Chapter 10: With a Stiff Neck, I Could Only Gaze at the Beautiful Girl

“Give it to me, I’ll add you.”

Li Qingran hesitated for a moment, then extended her slender fingers to take the note Jiang Mo handed her.

“Alright.”

The girl’s initiative was somewhat unexpected to him.

With the note now in Li Qingran’s possession, Jiang Mo turned around again, only to find countless bloodshot eyes glaring at him fiercely.

He had poked the hornet’s nest.

Jiang Mo, new to the scene, had already accomplished in one day what they hadn’t achieved in a whole year:

The class monitor had actually spoken to Jiang Mo! Although they hadn’t heard what was said, her lips had moved six times, meaning she uttered six words!

This was a royal decree!

“Jiang Mo, you… you’re going to get her QQ number?” Li Yu stammered, his mustache trembling noticeably.

“No.” Jiang Mo feigned disappointment.

The group of boys immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Guo Huowang swaggered over to console him.

“Hey, Lao Jiang, you really scared us.”

“Oh, it’s alright, we’ve been through this. From now on, we’re brothers...”

“What did the class monitor just say to you?”

Before Guo Huowang’s mischievous hand could clap, Jiang Mo revealed a truth that left everyone in disbelief:

“She said she would add me as a friend.”

Guo Huowang’s eyes widened, veins bulging, cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

“What did you say?!”

“She, the class monitor, Li Qingran, said she’d add me as a friend.”

“No, that can’t be... Yada, traitor ninja, Sasu... you’re the traitor ninja!”

“How is this possible? It shouldn’t be... The Will of Fire, Wadashi, we’ve tried our best...”

“Explode, you social butterflies!”

Screaming wildly, Guo Huowang retreated, falling back into the crowd of onlookers, triggering a chorus of wails and lamentations.

They weren’t afraid of hardship, just of their brother driving a Land Rover.

If everyone was a clown, then there was no clown; but once someone breaks the rules...

They became the clowns.

Before anyone could recover from their sorrow, Li Qingran stood up from her seat and walked over slowly.

Her high ponytail swayed gracefully with her light footsteps, revealing a surprisingly good mood.

Ignoring the pilgrim-like gazes of the crowd, she stood before Jiang Mo, her lips as thin as cicada wings, slightly parted:

“Be online at eleven.”

“Uh, okay.”

“Mm.”

With a refined flick of her ponytail, the young boy Mu Ai followed her cold figure until she disappeared.

Once Li Qingran left, Jiang Mo heard a dozen sharp intakes of breath, expressing the clowns’ unwillingness and envy.

The next moment, Jiang Mo suddenly felt a weight on his leg. Guo Huowang knelt on the ground, clutching his leg in grief.

“Lao Jiang, no, Brother Jiang, Brother Mo, teach me, I want to be a social butterfly too, I won’t be Hokage anymore, I want to be a traitor ninja! Teach me...”

Jiang Mo was stunned, and then another leg was tied up with a charm. Li Yu looked at him with loyal eyes:

“From today on, you’re the national strategist.”

“National strategist! Save the kid!”

“Add me too—”

“And me...”

“...”

Just as everyone was about to humbly seek guidance, the vice class monitor suddenly stood up and shouted:

“Are you done?! Study period isn’t over yet! Everyone, get back to your seats!”

“Guo Huowang, Li Yu! Stop being childish! You’re leading the new student astray!”

Seeing this, the crowd reluctantly dispersed, sulking back to their seats, though whispers continued, even the girls kept glancing back at Jiang Mo with intrigued eyes, as if he had done something extraordinary.

In this class, it seemed no one could get added as Li Qingran’s friend.

“Jiang Mo...”

Just as he settled down, Chen Yajie timidly poked his shoulder.

“You haven’t added me... on QQ.”

So cute, QQ is yours.

“Oh, oh, I forgot you.”

“Is that so...”

The girl’s cheerful smile faded instantly, her face falling like a little kitten’s.

She wondered if she was being too sensitive. From Jiang Mo’s perspective, she was just another new classmate like the others.

Maybe he didn’t have to consider her feelings.

Breakfast, moving desks—it was probably just Jiang Mo acting casually, but she had mistaken it for a sign he wanted to be friends...

Jiang Mo blending in so quickly with the new class was far more impressive than her...

Thinking this, Chen Yajie bit her lower lip into a pitiable wave.

Just as she was about to quietly convince herself, Jiang Mo’s voice rang out again:

“Because I’m more familiar with you, that’s why I forgot.”

“You’re different from them.”

“I truly consider you an old friend, so naturally I didn’t think about adding contacts—that’s something you do with strangers.”

Jiang Mo directly borrowed Hu Yuen’s green tea formula:

[You’re different from them] [You’re the most special one]

Though a bit cliché, it was better than making her sad.

The system said the girl suffered from depression and physical ailments, even to the point of risking death in ten years...

Knowing the future, Jiang Mo couldn’t bear the thought of losing this gentle, graceful girl.

He carefully studied the girl whose brows, eyes, and demeanor exuded utmost gentleness.

The moment Chen Yajie heard his words, her shoulders, collarbones, neck, temples, and earlobes flushed a rosy pink, irresistible to behold.

She drooped her head, feigning calmness as she picked up her pen and doodled, hastily writing the word “solution” twice on her math paper.

“I understand... don’t look at me.”

“Hey, you twisted your neck. Maybe it doesn’t want to turn back, so it’s stuck—I can only look at you,” Jiang Mo teased.

“You’d better...” Chen Yajie’s face reddened further as she wrote a third “solution.”

Meanwhile, Li Yu and Guo Huowang, two mischievous boys in front of him, were eavesdropping on Jiang Mo’s tactics with rapt attention.

“Brother Yu, did you take notes? The national strategist is giving a live lesson.”

“Got it, got it...”

“Ding ding ding ding~ Class dismissed, or gaze into the distance.”

As the bell rang, the classroom erupted into chaos—some rushed to the basketball court, others to the soccer field, some scrambled for food.

Jiang Mo dashed out immediately, leaving Chen Yajie alone at her desk, mumbling that he was definitely lying.

As the girl muttered, Guo Huowang suddenly turned his head, startling her.

“Guo... Guo... eyeball classmate, do you need something?”

“Well, I twisted my neck too.” Guo Huowang said awkwardly.

One sentence wiped the smile off Chen Yajie’s face.

“Haha... Oh, then remember to see a doctor... I-I’m going to eat now, bye.”

The girl hurriedly stumbled out, as if fleeing a monster.

“Hey, Li Yu, it really worked. She told me to see a doctor; she cares about me.”

“That’s nonsense. She meant a psychiatrist.”

“Cross that off, not pretty enough to use.”

“...”

Jiang Mo showed off Hu Yuen’s meal card in the cafeteria, ordering dozens of small dishes just like at lunch, spending around sixty or seventy yuan each meal.

The cafeteria owner insisted on giving him a bottle of Jianlibao, saying he made too much money and felt bad.

Jiang Mo got angry, insisting on paying, even swiping his card twice, praising the owner as a people’s entrepreneur.

Suddenly, over eight hundred yuan in consumption rebates appeared in Jiang Mo’s pocket.

Delighted.

Then he swallowed several endurance enhancement pills, ran laps on the playground, and earned another five hundred yuan.

This time he was smarter; to prevent Jiang Wanfeng from snatching his money, he hid it in his pencil case drawer, planning to open a bank card later to launder it.

Evening study period—

The most critical time in high school, used to digest the day’s knowledge and finish homework.

Jiang Mo noticed the difference between the advanced class and the regular one was longer study periods. Top students had their own methods; they relied more on self-study than teacher supervision.

By the end of evening study, the class was very quiet. The advanced class students knew when to study and when to play.

He didn’t disturb Chen Yajie; she was focused, never relaxing her brows throughout.

But the two lively boys in front kept doodling on notebooks, occasionally glancing back at him, up to something.

...

After school, Jiang Mo waited in the hallway. The advanced Class Two was on the third floor; Class One was on the fourth. He often ran into Jiang Wanfeng.

But unexpectedly, Hu Yuen showed up first.

“Hello, Jiang Mo, were you waiting for me?”

Damn, he forgot she had moved up a class with Jiang Wanfeng—she was like a ticking time bomb.

“Go away.” Jiang Mo made a face like he had just eaten something foul, which only excited Hu Yuen more.

“No, no, scold me some more~”

Her words drew several strange looks from the crowd.

Jiang Mo felt awkward, but his former crush seemed determined not to leave without a response.

“Go, go, go, enough, okay?”

Jiang Mo was nervous, fearing Jiang Wanfeng might appear at any moment.

“All right~”

Surprisingly, Hu Yuen didn’t linger. She winked at him and hurried away, seeming quite anxious.

Out of Jiang Mo’s sight,

Hu Yuen’s brisk steps slowed near the school gate,

Along with the fading charm on her smiling face, the swinging of her arms, and the fluttering of her heart.

“Mom.”

A stylishly dressed noblewoman, Hu Yuen’s mother, took the girl’s backpack.

Frowning, she checked her watch.

“Why are you two minutes late today?”

“I just went to the bathroom...” Hu Yuen lowered her head.

“Why didn’t you before? Did you have coffee? I told you not to drink that—it’s bad for your health...”

“You moved up a class, right?” the woman asked again.

“Yeah, Mom, I moved my own desk today!” the girl smiled, seeking praise.

“You moved it? It was so heavy—didn’t you ask the teacher for help? What if you strained your arm? You wouldn’t be able to hold a pen for days! Did your teachers not help? I need to talk to your homeroom teacher...”

The girl lowered her head, silent.

The woman habitually checked the girl’s backpack.

“Hu Yuen, where’s your meal card?”

“I... left it in the classroom.”

Suddenly, the atmosphere between mother and daughter froze. The girl gripped the hem of her skirt.

The woman stared, sighed helplessly, furrowing her brows.

“Do you know how much money was on it?”

“That was from Dad...”

“What do you mean ‘your dad gave it to you’? He’s no longer your father!”

“Get in the car!”

“From now on, your phone will be confiscated at night. What do you send on QQ? Why delete your chat logs?”

“Nothing... Mom.”

“...”

On the way home,

“Hey, Jiang Wanfeng, want some Jianlibao?”

“Where’d you get it?”

“The cafeteria owner gave it to me because I look handsome.”

“You should be ashamed to say that.”

Pouting, Jiang Wanfeng took the drink. The last time she drank it was back when she and Jiang Mo were wild kids in the village—felt nostalgic.

But she only sipped a little before Jiang Mo snatched it away.

“Hey! I changed my mind, you can’t have it.”

“What are you doing? I already had some, you—”

Before she finished, Jiang Mo had gulped down the Jianlibao.

“Tastes awful.”

In the blink of an eye, the drink was back in her hands. The girl gave Jiang Mo a resentful look.

“Why are you staring at me like that? I didn’t drink from your mouth.”

Jiang Mo raised an eyebrow and teased:

“Zhengmo, are you thinking naughty thoughts?”

“Just that, that, that… indirect whatever.”

“No way!” The childhood friend glared at him. “I just think it’s gross.”

“Su du jia du? Then why give it back? You secretly want to try my lip balm’s flavor.”

“Get lost, pervert!” The girl kicked Jiang Mo’s butt.

Then, cradling the can, she pressed her red lips to the rim and sipped gently.

She had a habit: before drinking, she would lick the rim first, using her tongue to sense the flavor before deciding whether to drink.

Just now... that guy...

The bubbles in the drink slowly rose and burst on her lips and tongue, tingling pleasantly, coloring much of her cheek red.

Jiang Wanfeng glanced back at Jiang Mo, who was clutching his butt pretending to be in pain, and smiled softly.

“Hey, I won’t hit you anymore. Let’s go home.”

“Oh, what a disappointment.” Jiang Mo dusted the dirt off his pants.

“You’re getting more and more shameless.”

“Can’t help it, moving up a class means morality and ability are inversely proportional.” Jiang Mo said.

“By the way, Hu Yuen moved up too. Did you know?” Jiang Wanfeng probed cautiously.

She was testing him.

Jiang Mo immediately sensed the trap.

If he said no, it would be a lie. If he said yes, she’d question whether he had really cut ties with Hu Yuen.

“Oh, I know, but I don’t care. I’m too busy studying to bother.”

“Is that so... studying?”

“Can I find a woman? I’ve got you, baby.” Jiang Mo put on a lecherous smile and leaned toward Jiang Wanfeng.

“Big scoundrel, get away!”

Successfully dodging the childhood friend’s deadly interrogation.

Back at their rented room, Jiang Wanfeng stayed in her room, saying she’d help organize his review materials and told him to take a shower first.

Jiang Mo didn’t pry.

Tonight he had to lock the door securely; his childhood friend would evolve into a nocturnal beast by midnight, making strange noises that would keep him awake.

They were both high schoolers, but he didn’t want Jiang Wanfeng to become a mother this early.

After washing up, Jiang Mo fired up his old, bulky computer. Though outdated, it could still handle 4399 mini-games.

Then, right on time at eleven o’clock, Kingdom of Rock launched!

It was hard to imagine Li Qingran playing such a game—somewhat surprising.

As soon as he entered the game, a friend request popped up:

[Qingran requests to add you as a friend]

Tears welled up. The class monitor was still alive and well.