Chapter 285: What’s the Point of Being So Defensive?

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Ye Ci made a gesture and handed her phone over.

“Sister Ning Li, Mom wants to talk to you.”

Ning Li did not take over the phone and only swept a glance at Ye Ci as she asked in a light voice, “Are you telling her about what Mr. Li told you today in the office?”

Ye Ci froze at once.

Ning Li was talking about Li Guangyuan asking Ye Ci to discuss with her family about withdrawing from the competition.

How could she bring it up to Su Yuan?

Su Yuan obviously heard Ning Li’s words and asked, “The office? Mr. Li? Lil Ci, what is it about?”

“Give me the phone,” Ning Li said as she reached out to take Ye Ci’s phone.

Ye Ci’s hand quickly shrank back.

“No, no… Sister Ning Li, you only just came back, so you’d better go wash up first. Otherwise, it’ll be too late later.”

The corner of Ning Li’s lips hooked up lightly as she brushed past Ye Ci.

After Ye Ci had made sure that Ning Li was in the room, Ye Ci put the phone to her ear.

“Lil Ci?” Su Yuan vaguely felt that something was off and asked her again.

Only then did Ye Ci say, “Mom, it’s nothing, Sister Ning Li seems to be quite tired, so I didn’t want to bother her with this matter.”

“Then, what did she mean by what she said? Did your teacher look for you?”

“Yeah… It was just about my gastroenteritis yesterday. I got an IV and took some medication, so I’m feeling much better now.”

As soon as Ye Ci mentioned this, Su Yuan’s attention was instantly diverted.

“Is it serious?”

“It’s fine, Mom… Don’t worry…”

Ye Ci continued to reassure Su Yuan a while longer before Su Yuan finally felt relieved.

She hung up the phone and pursed her lips when she recalled Ning Li’s attitude just now.

Originally, Ye Ci had wanted to take this opportunity to make Ning Li give her the other notebook, but she had not expected Ning Li to actually turn the tables on her and threaten her with this matter instead.

Looking at it, it looked like Ning Li would never give her the notebook.

Today, Ye Ci and Zhang Yanyan had gone neck to neck, and everyone now knew about her score from the last exam.

They were not even halfway through the winter camp yet, so it would be tough for her to continue here.

Ye Ci stood there for a while before she turned around and went back to the room.

…

Room 202.

Song Mengtang was still doing some practice questions at her desk.

Cao Jingxuan saw Ye Ci enter the room and pointed to her desk.

“Ye Ci, I put the flask on your desk. There’s porridge inside and it should still be hot. Do have some.”

Only then did Ye Ci’s expression ease up. She smiled gratefully at Cao Jingxuan. “Thanks, Jingxuan.”

Now that everyone knew that Ye Ci had done badly in both exams, Cao Jingxuan was one of the few people who still treated her nicely.

Cao Jingxuan’s eyes curved up as she smiled. “You’re welcome.”

She then looked at Ning Li and asked, “Ning Li, could I have a look at your exam paper?”

Ning Li did not even turn to look at her as she said, “I lent it to Tan Ruiqun, so you can ask him tomorrow.”

Cao Jingxuan froze.

“Tan Ruiqun? Didn’t he do quite well in the exam this time? Why does he even need to borrow your papers?”

He had ranked third in the whole class and was only a few points behind Ning Li. What was the need to do so with such a score?

Ning Li said in a light voice, “There were a few questions that we had different solutions to.”

Cao Jingxuan instantly understood something.

She spoke half-jokingly, “Ning Li, you’re too generous. What if he does better than you next time after looking at your solutions?”

Cao Jingxuan was very smart. She knew why Tan Ruiqun had borrowed Ning Li’s papers as soon as she had heard Ning Li’s words.

He was not looking at Ning Li’s answers, but at Ning Li’s steps in solving the problems so that he could study her way of thinking.

This was more convenient and enlightening compared to discussing and matching answers.

Ning Li suddenly turned to look at her. “Why do you ask that?”

Cao Jingxuan froze. “What?”

Ning Li looked calm. “We’re classmates, so it’s not a big deal to look at each other’s paper. I also lent it to Ge Yu and other people before. If he can do better than me next time, that would be due to his own ability. What’s the point of being so defensive?”

Cao Jingxuan’s smile faded a little.

“I was only speaking casually. Don’t get me wrong.”

Ning Li unzipped her backpack and did not reply to her anymore.

Cao Jingxuan’s grades were good, but she was not used to seeing others do better than her.

She had come to the winter camp as the top student from Capital First High, but she had not even gotten into the top five ranking for the previous two exams.

Of course, Cao Jingxuan secretly felt unhappy and resentful.

Song Mengtang glanced back at Cao Jingxuan.

In the past few days, Cao Jingxuan looked generous, but she had always been very guarded about her own materials and papers.

When Song Mengtang had approached Cao Jingxuan to discuss a few questions earlier, Cao Jingxuan always said that she had not done it yet or did not know much.

What this meant could not be more obvious.

Thus, since then, Song Mengtang did not bother discussing anything with Cao Jingxuan anymore.

Song Mengtang stood up, took her paper, and walked over to Ning Li.

“Ning Li, I don’t really understand the part about transformers that Mr. Zhao explained today. Could you please help me with it?”

Ning Li looked at her, pulled out a pencil from her pencil case, and made a few dotted lines on her book as she explained in a low voice, “This is a non-ideal transformer, so you can’t use the previous equations.”

Song Mengtang nodded as she listened.

Cao Jingxuan felt a little embarrassed and went to the bathroom to wash up.

…

The next day, Ye Ci went to the office by herself to confirm her decision to stay in the competition.

The teachers knew that she could not be persuaded otherwise, so they did not say anything further.

This matter had been brushed over.

The winter camp classes continued.

Since Ye Ci and Zhang Yanyan’s little episode, the girls had not spoken to each other again.

Everyone’s attitude towards Ye Ci had also subtly changed.

On the surface, everything seemed to still be the same as before, but Ye Ci could feel this change.

During class, the teachers occasionally asked students to answer questions, but never directed their questions to Ye Ci.

Everyone would gather in groups to discuss problems, but no one took the initiative to ask Ye Ci to join them.

At first, Ye Ci would ask others when she did not understand something, but after a while, they became more impatient with her.

“Mr. Li already taught this in class just now…”

“Use these two formulas… What’s so difficult about this?”

“Why don’t you ask someone else? Perhaps a different solution is easier for you to understand.”

…

After a few times, Ye Ci gradually stopped asking questions and tried to do the problems by herself.

She had never felt it more than now, that physics was actually very difficult and torturous.

As time passed, Ye Ci panicked even more.

Ye Ci knew very well that compared to the others, she was too far behind.

Four days passed by in a flash.

It was time for an exam again.

This time, the exam was held in the morning. After the exam, their marked papers were distributed by noon.

Ye Ci did not rest well at noon.

In the afternoon, Zhao Ping read out their results as usual.

Ning Li got full marks again.

As for Ye Ci…

“52nd place, Ye Ci.. 49 marks.”

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