You Like The Smart Ones? You Should Have Said So Sooner! - Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Encounter at the Competition

Qin Mian looked down, suddenly feeling a strong urge to punch the person across from him. “Can you stop pausing for breath like that when you speak?”

Song Ying nodded obediently.

After a moment of silence, Qin Mian hesitated over whether to ask why, worried that it might touch upon a painful subject. However, Song Ying looked at him with a faint smile in his eyes, as if waiting for him to ask.

As if possessed, Qin Mian asked, “Why didn’t you take a single subject during the National College Entrance Exam?”

Qin Mian wasn’t sure if it was his imagination, but the smile in Song Ying’s eyes seemed to deepen. He blinked and looked again, but the look was gone.

Song Ying’s tone and expression were relaxed, as if he were discussing something as ordinary as drinking water. “I was late for the first exam, so I didn’t want to take the rest.”

Qin Mian froze, his mouth opening slightly, but he didn’t say anything. He was about to ask why he was late, but the words Zhang Kun had said earlier flashed through his mind, and he instinctively felt it was better not to ask.

As for why he didn’t take the rest…

Qin Mian understood that perfectly. If he had missed the first exam, he wouldn’t have gone to the others either. Even if he took them, the final score would be a far cry from his usual performance; he would never use such a grade to enter a university.

Noticing that Qin Mian wouldn’t press further, Song Ying lowered his gaze and said, “It’s about time. You need to head to the fifth floor. Pack up your things.”

In Dong’an No. 2 High School, the higher the class number, the lower the floor.

“Yeah,” Qin Mian nodded.

The exam began soon after.

Song Ying realized Yu Canxing was right. Having the exam room in Class 18 was incredibly convenient; there was no need to run to other classrooms. He simply had to move back one seat and sit in Qin Mian’s spot.

Meanwhile, Qin Mian—the poor soul—had to climb from the first floor to the fifth. With six subjects to test, he had to make the trip six times.

Under the sweltering 30°C heat, by the time this “fragile high school animal” dragged his post-hospitalization body to the fifth floor, he felt like he was about to pass out.

A passing student asked hesitantly, “Hey, are you okay?”

Qin Mian’s face was pale as he shook his head. He quickly found his seat and sat down to catch his breath.

As he rested, he suddenly felt this scene was oddly familiar. In a flash of insight, he finally remembered why Song Ying’s back looked so familiar.

He remembered it was during the second semester of his sophomore year. A neighboring city had held a math competition, and he had signed up. It just so happened that on the day of the competition, he had a fever from a cold and entered the exam room in a daze.

Because his head was cloudy and his movements were clumsy, he accidentally knocked over a pen. The person sitting in front of him had leaned over to pick it up, but hadn’t turned around when handing it back.

Qin Mian slapped his forehead, speechless at his own memory. Thinking back now, the person sitting in front of him must have been Song Ying!

“Damn it, if I’d remembered sooner, you wouldn’t have been able to play me for so long,” Qin Mian thought, gritting his teeth.

However, in the final list of winners for that competition, neither his name nor Song Ying’s had appeared. Otherwise, he would have recognized the name immediately.

The monthly exams lasted two days.

After they finished, Qin Mian found a moment to mention this to Song Ying.

Song Ying blinked, searching his memory for that competition. After a while, he realized, “I remember now. I think I really did pick up a pen for the person behind me during that competition.”

Qin Mian raised an eyebrow. “Then what happened to you? I remember your name wasn’t on the winners’ list.”

Song Ying arched his brow. “Who says you have to win just because you enter a competition? Can’t I just go to see the world?”

“…Heh,” Qin Mian sneered. “You’re something else. A top-scorer level student going to a city-level competition just to ‘see the world.’ Was it you seeing the world, or the competition seeing you?”

Song Ying coughed lightly and gave a serious answer: “Actually, it was nothing. I was dealing with some stuff at the time and didn’t have the heart for competitions.”

“I was spacing out the whole exam. Thinking back, my memory must be incredible to remember picking up a pen for you,” he remarked with genuine self-admiration.

Qin Mian ignored his narcissistic comment. He really wanted to ask what had happened back then, but he felt he wasn’t close enough to Song Ying to pry. In his impression, the things Song Ying dealt with usually had something to do with what Zhang Kun mentioned—”Your mother…”

Qin Mian found it difficult to bring up such personal family matters, fearing he might accidentally cross a sensitive line. Just as he himself had things he didn’t want others to mention casually.

While they were talking, Qin Mian’s phone suddenly rang. He glanced at it casually, but his gaze froze, and the smile on his face slowly vanished.

Song Ying looked at his grim expression and asked hesitantly, “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Qin Mian ground his molars and grabbed his phone, showing no intention of explaining to Song Ying. “I’m going out to take a call.”

With that, he walked out of the classroom swiftly.

Song Ying watched in silence as Qin Mian disappeared through the door. His good mood evaporated instantly. He wasn’t angry; he just felt a sense of loss.

He knew very well that Qin Mian had every right not to share his private business. But because they had been so close lately, Song Ying had almost fooled himself into thinking they were truly intimate. Now, he realized they weren’t that close yet; aside from knowing where Qin Mian lived, he knew nothing about his life.

Song Ying wanted to tell him that he didn’t mind being asked things, and he was willing to tell Qin Mian his own story. Between the two of them, there was no need to be so cautious.