Chapter 118

Chapter 118

Ning Wang moved into the dorm on Saturday evening. Ning Shuo had just finished dinner with another NPC and had come back on the way to pick up the test papers he had left in the dorm.

As he was heading out, the two of them ran into each other head-on. Ning Shuo frowned and grabbed the NPC, intending to leave, but Ning Wang leaned against the doorframe and said with a grin, “Bro, from now on we’ll be living right next door to each other. You’ll have to take good care of me.”

Ning Shuo’s face was cold. “You really are shameless.”

Seeing that another war was about to break out, the NPC tugged on Ning Shuo’s sleeve. “Let’s go. Don’t bother arguing with him. He’s already fallen this far anyway.”

Ning Shuo went into the dorm with him, then slammed the door shut with a bang right in Ning Wang’s face.

The NPC found both his and Ning Shuo’s test papers. “Your mom already kicked him out of the house. I really don’t know how he still has the temper of a young master. You’re clearly the legitimate young master.”

Ning Shuo’s tone was mild. “A pheasant stays in a phoenix’s nest long enough and starts thinking it’s a phoenix.”

The NPC nodded. “True enough.”

He handed Ning Shuo’s test paper back to him. “Here. Thanks for lending it to me last night. Are you staying in the dorm or going to the classroom to study?”

Ning Shuo set down his backpack. “The dorm. It’s quieter than the classroom.”

The NPC didn’t say anything more. He acknowledged it and left.

Once the door closed, Ning Shuo took out his books. Before he could even sit down, a knock suddenly sounded from outside.

Knock. Knock.

Ning Shuo looked over.

The knocking was coming from the wrong spot.

Very low. About level with Ning Shuo’s thigh.

Even fourteen-year-old Luo Li wouldn’t knock at that height.

When no one opened the door, the thing outside knocked twice more.

This time, the position was even lower, as if it had been kneeling on the floor before and was now lying flat against it.

As it knocked, it also peered through the crack beneath the door, watching for movement inside the room.

Ning Shuo sat cross-legged on the bed.

Luckily, just in case, he had put his shoes on the shoe rack earlier.

He hid behind one of the bed curtains, holding his breath and focusing on the sounds outside.

After a long while, the knocking stopped. From the corridor came the sound of something being dragged along.

Thump. Thump.

Like a person with one broken leg, forced to drag that broken leg along while hopping forward.

It was You Ge.

Only after the sounds in the corridor had faded into the distance did Ning Shuo finally let out a breath.

Then he began studying.

His exam scores over the past two weeks had been far lower than what this persona had scored before. For the last two weeks, he could still explain it away as the family fighting over the inheritance. But now that the Jiang Family’s bankruptcy was basically a foregone conclusion, as Wen Nuan’s son, he no longer needed to worry about the family assets.

Should he come up with another excuse later and say the turmoil at home had left him with no heart to study?

Ning Shuo wrote down a “C” while reading the question and thinking about what excuse he could use if his grades still didn’t improve in next week’s exam.

The knocking sounded again.

This time was different. The thing outside was clearly calm and unhurried, even knocking in a slow, measured rhythm.

Ning Shuo ignored it.

Study hard and make progress every day.

Unfortunately, the person outside was also very patient. The knocking continued, one knock after another.

Ning Shuo turned on his phone. “Study hard! Make progress every day! Study hard! Make progress every day!”

Outside the door, an eerie silence fell.

A message suddenly popped up on his phone: Bro, is studying more important than me? [pitiful.jpg]

Ning Shuo replied: High school students are forbidden from dating early.

Ning Wang: …

Ning Shuo put on his earphones. Vaguely, he heard the sound of the door opening.

He was hugged from behind. One of Ning Shuo’s earphones was removed, warm breath brushing against his ear. On his left was a melodious, soothing tune. On his right was his lover’s teasing voice. “Bro, I clearly have an official status, so why does it still feel like I don’t?”
Ning Shuo smacked his hand away and asked him a cloze-test question. “Why is the answer A here?”

Ning Wang: “…”

After they finished going over the problem, Ning Shuo asked, “Do you know how to do the last big question on yesterday’s physics paper now?”

“…No. Ge, this is supposed to be alone time.”

“We agreed that you’d handle the core subjects and I’d handle the electives. If we get the chance, we do some tutoring. Go get it.”

Ning Wang sighed, went back to his own dorm, and brought his test paper over.

Fortunately, everyone else in Ning Shuo’s dorm had either gone home or headed to the classroom to self-study. Otherwise, they would have had to stage another argument.

The tips of their pens scratched softly over paper. After the occasional brief exchange, the dorm fell quiet again, leaving only the whoosh of wind blowing in from the balcony, natural and peaceful.

As Ning Shuo kept writing, a thought suddenly occurred to him: Were they experiencing the campus life they had never gotten to have in reality?

And experiencing it together, no less.

Across from him, Ning Wang’s pen paused as well. Then he looked up at him. “Ge, does this count as us going through campus youth together?”

As if they were making up for a period of time they had once missed.

Seeing Ning Shuo’s expression, Ning Wang knew they had thought of the same thing.

He smiled and had just lowered his head to continue working when the person across from him chuckled softly. “Since it’s such a rare experience, Ningning, want to have a kiss?”

The evening breeze indulged the young man’s tenderness, and the dorm was split into light and shadow by the bedside lamp.

The short-haired young man reached out and turned off the light. Shadows instantly enveloped them both.

The young man in a school uniform was pressed against the wardrobe and kissed. Another school uniform jacket was padded beneath his head, as if the person pinning him there was afraid the wardrobe door would be too hard and dig into him.

In the haze of passion, Ning Shuo heard the one kissing him confess in a hoarse voice, “Ge, I love you so much.”

Ning Shuo smiled and kissed him back. “Mm. I know.”

Because I do too.

…

Neither of them cared that this part was being livestreamed. After all, they were men who had just confirmed their relationship and still wanted to announce it all over the Forum.

But no matter how little they cared, they had no interest in losing control in front of the camera.

[Sorry, I admit it. Earlier, when I said I had no interest in two guys, I was totally pretending.]

[Honestly, these two have the same face, so watching them kiss somehow gives me the feeling that I’m watching someone make out with a mirror.]

[Aren’t eighty percent of the people in these two Live Stream Rooms Fujoshi?]

[No. Some of the people in Willow’s and Z’s Live Stream Rooms are too.]

[You already kissed! What’s wrong with doing it right in front of me!!!]

[I’m going to the Forum to find the campus arc written by Teacher Qianqian. Goodbye, friends.]

[To be honest, I’m kind of worried about whether that NPC Fan Jiangnan can successfully hit the cutoff. After all, there are other people in the class besides her who can score around 650 or 660. Who knows if she’ll manage to come first this time?]

[And the two of them spent the whole night imitating handwriting. What if the imitation doesn’t look convincing?]

[If the plan fails, some of the people who came up with the idea are going to get cursed to death.]

Failing to bluff their way through was impossible.

Based on Fan Jiangnan’s setting in this Script as “perennial first place,” Ning Shuo was ninety-eight percent certain that the paper she wrote would hit the cutoff perfectly.

Just like the experienced Rao Lin and Yu Min, who were not worried in the slightest.

Some NPC settings would not change no matter what.

Even if that NPC had developed self-awareness.

Ning Shuo thought about his own Jinx Ability and felt there was some truth to that.