Chapter Twenty-Nine: One Dares to Speak, One Dares to Listen

To prepare for the upcoming monthly exam, Wen Yichen imposed a relentless tutoring regime on Jiang Muwen.

Two days after the exam, the results were announced.

When Wen Yichen was called to the office by the teacher to record the scores, Jiang Muwen instinctively grabbed the corner of his shirt.

Feeling the tug, Wen Yichen turned around, his gaze naturally falling on Jiang Muwen.

He looked at her in confusion. “What’s wrong?”

“Help me check my score…” Jiang Muwen spoke softly, and as their eyes met, Wen Yichen could even sense a trace of… nervousness?

“If you want to know, just look for yourself,” Wen Yichen replied, seemingly unwilling to help her check the result.

If Jiang Muwen had the courage to do so, she wouldn’t have dragged him along. She was worried that if she went to check it herself, the teacher might single her out to analyze her paper in detail.

As soon as Wen Yichen entered the office, the teacher handed him a freshly printed report card with the grades for all subjects. Yet, his attention wasn’t on his own scores.

His eyes drifted downwards, and it wasn’t until he spotted Jiang Muwen’s name that he stopped.

Upon seeing her results, a smile of relief appeared on Wen Yichen’s face.

“Wen Yichen, you did well this time—keep it up!” the homeroom teacher said, assuming he was pleased with his own marks, unaware that his joy came from something else entirely.

Wen Yichen murmured an acknowledgment, but his gaze still lingered on Jiang Muwen’s grades. In his opinion, her score wasn’t particularly high, but for her, it was a significant improvement.

The homeroom teacher made room for Wen Yichen to sit and record the grades.

When his pen paused at Jiang Muwen’s row, the teacher spoke up with a touch of disbelief laced with delight. “You know, Jiang Muwen always seemed like she couldn’t do anything, but she actually did pretty well this time.”

Upon hearing this, Wen Yichen’s pen stilled, and a rare, handsome smile softened his usually stern features—as if a thousand-year-old glacier had finally melted under the sun.

Jiang Muwen’s performance owed much to Wen Yichen’s efforts, but he only replied with a faint smile, “Teacher, anyone who made it into Class A must have some ability, right?”

His words were reasonable, drawing a laugh from the homeroom teacher. Indeed, students in Class A—of which there were only thirty spots per grade—were the cream of the crop.

…

When Wen Yichen later told Jiang Muwen her score, she froze in disbelief—a student who had always been at the bottom of the class, now finally experiencing her own springtime. At last, she had moved from the tail end to the teens in class ranking.

As the report cards were handed out, Yin Lizhe immediately turned around, curiosity evident on his face. “Boss, boss! How did you do this time?”

Before Jiang Muwen could reply, Yin Lizhe snatched the report card from her hand.

The moment he saw her scores, a whole drama played out in his eyes—shock turned to delight, then to surprise.

He never imagined that the girl who had promised to languish at the bottom with him would now leave him behind without mercy, letting him face the winds alone.

“Boss, since you did so well, why not be my tutor?” Yin Lizhe put down her report card, looking at her with pleading eyes.

“Well…” Jiang Muwen hesitated. For one, her grades weren’t that great; for another, she owed her improvement to Wen Yichen. “I didn’t do that well… you should ask someone else…”

She was about to refuse, but Yin Lizhe was insistent. “I’m not aiming for the top of the class—just don’t want to be at the bottom. If I got someone too good, the pressure would be too much.”

Faced with his earnest reasoning, Jiang Muwen couldn’t bring herself to refuse. “Alright then…”

“Great!” Yin Lizhe, delighted by her agreement, started brainstorming names for their study group. “Should we call ourselves the ‘Comeback Squad’ or the ‘Hidden Talents Team’?”

As he planned excitedly, he was completely oblivious to the gaze burning into his back—the gaze of Wen Yichen. Wen hadn’t intended to eavesdrop, but Yin’s loud boasting left him no choice.

“I think ‘The Bravehearts Squad’ sounds about right,” Wen Yichen drawled lazily, propping his head on one hand and idly clicking his pen with the other as he looked at the two in front of him.

Jiang Muwen was startled by the sudden voice behind her. She turned, looking at Wen Yichen in confusion, not quite understanding his meaning.

Seeing her puzzled look, Wen Yichen stopped clicking his pen, set it gently on the desk, and shifted to a more comfortable position. “You two tutoring each other—that’s just one brave enough to teach, and one brave enough to listen, isn’t it?”

Though his words were clearly sarcastic, to Jiang Muwen, they just sounded odd. Wasn’t this just a study group? Why did Wen Yichen sound… unhappy?

After a brief silence, Gu Nianxi’s voice came from the side. “Why don’t we all form a study team? We can pair off for tutoring, and if we have questions, we can discuss them together. How about it?”

No sooner had she finished speaking than Bai Xu chimed in, “Yes, yes! I’m in.”

As she spoke, she pulled in Wen Yichen’s deskmate. “Gu Chen will join, too!”

With that, a six-person study group was formed.

“But what about me and Boss…”

“Do you two really think you can learn together?” Before Yin Lizhe could finish, Wen Yichen cut in coldly.

Normally, the logical pairs would be Bai Xu with Gu Chen, Gu Nianxi with Jiang Muwen, and Wen Yichen with Yin Lizhe. That seemed reasonable to everyone. Yet, Wen Yichen simply couldn’t stand Yin Lizhe—he didn’t even know why himself, but seeing him just made him uncomfortable.

Yin Lizhe was about to say something when Wen Yichen interrupted again. “Jiang Muwen has always been tutored by me. If she suddenly switched, I’m afraid she wouldn’t be used to it.”