone familiar with the math olympiad would know that the IMO finals should have six participants, not seven. The person who uploaded this photo must be playing a trick!
However, someone quickly came forward to explain that the smiling boy next to Jiang Li in the photo, though also Chinese, was a member of the American team. The person also detailed Tong Yi’s resume over the past few years, including that he was Jiang Li’s deskmate in junior high and had spent three years in high school abroad. Finally, they also emphasized that he was one of this year’s top three scorers for science.
As a result, some people started building a CP ship again, this time shipping Jiang Li with Tong Yi, pointing out that Tong Yi was more handsome than Qin Zheng and that the fact they both made it to the IMO finals together made them more impressive than Qin Zheng, who only made it to the finals in his second year.
The comments under #ThreeTopScorersInNineProvinces soon got sidetracked, with more and more people joining the CP ship war.
At first, the supporters of both pairings were evenly matched. But then, someone posted another photo. In this picture, Tong Yi was taking off his gold medal and putting it around Jiang Li’s neck, so she ended up wearing two gold medals, all while giving Tong Yi a death stare.
Jiang Li had almost forgotten about this stupid small episode from three years ago. Who on earth had taken that photo, saved it, and brought it up now?
Was it Big Nephew? No, he wouldn’t have done such a silly thing. At the time, Big Nephew was standing next to her at the time and wouldn’t have had the opportunity to take the picture himself.
After the photo appeared, the comment section was filled with remarks like [So sweet], [I’m shipping them], and [Jiang-Tong CP is the best].
Of course, some people insisted on shipping “Jiang-Qin CP” and posted sarcastic comments under the Jiang Li and Tong Yi photo, suggesting the name “Li-Yi CP” sounded much like “Liyi” (divorce).
“…” Jiang Li really couldn’t understand these people. Instead of shipping 2d characters, they were so invested in real-life people they didn’t even know, and with such genuine enthusiasm on top of that.
Yes, the “Jiang-Tong CP” shippers were incredibly enthusiastic. One even changed their Weibo nickname to Tong Yi and commented under the “Divorce CP” post: As long as Tong Yi disagrees, there’s no such thing as divorce.
“…” Jiang Li was dumbfounded by this silly charade, but she was even more stunned to see so many people supported this comment. They must have too much free time!
Still, Jiang Li was perfectly aware that these people were just having fun online. In another ten days or so, as the hype around the top scorers died down, no one would pay attention to these nonsensical CPs. By then, even if she and Big Nephew showed up holding hands in front of these people, they probably wouldn’t recognize them as the CP they had fervently shipped.
…
Meanwhile, at the Tong family house.
Tong Yi was lounging on the sofa with his iPad, having spent the past two hours battling the “Jiang-Qin CP fans.” His fingers moved rapidly, finally converting most of them to the “Jiang-Tong CP” camp. Satisfied, he set the iPad down.
Speaking of which, he had to thank that meddlesome teammate from back then who had taken and saved the photo of him and Jiang Xiao Li together, which helped sway the “Jiang-Qin CP fans” to his side.
As Tong Yi was about to scoop a spoonful of watermelon, he noticed a small figure standing behind him.
“So, Second Brother, you really like Sister,” the now elementary schooler Tong Youyou said with certainty, sounding like a little adult.
Tong Yi frowned at her, “When did you get here?”
“I’ve been here for a while. You were so focused you didn’t notice me,” the girl replied.
Tong Yi picked up an orange from the coffee table, peeled it, and stuffed two slices into his cousin’s mouth. Seeing her puffed-up cheeks like a hamster, he burst into laughter.
After swallowing the orange, Tong Youyou propped her chin on her hands and looked at Tong Yi, “Second Brother, are you going to pursue Sister?”
“You’re just a little kid; what do you know about pursuing someone?” Tong Yi’s tone was particularly casual.
“I’m already ten years old, stop calling me little kid! I don’t like it,” Tong Youyou frowned.
Tong Yi nodded, “Alright, I won’t call you a little kid. How about I call you a big kid?”
“Second Brother, stop changing the subject. Just tell me, do you want to pursue Sister or not?” Tong Youyou asked seriously, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.
Tong Yi, with a half-smile, replied, “Are you saying you want to be my wingman, little rascal?”
Tong Youyou snapped her fingers, “No problem, but my services don’t come cheap. I know you’re rich, Second Brother, so you’ll need to pay me well for me to consider working for you.”
Tong Yi looked at her in disbelief, “You actually know what a wingman is?”
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Not the shipping wars!!😭😭
Thank you for the update!