Wang Ge's plan was perfect, but he had overlooked one thing: his plan would only work on people who wanted to improve themselves.
He could build a road leading out of the darkness, but what if the people in the darkness were unwilling to walk it?
"I don't want to memorize it."
Gu Panyan glanced at him and yawned, her head drooping listlessly.
Wang Ge was stunned for a moment, then asked in confusion, "Why? Don't you want to copy it ten times?"
"Being told to copy it ten times is just meant to scare me. He'll say I have to copy it ten times now, then forget about it in a couple of days."
Gu Panyan spoke lazily. She had plenty of experience in this area.
"But what if he doesn't forget?"
"Even if he doesn't forget, he'll pretend he did." Gu Panyan curled her lip. "So what if he knows I didn't do it? I have connections. There's nothing he can do to me. At most, he'll make me stand for one class. A punishment that easy won't do anything to bolster his authority as a teacher, so pretending to forget is the best way to handle it."
Those words plunged Wang Ge into silence.
Clearly, Gu Panyan wasn't the kind of person who possessed nothing but brute force and no brains. In fact, she might be quite the opposite. Her words alone showed how extraordinarily clever she was. The fact that she had survived healthily in that kind of environment until now definitely couldn't be explained simply by her parents' protection.
She's really troublesome. As expected, not a single girl chosen by the system is easy to deal with... Damn system, couldn't you have picked an easily deceived airhead? Wang Ge sighed inwardly while his mind raced, searching for another way.
He wasn't the kind of person who gave up at the first sign of difficulty. On the contrary, he preferred taking on challenges head-on. The more troublesome the target, the more it stimulated his fighting spirit.
"Gu Panyan has a strong personality, so I need to act weaker. Going head-to-head won't work at this stage... She's a clever girl, so I can't hide my objective from her. In that case, I won't hide it. As long as I conceal my motive... Hmm, I can take advantage of this misunderstanding and deepen this persona."
His thoughts raced, and he took the opportunity to put on a deeply dejected look, lowering his head as he stared at the books on the desk.
Gu Panyan glanced at him but said nothing.
After a while, Wang Ge looked at Gu Panyan as if he were somewhat unwilling to give up and said, "Why not give it a try? What if you could memorize it easily?"
"Why should I try? What difference does it make whether I memorize it or not?" Gu Panyan retorted. "Whether I memorize it or not, I won't have to copy it ten times. Doesn't it amount to the same thing?"
Wang Ge opened his mouth, but no words came out.
Gu Panyan let out a disdainful "Tsk," and likewise said nothing more.
Two seconds later, she heard Wang Ge say quietly, "At least you'd be able to remember a few words and sentences, and score a few more points on the exam."
Gu Panyan frowned slightly and turned to stare into his eyes.
"W-what?" After holding out for only two seconds, Wang Ge shifted his gaze away unnaturally, seeming a little embarrassed. He played the role of an innocent high school boy to perfection.
Although creating this persona hadn't been his original intention, now that it had been established and was producing decent results, he had to maintain it and couldn't let it collapse.
"Hey, you haven't actually fallen for me, have you?" Gu Panyan suddenly asked. Her tone was strange, with a hint of contempt.
Wang Ge appropriately put on a somewhat awkward and bashful expression. "A-a little."
"Oh."
Gu Panyan gave a derisive snort and leaned slightly closer, narrowing her eyes. "So you want to change me?"
Wang Ge was silent for two seconds before answering, "Yeah."
Once he finished speaking, Gu Panyan didn't say anything else for a while, and an eerie silence fell between them.
Since it was morning study, the noisy recitation around them drowned out their conversation. Besides, they had deliberately lowered their voices, so no one heard them.
"Heh. Actually, I don't think too badly of you. You're much better than those flies from before."
Gu Panyan was the first to break the silence, her tone still contemptuous. "If you want to play house with a romantic relationship, I suppose I can humor you."
"However, there's something I have to warn you about first."
Wang Ge said nothing. Gu Panyan stared into his eyes and spoke seriously:
"Listen, Wang Ge. I'm perfectly satisfied with my current situation. I'm too lazy to change, I don't want to change, and I don't need your help."
"Take care of yourself. I'm already a rotten person, so don't place any expectations on one. Understand?"
When she had been at her darkest, no one had helped her. No one had extended a hand to her. After that, she no longer needed anyone's help.
Once she finished speaking, a long silence fell between them.
When Wang Ge didn't respond, Gu Panyan breathed a sigh of relief.
Given her personality, she should have mocked him at a time like this, saying things like, "Put away your pity," "Don't be so full of yourself," or "Who do you think you are?" But after hesitating for two seconds, she probably decided that Wang Ge was still a "good kid," so she chose a different way of putting it.
She felt that she had made herself clear enough and should be able to make Wang Ge abandon those naive and unrealistic ideas.
Gu Panyan was just about to look away and space out until class ended when she suddenly felt a large hand close around her own.
The sensation was quite familiar—the warmth she had experienced only last night.
She froze for a moment, and Wang Ge's low voice sounded beside her ear. "I don't understand."
"You..."
She was about to speak, but Wang Ge didn't give her a chance. He continued on his own. "I don't know what you're thinking. I do like you a little, but that small amount of affection isn't enough to become the reason I want to help you or change you."
"Actually, I can't even explain why I want to help you. Maybe it's admiration, or maybe it's pity... You can think I'm trying to satisfy my own vanity by pitying you, or that I have some other motive. None of that matters. I'll say the same thing again: a gentleman judges actions, not intentions."
"What matters is that you shouldn't be like this. You're a wonderful girl, and you deserve a better future."
Wang Ge's expression was serious and sincere, but after two seconds of silence, Gu Panyan suddenly let out a cold laugh and pulled her hand free. "That sounds nice. If you used that speech to deceive some other girl, you'd have already gotten her."
"Even if you want to help me, what can you do? There are only three months left until the college entrance examination. Do you know how many points I can score right now?"
"I know. I saw your grades—around 280 points, while last year's cutoff for undergraduate programs was 450."
Wang Ge looked into her eyes and said seriously, "Improving by nearly 200 points in a hundred days is indeed difficult, but it's only difficult, not impossible. I'll help you. We'll work hard together. What if you actually get in?"
Gu Panyan froze for a moment. The expression in her beautiful, almond-shaped eyes grew increasingly complicated, but she still mocked him aloud. "Improving by 200 points in a hundred days? Are all top students this arrogant?"
No matter how sincere Wang Ge acted, she seemed to have only one response: cold sarcasm.
"I understand that you don't believe me. Why don't we try it first?" Wang Ge took the English essay from the desk and said, "How about using this essay as an experiment? If I can't get you to memorize it before English class this afternoon, I'll give up on this idea and never try again."
"If I succeed, that means I have the ability to help you, and that you have the potential to get into college."
"When that happens, you can decide whether you want to try believing me and work hard for yourself once during these final hundred days. How does that sound?"
After saying this, he paused, then gently took Gu Panyan's hand again and appealed to her emotions in a soft voice. "I don't want anything in return. It won't hurt you either. Just let me pull you up a little, okay?"
This move used both reason and emotion, combining softness with force.
But if Gu Panyan refused again, Wang Ge intended to give up.
He had already said everything he could. If Gu Panyan still refused, it meant she truly had no desire to work hard and only wanted to lie flat and waste her life.
Wang Ge merely wanted to try persuading her. He didn't want to go against her own wishes.
Besides, no one had said that a future after getting into college was necessarily better than a future without college.
P.S. This chapter came out a little stiff, and I'm not very satisfied with it, but updates still have to continue. I can only see whether I get a chance to polish it later.
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