"Alright, I forgive you. Next time, remember to let your mouth lag behind your brain a bit, okay?"

"Got it~"

"As a punishment, even if it rains at noon, you’re not allowed to come and pick me up."

Lin Li left with his umbrella anyway.

Behind him, seeing him off, was Chen Yu Ying with crescent-shaped eyes saying "Lin Li is so fun, I want to be with him forever," and Wang Yuezhi with glaring eyes saying "Damn Lin Li, why hasn’t he left yet."

The bond of the noon-time trio was still strengthening.

...

As the bell for the morning Chinese exam officially rang, Lin Li, having calculated the time perfectly, sauntered over to the door of class twenty unhurriedly.

He picked up a transparent bag with stationery, glanced at the hand-written "Lin Li" seating number at the door instead of a printed one, and then walked into the classroom.

"Sorry, teacher, I’m late."

There were no other students from class four in the classroom.

Not sure if the distribution of parallel classes considered grades, but the student quality of freshman class four was relatively high. Even the students with relatively lower grades in the class like Wang Ze and Xie Wenjing, who are both sports students, were in class nineteen and seventeen, respectively, not in class twenty.

But there were still some familiar faces.

His buddy from the sports meet, Du Hansi, was sitting in the classroom. Upon hearing Lin Li’s voice, he looked up with eyes full of surprise.

"Oh? Um, go ahead." The male invigilator nodded without giving a hard time to the late Lin Li.

— Because quite a few hadn’t arrived at this exam room yet.

Lin Li nodded at Du Hansi as a greeting, then sat in his seat, looking at the exam paper and answer sheet already on the desk, and started writing.

At this moment, a burly student sitting in front of Lin Li turned his head to look at him.

With an unfriendly look.

"What’s up?" Lin Li looked at the other person in confusion.

"Do you know my name?" the other asked lightly.

"No, I don’t."

Lin Li frowned slightly, wondering if he needs to build connections and pay respects just to take the last exam? So domineering? If he doesn’t pay respect, will he run into trouble?

Frankly, Lin Li wasn’t scared at all—the human race couldn’t scare him anymore. In fact, Lin Li was somewhat looking forward to the other party’s tactics.

However, contrary to Lin Li’s expectations, the other person wasn’t angry after hearing this, just nodded, then got up and left.

Lin Li’s eyes followed the guy closely, still somewhat expectant inside.

Maybe he’s going to call for backup.

"What are you doing? The exam just started; you can’t submit and leave."

The invigilator who was already sitting on the platform playing on his phone looked up upon hearing the footsteps, frowned, and scolded.

The guy scratched his head awkwardly: "Teacher, I forgot how to write my name, I want to check the seating chart."

Lin Li: "(;☉_☉)?"

The invigilator, still holding his phone, waved his hand in resignation, signaling him to hurry up.

Soon, the guy returned to his seat, writing furiously.

After finishing, he turned around with his answer sheet, pointing at the name column—a scrawled "Lin Yi Feng" was written.

Lin Yi Feng: "Bro, this is my name, help me remember it. If I forget again in the next exam, remind me how to write it."

Lin Li: "(;☉_☉)?"

F*ck!!

Lin Li suddenly pinched his fingers, realizing the person sitting in front of him is legitimately the last rank in Nansang Middle School’s grade level.

Seeing the real deal in person!

Apparently, what Lin Yi Feng had said earlier—"Do you know my name?"—wasn’t a tough guy act at all, just genuinely asking how to write his name!

At this moment, Lin Li felt this first place was well-deserved, as genuine as his own first place in the grade—an equally high-ranking achievement.

"Got it, Brother Lin!" Lin Li nodded heavily, a hint of respect in his tone: "I’ll take care of it, I can read!"

"Thank you." Lin Yi Feng said politely, then turned back to continue working on his exam paper.

Lin Li intended to lower his head and focus on the exam, but out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a boy in the upper right corner sneakily pulling out his phone.

Sighing, Lin Li figured it eventually came to this. Pretending it wasn’t happening was pointless now; he should think about how to report it.

Then he saw it.

The guy observing the invigilator.

The guy looking down.

The guy unlocking his phone.

The guy turned his phone sideways.

—"TIMI!"

The guy jumped in surprise, frantically pressing the volume down button while looking up at the invigilator.

Lin Li: "(;☉_☉)?"

What?

What kind of plot twist is this?

He wasn’t searching for answers, he was finding ’timi’?

This familiar sound sparked laughter among the crowd in the exam room, everyone looking toward the sound to find out which idiot was careless enough to not check the volume control on their phone.

As for the invigilator...

Sitting on the platform, phone in right hand, left hand rubbing his head, though the "TIMI" sound had been going on for two seconds, he still had no intention of looking at the exam room.

The Imperial Tutor saw the true dragon, Lin Li saw the truly deaf one, Lin Li’s ear was more impressive than the Imperial Tutor’s.

In turn, everyone got even more excited:

"Who is it, bring me in, I’m a small local Sima Yi!"

"CPDD, you’re the only one!"

"Anyone playing ’Tomorrow’s Ark’?"

The commotion finally caught the invigilator’s attention. He lifted his head, looked at the class, and tapped the podium with the chalk box, loudly scolding:

"Don’t make noise, everyone quiet down, stop whispering to each other. Can you learn from Wang Yixiang, who just sleeps without disturbing other classmates!"