Considering that the final exams were approaching, Zeng Xuerou suggested that the matter of the small pharmacy be put on hold until after the finals. Since Xiao Xian was only contributing labor without receiving payment, she agreed to it.
As the final exams approached, including first year (3) class, Sacred Heart Middle School experienced a wave of covert competition in studying. Each night after the dormitory lights were out, waves of students would read by flashlight, and some even stayed up all night in the communal toilets reading.
For Xiao Xian, the first year’s curriculum was not too hard. She was serious in class, so preparing for the final exams was quite manageable for her.
As for Zhang Yiyi, she also found her "smart drug," which was none other than Zeng Xuerou.
Countless practices had proven that the dining table was indeed a great place for emotional exchanges. Under the pretext of numerous freeloading meals and soon-to-be partners in the pharmacy factory (Zhang Yiyi had invested all her savings, a whopping two thousand yuan from New Year’s money, in her mind, running a pharmacy was just as challenging as playing house), Zeng Xuerou put aside the awkwardness from the start of the school year, and took on the role of tutoring Zhang Yiyi in her studies for free.
During the half month before the exams, every evening after Xiao Xian and Zhang Yiyi had completed their basketball training, they would have an extra hour of tutoring, which took place in first year (3) class. Xiao Xian had some complaints about this. In the freezing cold of winter, she would rather nestle in the "space" absorbing some Spiritual Energy to warm up, rather than endure the criticism with Zhang Yiyi. But Zhang Yiyi said, what do you call a good friend? A good friend is someone who shares the bone stew with river crab and endures criticism together.
"Xiao Xian, you are a bit biased in subjects; your English and Chinese are very good, even a bit stronger than mine. When high school comes and it’s time to choose between arts and sciences, it would be best for you to choose arts," after tutoring for a few days, Zeng Xuerou noticed that Xiao Xian excelled in English and writing, but her foundation in mathematics was just average. This was opposite to Zeng Xuerou, whose logical and arithmetic abilities were outstanding.
This also related to Xiao Xian’s former two teachers, Zhu Shijun studied agriculture, so he was naturally not strong in numbers, and as for Shanyin Monk, well, are there scriptures written in numbers? No.
"And about me, which subject am I good at?" Zhang Yiyi yawned while asking. It was only half past eight, why was she feeling sleepy?
"You don’t particularly excel in any subjects, as you are quite evenly bad in all," Zeng Xuerou used a red pen and drew a big red X in Zhang Yiyi’s workbook. It was incredible, the first time seeing someone apply the formula for triangles to rectangles.
Zhang Yiyi simply laid her head on the desk, making a silent protest.
"I saw Wang Ke today," Zeng Xuerou looked at the two dispirited girls, and upon saying this, the other two perked up immediately.
"How did she react?" Xiao Xian sensed a bad vibe as Zeng Xuerou’s face fell.
Things were more complicated than Zeng Xuerou had imagined. Wang Ke, disregarding the friendship of over a year with Zeng Xuerou, flatly denied everything, and even burst into curses, accusing Zeng Xuerou of slandering her, demanding evidence. Without proof, she should stop barking around like a bitch.
"I expected she wouldn’t admit it," Xiao Xian had anticipated this outcome. Ever since that day when Wang Ke and Bai Xue fell out, they turned hostile. Wang Ke likely wouldn’t recommend having another Zeng Xuerou around.
"I’m still considering whether to bring this directly to the school," Zeng Xuerou had a lot to handle at the end of term, plus squeezing out time to tutor Zhang Yiyi, she was indeed running out of energy.
"We can’t take this to the school, we have no evidence," Xiao Xian had been observing another bottle of A-substance. Since last week, the color of the A-substance began to fade, and by this week, it was almost completely colorless. To the naked eye, it almost looked like plain water. This indicated that the developer of the drug had tampered with it during development. After some time of usage, the drug’s effect would disappear, and traces of its use would vanish completely, rendering it untraceable.
Just as Zeng Xuerou felt helpless about it, Wang Ke ended up causing trouble herself, and it was quite a laughable incident. On the second day of the school-wide final exams, during the second to last Natural Science exam, right after the exam bell, when the whole class was handing in their papers, the proctor discovered Wang Ke laying her head on the desk, fast asleep with drool leaking out. Students from the back rows woke her up, and Wang Ke was still groggy.