Stop Chasing the School Belle, My Shy Deskmate is Sweet and Soft - Chapter 47

After bidding farewell to Ye Ningyu, Xia Tian waited until he saw the light in her room turn on before he finally rode his bicycle home.

As he pedaled, his mind lingered on the names he’d heard that night.

“Duang Yingying, Bai He, Yang Yue…”

He muttered the names to himself, his face showing no emotion, his voice flat and unreadable.

When he arrived home, his parents, Chen Meijuan and Xia Zhengguo, were sitting on the couch watching a TV drama.

“Dad, Mom, I’m home.”

“I feel like you’ve been coming home later than usual these days. Have you been hanging out with Fang Yu again on your way back?” Chen Meijuan glanced at the clock on the wall, her brows furrowing.

Ever since last week, Xia Tian had been getting home nearly an hour later than usual.

Xia Tian rolled his eyes and quickly came up with an excuse. “Oh, come on! I haven’t been goofing around with Fang Yu. I’ve been staying late at school, studying after evening self-study.”

“Pfft, yeah right! If you were really that serious about studying, I’d be thanking the heavens!”

“You’ll see, Mom! We just got our mock exam results today! When you see my scores, you’ll know I’m not lying.”

With that, Xia Tian pulled his answer sheets from evening self-study out of his backpack.

Chen Meijuan eyed him skeptically but accepted the answer sheets, grumbling under her breath, “Let’s see how low you ranked this time…”

The first answer sheet she looked at was for Chinese.

At first glance, she didn’t seem overly impressed. “Not bad, brat. You scored ten points higher than last time in Chinese… But your science score is 138? Tsk, you didn’t even score half the total. And you say you’ve been studying hard?”

She glared at Xia Tian when she saw his science score.

But as she flipped to the next answer sheet, her body froze.

“Math… 149?!”

“English… 150?!”

“Old Xia! Old Xia, come over here quick and take a look! Am I seeing things wrong? Oh my god!”

Chen Meijuan’s eyes widened in shock as she stared at the answer sheet, immediately calling for Xia Zhengguo.

Xia Zhengguo walked over and peered at the papers, his eyes widening just as much.

After a long pause, he slowly lifted his head, his expression complicated as he turned to Xia Tian. “Little Tian, be honest with your dad—did they change the total score for math and English to 500 points each this time?”

Xia Tian’s jaw dropped slightly, his eyes full of astonishment.

This is my dad?

You’d rather believe the total score’s been changed to 500 points than believe I aced the exams?

“Dad, the total score for mock exams is the same as the college entrance exams! There’s no way it’s 500 points!”

When Chen Meijuan heard this, a loud “Oh my god!” echoed through the living room.

“Ohhhh, my good son, are you serious?! This is really your score?!”

“It’s all there in black and white. Do you still doubt it? If you don’t believe me, you can call my homeroom teacher right now and ask him.”

Taking Xia Tian’s suggestion, Chen Meijuan immediately slipped on her slippers and rushed to the bedroom to grab her phone. She dialed Wang Qingshan’s number without hesitation.

A short while later, the sound of her voice rang out from the bedroom.

“What? Mr. Wang, you must be joking! Xia Tian scored tenth in his class and 100th in the entire grade?”

“Oh, haha, you’re too kind! It’s all thanks to your excellent teaching that Xia Tian was able to score so high!”

“When are you free? Our family would love to treat you to a meal!”

“Oh, no need to be so polite, Mr. Wang. You have a good night now!”

Moments later, Chen Meijuan hurried back into the living room, her face lit up with a beaming smile she couldn’t hide.

“My good son, oh, you’ve made your mother so proud! You actually scored tenth in your class!”

“I’ve always known my son was destined to excel academically! Tomorrow, come home for lunch, and I’ll make you some sweet and sour pork!”

After confirming the news with Wang Qingshan, the way Chen Meijuan looked at Xia Tian was filled with nothing but admiration.

She couldn’t get enough of her son now.

“Old Xia, why are you just standing there? Go wash an apple for our precious son! Come here, Little Tian, tell Mom how you managed to do so well this time! Ah, my wonderful son!”

Chen Meijuan practically dragged Xia Tian to the couch, her face glowing with pride.

Seeing how excited his wife was, Xia Zhengguo could only shake his head and smile.

Still, watching Xia Tian’s confident demeanor filled him with pride as well.

What parent wouldn’t want to see their child come home with perfect scores?

Xia Zhengguo was no different.

Xia Tian was happy to sit on the couch and humor his mother, boasting about his achievements.

But deep down, he felt a pang of emotion.

It turned out,

All it took was achieving a decent score to make his parents this happy.

—

Time passed quickly, and soon it was Friday afternoon after school.

Xia Tian had about 1,500 yuan left from his last venture and was planning to meet up with Fang Yu after school to earn his second round of money.

This time, his goal was to turn that 1,500 into 10,000 yuan.

Only by doing so could he accelerate his ability to make money, ultimately launching himself into even bigger opportunities.

“Little Ye, I won’t be able to walk you home this afternoon. Fang Yu and I have some business to take care of,” Xia Tian said.

“Mm-hmm… Well, if you run into any difficult science questions over the weekend, be sure to send them to me on QQ,” Ye Ningyu replied softly.

“Got it, Teacher Ye.”

Xia Tian smiled and playfully patted Little Ye’s head, feeling a sense of satisfaction.

At long last, she had finally asked him to contact her first.

After saying goodbye to Ye Ningyu, Xia Tian headed over to the neighboring class to find Fang Yu.

“Godfather, judging by that look on your face, are we about to earn some extra cash again?”

“A student worth teaching…” Xia Tian grinned and walked with Fang Yu toward the bike racks to grab their bicycles.

On the way, Fang Yu couldn’t contain his excitement. “Little Tian, I moved up twenty places in the grade rankings this time! I’m finally in the top 200! How’s that for awesome?”

“Yeah, that’s great.”

“What about you? How’d you do this time?”

“100th place.”

Fang Yu’s expression faltered, but he patted Xia Tian on the shoulder sympathetically. “Don’t worry, Little Tian. Even though you ranked 100th from the bottom, that’s still progress! You’ve managed to move out of the bottom fifty, so your hard work is paying off. Just keep it up!”

Xia Tian gave Fang Yu a strange look. “What’s wrong with you? Who said I was 100th from the bottom?”

“Huh? You said you were 100th…”

“100th from the top.”

“…?”