13 : Joint examination

 Upon arriving at No. 3 Middle School, Jiang Man reiterated the seriousness of the exam. Even before the bus had come to a complete stop, people around were already looking up.

Everyone said that No. 1 Middle School had transferred in quite a few times since the start of the semester. Everyone had seen Chen Zhoumu, and there were two others who were the center of attention.

Song Shi leaned on Chen Zhoumu's shoulder and dozed off for a while. Feeling his head wasn't so foggy anymore, he felt a poke on his cheek and then heard a voice above: "Song Xiaoshi, get up! We've arrived, we're about to get off."

He opened his eyes, straightened his head, and realized this guy really liked to get physical. And what kind of nickname was "Song Xiaoshi"?

Song Shi frowned and stared at him: "What Song Xiaoshi?"

Chen Zhoumu, slightly evasive, touched the tip of his nose: "Nothing."

Actually, it was the nickname he'd seen for Song Shi in He Xi's short essay on his phone last time. He thought it was nice and remembered it, but his mouth was faster than his brain, and he blurted it out.

The bus had come to a smooth stop on the playground. Students, carrying their belongings, disembarked one by one and lined up. Song Shi, having not slept well the night before, looked pale and even colder.

As they got off the bus, the crowd around them gradually increased.

While the line dispersed and everyone went to find their exam rooms, some people were discussing among themselves.

"Is that the transfer student from No. 1 Middle School?"

"Yeah, he's fucking handsome, his face is definitely on par with Chi He and the others."

"Pfft, what's the use of being handsome? Exams aren't beauty contests."

"Wasn't he supposed to have pretty good grades too?"

"Who knows? No. 1 Middle School didn't even post the results for their opening exam this year."

After the crowd dispersed, Chen Zhoumu led Song Shi to the exam room. The exam room layouts for No. 3 and No. 2 Middle Schools were the same, so the No. 1 Middle School students who always took exams at No. 2 Middle School were very familiar with them. Chen Zhoumu planned to act as a human navigation system.

Not far along, Song Shi heard someone ask, "Who's that?"

"He's also a transfer student from No. 1 High School this year."

"Wow, he's so tall."

"He seems to have transferred from Experimental High School, his name is Shen Yihan. But I heard the quality of the transfers to No. 1 High School this year is really good."

Song Shi didn't hear the last sentence and thought they were talking about Tang Ze, so he turned around to look.

Not far from the bus of Class 4 of Science, Tang Ze was indeed standing there, but the person in front of him was even more conspicuous.

It was a girl, who looked to be about the same height as Chen Zhoumu, wearing a black short-sleeved shirt, with short hair half-tied in a ponytail, very fair skin, and a grumpy face.

Tang Ze followed behind her with his head down.

Chen Zhoumu saw the person next to him looking so intently and raised his hand to scan the other person's eyes: "Looking so engrossed?"

The person not far away seemed to sense the gaze from this side, and the girl looked up, her single-eyelid eyes looking down, looking somewhat unapproachable.

Tang Ze also looked up, said a few words to the girl, and then ran over.

"Old Song, why haven't you gone in yet?" Tang Ze's eyes darted around.

"Who is she? Your deskmate or that persistent girl?" Song Shi looked away.

"Both."

Tang Ze seemed conflicted: "Um... can I go with—" Before he could finish, a shadow fell over him.

"Not done yet? How long has it been?" Shen Yihan's tone was cool and flat, revealing no emotion.

Tang Ze, like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, whirled around: "It hasn't been that long."

Shen Yihan didn't reply, just looked down at him. Tang Ze pursed his lips: "Okay, we'll be going right away."

Song Shi stood to the side, sensing the girl's hostility towards him. He reached out and pulled Tang Ze behind him: "He's coming with me."

Shen Yihan raised an eyebrow, his eyes narrowing slightly, and the atmosphere froze instantly.

Chen Zhoumu also abandoned his usual nonchalant demeanor and was about to step forward when Tang Ze, standing behind him, spoke up: "Old Song, I'm going with her." Song Shi

looked at him in confusion, but Tang Ze had already stepped out from behind: "Don't fight, don't get angry."

He slipped a piece of candy into Song Shi's hand and explained in a low voice, "I'll tell you later."

Then he walked to the girl's side, whose expression softened somewhat.

Shen Yihan looked at Tang Ze: "Let's go."

"Okay, okay, wasn't it only a minute? How is it a long time?"

"I said long, so it's long."

"Aren't you being unreasonable?" "Is that not allowed?"

"Fine, fine.

"

Song Shi watched the two figures slowly disappear, recalling Tang Ze's expression, which clearly seemed to indicate he wanted to get away from that person.

Chen Zhoumu wrapped his arm around his shoulder: "Let's go too, don't look anymore."

"What's wrong with Tang Ze?"

"Maybe he's just saying one thing but meaning another?"

"What do you mean?"

Chen Zhoumu had thought they were going to fight, but then he saw the faint, ambiguous mark on Tang Ze's collarbone where it had been tugged, and then he looked at the girl's expression.

He understood.

He thought they were going to fight, but it turned out to be just some playful banter between the couple.

However, Chen Zhoumu, seeing Song Shi's adorable, limited-edition, stunned expression, decided to tease him: "Guess?"

Song Shi rolled his eyes at him speechlessly and shook his hand away: "

Tell me if you want, or don't." He then turned to walk away.

Chen Zhoumu quickly grabbed his hand: "Okay, okay, stop fooling around."

He looked down at him; although this guy would run away easily when teased, he was also easily appeased.

The two walked towards the teaching building together, but before they could even go upstairs, they were stopped. The eyes of the people in front of them lingered between them.

Song Shi looked at the person standing at the front, wearing a white short-sleeved shirt, with delicate features, a little shorter than him, and looking up at him with somewhat unfriendly eyes.

He felt like he had seen this face somewhere before.

The person in front of him walked past him to Chen Zhoumu behind him and said softly, "Little brother."

Song Shi raised an eyebrow. No wonder he seemed familiar; the two were brothers. He turned to look, only to see that the usually lazy man's face was unusually ugly, even his usually upturned lips were downturned.

Chen Zhoumu said expressionlessly, "Get lost."

The person standing between the two, whose joyful eyes had dimmed, lowered his head, looking as if he had suffered a great injustice.

The person who had come with him couldn't stand it anymore and blurted out, "Jiajin, I told you not to go this way, but you insisted on coming here to cause trouble."

"Yeah, have you forgotten how he treated you?"

Chen Zhoumu was too lazy to watch this pretense and said impatiently, "Get out of the way."

"Little brother, next week is Dad's birthday, aren't you going back..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chen Zhoumu grabbed his collar and pulled him closer: "Didn't I tell you not to show your face in front of me? Do you want another leg broken?"

Chen Zhoumu's eyes were cold, his usually upturned eyes lowered, his dark pupils fixed on Chen Jiajin.

Cold sweat began to run down his back, the scene of his leg being broken last time vividly flashing before his eyes.

Song Shi noticed that the man's emotions were a bit off, stepped forward, and took Chen Zhoumu's hand, releasing him from his clothes: "A teacher is coming."

Sure enough, the next second, a teacher not far away shouted: "What's going on over there!"

The patrolling teacher pulled the two groups apart, and left after watching the people disperse.

Chen Jiajin watched the two figures leave together. He had seen them together from afar when he had just walked this way. Of course, he had heard a lot about his younger brother at No. 3 Middle School.

A prodigy, good grades, handsome, always the center of attention.

But lately, the name Chen Zhoumu was always being linked with that person named Song Shi.

It was really annoying.

His beautiful eyes glared at their clasped hands, finding it incredibly irritating. His father had said that to gain a foothold in the Chen family, he needed the approval of his adopted younger brother.

So, on his very first day, he climbed into Chen Zhoumu's bed, just like his father had climbed into Shen Qing's.

But Chen Zhoumu wasn't like Shen Qing. That night, the other man broke his leg, his eyes filled with disgust, and he moved out the next day.

The Chen family patriarch disliked him. He was supposed to transfer to the top high school, but the patriarch had forcefully changed his mind.

It seemed he'd have to reconsider. Song Shi, did Chen Zhoumu like that type?

Half an hour before the exam started, Chen Zhoumu slowly recovered. He hadn't spoken to anyone along the way, offering no questions or words of concern.

When he escorted him to the exam hall, he stood at the door watching him go in. As he turned to leave, he was pulled back.

Turning around, he looked at the person behind him.

Song Shi opened his mouth, then closed it, saying nothing. He rummaged in his pocket, then pulled something out and stuffed it into Chen Zhoumu's hand.

"Do your best on the exam, I'm going in."

Before he could say anything, the other person had already gone through security.

Chen Zhoumu watched his somewhat flustered back, chuckled softly, and looked at the thing in his hand—a White Rabbit candy, slightly wrinkled and still warm from Song Shi's hands.

He tore open the outer packaging and popped the milky white candy into his mouth.

So sweet.

After entering the exam room, Song Shi found his seat. The chair in front of him was pulled out with a slight sound. He looked up and saw the girl from the playground earlier.

She had obviously seen him too.

The two didn't speak, their eyes met for a moment, and then they looked away.

As usual, the morning exams started with Chinese. After the first half of the exam, there was a three-hour lunch break. After the bell rang, all the students left the classroom, and the invigilators collected the papers.

After Song Shi went out, he saw Chen Zhoumu leaning against the wall. Eating together had become a habit for them. The exam room was on the second floor, and there were many people crowded together. Thinking that there was still plenty of time, the two stood at the door for a while.

After about half the people had left, the two walked down the stairs side by side.

A short distance from the bottom, Song Shi saw Tang Ze. He was still puzzled as to why Tang Ze insisted on following his classmate.

The path wasn't crowded. As Song Shi walked forward, someone bumped into him and he stumbled. Chen Zhoumu, who was beside him, helped him up, and the person hurriedly apologized and ran away.

Perhaps the impact was too strong, because after helping the other person, Chen Zhoumu took a step back.

He accidentally stepped on a pile of mops, lost his balance, and fell into a storage room whose door wasn't fully closed. Song Shi was pulled down with him.

The brooms behind them cushioned the impact, but that wasn't the main point.

Chen Zhoumu let out a muffled groan, his face contorting for a moment.

Song Shi was stunned for a second, and by the time he realized what was happening, it was too late. He was now lying on top of Chen Zhoumu in a very awkward position.

The other person's legs were spread wide, and he, unfortunately, ended up lying between them...

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