Chapter 47: Inferior to Others, Yet Arrogant

Monday noon was another day of howling cold winds, save for the absence of heavy clouds in the sky, allowing sunlight to spill over the people and bring a touch of warmth.

After finishing lunch, Lu You and Li Yu were walking back to their classroom.

Li Yu asked, "There's a grade assembly this afternoon. Are you going to give a speech on stage?"

"Don't even mention it," Lu You said with a grimace. "I didn't hear the head teacher mention anything about going on stage last night. I only found out just now when my deskmate asked me if I had prepared anything."

"Oh ho! What are you going to do then?"

"Wing it! When I get on stage later, I'll just say whatever comes to mind. It's not like the school can expel me."

As they chatted, the two reached the foot of the teaching building and noticed a crowd of students gathered around the bulletin board.

"Holy shit! Is this guy a freak? Mathematics and physics aside, how the hell do you get a perfect score in English?"

"His science ranking score crushed the second-place runner-up by over ten points!"

"Good grief!"

...

Li Yu nudged Lu You with his elbow and teased, "Freak, people are talking about you."

Lu You maintained a calm expression and said, "Let them talk. Aside from the people in our own class, barely anyone knows me."

"You really think so?"

"Isn't it true?" Lu You looked at him in confusion.

"Of course not," Li Yu explained. "Not to mention other classes, at least all the girls in Class 2 recognize you. Plus, after this midterm exam, the guys probably do too."

"How do you know? I didn't notice anything unusual when I was waiting for you in Class 2." Lu You still found it hard to believe.

"Just take a look at the school's online forum and you'll know. You might not be among the most trending topics, but your recognition isn't low either."

Lu You narrowed his eyes, rubbed his chin, and said, "Not the most trending? Could there be many people handsomer than me?"

Li Yu: (≖_≖)

Though he hated to admit it, Lu You was indeed the best-looking guy Li Yu had ever seen in real life.

"It's mostly because you keep a low profile and haven't done anything particularly flashy. Even when you sang during military training, you were wearing the training uniform, so others couldn't see what you actually looked like. Plus, there are no photos of you on the forum. No matter how handsome you are, it's just rumors passed around by others—how could it generate massive traction?"

Lu You thought about it and realized it was indeed as Li Yu said; most of his time was buried in studying, leaving him no spare energy to care about external matters.

"Fair enough."

"Let's go. Let's check the score sheet; I still don't know how you did in your other subjects."

With that, Li Yu walked toward the crowd, closely followed by Lu You.

Squeezing to the front of the crowd, the two could clearly see the scores and rankings on the leaderboard.

Looking at Lu You's score sitting firmly at the top of the science rankings, Li Yu sighed, "Tsk tsk, your scores are practically inhuman."

Total score 724: Chinese 128, Mathematics 150, English 150, Physics 110, Chemistry 98, Biology 88.

"It's alright," Lu You said dismissively, his gaze lingering on the third-place entry—Tang Wan's scores.

Total score 700: Chinese 138, Mathematics 136, English 145, Physics 102, Chemistry 94, Biology 85.

In second place was the top scorer from the high school entrance exams, a boy named Deng Rui, with a total score of 708.

Lu You compared Tang Wan's scores with Deng Rui's. The gap between them was not large; while there was an 8-point difference in their total scores, they traded blows across individual subjects. It was entirely possible their rankings would swap by the final exams.

Dragging his gaze further down, he found Li Yu's name in fifth place with a total score of 698, and Xu Nian's name in eleventh place with a total score of 690.

Lu You asked Li Yu, "Xu Nian's science scores are pretty good too. Will she choose the science track next semester?"

"Yes," Li Yu replied. "Her total score is in the top fifty of the grade, and her science scores alone rank eleventh in the grade. Looking at her grades, choosing science is definitely the better option. Besides, she constantly complains about how nobody in their right mind studies politics and history, so she's practically locked into science."

"It looks like the four of us will be in the same class next semester, then."

"Seems like it!" Li Yu's eyes lit up. "Looks like you weren't messing with me when you mentioned us being in the same class at the start of term. But there will be two elite classes for both arts and science after the streaming. Do you need to pull strings through your dad?"

"Pulling strings for a baseline placement, sure. Since it's just shuffling students between two key classes, it shouldn't be a problem."

"Tell me, will you be able to get this kind of score on the college entrance exam?"

"Unlikely. This is just half a semester's worth of high school content, so getting this score is no big deal. For the college entrance exam, there are far too many knowledge points covering a wide scope, making it very easy to lose points."

...

Meanwhile.

After finishing lunch, Tang Wan and Xu Nian found a pavilion to rest and chat.

Thinking of the score sheet she had seen downstairs before lunch, Xu Nian said to Tang Wan, "I never expected Lu You's science scores to be so savage. Did you anticipate this beforehand?"

"Not at all," Tang Wan shook her head, denying it. "I only just found out he was this formidable. Li Yu even said before that his grades weren't good and that he only knew how to do circus tricks."

Recalling her impression of Lu You since the start of the term, Xu Nian couldn't help but sigh, "Not only is he good-looking and great at singing, but his grades are also this terrifying. This is getting close to inhuman."

Hearing the first part, Tang Wan felt an inexplicable surge of pride, but she didn't like the latter half of the sentence.

"What do you mean inhuman? He hasn't done anything bad."

"Fine, fine," Xu Nian surrendered immediately, refusing to argue with her. "Lu You is a good guy, a good guy. It's just me who doesn't know how to talk."

"That's more like it."

"So, after he walked you home last night, did the two of you make any progress?"

The words Lu You said yesterday surfaced in her mind, turning Tang Wan's face into a blossoming peach blossom. Too embarrassed to reveal the actual situation, she said guiltily, "N-no progress... we just chatted normally."

"Hmph~ Is that so?" Xu Nian narrowed her eyes, applying pressure with a skeptical look.

Unable to withstand the sting of her gaze, Tang Wan could only truthfully confess a part of it: "H-he... he asked me to share a desk with him next semester."

"Huh?" Xu Nian was unhappy now. "Wanwan, you didn't agree, did you?"

Tang Wan nodded and said, "I did. Do I have any reason to refuse?"

"Then what about me? What am I supposed to do? You're just abandoning me like this?"

Xu Nian kept pointing at herself, unable to believe that she was being cast aside for a boy.

That's right, what about Niannian?

Tang Wan only now remembered that she still had a best friend.

"Why don't you go look for Li Yu?"

"Who would want to look for that dog!" Xu Nian said, gritting her teeth. "All he does every day is tick me off. If I sit with him, we'd probably fight every single class."

"Huh? Isn't it you unilaterally beating him up? Aside from the first couple of times when you said it hurt, it doesn't look like Li Yu has ever fought back, right?"

"Uh..." Hearing this, Xu Nian's cheeks flushed slightly, and she felt too embarrassed to keep speaking ill of Li Yu. "I... I didn't even hit him hard."

"Isn't it just because your strength is that pitiful?" Tang Wan continued to roast her. "Your arms are as soft as dough. Other girls pretend they can't open bottle caps, but when it comes to you, it's actually true. Let alone push-ups, you can't even do ten sit-ups. If Li Yu weren't letting you win, you would've collapsed long ago, yet you still talk trash about him."

Xu Nian pouted and protested unconvinced, "Who told him to always go against me?"

"Fine." Tang Wan didn't want to dwell on it anymore. "You guys know your own business; I'm staying out of it. Let's head back to the classroom. I have to go on stage to speak this afternoon."

...

Two-thirty in the afternoon.

The entire freshman grade brought their classroom chairs out to line up in front of the assembly hall on the sports ground.

Inside the hall, quite a few school leaders had already taken their seats, and several student union members were walking back and forth.

Out on the playground, the students from various classes had arrived one after another. Their respective monitors were tallying headcounts and maintaining order.

Lu You and Yuan Wenliang came to the side of the hall to make preparations before going on stage.

This grade assembly would feature the school awarding prizes for the top ten overall in the grade, as well as the top scorer in each individual subject. Therefore, Tang Wan, Li Yu, and several other students from Classes 1 and 2 were present.

Among the ten people standing at the front—six boys and four girls—two were people Lu You knew, and one was someone he merely recognized.

Exchanging a glance with Tang Wan, he was just about to walk over to her side when the person he recognized—the former monitor of Class 2 and the outrageous guy Yu Tianyou—spoke up. "Shouldn't the assembly emcee be going on stage to host? What are you still doing over here?"

In an instant, everyone else's attention focused on the two of them.

Oh ho? A pre-stage match before going on stage to adjust one's mood!

Lu You quickly organized his words, put on a standard smile, and replied, "I am not the assembly emcee, so I don't need to go on stage right now."

"Then what are you doing here?" With that, Yu Tianyou glanced at Tang Wan, then let out a sarcastic laugh, speaking with self-righteous confidence. "Could it be that you're here to chase girls? You can't catch her on regular days, so you chased her all the way to the assembly hall?"

Tang Wan and Li Yu both furrowed their brows, their expressions darkening.

Lu You's expression didn't change much as he retorted in a gentle tone, "The reason I'm here is the same as yours. If you're here to chase a girl, then so am I. As for whether I can see her on regular days or if I needed to chase her to the assembly hall, that's none of your concern. You'd better spend more time studying math and see if you can close the score gap between us."

"You're the top science student?" Yu Tianyou finally reacted, his expression shifting uncertainly. His own math score was only a 120; if it weren't for his high scores in the comprehensive arts subjects, he wouldn't have even made the top ten.

"So you didn't even know who I was?" Lu You said amusedly. "And yet you dared to fire shots at me without even knowing? What gave you that confidence? Ignorance?"

"Inferior to others in every way, yet still daring to act arrogant. You don't actually think you got this score because you underperformed, do you? Is it possible that your actual level only deserves this score?"

"You!" Yu Tianyou's entire face flushed red with anger, yet he couldn't think of anything to retort with. He knew very well that high school ultimately came down to partitioned subject scores. He would also be studying science next semester, and the gap between him and Lu You would only become more glaring.

Seeing that Yu Tianyou had nothing to say, Lu You couldn't be bothered to pay him any more mind and walked straight over to Tang Wan.

With the girl he liked right in front of him, rather than talking to her, going off to debate an idiot felt like his brain had malfunctioned somewhere. As for Li Yu, he could go play with his own fingers.

As Lu You approached, Tang Wan smiled and praised softly, "Well scolded. That was so satisfying."

"Small matter. Reviewing it now, I feel like I wasn't harsh enough; I almost want to turn back and scold him again."

"Forget it, forget it," Tang Wan quickly tugged at the corner of his jacket to prevent him from actually turning back for round two. "Don't waste time on a person like that. Studying so much that you forget how to be a human being means he won't have much of a future."

"Alright, I'll listen to you."

Tang Wan was very satisfied with his attitude.

"Mhm, good listener. I heard you have to give a speech on stage later too. You're all prepared, right?"

"Rest assured, completely unprepared."

"Not bad, being prepared—" Tang Wan suddenly snapped out of it, turned her head to look at Lu You, and asked incredulously, "Wait, did you say completely unprepared?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you prepare? What are you going to do when you get on stage later?"

Lu You explained, "I only found out I had to go on stage and speak when class ended at noon. But you don't need to worry; I roughly know what I need to say."

"Would you like to look at my manuscript to give yourself some peace of mind?"

Tang Wan pulled two sheets of letter paper from her jacket pocket and handed them to him.

"Alright, thank you." Lu You accepted the paper and expressed his gratitude.

"Then you can treat me to dinner in the cafeteria tonight."

"No problem, I'll come find you."

The surrounding people watching their interaction wore mixed expressions. Both Li Yu and Deng Rui were lost in their own daze, their minds wandering afar; Yuan Wenliang wore a motherly smile; and Yu Tianyou placed one hand behind his back, clenching his fist tightly. The others glanced over from time to time, gossiping about the two of them.

At that moment, the emcee stepped onto the podium.

"Respected leaders, teachers, and dear fellow students, good afternoon..."