I Might Have Fallen in Love With My Childhood Sweetheart-Chapter 26 - 23 Failing the Exam Again

The very next day was Monday, and Qingran couldn't fall asleep until two or three in the morning.

Upon getting up the next morning, she felt a bit groggy, and Li Qingmo, with dark circles under his eyes, seemed even more out of it than her.

The cook, who had come to work the day before, was taken aback by the siblings' appearance that morning.

Li Qingmo sat at the dining table eating oatmeal porridge, the long-missed flavor woke up a third of his sleepiness, and he generously praised, "Aunt Liu, your cooking is still the best."

God knows how close to a breakdown he was from having to cook breakfast every day recently.

The siblings had grown up with Aunt Liu's help, and she had developed a great affection for them.

Aunt Liu smiled amiably and brought over two more dishes: "If it tastes good, eat more."

Qingran ate quickly and after saying goodbye to Aunt Liu, she grabbed her books and left.

Li Qingmo called after her with a muffled voice, "Hey, Qingran, aren't you going to wait for me?"

The school raises the national flag promptly at 7:30 every Monday.

At just ten past seven, Qingran had already arrived at school, with only a few students in the classroom.

Wen Shiyi had arrived even earlier than Qingran, and her eyes looked a bit swollen, perhaps from crying the night before, but she still smiled as she saw Qingran.

"Qingran, good morning."

"Good morning," Qingran nodded and replied with a smile.

Just as Qingran sat down at her desk, Wen Shiyi came over with two cell phones and set them down, "These are yours and Ruan Ruan's phones, my sister asked me to give them to you."

Qingran thanked her and tucked her phone into her bag. She pushed Ruan Ruan's phone towards Wen Shiyi: "You're Ruan Ruan's deskmate, you can give it to her when she arrives."

"Okay."

Around twenty past seven, they would need to go down to line up, and Ruan Ruan never came to the classroom on Mondays; she usually arrived just in time.

Xie Ying'an was tall and stood at the back of the line wearing a face mask.

At 161cm, Qingran was of average height among the female students, so she stood somewhere in the middle of the lineup.

The lineup of Class One was right next to that of Class Two, and Old Wu bumped into Class Two's homeroom teacher while patrolling, and the two middle-aged men started chatting excitedly at the back of the lines.

Snatches of their conversation about 'competition', 'student Ji Yanchen', and 'sure win' could be faintly overheard.

As expected, during the preparatory class, Old Wu announced the five students for the physics competition, who from then on had to spend an hour after school every day for joint study and discussion.

The expression on Xie Ying'an's face, hidden under his mask, visibly soured.

Old Wu, as empathetic as ever, finished his speech and even put on an amiable front asking if any of the students had objections.

The two students who volunteered shouted out that they had none.

Old Wu's face blossomed into a smile, and as his gaze swept around the classroom, he deliberately overlooked Xie Ying'an's raised hand, "Wen Shiyi, do you have any objections to staying in school for an extra hour of study?"

Wen Shiyi stood up hesitatingly shaking her head, "Teacher, I have no objections."

"Good, very good, please sit down," Old Wu cleared his throat and added, "Since none of the students have any objections, let's agree on this."

He then turned and left the classroom, walking at a brisker pace than his usual unhurried manner.

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Qingran glanced sideways at her deskmate Xie Ying'an.

Xie Ying'an put down his raised hand and listlessly flipped through a book, his long and straight eyelashes casting a shadow over his eyelids.

Aware of Qingran's gaze, Xie Ying'an looked up and, with his face concealed behind the mask, didn't appear as sulky as he had been.

In a playful mood, Qingran leaned on her desk and chuckled, "Congratulations!"

Xie Ying'an also leaned over the desk, his youthful voice carrying a hint of annoyance, "I'm not as smart as you."

Those words instantly wiped the smile off Qingran's face.

Even Xie Ying'an thought she had purposely done poorly on her physics exam, let alone others.

Qingran took out the Red Flower Oil and handed it to Xie Ying'an.

Xie Ying'an paused for a second, took the Red Flower Oil, and when he looked at Qingran again, she had already taken out her textbook to start studying in advance.

Unwittingly, his fingertips touched the bruised corner of his mouth beneath the mask, thinking she had not seen it under the dim light of the car last night, only to realize that she had noticed after all.

No one knew how those words that only Xie Ying'an heard – "your lips are very soft" – had dealt him a lethal blow; at that moment, all he could think of was an impulse to smash Song Shize's loose-talking mouth.

After class, Ruan Ruan ran over to tell Qingran that Song Shize had taken a week of extended leave.

Xie Ying'an was not present, so Ruan Ruan sat in his seat, covering her mouth with her hand as she laughed, "Wen Siqi said his front tooth was almost knocked out. Now that's really too embarrassing to show his face, haha!"

But Qingran couldn't smile. "How do you know about this?"

"It was Eleven who told me, she overheard her stepsister talking about this on the phone this morning."

Qingran furrowed her brows and didn't speak.

Ruan Ruan was still gleefully enjoying the moment by herself, "My Brother An is just too, too awesome!"

Qingran couldn't feel any joy at all. Song Shize's father was a well-known figure in F city, and he might not care about Song Shize's usual fighting, but this time Song Shize had been beaten so badly that he was hospitalized. Could Mr. Song really just sit back and do nothing?

Xie Ying'an clearly wasn't worried about this problem; in his view, having to stay an extra hour at school every day was the biggest annoyance at hand.

There were no math classes all morning, so Qingran's anxious mood continued until the afternoon.

During the first class of the afternoon, the math teacher came in with a stack of test papers, his expression not looking good.

Qingran had a bad premonition. When the test papers were handed down, her premonition was confirmed as the bright red number 96 made Qingran's hands shake uncontrollably as she held the paper.

Ever since starting high school, her worst math score had never dropped below 130 points. In her eyes, anything below 100 was a fail.

Today, she had achieved what, in her eyes, was a failing score.

The math teacher started to go over the last few major problems on the test, and before he explained, he had a few remarks: "A very small number of students really disappointed me this time. Over the winter break, I didn't ask you to take extra classes to improve your grades, but during this critical period, you should at least ensure that your grades don't drop..."

"Students, you only have a little over a year until the college entrance exam, do you understand what a decline in scores during this period means? I hope..."

Qingran pressed her lips tightly together, her eyes losing focus as she looked at the major problems.

She'd written down all the steps correctly, but the final answers she filled in were wrong.

The math teacher obviously saw the problem too, his red pen circling again and again over the steps she had written until ultimately marking a big cross.

This time, Qingran's math score was ranked thirty-fourth in the class, almost exactly matching the score of Li Qingran in the book.

Xie Ying'an took Qingran's test paper with surprise and looked at it carefully, pausing his finger on the answers several times.

Correct thought processes and steps, but the final answers written down seemed as if she had made the mistakes on purpose.

After reviewing once again, Xie Ying'an put her test paper back.

"It's nothing," he said, the comforting gaze from his dark eyes landing on Qingran, "One or two test scores don't represent anything."

Qingran did not look at him. Ever since the math scores were released, she had been immersed in her own world, struggling to extricate herself.

Her head throbbed again for a moment, a blurry swarm of memories rushing in. At the timely sound of the end-of-class bell, Qingran lay down half powerlessly on her desk.

The homeroom teacher, Old Wu, called out several students' names for a competition at the classroom door, but Xie Ying'an, seeing Qingran lying on the desk, completely ignored Old Wu's summons.

Qingran's unusual state had him somewhat worried: "Are you not feeling well? Should we go to the infirmary?"

Qingran struggled to wave her hand dismissively at him.

Wen Shiyi walked over, stopping by Xie Ying'an's desk, "Xie, the homeroom teacher asked us to step outside for a moment."

Then she looked towards Qingran, her voice carrying more curiosity than concern, "Qingran, are you alright?"

Qingran's headache intensified on hearing her voice.

"She's fine." Xie Ying'an stood up, gesturing for Wen Shiyi to go ahead: "Let's go."

The voices of the male and female protagonists connected the chaotic and tangled memories in Qingran's mind.

At the same time, in the same place, Li Qingran in the book also scored thirty-fourth in math. At that time, Xie Ying'an was not seated next to her.

This kind of score was nothing new for Li Qingran; once the math teacher had finished explaining, she emotionlessly crumpled her test paper up and stuffed it into her desk.

At the same end-of-class, Xie Ying'an and the transfer student, Wen Shiyi, were also called out by Old Wu. Seated in front of Li Qingran, Huang Qianyu watched their departing figures with a sneer.

She said, "The audacity of that transfer student is just too shameless. As if no one can tell she's interested in Xie Ying'an?"

Huang Qianyu's voice, neither too loud nor too soft, hit the disappointed Li Qingran like a dull thunder. Watching the two of them walking farther and farther away, jealousy sparked in her eyes.

Suddenly returning to her senses, Qingran sat up straight in her seat, enduring the headache.

Huang Qianyu's fake laughter with Sun Xin and the others was extremely grating. While they whispered amongst themselves, they still glanced over at Qingran from time to time, not needing a guess to know that Qingran's latest drop in grades had given them a great topic of mockery.

With an expressionless face, Qingran packed away her math books and prepared her English books for the next class.