Zhu Yaya tugged at Yan Heng's sleeve, stood on her tiptoes with effort, and whispered, "Let's go, don't mind him. I suspect he's just acting like this because he's jealous I scored better than him."
While Zhu Yaya was speaking, Yan Heng leaned his body slightly towards her. He only straightened up after she finished, withdrew his gaze, and gave Zhu Yaya a slight nod.
And so, the two of them walked away.
Chen Zicheng watched their retreating figures, a flash of jealousy and resentment in his eyes. He clenched the gift box in his hand so hard it crumpled.
On the way, Zhu Yaya pulled out from her backpack a small bear-shaped gift box that had been carefully protected. She held it up with both hands for Yan Heng to see: "Ta-da! Brother Yan, isn't it a surprise? This is for you. The apple inside is one I specially picked out from the supermarket!"
Yan Heng's expression clearly faltered with surprise. "For me?"
He hadn't expected Zhu Yaya to prepare an apple for him separately.
He took the gift box containing the apple. This box was obviously different from the ones Zhu Yaya bought on Pinduoduo. Was it intentional? His heart stirred slightly.
Zhu Yaya replied with a giggle, "Of course it's for you! I gave the same ones to my deskmate Xu Baoying and Senior Li Hao too!"
So she gave them to others as well.
The delight in Yan Heng's eyes dimmed a little.
"But the apple for you, Brother Yan, is the biggest one!"
The corner of Yan Heng's mouth lifted slightly.
He also started rummaging in his backpack to take something out.
Zhu Yaya's eyes lit up, thinking Yan Heng was going to give her an apple too. But to her surprise, he pulled out a fruit box. When Zhu Yaya opened it, it was watermelon!
Back when she was completing tasks, Zhu Yaya had eaten watermelon every day until she nearly got sick of it!
Yan Heng looked at her seemingly frozen expression. "Because you like watermelon, I didn't prepare an apple."
Seeing her hesitate to take it, he added, "Aren't watermelons your favorite?"
The fake-smile girl Zhu Yaya immediately made her appearance: "Haha, that's right! I love eating wa-ter-me-lon."
Murong Beichen truly lived up to being the male lead in "The Domineering Him, The Purest Love." While Ling Yiming stopped pestering Xu Chun so frequently after following her a few times, Murong Beichen persistently bothered Xu Chun every single day, even more than Zhu Yaya did.
Following behind him and Xu Chun, Zhu Yaya witnessed him take out an apple the size of a fist and offer it to Xu Chun: "Chun'er, take it! This is the Christmas Eve apple I'm giving you."
"Chun'er, don't underestimate this apple. It comes from the Nod Forest in the Makabaka Mountains of Country A. It's a completely natural apple, grown without pesticides. It's the nearly extinct Mata apple, only available to the upper nobility in Europe and wealthy billionaires like me. A single apple is worth 428 US dollars, air-shipped over last night. Please, accept it!"
Xu Chun, true to her strong-willed, prideful Cinderella character, flatly refused. "Hmph, no matter how expensive it is, in my eyes it's just an apple. In my heart, it's not even as good as the discount apples sold at the supermarket!"
Murong Beichen wasn't angered by the rejection. "As expected of the woman chosen by me, the world's number one Murong Beichen! You're indeed different from other common, vulgar girls!"
As a member of the "common, vulgar girls" he mentioned, Zhu Yaya expressed that she would be more than happy if Murong Beichen didn't fancy her.
Yan Heng saw Zhu Yaya's disgusted, mocking expression. "Why do you dislike Murong Beichen so much?"
Zhu Yaya shook her head. "It's not dislike, it's disgust."
Yan Heng silently noted the points about Murong Beichen that triggered Zhu Yaya's aversion.
Christmas Eve was just a small prelude to Christmas Day. On Christmas Day itself, the entire Scott High School was bustling with excitement. As soon as Zhu Yaya entered, she saw staff setting up something on the large school sports field, with three lush green spruce trees lying on the ground nearby.
Munching on a steamed bun, Zhu Yaya muttered to herself, are they going to set up Christmas trees?
Unexpectedly, when she returned to class and asked Xu Baoying, she got a positive answer.
"You didn't know?" Xu Baoying looked at her strangely. "At Scott, on Christmas Day, every student secretly prepares a gift. The staff collect all the gifts and put them uniformly in red-and-green patterned boxes. While we're in class, the staff place them under the Christmas trees."
Xu Baoying's expression grew excited. "After school, each of us can go to the sports field and pick one gift from under the three Christmas trees. I heard, two years ago, someone picked Prince Chen's gift! Maybe this year it'll be me!"
Zhu Yaya: I'm getting old, I really don't understand you youngsters' taste these days.
What else could she say? Scott High School truly lived up to its reputation as a school of colorful young people like Murong Beichen! They could even come up with all kinds of antics for Christmas.
This made her recall the high school she attended before transmigrating into the book, a nationally famous "exam factory." They didn't celebrate Christmas or Christmas Eve at all; everyone just studied and practiced problems frantically as usual.
Scott High School also valued academic performance, but placed equal emphasis on students' overall development. According to Xu Baoying, next year during Qingming Festival, their school would even organize a spring outing.
So, Zhu Yaya started wondering, when March 12th, Arbor Day, came around, would the school arrange for each of them to plant trees? And on May 1st, Labor Day, would they arrange for them to do labor?
Since Zhu Yaya was unaware of the gift-preparation stage, she hadn't prepared anything.
After some thought, she went to ask Xu Baoying, "What gift did you prepare?"
"Just a Swarovski necklace," Xu Baoying said nonchalantly, even showing it to Zhu Yaya.
Zhu Yaya took out her phone to check the price. Good grief, 479 yuan.
She asked around her class and found that most people's gifts cost over a hundred yuan.
Poor Zhu Yaya: Well, this is awkward.
Xu Baoying leaned over and said, "The gift doesn't have to be expensive. The thought is what counts."
Zhu Yaya thought that made sense. After finishing lunch in the cafeteria at noon, she went out to a bookstore near the school and bought three thick stacks of test papers.
That's thoughtful enough, right?
Xu Baoying hefted the weight. "You're absolutely toxic! Heaven help me, I pray I don't draw your gift."
Zhu Yaya retorted, "What do you know? This is my sincerest wish for whoever gets my gift."
When she handed her prepared gift to the staff member, their speechlessness was visible. They even said with a complicated expression, "I've worked here for so long, this is the first time I've seen someone give test papers as a gift."
"I just think that as students, we should focus on studying hard," Zhu Yaya said, blinking innocently.
While handing in her gift, she also saw Yan Heng and Li Hao.
When Li Hao saw the three big stacks of test papers, he immediately gave a thumbs-up. "Damn, impressive!"
Zhu Yaya giggled. "Keep it low-key, low-key."
But unexpectedly, Yan Heng had also prepared a gift similar to Zhu Yaya's—he had brought Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulation.
Li Hao teased, "Perfect. You two are a match made in heaven."
