Let's Do Some Questions - Chapter 27

The reason Chu Fengqiu was so popular was that she always saw through things but didn’t speak of them.

Song Man’s expression amused her, and she nodded with a smile.

Just by looking at Chu Fengqiu’s expression, Song Man knew she didn’t believe her. She scooped up a piece of pork tenderloin with her spoon and held it out to Chu Fengqiu.

“If you don’t believe me, try it. It really is sour.”

Song Man felt she had to maintain her imposing image.

Chu Fengqiu looked at the spoon held out to her, bit the piece of meat, and chewed it.

This was the first time she could consciously remember eating with someone else’s utensil. She wasn’t exactly a germaphobe, but she generally couldn’t accept sharing food using the same utensil.

But now, she surprisingly didn’t resist.

The sweet and sour taste of the ketchup exploded on her taste buds, making Chu Fengqiu’s features scrunch up slightly from the sourness.

Judging purely by the taste of this piece of tenderloin, the sourness definitely outweighed the sweetness.

“See? I told you it was sour.”

Song Man watched Chu Fengqiu’s eyes and eyebrows furrow together from the sourness and burst out laughing.

She pulled back the spoon she had extended, casually put it in her own mouth, and even sucked and licked the ketchup off it.

Chu Fengqiu looked at the triumphant expression of the girl sitting opposite her. The lingering sourness on her taste buds seemed to turn into a sweetness. When she saw Song Man put the spoon in her mouth, her eyes widened slightly.

The girl’s teeth were like perfect shells, and the tip of her tongue peeked out, licking off the ketchup from the spoon bit by bit. She narrowed her eyes in apparent enjoyment.

Chu Fengqiu instantly felt a wave of heat creeping up her back, instantly overwhelming all sensation there. The heat wave was like a surging tide, sweeping over everything with the force of a storm, making her whole body feel the heat of summer.

It seemed like this summer, she kept having inexplicable reactions.

“Why aren’t you eating? Are you full?”

Song Man looked at Chu Fengqiu, who had suddenly zoned out, and asked curiously.

Chu Fengqiu shook her head and continued eating.

They finished eating at 13:25. It would take about 10 minutes to get a taxi from where they were to the school. Song Man figured they had to be at school before 1:50 anyway, leaving 15 minutes. She simply sat down next to Chu Fengqiu and told her to hold out her hand.

The ice in the ice pack had melted a bit in the past ten-odd minutes, but it was still very cold. Song Man took a towel, held Chu Fengqiu’s hand, and iced it to reduce the swelling.

A cold sensation, accompanied by a slight stinging, came from the swollen and painful part of her wrist. Chu Fengqiu watched Song Man skillfully move the ice pack in circles to reduce the swelling, listening to Song Man’s rambling.

“Next time, maybe I shouldn’t bring you out in situations like this. Today was just a sudden incident, and it turned out okay this time. But if you get hurt next time, I really couldn’t handle it.”

“Next time, I’ll try to stand a bit further away,” Chu Fengqiu said.

“And maybe keep watch for me? Call the police if you see something wrong?”

Chu Fengqiu nodded, and Song Man chuckled.

“If my dad found out I dragged you to watch a fight, he’d chew me out.”

Song Man could imagine what the scene would be like if her dad found out. Her dad wanted her to hang out with Chu Fengqiu to become more positive. If she ended up leading Chu Fengqiu astray instead, her dad would probably be spitting bl00d.

“Uncle won’t know,” Chu Fengqiu said, looking at Song Man’s face.

Song Man and Chu Fengqiu exchanged a knowing look.

“Alright, Chu Fengqiu, I really didn’t misjudge you. It wasn’t for nothing that I made you my sister.”

Song Man had long known that Chu Fengqiu wasn’t some rigid, bookish person. Of course, she wasn’t insulting Chu Fengqiu; she was praising her.

The woman who could ask “Screw… who?” right next to her ear was indeed extraordinary!

Song Man felt that maybe in the future, she could get Chu Fengqiu to cover for her when she did things.

Thinking this, Song Man rubbed Chu Fengqiu’s hand even harder.

When the swelling had mostly gone down, Song Man checked the time, saw it was about right, threw the ice pack and towel in the trash, hailed a taxi, and called Chu Fengqiu to leave.

The afternoon exam was Math, starting promptly at 2:30.

Chu Fengqiu took out the problems she had guessed would be on the test again to show Song Man. Song Man gave an OK sign, indicating she had received the gesture.

Song Man pretended to look, but her mind was actually wandering.

At 2:20, everyone started leaving their seats, preparing to head to the exam rooms.

Song Man stuffed Chu Fengqiu’s problem booklet into her drawer, grabbed her 2B pencil and black pen, and went to the exam room.

Deng Wei was sitting listlessly in his seat. When he saw Song Man, he perked up and sat up straight with a jolt, but it pulled at his injuries, making him wince in pain.

Deng Wei was bruised; his lip was split, and his face was swollen. Song Man knew he had also taken a few hits to the stomach. She waved her hand, telling him to stay seated.

The math papers were handed out, and answering began after the bell rang.

Song Man quickly scanned the paper. The multiple-choice questions at the beginning were no challenge for her. Her gaze stopped at the last two multiple-choice questions.

As everyone knows, the last two multiple-choice questions in a math exam are usually quite difficult, the kind where academic underachievers just give up calculating and guess randomly.

Song Man, with interest, wrote down the steps directly on the test paper with her 2B pencil, got the answer for question 11, and then looked at question 12.

The difficulty of question 12 was a bit greater than she had imagined.

This question had serious traps and misleading elements; it was easy to fall into them if one wasn’t careful.

Song Man listed the relationships, doing rough work on the test paper. Three minutes later, Song Man put a checkmark next to the correct answer, then used the eraser on her pencil to erase all the steps.

Song Man finished calculating the entire test paper, taking forty minutes. She began filling out the answer sheet.

Song Man filled in the first few questions correctly, then deliberately got a few wrong. Above the last question, Song Man’s pencil hovered.

After thinking for a moment, Song Man still filled in the correct answer.

She wrote out two of the simpler questions at the beginning. Song Man estimated her score would be around sixty and stopped, leaving the rest blank.

One should know that she used to be a twenty-point scorer in math. Otherwise, how could she have firmly held the last place for a year? It was all thanks to her own hard work and effort.

After finishing the paper, Song Man slumped onto her desk and started catching up on sleep.

She hadn’t had time for a nap at noon, so this was a good time to sleep.

The teacher in the last exam room didn’t supervise much; there were even absentees, so no one stopped someone from sleeping slumped over their desk.

This summer afternoon was as stuffy and hot as usual. Song Man was half-asleep, half-awake. When she opened her eyes, she saw desks and students taking the exam. For a moment, she felt a sense of unreality.

Song Man found this thought a bit funny. She never delved into so-called philosophy or questions about whether the world she existed in was real. She closed her eyes again and sank into darkness.

When the jarring bell rang, the surrounding sounds became a bit restless. Song Man woke up from her sleep with a frown, feeling a sense of fatigue.

She looked up and saw that an hour had passed, but it felt like only two or three minutes.

Her temples throbbed with pain, and her neck, back, and arms felt sore. Song Man watched expressionlessly as the teacher collected the answer sheets and the crowd surged out of the classroom like a tide.

“Man Jie? Man Jie?”

Deng Wei waved his hand in front of her a few times, pulling Song Man back to her senses.

“Hmm?”

Song Man looked at him.

“What’s wrong? Let’s go.”

Song Man stood up and pressed her temples. A sharp, sore feeling brought a slight sensation that was both painful and strangely satisfying.

Song Man felt it would be better not to sleep at school next time; it was quite uncomfortable.

When Song Man returned to the classroom, she was still rubbing her head.

“What’s wrong? Not feeling well?”

Chu Fengqiu watched Song Man rubbing her head, looking uncomfortable.

“Yeah, I just took a nap slumped over. It was a bit uncomfortable.”

“Headache?”

“My arm hurts too.”

Song Man complained softly, sounding like she was whining.

“Here?”

Chu Fengqiu’s hand pressed on the outside of Song Man’s arm and gave it a squeeze.

“Hiss, it’s a bit sore.”

The feeling was both sore and numb, as if her entire arm had been instantly electrified.

“Maybe it’s from staying in one position for too long. I’ll help you massage it.”

Chu Fengqiu pondered for a moment before giving her answer. She pulled her chair a little closer to Song Man and began massaging Song Man’s arm.

The arm held in her hand was slender yet contained strength. Chu Fengqiu’s fingertips pressed against the fair skin. Song Man’s skin was even fairer than Chu Fengqiu’s, especially where her school uniform sleeve was rolled up; it was a cool white, unlike typical East Asian skin tones.

The area being pressed showed a faint redness. As Chu Fengqiu massaged, Song Man frowned. The feeling was sore yet satisfying. She wanted Chu Fengqiu to stop immediately, yet also wished she wouldn’t stop.

“Feeling better?”

Chu Fengqiu stopped her movements but didn’t let go of Song Man’s hand.

The porcelain-white, delicate skin felt surprisingly good to the touch, soft like Song Man’s inner self.

“It seems a bit better.”

Song Man nodded. The sore and swollen feeling was still there but quickly disappeared.

She breathed a sigh of relief at escaping that strange torment, but also craved that peculiar pleasure and wanted Chu Fengqiu to continue.

Her other arm, which hadn’t received the treatment, clamored with dissatisfaction. However, Song Man wasn’t so presumptuous as to ask Chu Fengqiu to move to her other side to massage it.

Song Man thought about changing the direction she was sitting, but when she turned her head, she saw that most of the class’s attention was focused on them, looking dumbfounded.

It wasn’t surprising that this bunch of guys in the science class were dumbfounded. Chu Fengqiu was their class’s genuine goddess, a dream girl in terms of grades, looks, and figure. And now, their dream goddess was massaging someone else’s arm right in front of them.

If that person had been a guy, they would have killed him with their eyes long ago. But it just so happened to be a girl who was equally pretty but had a fearsome reputation.

Many male classmates were actually just a little curious about Song Man, having heard some rumors about her before. However, Song Man hadn’t caused any trouble since joining the class, so that curiosity had gradually faded.

Now they weren’t curious; they were just envious.

Dong Xue, sitting behind them, couldn’t quite figure it out. In her eyes, Chu Fengqiu was quite aloof. Although she seemed easy to talk to, she didn’t really want to bother with anyone. How could she be so fawning over Song Man? Truly a lackey.

Dong Xue thought this to herself, not daring to look up or make eye contact with Song Man, afraid that Song Man would drag her out of the classroom and throw her in the toilet.

The homeroom teacher and the math teacher were walking past the door. They peeked in and happened to see Song Man turning her head, looking like she was confronting the entire class.

“What’s going on?” the math teacher asked softly.

The homeroom teacher shook his head. “We don’t know, and we don’t dare ask.”