Ding Yebai Seems to Have Been Made to Laugh by Me

After the National Day holiday ended, the third year of high school quickly held its next monthly exam.

At this point in their studies, they sometimes could barely distinguish between midterms, monthly exams, and final exams; in essence, there wasn't much of a difference.

After two days of exams, the results were out by the third and fourth day, and the report cards were printed on the bulletin board.

Everyone's grades seemed to be steadily improving.

Li Pingqiu's mindset remained very stable; his grades didn't change much, always as excellent as ever.

As for Lu Shuai, his math and science scores were still very stable, but his English had regressed significantly, dropping straight to 90. He was a bit dejected but didn't dwell on it. His goal was just a top-tier university anyway, he didn't ask for more.

He hadn't really studied English seriously anyway, so it would be abnormal if he had improved.

Ding Yebai, on the other hand, was holding his English test paper, feeling a bit down.

He had gotten full marks in math and science, and 129 in Chinese.

Everything seemed to be going well.

He flipped through the paper, and on the last page, he saw his English answer sheet.

Seeing the bright red score of [117], he even turned the answer sheet over and over, checking if he had grabbed the wrong one.

"One point more than last time..." his female deskmate leaned over and said casually.

Ding Yebai glanced at her, seemingly lacking energy, his eyelids drooping: "Mm."

Female deskmate: "But everyone agrees this test was difficult. It's actually quite impressive to get this score."

Ding Yebai: "No matter how difficult it is, it won't be as difficult as the Gaokao."

With that understated remark, he put the answer sheet away.

His female deskmate knew he really, really wanted to score higher and improve. Seeing that he was feeling down, she didn't say much more.

About 10 minutes later, Ding Yebai took out his answer sheet and test paper again, marking his mistakes against the answer key and analyzing each one.

His expression remained cold, giving no clue as to what he was thinking.

When he went home for lunch, Ding Yuerong saw his grades and thought they were quite good.

After all, the total was 696, which was enough to get into Tsinghua University.

"Are you unhappy, kiddo?" she asked worriedly.

Ding Yebai glanced at her and continued eating: "I'm fine."

Ding Yuerong: "..."

Right, he had studied diligently for over a month, day and night, hoping for some results...

In the end, he only improved by one point. It felt like he had stood still.

Even someone as seemingly unfeeling as Ding Yebai would feel a bit disappointed.

The siblings didn't say much more after that. The atmosphere at lunch today was unusually somber.

Evening

Yang Zhi was walking alone in the snack street, thinking of grabbing something to eat before heading to tutor Ding Yebai.

She happened to run into Ding Yuerong, who was on her way to the company. Yang Zhi waved and cheerfully greeted her, "Senior Sister."

Ding Yuerong saw her and jogged over, popping a piece of stinky tofu into Yang Zhi's mouth.

"Delicious, right?"

"Mm."

"Eating dinner here?"

"Mm. I'll head to your place after."

At this, Ding Yuerong's face instantly drooped, looking a bit troubled.

Yang Zhi asked her, "What's wrong?"

Ding Yuerong felt like the stinky tofu didn't taste good anymore when the topic came up.

"My little brother's English score on this monthly exam was 117, and he seems a bit down. That guy, even though he has a poker face, I can still tell when he's happy or unhappy."

She turned and saw Yang Zhi's worried expression, then quickly added, "Oh, but he's not the type to get depressed. At most, he's just disappointed, he won't fall into despair. He's not that dramatic either."

Yang Zhi quickly looked around and spotted a toy store. She walked in and pointed to a cow-shaped hand puppet, "How about that one?"

Ding Yuerong followed behind her, confused, "What do you want that for? I didn't think you liked that kind of thing?"

Yang Zhi shook her head, "I want to buy two to bring over later. By the way, does Ding Yebai have any favorite animals?"

Ding Yuerong froze.

Yang Zhi: "You... you don't know, do you?"

Ding Yuerong: "Even if we're siblings, you don't have to know everything! He never told me."

As she spoke, she scanned the hand puppet dolls in front of her, then casually picked up an elephant-shaped one and handed it to Yang Zhi.

"This one. I bet my brother will like it."

"... Really?"

Yang Zhi narrowed her eyes, offering an awkward yet polite smile.

Later, not knowing what else to buy, she ended up getting both the elephant and a cow.

7 PM.

Yang Zhi was already sitting next to Ding Yebai.

As she took books out of her bag, she secretly glanced at his profile, checking his expression.

"Did you have a good National Day holiday?"

"Hm?"

Ding Yebai clearly wasn't listening. He looked up, blinking dazedly.

Yang Zhi saw his absentmindedness and gave him a gentle smile. "You don't seem very energetic."

Ding Yebai: "My mid-term results are out. I got 117 in English. That's only one point higher than last time." He paused, his tone sinking. "I was so confident I'd get over 120 this time. Thinking about it now, I'm still far off."

Yang Zhi sat on the chair beside him. After listening to him patiently and attentively, she took out the hand puppet dolls she bought at the toy store from her bag.

Ding Yebai frowned, confused.

Yang Zhi put the cow hand puppet on her left hand as if it were nothing, then extended her right hand to Ding Yebai. "Lend me a hand."

Ding Yebai glanced at the elephant hand puppet on the corner of the table and knew what she wanted to do with his hand.

So childish.

Such a childish toy.

He thought to himself.

But he still reached out his hand, perhaps just because Yang Zhi herself would be putting on that silly doll.

Once both hands were fitted, Yang Zhi brought her cow hand puppet to life by manipulating her fingers.

"It seems you have something on your mind, Mr. Elephant. Moooo~"

Unexpectedly, as she controlled the hand puppet, she changed her voice, imitating a cow in a deliberately funny and humorous tone.

Ding Yebai froze. He instinctively looked at Yang Zhi.

Yang Zhi pointed to her left hand with another finger, her gaze clearly saying, This thing is talking to you, not me.

"So silly..." Ding Yebai couldn't help but blurt out.

Of course, there wasn't a hint of malice in his voice.

Yang Zhi continued to smile cheerfully. Seeing that Ding Yebai wasn't in the mood to play, she proactively used the cow hand puppet to nudge Ding Yebai's elephant hand puppet.

Huh?

Ding Yebai stared at his hand, which was resting on his thigh with the elephant hand puppet on it.

Staring blankly, straight ahead.

Huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh?????????

Even through the puppet, he could feel a warm breath.

What on earth is this supposed to be!

A flicker of awkwardness flashed in Ding Yebai's eyes as he looked at Yang Zhi, a mixture of confusion and anticipation.

Yang Zhi wiggled her fingers and opened the cow hand puppet's mouth. "Hello there, Mr. Elephant~"

Ding Yebai continued to look at Yang Zhi's face until she let out another humorous "Moo~" like a cow.

"Pfft..."

He chuckled.

Yang Zhi was taken aback when she saw his smile, then she smiled too. "It looks like Mr. Elephant was amused by me."

With a smile still on his face, Ding Yebai raised his arm, bringing his elephant hand puppet face-to-face with the cow hand puppet.

He knew perfectly well she was trying to cheer him up, even if the method was incredibly silly.

But why was he so willing to play along with her silliness?