My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute Chapter 7

"No." Cai Yibin honestly shook his head.

"Then forget it. Looks like you're just not gifted." Mo Xiangwen shook his head with a regretful look. "This is as far as you'll ever get in this life."

"Fuck, stop keeping me in suspense. Hurry up and tell me."

"Notes. Notes."

Mo Xiangwen flipped through a few more pages for him to see, then took the book back under his shocked gaze.

"Jealous?"

"Not jealous. Where did you get it?"

Cai Yibin painfully dragged his gaze away, but the twistedly envious expression on his face gave him away.

"I told you, I borrowed it from a friend."

"How much did it cost? Do you have any way to help me borrow one too?"

Only failing students who had turned over a new leaf knew how important a book filled with notes was.

He had missed far too much during those days of slacking off.

Even if someone lent you a book full of notes to copy, your fingers would ache and go limp by the time you finished.

"Didn't spend a cent." Mo Xiangwen sighed. "Money and all that—talking like that hurts our friendship."

"Fuck! I'm gonna fight you."

What Third Mock Exam? Just Another Stray by the Road!

"What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? I'm resting my eyes."

"It's the final mock exam. Aren't you going to study a little more?"

Cai Yibin found it strange. Normally, this guy was the biggest grind machine in the class. Yet now, with the exam just around the corner and everyone cramming, he was sitting in his chair with his eyes closed like some ancient sage.

"Old Cai, as long as you work hard enough normally, you won't need to panic over this little bit of time."

The corners of Mo Xiangwen's mouth curled upward slightly, revealing the smile of a Dragon King.

"If you could work hard every day like I do, then the Third Mock Exam would be nothing more than a stray by the roadside."

It felt so good. Too good.

Back then, he had been the loser desperately cramming at the last minute. When had he ever been qualified to say something this pretentious?

"Hiss, Old Mo, why did I never realize you were this good at showing off?" Cai Yibin sucked in a breath of cold air and sighed. "I think you've been getting more and more punchable lately."

"Wait, a gentleman uses his mouth, not his fists." Mo Xiangwen was startled and hurriedly rebuked him.

Cai Yibin snorted and immediately put his recent words into practice. "I am but a barbarian."

Despite saying that, Cai Yibin did not actually make a move.

"Seriously, not taking the time to review now doesn't sound like you."

"Looks like your impression of me has changed pretty quickly." Mo Xiangwen sighed and honestly said, "Fine, I'm a little nervous."

He was not lying to Cai Yibin about that. He really was a little nervous right now.

After so many years, he was sitting in an exam room again, and the first thing he faced was the final mock exam before the National College Entrance Examination.

At least it was not the actual National College Entrance Examination. He still had some time to adjust his mindset.

"Oh, then I'm a little nervous too." Cai Yibin nodded. "Everyone's nervous anyway. It's nothing unusual."

Mo Xiangwen looked around. Since most of the books on the desks had been moved into the hallway, there was barely anything left to block anyone's view.

The visibility was unprecedented. Everything was in plain sight.

Just as Cai Yibin had said, the classroom was filled with pre-exam tension.

Even students like Liao Feiyang, who went out to use the internet at night and caught up on sleep during class in the daytime, were cramming at the last minute.

In that kind of atmosphere, anyone's emotions would inevitably be stirred up, making them a little more nervous.

Ring— The sharp bell shattered the heavy silence hanging over the campus, followed by a voice that was both unfamiliar and familiar.

[The exam will begin in fifteen minutes. Students who have not yet entered their exam rooms, please do so as soon as possible.]

Hearing the announcement, the students stood up one after another, carried their books into the hallway, grabbed their stationery, and headed for their exam rooms.

"I'm leaving first. My exam room is in the multimedia classroom." Cai Yibin picked up his stationery, said goodbye, and left.

Mo Xiangwen was not in a hurry. His exam room was his own classroom, after all. He only needed to walk a few steps forward.

However, as students from other classes poured in like a tide, he had no choice but to take his stationery and wait quietly at his assigned seat.

His seat was directly in front of the podium, making it especially easy to find.

As the teacher entered the classroom carrying a stack of test papers, the previously noisy room instantly fell silent.

Mo Xiangwen, who had been idly spinning his pen, looked up. Well, wasn't that his homeroom teacher, Xiang Ming?

Xiang Ming also noticed this student who had changed so much recently, so he smiled and nodded at him.

After confirming that no one was absent, Xiang Ming cleared his throat and began. "The difficulty of this exam is close to that of the National College Entrance Examination. Please take it seriously, so that after the exam, you can clearly understand your current level and address your weaknesses."

"Each classroom has at least two teachers proctoring the exam, and there are also roaming proctors outside in the hallways."

"If any student is entertaining thoughts they shouldn't be, I advise you to put them away."

"After all, only results earned through your own ability truly belong to you."

"That's enough said. I wish you all excellent results in the Third Mock Exam."

After he finished speaking, another proctor entered the classroom.

The two whispered to each other for a moment, confirmed that the test papers were correct, and began handing them out.

When Mo Xiangwen received the test paper and barcode from the teacher, he felt a long-forgotten excitement.

He carefully filled in his personal information before starting to read through the questions.

After a rough glance, the excitement in his heart immediately died away completely.

[Exam time has begun. Candidates, please begin answering.]

As the signal bell rang, the rustling sound of pen tips moving across test papers immediately filled the exam room.

Mo Xiangwen gritted his teeth and began writing.

All four subjects were completed within a single day. It was clear that the school had gone to great lengths to save the students more time for studying.

After the exams, when he returned to the dorm to rest, the high-spirited Cai Yibin walked in and saw the other six lying silently on their beds with dead expressions.

He could understand the others. They had probably not performed well enough.

But what was wrong with Mo Xiangwen, that damn grind machine? And wasn't Liao Feiyang from another dorm?

Could it be...

"Old Liao, what's wrong?" After hesitating for a moment, Cai Yibin decided to save the happy news for later.

"The teacher said that if I still can't even reliably make the junior college cutoff this time, he'll ask my parents to come in for a talk."

"Why? Plenty of people can't make the junior college cutoff. Are they calling all their parents too?"

"No. Mainly because I got caught by our homeroom teacher when I climbed over the wall to stay out all night a while back."

As soon as he said that, two others in the dorm let out mournful wails—they were the ones who had climbed the wall with Liao Feiyang that night to play games together.

Since Liao Feiyang had been caught, there was naturally no way they could escape.

Now that he mentioned it, Cai Yibin remembered too. After all, he had been the one to tell Liao Feiyang about it.

But he did not know what to say, so he could only pat Liao Feiyang on the shoulder in silent sympathy.

"Old Mo, let me tell you, I thought the difficulty of this exam was pretty manageable."

He could ask Liao Feiyang directly, but there was no way this damn grind machine would have done badly. Cai Yibin decided to test the waters first.

"Mhm—I know." Mo Xiangwen hummed, drawing out the nasal sound. He clearly did not want to pay him any attention.

Cai Yibin felt a little relieved and continued, "Good thing you told me before that I could ask our homeroom teacher for the contact information of former top students. That's how I managed to buy their books."

"Enough, I know. Shut up already." Mo Xiangwen covered his ears, looking like he did not want to hear any more of his nonsense.

Seeing him like this made Cai Yibin feel even better.

Could he finally knock this damn grind machine down a peg today?

Comfort him? Would this bastard even need comfort from him?

"Thanks to you, I think I did pretty well this time. My score should improve quite a bit compared to before."

"Good. Remember to send me a big red packet afterward."

"Of course. But before that..." Cai Yibin's eyes lit up as he asked, "Old Mo, how did you do?"

"Heh heh heh, aaaaaah—" Mo Xiangwen hugged his pillow and pretended to sob. "I'm terribly sorry for failing to let Lord Third Mock Exam have a good time."

Sigh, Boys. Sigh, So Childish.

Childish. Too childish.

He was an adult. How could he still act like a high school student?

It had to be the combined effects of Nano Boost and the atmosphere of a high school campus influencing him.

What an unforgivable crime. Sigh.

Mo Xiangwen irritably flipped through the English book in his hands while quietly reciting its contents.

"They said they saw our homeroom teacher today, and he seemed to be in a really good mood." Cai Yibin poked his elbow.

"Really?" Mo Xiangwen raised his head and happened to see Xiang Ming entering the classroom with a stack of test papers. "Yeah, he does look pretty happy."

"How do you know?"

"Because our homeroom teacher is already standing on the podium. Anyone can tell from his expression that he's in a good mood." He tapped the desk with his finger and replied somewhat impatiently.

"What's wrong with you? You look like you're in a bad mood. Is it because you didn't do well on the Third Mock Exam?"

"No, though that is part of it." Mo Xiangwen sighed softly. "But that's not the main reason."

"Then what is?"

"Stop asking. I don't want to talk about it."

"It's only the Third Mock Exam. It's not the actual National College Entrance Examination." Cai Yibin assumed he had performed poorly and patted his shoulder to comfort him. "Besides, you can think of it this way: even if you didn't do well, I did."

"Get lost. Next time you have questions, go ask the teacher yourself. Don't come bother me."

"Hehe."

"Quiet down, everyone. We're getting ready to hand out the Third Mock Exam papers."

Holding a yellow ruler as long as an arm, the homeroom teacher smacked the podium twice with all his strength, producing two loud smacks.

The classroom, which had been as noisy as a marketplace, was finally subdued by those two loud sounds.

"After receiving your papers, remember to use the questions you got wrong to properly adjust your studying."

"Keep up the question types you did well on."

"For the question types you got wrong, reflect carefully on why you made those mistakes. If there's anything you don't understand, ask your classmates or teachers as soon as possible."

"Try not to make the same mistakes next time. Difficult questions are one thing, but for easy and common question types, you need to get the points you deserve."

"Now then, we'll begin handing out the papers. Group leaders, come up here."

At the homeroom teacher's command, several students hurriedly walked up and took the test papers from him.

After finally waiting for the group leader handing out papers to reach his seat, Mo Xiangwen was about to take his paper from her hand when, just as he was about to get it, she pulled it back.