Episode 30: The Beginning of the Split

  Biology class.

  A slightly tongue-tied biology teacher was lecturing unclearly about the process of cell division and reproduction. The child's drawing was a bit distracted, listening to this basic knowledge that had been repeated countless times by the teacher.

  The gloomy weather and the muffled, indistinct voice made her drowsy. She forced herself to stay awake, lifted her eyelids to glance at Xiaomi, but found that she seemed not sleepy at all, intently watching the teacher's explanation on the blackboard.

  Tonghua forced herself to sit up straight in the midst of her drowsiness, even Tong Xiaomi was studying diligently, how could she relax? Moreover, everyone is now working hard with great ambition.

  The classroom has been shrouded in gloom since the mid-term exam results were announced. Even though we knew the difficulty had increased, every test paper that came out showed scores lower than our usual grades by several tens of points, which was still unacceptable. This exam gave everyone a severe wake-up call, driving us to work even harder.

  Her mood is very complicated. Her ranking has risen, but this exam also highlighted her strengths and weaknesses. She was able to rise in the rankings solely because of her high scores in language and foreign languages. Math was average, and science was dismal. Those questions that tested knowledge foundation, she did poorly on all of them. What's meant by doing poorly is not just miscalculations or wrong answers, but also having an entirely incorrect approach to solving problems. Xiaomi and Nijiao didn't do well either, but when Tonghua looked at their answers, at least they had the right entry point for solving problems and could list out appropriate formulas, only getting stuck on later calculations or hidden conditions in the questions.

  It's clear she isn't cut out for science.

  Although she didn't particularly like physical chemistry, the thought of going to study liberal arts still made her feel a little sad. She had put in a lot of effort into physics and chemistry, but it seemed that it was all for nothing now that she would be studying liberal arts in the future. It felt as if all her hard work would lose its meaning completely. And she would definitely have to leave this class too. It felt like being eliminated. Was it because she wasn't good at science, and so got eliminated by science, that's why she went to study liberal arts? The reality seemed to be just that...

  With such a depressed mood, she couldn't even muster the spirit to study chemistry. Sometimes, she even felt that her teacher's gaze was telling her "you don't need to try too hard, you should just focus on liberal arts instead."

  A little regretful, somewhat resentful, a lot of heartache.

  I wonder if there's anyone who would choose liberal arts with her?

  Xia Yi... with grades as good as his, he should continue studying science...

  Should I still stick with it and grit my teeth in the science class...?

  Very perplexed, very confused, very annoyed, why must we have academic divisions?!

  The fragrant canteen at noon, Ni Qiao held a tray of dishes and turned around to search for an empty seat in the hall. Seeing two figures, her face stiffened, and she twitched the corner of her mouth, saying: "What are those two idiots doing?"

  Aiken, who was following her, looked over in the direction she was looking and chuckled: "Feeding time."

  Han Qi clutched the small rice bowl in his arm, grasped her two hands with one hand and pinched chopsticks close to her scrunched up brow, leaving her nowhere to escape.

  "Be obedient."

  "I don't want to eat pig liver anymore!"

  "Do you want me to feed you by mouth?"

  "Waaaahhhh..."

  Ni Qiao and Ai Jin looked at the obedient Xiami eating the pig liver on the chopsticks with disdain, and looked at Han Qi's triumphant face with a bad smile.

  "Kid, one should be low-key!" Nian Qiao sat down opposite the pair of idiots, giving them a displeased glance. Geez, this is in the cafeteria, can't you let people eat their meal?

  "Don't look if it's not decent, anyone who isn't an idiot knows that." Han Qi said with a gun and stick in his mouth, without even giving her a glance, and then pinched another celery to continue feeding.

  "Waaah, I'll eat it myself!" Xiaomi looked at the approaching celery and made a demand for growing up independently.

  Eat by yourself? Pick and choose the dishes you like, then say you're full? Han Qi stared at Xiao Mi without a word, and the latter opened his mouth honestly with a guilty conscience.

  "Wow, my boyfriend has become a dad, so versatile!" Ai Jin sat beside Nai Qiao with a sly smile.

  Han Qi gave her a sideways glance. Dad is just dad, he would even feed him if she called him grandpa! If she had treated her as "dad" for a few years earlier, she wouldn't have developed so poorly either.

  Her eyes automatically filtered out things she didn't want to see, and Nian Qiao looked at Xiao Mi: "Xiao Mi, what's wrong with Tong Hua lately? She's been frowning all day, and this morning I borrowed a pencil from her, but she gave me a stinky face." After finishing speaking, she pouted slightly.

  "Isn't Lin Daiyu always like that?" Ai Jin said with her mouth full of food, speaking casually.

  "I don't know either, seems like I'm not in a good mood. It's been like this since the spring outing...". Was abruptly stuffed with food.

  "Has she reached puberty?" Han Qi made a somewhat unseemly guess.

  "Sigh, it's really depressing. I was already in a bad mood after the exam, and looking at her gloomy face makes me feel even more suffocated." Nian Qiao complained as she poked at the food on her plate.

  "I think she doesn't like us," Akin said bluntly.

  "Why?" Xiao Mi asked in surprise.

  "I don't know, it just feels that way." Aikin shrugged.

  Ni Qiao pursed her lips, she also had this feeling, "What did we do to offend her?"

  Two girls shook their heads simultaneously, indicating they didn't know.

  Ni Qiao silently started eating. Her mind began to recall the events of that spring outing day. At first, she felt carsick and uncomfortable, without being forced to join in the fun, later on her face looked more and more unhappy, it was clear that she was not having a good time. Later on, she said she wanted to rest, staying behind alone, then Xia Yi also...

  Is it easy in summer?

  What's going on with these two?

  Thank you for your patience, if you like it, don't forget to vote/collection oh~