Study Monster Cultivation System
Chapter 212 - 211 again?

As time went on, the atmosphere on the scene didn’t ease at all.

It was 11:47 AM when Lin Yujing finished her experiment and began to organize the table and reset all the instruments to their original positions.

Two minutes later, Li Zheng also finished filling out his part.

The two worked silently for a few more minutes, then restored the experiment table to its original state, as if nothing had happened.

When they finished and looked up.

They realized that Fu Xuefeng was sneakily packing up a rack in front of the table and then dashed out.

Turning around, they also noticed Zhang Tao and Ding Ying pretending to turn around casually to monitor the test.

Li Zheng always felt that something was off...

Looking at the others.

The battle had become even more fierce.

Although no one was openly snatching from others, a messy table was inevitable and their expressions were all quite grim.

Someone asked their teammate irritably if they had finished using something.

Another person, frustrated, haphazardly set a used measuring instrument back to a scale.

Yet another person guarded their own area, not letting their teammates see anything.

To turn a simple game into such a situation, it was hard to understand what they were thinking.

Later, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing both submitted their lab reports and left early to have lunch.

...

Since they had been eating with Qi Yingnan and Duan Peipei the previous days, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing couldn’t talk about deeper topics. This time they finally got a chance for a private meal.

With no outsiders and no teachers around, such opportunities were indeed rare.

The two tacitly got their food and quietly found a corner. Ensuring no one was paying attention, they sat side by side, getting closer and closer, and their hearts fluttered more and more.

Finally, they talked about—

Ji University!

No choice, in Jinghua’s cafeteria, discussing this had to be secretive; otherwise, they might get beaten up.

"Don’t get fooled by Teacher Zhang," Lin Yujing carefully scrutinized the surroundings, whispering at an extremely low volume, "I asked my mom, to study physics you must go to Ji University."

"So you were going to say this too," Li Zheng was also very alert, though the feeling was brilliant, he still didn’t dare to look around recklessly, only whispering, "Yes, I also asked Wu Shu, it can’t be anywhere but Ji University. You see, I’m even using the contrapositive to speak—the conclusion has to be true."

Lin Yujing, however, didn’t care about any proposition, merely asking simply, "Who is Wu Shu?"

"You don’t know her? Last year’s IPho gold medalist, the only goddess in the circle."

"Wait..." Lin Yujing then took out her phone, and quickly found a photo of Wu Shu.

From the photo, this girl appeared carefree, elegant, yet cool.

You would never guess that she was actually kind-hearted and couldn’t resist old jokes.

Then Lin Yujing put away the phone and instinctively cursed, "Jerk."

"Go to hell, am I a jerk for teasing a cat?"

"Yes."

"Fine, fine," Li Zheng grunted, "When I get back, I’m going to have Jingjing... Wang Cai neutered."

"What has Jing... What does it have to do with this?"

"It’s about to cause trouble, better to neuter it in advance."

"Don’t...," Lin Yujing was so frightened, she dropped her chopsticks, "Let it live out a full cat life."

"I see, then I’ll just pair it with some tomcat, and wouldn’t that solidify me as a jerk again?"

"That wouldn’t be being a jerk."

Li Zheng clapped his hands together, "Then what happens if it has kittens?"

"Keep them," Lin Yujing picked up her chopsticks and nodded, "Not keeping them would be the jerk move, keeping them wouldn’t."

"But..." Li Zheng slapped his chopsticks down immediately, "If Jingjing has a litter of seven or eight, all climbing on me, will I be able to study anymore?"

"It’s Wang Cai!"

"No matter, Jingjing is easier to say, I’ve been annoyed with the name Wang Cai for a long time," Li Zheng firmly raised his hand, "You should stop meddling with this issue, neutering is decided, I just don’t trust the vet facilities much. It would be better if my dad could do the surgery."

Since Jingjing was currently being raised by Li Zheng, Lin Yujing didn’t press further, only asked softly, "Do you really dislike kittens that much?"

"Not at all, playing with them occasionally is very nice," Li Zheng shook his head and picked his chopsticks up again, "The problem is, aside from playing, there’s caring for their feeding, excretion, and being surrounded by so many cats all day, it would affect my studies too much—a loss I can’t afford."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yujing relaxed a bit and slowly stirred the food on her plate, "What if... there was just one?"

"It’s unlikely. With Jingjing’s breed, the expected number in a litter is three," Li Zheng pursed his lips and shook his head, "I’ve fed her so well, I’m afraid even five could be possible."

"But what if there’s only one?" Lin Yujing pressed.

"I don’t dare to bet on that," Li Zheng chuckled, "You know how expected values work."

Lin Yujing clenched her chopsticks angrily, her mind circling before swiftly figuring out how to communicate with Li Zheng.

"You don’t understand logical propositions." Lin Yujing chose the language of mathematics, "My question is, assuming Wang Cai only has one offspring, would Li Zheng sterilize it?"

"Hmm..." Li Zheng finally started to ponder seriously, and after a moment, he shook his head, "I would still do it. I’m going to university next year, and Jingjing and her kittens could only be left to my parents. I don’t want it to be too troublesome."

Lin Yujing immediately followed up, "What if you are a day student and live at home?"

"No, why do you have so many assumptions?" Li Zheng waved his hand irritably, "If you insist on letting Jingjing give birth, just take all the kittens to your house."

"How could you do that, don’t you have any feelings for them?"

"They’re not my kids."

"Scum!" Lin Yujing, furious, stood up with her tray and moved to the nearby dining table in a few steps.

"???" Li Zheng was confused again.

Why does he always end up being the scum?

Women are probably like this; once they label someone a scum, they can create millions of absurd reasons to support it.

...

At half past one in the afternoon, the whole class returned to the lab.

The dark battle was over, and now everyone was back to their friendly selves, chatting and laughing about the morning’s test questions.

"Teacher Fu said this is semifinal-level difficulty."

"Yeah, Teacher Ding said too, if the rematch is these questions, getting half the score would be enough for the provincial standard."

"Ah, I don’t know if they’ve finished grading our papers... I’d be happy with thirty or forty points."

"Modest, brother, I’d be happy with just ten or twenty..."

In this joyous atmosphere, no one mentioned the matter of signing contracts.

But inside, the expectation for the contracts grew more and more intense.

Most people hid this anticipation, but Qi Yingnan had it practically written all over his face.

The typically bright and forthright Qi Yingnan had hardly eaten any lunch and had returned early to the classroom to read.

But he hadn’t absorbed a single word from the book; his mind was filled with contracts, and his face showed his anxiety.

Once Duan Peipei settled in the classroom, seeing Qi Yingnan in this state, she couldn’t help advising him, "It’s all done, don’t think too much about it. If there are contracts, there are; if not, so be it. Anyway, you’re sure to at least make it to the provincial selections in the rematch."

"Yes, thank you..." Qi Yingnan said, staring blankly at the book in his hand, "And thank you for letting me during the experiment just now..."

"It’s no big deal. I could feel that the teachers had no intention of signing me..." Duan Peipei relaxed her body, breathing a sigh of relief, "Before coming to this class, I felt like everything was a must-win, carrying the idol’s burden... Now it doesn’t matter anymore, I’ll just do my thing, step by step. Some people are just uncatchable no matter what, even if I had ten more lives, I couldn’t catch up."

Her words struck a chord with Qi Yingnan.

He too smiled and closed his book, "Actually, me too. Before this training class, I only admired Wu Shu. I felt that it took ten years for someone like her to appear, and I could accept losing to her... Now it seems, I just didn’t know many people, haha."

"You shouldn’t think that way, at least you score over 80 on theory." Duan Peipei couldn’t help but look towards the seat by the window, "If this time the experiment counts towards the score, your total is likely higher than those two."

"Stop, you’re making me anxious again..." Qi Yingnan laughed, "Think about it... they both have contracts... if I don’t, that would be really upsetting..."

Suddenly, a pair of hands clapped down.

"What’s there to be upset about." Li Zheng chortled, "Isn’t the college entrance exam great? Being able to choose any school, any program, isn’t that the coolest thing?"

"Get lost!" Qi Yingnan gave a hearty shove with a cosmos-shifting push, "My other subjects are terrible, I wouldn’t make the top 500 in the Western Market District."

After steadying himself, Li Zheng laughed, "Hey, I’m no match for you. I was beyond the 1000th place in the middle school exams."

"You were beyond 1000?" Duan Peipei turned to ask, "Then how did you end up at Lake Ying? You could’ve almost gone to the Normal University Affiliated School, right?"

"Mainly because it’s close to home." Li Zheng smoothed his clothes and smiled, "Besides, it’s kind of tough being at the bottom at Normal University Affiliated."

"Haha!" Qi Yingnan laughed heartily, "So you just wanted to be a big fish in a small pond at Lake Ying?"

"... It’s close to home."

As they were talking, Lin Yujing who had gone to get her water bottle drifted by.

Qi Yingnan then teased Li Zheng, "So you didn’t even manage to become the big fish?"

"Shut up." Li Zheng put on a stern face and turned away abruptly, "Who knew... her house is even closer."

"That really makes no sense..." Qi Yingnan pressed on, "So what was her rank in the middle school exams?"

"I don’t know." Li Zheng waved his hands repeatedly, "I’m not very familiar with Lin Yujing."

"Dude..." Qi Yingnan suddenly grew inexplicably annoyed, "I’ve told you, don’t keep acting all the time..."

"Is this also acting???" Li Zheng was utterly confused about the scale of acting.

"Right." Qi Yingnan turned and asked, "Peipei, what was your rank in the middle school exams?"

He didn’t know that Duan Peipei had been waiting a long time for this question.

But when she answered, her tone was nonchalant as she casually flicked her hair, "67."

Qi Yingnan was not surprised by such rankings; after all, No. 4 Middle School dominated the Western Market District, and at least 90 out of the top 100 in the district were from No. 4.

"Strong." Li Zheng truly admired and nodded, then casually asked, "How many students are there in the district altogether?"

"Six or seven thousand, I guess." Duan Peipei still spoke casually, "Anyway, I’ll know by the end of this term. My goal is the top 50."

Qi Yingnan nodded along, "My goal is the top 500."

"My goal is... top 5?" Li Zheng grimaced, seemingly troubled, and said, "Does this count as showing off?"

"Yes!"

"Get out of here!"

Li Zheng had no choice but to leave, returned to his desk, and asked Lin Yujing, who was busy arranging the desktop to create a comfortable environment for resting, "By the way, what rank did you get in the middle school exam?"

"Should be first I guess." Lin Yujing’s reply was truly casual.

"Hmm..." Li Zheng sighed and asked, "Does that mean you might have gotten second or third?"

"That’s unlikely." Lin Yujing had finished setting up and happily lay down, "I don’t remember ever getting second."

"..."

In Li Zheng’s mind, a classic scene echoed.

What the fuck counts as showing off?

What, the fuck, counts, as showing off?

What!! The fuck!! Counts!! As showing off?!

...

Soon, three teachers entered the room, and the two class presidents were reluctantly helping to distribute test papers.

Although Li Zheng wasn’t interested in other people’s experiment scores, since the scores were written next to the names, he still ended up noticing a few.

The full score was one hundred, many scored in the thirties and forties, a few scored above seventy, and Yingnan Qi still had eighty-one.

It’s worth mentioning that although Peipei Duan was modest, she still achieved a good score of seventy-two.

But the scores weren’t announced or ranked, and although Yingnan Qi was confident that he had secured first place, he couldn’t possibly ask each person individually.

But asking one person was always possible.

So, after distributing the test papers, Yingnan Qi bowed his head, sneaked into the aisle with a sly look, risking being reprimanded by the teacher, and approached Li Zheng.

"Bro, what rank did I get exactly..."

"Is it that important?" Li Zheng asked, sitting upright in his original spot.

"Your mother, hurry up..."

Li Zheng couldn’t bear teasing him any longer and immediately responded, "Third."

"???" Yingnan Qi’s expression darkened, "Who’s in front of me? Song Yan? Liu Hongyu?"

"It’s me."

"..."

"Yes." Li Zheng patted Yingnan Qi on the head, "This time, I’m really showing off."

While they were talking, Zhang Tao raised his hand, "Alright, everyone back to your seats. For the last class, I’ll explain this experiment to you."

Upon hearing this, Yingnan Qi dejectedly dragged himself back to his seat with a long face.

This is not scientific...

Aren’t we just an experimental training class?

Playing house and still taking first place?

Zhang Tao quickly responded to him.

"To use an inappropriate metaphor, sharing a lab bench by two people is just like playing house."

Yingnan Qi stumbled and collapsed onto his seat.

Your mother...

So Fu Xuefeng was assimilated?

Has Zhang Tao also been assimilated by you guys?

At the front, Zhang Tao gestured as he spoke.

"In this experiment, I saw some students competing, and some students yielding, just like the situations in homes, where some families argue and some have clear distinctions in roles."

"This is all unhealthy."

"Only when two people cooperate wholeheartedly, can they maximize both results and happiness."

"Indeed, the highest scores in this experiment were ninety-five, two scores of ninety-five, tied for first."

The whole room paused.

Again????

Enough already.

Again your mother?

Shocked and sorrowful, they also had the same doubt as Yingnan Qi.

This is not scientific...

Are we just competing in playing house?

Zhang Tao smiled and raised his hand:

"I understand everyone’s doubts."

"I also know that these two students started with very low experience levels."

"But the fact is that they improved rapidly within this one week, to an extent that even I don’t quite understand."

"Considering the previous theoretical test papers, I can only admit."

"Some people are just born for physics."

"Being the cream of the crop here, it’s probably hard to accept."

"You might wonder, did they collaborate on the same experiment? Did they write the same results?"

"Or perhaps, did they secretly look up some information?"

"I know some people do."

"But they didn’t."

"Further words are useless, please watch."

As Zhang Tao finished speaking, he waved his hand, and Fu Xuefeng promptly turned on the projector, proficiently launching a video player.

Although the video headline was dark, the play list beside it was clear—

"Angel’s Touch My Side"

"My Little Sister Is a Dry Material!"

"The Work of Dragon King"

"Light Music Girl"

"Love Live! Sunshine!!"

...

Oh no!

Everyone became silent.

A public execution, a social death.

Fu Xuefeng’s face turned red, panic closing the play list, the whole person unnerved, asking with a trembling voice, "Ah... Teacher Ding, how do I use this computer... where is the file stored?"

"What?" Ding Ying asked, puzzled, "You’ve been using this computer for three years and still don’t know?"

Fu Xuefeng looked aggrieved, silently took the mouse, and spoke no more.

Can’t you just play along... just once?

With a heavy heart, Fu Xuefeng opened the video named Li Zheng Lin Yujing.AVI.

Swish!

The experimental station of Li Zheng and Lin Yujing appeared on the screen.

At that moment, even Li Zheng was wide-eyed.

The whole process recorded?

So, Fu Xuefeng was collecting the camera stand at that time?

Zhang Tao wasn’t about to give him a chance to be surprised and immediately said.

"In this experiment, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing coordinated perfectly."

"There’s no such double collaboration content in the standard experimental video teachings."

"Therefore, our afternoon class will be based on their experimental video for explanations."

"There are many parts in it that are worth savoring."

"I suggest everyone avoid dozing off, not missing a second, or you won’t understand what follows."

"Let’s start the video, Teacher Fu."

Suddenly, just when they least expected it, "Playing House HD Version" was released!

The video officially began, with a forced exposure.

Watching their elegant techniques, and their unconstrained postures.

One person giving flirtatious looks, the other brimming with tender feelings.

The faces of everyone in the class drooped down one after another.

It’s just too damn cruel...

Not only locking the dog away but also holding down the eyelids and pinching the heads, forcing everyone to watch the entire thing.

Although, everyone was very eager to learn new experimental methods.

But this...

They just couldn’t learn it...