Zhu Yaya, Zhao Jing, and Zhu Jianjun played at the amusement park for a long time. As evening fell, the family boarded the Ferris wheel.
From the top of the Ferris wheel, Zhu Yaya could look down on the entire park through the window. She watched excitedly as the lights for each ride lit up one after another.
Zhao Jing and Zhu Jianjun sat on either side of her, looking at her with loving eyes.
Zhao Jing reached out and straightened the burgundy beret on her head: "Yabao."
"Hmm?" Zhu Yaya withdrew her gaze from the window.
"You know, because of your dad's and my jobs, we haven't been able to spend much time with you. We're really sorry about that, but we hope you can understand our work. You need to know that we truly love you very much."
"Mom, Dad, don't worry! I've grown up now, of course I can understand your work. And," Zhu Yaya gave Zhao Jing a smile with pursed lips, "I love you too."
At that moment, she was really grateful to System 886 for giving her such wonderful parents!
At 9:30 PM, although the amusement park was illuminated by colorful lights, turning it into a small sleepless city, the crowd was gradually dispersing.
In the employee break room of McDonald's, two tall, large bear mascots were clumsily taking off their costumes.
One of them, a young man with hair damp with sweat, was clearly Yan Heng. On the locker next to his left hand sat an unopened bottle of Coca-Cola.
The other was a middle-aged man with a crew cut. He glanced somewhat enviously at the bottle of Coke: "We're both handing out flyers in mascot suits, how come no one gave me a drink?"
His mouth dry, the middle-aged man, seeing that Yan Heng still hadn't opened the drink, suggested that Yan Heng give it to him to drink.
"Since you're not drinking it anyway."
Yan Heng quickly grabbed the Coke from the locker.
"Tch, no sense at all," the middle-aged man rubbed his nose, then said with some excitement, "But, kid, today a little girl took our heads off. Haha, she mistook us for someone else. That girl was really pretty, even better looking than my own daughter."
"What did she look like?" Yan Heng, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up.
"Huh? What'd you say? Speak up!"
"What did that girl look like?" His voice grew louder.
"What? Louder!"
Yan Heng: ...
Finally understanding what Yan Heng had asked, the middle-aged man rubbed his crew cut: "She was petite, with long hair. Wearing a black coat and a white sweater, and she had a hat on her head!"
Yan Heng's left hand, holding the bottled Coke, tightened. It was her! The corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.
When school started on Monday, Zhu Yaya went to the Tian Tian Breakfast Shop to buy breakfast and specifically ran over to ask Yan Heng: "Brother Yan, where did you work your part-time job on Saturday?"
Yan Heng's hand paused, and he said calmly, "I went to a restaurant."
A restaurant!
Then she must have been mistaken! Ahhh, she was going crazy! Who gave her the confidence back then to be so sure that bear mascot was Yan Heng! She really wanted to go back in time and slap that overconfident idiot!
Zhu Yaya's face went blank as she took her breakfast from Yan Heng's hand.
A hint of a smile flashed in Yan Heng's eyes.
Time flew by, and soon it was time for the November monthly exams. Zhu Yaya easily took first place in the entire freshman year again. This time, with no other matters holding him back, Yan Heng completed all his exams and surpassed Xu Chun, the second-place student in the sophomore year, by a full one hundred and twenty points.
Zhu Yaya ran to the bulletin board on the first floor of their teaching building to look at Yan Heng's displayed exam papers.
After looking, the word "badass" kept scrolling wildly through her mind.
Six different solutions for the final, most difficult problem? This move was truly worthy of a top dog!
Zhu Yaya silently returned to her class, pulled out "Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulation," and plunged into a frenzy of solving problems.
Xu Baoying, who had been reading BL novels next to her and laughing heartily, noticed her heightened study fervor and also quietly pulled a copy of "Exam Research" from her backpack and started solving problems too.
In the end, the entire Class 1, Grade 1 was swept up in a problem-solving craze, which made their homeroom teacher, Chang Wen, who came to check on them, very satisfied.
Even though Zhu Yaya had taken first place in two consecutive monthly exams, there were still naysayers. The second-place student in the grade, a stuffy young man from Class 2 with thick glasses, was one. His name was Chen Zicheng, and he had said more than once in front of others that Zhu Yaya had a frivolous demeanor, always smiling at unfamiliar male classmates.
Regarding these comments, Zhu Yaya expressed a desire to pack him up and send him to ancient times.
"Is this guy sick?! I can't even smile if I want to?" Zhu Yaya went to complain to Li Hao and Yan Heng.
"This guy couldn't have time-traveled from ancient times, could he?" Li Hao also thought this person's mindset was a bit problematic.
Yan Heng tilted his head to look at the two faintly visible dimples beside Zhu Yaya's mouth, the look in his eyes deepening.
While chatting, Zhu Yaya didn't forget to keep an eye on Xu Chun. Xu Chun was surrounded by Murong Beichen and Ling Yiming. The two of them, vying for Xu Chun's affection, used methods of pursuit that were increasingly disgusting. If she were Xu Chun, she guaranteed she would kick them away one by one.
However, there was still no progress in the relationship between Xu Chun and Murong Beichen.
Thinking of this, Zhu Yaya's mood turned even less pleasant.
She continued to follow Xu Chun, but even after the mid-December monthly exams ended, she still hadn't unlocked any mission.
Zhu Yaya: What's wrong with Murong Beichen? His flirting skills are no good!
Anxious and impatient, Zhu Yaya, in order to push the development of feelings between Murong Beichen and Xu Chun, even gritted her teeth and spent 11 bucks on Pinduoduo to buy the recently popular "Methods and Practical Operations for Pursuing Love" and "XXX Teaches You 100 Moves to Chase Girls," secretly placing them inside Murong Beichen's desk when no one was around.
She was gratified to see Murong Beichen studying the contents of the two books seriously, and then watched in stunned disbelief as he became increasingly oily towards Xu Chun day by day.
Why did perfectly good, point-scoring lines sound so greasy and creepy when he said them?!
In the end, Zhu Yaya had reached a state of zen acceptance.
Whatever will be, will be!
Anyway, by the end of the novel, Murong Beichen and Xu Chun still ended up together. The current plot hasn't even reached one-third of the full story yet!
She would just keep following Xu Chun; she didn't believe she wouldn't trigger a mission.
For the December monthly exams, Zhu Yaya and Yan Heng still comfortably held onto first place in their respective grades. The second-place Chen Zicheng pulled another shady move, telling his classmates that Zhu Yaya was a heartbreaker who played with people's feelings.
Zhu Yaya, perpetually single: Is this sarcasm directed at me or slander against me?
Inspired, Zhu Yaya wrote a piece of parallel prose, filled from start to finish with words satirizing Chen Zicheng, mocking all his shady operations. She marched triumphantly into Class 2, Grade 1 and posted it on their blackboard in front of the whole class. Then she turned and left.
She later heard that Chen Zicheng, stone-faced, tore the parallel prose down completely. Although his expression remained blank throughout, his face was red with anger.
Zhu Yaya secretly felt great satisfaction.
