MM | Chapter 3

Exam

The sparse lights in the courtyard created patches of light and shadow. Jiang Tian stood in the shadows, tall and with the clean-cut profile typical of a young man, yet not overly thin. He carried his backpack on one shoulder, his thumb hooked on the black strap, looking off to the side.

It wasn’t until Sheng Mingyang pulled his son over that he turned his face, looking as if he had just eaten something sour.

Seeing the other so unhappy, Sheng Wang felt a bit better.

“My fault, really. As an elder, I’ve been negligent. I just found out Xiao Tian is also in Grade 2 Senior at the Affiliated High School. You two are in the same class!” Sheng Mingyang put his arm around his son’s shoulder, pulling Sheng Wang, who was trying to stay put, forward a step. “So, you two have already met today?”

He wasn’t satisfied just interacting with his own son, he even looked up at Jiang Tian, as if expecting a response.

Of course, Jiang Tian ignored him.

In a moment, Jiang Tian had already put away his expression, returning to a cold face, looking at Sheng Wang as if he were a stranger.

“Xiao Tian.” A soft voice called out.

Hearing the gentle voice of a woman, Sheng Wang suddenly remembered that besides Jiang Tian, there was actually someone more important present—

Jiang Ou stood beside her son, dressed simply and elegantly, completely different from what he had imagined. She was tall for a woman, yet still much shorter than Jiang Tian. This contrast made her seem non-threatening, even giving off a gentle and approachable feeling.

She tugged her son’s arm lightly and said softly, “Xiao Tian? Uncle Sheng is asking you a question. You and Xiao Wang are classmates, right? You’ve already met?”

Jiang Tian turned his head away, his brow furrowing briefly, showing a natural impatience and resistance. But in the end, he couldn’t withstand his mother’s gaze. After a moment of stubbornness, he turned back and said coolly, “Slept all day, didn’t notice.”

Sheng Wang thought to himself, what nonsense, you liar.

Continuing this conversation would only make things more awkward, so Sheng Mingyang stepped in to smooth things over.

He chuckled and said, “First day as classmates, it’s normal not to remember everyone’s face. You’ll get familiar with each other over time.”

Jiang Tian looked at him expressionlessly, his thumb sliding on the strap of his backpack, lifting it slightly. He seemed ready to leave at any moment.

Sure enough, he opened his mouth and said in a low voice, “I’ll go first—”

“Please stay and have dinner with your mom first.” Jiang Ou’s voice was gentle yet cautious, almost pleading.

Jiang Tian: “…”

Sheng Wang seemed to see the soul under that skin struggle violently before reluctantly lying back down.

He was enjoying the show with a hint of schadenfreude, but the next moment, he couldn’t laugh anymore because Jiang Ou, having settled her son, turned to smile at him.

It was the first time Sheng Wang got a clear look at this woman’s face, and at the moment she smiled, he suddenly realized she bore a five-point resemblance to his mother.

Maybe the light blurred the lines and contours, or maybe it was the similar dimples at the corners of their mouths.

Or perhaps too much time had passed, and no matter how he tried to hold on, the person in his memory had faded irreversibly, becoming less clear, even starting to overlap with a stranger…

“Xiao Wang?” Jiang Ou called to him uncertainly.

Sheng Wang snapped out of his daze, suddenly losing even the mood to be perfunctory, muttering, “Dad, my stomach hurts, I’m going upstairs.”

“Hey, don’t run, what about dinner?” Sheng Mingyang tried to grab him but missed. “Didn’t we agree on this? Can’t you give your dad this bit of face?”

Sheng Wang squeezed through the door with his backpack, not looking back. “Your son has an exam tomorrow, hasn’t studied a single subject, no time for dinner.”

The housekeeper handed him slippers, and he slipped them on as he went upstairs. At the corner, he couldn’t help but glance out the window. They were still in the courtyard below, with Sheng Mingyang talking to Jiang Ou.

No doubt explaining how his son was spoiled, joking to ease the situation, telling her not to take it to heart.

Jiang Tian was still held by his mother’s arm, unable to leave. He stood indifferently in the shadows, holding his phone in the free hand, scrolling through the screen.

After a few swipes, he seemed to notice something and suddenly looked up towards the upstairs.

Sheng Wang was startled and turned away immediately.

He hung a “Do Not Knock” sign on the doorknob, locked the room, put on his headphones, and turned up the music volume until he couldn’t hear even thunder outside. Only then did he sit down.

The new textbooks were lined up on the desk, and he twirled a pen in his chair.

The phone screen beside him lit up intermittently. After accumulating several messages, he finally reached out to unlock it.

The messages were from his desk mate at the previous school, someone not great at exams but very loyal, with a natural heroic spirit. Sheng Wang often felt he wasn’t there to study, but to join the ranks of heroes. He had connections with everyone from seniors to freshmen.

Eight-leg Crab:

Grade 2 Senior’s final exam papers for math, physics, and chemistry? Why do you need those? Boss, no way… Starting to preview right after summer break?

Eight-leg Crab:

Doesn’t make sense, why do you need final exam papers for previewing?

Eight-leg Crab:

Boss? Reply to me.

Eight-leg Crab:

Sheng-ge?

Eight-leg Crab:

Class Monitor! Fine, if I don’t send the exam images, you won’t even see the messages.

Sheng Wang twirled his pen and typed with one hand—

Canned:

Just saw it.

Eight-leg Crab:

Pretending again. You’re just lazy, even typing a sentence is too much effort. You always wait until you have a bunch of messages to reply all at once.

Eight-leg Crab:

See, you’re doing it again.

Eight-leg Crab:

Alright, you’re the boss, you have the final say. I got the papers for you, one each for math, physics, and chemistry, right? Why don’t you want Chinese and English? Why discriminate against subjects?

Canned:

You’re the one discriminating. How can I cover so much in one night? Have to prioritize.

Eight-leg Crab:

What do you mean? One night? What are you doing? And aren’t you usually too lazy to type and prefer voice messages? What’s up today? You actually typed two sentences.

Sheng Wang clicked his tongue, finally giving up on typing, and sent a voice message: “Because I just arrived at this unlucky school today, and there’s a weekly exam tomorrow, covering all the content of Grade 2 Senior’s first semester. If I don’t cram tonight, I’ll get zeros in all five subjects tomorrow. Chinese and English are left to fate, but I can still struggle with math, physics, and chemistry.”

Eight-leg Crab replied with eight black question mark emojis, then sent the three papers without another word, along with a voice message.

“Wait, I don’t get it. Doing one paper per subject won’t earn you many points, right? They won’t have the exact same questions on the exam.”

Sheng Wang: “Who said I was going to do the papers?”

Eight-leg Crab: “Then what are you going to do?”

Sheng Wang: “I’ll use the papers to highlight key points based on the distribution of marks. The questions vary greatly between provinces, but the key points are somewhat similar. I’ll see which modules have the highest marks and focus on those tonight for better efficiency.”

Eight-leg Crab: “You can do that?”

Sheng Wang: “Like I said, a desperate struggle.”

Eight-leg Crab: “What about the rest?”

Sheng Wang: “Leave it to fate.”

After sending that, the young master suddenly felt a pang of bitterness. After sixteen and a half years of roaming the world, he couldn’t believe there was a day he’d have to rely on luck for an exam.

He thought for a moment and asked Crab, “What’s the guessing formula again?”

Eight-leg Crab: “Hang on, I wrote it on the first page of my notes, I’ll take a picture for you. Wow, it’s a rare sight to see you use a guessing formula, a cause for celebration.”

Past midnight, Sheng Wang finished going through chemistry and physics, his eyes dry and sore, but his stomach was even more so—he was starving.

He paced around the room, checked three snack reserves, and found nothing left. Reluctantly, he opened the door.

As expected, there was a sticky note on the door saying, “There’s washed red grapes in the fridge, matsutake chicken congee is warming in the kitchen, don’t eat anything else at night, it’ll upset your stomach.”

This was left by the housekeeper. Sheng Mingyang often didn’t stay at home, and without parents around, Sheng Wang’s meals were irregular. Whenever he couldn’t get Sheng Wang to open the door, the housekeeper would leave some suitable midnight snacks for him, which became an unspoken agreement over time.

Given Sheng Mingyang’s schedule, he was surely asleep by now.

Sheng Wang didn’t even bother taking off his slippers, quietly going downstairs in his socks. Just as he opened the fridge and stuck his head in to rummage for food, he heard Sheng Mingyang’s low voice from the glass terrace.

He paused, holding the grapes, and crept over. Sheng Mingyang was on the phone, one hand holding the phone, the other pinching his brow, looking extremely tired, but his tone was very gentle.

Sheng Mingyang was saying to the person on the other end, “I checked with the school dormitory, applications can only be made after the official start of school. Xiao Tian wants to stay there, but it might not be possible for now.”

“Yes, it’s better for him to stay here for now.”

“I’d actually be happier if you stayed here long-term. I’ll take Xiao Chen to help you move the day after tomorrow morning. You can tell Xiao Tian that the two sides of this courtyard are symmetrical, each with its own bedroom, living room, and bathroom. He can think of it as the two families co-renting, just sharing the kitchen.”

Sheng Wang choked on a grape, his ears turning red.

He had anticipated that after this dinner, those two would officially move in soon, but he hadn’t expected it to be so quick, so quick that he had three nightmares in one night.

Dreaming of being chased by a blank exam paper, by a dog, by Jiang Tian.

The Affiliated High School’s weekly exam schedule was quite brutal, with five subjects in one day, starting at 7 a.m. and going until 9 p.m. The first subject was math, probably to wake them up.

The proctor stood at the front counting papers, dividing them into several stacks, and handing them to the first desk to pass back. Gao Tianyang, sitting in the front row, took a paper and handed the rest to him, asking, “What are you planning to do?”

Sheng Wang chuckled dryly, “Cold salad. If it doesn’t work, I’ll fill in all Cs for the multiple-choice questions, at least earn a few points as a baseline.”

“You—” Gao Tianyang looked at him, hesitated, and under the proctor’s watchful eyes, silently closed his mouth and sat up straight.

What do you mean?

Sheng Wang was puzzled for a moment, but the next second, he understood why Gao Tianyang had that expression. Because after a quick glance at the paper, he realized…

Math! Didn’t have! Multiple-choice questions!

As he sat there in a daze, his shoulder was suddenly poked twice, and Jiang Tian’s low voice came from behind, “You could also try filling in all Cs for the 14 fill-in-the-blanks.”

“…”

Are you crazy?

Sheng Wang turned to glare at him, “I’ll fill them however I want, what’s it to you? Why did you have to poke me to say that?”

Jiang Tian looked at him and suddenly opened his palm, “I poked you to ask, how long do you plan to hold onto my paper?”

Sheng Wang was stunned, “Oh, forgot.”