MM | Chapter 50

Interference

There were more people staying at school during the National Day holiday than Sheng Wang had expected. He thought it would just be him and Jiang Tian left in the building, but it turned out that five dorm rooms on the sixth floor alone were still occupied, not to mention the third-year students.

The reasons for staying were numerous—some lived far away, others wanted to seize the time to study, which were all quite normal. Then there were the more unusual reasons: like escaping strict family rules, finding freedom at school; or with elders away, taking advantage of the cafeteria…

And some just wanted to experience the holiday campus life. This last reason was a bit peculiar, but there were a few in the neighboring Dorm 602. The students in 602 were from a rather unique class in the second year.

It was well known that the Affiliated High School focused heavily on science, so science classes dominated. Besides those, there were biology classes, regular humanities classes, and one not-so-regular humanities class—the History and Chemistry class.

In Jiangsu, humanities students must choose history, science students must choose physics, and the third elective is up to them. Thus, the rare combination of history and chemistry emerged. Sheng Wang only learned about this after transferring.

Dorm 602 was full of such students. Compared to other humanities students, they had one less subject to memorize—politics. Compared to science students, they had one less subject to grind through—physics. In the Affiliated High School’s environment, they accidentally became the most relaxed students in the grade.

When people are too relaxed, they tend to get mischievous. This mischief somehow aligned with Class A’s vibe, so the two classes, one on the top floor and one on the bottom, became the best of friends across the diagonal of Mingli Building, with frequent interactions among students.

Dorm 602 housed two of Gao Tianyang’s close friends, Mao Xiaobo and Yu Tong. They got along well with Jiang Tian and quickly became Sheng Wang’s buddies during the National Day holiday.

On the first day of the holiday, Old Mao and Tongzi couldn’t sit still and visited three times.

The first visit was at 10 a.m. Both came in with a stack of papers, fake-crying as they entered: “Sheng-ge, Tian-ge, did your class get homework?”

At that moment, Jiang Tian had just returned from the cafeteria with breakfast, and Sheng Wang was leisurely sipping congee. Hearing this, he pointed to the table, indicating they could see for themselves: “Yes, it’s all there.”

Old Mao took a closer look: “Wow, that’s thick! How many sheets?”

Sheng Wang was picking out carrot shreds from the side dish and popped a tender green pea into his mouth. He asked Jiang Tian, “Was it 34 or 36 sheets? I didn’t count, just heard Old Gao shout.”

“36,” Jiang Tian replied.

“How many???” Old Mao thought he misheard.

“36 sheets,” Jiang Tian confirmed.

Old Mao and Tongzi exchanged a glance, stopped crying, and dragged two empty chairs to the table.

Tongzi gave a thumbs up to Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang: “Impressive, truly impressive! With 36 sheets waiting, you two still have time for breakfast? If it were me and Old Mao, we wouldn’t even have time to copy. Didn’t anyone in your class shout when they were handed out?”

Sheng Wang said, “Of course, I shouted. I said anyone who didn’t know would think it was winter break, but I wasn’t in class, so the teacher didn’t hear.”

Old Mao laughed.

“Our class got 19 sheets, about half of yours.” Tongzi respectfully laid his papers on the table. “Can we hang out here today? Maybe basking in the glow of top students will help our problem-solving.”

“Sure,” Sheng Wang agreed cheerfully. “I love having company in misery.”

“You guys have it worse,” Old Mao said politely.

They took out their pens, expecting the two top students to start studying. But after five minutes, Sheng-ge was still picking out those unlucky carrots.

Jiang Tian pushed the steamed dumplings over: “Stop picking, there aren’t any in these.”

“Are you sure?” Sheng Wang skeptically picked one up. “I’ve been meaning to ask, did the Affiliated High School secretly plant a carrot field or something? They fry it every day, it’s in every dish. If only they could sneak meat in like this.”

Old Mao chuckled dryly: “Sneaking in is impossible, but the meat strips are thin enough to thread a needle.”

They waited expectantly, thinking Sheng Wang would be done after two dumplings. But then he took a bite and wrinkled his nose.

Now what…

Tongzi clutched his papers, a bit anxious.

Sheng Wang flipped the half-eaten dumpling over, pointing to a tiny red dot in the filling: “See, it’s everywhere.”

“Did you use your 5.3 vision just for this?” Jiang Tian, with a straight face, pushed his congee box forward, signaling Sheng Wang to pass over the remaining half dumpling.

Tongzi was a bit stunned.

For a moment, he felt like he and Old Mao didn’t quite belong here. But the desire to study suppressed that fleeting intuition.

Sheng Wang seemed a bit surprised too, staring at Jiang Tian’s congee box for a moment before obediently finishing the rest of the dumpling.

He swallowed it, took a sip of warm water, and said, “I already bit it, next time I’ll give you a whole one.”

Jiang Tian raised an eyebrow but didn’t say much, finishing the last bit of congee himself.

Seeing Jiang Tian put away the two boxes, Tongzi and Old Mao exchanged a glance, thinking they were finally done eating. But when they looked up, Sheng Wang had already bitten into an egg tart.

Oh, dear ancestor…

Old Mao and Tongzi were a bit overwhelmed.

Their expressions were so obvious that Sheng Wang hesitated to swallow. After a moment of hesitation, he pointed to the meal box: “You two didn’t have breakfast? Want some?”

Tongzi squeezed out: “No, not hungry, we don’t have the habit of eating breakfast. Finishing the homework is more urgent, we hope to get it done today and go out tomorrow.”

Sheng Wang finally understood why they were in such a hurry, teasingly clapping off the crumbs from his hands: “You guys start first, do you need us to say ‘ready, set, go’?”

Despite his words, he didn’t delay further. He checked his phone for the time and said, “There’s time.”

He packed the meal box into the trash bag, tied it up, and stretched his hands out to Jiang Tian, palms open: “Come on, hand over the papers.”

Jiang Tian got up, walked past the two guests, picked up the thick stack of papers on the table corner, and slapped one heavily into Sheng Wang’s hand.

For over forty minutes, this young master hadn’t left his chair, yet everything was arranged perfectly.

Tongzi looked at Old Mao, asking, “Is this the Tian-ge I know?”

Old Mao shook his head: “No.”

Sheng Wang chuckled, shaking his left foot in his slipper: “Can’t an injured person get some special treatment?”

Tongzi added, “If I sprained my foot, could I get a roommate like this?”

Old Mao replied, “Keep dreaming.”

Jiang Tian, holding the papers, gave each of them a light tap as he passed by, then sat down at the table, setting a timer: “If you keep talking, go back and write yourself.”

The two immediately backed down, saying, “Shutting up, no more talking.”

The entire second-year grade’s progress was about the same, but the depth each class dug into varied. So some of the A class papers overlapped with Old Mao and Tongzi’s homework, which was why they came to hang out—just in case, no, definitely, they couldn’t solve the last two questions, they could borrow the top students’ papers to see. With these two holding up, they wouldn’t suffer too much.

However, they soon realized they were wrong, terribly wrong!

When Jiang Tian set the timer, he tapped the screen. Sheng Wang glanced at it, knocked off two hours, and set it to one and a half.

Tongzi and Old Mao marveled at how top students were top students, always timing their papers like exams, adjusting to the exam duration.

The chemistry exam was 1 hour and 40 minutes, about the same time. So the two of them tacitly pulled out their chemistry papers, only to find Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian had pulled out math papers.

Tongzi, full of question marks, looked at Old Mao, then hurriedly switched to math papers.

Then began the long torture.

Around 1 hour and 15 minutes in, Old Mao and Tongzi were still on the third big question’s first part, while Jiang Tian had already put down his pen.

He flexed his joints, glanced over the paper, and tapped his fingers on the table.

Tongzi and Old Mao looked at him, their expressions a bit anxious. Jiang Tian glanced at them: “It’s not about you.”

Only then did Tongzi and Old Mao bury their heads back into their work.

Sheng Wang pretended to be deaf the whole time, while Jiang Tian calmly placed the unused timer beside Sheng Wang.

This was quite arrogantly annoying. Sheng Wang rolled his eyes, casually grabbed a book to cover the timer, and continued writing the last formula quickly.

When he rushed, his handwriting started to fly.

Jiang Tian, sitting opposite, could tell how ugly it was and couldn’t help but remind him: “Did you practice your handwriting for nothing?”

Sheng Wang paused, reluctantly slowed down, and neatly finished the last line. He put down his pen and pressed the timer, seeing he was 10 minutes slower than Jiang Tian.

Frustrated, Sheng Wang leaned back in his chair, pointing at Jiang Tian after a while: “Freak.”

Jiang Tian didn’t bother arguing with him.

The word varied by person. From Shi Yu’s mouth, it sounded boring; from Sheng Wang’s, it was delightful. The key was whether the speaker was strong enough.

“How much more?” After cursing his brother, Sheng Wang finally remembered to care about the people at the bottom.

But Tongzi and Old Mao didn’t want to be cared for. They were red-faced and neck-veined, finally holding up two fingers: “Two and a half more questions!”

Jiang Tian looked puzzled: “When I finished, you were on the third question, and you’re still on the third question?”

Tongzi lifted his head, and Sheng Wang saw his embarrassed face, deciding to shut Jiang Tian up.

“Stop teasing, look at me.” He snapped his fingers to draw Jiang Tian’s attention, pointing to the timer setting, asking Jiang Tian: “Which one next?”

“Aren’t there three math papers?” Jiang Tian said.

“Alright.” Sheng Wang set a new timer, pulled out a paper, and started working.

Tongzi couldn’t understand: “Don’t you get sick doing three math papers in a row?”

“These two are fine, one is fill-in-the-blank practice, the other is extra questions practice,” Sheng Wang said. “They go fast.”

Tongzi and Old Mao were stuck on the last two math questions, trying at least five different approaches, each dying halfway. By the time they finally figured out the second-to-last question’s first two parts and the last question’s first part, the two top students had finished the fill-in-the-blank practice and were halfway through the extra questions.

Old Mao sighed: “I don’t know if they feel sick, but I want to throw up…”

They borrowed Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian’s completed papers to study for a while. By the time they fully understood, those two had finished the extra questions too.

“Still writing?” Tongzi slumped on the table, half-dead, asking.

Sheng Wang said: “Up to you, we’re definitely writing, over thirty papers.”

Tongzi gritted his teeth: “Then let’s do another chemistry paper.”

He thought to himself, chemistry was only 1 hour and 40 minutes, how much difference could there be? Besides, he was the chemistry class rep in their class, his grades were decent.

This time, Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian didn’t provoke them, setting the timer honestly at 100 minutes. Tongzi and Old Mao set off confidently.

When the timer hit zero, both cursed simultaneously, thinking, confident my foot!

In 100 minutes, they did finish one chemistry paper, but Jiang Tian and Sheng Wang completed two…

They had known Class A was fast, but not this fast!

They originally wanted to bask in the glory of top students, but instead, their psychological defenses collapsed. Tongzi quickly packed his papers, saluted them, and said: “Farewell.”

Sheng Wang couldn’t help but laugh: “Really leaving? Not doing your homework?”

Old Mao said: “Leaving, or we’ll lose our lives.”

The two ran off like refugees, leaving Sheng Wang and Jiang Tian staring at each other.

Sheng Wang shook the English paper he had just taken out, asking Jiang Tian: “Still writing? Are you hungry?”

“Not hungry, breakfast was too late,” Jiang Tian said.

Sheng Wang rubbed his nose with his knuckles, a bit sheepish. Breakfast was late because he played dead in bed, refusing to get up no matter how Jiang Tian tried, stubbornly sleeping in until almost 10.

“How about we finish English and then find something to eat?” he tentatively asked.

Jiang Tian nodded, agreeing.

With the crowd gone, Sheng Wang didn’t set the timer. He and Jiang Tian were about the same speed, only getting faster, not unconsciously slowing down.

He glanced at the start time, then lowered his head to work on the questions.

English was almost a given; he finished before Jiang Tian, making up for his loss in math. If Jiang Tian’s placing the phone screen by his hand was a subtle interference, then he was openly provocative.

He mimicked Jiang Tian, tapping his fingers on the table. Across from him, Jiang Tian didn’t even lift an eyelid. His fingers imitated walking, crawling a bit forward on the table, tapping a few more times.

Jiang Tian still ignored him.

Sheng Wang’s fingers crawled further, directly pressing on the opposite paper, tapping several times. If Jiang Tian could still ignore this interference, he’d have to be blind.

Jiang Tian finally reacted.

His right hand kept writing options, while his left hand pushed against Sheng Wang’s meddling fingers. After two pushes didn’t work, he simply covered the entire hand.

Sheng Wang was taken aback.

Jiang Tian’s palm covered the back of his hand, long fingers resting on his wrist bone, feeling a bit cool.

He looked down at the hand, the smile on his lips slowly fading. The skin’s touch suddenly became extremely sensitive. He instinctively wanted to pull his hand back, but for some reason, he didn’t move.

Jiang Tian seemed to sense the momentary oddity. Sheng Wang saw him pause his pen, his gaze flicking to the side, seemingly glancing at their hands.

For a second or two, neither of them moved.

After a moment, Jiang Tian seemed to snap back to reality, withdrawing his hand.

He flexed his knuckles, put down his pen, and said, “I’m done.”