Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

"Hey big stallion, turn up the air conditioning a bit, my legs are cold."

Jiang Ruyue sat in the passenger seat, tucking her two small, white feet into the seat.

Bai Li reached out and raised the temperature by two degrees, glancing at her as he did so.

This girl had no makeup on, and her fair skin had a healthy pink hue.

With this minimalist outfit, she's definitely the campus heartthrob.

The words that come out of his mouth are never pleasing to the ear.

The Panamera had entered the highway, and the green belt outside the window was rushing past.

Wenxian County is a county under the jurisdiction of Yuncheng City. It is not far from Pingxian County, and the entire journey by expressway takes only a little over an hour.

Leaving the city's congestion, the car picked up speed.

Jiang Ruyue huddled in her seat, showing no signs of nervousness about the upcoming exam.

Instead, she became more and more excited as she sat there, her body twisting and turning restlessly, her big eyes shining brightly.

"I'll be completely free after the exams!"

She suddenly cheered and made a victory gesture with her hands in the air.

"The hard times are finally over!"

She excitedly planned out the future to Bai Li:

"After the exams, I can do whatever I want, and no one can stop me anymore!"

Bai Li glanced at the road ahead and casually replied.

"yes."

"My schedule will be much more flexible at the new school."

"You'll have plenty of free time to develop hobbies and do what you want to do."

This was originally just a typical comforting remark from an elder.

After all, the child is facing a major exam, so going along with her words at this time can help alleviate some of her psychological burden.

To everyone's surprise, Jiang Ruyue curled her lip in disdain:

"My cousin told me a long time ago that it's not as easy as you guys make it out to be."

"I'll still be under the supervision of the counselor, and there are all sorts of rules about credits and GPA... It's so troublesome."

"It'll be even worse after graduation." She counted on her fingers:

"I have to look for work everywhere, I'm managed by my boss every day, and I have to be subservient to people to earn a little money."

Bai Li did not refute.

This is the reality that most ordinary people must face.

just.

She immediately cheered up again as soon as she finished speaking.

"However..."

She turned to look at Bai Li, her tone full of smugness:

"I'm so glad I have you as my boyfriend."

Bai Li raised an eyebrow: "How so?"

"I don't have to be pressured by my parents to get married anymore."

Jiang Ruyue analyzed the situation with an air of seriousness.

She moved closer to Bai Li, lowered her voice, and acted mysteriously.

"You have no idea how miserable my cousin is."

"She couldn't find a boyfriend, and her parents were so anxious that they would yell at her at home every day."

"Now he's gone completely mad, planning to find someone in society to have sex with her directly."

Bai Li's hand on the steering wheel trembled.

Fortunately, there was no car following behind.

He turned his head and stared at the innocent-looking girl in the passenger seat.

Blood pressure spiked.

"That's a blind date, for crying out loud!"

Bai Li practically shouted those words through gritted teeth.

"Oh, okay." She nodded, giving a very perfunctory response.

"It's all the same principle anyway."

"How can these be considered the same thing?!"

Bai Li felt that his worldview had been completely crushed:

"Blind dates are a process of getting to know each other; your description completely demotes humanity to the animal kingdom!"

Jiang Ruyue retorted defiantly:

"Essentially, it's just two strangers of the opposite sex engaging in sexual contact for the purpose of procreation."

What's wrong with me putting it simply and directly?

Bai Li shut her mouth.

He decided not to continue arguing about this topic.

Otherwise, you'll be the one who gets so angry you die in the end.

The car was quiet again.

Jiang Ruyue is also someone who can't sit still.

After less than five minutes of silence, she unbuckled her seatbelt and lay back in the seat.

He leaned back, reaching his arms over his head, struggling to reach the backpack on the back seat.

Seeing her like this, Bai Li's anger subsided slightly.

"What? You're feeling nervous now?"

Bai Li's tone became much more relieved:

"Are you planning to take out the book and review it during the car ride?"

Even if someone is usually unreliable, if they remember to review their books close to the exam, it means there's still hope for them.

"More or less."

Jiang Ruyue's voice sounded somewhat perfunctory.

She pulled the backpack to the front, unzipped it, and began rummaging through it.

The things inside collided with each other, making a tinkling sound.

I searched for a full two minutes.

Jiang Ruyue sat up straight and let out a long sigh.

"Finally found it."

She was beaming with excitement, holding a transparent plastic box in both hands.

Inside, a delicately crafted strawberry mousse cake lay quietly.

The relief on Bai Li's face crumbled.

"you……"

"How come you have all sorts of things in your backpack? Are you Doraemon?"

Jiang Ruyue was looking down as she untied the pink ribbon from the cake box when she heard this and casually replied.

"It's not like they have everything."

To prove her point, she picked up the strap of the backpack, unzipped it, and showed it to Bai Li.

"Look," she said, pointing to the jumbled mess of things in her bag.

"I don't have books in my schoolbag."

This sentence immediately silenced Bai Ligan.

He even admired the girl's self-righteousness.

"How dare you say that?!"

"You didn't bring a single book? Are you going to take the exam unprepared?"

Jiang Ruyue curled her lip indifferently.

"What's the point of studying now if you don't work hard normally?"

She opened the plastic box and set the lid aside:

"How many of those people who are still cramming in the corridor right before the exam actually do well? They're just comforting themselves."

Instead of cramming at the last minute, why not eat something sweet to cheer yourself up?

Jiang Ruyue, holding the cake, spoke with conviction:

"Maybe if I'm in a good mood, I'll perform exceptionally well in the exam."

Bai Li wanted to refute it, but miraculously felt that it made sense.

If you haven't put in the effort beforehand, reading for an hour now won't do any good.

Those who study diligently normally won't miss an hour.

"Okay." Bai Li nodded, no longer dwelling on the issue.

"With your mentality, it would be a disservice to your twisted logic if you didn't become the top scorer in the exam."

Jiang Ruyue giggled, her eyes curving into crescent shapes.

She looked down at the sweet strawberry mousse and swallowed.

Just as she was about to enjoy her meal, she stopped.

Jiang Ruyue turned the plastic bag containing the cake upside down and shook it vigorously; it was empty.

"Brother Sao Gen, this is bad."

Jiang Ruyue raised her head, her small face scrunched up.

Bai Li suppressed the urge to hit someone and patiently asked.

"What is it now, little miss?"

Jiang Ruyue moved the cake box in her hand closer to Bai Li:

"There's no fork."

Bai Li glanced at it and said irritably:

"Did you forget your brain at home when you bought the cake? You didn't even bring the cutlery."

"The clerk forgot to put it in, how can you blame me?" Jiang Ruyue muttered indignantly.

"So stupid." Bai Li glanced at the navigation screen:

"We'll get off the highway in half an hour."

"Just bear with it for now. Once we get to Wen County, we'll just find a cake shop and ask you for one."

It's no big deal.

But Jiang Ruyue was very unhappy.

"No," she refused outright.

"If I take something from someone else's store for free, they'll definitely give me a hard time. I'm not going to get that kind of attitude."

Bai Li was so angry she laughed.

"I'm not afraid of being looked down upon, I'll go get it for you, okay?"

"That won't do either." Jiang Ruyue's bottom line was very flexible, but she was surprisingly stubborn on this matter:

"You're my boyfriend, if you embarrass yourself, I embarrass myself."

"What should we do then?"

Bai Li shrugged, at a loss for what to do.

"Why don't you just eat it with your hands? There's no one else in this carriage anyway, I won't mind."

Jiang Ruyue looked at her fair fingers, then at the cake covered in cream, and shook her head in disgust.

She held the box, lost in thought.

Her little face was tense as she thought of a solution.

The only sound inside the car was the faint noise from the air conditioning vents.

After a while.

Jiang Ruyue seemed to have figured something out, and her tightly furrowed brows relaxed.

She turned her head, her pure and ethereal face filled with seriousness and earnestness.

She stared directly at Bai Li, who was driving, and swallowed hard.

"fine."

Jiang Ruyue pointed to the cake between her legs and said in a serious tone:

"Just send the fork here."