Only when the corridor door was pushed open again did moonlight finally stream down through the glass doors of the art building's lobby.
Ying Yunsheng walked ahead, and the sleeve of the hand that was pulling him was half-rolled up, exposing the wrist and forearm to the air, where the sharp angles of the bones were clearly visible.
Ji Li then called out to him, "Ying Yunsheng."
"Um."
"Why did you suddenly come back?"
"Well……"
"You came here specifically to see me?"
"Well……"
"You're so worried about me."
"Well……"
"Actually, the power outage at school usually doesn't last too long. Maybe the power will be back on as soon as we walk out of the art building."
"But I want you to come out sooner."
"Well……"
"No one likes a place without any light."
Ji Li was stunned for a moment: "Where did you get that inspirational quote from?"
Ying Yunsheng turned his head expressionlessly.
"Are you angry?" Ji Li laughed. "I'm sorry, but the expression on your face when you said that was just too similar to the way I used to chase you around reciting texts."
A question mark appeared in Ying Yunsheng's eyes.
Ji Li: "They were all exceptionally fearless in the face of death."
“Uh…” Ying Yunsheng let go of him, turned around and left in silence.
Ji Li laughed and chased after him: "But your expression just now really was like that. I was even thinking of asking you for a book list so I could use clichés when writing essays... Actually, it's not just memorizing books. Every time you're determined to do something, you're like this, like a pufferfish being put into a frying pan... Ying Yunsheng, you're really angry—"
There were four or five steps outside the art building. He was so focused on chasing the person that he didn't notice and suddenly lost his footing, instinctively closing his eyes. He thought he was going to fall to the ground, but unexpectedly, someone caught him in time. When he opened his eyes, he saw that the person who was four or five meters away just half a second ago was now standing in front of him.
"How's your ankle? Did you twist it?"
Ji Li shook his head.
Ying Yunsheng was still worried, so he squatted down to check everything over, and only stood up again after confirming that everything was alright: "Can't you watch where you're going?"
The sudden raising of his voice by someone who always had a cold expression was actually quite intimidating, but Ji Li wasn't afraid of him at all: "Isn't this what it means to pursue you?"
“Uh…” Ji Li quickly grabbed him: “I was wrong, I shouldn’t have said that to you.”
Ying Yunsheng: "I'm not angry."
Ji Li grabbed his other hand and immediately noticed the long red mark on the back of his hand from hitting the edge of the podium.
It was too dark inside the building to see, and he only just realized that he had been cut, obviously because he stretched out too fast to shield himself from the injury.
Fortunately, there was no bleeding.
"Does it hurt?"
Ying Yunsheng shook his head.
Ji Li lowered his head and blew on it: "I'll blow on it for you."
Ying Yunsheng's eyelashes trembled, and he barely managed to control himself as he shrank back, without revealing any flaws.
The other person suddenly spoke up: "Thank you."
He was taken aback: "What?"
“I don’t know if everyone dislikes places without light, but I certainly don’t,” Ji Li said with a smile. “So thank you for bringing me out here.”
.
Just as we guessed at the beginning, the power outage didn't last long. After the two of them had their little tiff, the building behind them lit up almost as expected.
Ji Li made sure to turn off the lights in the music classroom and lock the door before returning to her own classroom.
As soon as I sat down, Jian Mingyuan leaned over and asked, "What good thing happened?"
Ji Li turned his head: "What?"
Jian Mingyuan pointed at him: "Otherwise, why would you be laughing so happily?"
Ji Li was taken aback.
Jian Mingyuan made a wild guess: "Because of a power outage? It was only for about twenty minutes, and even evening self-study wasn't canceled. Besides, you didn't come back at all during that time. Or did you get first place in the weekly test again?"
Ji Li didn't answer, but said instead, "The midterm exams are scheduled for next week."
Jian Mingyuan instantly lost interest in gossip: "So fast!"
Ye Ruhui suddenly interjected: "The betting has started on the forum."
What disk?
"I'm betting on whether Ji Li or Ying Yunsheng will be first in the grade in this midterm exam."
Jian Mingyuan looked bewildered: "One of them studied humanities and the other sciences, what's the point of comparing them?"
"The total scores are the same, so why can't we compare?" Ye Ruhui quietly checked the information on his phone. "The voting ratio is about nine to one, and Ji Li's is nine."
Jian Mingyuan was stunned: "Is that exaggerated? Ying Yunsheng also got first place once during the class placement exam, didn't he?"
"Ji Li got first place in the last monthly exam again."
"If they each won first place once, shouldn't the vote ratio be one to one now?"
“You can’t judge people’s hearts like that.” Ye Ruhui flipped through the pages. “Let me read you a few lines from an analysis post: ‘So what if you got first place in the class placement exam? Didn’t your subsequent monthly exam results prove that it was just luck that one time?’”
Ji Li put down his pen.
"Ying Yunsheng is clearly unbalanced in his studies. Chinese is the hurdle he can't overcome. As long as the school still tests Chinese, he is destined to be more than 20 points behind at the starting line."
“I admit he’s good at math and science, but what good is being good at that? If the teacher who sets the exam suddenly has a brain fart and makes the humanities exam a little harder, then it will be a complete disaster.”
"In comparison, Ji Li's good grades in all subjects are the key. Even if he falls off by chance, he will eventually return to the throne and push the opportunist off."
Jian Mingyuan frowned: "This is too..."
He thought for a long time but couldn't come up with a suitable adjective, while Ye Ruhui was not surprised: "Too much hostility?"
The simplicity is far from clear.
“It’s normal, just jealousy.” Ye Ruhui shrugged. “Back in the first year of high school, Ji Li was always the top student in the grade. Everyone was overshadowed by him and had the excuse that their opponents were not normal. Later, Ying Yunsheng came in first in the class placement exam, which proved from the side that others could not outperform Ji Li simply because they did not work hard enough. They could no longer blame their inaction on talent, so of course they would feel resentful.”
Jian Mingyuan blinked.
Ye Ruhui calmly put his phone away: "As for you, you're not at the level to be jealous of others, after all, you can't even pass my exams."
"Uh..." Unsurprisingly, the two started another round of pulling each other's hair.
The arts festival is scheduled after the midterm exams.
After finishing his homework each day, Ying Yunsheng would start flipping through a book repeatedly.
Meng Xing, who had been observing for several days, couldn't help but ask, "What are you looking at?"
Ying Yunsheng straightened the spine of the book, revealing the cover.
"Words on Poetry in the Human World"
Why are you looking at this?
"I want to improve my Chinese language score."
Meng Xing looked shocked: "So you're finally not satisfied with dominating the sciences and are starting to switch to the humanities?"
Chinese has always been a peculiar subject, specifically in that there is almost no difference in test scores between those who attend classes and those who don't. In science classes, Chinese is generally not valued, and there are always many students who spend their time doing practice problems during class.
Although Jian Mingyuan initially commented that Ying Yunsheng's score of 115 in the last monthly Chinese exam was poor for his grade ranking, it is undeniable that this score was indeed in the middle range in their class.
Ying Yunsheng hadn't originally planned to improve anything further, but unfortunately, when they gathered for rehearsal the day after the power outage, the other party brought him this book by Wang Guowei.
"To improve your Chinese language skills, you need to do two things: practice exercises and accumulate knowledge. There are no limits to accumulation; poems, novels, current affairs, and news can all be used as extracurricular reading material."
Thus began Ying Yunsheng's life of exploring the sea of books.
His reading volume is indeed lacking; previously it was due to a lack of opportunity, and later it was due to a lack of motivation. Improving his Chinese score is a long-term project. He has already memorized the required texts and mastered the problem-solving techniques taught by the teacher; anything more cannot be accomplished overnight. Rather than wasting time on this, he would be better off completing a couple more math tests.
On this point, Ji Li and his views diverged.
"If you can improve your Chinese, your overall score can definitely surpass mine."
Ying Yunsheng shook his head: "If you also choose science, I have no chance of outperforming you."
Why do you lack confidence in yourself?
"I have confidence in you."
“That’s a coincidence,” Ji Li said. “I’m also quite confident that you’ll surpass me.”
"Well……"
"Listen to me, improve your Chinese grades."
“Uh…” For a long time, Ying Yunsheng couldn’t understand why Ji Li cared so much about his Chinese. He was writing physics tests in Chinese class, and even his homeroom teacher wouldn’t say anything because the teacher knew that the rewards he could get from spending time on science subjects were much higher than those from Chinese.
It wasn't until later, when he finally finished reading the book and went to return it to the other party, that he asked about it.
Ji Li: "Rather than being good at one thing, I hope you can be omnipotent."
Ying Yunsheng was stunned.
“But what if I just don’t have the talent for it,” Ying Yunsheng slowly began, “and just can’t do it?”
Ji Li said, "You can do it."
Ying Yunsheng fell silent.
Ji Li waved her hand in front of his eyes: "Have you finished reading the previous books?"
Ying Yunsheng asked blankly, "Huh?"
Ji Li handed him a collection of short stories: "Read this one next."