The Little Hedgehog Who Kept Getting Teased

After briefly emphasizing a few more points, the homeroom teacher, Zhang Shufang, picked up the test papers and began going over them.

Jiang Yubai did not take the earlier announcement too seriously. He spun his pen as he glanced over the questions he had gotten wrong.

To him, this kind of reward for improvement was simply too far out of reach.

Although he ranked near the top of the grade in math and physics, his Chinese and English grades...

Put harshly, his future was promising and there was enormous room for improvement. He was already at rock bottom, so any direction he went was up.

Put nicely, they were a complete mess—the kind everyone avoided, and even ghosts would despair at the sight of.

By now, even his Chinese and English teachers could not be bothered to scold him. They had probably given up on him completely.

He had tried to save his hopeless Chinese and English grades himself, but the confusing reading comprehension questions and overwhelming flood of English vocabulary quickly left him dizzy and disoriented.

Damn, how was "an eerie light radiated from the fish's eyes" supposed to express the author's state of mind?

Even the author himself probably could not explain it!

All he could say was... math and physics were better. Right was right, wrong was wrong—everything was crystal clear.

Just as Jiang Yubai lowered his head to look at his test paper, a faint rustling of paper suddenly came from beside him.

Hmm?

He instinctively turned his head and saw that a notebook had somehow been pushed into the space between their desks.

Lin Jianxia had quietly passed it over.

Jiang Yubai blinked, inexplicably feeling a little flattered.

After all, it was rare for Lin Jianxia to take the initiative to pass him a note, especially during class.

He glanced up at Ms. Zhang at the podium. After confirming that she was not paying attention to this side, Jiang Yubai picked up the notebook and opened it.

"Can we make it into the top five for improvement points?"

Huh?

Jiang Yubai blinked. After hesitating for a moment, he wrote a reply backward and passed it back.

"Can we?"

Her response came back quickly.

"Yes. With my math plus your Chinese and English grades, we just need to improve a little more."

Jiang Yubai's mouth twitched.

You made that sound easy...

With a clear understanding of his own abilities, he wrote his reply and pushed it back.

"I'm completely beyond saving on my end. You work harder."

There was no more movement from the other end of the note. She had probably been stunned senseless by his brazenly defeatist attitude.

Jiang Yubai did not think much of it. Assuming Lin Jianxia had simply brought it up on a whim, he lowered his head and continued reviewing his mistakes.

Perhaps it was just psychological, but Monday morning seemed especially long.

By the time the bell for the final class finally rang, Jiang Yubai felt that the little energy he had replenished that morning had long since run out. His stomach was growling with hunger.

Standing at the cafeteria counter, he eagerly ordered his food.

"Mm... boiled shrimp, braised pork, stir-fried greens, and another chicken drumstick. Auntie, please give me a little extra rice..."

Halfway through, he suddenly remembered something and turned to look behind him.

Sure enough, in a corner of the cafeteria, a familiar figure sat quietly alone.

He turned back. "Auntie, please add another chicken drumstick."

The cafeteria lady glanced at his six-foot frame and generously scooped him a huge serving of rice.

Carrying a heaping tray of food, Jiang Yubai turned to Li Yang, who was still ordering beside him, and spoke with complete sincerity.

"Yang, I'm not eating with you today. I've got something to take care of."

Li Yang froze. Before he could respond, he saw Jiang Yubai briskly heading in a certain direction.

Once he saw that it was the window-side corner of the cafeteria, and the lone figure sitting there, the faint confusion on his face immediately turned into blatant speechlessness.

"Tsk, choosing women over friends. What a cold world..."

Li Yang muttered under his breath, then decided to turn his grief and indignation into appetite. Raising his voice toward the serving lady, he said, "Auntie, please add another serving of sweet-and-sour pork!"

Meanwhile.

Lin Jianxia was lowering her head to scoop up a spoonful of plain congee when a piled-high tray suddenly landed in front of her.

She frowned, about to pick up her own tray and move somewhere else, when a teasing voice suddenly sounded beside her ear.

"Hello, hello. Mind if I join you?"

Lin Jianxia paused and looked up, meeting Jiang Yubai's annoying face.

With a huff in her heart, Lin Jianxia lowered her head and continued eating, determined to ignore him.

Jiang Yubai glanced at her still painfully plain tray and could not help speaking up.

"Say, Lin... Lin Tingwan, is that enough food for you?"

The tray before her was exactly the same as the one he had seen before.

Still two buns and a bowl of plain congee. She was clearly sticking to the principle of never touching a dish that was not subsidized.

His tone turned pained. "Senior year is already so intense and stressful. If you eat so little, I'm honestly afraid you'll collapse with a snap in my kitchen while cooking dinner tonight. Then I'll have to feed you glucose."

At that, Lin Jianxia finally reacted.

She glanced around to make sure no one nearby was paying attention before lowering her voice indignantly.

"Don't worry. Even if I faint from hunger, I'll only faint at my own home. I definitely won't trouble Young Master Jiang."

Oh, she was angry?

He just did not know whether it was because he had teased her that morning... or because of his earlier attitude of giving up.

Jiang Yubai thought for a moment, then cautiously said, "By the way... I really wasn't wrong this morning. A higher ponytail does look better."

Lin Jianxia lowered her head to drink her congee without even lifting her eyelids.

Mm, so it was not because of that.

"But then again," Jiang Yubai said as if talking to himself, "the reward for making the top five in improvement sounds pretty tempting. Should we try going for it...?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Jianxia stopped biting her bun. She slowly raised her head and asked softly, "You... want to try?"

So that was what it was about?

"Try? I don't know," Jiang Yubai shrugged. "You know what my Chinese and English are like. They're basically beyond hope."

"If I had to choose, I'd rather put that effort into math and physics."

Before the disappointment could fully appear on Lin Jianxia's face, he paused and suddenly put on an exaggeratedly troubled expression.

"Oh no, I don't know why, but I ordered an extra chicken drumstick today. I can't possibly finish it all. It'd be great if someone could help me get rid of it~"

That smug tone made Lin Jianxia's teeth itch.

But in the end, she still reached out with her chopsticks and silently placed the chicken drumstick into her own bowl.

Jiang Yubai nodded in satisfaction.

...Sure enough, feeding someone always put him in a good mood.

Lin Jianxia took a bite of the chicken drumstick and glared at him indignantly.

The chicken drumstick really was delicious...

But this feeling of constantly being teased was seriously annoying!!

"Don't glare at me," Jiang Yubai said calmly as he ate. "Don't forget, Lin Tingwan wouldn't make that kind of expression."

Lin Jianxia stiffened. She lowered her head and viciously bit off a huge piece of chicken, as though she were chewing on Jiang Yubai's arm.

Jiang Yubai was not flustered in the slightest. He simply asked, "I'm serious. Those two subjects are beyond saving if I rely on myself alone. What are you planning to do?"

Lin Jianxia glanced at the students passing back and forth around them, bit her lower lip, and lowered her voice further.

"...We'll talk when we get home."

Home?

Jiang Yubai blinked.

Home... whose home?