252 On same page
“What about me?” An Xiulan jumped and waved at the two boys. “I wanna know my result too!”
Now that Han Zixin’s result was revealed, she wanted to know about hers too.
The two boys looked at the name above Han Zixin and grinned. They turned to look at her and asked, “How could Boss’s Barbie doll leave his company? You are still the second last ranked like last time.”
Han Zixin and An Xiulan looked at each other with teary eyes and hugged. “We passed half yearly exams.”
Han Zixin nodded his head. “En. We passed it. Now buy me lunch.”
An Xiulan smiled. “We will give ourselves treats for passing. Yahoo!”
When students were crying for less marks, these two were happy to maintain their scores. They didn’t need to top the school as long as they worked hard to keep their usual rank.
“Look at Lu Xuan’s result, “Orange said as he nudged Li Yu. He was very curious about Lu Xuan who had entered class A this year.
“Motherfucker! Sometimes I think Lu Xuan is your love interest, not Xin Ge’s.” Li Yu glared at Orange. His hate for Lu Xuan was still as green as ever.
Orange pouted cutely. “He is after all our sister-in-law.”
Li Yu huffed and puffed but didn’t say anything. What Orange said actually made sense. They began looking for his result in the top section where the results of Class A would be printed. It would be a rare chance when the student of Class A would score less marks and give their place in class to someone else. Those students were so obsessed with their ranks that they would forget sleep and food but never study.
Since Lu Xuan was in class A, his attitude towards study would have changed to match that of the class.
“Fuck? Rank 5th?” Orange looked at Li Yu in shock. “This is the power of our Xin Ge’s love. His love forced a bad boy to be a scholar.”
It was not easy to score fifth rank in the entire junior year. They had like one thousand students in junior year this year and Lu Xuan was in the top five. It was not an easy feat. It became even more miraculous when someone like Lu Xuan achieved this result.
“Double fuck, “Chen Xi Jun muttered, he was the third buddy of Han Zixin. He had come to check his result when he saw Orange and Li Yu in the crowd.
“What happened?” Wei Xiao Hua inquired. He made a bad face when Chen Xi Jun sprayed sanitizer on everyone and then at the result sheet. This germaphobe was still caring about catching germs.
“Genius Gu is not the topper this time, “Chen Xi Jun said in shock. He felt as if he was seeing things. How could Gu Shangyan’s name not be on the top of the list? There had to be something wrong with the list.
“The Hell? Who is it?” The three boys asked at the same time. They wanted answers and that too soon. Or they felt as if they would die out of curiosity.
“Li Sicheng!”
“So, the second topper is Genius Gu?” Wei Xiao Hua asked.
“No, Song Xueyun, ” Chen Xi Jun muttered as he looked at the second name on the list.
pᴀɴ-ᴅᴀ-ɴ0ᴠᴇʟ.ᴄᴏᴍ Li Yu looked at his friends with wide eyes and said, “He is the third ranker this time. What the hell?”
____
On the other hand,
“Are you worried?” Han Zixin asked An Xiulan.
“About?” An Xiulan asked as she stuffed a piece of chicken in her mouth. She couldn’t eat fried food to her heart’s content at home. As her mom made sure that she followed a diet properly. Although they couldn’t go out to the school premises to celebrate, they were in the cafeteria.
They also invited Shen Yue, the Humanities topper who scored a most perfect score. Since Shen Yue wasn’t a science student, her marks weren’t glorified like science students.
Everyone was discussing Li Sicheng but nobody said a word about Shen Yue who scored a full hundred in mathematics, history and geography. Other subject scores were perfect but they were way better than anyone.
Still, the disparity between science students and humanities students like her was huge.
“Gu Shangyan’s decreasing marks, “Han Zixin said as he looked at his best friend who was chewing food like a rabbit. She chewed like a rabbit but she had the stomach that of a pig. “The whole school is worried about him. They even went to the teacher to ask for a recheck.”
It was concerning how people were so obsessed with someone else’s grade. Gu Shangyan was the person every student and teacher expected to top every class.
“Yan Ge has a fever, “An Xiulan shrugged nonchalantly. “He was down with the flu during the exams.”
“How could no one know?” Han Zixin asked as he furrowed his brow.
“Thate because Yan Ge doesn’t like broadcasting about his health and problems, “An Xiulan replied in a duh tone. “Is third rank that bad? He is still my Yan Ge. The untouchable genius in my heart. If my Yan Ge is not amazing, how will Lu Xuan improve so quickly?”
To Han Zixin what she said made sense. Then again, even her nonsense talks made sense to him.
Also, if Gu Shangyan wasn’t even sick and his marks had decreased by a few points, nobody at home would have minded. After all, the children in her family weren’t forced to be over achievers.
“Song Xueyun went to see Yoona, “Han Zixin said after a while. “She is down with Flu too. Both Shangyan and Yoona had the flu and no one knew.”
It was ironic to him too. Although Yoona was An Xiulan’s friend, she didn’t have much news on her as Gu Shangyan did. Now both of them got sick at the same time. Han Zixin couldn’t help but wriggle his brows to make sense of this nonsense situation.
“This is not the flu season. How doesn’t she get sick?” An Xiulan asked as she looked at him in concern.
Han Zixin shrugged as if it made no sense to him.
“Nevermind, “An Xiulan said as her thoughts turned a little mischievous like her. “It’s not like Yan Ge and Yoona were sharing kisses like mom and uncle and shared their virus with each other.”
“Stop talking nonsense, “Han Zixin mumbled but the tips of his ears turned red. She needed to buy a filter for her mouth or one day she would cause trouble for both of them.
An Xiulan cheekily smiled at him and popped another chicken piece in her mind.
“The school is sad for Gu Shangyan. What about him?” Han Zixin asked.
“He must be annoyed with everyone giving him sympathetic looks. My Yan Ge doesn’t like people showing him too many emotions, “An Xiulan sighed.
____
“Cousin,”Zhou Liling came running when she saw Lu Xuan exiting the playground after his football practice. Nobody knew that she had been standing here for a long time just to see him. She passed him a water bottle and towel with a kind look on her face and said, “Congratulations.”
“Thank you, “Lu Xuan said, accepting the water bottle and towel. Everyone was congratulating today for his good scores.
Zhou Liling asked him a few questions about studies and he patiently replied to her because she was someone precious to his grandmother. Even though he understood that An Xiulan and Zhou Liling weren’t friends, he had to show his filial piety to his grandmother. If being polite to this girl meant his grandmother would be happy, he would try to do this.
“Cousin, do you know the new topper and Song Xueyun a thing now?” Zhou Liling asked when she saw that it was a good chance to strike.”Auntie Song was very happy to see her niece opening her heart to a boy.”
She said it in a way that made it sound as if Song Xueyun and Li Sicheng were a couple.
Lu Xuan furrowed his brow as he heard Zhou Liling. “The new topper? Li Sicheng?”
He had been so busy with football, studies and music classes that he had no knowledge of worldly affairs anymore. He didn’t recall the last time when he chatted with his friends on phone or played a video game. He was too occupied these days that he didn’t realise how days turned into nights.
Zhou Liling nodded her head innocently. “I thought you know. Li Sicheng is handsome and a genius. Even better than Gu Shangyan. They both are from middle class families and understand each other well.”
She made it clear that Song Xueyun couldn’t have anything with someone like Lu Xuan who was so above in the food chain. Song Xueyun was after all a daughter of a university professor while Lu Xuan was the son of a billionaire. How could Lu Xuan and Song Xueyun be on the same page?
It was her, Zhou Liling, that matched Lu Xuan in everything.