Ji Ningning felt like she must have broken some heavenly law.

After what felt like an eternity, gym class finally appeared on the schedule, giving everyone a chance to rest. But instead, she found herself listening to Shen Yuan’s outrageous pronouncements.

For someone like her, whose grades were already in the lower-middle tier of the honors class, this was nothing short of torture.

It was for no other reason than what Shen Yuan had just described: she couldn’t remember her English vocabulary and couldn’t recite the *Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion*.

’Damn it.’

When Ah Jie had started reciting, "In the spring of the fourth year of the Qingli reign," Ji Ningning truly hadn’t noticed anything amiss.

’Huh?’

’Teng Zijing wasn’t King Teng?’

’Sigh, can’t we just have a normal gym class?’

Ji Ningning silently returned to the classroom. She’d been swept up in the competitive grind.

Not long after, Shen Yuan also returned to the classroom.

When he saw Ji Ningning slumped over her desk, Shen Yuan’s brow furrowed.

’Oh, crap. I have another pain-follower right here beside me!’

"What a coincidence. You’re here to study too."

Ji Ningning lifted her head and gave a faint smile, but Shen Yuan could see the exhaustion on her face.

’She’s going to study even when she’s this tired?!’

Shen Yuan offered some well-intentioned advice. "If you’re tired, you should get some rest. Studying like this is very inefficient."

He then added, "You won’t even be able to memorize your vocabulary."

Ji Ningning was stunned. ’Damn it, are you targeting me on purpose?’

’Why do you think I’m so tired?!’

’It’s all because *someone* yesterday said they were going home to review their mistakes!’

Shen Yuan, for his part, had no idea Ji Ningning’s state was his fault, so he continued.

"When it comes to memorizing vocabulary... you know, don’t let my good English grades fool you. Even I forget words sometimes, so you really have to keep at it."

’Stop, please stop. He’s killing me.’

Ji Ningning felt like crying.

’How can anyone be so cruel?!’

Shen Yuan watched the girl’s lower lip tremble as she began to memorize her vocabulary words.

"Now that’s the kind of attitude you need for studying!"

Shen Yuan gave the girl an approving nod, then started on his math worksheet.

Fortunately, Ji Ningning was a boarding student, so she could return to her dorm for the afternoon nap. At least then she wouldn’t be dragged into Shen Yuan’s competitive grind.

...

"My approval!"

When Li Zhi woke up from her nap, she saw that Shen Yuan was, incredibly, still studying.

Hearing Li Zhi stir, Shen Yuan leaned over and asked, "Perfect timing. Let me ask you something. What’s the right approach for this problem?"

At his words, Li Zhi’s eyes immediately glazed over.

"Girl, my head is spinning. I’m just gonna sleep a little longer."

As she said this, Li Zhi was about to close her eyes, but then she saw Shen Yuan lean in rapidly.

The distance between Shen Yuan and Li Zhi was now barely a fist’s width.

Startled, Li Zhi immediately recoiled.

"What are you doing?!"

Shen Yuan slowly slid his math worksheet off the desk and pointed to one of the major problems. "How do you solve this? I don’t get it."

Li Zhi slowly exhaled, trying to calm her racing heart.

"If you’re going to ask a question, just ask! Why do you have to be so scary about it!"

"Heh, well, wouldn’t you have just pretended to be asleep otherwise?"

Li Zhi shot Shen Yuan a glare, then gave him a thumbs-up. "You’re the real Painful Sacrifice!"

Shen Yuan gave a bashful smile.

’The tables have turned.’

As Class 15’s secondary disseminator of academic suffering, Li Zhi was finally getting a taste of her own medicine—the torture of having someone else inflict the pain of studying upon her.

And what was the primary source, you ask? The exam-oriented education system, of course.

Did you even need to ask?

However, Li Zhi quickly came to terms with it.

’How should I put it... this is ultimately a good thing,’ she thought.

’Shen Yuan has fallen in love with studying.’

’Wait, how did "Shen Yuan loves studying" and "this is a good thing" get connected in my head?’

Li Zhi glanced at the still-struggling Shen Yuan.

"Still don’t get it?"

Shen Yuan shook his head. "I’m afraid this one’s a little tough."

"Forget it, forget it. I’ll explain it one more time. Just make sure you remember the method for solving it. All these problems follow the same logic."

With that, Li Zhi explained it to Shen Yuan one more time.

"Do you remember now?"

Shen Yuan nodded, then pointed to one of the steps. "But why does this part here transform into that?"

"It’s a function formula. You don’t even know that?"

Shen Yuan scratched his head. "That’s not how I remember it."

Li Zhi suppressed her frustration. "Right now. Immediately. Write down every single function formula you can think of!"

Seeing the indignant expression on his Beautiful Maiden Qing Mei’s face, Shen Yuan flinched.

Pulling out a piece of scratch paper, Shen Yuan began to write down every function formula he could recall.

Speaking of which, the memory enhancement effect the system had given Shen Yuan was actually quite good.

It was just that Shen Yuan’s memory had always been good, so the change wasn’t that dramatic.

With a flurry of scribbling, Shen Yuan wrote out every function formula he could remember.

"Here. That’s pretty much all of them."

Li Zhi took the scratch paper and glanced over it.

The first few were fine, but when it came to the more complex formulas, Shen Yuan started making mistakes.

Another issue was that he had missed a few formulas entirely.

Li Zhi quickly marked Shen Yuan’s errors and, while she was at it, filled in the formulas he had missed.

Shen Yuan looked as if he’d just found a priceless treasure.

"I added the ones you missed. Take a good look at them. I know you have a good memory, so I won’t quiz you."

Li Zhi continued, "I suggest you go online, find some resources on math fundamentals, download them, and memorize everything. If you do that, you might be able to keep your scores consistently above 90."

"But when it comes to actually solving problems, I personally think you just have to practice more. Memorize the fundamentals, work through a lot of different problem types, and once you get to the point where you see a problem and the solution just pops into your head, you’ll be set."

Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched.

’My memory is good,’ he thought. ’In fact, a lot of the problems I get wrong over and over are ones I’ve done before.’

’So why do I keep getting them wrong?’

’Did I not memorize it properly? Did I forget the method?’

’No, I just never truly understood the problem in the first place.’

Shen Yuan glanced at the scratch paper in his hand, his resolve to keep working hard strengthening.

As for Li Zhi, after being pestered by Shen Yuan like this, all her sleepiness had vanished.

’The tables have really turned,’ she thought.

’I can’t believe I’m being dragged into the grind by Shen Yuan!’

But at this point, Li Zhi had no intention of going back to sleep. ’Might as well read a book.’

’I’ll just read a bit, pressure some other people, and have a little fun.’

When the afternoon nap ended, Ji Ningning returned to the classroom and was astonished.

’Did these two start grinding the moment they woke up?’

"Good afternoon. Reading right after you woke up?"

Shen Yuan shook his head. "I didn’t sleep."

It was like a bolt from the blue!

Ji Ningning felt the RUMBLE of thunder having a rave directly inside her skull.

’No way, have these two evolved to the point where they don’t even sleep during the nap break?!’

’Are they really that intense?!’

"You didn’t sleep?"

Shen Yuan nodded. "I wasn’t very tired, so I figured I might as well not."

Ji Ningning pressed her lips together. She was on the verge of tears.

’How could such an insane tryhard be sitting right next to me!’

Just then, Shen Yuan noticed the English vocabulary notebook in Ji Ningning’s hand.

"Hey! You took your vocabulary book back to the dorm to study during the nap? How could your roommates possibly sleep with you doing that?"

Ji Ningning nodded. "I was just thinking I’d memorize a few before I went to sleep."

The words had barely left her mouth when Shen Yuan’s Great Wilderness Heaven-Imprisoning Finger descended upon her. "You tryhard! Disturbing people’s sleep in the dorms—your intentions are sinister."

’As the saying goes, the sound of a roommate turning pages is deafening,’ he thought. ’I can’t stand people who study in the dorms. A dorm room is for sleeping! How can the sanctity of a peaceful bed be violated by the sound of flipping pages? If you’re going to grind, do it in the classroom. I hate these kinds of tryhards who disturb people’s sleep. What a villain! Utterly despicable!’

Ji Ningning was speechless.

’Seriously? You have the nerve to call *me* a tryhard?!’

"And grinding in the classroom doesn’t disturb people who are sleeping?" Ji Ningning asked, incredulous.

Shen Yuan looked at her as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Isn’t the classroom *for* studying?"

Ji Ningning wanted to punch him.