Chapter 18

Money-struck, she walked into the classroom. The only difference was that this time she was holding a stack of test papers. Hoshinomiya smiled as she looked at the students of Class B, who were sitting up straight. "Since it's already the end of the month, we'll be having a test today. Once you get your paper, please pass the rest back." As she spoke, Hoshinomiya divided the papers into several stacks and handed them to the students in the front row. Yuan Yuyuan glanced at the test. It covered more than a single subject; it consisted of questions from all the core subjects. Thanks to Yuan Yuyuan's warning when they first enrolled, the students of Class B instinctively sensed something was off. They all turned to look at him, but he just shook his head, signaling them to focus on the test. What were they all looking at him for? Didn't they know they weren't allowed to whisper during class? Especially during an exam. Yuan Yuyuan grew more convinced that if Ichinose were left to lead the class on her own, they'd end up with a situation of one adult and dozens of giant babies. Hoshinomiya was quite pleased to see that the students of Class B looked to Yuan Yuyuan as their anchor, but she didn't forget to go through the usual spiel. "The results of this test are only for reference and won't appear on your report cards. There's no risk of expulsion, so please relax and do your best. Cheating, however, is still forbidden." Yuan Yuyuan felt that something was off. He quickly skimmed the test and saw that the questions increased in difficulty by degrees. Even middle schoolers could answer the first few, but the last three were far beyond the syllabus. A third-year student might be able to solve one of them, but even college students would probably be scratching their heads. No wonder the results wouldn't be reflected on their report cards. What could these questions possibly tell them—that a certain student wasn't capable of taking the college entrance exams? The strangest part was that those three questions were worth exactly the same number of points as the first one. From the very first class, he'd noticed that the homeroom teachers at this school had a set of stock phrases, and those phrases were most likely meant to mislead the students. But if you scrutinized the wording, you'd realize there was nothing wrong with what they said. The results wouldn't appear on their report cards, which meant they'd show up somewhere else. And the test was only for reference. He didn't believe the school would be kind enough to award points based on their rankings or anything like that. Still, it didn't matter. He'd do his best to get a good score, or he wouldn't be able to enjoy the same easy life he had now. He didn't want to spend every day joking around with the others like Ichinose just to win their support. After they handed in their papers, Ichinose turned around and asked Yuan Yuyuan, "Didn't you think something was off about that test?" Yuan Yuyuan told Ichinose what he suspected. Her expression became a pie chart of three parts shock, three parts self-reproach, and four parts admiration. "You figured all that out from just a few things she said? Compared to you, I'm so useless. Thank goodness you're here." "It's nothing impressive. I just went in assuming something was off about this school. How did you do, Honami?" "The last three questions were so hard. I don't know if I got them right, but I'm pretty sure I got at least eighty-five. You're so smart, Yuyuan. You must have gotten over ninety." "It was all right. I think I got ninety-five." "Huh? Are you bragging? You said 'all right,' like people do when they've messed up the test." Just then, Ichinose's two little shadows showed up again. Amikura, the CP fan, hadn't wanted to interrupt the sweet couple, but she couldn't resist Chihiro Shiranami's relentless pestering. "Honami, let's go back together." Ichinose still wanted to discuss the test with Yuan Yuyuan, so she invited him along. Yuan Yuyuan glanced at the jealous Shiranami, but in the end, he smiled and politely declined. He had to thank Shiina, come to think of it. After Manabu Horikita heard about what had happened, he gave Yuan Yuyuan a break. Now they didn't have to spend every day in the Student Council dealing with all those pointless documents.

First Semester: Chapter 19

Chapter 18: Insurrection

In the blink of an eye, May 1 arrived—the day the school handed out money. After getting up, Yuan Yuyuan checked his personal points. Excluding his deals with Manabu Horikita and Class D, he'd only gained 92,000 more than the day before. He knew there was no chance of becoming Class A in the second month.

But he couldn't just sit around and do nothing. He decided to recover some of their losses, at least enough to put pressure on Class B. He then contacted Ichinose and Kanzaki and asked them to play along. It was for the good of the class, after all, so neither had any reason to refuse. The students were chatting in the classroom when Yuan Yuyuan, their great benefactor, walked in with a gloomy expression. The atmosphere around him turned heavy. In the end, the ever-reliable Ichinose was the one who approached him. "Yuyuan, you're here. About this month's points..." "I already know. So even though you knew the rules beforehand, you still couldn't manage it. If you ask me, Honami's been far too lenient with them." Yuan Yuyuan interrupted Ichinose with a sour expression, making it look as though he was angry that everyone had failed to do their part. After all, under that demon woman's heavy-handed leadership, the students in Class A probably wouldn't even dare sneeze during class. "But this sort of thing happens, and 92,000 isn't that little... right?" The students of Class B were actually quite satisfied with the result, but Ichinose knew Yuan Yuyuan's goal was Class A. A score of 92 points was obviously nowhere near enough to repay him. "It's not that little, if you ignore the fact that I told everyone on the very first day exactly what to do to get full marks." "Don't say that. You can't blame our classmates for all of this. I'm responsible too. As long as..." "As long as you try harder next time, you'll get it right?" "I'm sorry..." Ichinose seemed to have overdone it. He'd only said a few things, and she was already looking so pitiful. She should at least tone it down a little! Everyone else was looking at him like he was an abusive boyfriend! Yuan Yuyuan didn't dare keep acting out the scene with Ichinose. He turned to sweep his gaze over the other students. Everyone he made eye contact with lowered their head. "Is this your strategy? Or are you really so comfortable letting innocent Ichinose take the blame for you?" "Yuyuan, don't say that. It's my fault for not keeping our classmates in check." "Kanzaki, tell me, how did things end up like this?" Ignoring Ichinose as she improvised her own lines, Yuan Yuyuan turned to question Kanzaki Ryuji. The others saw him angrily berating the two people he was usually closest to and didn't dare say a word. Kanzaki didn't disappoint him. He came up with an excuse that fell apart at the slightest touch. "I think you made the test too easy, which made everyone let their guard down." "So I was wrong to do that? I should've watched you waste all your points before telling you?" "Well..." Yuan Yuyuan figured that was enough of a scolding. If he let the scene go on any longer, he'd end up attacking their character. He shot a glance at Hoshinomiya, who was standing in the hallway, laughing as she watched him berate Kanzaki even though class had already started. Hoshinomiya did him the favor of stepping inside and interrupting them. "All right, everyone, return to your seats. We're starting homeroom." Hoshinomiya took out two large posters and used magnets to pin them to the blackboard. The poster on the left showed each class's Class Points. Class A had 940 points, Class B had 920, Class C had 490, and Class D had 430. The divide between them was clear enough—but could someone explain what was going on with Class D's points? Yuan Yuyuan had thought Class B wouldn't manage to take first...