I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart
Chapter 77 - 73 Staying at Your House

Chapter 77: Chapter 73 Staying at Your House

Qingran set a new goal for herself at the end of the term.

Surpass Xie Ying’an and become the top student in the second year of high school.

This challenge was indeed daunting, and from today, she decided to put more effort into her studies.

Old Wu had recently told Mr. Li that Qingran’s grades had slipped drastically, urging him to pay more attention to his child. It turned out that in less than a month, their assumptions were proven wrong.

To express his apologies, Old Wu had already sent Qingran’s grades to Mr. Li via text message. Upon receiving the message, Mr. Li was so pleased that he left his clients and rushed home before six o’clock.

It could be said that just as Qingran got home, Mr. Li arrived shortly after.

Li Qingmo hadn’t returned home by eight o’clock in the evening, and Mr. Li, worried, gave him a call.

The call connected quickly; Li Qingmo said he was held back by the teacher for extra lessons and wouldn’t be able to return until nine o’clock.

After hanging up, Mr. Li remembered he had forgotten to ask how Li Qingmo performed in his exams.

But he knew that his son usually performed better than his daughter. The siblings had always had a fierce silent rivalry over their grades. He guessed that Li Qingmo wouldn’t have topped the class this time, right?

Then again, he thought, if his son had done well in the exams, would he still be held back for extra lessons so late?

Mr. Li felt awkward asking Qingran how her brother performed, fearing that if Li Qingmo actually was the top student, it would be awkward for Qingran.

Mr. Li had come home early intending to take his children out for dinner, but with his son not back and his daughter unwilling to go out, he had no choice but to return to his study to work.

At seven in the evening, Qingran was doing her workbook in her room when she received a WeChat call from Ruan Ruan.

Her voice was irrepressibly excited: "Ranran, hurry and check the school forum, hurry."

After that, she hung up, leaving Qingran puzzled.

Qingran didn’t have time to browse the school forum; she was still battling with chemistry questions. She only stopped writing after completing the study unit, and it was already 9:33 PM.

She stretched lazily and then turned on her phone to check.

Ruan Ruan had sent several links. Qingran clicked on them one by one; the first one was a reply from Song Shize to someone else’s post, reading: "Do you want to be slapped on the left cheek or the right cheek, or both at the same time? Young master’s fists are ready."

Below was a long plea for mercy, roughly meaning he had been misled by the rhythm, not intending to provoke, begging for forgiveness.

Song Shize, notorious for not letting anyone off the hook once he had the upper hand, would hardly bother reading the other person’s reply.

Qingran didn’t bother with the links Ruan Ruan had sent; she went directly onto the school forum.

The school forum was in complete chaos, a situation not even purely described by the mess it was in. The moderators Fang Jin and Ji He didn’t bother to intervene.

The original poster was revealed to be Yang Xuetin from Class Two of Year Two.

The replies varied in their treatment of Yang Xuetin; many said that she was jealous because Qingran had consistently outperformed her, and upon hearing Qingran’s grades had slipped, she initiated this betting thread.

Furthermore, Yang Xuetin’s bet was that Qingran couldn’t make it into the top ten of the grade.

Previously, the public opinion was swayed by students from Class Two of Year Two. Those who lost the bet directed their anger at the entire class, even accusing them of having ill-intentions.

Qingran couldn’t be bothered to read those replies; she exited that post and casually opened another one.

This other post accused Teacher Liu from Class Two of Year Two, questioning how she could mislead other students by using a student as a negative example when she wasn’t clear about the student’s actual performance,

Such a person, how is she qualified to teach?

Since this post concerned a teacher, the replies below were few and far between.

Most posts in the school forum were cries of dismay, along with posts from students who lost the bet, seeking companions to clean together.

Scrolling further down, the posts were mostly from about two hours ago, for instance:

"Jealousy makes me ugly."

"I will never again believe that a top student’s grades could inexplicably drop."

"Why do top students make getting into the top ten of the grade seem like a breeze? And here I am, struggling harder than eating dung just to make it into the top two hundred?"

...

Qingran exited the school forum, intending to message Ruan Ruan.

But a message from Xie Ying’an on WeChat came first.

X: Are you asleep?

Qingran replied, "Not yet."

The messaging bar started showing "Typing...," but Qingran had no idea what Xie Ying’an was typing. He was typing for over ten minutes without sending anything.

Qingran yawned, decided to ignore Xie Ying’an, and figured it was almost 10 PM; she should go to bed.

Before Qingran could put down her phone, another WeChat call came through, this time a video call from her older cousin Liu Luoxi.

She answered, and Liu Luoxi’s magnified face appeared on the screen.

"Ranran?" Liu Luoxi’s voice was intentionally lowered: "Are you already asleep? What time is it?"

Tsk, this internet addict usually plays games until the wee hours of the morning.

"It’s ten, cousin." Qingran covered her mouth and yawned again.

"Okay, okay," Liu Luoxi quickly covered the camera: "Don’t yawn at me, haha, yawning is contagious, and I still have several rounds of games to play."

Qingran: "..."

Liu Luoxi removed her hand from the camera and asked Qingran, "By the way, did you forget about the thing you promised me last time?"

"What..." Qingran quickly realized, "Cousin, are you talking about our exam papers?"

"Right, right," Liu Luoxi nodded vigorously on the screen: "Remember to photograph each exam paper and fill in the answers, the correct ones. Our school is also starting midterms this week, ahhh, so annoying?"

Listening to her complain, Qingran replied, "...Okay, I will send them to you later."

Liu Luoxi laughed heartily, "Thanks, little cousin."

Then she hung up before Qingran could even respond.

Qingran didn’t know what to say about this cousin. Liu Luoxi’s grades were actually not bad previously, but ever since she started getting addicted to gaming, her grades had plummeted.

Eventually, she even gave up on her own academic performance.

Resignedly, Qingran got up to dig out the exam papers from her bag to send to Liu Luoxi, even though she knew that Liu Luoxi’s school would definitely not have the same exam questions as those of F High School.

Still, Liu Luoxi didn’t believe it.

After she sent all the photos of the papers, Qingran saw the message Xie Ying’an had been typing for so long.

X: My mom and dad went on a business trip together.

X: Sister An has left too, and we haven’t found a suitable new maid yet.

X: I might need to stay at your place for a while.

Qingran was used to it; Xie Ying’an’s parents often went on business trips and he would stay at her place for a while.

She replied with a simple: "Okay."

But really, it took him over ten minutes to type those twenty or thirty words?

Qingran had seen how fast he could type, and normally, he could have knocked those out in a minute.

She didn’t wait for a reply from Xie Ying’an; she placed her phone on the nightstand, turned off the bedroom lights, closed her eyes, and went to sleep.

The phone screen flickered a few more times, and the room was completely quiet.

The girl on the bed had already fallen deep into her dreams.