Rebirth: A Cinderella's Counterattack

Chapter 241: Chapter 224: Walnuts for Brain Nourishment

”Qianqian, save me.” As soon as she arrived in the classroom, Li Qi threw herself in front of Luo Qianqian. ”Do you know? This time it’s a joint exam with four schools, rank among the four schools. My dad said if I’m not in the top thousand, he’ll deduct all my allowance...”

”I have it even worse; Xiao Yu said she’d make me cook and fend for myself if I don’t make it into the top thousand.” Luo Qianqian patted Li Qi on the shoulder sympathetically.

”That’s really tough,” Li Qi said subconsciously, and seeing Luo Qianqian’s face change slightly, she quickly added, ”But you can’t just leave us to die, can you? Why not revive the glory days of doing homework together at night?”

”Qianqian, I really agree with Li Qi’s suggestion...” Pei Yutian pointed at his own dark circles. ”The things the tutor explained, I just can’t make sense of them, it’s like they’re from a different galaxy, speaking in some alien language.”

”It’s all Greek to me...” Pei Yuhao shook his head. ”I think it’s hopeless for me; ah, there goes my winter vacation trip...”

”Relax, it’s only midterm exams; it won’t be too difficult. Just don’t lose points on what you know,” Luo Qianqian said helplessly, spreading her hands. She had signed an unfair treaty and had tight control over her time after school.

”Luo Qianqian, this is a matter of life and death. Let’s continue doing homework together.” Xia Qi suddenly spoke up. Li Qi opened her mouth but said nothing; they all knew about Luo Qianqian’s curfew and didn’t want to put her in a difficult position, but now that someone had voiced it, they all looked at Luo Qianqian expectantly, hoping she would agree.

Luo Qianqian shook her head. ”I go home on time; I promised my brother. And I’m not much better than the tutors you guys hire, it’s just that you feel I’m more understandable because we’re familiar with each other; that’s all.”

Xia Qi frowned slightly, realizing she had been too rash but still said, ”We can pay you, right? Four times the tutoring fee for the same amount of time; how about that?”

Gu Yanzhi, who had come to deliver weekend tickets to the astronomy exhibition for Luo Qianqian with Chu Ci, happened to hear this and chuckled, stepping in to defuse the situation. ”That amount of money wouldn’t even be enough to hire me, is our grade’s number one’s price that low? Besides, it’s the aloofness of not being available for hire that makes one truly the top of the grade.”

”Hearing you say that, I’d think you’ve secretly made quite a bit of money,” Luo Qianqian laughed, covering her mouth before looking towards Chu Ci, poised and graceful at her side. ”What’s up, coming over so early in the morning? Miss me?”

”Keep joking,” Chu Ci laughed, covering her mouth and handing Luo Qianqian the tickets. ”Didn’t you say you wanted to go last time? Yanzhi just happened to get these tickets.” She then turned to Li Qi and the others, their faces apologetic. ”Sorry, it was thoughtless of me, I only got Qianqian’s. If you guys want to go, we’ll deliver them tomorrow.”

”Xiao Ci is really nice,” Li Qi said generously, waving his hand. ”But we’ll pass. Next week’s exams have us on edge; we’re not in the mood for outings like you are?”

”We’ll pass too,” Pei Yutian also shook his head. ”Spending that time on studying might just net us an extra ten points.”

”You guys just focus on studying; we can all go together after the exams are over,” Luo Qianqian said, smiling as she took the tickets, her eyebrows raised in joy. ”Does the ticket include stargazing at night?”

”It does, but you have a curfew, right? Can you stay out that late?” Chu Ci asked hesitantly.

”It’s the weekend; my brothers will have finished their exams too. Are there extra tickets?” Luo Qianqian asked, her eyes lighting up as Gu Yanzhi nodded. ”Then give me three more tickets; if I bring my brothers along, nobody can object.”

”I wish I could be your brother...” Pei Yuhao said enviously.

”You’re something else, dragging your brother out to play when he’s in his senior year. Aren’t you afraid he won’t get into college?” Xia Qi said, not hiding her disapproval when she saw Pei Yuhao jump into the conversation.

Luo Qianqian furrowed her brows slightly. ”The chances of my brother not getting into college are as low as your dreams coming true.” How could Luo Qianqian hold back her temper when someone insulted her brother?

”You!” Xia Qi was just about to retort when she was cut off.

”Xia Qi, that was way out of line!” Pei Yuhao was the first to frown coldly; taken aback, Xia Qi returned to her seat and began to sob quietly.

”So, we’ll go after school on Tuesday?” Luo Qianqian asked Chu Ci, completely disregarding Xia Qi. She had already let go of the previous targeting by her and saw no reason to indulge criticism of her brother. ”It’ll be good to relax after the exams. This weekend, I’ll just study with Xiao Yu to make sure she doesn’t perform poorly because of playing.”

Chu Ci nodded, without any objection.

”Let’s figure it out after the exams then,” Gu Yanzhi also nodded, looking at Xia Qi’s retreating back with disdain. It was easy to see through her petty schemes, wondering if Pei Yuhao was feigning ignorance or genuinely clueless.

——

”So Luo Qianqian, are you trying to tempt me? Telling me to study hard first, and after the exams, we can go out and have fun?” He Wenyu, gazing at the tickets in her hand, also looked full of longing.

”Brother, you and Brother Zhuzi have finished your exams too, so it should be fine to go together after school, right?” Luo Qianqian asked, looking at her own tickets with a hesitant and apprehensive expression.

Luo Shufan couldn’t bear to see his sister like this and nodded, ”You all have made plans, then go ahead.”

”So, I have to squander the happy weekend studying at home???” He Wenyu looked at the stack of papers in front of her with a pained face, ”Forget it, forget it, I surrender. I’ll just eat instant noodles these few days!”

Luo Qianqian frowned, ”Can’t we just buy food from outside? We do the papers, and the one with the lowest correct rate goes to buy the meals.”

”You’re bullying people...” Bai Yizhu’s mood instantly turned sour. He was just watching the show, but after hearing this, he couldn’t focus anymore, ”You’re bullying me...”

”You still have hope. Take it slow. For example, if you compare your... your..., your sports grade with my brother’s, you’re definitely going to win,” Luo Qianqian thought for a long time before decisively saying.

”So what exactly do we test in sports with papers?” Luo Shufan asked with a deadpan expression.

”How about this, we randomly pick a number, and whoever’s score is closest to that number goes to buy food,” Luo Qianqian suggested as she brought out a toy box without any toys, started tearing up pieces of paper, and wrote numbers to throw into the box.

”Then let’s do it this way. At least it won’t be so unlucky...” Bai Yizhu reluctantly agreed, nodding his head.

Luo Shufan shook his head. In terms of probability, Bai Yizhu was still the most likely to lose. Luo Qianqian had only written a hundred numbers, but the scores were calculated out of a total of 150, so Bai Yizhu was clearly falling into a deep trap of scheming.

”Let’s do the papers first to prevent cheating.” Luo Qianqian happily picked up a paper after writing the numbers. There was still plenty of time, enough to give Bai Yizhu a chance to protest and demand a redo.

Under Luo Qianqian’s scheming, for three consecutive rounds, Bai Yizhu drew numbers himself, and he still lost. There was nothing he could do since there was a four out of five chance that he was the closest.

”I suspect this is a conspiracy.” Bai Yizhu grumbled as he went downstairs to buy food, ”I really suspect you wrote a bunch of the same numbers.”

”Brother, Zhuzi is really not great with probabilities. He should eat more walnuts to boost his brain,” Luo Qianqian smirked. Such an obvious plot and he still hadn’t figured it out?

Luo Shufan touched his nose, ”Maybe he forgot since the exams just ended...”

——

”Luo Qianqian, do you want to go out and have fun tonight?” Xia Qi, holding the ticket, greeted Luo Qianqian happily, but Luo Qianqian turned to Pei Yuhao instead:

”Are you guys going too?”

”How did you know?” Pei Yuhao asked, surprised.

Heh, would this one be so enthusiastic if you guys weren’t going?

”I won’t be joining you. I’ve already made plans with my family and a few others like Chu Ci,” Luo Qianqian said, patting Pei Yutian on the shoulder and whispered, ”I don’t know if they have any ’stupid pills’? Give some to your brother. He’s too foolish. Walnuts work too, for brain health.”

Pei Yutian awkwardly touched his nose.

——