Chapter 43: Small Goals

Chapter 43

During break time, Lin ChuSui took out her phone and looked at the voting interface on the school's official website forum.

At present, Qiao Danqi's article "My Life Enlightenment - Overcoming Myself" ranked first with over six hundred students voting for her.

Ranking second was Xu JiaNing. He was able to jump directly from ninth to second place, entirely relying on his high popularity in school.

Almost all the votes for him were from girls who were his fans.

While Lin ChuSui's article was ranked last with only ten or so votes and likes - Lu TianBai, Lu Chi, Zhang ChengYu...

The voting was real-name based with one vote per person. After voting, you could see the names.

Just as Lin ChuSui was checking one by one to see who Xiao Yan had voted for, she suddenly heard the students around her start to tease:

"Yo~~~"

"Coming to find the study god?"

"Tsk tsk tsk."

Curiously, Lin ChuSui looked up to see Qiao Danqi walking to the corridor window and stopping there.

Xiao Yan happened to be sitting by the window. He was being forced by Xu JiaNing to read the so-called "Dream of the Red Chamber" research, completely unaware that Qiao Danqi was standing by the window.

"Xiao Yan, hello."

Xiao Yan's gaze slowly moved away from his phone and looked at Qiao Danqi. Seeing her unfamiliar face, he said: "Tutoring sessions are suspended nearing finals."

"I didn't come to find you for tutoring." Qiao Danqi was very composed. Unlike most girls, she wasn't shy at all. She introduced herself to Xiao Yan: "I'm Qiao Danqi from Class 1 Senior Year 3."

"Oh."

His gaze returned to his phone again. Seemingly slow on the uptake, he left Qiao Danqi hanging for over twenty seconds before asking: "So what's your relationship with Qiao Dan?"

Qiao Danqi: ......

The boys around laughed out loud.

Qiao Danqi looked at the chuckling strangers around her, took a deep breath, and said: "Xiao Yan, I actually wanted to come and ask you some questions about studying."

"I've stopped working due to final exam preparations. Don't want to repeat myself a third time." Xiao Yan casually said, "I'm not taking tutoring sessions now."

"Ah, no, I didn't come to find you for tutoring." Qiao Danqi quickly explained, "Just some study questions I wanted to ask you."

Xiao Yan's expression darkened. "You want to freeload off me?"

"Ah."

She didn't expect the top student of the grade, Xiao Yan, to say something like this. It was a bit different from the study god she had imagined...

Qiao Danqi, who had been very confident earlier, now had a flushed face.

Lin ChuSui still felt a little unhappy inside, but listening to their conversation, she finally understood why those girls who had tried to confess to him had left crying.

Xiao Yan's thought process was really...not quite the same as normal people's.

Qiao Danqi didn't intend to continue beating around the bush with Xiao Yan either. She directly said, "Did you read my essay, 'My Life Enlightenment - Overcoming Myself'?"

"Oh, it was you."

Seeing that Xiao Yan finally reacted, Qiao Danqi's embarrassment eased up a little, and her confidence returned. Clearing her throat, she said, "I don't know if you noticed, but the person I wrote about in my essay..."

"You wrote about me."

Having her secret exposed so directly, Qiao Danqi's face grew even redder.

But she kept her cool. She firmly nodded: "Yes! Actually...I deliberated for a long time before expressing it this way, but every word I said was true."

Lin ChuSui observed Xiao Yan's expression, feeling a little apprehensive inside.

Xiao Yan seemed a little moved. He put down his phone and asked, "You were being truthful?"

Qiao Danqi nodded repeatedly: "Mm!"

Finally, Xiao Yan stood up and faced her directly.

Seeing his grand gesture, Qiao Danqi's heart raced wildly: "Xiao Yan..."

Xiao Yan looked at her and raised his chin arrogantly. His eyes were as cold as frost: "Are you publicly declaring war on me?"

"Ah!" Qiao Danqi jumped in fright: "This...I..."

Xiao Yan looked at her coldly: "So your essay was an open declaration of war on me. You want to take away my position as grade’s top student?"

Everyone fell down!

Lin ChuSui laughed so hard she almost slapped the table.

She didn't want your top student position, she wanted you!

Qiao Danqi was dumbfounded.

"Others have tried to challenge me in the past, but they ended up dying terribly." Xiao Yan glanced back at Xu JiaNing: "Not only did they not get first place, they fell to third place."

Xu JiaNing instantly felt like he had been shot in the knee. Flipping his desk angrily, he yelled, "What’s that got to do with me!"

Qiao Danqi was at a complete loss for words. With her essay, she thought she and Xiao Yan had established a soulmate-like relationship that was already well-known throughout the school.

But now with Xiao Yan's words, he had shattered their "scandal" -

What soulmates! Their thought processes were separated by tens of thousands of miles!

Qiao Danqi left with a red face, furious.

Xiao Yan yawned lazily, seeming a little weary and listless. He sat back down and continued calmly reading articles. Feeling Lin ChuSui's dark eyes fixed intently on him, he lazily raised his gaze -

"You want to challenge me too?"

"Don't dare!"

Lin ChuSui immediately fawned over him, massaging his arm: "Even with ten times the guts, I wouldn't dare challenge your supreme status, Study God."

Xiao Yan primly withdrew his arm: "Speak some more nice words."

Looking at him, Lin ChuSui couldn't help a brilliant smile emerging: "Study God, wishing you longevity and good fortune for thousands of years, unifying the martial world."

Xiao Yan also smiled. Very impolitely, he reached out and pinched her creamy cheek, squeezing her into a hideous expression: "Get into the grade's top 100. Study God will help you unify the martial world."

"Okay."

...

After exiting the group, Lin ChuSui immediately went to visit Xiao Yan's KouKou Space. She had always felt someone like Xiao Yan would limit social activities to the physical world, she didn't expect him to not only have a Space but for it to be wildly popular, with hundreds of visits every day.

There wasn't much content in his Space. The latest post was from a year and a half ago, the content was: "Bangs look good, or buzzcut? [Confused]"

Under that year-old post, there were already thousands of comments, all screaming in unison: "Bangs! Bangs! Genius with bangs is smoking hot!"

Then he buzzed his hair short.

He had reposted three blogs, all from two years ago. One was "Use Scientific Methods to Help You Fall Asleep Quickly", another was "Salute to the Great Firefighting Heroes".

The third one was him reposting Lin ChuSui's essay.

She felt somewhat honored to occupy a spot in such an indirectly monotonous KouKou Space.

...

Thanks to the genius's vote/comment/repost support, Lin ChuSui's essay slowly gained popularity.

Her writing was actually quite mediocre. Compared to the top ten flowery, exaggerated beautifully written essays, she deserved to be at the bottom.

Even so, an essay selected by the teacher into the top ten wouldn't be too bad.

Her writing style was simple, but very sincere, quite touching to read carefully, so quite a few classmates sincerely voted for Lin ChuSui.

Seeing the trend was off, Xu Jia Ning canceled her vote for Lin ChuSui an hour before voting ended, and voted for herself again.

Later, the top three essays were sent by the school for another round of review by the Writing Society.

Xu Jia Ning was very confident her essay would get first place.

She didn't expect the review results to come out with Lin ChuSui as first place.

The Writing Society teacher really liked Lin ChuSui's essay, and even recommended it to a local literary magazine for publication.

This brought great acclaim to Lin ChuSui at school.

Old Qin, who had always looked down on her, now inevitably looked at her with new eyes, and even specially invited her to the office to encourage her.

In the past, every time Lin ChuSui stepped into the office, it was to get scolded and criticized. This time when she went in, she was somewhat nervous.

When Old Qin saw her come in, he smiled and waved his hand. She reflexively dodged to the side, afraid Old Qin would hit her.

"Lin ChuSui, don't be so scared."

"Sorry Teacher Qin, it was... a reflex."

Old Qin brought a stool for Lin ChuSui and let her sit down, even pouring her a cup of water.

Lin ChuSui was so honored she didn't know what to do with her hands.

Only the top few students in the grade got to enjoy Teacher Qin's personal water-pouring service in the office.

Lin ChuSui quickly stood up and said, "Teacher Qin, I'll just stand and talk, you doing this... makes me uncomfortable."

Old Qin's expression was gentle as he grumbled, "Good for nothing."

"Yes, yes." Lin ChuSui had a silly smile.

Just then, Xiao Yan walked into the office and politely said, "Teacher, you asked me to come help organize the end of term archives."

"I called you twice before and you didn't show up. Now you're so eager to come?" Old Qin said irritably: "I know what you're up to. If you didn't come, what do you think I'd do, eat her up?"

Xiao Yan glanced at Lin ChuSui but didn't say anything, and familiarly started helping the homeroom teacher organize the student roster.

"Teacher Qin, did you ask me here for something?" Lin ChuSui asked apprehensively.

"Little Lin, I read your essay, and heard from some classmates about your father's situation."

Old Qin guiltily said: "As your homeroom teacher I didn't even know about this, I really failed in my duties. I also wasn't very good to you before, and said some excessive things..."

"Pshh." Lin ChuSui waved her hand, blushing a little.

She had never blamed Old Qin. Although she was unruly, she still knew right from wrong.

Old Qin had scolded and yelled at her in the past out of frustration that she wasn't improving. Otherwise with her terrible grades, an irresponsible homeroom teacher would have just let her be long ago.

"Little Lin, actually I've always felt you're very smart, you just don't apply your mind to studying. If you focused your mind on the right things, what couldn't you learn well? Just look at this essay contest, didn't you get first place! And won honor for our school."

Lin ChuSui hadn't heard praise from a teacher in a long time, she grinned from ear to ear, waving her hand: "It's not that great, but Teacher Qin, I've always deeply respected you. You're a great teacher."

"Hahaha, nonsense, I just have a little more experience than the average teacher."

"And I just have a slightly better memory than the average student!"

Seeing the two chatting more and more happily, Xiao Yan figured since Lin ChuSui wasn't getting scolded, he could relax. He said, "Teacher Qin, the materials are organized, I'll get going first."

"Okay."

Seeing Xiao Yan leave, Lin ChuSui also bid farewell, but Old Qin called her to stop: "Wait, Lin. I asked you here because I hope you can set a goal for yourself."

"A goal?"

Old Qin nodded: "Since your father has passed, as your homeroom teacher, I'll be like a father from now on. I didn't fulfill my duties to you before, but now I've decided to make up for lost time."

"Oh..."

Lin ChuSui had a very bad feeling!

"Set a goal for yourself. For the final exams, try to reach that goal. I'll supervise you."

Lin ChuSui scratched her ear and glanced back at Xiao Yan, meeting his bright dark eyes right on.

She remembered the bet she lost to Xiao Yan before. The stake was... the top 100 in the grade.

At that moment, Xiao Yan looked at her with a kind of almost loving expression, encouraging her to set this goal.

Lin ChuSui sighed and said with determination, "Then I'll set a goal of... being in the top 100 of the grade. Once I achieve that, I'll aim for Peking University."

"Good!" Teacher Qin slapped the table: "Promising! As expected of my student!"

Lin ChuSui was startled by him: "Don't get so excited, I might not be able to complete it..."

"Since you've made this pledge yourself, you have to strive to fulfill it."

Teacher Qin patted her slender shoulders: "If you can't complete it, next semester, I think you shouldn't sit next to Xiao Yan anymore. Let him partner with a student who needs more help."

Before Lin ChuSui could react, Xiao Yan tripped and fell on his way out the door.