Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

129 was only known to a very select group of people.

It was logical that ordinary people hadn’t heard of it. And, in fact, Qin Ran’s reaction was normal too.

But it’d have been even more normal if she’d asked what 129 was about.

The way Qin Ran was sipping her water quietly and keeping her head low… she seemed completely disinterested.

Hao Dui did not want to think too much about it. He simply filled Lu Zhaoying in with the details.

Only when they were having dinner did they discuss 129’s recruitment again.

Cheng Juan hadn’t been in the capital lately. Now that something huge happened in the capital, everyone’s eyes were on it.

A few parties had already gathered their resources to check on 129.

Lu Zhaoying was pretty interested in it too. Only Qin Ran and Cheng Juan were really eating at the table.

“No, Master Juan, how could you not be the least bit interested? Cheng Mu’s goddess…” Lu Zhaoying was about to say something but paused when he looked at Qin Ran. He then continued, “Ahem, I mean Cheng Mu’s goddess might be selected.”

“Mm.” Cheng Juan gave a patronizing response.

Lu Zhaoying couldn’t help but turn to Qin Ran when he heard Cheng Juan’s response. He smiled.

After they had all spoken, Qin Ran slowly said, “Over the next few days, I’ll be focusing on my examinations. I won’t have much time.”

Qin Ran had managed to find the address for Qian Dui previously, so she’d been coming to the school doctor’s office to settle some problems for them too.

Lu Zhaoying heard about it just now and wasn’t too shocked.

But having heard it for the first time, Cheng Mu looked up very slowly. “Miss Qin, are you… being serious?”

“Of course.” Qin Ran seemed to be in a good mood.

Cheng Mu seemed to have something more to say but stopped himself.

After she was done, Qin Ran said she’d return to the classroom to do her revision first. Lu Zhaoying and Cheng Mu very quietly watched her leave.

It was perfectly normal for a Year Three student to be studying hard in preparation for their final exam the following year. Hao Dui didn’t see anything weird about it.

In Hao Dui’s opinion, it was more inappropriate for her to have spent so much time hanging out outside of school.

“She said she’s going to prepare for her examinations. What’s with your expressions?” When they were done eating, Hao Dui asked Cheng Mu quietly. “Aren’t grades the most important to a student?”

Cheng Mu placed his dishes in the sink and turned around silently. “I’ve seen Miss Qin do her homework, and I’ve seen her exam papers as well.”

“Her results should be pretty good?” After all, tons of rich and beautiful girls in the capital had gone after Cheng Juan, and he hadn’t taken an interest in any of them. When he came over to Yun Cheng and found out that Qin Ran existed, he found that she was in no way comparable to the other girls pursuing Cheng Juan.

Now that he had a better impression of her, he felt that Qin Ran couldn’t be all that bad. Otherwise, what would Cheng Juan see in her? It couldn’t just be her looks.

Cheng Mu turned on the tap and looked at him. “Ah, the last time she got Master Juan to sign her papers, the highest score she got among all her subjects was a 38.”

Hao Dui went silent.

Strange.

**

Hao Dui and Lu Zhaoying were done discussing the case. When they left the school doctor’s office, they saw Qi Chengjun at the entrance.

“Lawyer Qi? What are you doing in Yun Cheng?” Hao Dui was taken aback to see him there.

Yun Cheng was a small city. What was this big boss doing here?

Qi Chengjun parked his car and nodded respectfully towards Hao Dui. “Someone got me to settle a case here. I’ll be going back to the capital tomorrow. I’m just here to send my regards to Master Juan.”

Master Juan wasn’t very old, but he was the son of Grandpa Juan, who had this precious child at a very old age. So everyone treated him with great respect. Hao Dui knew that as well.

But he did not know who was the big shot who could get Qi Chengjun to personally come to Yun Cheng for a case.

He understood that Qi Chengjun had been in Yun Cheng for quite a long time.

Hao Dui couldn’t help but ask, “Then, have you seen the girl who’s been around Master Juan?”

Qi Chengjun thought for a while before responding, “You mean Miss Qin?”

“So you’ve heard about it too. Cheng Mu was just telling me that her highest score for all her examination papers was 38.” Hao Dui lowered his volume as he said that. “What exactly does Master Juan see in that girl? If she goes to the capital in the future…”

“Hao Dui, let me remind you. You’d better not get your nose into her business.” Qi Chengjun raised his brows.

He was sent here by people of 129 Club to settle Qin Ran’s matters. It seemed to him that Mayor Feng and the people of 129 Club were rather familiar with each other.

Qin Ran was probably Mayor Feng’s relative.

In any case, Cheng Juan was very protective of her now.

Hao Dui rubbed his nose and sat in the car. He was about to start the car when a message came in.

He looked at the message and thought for a while before sending a reply: There is one, actually. I can’t go into detail about it. But her results are really bad, no one knows if she can even do well in the final exam next year to get into a university in the capital.

**

When Qi Chengjun arrived at the school doctor’s office, Cheng Juan was holding a jacket in his hands and was about to leave. Cheng Mu was behind him.

Lu Zhaoying was playing a game on his laptop.

Qi Chengjun glanced at it and noticed that it was Kyushu Tour, a popular online game.

“Master Juan, where are you going?” Qi Chengjun asked.

“To look for some resources for a certain little kid who suddenly wants to study hard.” Lu Zhaoying smiled as he looked up.

When they arrived at the largest resource room in Yun Cheng, Cheng Juan bought every book and material on the list he was holding. There were two sets of examination scripts that were not available, and he was prepared to get someone to bring them over from the capital.

There were quite a few books for each subject.

Cheng Mu looked down at the stack of books. Only a nerd would understand another.

They were all the same.

She suddenly said she was serious about studying. But if she couldn’t sustain this attitude, what was the point of buying all of these?

After paying, Cheng Mu gave Cheng Jin a call to get him to bring over the books they were short of.

Cheng Jin agreed quickly and then said something else, “Young Master Jiang seems to have noticed that person.”

“You mean Gu Xichi?” Cheng Mu asked.

“Yes. He seems to have disappeared from the Middle East, but we can’t trace him.” Before hanging up, Cheng Jin added, “Let Master Juan know.”

Cheng Mu hung up and told Cheng Juan about it.

Cheng Juan carried the bag of books to the car as he counted the number of books inside.

Gu Xichi, the renowned young doctor, often did charitable work at the frontline.

Old Master Cheng had always been looking for him.

The weird thing was that it seemed like a big boss was helping to cover up Gu Xichi’s whereabouts. Jiang Dongye had gotten close a few times, but he was always being hidden by just a little.

**

On the other side, Qin Ran did not know their reactions after she told them she wanted to study hard.

At the night of self-revision, she sat at her seat doing her work.

The rest of the Ninth Class dared not bother Qin Ran.

Lin Siran had been improving a lot lately, especially for Physics, in which her improvement was positively linear.

A lot of people went to ask her about Physics questions, and even Lin Siran herself had no idea why she was suddenly doing so well in Physics…

Qin Ran was doing an examination script.

There was some background noise, so she put on her earphones. It seemed like she was working on an English paper. She was working through the questions so quickly, writing her answers after glancing at them.

Some people even wondered if she understood the questions.

She was so motivated, the Ninth Class wondered if she really had been triggered by Li Airong.

She even said she wanted to top the English subject to shove it in Li Airong’s face.

The Ninth Class students figured that it’d be easier for her to aim to be first from the back.

Well, they’d find out when the examinations arrived.

Qiao Sheng was watching Qin Ran work on the paper from the seat in front of her desk with a Physics script in his hands.

Qin Ran looked at him. “Physics? Are you looking for Lin Siran to ask her something?”

“Young Master Xu doesn’t know how to do it too.” Qiao Sheng whispered and glanced in Xu Yaoguang’s direction.

Qiao Sheng wasn’t all that serious about his grades, but he didn’t get into First Middle School through the back door either. His results were rather average, but better than Qin Ran’s.

The thing was that… Xu Yaoguang was too proud to ask Lin Siran for her help.

Qin Ran glanced at the question in Qiao Sheng’s hands quietly.

The question was a little hard, as were most Physics questions in recent years. The question Qiao Sheng wanted to ask about was the final question of the whole paper. Few people in First Middle School knew how to solve it.

Although Xu Yaoguang’s Physics results were the worst among all his subjects, he only had to compare to himself. After all, he was in the top 10 in school even for Physics.

It wasn’t surprising to Qin Ran that he couldn’t solve the entire question.

Qin Ran thought about it but didn’t say anything.

**

The students of the Ninth Class all assumed that Qin Ran’s diligence was a short-lived one.

After all, Qin Ran was different from them. They’d worked their way into First Middle School with their results, and they listened in class most of the time.

So it would help that they worked a little harder just before the examinations.

But Qin Ran didn’t have a strong foundation, nor did she listen in class. What use was there to try her luck at the last minute?

But seeing that Qin Ran had been studying the entire day, even during the whole of the night self-revision period, the rest of the class subconsciously had the urge to help her do well too.

Lin Siran would be memorizing Physics formulas beside Qin Ran.

“I think they’ll be testing on electromagnetism this time.” Lin Siran cleared her throat. “Do you know what that is?… Lorentz’s law is governed by the formula qvB, and the basic formula for…

“Basically, whenever you run into trouble on a Physics question, just write the relevant formulas down. That itself will earn you two marks.”

After Wu Yan left school, a round-faced girl took her place as the English subject representative. The moment class ended, she began memorizing English vocabulary beside Qin Ran. “Sister Ran, do you know what ‘abandon’ means? It means…”

Qin Ran was completely expressionless as she took out a study material to read.

Of course she knew what it meant. It was the first word on the first page of the English dictionary.

Qin Ran covered her head with her uniform.

Now she knew what it meant by shooting herself in the foot.

“Sister Ran, I know you have a good memory, but memorizing answers won’t work. Your foundation is weak, you should work on building your foundation by memorizing vocabulary.”

Qin Ran stood up all of a sudden.

The English representative was shocked by her reaction and took a step back.

Qin Ran stuffed her book under her desk as her eyes went cold. But she very respectfully said to the English representative, “Uh… I’m going to the washroom.”

**

The female washroom.

Qin Ran went into the last cubicle.

She took her cell phone out and was about to play her game.

But before it was done loading, someone from the adjacent cubicle knocked.

“Sister Ran, are you there?” It was Xia Fei’s voice.

Qin Ran held her earphones in her hand but did not say anything.

Xia Fei understood what it meant and sat on the toilet seat in the adjacent cubicle, memorizing Chemistry formulas.

After a while, she paused and asked tentatively, “Sister Ran, are you still listening?”

Qin Ran was silent for two seconds before she kicked the cubicle door reluctantly.

It was a pretty loud sound.

That was the big boss’s response. Xia Fei went on once she got that reaction.

Qin Ran was speechless.

Please, just let me be.

Thankfully, the examinations were coming up.

It wasn’t possible for her to go on playing her game. She stuffed her earphones in and went back to the home page of her cell phone.

She hadn’t seen the most recent message by Chang Ning and decided to read it now. It simply said: 129 is recruiting soon. This is an internal request from the members. Do you want to… come up with a question for the candidates?”