Ch 15: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

Due to the incident with Liang Qianling, Old Master Liang was in a bad mood. After dinner, he went upstairs to rest, while Ruan Cha, having declined her parents’ suggestion to play a family game, slowly made her way back to her bedroom. In order to live the easy life again in the future, she had to focus on studying for the monthly exam next Monday.

Time passed quickly. Ruan Cha glanced at the wall clock—it was already midnight. She turned and looked down through the window. The hazy light from the garden lamps cast faint shadows over the yard. With the help of her parents and the house workers, the greenhouse had already taken shape.

The strange rocks that had been placed in the garden were discarded since the yard had become narrower. Old Master Liang ordered them to be thrown away, leaving only pots of blooming flowers on black and gold iron racks.

It had to be said, after the rearrangement, the yard felt more comfortable to look at. Her chest no longer felt tight. Perhaps it was just a psychological effect?

Ruan Cha shook her head and stopped thinking about it. She refocused her attention on the stack of textbooks and exercise books on the desk. In the top-right corner of the desk was an empty fruit tea jar, and beside it was a loose-leaf notebook. The handwriting on the pages was thin, precise, and firm, similar to how Fu Chen’s handwriting appeared.

The notebook not only contained key points from each subject but also highlighted frequently tested question types and commonly used basic question types in different colors of ink.

Ruan Cha couldn’t help but think that Fu Chen’s notes were really a treasure—detailed, concise, with clear analysis. A genius who often scored perfect marks in integrated science and math had a human side to him as well.

Who said serious people don’t take notes? Fu Chen’s notes were definitely thorough!

Ruan Cha had spent two weeks following the key points in the notes, roughly organizing the chemistry, physics, and biology content for the first two semesters of high school. She was now consolidating the knowledge by doing practice problems.

After all—

Based on the tips in the notes, a few questions from the monthly exam were directly copied from the review book “Wu San” (五三), and Ruan Cha felt she could still salvage this.

“The answers don’t match.” Ruan Cha frowned as she looked at the physics problem she had calculated three times in her notebook, muttering to herself.

The big problems in the physics paper had a fixed set of question types. While Ruan Cha was lazy by nature, whenever she did something seriously, she always had to pick at one point until it was perfect, otherwise, she couldn’t sleep. She had spent half an hour on one final question from the review book, finally got the answer, but it didn’t match the provided solution.

Ruan Cha marked the known conditions on the problem again, calculating and recalculating, but the result still didn’t change.

“Is the answer wrong?”

Ruan Cha tapped the pen lightly on the notebook, her thoughts not quite clicking. After a while, she thought about it and pulled out her phone to see who she could ask. “Fu Chen, Ji Feiyang, Xie Sui, plus some of the old classmates—six people.”

She hoped at least one of them was still awake.

Ruan Cha, not expecting much, took a picture of the question from the review book and planned to send it one by one, asking for the solution. But as soon as she sent the message to Fu Chen, she received a new one.

【Fu Chen: Please wait.】

Ruan Cha was genuinely surprised to get the reply. She thought Fu Chen would be the type to go to bed early and wake up early, not a night owl. “You’re still awake?”

After sending the message, she didn’t receive a reply right away. Ruan Cha wasn’t in a hurry, guessing that he was probably doing problems himself, so she turned back to the remaining key points she couldn’t quite understand.

After a few minutes, her phone buzzed on the table.

Ruan Cha opened WeChat and sighed to herself, As expected of a top student. The two images sent by Fu Chen clearly and concisely detailed the steps to solve the problem. When she enlarged the images to examine them carefully, her attention was immediately caught by the second question.

[Fu Chen]: There’s a flaw in the answer for the third question. Normally, you should deduce the acceleration directly from the conditions provided in the question, but continuing from the second question also yields an acceleration value that doesn’t match the one given in the question. That’s why your result differs from the answer.

[Fu Chen]: I suspect there might be a missing second half of the second question. It probably involves calculating a new acceleration under the given circumstances, which leads into the third question and eventually matches the exercise book’s answer.

Ruan Cha: “!!!” I don’t fully get it, but it sounds impressive.

As a habitual slacker, Ruan Cha had never envied top students or geniuses, but after being tormented by various subjects for two full weeks, she suddenly did. Having the brain of a genius really made a difference.

What took her an hour to calculate, Fu Chen solved in mere minutes and even derived two different results. Of course, Ruan Cha didn’t find it too surprising—her own weak foundation and incomplete grasp of formulas explained the gap.

After sending the solution, Fu Chen noticed the earlier question Ruan Cha had asked. Glancing at the senior year textbooks on his desk, he shook his head with a smile and replied, “Yes, I’m previewing.”

He planned to skip directly to senior year next semester. Between elite courses and accompanying his father to social engagements, his schedule was always packed. He hadn’t gone to bed before 1 a.m. in years.

Seeing his response, Ruan Cha was a little stunned. While she was burning the midnight oil reviewing past material, a real genius was already previewing the next level!

The two exchanged a few more messages before tacitly agreeing to focus on their own tasks. As Ruan Cha, spurred by the aura of academic excellence, immersed herself in her studies, the door to her bedroom quietly opened and closed again.

Back in their room, Wei Jiao, wearing matching parent-child pajamas, held Ruan Zhengfei’s wrist and asked worriedly, “Feifei, did you see that? Cha Cha is actually staying up late to study!”

They knew their own family best. The two of them had been slackers all their lives and had raised a slacker daughter. If their daughter were staying up late to play games, they wouldn’t be surprised.

But staying up late to study?

Was something bothering her?

“Didn’t Dad say Cha Cha is doing well and enjoying school?” Ruan Zhengfei scratched his freshly trimmed hair in confusion. “The dean wouldn’t lie to him, would he? Besides, every night when she talks about school, she’s all smiles. She doesn’t seem upset.”

Wei Jiao thought of her daughter’s thin back and felt a pang of worry. “No, I can’t relax. Let’s go ask the dean again about how Cha Cha is doing at school.”

“Why ask? Nothing beats seeing for ourselves.” Ruan Zhengfei fiddled with his phone. “Have you seen the forum? Second High has an anonymous forum. You can log in with a Second High account. I’ll ask Dad to help us set up an account tomorrow, and we’ll log in to see what’s happening around Cha Cha.”

“Oh my, Feifei, you’re so smart!”

Wei Jiao happily stood on tiptoe and kissed him on the cheek, brimming with excitement. “Right, right, the school’s art festival is in two weeks, and there’s a parent-teacher conference after the midterm exams. Let’s go observe carefully then! We can’t let Cha Cha be bullied at school!”

“Absolutely!”

Meanwhile, Ruan Cha, who was busy studying in her room, had no idea her sudden diligence had alarmed her parents.

Ruan Cha studied until 2:30 a.m. and only went to bed after thoroughly absorbing everything in Fu Chen’s notes. She drifted off to sleep, her breathing soon becoming steady.

The next morning, Ruan Cha overslept and had to take the family driver’s car to school. Half-asleep, she leaned against the car seat, her mind buzzing with all the knowledge she had reviewed the night before.

Last Friday, before school ended, the entire sophomore grade had already set up the exam venues. As a transfer student, Ruan Cha’s first-year final grades from her previous school didn’t count at Second High, so she was placed in the last exam room, the 23rd classroom—Class 23.

Class 23 was on the second floor. Ruan Cha held a sandwich made by her family’s housekeeper in one hand and a small booklet of key Chinese notes in the other, alternating between taking a bite and glancing at the booklet as she entered the classroom.

“Ruan Cha! Wow, we’re desk neighbors! Let me take a look at your paper later, okay?” Xie Changan’s eyes lit up when he saw her, waving enthusiastically.

Though he didn’t take studying seriously, he wasn’t shameless enough to comfortably rank last like Brother Shen. He had to at least save face.

Ruan Cha noticed Xie Changan and glanced around the classroom. Recognizing half of the classmates from Class 10, she paused, stepped out of the classroom, and rechecked the class sign outside. Sure enough, it was Class 23, the last exam room.

Her dad had said Class 10’s academic performance was just average, but this really was scraping the bottom of the barrel. They were all at the tail end.

A few students from Class 10, noticing Ruan Cha’s unusually stunned reaction, burst out laughing, slapping their desks. “Ruan Cha, what are you doing? Can’t we be in Class 23? We’re in this together through thick and thin!”

Hearing that, Ruan Cha shook her head with a complicated expression. “No, next time, you’ll have to brave the storm yourselves. I’ll definitely be at the front.”

“Damn it! Who are you dissing? We’ll be up front too!”

“Yeah, we’ll be there too!”

“Getting ahead isn’t a problem; we’ll crush it. Maybe not first place, but Class 22 is no sweat!”

Ruan Cha’s seat was to Xie Changan’s left. If she placed her answer sheet slightly to the side after finishing, Xie Changan might manage to sneak a glance at it.

“Ruan Cha, Chinese won’t help me, but please, let me take a look at your math answer sheet,” Xie Changan begged, pressing his hands together in a plea. Sitting next to her had made him fully realize her math skills were just as impressive as her English.

Ruan Cha pursed her lips, taking the last bite of her sandwich. After a moment of hesitation, she whispered, “Don’t you remember the answer sheets are alternately marked A and B?”

Xie Changan: “???”

After a brief pause, realization dawned on Xie Changan. “Holy crap! No wonder on the first-year finals, Old Wang scored 88 in math, but when I copied off him, I got a 24!”

Ruan Cha: “…” Cute, but so dumb.

After exchanging a few words with Xie Changan, Ruan Cha went back to quietly reciting the key Chinese points and marked exam topics. As she was memorizing, a lively female voice and a lazy male voice suddenly came from the doorway.

“Xu Shen, what are you doing? Move!” Ren Qingqing, hugging her backpack, frowned slightly at Xu Shen, who was blocking her way.

“What am I doing?” Xu Shen raised a smirk. “I just saved you in the alley, and you’re not even saying thank you?”

The two had been at a standstill for two weeks, their relationship icy. But earlier that morning, Xu Shen, riding his bike to school, had seen Ren Qingqing cornered by a few students from another school in an alley.

Xu Shen couldn’t quite explain his feelings toward Ren Qingqing. He just knew that being given the cold shoulder by her at home left him feeling irritated.

Hearing his words, Ren Qingqing took a deep breath, her tone cold and sharp. “Thank you.”

Xu Shen lazily scratched his ear. “Say it again; I couldn’t hear you.”

“You—!”

The two of them stood outside the classroom, casually chatting as if no one else existed, but it was Ruan Cha who bore the brunt of it, forced to endure the not-so-subtle glances of the Class 10 students in the room.

Last week, Xu Shen’s attempts to woo Ruan Cha had been overwhelmingly intense. Even after she rejected him outright, he hadn’t gotten angry and instead switched to a gentle, attentive approach in the following days. The students of Class 10 were convinced it was only a matter of time before Ruan Cha gave in. And now, what was this? Xu Shen had his eyes on someone else?

The students scrutinized Ren Qingqing critically. Her looks weren’t as good as Ruan Cha’s, her figure wasn’t better either, and academically—well, she might stand a chance. But this was Class 10. Who cares about academics?

“What’s Brother Shen doing?” Xie Changan frowned, itching to go over and ask but lacking the standing to do so. Muttering to himself, he turned to sneak a glance at Ruan Cha. “Ruan Cha, I believe Xu Shen is serious about you. He’s just playing around with Ren Qingqing.”

In Xie Changan’s mind, Ruan Cha = friend, Xu Shen = classmate. The priority was clear, even to the point where he stopped using the honorific “Brother Shen.”

Ruan Cha, startled by Xu Shen’s behavior, dropped her booklet in shock. She quickly denied it, “No, no, no! Xu Shen’s just playing around with me. He’s serious about Ren Qingqing!”

As soon as she finished clarifying, she bent down to pick up her booklet and went right back to studying.

Xie Changan: “???”

Their voices were too low for the surrounding classmates to hear, let alone Ren Qingqing, who was standing at the doorway. From her perspective, she saw Ruan Cha fumble and drop her booklet in panic as soon as she and Xu Shen appeared together.

“Could it be that Ruan Cha really likes Xu Shen?” Ren Qingqing wondered to herself, before smirking coldly. So much for pretending to be indifferent while rejecting him—throwing away breakfast to show disinterest? What a calculated move.

Her heart was a mix of bitterness over Xu Shen’s attention toward Ruan Cha and faint joy at the thought of Ruan Cha being upset. If Ruan Cha truly liked Xu Shen, then seeing them together would surely throw her off her game and mess up her performance during the exams.

Suppressing her sharpness, Ren Qingqing put on a sweet smile. “Thank you,” she said softly, then added in a delicate tone, “Thank you, Xu Shen gege.”

Facing away from the classroom, Xu Shen didn’t see what was happening inside. Noticing that Ren Qingqing’s frosty demeanor had thawed, he smiled, casually plucking a dried leaf from her hair. “Go on in,” he said lazily as he stepped aside.

The leaf, combined with Xu Shen’s small gesture, made Ren Qingqing’s heart race. Her initial three points of affection for him seemed to rise to five or six in an instant.

Lowering her head slightly to hide her flushed cheeks, she glanced at Ruan Cha, who was still focused on her studies, as she entered the room. Smirking internally, she thought, A last-minute crammer distracted by me and Xu Shen? If she can perform well, that’d be a miracle.

But to Ren Qingqing’s disappointment, Ruan Cha, fully aware of the plot, already knew Ren Qingqing was temporarily staying at Xu Shen’s house. She was utterly unfazed by their budding romance, calmly finishing her Chinese test and moving on to her favorite subject—math.

When it came to math, Ruan Cha’s demeanor completely shifted. Unlike with Chinese, her spirits were light, and her attitude was relaxed. For basic questions, she could almost calculate the answers mentally with just a quick glance at the problem.

The proctor for Exam Room 23 was Ye Qingfeng, the homeroom teacher of Class 1 and a math instructor. During math exams, he usually liked to walk around and observe the students’ abilities.

However, ever since proctoring the midterms for Exam Room 23 during first year, Ye Qingfeng had given up entirely. Now, whenever assigned to this room, he simply sat at the front and zoned out, his soul wandering elsewhere.

Observe? Observe what? The students doodling on their papers?

“Teacher, I’m submitting my test.”

Less than twenty minutes into the exam, a soft voice broke through the sound of pages flipping and pens scratching.

Not only was Ye Qingfeng stunned, but the classmates also looked up in confusion, their eyes landing on the petite girl standing at the front. Her sleek black hair was tied into a flower bun, and though she had her back to them, everyone recognized who was handing in her paper.

Ren Qingqing.

The girl who had interacted with Xu Shen at the classroom door earlier that morning.

Hearing the faint murmurs of surprise ripple through the room, Ren Qingqing couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. She also reaffirmed the value of the system she had acquired. Last night, she had spent 2 points to exchange for simulation papers for Ruan Cha’s best subjects—English and Math.

When Ren Qingqing first saw the actual exam, she was amazed. The questions on the simulation paper she had practiced were a 100% match with the real test! She didn’t even need to read the questions; she simply wrote down the answers she had already memorized.

It felt as though she was copying answers straight from a cheat sheet without engaging her brain. If not for her thoughts drifting to Xu Shen’s recent attentiveness toward Ruan Cha, which stirred some bitterness in her heart, Ren Qingqing believed she could have finished the test in fifteen minutes.

When she walked up to the podium with her completed paper and noticed Ruan Cha—who had scored 150 in the High School Year 1 finals—still engrossed in her work, she almost laughed out loud.

With two primary missions completed, Ren Qingqing knew she was about to earn 8 points, plus 3 intelligence points and 2 beauty points! There was no way Ruan Cha could stop her now!

Ruan Cha, meanwhile, was working on the bonus questions when she heard the noise and glanced up to see Ren Qingqing at the podium. A thoughtful look flashed in her eyes.

In the original storyline, when Ren Qingqing had first started high school, she had struggled with math and physics. Despite ranking second in the grade during a monthly exam, her math score was only 130.

And Ruan Cha wasn’t just being smug. At that time, the system had likely siphoned 3 intelligence points from the original “Ruan Cha” character and transferred them to Ren Qingqing, which accounted for her performance.

But now? Ren Qingqing, who hadn’t earned a single intelligence point, managed to finish the entire math exam in just twenty minutes?

If you were this impressive, why didn’t you ace Task A in the first place?!

The thought of being a once-happy, carefree slacker fish forced to turn over and study made Ruan Cha’s mood sour. She lowered her head and resumed scribbling furiously.

Although Ye Qingfeng saw that Ren Qingqing’s answer sheet was filled out in its entirety, he still wasn’t pleased. He refused to take her paper, his face darkened as he pointed to the clock on the wall, practically spitting his words.

“You’re in your second year of high school! Who told you it’s okay to submit your paper in twenty minutes? Didn’t the school say the monthly exam follows the same rules as the college entrance exam? You can’t hand in your paper until thirty minutes after the start! Don’t you understand?!”

Ren Qingqing: “???”