Zhang Yahan

Calling it a supernatural event would be a bit of an exaggeration, but seeing Huang Haobing and the other kids staying indoors writing test papers during summer break instead of going out to play was almost as strange.

In the Huang Family, there were about seven or eight children around Jiaming's age. Some relatives had also sent their kids to the big city for the summer, bringing the total to over a dozen. At that moment, most of them were gathered around the long dining table, writing what looked like test papers. Among the three adults supervising, one was Huang Bingxing, whom Jiaming had to call Third Uncle. The other two were a man and a woman in their early twenties. The man was Huang Bingxing's son, Huang Haoyun, a textbook example of the Huang Family's spoiled rich kids. Usually never home, he threw his family's weight around outside, always hanging out with other young masters of the same ilk.

Right now, though, Huang Haoyun seemed quite well-behaved, a broad smile plastered on his face. The reason was naturally the girl beside him. She looked about twenty, wore a pair of narrow-rimmed glasses, and exuded an intellectual beauty. Though a faint smile hung at the corners of her mouth, Jiaming could tell she was actually quite annoyed by the young master constantly chattering beside her. Smiling to himself, he was about to head back to his room when Huang Bingxing called out to him.

"Jiaming. Hold on."

"Third Uncle?"

"Put your things down and come out to take a test later."

"Oh." Jiaming took the travel bag he'd bought back to his room. When he came out, he learned that the beautiful woman was named Zhang Yahan. Her family held considerable status in Jianghai City. She'd just returned from studying abroad at Cambridge and was preparing to teach at the newly built Noble High School in Jianghai City. Her visit was likely to assess the quality of children who might enter the noble academy. On the other hand, Huang Haoyun seemed quite taken with her, and Huang Bingxing naturally wanted to use this opportunity to promote a marriage alliance between the two families.

Jiaming could deduce these aristocratic family dynamics from a few snippets of conversation. After confirming he'd just graduated elementary school, Zhang Yahan picked out a test paper for him. He could faintly hear Huang Haoyun saying on the side, "His grades have never been good..."

Smiling inwardly, Jiaming pretended to struggle, biting the pen for a long time before answering, to show the questions were hard. He always kept his scores hovering around sixty or seventy percent, so this time he answered just enough to get over sixty points—passing was fine.

Around the right time, Lingjing ran in to find him. After handing in the test, the two left together for the martial arts school. During the test, Jiaming had noticed Huang Haoyun's gaze drifting toward Lingjing several times. Lingjing was already thirteen, and girls develop early—she was now half a head taller than Jiaming, a little beauty anyone would take a liking to. Jiaming understood exactly what that look in Huang Haoyun's eyes meant. Though nothing serious would happen yet, he was already privately considering whether to slip the guy some medicine tonight to make him permanently impotent, nipping future trouble in the bud.

After dinner at the martial arts school, while watching TV, Jiaming casually asked Lingjing a few questions. When she could only answer a little, he realized something was wrong. For Jiaming, controlling his test scores was simple, but confirming the difficulty of the test wasn't. After secretly skimming through high school curriculum, both high school and elementary material felt equally easy to him. Could it be that the test questions were all hard? Thinking this, he sensed trouble.

By the time they returned to the villa, it was nine o'clock. The hall was brightly lit. Several of the Huang Family elders staying there were entertaining the Cambridge returnee. Asking Butler Bai, he learned Miss Zhang would stay the night. Several people, including Huang Bingxing, seemed very interested in the marriage alliance between the two families.

As he passed by the hall, Zhang Yahan glanced at him deliberately, and Jiaming knew things were indeed troublesome. Sure enough, not long after he returned to his room, a knock came at the door.

"Who is it? I'm going to sleep."

"It's Sister Yahan from today. They said you don't sleep this early. Are you really asleep?"

Sister Yahan... how nauseating. Jiaming sighed helplessly, walked over, and opened the door. "Something up?"

"Can I come in?"

"Oh."

He stepped aside, glanced around his room, and felt a slight headache. His room was simple enough: just a chair, desk, bed, a stack of books in the corner, the baseball bat Huaisha had given him propped up, and a mess on the desk with a disassembled radio sitting there. His vigilance had slipped over the years, and he hadn't had time to put things away, but it was only half-assembled—surely no one could guess he was reviewing how to make bombs.

Looking at the radio on the desk, Zhang Yahan smiled sweetly. "Jiaming, you can fix things like this yourself? That's amazing."

Jiaming's heart stirred, then he closed the door and flopped lazily onto the bed. "Just a little thing. I took it apart to look. Please don't talk to me in that baby voice. It's disgusting."

Though the era of Young and Dangerous hadn't arrived yet, there were plenty of thugs and punks outside. Putting on this act, Jiaming saw Zhang Yahan frown, then she smiled. "I asked around. They all said you hang out with thugs, your grades are terrible, and you just barely pass. But you passed this time too... Here's your test paper. I grabbed the wrong one earlier—this was actually a practice test for middle school graduates..."

Jiaming chuckled inwardly, took the test paper, glanced at it, and tossed it aside. "Even guessing randomly got me a passing grade, and it's for middle schoolers? Also, out here, we stick together. You badmouth my friends, I don't want to talk to you. Get out! Waiting for Brother Haoyun to sleep with you?"

"How can you be such a..." Zhang Yahan's face flushed. "There's nothing between me and Huang Haoyun. You..."

"None of my business," Jiaming muttered. Zhang Yahan was clearly furious at this unreasonable behavior and lost any desire to keep probing. She said, "Good night," and stormed out.

The next day, when Zhang Yahan left the Huang Family, Jiaming was already at the martial arts school, or he'd have gotten a few dirty looks. A few days later, the summer camp finally began. That morning, the three of them didn't go running. Each carrying a large camping backpack, they gathered at the entrance of the Ye Family Martial Arts School.

During the summer break, Liu Huaisha had cut her hair short. Paired with a neat short-sleeved shirt and hiking pants, she looked like a tomboy. Lingjing's outfit was similar but made her appear bright and cute. Girls develop early, and both were already half a head taller than Jiaming. With his ordinary looks, he seemed like a servant following two young ladies out. That inconspicuousness was exactly the effect Jiaming had always pursued.

The camp was advertised as a student summer camp, but when they arrived at the gathering point, the three found that most participants were middle or high school students. People trickled in, and including the three of them, there were twenty-two participants total. Three girls who looked like high schoolers came together; the rest were all boys.

The leader was a reliable-looking man in his twenties, the sunny and outgoing type. He did a rough roll call, and once everyone was accounted for, a bus pulled up. As they boarded, Jiaming noticed a man and woman chatting with the leader—none other than Zhang Yahan and Huang Haoyun.