Back in his own body, Xia Yu yawned.
“After this class, you can all go on vacation. Could you at least give me a bit of face in these final moments?” the Chinese teacher said, looking at Xia Yu.
“Teacher, you yourself just yawned too!” Gui Zixiao pointed out, accusing the Chinese teacher. The classmates in the classroom echoed him.
The Chinese teacher defended himself, saying that opening one’s mouth didn’t count as yawning, and that scholars opening their mouths didn’t mean they were tired. The classroom was filled with a joyful atmosphere.
After chatting with the students for a few moments, the Chinese teacher no longer felt like continuing class. He placed his Chinese textbook on the podium and began telling the class about the time he and the principal went to eat lion’s waist at the finals of the musical instrument competition.
He kept talking until the end of the class, still feeling somewhat reluctant: “How about we extend class for a few minutes? I’ll tell you about the time the principal and I stayed at a hotel.”
The students hurriedly refused.
With regret, the Chinese teacher walked out of the classroom.
“Vacation time!” The students cheered.
Today was January 25th, the day for winter break.
As for why the vacation date wasn’t scheduled after exams but instead after attending class for a few days, it was because in this world, students attended class for three more days after the exams while waiting for the results to come out before going on vacation.
During these three days, teachers who didn’t have to grade exams would be busy, while teachers who didn’t grade exams would casually give lessons, mostly self-study.
Xia Yu didn’t rush to leave school. First, he used his phone to log into the school forum and checked the ranking list.
His name appeared at the fifteenth place in the class.
This semester, Xia Yu had barely attended class, yet he still managed to rank fifteenth, which surprised him a bit.
Perhaps it was because he had attended some classes with An Siyao, plus his previous top-ten foundation.
“Hahaha, my ranking is higher than yours!” Gui Zixiao looked pleased.
He ranked fourteenth in the class.
Achieving such a good result for the first time and surpassing Xia Yu excited Gui Zixiao.
Although his score wasn’t achieved independently, the score and ranking were his own.
He patted Xia Yu’s shoulder again: “You’re not good enough. This time I actually caught up with you. I actually ranked ahead of you, hahaha.”
Xia Yu wasn’t annoyed. He smiled at Gui Zixiao and said, “But I have a recommendation from Huada.”
Gui Zixiao’s smile immediately froze, turning into an expression of ten consecutive gacha pulls without success.
He withdrew his hand from Xia Yu’s shoulder, feeling somewhat like hitting someone.
At that moment, he heard the discussions of nearby classmates.
“I actually made it into the top ten this time. Oh, it’s because Xia Yu dropped down.” A bespectacled boy pushed up his glasses.
“Previously always sixth or seventh, this time he dropped quite a bit.” A fat boy echoed.
Both of their faces showed smiles. Xia Yu had recently almost become the topic of discussion among most female students in the school and was marked as an enemy by most male students.
“He dropped too fast,” the two said with smiles, sighing.
Hearing this, Gui Zixiao knew the opportunity had come.
He couldn’t bear the pain alone; he wanted the whole world to feel the pain!
He turned around and said to the two, “However, Xia Yu has a Huada recommendation.”
Their smiles froze, showing the same expression as Gui Zixiao before.
Pain could be transferred, and having successfully shifted the pain, Gui Zixiao became happy again.
The two boys exchanged glances, feeling that they couldn’t keep such joyful news to themselves. They wanted others to share in this joy as well.
They patted a classmate on the shoulder: “Xia Yu dropped from sixth place to fifteenth this time.”
“Oh, he dropped really badly. My ranking even went up five places!” The classmate being addressed became happy.
“However, he has a Huada recommendation,” the bespectacled boy said.
“He can get into Huada even if he scores last place. Even if you move up twenty places and become first in the class, you still can’t get into Huada!” the fat boy added.
The classmate’s face, which had been smiling, no longer showed joy.
Feeling somewhat uncomfortable for a moment, he decided he couldn’t bear the pain alone. He then tapped his friend on the shoulder.
“Did you see that? Xia Yu’s ranking dropped nine places this time!”
…
When Xia Yu had packed up his things and was on the subway, Gui Zixiao excitedly sent him a link.
Clicking on the link, Xia Yu saw a post on the school forum.
The title of the post was:
‘Shocking! A certain sentence makes normal people happy halfway through, but causes pain after hearing it all!’
The body of the post read:
“Whoever came up with the idea of Xia Yu’s decline while still getting into Huada is a bastard. I’m so sad I could die. You could have just said it all at once, but instead you told the first half to make me happy, and then told the second half to crush me when you saw me happy. Are you a devil!”
“Is there anyone else who was tricked like me?”
Below were many replies saying “Same here.”
In addition, there were some accounts condemning them for being happy. They said that if they had felt the sadness upon hearing the first half like they did, they would have felt joy upon hearing the second half.
Most of these accounts were female.
One female account even created a special post analyzing the reasons for Xia Yu’s recent decline, blaming it all on the competition.
“Isn’t it already amazing that Xia Yu is still ranked fifteenth? He won second place in the district competition previously. Do you know how hard he worked? Standing out among competitors from the entire district, do you know how much pressure he endured? If you don’t believe me, check the screenshots. From the first one, we can see through Xia Yu’s slightly furrowed brows that…”
A series of comments expressing sympathy followed.
“…”
I didn’t know I was so hardworking!
In reality, because of the experience card, compared to other competitors, Xia Yu could be said to have barely practiced at all.
Only when learning the guzheng pieces was it slightly strenuous.
His decline in grades was simply because he had a Huada recommendation and therefore didn’t want to work hard anymore, having nothing to do with the competition.
As for that photo analysis, it looked convincing at first glance but was actually full of errors throughout, drawing conclusions first and then forcibly connecting the dots.
He could only sigh at how truly skilled these girls were at making things up.
After replying to the shocking post, identifying the instigator as Gui Zixiao, Xia Yu put his phone back into his pocket.
After getting off the subway, he walked toward the corner coffee shop. Today was his last day of work, and the day after tomorrow he would return to his hometown with Kong Hanyue.
He probably wouldn’t continue working until after the New Year.
The second place in the musical instrument competition came with a prize of 500,000 yuan after tax. Now he was no longer short of money. He had continued working for over a month just to repay the store manager for his previous kindness.
Turning the corner, Xia Yu was surprised to find the shop door tightly closed.
“Xia Yu.” The young store manager’s voice came from behind Xia Yu.
Looking behind, Xia Yu saw a man dressed in a suit, his hair neatly combed, and wearing a pair of gold-rimmed glasses—an image of a successful man.
“Manager?” Xia Yu was even more surprised than seeing the closed shop door.
“Yes, it’s me.” The manager was now leaning against the door of a black car.
The car was grand and steady, perfectly matching his current attire.
Adjusting his tie, the manager’s expression turned sorrowful: “I have to go back to take over the family business. This shop won’t be open anymore.”
He then looked at Xia Yu with a hopeful gaze: “How about I give you the shop?”
Xia Yu hurriedly waved his hands in refusal. Although most of the time he played the piano in the shop, it was actually Tuo Gu, but he didn’t want to continue anyway.
“Sigh, then it’s settled. I’ll give you my apartment. This month’s salary will be considered rent. You can stay as long as you like.” Without waiting for Xia Yu to say anything else, the manager got into the car.
Xia Yu raised his hand, but before he could speak, the manager had already driven away.
Lowering his hand, Xia Yu sighed: “But you already paid me this month’s salary yesterday.”
Looking back at the shop, Xia Yu turned and went home.
Just as he opened the door, Xia Yu heard the lively sounds.
It was Yan Wei and Yan Li coming over to play.
They were playing on the PS4. After receiving the prize money, Xia Yu’s second purchase was this console.
Seeing Xia Yu, Yan Wei became somewhat nervous. The character she was controlling was instantly defeated by You Xue.
Handing the controller to her younger sister Yan Li, Yan Wei summoned her courage and approached Xia Yu.
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