During evening self-study, the Qingming holiday announcement was made.
Friday, Qingming Festival, one day off. Sunday, no day off. In other words, the hard-earned one-day weekend holiday was moved to Friday, replacing the Qingming holiday.
In the top-of-the-grade student’s information channels, words like “seems” or “appears” were just humble expressions. When He Chengxi said one day off, it meant one day off.
Class 7 was filled with a lifeless atmosphere. Even Xu Tong, who was relatively studious, felt a bit down.
She really wanted an extra day off too.
Qingming involved handling a bunch of things, leaving no time to rest, and now they’d lost their original relaxing holiday. She felt like dying.
Forget it. Just consider it striving for the future.
Most students consoled themselves like Xu Tong; without doing so, they couldn’t possibly hold out until the college entrance exam.
Students who didn’t care about grades were even more indignant—their one most carefree day of the week was gone.
Pei Du had no reaction.
Jiangcheng’s transportation was developed, but the flow of people was ridiculously high. If all tomb-sweeping and such were crammed into this one day, even if the cemetery was within the city, you’d be stuck in traffic.
Not to mention returning to one’s hometown to worship ancestors. Whether by car or buying tickets in advance, it was impossible to go back during the Qingming days.
Pei Du’s family had foresight and conducted their ancestral rites in March in advance.
Qingming was just a normal holiday for them.
Adjusting holidays, no, using rest days to make up for them, was just a normal week for Pei Du. For other unprepared classmates, it was inexplicably using their own vacation time to handle Qingming matters.
Actually, for senior high students, holidays were more like studying at home, or relaxing a bit before studying.
If you really wanted to play for a whole day, forgetting everything, Saturday’s exam would immediately reflect how much your grades had slipped.
Senior high students were like a tightly drawn bowstring; you had to fight in one go. If you slackened, you’d lose resilience.
After school, returning home, Pei Du did a few extra sets of exercises until he was exhausted.
The fried chicken and such he ate today was a lethal amount. He Chengxi, with her bird-like appetite, barely ate a few bites; the rest all went into his stomach.
In the end, he still couldn’t finish it and shared it with a passing teacher.
He wasn’t some fitness freak, but excessive intake of fried food really required exercise to offset some of the calories; otherwise, it wasn’t very friendly to the body.
Pei Du was counting on this body to last until thirty… no, fifty!
After showering, his phone received messages from several people.
Zhao Yu asked if he wanted to go to the board game cafe tomorrow. He declined and earnestly advised Zhao Yu to focus on studying honestly.
If he kept playing, he’d only get into private undergraduate colleges.
Next was Chen Xintian’s message, indirectly asking where he planned to go tomorrow.
He didn’t reply, acting as if he didn’t see it.
Was he deliberately ignoring a beauty? No, he was doing it for both their futures.
—If this were university, Pei Du would invite her out tonight.
Having a beauty accompany you, where you go doesn’t matter; the main thing is to watch out for staying out too late.
Finally, He Chengxi’s message:
“Classmate Pei, tomorrow’s a day off. Do you have any plans?”
“Staying home doing problems.”
Gentlemen, why did I reply to this little one here?
Because I believe my preferences won’t lead me astray.
Pei Du firmly believed men in their teens and twenties couldn’t control their lower halves.
“Doing problems? Classmate Pei, I have internal topic sets from Jiangshi No.1 High. Do you need them?”
Jiangshi No.1 High, Jiangcheng’s top high school, nationally ranked among the best. Most students in the top few classes got awards through competitions, then were guaranteed admission into top domestic universities.
For joint high school exams, Jiangshi No.1 High didn’t bother to test together with other schools; they made their own papers.
Their internal topic sets simply didn’t leak out. Even other provincial key high schools in Jiangcheng couldn’t access Jiangshi No.1 High’s internal materials.
He Chengxi actually had internal topic sets?
Just some topic sets… but I, Pei Du, really do need them.
“Really? Aren’t those basically never circulated?”
“No problem. I have topic sets for all subjects at home.”
All subjects… This wasn’t simply having connections; they probably funded several buildings.
Pei Du gained another clear awareness of the world’s disparities.
But by reason, a top-scorer candidate like He Chengxi should have been at Jiangshi No.1 High. Yet for some reason, she came to the slightly lesser Dongzhong High. She might have other channels to obtain the materials.
“Then how about Classmate Pei comes to my house to study tomorrow? I can also invite Zhuyue, as a small study group.”
“You can bring Classmate Zhao Yu too.”
A study group? Does top-of-the-grade He Chengxi need a study group?
“No need. Studying with us can’t really help you with anything.”
Pei Du didn’t want to trouble He Chengxi or waste her study time.
The girl immediately replied with a new message.
“How could that be. (Cat angrily huffing sticker)”
“I also need a good study atmosphere. When alone, I always want to relax and do something else.”
“When everyone supervises each other, it gets much more serious.”
“And, I’ve never participated in a study group before. I’m very curious and looking forward to it.”
“Can we, Classmate Pei?”
Looking at the series of messages on his phone, Pei Du was certain he was truly in trouble.
He’d already acknowledged He Chengxi as a friend. Now this friend expressed she really wanted to try something she’d never had before, while also providing topic sets for him.
Whether emotionally or logically, it was hard to refuse.
Fortunately, the girl wasn’t in front of him. Otherwise, Pei Du felt that if he heard her pitiful yet sweet voice saying these things, he would have silently agreed to everything long ago.
Men, pitiful creatures controlled by desires.
“Okay.”
“Great!! (Cat holding heart sticker)”
After discussing what time and where to meet, Pei Du went back to doing problems.
Before bed, he finally replied to some unimportant messages from others.
Interestingly, in the class group chat the students themselves created, Liu Kang and Yang Mengxin were arguing again.
Pei Du skimmed the chat history and figured out what happened.
Initially, a few active classmates were complaining in the group about the school being stingy, not giving holidays, how some other high school gave two days off, why doesn’t Dongzhong…
While everyone was cursing the school, Yang Mengxin inexplicably interjected,
“Not having holidays is fine. Saves some guonan from watching outrageous anime again.”
That statement was something else.
It directly extinguished the group chat.
No one wanted to touch that statement and offend people or stir things up.
The cold silence ended only when Liu Kang saw the message.
Liu Kang was also an internet surfer. Seeing that sentence, anger rose instantly. Various profanities were typed out from his keyboard, shocking to behold.
And Yang Mengxin was waiting for him to surface. She hadn’t vented enough in the afternoon; the more she thought about it, the angrier she got. After discussing with a few close girlfriends, they unanimously decided to denounce Liu Kang and make trouble for him.
If he dared reply, what awaited Liu Kang was the “surrounding attack” from several small female cliques.
Yang Mengxin couldn’t wait until the holiday ended. She had to curse to her heart’s content online immediately, otherwise she wouldn’t sleep well.
Liu Kang, worthy of being a male high school student who dabbled in all sorts of apps, single-handedly flamed several girls, his arguments never repeating, completely not at a disadvantage.
The virtual online world made onlookers feel like they were watching a clash of blades and shadows war.
The two sides kept cursing until now, with no one coming out to mediate in between, everyone just watching the show.
Watching the performance for a while, drowsiness struck. Pei Du set his alarm and prepared to sleep.
“Host, the system detects the host has a date tomorrow. Does the host need the system to customize a dating strategy?”
“No.”
“Acknowledged.”
Useless system, this is a study group, not a date!!!
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