Although she was a little extremely lopsided in her studies.
"Tch..."
Kiana was unconvinced, but then she noticed Bai Yan wink at her.
What did that mean?
After thinking for a moment... right, she had helped her just now, and that look seemed rather friendly too.
She would ask her about it later!
Kiana gave a subtle nod without changing her expression; Bai Yan quickly smiled and nodded back.
Their mutual understanding needed no words.
The two followed Himeko back to the dormitory. The last room was assigned to Bai Yan.
After explaining a few things, Himeko left the dormitory to deal with other matters concerning the new students. Before leaving, she warned Kiana not to try anything clever.
Kiana tiptoed to the entryway and peered out through the door. Only after confirming that Himeko had gone far away did she swagger back to her room.
"Student Kiana, how long have you been here?"
"A month or so longer than you—why do you ask?"
"Do you know the area well? Especially the walls..."
Kiana narrowed her eyes, but a mischievous smile appeared at the corners of her lips.
"I thought you were an honor student..."
"I am. That doesn't conflict with liking to go out and have fun."
"..."
She knew that students like Bai Yan generally received special treatment. It was just climbing a wall, after all. Auntie and Auntie Himeko would probably turn a blind eye... how enviable.
Without realizing it, she gazed at Bai Yan eagerly, yet had no idea how to bring it up.
Mei had helped her with her homework once before, but she had said that would be the last time and that she would never help again.
Besides, Auntie Himeko had probably anticipated this and would likely quiz her on the questions...
Kiana wilted again.
Seeing this, Bai Yan cleared her throat twice. "I can't help you write it... but do you want to try a few crash-course tricks?"
The next instant, Kiana seemed to see hope and perked right back up.
"What tricks?!"
Strictly speaking, they were not really tricks. The key was that Himeko's expectations for Kiana were low enough.
Bai Yan casually glanced over Kiana's homework and instantly activated her instincts as a small-town test-taking prodigy.
Difficulty tiers, start recalling calculations, logical coupling... excellent!
"Come on, Student Kiana. First understand the solution process I wrote down, then recite it and do it once yourself. I'll step out for a moment and be right back."
"Huh? Where are you going?"
Kiana stretched out a hand dramatically, but Bai Yan had already disappeared through the doorway.
She sat down dejectedly. Just thinking about homework gave her a headache.
Himeko had discovered that her foundation in academic subjects was terribly poor, which was why she had specially prepared "pre-school tutoring" for her.
Its effects had been a little extremely poor.
Mei had helped once, but they were quickly caught. She had just been warned by Himeko too, and now Kiana had no options left.
Her attention returned to the homework.
The handwriting was neat and elegant. If not for the content on the white paper giving it away, people might have mistaken it for a calligraphy copybook.
"Huh? Looking at it this way, it seems like I know how to do it."
"This one isn't that hard either!"
"I need to look this question up... wow, she even wrote down which page to check!"
At first, her brows danced with delight. Halfway through, she began to frown, and in the end, her face was full of bitterness.
"Aaaah! I obviously knew how to do these before!"
Halfway through, she got stuck.
And this was already Himeko going easy on her.
Tap, tap, tap—
Bai Yan happened to return to the dormitory, carrying a pile of snacks in her arms.
Kiana immediately tossed aside her pen and sprang forward, darting in front of Bai Yan.
Bai Yan had been prepared. With a gorgeous spin, she evaded the hungry bug pouncing on food.
"Is there any for me?" she asked expectantly.
"Only Student Kiana who finishes her homework gets any."
"Ugh—"
"Come on, let me see how you've done."
"Okay, okay..."
Bai Yan took one look and silently shook her head.
The problem probably was not the Kaslana bloodline, because Dumb Goose was actually excellent in academic subjects.
It could not possibly be the Saniate bloodline either, because neither Anna nor Cecilia was stupid. Otherwise, they could not have become A-rank and S-rank Valkyries.
So the problem lay with the pufferfish.
She set down the steaming milk tea, casually scribbled over the homework, deducted the incorrect portions, and Kiana ended up with a score of just over forty.
Bai Yan looked over the first half, then selected several questions whose knowledge points overlapped most with the parts Kiana had answered correctly.
She tapped the paper. "Master these, and the snacks are yours—after you're done, remember to take care of me."
"Really?"
"Of course."
At this moment, Kiana's gaze at Bai Yan was already full of delight.
She was pretty, her voice was pleasant, her personality was so nice, and she did not tug on Kiana's ears!
She imagined how Himeko, Mei, and little Bronya would react when they discovered she was terrible at studying...
Kiana could not help but feel a faint resentment rise in her heart.
Then she looked at what was before her: the temptation of food, explanations from an academic genius, and hobbies that happened to align.
Maybe this was fate.
"Xiao Yan, you're so nice. Unlike them, always saying I'm stupid..."
"It's only natural. You'll get used to it," Bai Yan paused. "But I think Kiana isn't stupid at all."
"Exactly!"
Kiana gritted her teeth. "I'll definitely make them see me in a new light."
She glanced at the pile of snacks again and silently resolved to fight the difficulties before her to the bitter end.
Then, in the tenth minute, she got a GG.
If the foundation was weak, the whole building would shake.
If it had been Himeko or another teacher, their blood pressure would have shot through the roof by now.
But Bai Yan was different, because neither her mindset nor her true objective lay in this area.
If Kiana could not learn it, Bai Yan gained chances to spend time with her; if Kiana learned it, Bai Yan gained favorability.
She could never lose.
Then Bai Yan demonstrated what a former veteran one-on-one tutoring teacher was capable of.
With only a few minor adjustments and corrections, the material in the textbooks could become something even a grasshopper could understand.
After quite some time, Kiana collapsed weakly onto the desk.
"Ah—That was way too hard!"
Then she seemed to remember something. She suddenly came back to life, raised her head, grabbed a bag of chips, and began stuffing her face.
"Crunch, crunch, crunch. Xiao Yan, let's go out and have fun together later!"
"Sure, sure."
Kiana planned to satisfy her cravings first, then take her homework to Himeko and let her get a good look at her results.
Just as she was about to leave, a purple-haired girl stormed in angrily.
She had clearly heard the key words "go out and have fun."
"Kiana, you're fooling around again!"
"I!" Kiana immediately grew anxious at those words. Just as she was about to stand up, Bai Yan calmly pressed her back down.
Bai Yan took a sip of milk tea and gave Raiden Mei an appraising glance.
The latter returned her gaze and happened to notice the hand resting on Kiana's shoulder.
As well as Kiana's obediently restrained appearance after being stopped.
Raiden Mei's gaze hardened, and a trace of hostility arose within her.
—Your white moonlight was doing whatever another woman told her to.
She had only lightly patted her white moonlight on the shoulder, yet Kiana had stopped being impulsive and instead wore a smug expression.
Kiana said smugly, "Mei, I wasn't fooling around. I finished Auntie Himeko—Teacher's assignment."
"Ahem." Bai Yan cleared her throat twice.
"Oh, right. I'm going to Teacher Himeko right now and letting her test me however she wants. Hmph, hmph."
Kiana stuffed the last small handful of chips into her mouth, grabbed her homework, and ran out the door.
"Wait for me to come back!"
Bang!
The door shut.
After Kiana left, the purple-haired girl sat in her seat.
"Raiden Mei."
"Bai Yan."
She silently sized the other up.
Bai Yan was sizing her up as well. She felt a little regretful that Raiden Mei had already sat down, preventing her from properly admiring her supermodel figure.
To get close to Kiana, Raiden Mei was an obstacle she could not avoid.
But from the looks of it, Raiden Mei did not have a very good impression of her.
After all, who would like someone else competing with them for their white moonlight?
"Taking shortcuts will only harm Kiana."
"Teacher Himeko will be able to tell whether she's taking shortcuts. On the contrary, if we can't find a scientific and reasonable method, wasting Kiana's potential and talent would be what truly harms her."
Raiden Mei's momentum weakened.
She had once been the young miss of ME Corp. Although she had endured hardship, she had never truly experienced the life of a relentless grinder.
Bai Yan had not originally been a relentless grinder either, but she had once had a grinder of a boss. It was impossible not to improve.
Before you continue