When the bell rang at the end of the morning self-study, Tong Yi threw his meal card on Jiang Li’s desk, “Scallion pancakes.”
Jiang Li was silent for two seconds before asking, “Since I run errands for you, can my labor offset the money I borrowed from your meal card yesterday?”
Tong Yi mercilessly replied, “Do you want to change your name to Jiang Freeloader?”
Seeing Jiang Li’s slightly regretful expression, Tong Yi touched his nose and said, “Don’t mind it. You can pay me back once you get the scholarship.”
Jiang Li nodded in satisfaction, but then frowned again, “But what if I overspent your card? Would the cafeteria staff detain me to demand payment?”
Tong Yi said helplessly, “Don’t worry, I’m not as poor as you think.”
Hearing Tong Yi’s answer, Jiang Li left with the meal card contentedly.
Looking at her slender and thin figure, Tong Yi fell into contemplation again. In fact, he had been weighing whether or not to inform the Feng family about the truth about Jiang Li and Jiang Ruo. Should he inform them? After hesitating for a few minutes, Tong Yi finally decided not to.
The relationship between the Fengs and the Jiangs actually was not that good, and they seemed to have cut contact long ago. Moreover, the Third Master Feng, the genius who won the Lasker Prize, was clearly disgusted with the Jiang family to the extreme.
Most importantly, the younger sister of Tong Yi’s late father — that is, his aunt — got engaged to Jiang Li’s eldest cousin Feng Yang a month ago. Thanks to this engagement, the twin brothers of the Feng family had become cocky to him, putting on the air of elders.
If the Feng family recognized Jiang Li as their granddaughter, wouldn’t that make her a generation older than him?
No, he must not tell them!!
Anyway, that Little Moneygrubber was very capable. Even without the Feng family protecting her, she was not one to be easily bullied.
Taking a step back, even if someone dared to bully Jiang Li, he could step forward to back her, so what’s the big deal?
After making up his mind, Tong Yi was released of psychological burden and proceeded to take a nap on his desk as usual. It was not until he smelled the aroma of scallion pancakes that he opened his eyes again. The Little Moneygrubber was quite caring — not only did she buy him scallion pancakes, but also a pack of soy milk.
Tong Yi chatted with Jiang Li while munching the scallion pancakes, “What did you eat in the cafeteria?”
Jiang Li answered truthfully: “Beef rice noodles.”
Tong Yi started to bicker, “Alum is added to rice noodles. Eat too much, and you will become stupid.”
Jiang Li merely responded with a light “Oh” before asking back, “Do you often eat rice noodles?”
Tong Yi shook his head.
Jiang Li pretended to be surprised: “Then how come your grades are always at the bottom?”
Tong Yi: …
Couldn’t we just chat in peace?
Jiang Li was completely unaware that she had pierced the Big Sleepyhead’s fragile glass heart. After delivering the scallion pancakes and returning the meal card, she proceeded to bury herself with her beloved question banks again.
For the next two days, Jiang Li’s school life was pleasantly peaceful. Probably because her behavior of shutting Shen Mian out of the back door had shocked her two roommates, but they behaved very well after that and didn’t bother her anymore. As for Jiang Ruo’s friends and admirers in the class, they seemed afraid of Tong Yi and didn’t even come to throw her sarcasm.
No one was causing her trouble, which pleased Jiang Li. But the monotonous yet peaceful days only lasted for two days before the P.E. exam was ushered in. This exam was very important; except for a few who applied for exemption or postponement for special reasons, all students had to take it, because the result of the P.E. exam would be added to the total score of the high school entrance examination.
Jiang Li’s body seemed to be adept at sports, and she easily cleared both the long-distance jump and gymnastics, scoring two perfect scores. When it came to the 800-meter run, Jiang Li realized that she was far ahead of others in the same group and thought she was also talented in long-distance running.
But after running for a lap and a half, Jiang Li began to feel exhausted. After two and a half laps, her stamina was obviously running out, and others began to catch up from behind and surpassed her. Only then did Jiang Li realize that others were saving their stamina before, but unfortunately, she had little to no experience in sports and had no idea.
After thinking about it, Jiang Li decided to stop aiming for ranking. Instead of chasing the students in front, she adjusted her rhythm to avoid fainting due to severe physical exhaustion. Still, Jiang Li couldn’t prevent her already scarce stamina from decreasing. Her body felt heavy, she was sweating all over, and her breathing became heavy and painful.
When they were about one-fourth to the finish line, Jiang Li found that everyone else was still sprinting, but it took her all just to keep moving forward. Yet, Jiang Li maintained her rhythm and moved slowly and steadily. As for how much she would score in this run, it was up to her luck.
When she finally was about twenty meters, Jiang Li sighed in relief. Feeling the victory in sight, she let her guard down. It was at this time that a foot suddenly stretched out from the aside. Jiang Li saw the foot in advance, but she was not used to moving her body and failed to react in time. Unable to avoid the trip, all she could do was adjust her posture in time to prevent injuries when falling.
The girl’s long-distance run was done in a group of sixteen. After Jiang Li fell, two girls quickly passed her. The moment Jiang Li raised her head, she saw Shen Mian, smiling provocatively at the finish line while giving her the middle finger. Intuition told Jiang Li that the person who stumbled on her and caused her to suddenly fall was probably Shen Mian, but she had no evidence now.
Jiang Li was about to get up when a girl suddenly stopped to help her, whispering, “Don’t give up,” in a small voice. Before Jiang Li could see who was helping her, the girl had already let go of her hand and rushed to the finish line, followed by a few others who came from behind.
Because her sight was blocked and everyone was wearing the same P.E. uniform, Jiang Li could not pinpoint the girl who had helped her just now. Still, Jiang Li rushed to the finish line with all her strength. It was already certain that she couldn’t get a full score, but she didn’t want her points to be deducted too much.
The full score of the 800-meter girl’s long-distance running was 15 points, which was gotten upon finishing the full run within the time requirement of 3 minutes and 40 seconds. Because of the fall, Jiang Li’s time was 3 minutes and 48 seconds, resulting in 2 points penalty.
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