When Will My Childhood Sweetheart Marry Me?-Chapter 139: Fractions

By the time it was nearly three in the morning, a torrential downpour suddenly hit Jiuzhaigou, and our group was blocked inside the guesthouse, sleeping straight through to the next afternoon before waking up one by one, yawning.

Tang Xing, holding a rinse cup, brushed his teeth while complaining, "I told you there was going to be rain, but Chen Jin had to argue with me, saying not to believe the nonsense weather forecast. Look now."

The trip to Jiuzhaigou had been a spontaneous decision, and before setting out, nobody really thought to check the weather.

A trip embarked on a whim wouldn’t easily be postponed due to the weather.

Jiang Shuyao stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass, looking at the lotus leaves in the pond outside, washed by the rain, and felt a faint sense of melancholy.

These days had been strange, it seemed no matter how much fun she had, whenever she was alone and quiet, she couldn’t help but let her thoughts wander.

What exactly was she worried about?

Everything was going according to plan, wasn’t it?

Considering the weather ahead, the group decided to drive back to Rong City that afternoon.

As soon as Pei Yan got in the car, he leaned back in the rear seat and closed his eyes to sleep. She suspected he snuck off to play cards last night and touched his slightly swollen eyelids, asking softly, "You didn’t eat at noon, are you hungry?"

He lifted his eyelids slightly to look at her, his voice hoarse, "I want some water."

Jiang Shuyao fumbled around in her seat and handed the opened thermos to him.

"Be careful, it’s a bit hot."

Among the girls on the trip, she was the only one to bring a thermos.

Back then, Tang Xing had laughed at her, and now, sitting in the passenger seat, he seemed intrigued by the novel use of a thermos.

There were only a few couples among her friends who were in a romantic relationship.

But Yaoyao and Boss Pei, who acted like an old married couple after barely a few days of dating, were truly a rare sight.

Childhood sweethearts were indeed different, with a foundation of emotional connection, their relationship quickly heated up and entered maturity once they got together — such efficiency was remarkable.

Tang Xing’s way of thinking was often beyond the average person, and as the journey progressed at a leisurely pace, with soothing music filling the car, they were only ten kilometers out of Jiuzhaigou when everyone in the car, except for the driver, had fallen asleep.

It was already nine o’clock at night when we arrived in Rong City.

After some brief farewells, everyone went their separate ways.

Having slept the entire four hours on the road, Jiang Shuyao was wide awake, and after reporting back to Ms. Zhu and Old Jiang, and taking a shower, she locked herself in the study.

She planned to stay up until midnight to check the exam scores online immediately.

She had memorized Pei Yan’s ID number and admission ticket number by heart. At such an important and tense moment, her concern was for that guy.

To aim for any decent college in the Capital, the scores needed to be close to 600 without restrictions.

Pei Yan’s last mock exam was still twenty points shy of the target.

Twenty points...

As Jiang Shuyao was lost in thought, footsteps approached from outside the room, and Old Jiang knocked on her door to ask if she wanted some wontons.

She was stunned for two seconds before suddenly realizing that she had not eaten anything since noon.

Biting her lip and frowning, she quickly turned off the desk lamp and went out.

"Dad, I’ll take a portion over to Pei Yan. I’ll be back a bit later; I have to check the scores at midnight."

Hearing that the scores were available, Jiang Tingsong instantly perked up.

"Go ahead, you’re allowed to stay up tonight."

Parents’ expectations for college entrance examination scores were no less intense than those of their children.

Of course, Jiang Shuyao’s real reason for saying that was just to have an excuse to stay a bit longer next door, to avoid not coming home in the middle of the night and worrying her parents.

The bowl of wontons was heavy with generous servings.

Pei Yan ate while she watched.

He picked up a wonton with his chopsticks and motioned it towards her mouth, gesturing for her to open up and take a bite.

Jiang Shuyao shook her head, "I’m not hungry; this bowl is all for you."

The wontons, with filling chopped by Old Jiang himself, tasted many times better than those from any restaurant outside.

Ever since moving to Yasong Residence, Pei Yan had eaten countless meals prepared by Old Jiang, but his favorite was still these thin-skinned, meat-filled dumplings.

The girl propped her chin in her hands, watching with utmost seriousness.

Pei Yan took a bite of the wonton and a sip of the soup, deliberately amplifying the sound, eliciting giggles from her.

At midnight, the college entrance exam scoring system was nearly crashing.

There were simply too many people logging in. Jiang Shuyao sat in front of the computer, trying every five minutes on average, without a single success.

After half an hour of trying back and forth, Ms. Zhu called with a video call, inquiring about the score checking results.

Jiang Shuyao shook her head listlessly, saying she hadn’t logged in yet.

She had never expected that her parents would actually stay up with her to this point. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless one.

At one in the morning, she finally managed to log into the system.

Jiang Shuyao let out a long breath and turned to the person beside her, asking, "Whose results shall we check first, yours or mine?"

In the deep silence of the night, they locked eyes, neither yielding.

The youth’s gaze was dark and unfathomable, without a ripple.

Jiang Shuyao knew that this guy was just as nervous as she was, but at this critical moment, he was still feigning composure.

The next second, her cheek was pinched by his hand and gently tugged.

Before she could react, Pei Yan had already turned away, typing in a string of examination numbers rapidly and hitting enter.

The air fell silent.

The system took a few seconds to respond and then switched to the display page.

Total score: 606.

Seeing this number, Jiang Shuyao couldn’t believe it and stood up from the chair in shock, "How could I have only scored this——"

Her gaze moved up and saw Pei Yan’s name in the candidate column.

She immediately closed her mouth.

And with that, embarrassment followed.

Jiang Shuyao masked her inner joy and stealthily glanced at a certain someone, noticing that he was staring at the screen, motionless, seemingly unaffected by her earlier reaction.

At that moment, as she watched the youth holding his breath, her eyes slowly began to moisten.

The Pei Yan from a year ago could probably have never imagined that he would achieve such excellent results in the college entrance exam.

But a year later, he had done just that.

It was beyond everyone’s expectations, including hers.

Jiang Shuyao calmed her heart and turned back, "Shall I screenshot it and send it to your phone so you can look at it at your leisure?"

"No need, I’ve memorized it all."

Pei Yan rubbed the top of her head with his large hand, bringing himself back to reality.

The scores in Chinese, Mathematics, and English were almost within the predicted range, but his comprehensive science score had broken his all-time high record.

Just as Jiang Shuyao had said before, that twenty-point gap had been bridged entirely by his outstanding performance in comprehensive science.

Pei Yan found it miraculous. The phrase "outstanding performance" rarely appeared in his life’s dictionary, an achievement that was not easy to come by.

The next day, Class Six’s group chat exploded.

Yu Zhengqing shared the good news early in the morning.

Jiang Shuyao and Lu Chen tied for first place in the entire grade again with a total score of 720. Although their rankings within the entire city were still unknown, it was almost certain that they would be in the top ten without a doubt.

Amidst the congratulations, Lu Chen sent a private message to Jiang Shuyao.

He asked her: "Have you considered taking art as an elective? With such scores, it’s a real pity to give up a science and engineering major."

To others, it indeed seemed a pity; after all, for many years, no art students in the country had brought their academic scores to such a level.