Chen Feng was too stunned by the sudden turn of events to react. By the time he did, he’d already been hit.

He staggered back a couple of steps, clutching his face as he glared at Shen Yi. "Shen Yi, what are you doing?!"

"When you bumped into her just now, if her waist had hit the corner of that desk, she could have suffered internal injuries!"

Shen Yi’s gaze on Chen Feng was ice-cold.

A shiver ran down Chen Feng’s spine. He glanced at Qin Jiao and said in a low voice, "But it wasn’t on purpose!"

Shen Yi sneered. "It’s a good thing you didn’t do it on purpose."

’Otherwise, it wouldn’t have ended with just one punch!’

Seeing Chen Feng get hit, Lin Nian was instantly furious. She rushed forward and said, "That guy bumped into Chen Feng, that’s why he bumped into Qin Jiao! How can you be so unreasonable?"

Shen Yi gave her an indifferent look. "He’s a man and can’t even stand steady. Gets bumped once and he topples over. What is it, a kidney deficiency?"

Chen Feng’s expression instantly turned foul.

Qin Jiao was stunned. She never expected Shen Yi to say something like that. After all, at their age, people were usually very reserved when talking about relationships, let alone a term like "kidney deficiency."

’No, wait,’ she thought. ’Most people probably don’t even know what that means.’

But judging by the look on Chen Feng’s face, Qin Jiao realized he hadn’t just understood the term. ’Could it be that he... actually has one?’ 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

A few classmates helped Qin Jiao pick up the scattered test papers. She tugged on Shen Yi’s sleeve and said, "Alright, that’s enough. Class is about to start, and I still haven’t finished handing out the papers."

The girl’s gentle voice and the light tug on his sleeve made the hostility in Shen Yi’s eyes fade. He nodded. "I’ll help you."

"Okay."

The commotion seemed to die down, but one student quietly whispered, "What’s a ’kidney deficiency’?"

Chen Feng: "..."

Meanwhile, Lin Nian shot a venomous glare at Shen Yi and Qin Jiao. ’They definitely did that on purpose!’ she fumed internally.

But a moment later, the language arts teacher came in, and everyone fell silent, diving back into their studies.

As was customary, the monthly exam results were released during self-study on the evening of the following day.

Sun Guotao seemed to be in a great mood. Holding his large tea mug, he said with a wide smile, "Several students in our class did exceptionally well this time! Last time, we were ranked fourth out of the ten classes. This time, we’ve moved up one spot to third place!"

"Whoa! Our class is awesome! The only ones ahead of us are the two honors classes, right?"

"Hehehe, there are still plenty of monthly exams to go. Maybe we’ll even have a chance to surpass them."

Seeing their jubilant expressions, Sun Guotao said, "Hey, don’t get complacent now. We’ve only just begun. You all need to keep working hard!"

"Yes, sir!"

Sun Guotao had never really thought about surpassing the two honors classes, but he believed that by the time the college entrance exams came around, his students’ scores would continue to improve.

He began to read out the class rankings.

"First place in our class this time is, once again, Chen Feng. He ranked 28th in the entire grade. Excellent work!"

A murmur of envy went through the class. Lin Nian smugly lifted her chin in Qin Jiao and Shen Yi’s direction.

’Didn’t you say you were going to catch up to Chen Feng, Shen Yi?’ she thought. ’Ranking in the three hundreds? What a joke. You’re not even close!’

Sun Guotao gestured for everyone to quiet down and continued reading, "Second place, Meng Lanlan, ranked 37th in the grade."

"Third place, Qin Jiao, ranked 45th in the grade."

"Fourth place, Lin Nian, ranked 46th in the grade."

The smug smile on Lin Nian’s face hadn’t even faded before it froze completely. Her eyes widened in astonishment, and she couldn’t stop herself from crying out, "Impossible!"

How could Qin Jiao have improved so much? How could she have scored better than her!

That was absolutely impossible!