The stuffed animals were too big for Shen Yuan and Li Zhi to take to school, so they had to make a trip home first.
"Here, this is for you."
When they got downstairs in their apartment complex, Li Zhi handed one of the cat plushies to Shen Yuan.
"Consider it your fee."
Shen Yuan took the cat plushie and looked it over. "Nope, I want yours!"
"Aren't they the same?"
Li Zhi honestly couldn't see any difference.
"They're different," Shen Yuan said earnestly. "This is the one I won. It's the symbol of the Jiyang Claw Machine King!"
"So?"
"I'm giving it to you! This is like a divine blessing, as good as if it were consecrated by a master monk."
Shen Yuan's words actually sounded quite heartwarming.
But Li Zhi's eyes narrowed. She already sensed something was off.
Sure enough, Shen Yuan's next sentence revealed his true intentions.
"You're such a noob, you need the blessing of the Jiyang Claw Machine King!"
If she weren't holding that huge stuffed animal, Li Zhi would have absolutely unleashed a Pretty Girl Power Punch on him.
Her hands might be tied, but Li Zhi would show no mercy with her words.
"I might be bad at games, but you're bad at school. For all your talk, you can't even get a 620. That Tong Churou is way more diligent than you. And do you know who that boy with her is?"
"It doesn't matter if you don't know. You just need to know that his dad is a master physics teacher. Don't tell me you're going to fail to beat even her on the monthly exam. Oh, that's right!"
Li Zhi flashed a wicked grin. "A certain someone can't beat her in the first place."
Shen Yuan's composure shattered.
'Desensitized? Impossible.'
Li Zhi had successfully made Shen Yuan sensitive about his embarrassing past all over again.
"Who said I can't beat her? I, Shen Yuan, will definitely get a 620 on this monthly exam! And I'll definitely surpass Tong Churou!"
Seeing Shen Yuan's flustered state, the corners of Li Zhi's mouth curled up.
The wicked childhood friend stated with certainty, "I don't believe you."
Shen Yuan grew frantic.
"You just wait! I, Shen Yuan, will definitely show that Tong girl what real progress looks like!"
"Well then, I'll be eagerly awaiting it."
Looking at Li Zhi's expression, Shen Yuan suddenly realized what was happening.
'I think I just got baited by Li Zhi.'
'Then again, that's not necessarily a bad thing.'
Shen Yuan pressed his advantage, laying out his terms. "You already owe me one favor. So if I manage to both score 620 *and* beat Tong, shouldn't you owe me two?"
"But what if you only accomplish one?"
"Then I'll consider it my loss! I'll do whatever you say."
Seeing Shen Yuan's utter lack of hesitation, Li Zhi simply nodded without another word.
"We'll do it your way, then."
The stakes were raised.
The moment he got home, Ms. Zhang nabbed Shen Yuan.
"Where did you go? Why are you back so late?"
Shen Yuan held up the cat plushie. "Went with Li Zhi to play the claw machines. I won a ton and traded them in for a giant one for her."
As he spoke, Shen Yuan made a big circle with his arms to demonstrate the plushie's size.
Zhang Yuyan rolled her eyes. "Wow, you're so capable."
"Fine, don't believe me."
Shen Yuan muttered before heading back to his room.
Inside her room, Li Zhi held an ugly-cute chick plushie. It was one of only two prizes she'd won during their claw machine expedition.
'I'm so bad at this, but I love it.'
The other cat plushie was one Shen Yuan had won; they had ended up swapping after all.
'Where should I put this?'
The two plushies ended up on a tabletop in the corner of her room.
After that, Li Zhi placed the giant bear plushie next to her bed. As she looked at its smiling face, she couldn't help but be reminded of Shen Yuan.
"Dumbass."
The pretty girl landed a power punch on the bear plushie's face, knocking it to the floor.
"Hmph!"
All around her room, you could see the spoils from Li Zhi's claw machine ventures.
Most of which had been won by Shen Yuan.
The last time Shen Yuan had won plushies for Li Zhi was way back at the start of their freshman year of high school.
The break passed quickly.
After eating dinner at home, Li Zhi went to school.
She didn't wait for Shen Yuan.
When Shen Yuan was about to leave, he found that Li Zhi's shoes were already gone.
'Perfect, a chance to grind my quests. Just you wait, once I'm Vigorous and Full of Energy, I'll show you what grinding really is!'
Shen Yuan's quest was already more than halfway complete.
By the time Shen Yuan got to the classroom, his progress had increased by another 800 meters.
'He'd finally figured out how to complete the quest in stages.'
Arriving at the classroom, Shen Yuan saw Li Zhi reading a book at her seat.
'It's not scary when people are smarter than you. The scary part is when people smarter than you also work harder than you!'
"You didn't even wait for me."
The moment he sat down, Shen Yuan started grilling her.
Li Zhi smiled gently. "I thought you were studying, so I didn't want to disturb you."
That one stung.
Shen Yuan hadn't been studying at all; he had been playing games.
But Shen Yuan definitely wasn't going to say that.
"Of course! The monthly exam is only three weeks away, so I have to make every moment count. After all, it's the first monthly exam of our senior year. You have to take it seriously."
Li Zhi nodded along. "Three weeks… if you really put your mind to it, 620 should be no problem at all."
The perfect tone of a wicked girl.
Shen Yuan pressed his lips together, not wanting to speak anymore.
He could already imagine how Li Zhi would humiliate him if he didn't score 620 on the monthly exam.
'Study, study, study.'
Before the evening self-study session started, Zhou Shaojie and Yang Ze returned to school together.
As soon as he walked into the classroom, Zhou Shaojie saw Shen Yuan hunched over his desk.
"FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"
"Holy shit? Is this for real?"
Ah Jie rushed over, looking at Shen Yuan with utter disbelief. "Grinding this hard?!"
Shen Yuan looked up at Ah Jie and grabbed him. "Perfect timing. How do you solve this problem?"
"No, no, no! I'm not helping a tryhard! Never!"
"Death to all tryhards!"
Ah Jie tried to struggle, but he was quickly subdued by Shen Yuan and ended up obediently explaining a math problem to him.
Watching Ah Jie looking so docile while trapped in Shen Yuan's man-lock, Yang Ze immediately taunted, "This Ah Jie is so lame."
Zhou Shaojie shot his head up and sneered, "Oh yeah? And can *you* score a 620?"
The smile on Yang Ze's face froze. He couldn't laugh anymore, fam.
Looking at Yang Ze's frozen smile, Zhou Shaojie suddenly realized Li Zhi's method was really effective.
At this thought, Zhou Shaojie turned to look at Shen Yuan.
"Yuan, are you studying this hard because you're trying to break 620?"
Shen Yuan was deep in thought over the math problem when Zhou Shaojie's sudden, passive-aggressive comment completely derailed him.
"Huh?"
"Do you have to work this hard just to get a 620?"
Shen Yuan's composure instantly shattered.
"You son of a…"
Seeing Shen Yuan's composure crumble, Zhou Shaojie felt like he'd had an epiphany.
'So this is it! In the honors class, you're supposed to mock people with their scores!'
'My score is higher than yours, which means I'm better than you!'
'What right does a subhuman who can't even break 620 have to speak to me?'
'FUCK, it feels so good just thinking about it!'
The next moment.
"I, the Emperor, was right! How dare you subhumans with 600 points compare yourselves to me, the Son of Heaven?!"
A group of burly guys hauled Zhou Shaojie to the back of the classroom and roughed him up.