My Online Friend Can't Be This Cute

Mo Xiangwen was wondering whether he had taken the wrong paper when he saw the group leader looking as though he had seen a ghost. His gaze shifted back and forth between Mo Xiangwen and the test paper again and again. After staring for quite a while, he reluctantly handed the paper over.

Mo Xiangwen took it and looked. At the very top of the paper, 122 points was written in huge red letters.

Forget an ordinary class—even in an advanced class, that score would have been considered excellent.

But looking over the entire paper, there were practically no points lost due to carelessness.

It could be said that he had gotten every point he was capable of getting, and this was still all he had managed.

To put it more bluntly, the questions he had lost points on were questions he genuinely did not understand at all.

The score was decent, but in a sense, it was also the current upper limit of his math ability.

If there had been another one or two obscure questions, his score might have dropped sharply.

He had roughly known what his score would be the moment he got the paper.

One glance, and—damn, it was over.

There were several questions he had never even seen before. How was he supposed to solve them?

Mo Xiangwen sighed softly, folded the paper in half, and tucked it beneath his book. He planned to copy the questions he had gotten wrong into his error notebook later, then go over them again.

He had just turned to ask Cai Yibin how he had done when he found him grinning foolishly at his math paper with a lovestruck expression.

"So happy? How much did you get?"

As though he had been waiting for Mo Xiangwen to ask, Cai Yibin answered almost immediately.

"90 points, no more, no less." Cai Yibin said smugly, "And I only got that score because I guessed several multiple-choice questions right."

"Not bad. Luck is part of ability too. Maybe you'll get insanely lucky on the National College Entrance Examination and score even higher."

"Hehe, I'll take that blessing. But you don't need to be too jealous of me."

Mo Xiangwen shook his head, too lazy to bother with him.

Let him be smug. It was good. There was no need to ruin his mood; he could let him be happy a little longer.

"I don't know why the teacher didn't read out the scores this time and made us collect them ourselves," Cai Yibin said regretfully.

"The Third Mock Exam is supposed to build students' confidence, right? Maybe they considered those who didn't perform well this time, so they decided not to do it," Mo Xiangwen said after thinking it over.

Cai Yibin froze for a moment, then nodded in strong agreement.

For some reason, he even patted his own shoulder.

Smack— The crisp sound of a ruler striking the podium rang out again. The classroom, which had become noisy with discussions of scores and questions, fell silent once more.

"Ahem." The homeroom teacher cleared his throat. "Before we go over this exam, I have a few things to say."

"This time, many students in the class improved very quickly. That's a good sign."

"I hope you all keep up the good work and strive for even better results in the National College Entrance Examination."

"So, I'd like to especially commend several students whose improvement has been particularly noticeable."

Cai Yibin, who had already been eagerly waiting, brightened. "Could it be..."

"Our classmate Mo Xiangwen scored an excellent 122 points in math on this Third Mock Exam."

Whoosh—

The quiet classroom instantly erupted, like a boulder crashing into still water and stirring up huge waves.

As though that were not enough, the homeroom teacher continued, "Not only did he rank first in the class in math."

"His total score also reached the Second-Tier Undergraduate Cutoff in this Third Mock Exam. It was even slightly higher than the advanced classes' average score."

The classroom noise could no longer be contained and exploded with a bang.

Everyone had known each other in class for so long. Who didn't know what everyone else was like?

Someone whose math had originally been failing suddenly leaped to the elite level of 120-plus points.

How had he suddenly taken off all by himself, becoming like a completely different person overnight?

Come on, wasn't that way too suspicious? It was hard not to doubt it.

"I know what you're all thinking, but during the exam that day, Mo Xiangwen was seated right here."

The homeroom teacher tapped the desk in front of his podium with his ruler. The student sitting there jerked backward in fright and nearly toppled over with his chair.

"I was the invigilator for this examination room that day," the homeroom teacher continued in a steady voice. "For nearly the entirety of his Third Mock Exam, he was taking it right under my nose."

"If you think he had the ability to cheat during the Third Mock Exam under my nose, then..."

The students exchanged looks, not knowing what to say.

"Instead of doubting others, you'd be better off thinking about this."

"When Mo Xiangwen had self-study periods, he came out to ask me questions—and he would ask for an entire class period."

"What were you doing?"

"Playing around? Or studying?"

"If you were studying, then why didn't you know to come ask me when you had questions?"

"You only see his grades, but not what he put in behind the scenes?"

With the homeroom teacher's questions one after another, the class finally went completely silent, sinking into deathly stillness.

Some truths were better left unspoken. They were all ordinary-class students—how could anyone really spend an entire self-study period studying?

And how could they diligently go ask the teacher on duty questions, asking for an entire period at a time?

Damn it. How had they never realized there was a study freak hiding among them?

Almost instantly, Mo Xiangwen felt the entire class's gazes—and their hostility—converge on him.

Mo Xiangwen quietly lowered his head and used the wall of books as cover, avoiding everyone's eyes.

He did long to stand out from the crowd, but he truly was not used to—nor did he particularly enjoy—being the center of attention.

With the wall of books blocking their view, everyone could no longer condemn him with their stares, so they had no choice but to give up.

Then the homeroom teacher spoke again, though this time he helped divert some of everyone's attention away from him.

"Cai Yibin has also shown obvious improvement in this Third Mock Exam."

"Don't relax. Keep working hard."

Mo Xiangwen turned to look at him and found that the joy had long vanished from Cai Yibin's face, replaced by a dazed expression.

So Mo Xiangwen poked his arm. "He's praising you. Could you at least react a little?"

Cai Yibin stiffly turned his head toward him. After a long while, he finally cursed, "Fuck, there's a dog."

After class, the homeroom teacher called his name and told him to go to the office later.

Though he did not know why, Mo Xiangwen could only agree first.

He dawdled while taking care of his urgent business, then headed to the office.

The teachers' office building for the senior-year students stood directly opposite their classroom building, making it the closest office building of all.

When Mo Xiangwen arrived at the office, he saw a middle-aged woman talking to the homeroom teacher.

Her skin was dark, and she wore an old-fashioned coarse cotton shirt. She stood awkwardly to the side. No matter how the homeroom teacher urged her to sit, she would not.

Mo Xiangwen hesitated, but still knocked on the office door and called out, "Reporting." Only then did the homeroom teacher notice him.

"Oh, Mo Xiangwen, you're here." The homeroom teacher nodded at him pleasantly. "Come in."

As he walked up to the homeroom teacher and stood beside the middle-aged woman, he noticed her reddened eyes.

"It's nothing major. I mainly wanted to tell you this." The homeroom teacher grew serious. "After cramming hard during this period, your math score has become quite good."

"My suggestion is that you shift your focus now to English and the science comprehensive exam."

"Your scores in both subjects are still fairly low, and they could easily hold you back. If you don't do well, you might not even make the Second-Tier Undergraduate Cutoff."

At this point, his voice rose again.

"But on the other hand, that means you still have plenty of room to improve in those two subjects."

"You only need to cram the basics a little, and getting into a Second-Tier Undergraduate program will be within your grasp."

"Alright, teacher, I understand." Mo Xiangwen nodded. "I'll make some adjustments when I get back."

"Good. Keep working hard." The homeroom teacher was very satisfied with his attitude. "There's nothing else. Go back and study."

Mo Xiangwen walked out of the office and was about to return to the classroom when he spotted Liao Feiyang crouching on the lawn outside the office building.

He looked terrible and kept pulling up blades of grass to play with.

Considering that Liao Feiyang had helped him bring his wonton noodles, Mo Xiangwen decided to show this classmate a little concern.

"What's wrong with you?"

Liao Feiyang looked up at him, then lowered his head again and continued fiddling with the grass roots he had dug up.

"I didn't do well on the exam, and they called my parent in. Didn't you just go into the office? That woman in there is my mom."

"Because of the time you got caught climbing over the wall?"

"Yeah." Liao Feiyang sighed. "Actually, I thought I'd get chewed out at most. That wouldn't have mattered."

"If you don't care, why do you look so miserable?"

"Getting yelled at doesn't matter. Whether it's my mom or the homeroom teacher, I'm used to it." Liao Feiyang's voice grew increasingly low. "But my mom cried."

Mo Xiangwen was speechless, not knowing what to say.

He seemed to have made his own mother cry before too. He could not remember why, but he really had made her cry from anger.

"When my mom cries, I can't take it." Liao Feiyang seemed to recall something, then quickly continued. "The last time I remember my mom crying was when my dad, whose left hand is disabled and can't even do farm work properly, said he was going to another province to work and earn money for us."

"She didn't cry out loud. She was just wiping her tears alone in her room."

"She didn't know that I was outside the door at the time, watching through the crack."

"And now, because of me, she's come to the school office again."

"I know my mom is very proud and cares a lot about saving face."

"Being called to school because her son climbed over the wall to go online was already humiliating enough for her."

"I thought she would hit me or curse me out, but I never expected her to start crying after only a few words."

Liao Feiyang stared at the sky and let out a long breath. "Mo Xiangwen, tell me... am I a bastard of a son?"

Mo Xiangwen really wanted to tell him, yes, you are a bastard.

But what about himself back then? Wasn't he also still climbing over walls with them to stay up all night online when the National College Entrance Examination was right around the corner?

Fine, then he was a bastard too.

Being called a bastard did not matter, but would calling him one now accomplish anything?

Mo Xiangwen thought for a moment, then said, "I have a way to solve what's bothering you right now in one go."

"Mm, let's hear it?" Liao Feiyang said indifferently, looking as though he did not have much hope for Mo Xiangwen's idea.

"But the price is that you have to buy me breakfast for more than twenty days, until the National College Entrance Examination is over." Mo Xiangwen shrugged and continued, "You don't have to get breakfast from outside. Food from the school cafeteria is enough."

It was not that he really lacked someone to buy him breakfast. He only wanted to make a demand so Liao Feiyang would find it easier to accept.

"Fine, no problem. I don't really want to climb over the wall anymore anyway."

"Run into the office right now and shout, 'Teacher! I want to get into an undergraduate program!' Remember, your voice has to be loud enough—preferably loud enough for the whole building to hear."

"How could that be possible? There are only twenty days left. At my level, how the hell could I get into an undergraduate program?" Liao Feiyang laughed at himself and shook his head. "You think everyone is like you, Mo Xiangwen?"

"You're seriously amazing. You went from Third-Tier Undergraduate level to the Second-Tier Undergraduate Cutoff so fast that even the homeroom teacher specially praised you in class."

"Yeah, you're not me." Mo Xiangwen snorted. "But are you willing to accept that? Do you really think you can't do it?"

Liao Feiyang seemed stirred by his words, but he still asked with a face full of hesitation, "Will this really work?"

Mo Xiangwen truly wanted to kick Liao Feiyang and give him that final push.

But reason told him he had already done enough.

He had tried to persuade him. If it did not work, then forget it.