After spending some time enduring the dull routine of her second year of high school—mainly because dragging herself out of bed shortly after six every morning was simply too painful—Xie Tangning decided to follow in her second brother’s footsteps and secure early admission to university.
That way, she could enjoy university life ahead of schedule and scout out the place for her friends.
Ah, there really weren’t many people as thoughtful as her!
She truly lived up to her identity as a flower carefully cultivated by the motherland!
She hadn’t even successfully secured her early admission yet, and Xie Tangning was already shamelessly singing her own praises.
However, she didn’t choose to compete for a spot through academic competitions like Xie Changyu had. Competitions took far too much time and effort.
Xie Tangning didn’t feel like going to all that trouble, so she organized the relevant pharmaceutical experiments she had conducted some time ago.
With the help of the mentor Lu Huaiyu had found for her, she successfully published two highly prestigious papers.
That opened the door to a top university. Before she had even officially enrolled, she had already become the final disciple of a senior professor.
After Xie Tangning was exceptionally admitted to Haicheng University’s chemistry department, the first thing she did, naturally, was rush over to “share” the good news with her wicked friends.
“Well, look at you~ Busy, are we?”
“Studying so diligently during the break. As expected of the top students in our honors class~”
During the long break between classes, Xie Tangning sauntered into the classroom carrying a bag of xiaolongbao packed from home.
Everyone else had already finished two lessons, while she had only just gotten out of bed and made her leisurely way to school.
When the gatekeeper saw her arriving so late and noticed that she couldn’t produce an excuse slip, he stubbornly made her fill out the late-arrival register before letting her in.
Xie Tangning had never cared much about trivial matters like this. Without the slightest hesitation, she wrote down the name of her dear bestie, Qin Shuchun.
Once again, this was solid proof that the two of them were only “plastic besties.”
Qin Shuchun, who had no idea what had happened, glared at her irritably.
“Quit being so smug, you little brat!”
She still had one final competition to go. Only by taking first place could she secure the early-admission spot.
Otherwise, there would be one more person today who was just as infuriating as Xie Tangning.
Liang Zhou was also on the verge of losing it. His deskmate—who was just as hopelessly ranked at the bottom of the class as he was—had actually stabbed him in the back.
“You traitor! How dare you backstab me?!”
Hadn’t they agreed to struggle through their senior year of high school together and head toward a bright future?
So how had this wretched girl suddenly overtaken him on the bend and already set one foot through the gates of a top university?
Xie Tangning stuffed a xiaolongbao into her mouth and mumbled smugly, “Mm-hmm~ If you’re bad, practice more~”
“Being jealous won’t help~ Go ahead and envy me all you want—I’ll never have to attend those seven-a.m. classes again~ Hahahaha!”
The more the girl spoke, the more insufferable she became. She failed to notice the exchanged glances among the students around her.
She was focused entirely on delivering even more provocative remarks when, in the next second, justice was served.
Led by Qin Shuchun and Liang Zhou, the class monitor, discipline committee member, and several others swarmed her and gave Xie Tangning a righteous “group beating.”
The remaining students cheered them on from the sidelines, all of them shameless spectators who loved nothing more than watching chaos unfold.
With Xie Tangning, Qin Shuchun, and Monkey Bro in the class, there was no way it could ever lack its share of little demons.
Even though there weren’t many students in the honors class, the classroom wasn’t exactly spacious either.
With more than a dozen people surrounding her at once, even Xie Tangning’s quick reflexes couldn’t save her.
Once they felt they had made their point, Qin Shuchun—the Top Bestie—waved her hand grandly, and everyone withdrew.
That left Xie Tangning standing there in complete disarray. She shook the plastic bag in her hand.
“Wait, where did my giant bag of xiaolongbao go?”
The portion she had brought from home was enough for at least three people.
And it had vanished within mere seconds of them surrounding her?!
Qin Shuchun and Liang Zhou returned to their seats, whistling as though they had nothing to do with the crime, and buried their heads in their practice problems.
They were planning to win the next competition in one fell swoop and secure their own early-admission spots, determined not to hold their friends back.
It definitely wasn’t because those who fell behind were liable to receive a point-blank verbal attack from their good friends.
Just look at Shen Yunqiong, who hadn’t managed to test into the honors class with them back then. She had already been teased about it for more than a year.
Having had her beloved xiaolongbao stolen, Xie Tangning puffed out her cheeks angrily.
“Unbelievable! If you don’t hand over all your snacks as compensation today, I’m never letting this go!”
The class monitor immediately leaned in and mimicked the syrupy tone Xie Tangning was best known for, launching a counterattack right to her face.
“I’m never letting this go~”
The discipline committee member followed close behind.
“Never letting this go~”
“Never letting it go~”
“Go~”
The classroom filled with waves of sarcastic mockery. The guiding principle was simple: no one was getting let off.
Just as Xie Tangning was preparing to strike back, the bell rang.
She had no choice but to let it go. She had always known where to draw the line.
Although she had already secured her early-admission spot and enjoyed acting obnoxious in front of her classmates, she would never disrupt their studies because of it. Even her carefully selected time for being a menace was limited to the long break.
Continuing to attend class was no longer particularly meaningful to Xie Tangning, because she had already finished learning all the high school material.
But her Top Bestie and other good friends were still there, so Xie Tangning continued showing up at school every day without fail.
There was no particular reason.
She simply wanted to enjoy a little more of her carefree high school life, free from academic pressure.
During class, Xie Tangning did nothing but sleep. Of course, the moment class ended, she would wake right up.
Then she would start fooling around with her classmates.
All the subject teachers and school administrators turned a blind eye to her behavior.
After all, she was going to be the school’s star attraction when it came to future recruitment!
Although, considering Haicheng High School’s reputation, it didn’t really need any publicity.
People were already fighting tooth and nail to get in. Still, who would ever say no to an added advantage?
Besides, having a genius like Xie Tangning—who had secured an early-admission spot long before anyone else—around was a perfect way to temper the arrogance of the honors class’s overconfident little brats.
The students in Haicheng High School’s honors class were geniuses among geniuses, and most of them came from well-off families.
They all carried at least a hint of pride, and sometimes even the teachers found themselves helpless against them.
Xie Tangning was the catfish in the “catfish effect.”
It was a win-win situation, so there was nothing wrong with it. Besides, Xie Tangning wasn’t doing anything outrageous.
If she was tired during class and wanted to sleep for a while, what was the harm?!
Top students were always entitled to a few special privileges, weren’t they?
As for Xie Tangning’s abilities, everyone in the honors class had seen them firsthand. Not a single person was jealous of her.
In fact, a rather amusing phenomenon had developed in the class. These geniuses would often bring all kinds of competition problems to Xie Tangning for help.
Whenever the questions touched on her area of expertise, she naturally explained everything she knew without holding anything back.
Of course, no one ever brought her a Chinese-language question.
After all, her ability to answer Chinese questions wasn’t something ordinary people could handle.
By the second semester of her second year, Qin Shuchun and the others had also gradually secured their early-admission qualifications.
For the first-year students, they were legendary seniors. But before the graduation photos were even taken, they stopped appearing at school altogether.
Xie Tangning began following university professors in conducting experiments ahead of schedule. She became the only student in the project group who had yet to officially enroll but was already allowed to conduct research alongside the senior students.
Qin Shuchun was the sole heir to her family, but her parents had given her an enormous amount of freedom from the time she was little.
She had no need to be bound by the responsibility of carrying on the family legacy. She had the right to choose anything she wanted—and the confidence to do so.
So Qin Shuchun chose the field she loved: applied mathematics.
Liang Zhou was, after all, the heir to his family, so he began learning the ropes of investment from his father.
The whole point was to help shoulder some of the pressure at home. It definitely wasn’t because this kid, still subject to a restricted allowance before officially entering university, wanted to earn some spending money!
Definitely not!!
Although Shen Yunqiong was jokingly called a “hopeless student” by his friends, that didn’t mean he was actually lacking in ability.
After putting in nearly half a year of hard work, he was successfully recommended for admission to Haicheng University’s physics program.
Once Zhuang Zhiyao, Tan Xiao, and the others learned that Xie Tangning and her friends had already graduated early, they chose to take the same path and began preparing to study abroad.
None of this group of friends were ordinary people. They all had enough confidence and ability to embark early on the grand, eventful journeys of their lives.
