Chapter 59: The Cannon Fodder Sister of the Female Lead (Part 11)

"Jiang Lai only started school a month later than you guys, but her foundation is stronger than anyone’s! This problem is tricky; it’s from last year’s math college entrance exam. You all attempted it, so see if you got it right and whether you can earn those fifteen points!"

The audience was abuzz with chatter, many praising Jiang Lai, even her deskmate who never opened their eyes during class or willingly interacted with her.

"She’s indeed impressive."

"Oh, so you’re not mute after all! Great, tell me about the formula you used for that problem just now."

With that, Jiang Lai pushed her notebook towards Cheng Lie. He, still sleepy-eyed, took the pen Jiang Lai handed him and silently started working through the problem on her notebook.

His handwriting was beautiful, and the formulas danced across the page. At a glance, one might think a teacher was grading a paper, especially with how he stylishly wrote the character "solution" with sharp angles, stretching the final stroke. Jiang Lai felt that just seeing this character would earn him two points from the grading teacher.

After class, Jiang Lai thanked him for what happened that day.

"I never got the chance to thank you. Here, my mom made this for you."

Jiang Lai handed an egg from her pocket to Cheng Lie. It was a rare treat; only a few classmates from well-off families could afford to eat eggs daily.

Cheng Lie didn’t even lift an eyelid; his long hair covered half his face, making it hard for Jiang Lai to tell if he was asleep or not. Otherwise, why would he keep staring at the egg in her hand, neither accepting nor refusing it?

No wonder the whole class considered him a problematic student—almost twenty and still in the tenth grade, declining grades year after year. Except for math, his other subjects were disastrous.

Jiang Lai regretted taking out the egg.

What if he took it?

After all, she only offered it out of politeness.

Then in the next moment, as if reading her mind, Cheng Lie reached out and took the egg from Jiang Lai’s palm, peeling it right in front of her and stuffing it into his mouth.

Jiang Lai: "..."

Looks like this guy hasn’t had something this good in ages.

"Thanks."

"Hehe, you’re welcome."

Damn, it was supposed to be her breakfast.

During lunch, Jiang Lai was the first to rush into the cafeteria, grabbing a bun from her food stash and spending a dime on some vegetables, eating it with Liu Shuping’s homemade pickles.

At this time, Jiang Qu came over with her tray, along with two female classmates, and sat beside Jiang Lai.

"Jiang Lai, why aren’t you eating an egg? Didn’t mum and dad send eggs for you?"

Upon hearing this, the two girls with Jiang Qu each let out a snort from either side.

Jiang Lai smiled.

"Sis, for the past two years, you’ve taken seven eggs from home every week. It’s been only half a month since school started for me, and I’ve only gotten three or four eggs from home. Of course, I can’t eat them every day like you do."

With that, Jiang Lai slurped up a mouthful of porridge, not caring about Jiang Qu sitting beside her.

Jiang Qu was tongue-tied, as indeed she used to have an egg for breakfast every day.

"Parents work hard. I gave my share of eggs this week for their health. Little sis, you took a year off school, may struggle with the class pace; you really should eat more eggs for nutrition."

"Ah, yes, yes. I’ve always felt malnourished. So does that mean if I eat an egg every day, I’ll be as smart as you, sister?"

Jiang Qu’s smile became a bit forced.

"Academic success relies mostly on talent and effort. Eating lots of eggs won’t help."

"Don’t worry, sister. Since you’re giving me all the eggs, I’ll surely get into a great college!"

With that, Jiang Lai drank the last of her porridge, got up, and left, leaving Jiang Qu there speechless.

"Jiang Qu, your sister is so domineering, sharp-tongued like a country woman."

"Yeah, not like you at all."

Jiang Qu continued eating, shaking her head with a smile.

"She’s the youngest at home, spoiled."

"You can’t just let her bully you. If you’re wronged, you have to tell your family, or you’ll suffer."

These days, who doesn’t have a bunch of siblings and some experience with this?

Jiang Qu kept her eyes down, her demeanor still calm and collected.

"It’s just a few eggs. If letting her have them improves her grades, I don’t mind giving them all to her."

"Pfft, good grades let her drop out? You’re about to take your college entrance exams. You’re the one who really needs nutrition!"

"Alright, enough said. The monthly test for tenth grade is coming up. With all those eggs, my sister should do brilliantly!"

――

At the end of October, the monthly test.

Every evening when Jiang Lai returned to the dorm, the first thing she did was take out that English reader, flipping through it again and again.

She felt like the knowledge she had previously mastered was slowly slipping away over time.

Little Buding told her it’s a system constraint, meant to help her adapt better to this era.

To delay the pace of forgetting, Jiang Lai read through the "Economic Law" book each night.

In the dorm, each girl was at their desk studying. One named Zhou Juan claimed she was sleepy and went to bed; yet, when Jiang Lai also put her book down and prepared to sleep, she could still faintly see the light from under Zhou Juan’s blanket.

Sigh.

Jiang Lai closed her eyes, ready to sleep.

In this era, getting into college isn’t easy at all.

The next day’s monthly test lasted two days, with six or seven subjects each day.

Just after finishing the exams and returning to the dorm, Zhou Juan approached Jiang Lai to compare answers.

"This math test was so hard. I only knew a little bit about the second-to-last problem, and I spent over twenty minutes on the third-to-last. My answer was eight. What about you?"

Jiang Lai thought for a moment.

"My answer was fifteen."

"Fifteen? How could it be fifteen? I asked the class monitor on the way over, and his answer was eight too. You must’ve made a mistake somewhere. It’s worth eighteen points; I just hope you didn’t mess up right at the start because you might not get any points."

After Zhou Juan rattled off her concerns, Jiang Lai simply smiled at her.

"I don’t think I made a mistake. I feel confident in my answer."

"But even the class monitor got the same as me; you must be wrong."

"Oh, then the class monitor might be wrong too."

"Impossible! He’s always been top of the class. Oh well, anyway, there are other subjects. Eighteen points aren’t everything."

Jiang Lai raised an eyebrow.

"Right, eighteen points aren’t everything."