Redemption from the Abyss: The School Beauty Insists on Pulling Me Out of the Mire

There are four days left until the midterm exams.

The learning atmosphere at Jiangcheng No.1 Middle School was already oppressive, and now the atmosphere in Class 1 of Grade 11 is even more tense.

Everyone was holding their breath, eager to see how the "top 100" bet would end.

Although most people thought Xie Wang was delusional, ever since he confronted Jiang Yue that day, the way people looked at him, even if they were disdainful, had become more wary.

Evening self-study.

The only sound in the classroom was the rustling of pages turning.

Xie Wang sat in the last row, his brows furrowed, his expression even more ferocious than when he was cornered in the alley by thugs that day.

He held a crumpled English test paper in his hand, as if he were holding an enemy by the throat.

28 points.

These are the results of his preliminary assessment.

"Tsk."

Xie Wang irritably threw down his pen, leaned back, and the chair made a screeching sound.

This thing is too difficult.

He could write a thousand lines of code without breaking a sweat, but memorizing this mess of clauses and tenses would be worse than killing him.

What is this past perfect progressive tense? Who invented this inhuman logic?

"Thinking of giving up?"

A cool, clear voice came from ahead.

Su Qinghe turned around, twirling a pen in his hand.

She glanced at the appalling exam paper on Xie Wang's desk and frowned almost imperceptibly.

"Perfect score in science, 28 in English. Xie Wang, your imbalance in subjects is almost like a disability."

Xie Wang rolled his eyes at her, annoyed, and pulled a piece of candy from his pocket, popping it into his mouth and chewing it.

"This kind of rote memorization is just not my thing."

"You can't lose to Jiang Yue."

Su Qinghe added casually, "You said you were going to shut him up."

Xie Wang paused in his chewing of the candy.

Damn.

This woman always hits his weak points with pinpoint accuracy. What Xie Wang can't stand the most in his life is losing to that kind of hypocrite.

Su Qinghe stared at him for a while.

She suddenly reached out, took his red pen, and drew several circles on that complicated and difficult sentence on the test paper.

"Xie Wang, bring out your programming thinking."

Su Qinghe's voice was calm and firm, "You think the grammar is illogical, that's because you haven't found the right way to decode it."

She pointed to that sentence:

"You treat it like code."

"Subject, predicate, and object constitute the core algorithm of the program. Relative clauses are the functions you encapsulate to modify variables. As for adverbs, those are the runtime environment."

Xie Wang was stunned for a moment.

He stared at the sentence that had previously seemed like gibberish.

Xie Wang's pupils dilated slightly, as if his Ren and Du meridians had suddenly been opened.

This explanation is simple, straightforward, and logically sound, completely within his comfort zone.

"You understood?" Su Qinghe raised an eyebrow.

"This is a nested loop."

Xie Wang picked up his pen, the anger in his eyes dissipating, replaced by a focused concentration as he solved a problem. With a few swift strokes, he broke down the following long and complex sentences.

"Suppress the interference and go straight to the main process. That's too easy."

Su Qinghe looked at his focused profile and smiled slightly.

This guy is indeed a genius.

Give him a key and he can unlock the whole world.

"And vocabulary."

Su Qinghe took a small blue notebook out of his desk drawer and tossed it to him. "This is a list of high-frequency word roots that I've compiled. Memorize the first chapter tonight."

Xie Wang took the notebook.

It has a faint jasmine scent and the handwriting is neat and legible.

"Yes, Teacher Su."

He responded lazily, opened the notebook, and began to read, resting his chin on one hand.

The moonlight streamed in through the window.

It's been a while since evening self-study ended.

Only the two of them remained in the classroom.

Su Qinghe turned back to do his homework, while Xie Wang memorized vocabulary words in the back.

Occasionally, Xie Wang would poke her back with his pen cap: "Hey, is this 'abnormal' referring to Jiang Yue?"

Su Qinghe didn't even turn his head: "Shut up."

Xie Wang chuckled softly, leaning on the table. This caused Su Qinghe's lips to curl into a slight smile.

Outside the back door of the classroom.

Lin Lu was peering through the crack in the door, her eyes wide like saucers, and she screamed in a low voice:

"Holy crap! Look! Qinghe is actually laughing! She's laughing!"

She stomped her feet excitedly, cupped her face in her hands, and her eyes were filled with pink bubbles: "And Xie Wang's gaze... Oh my god, this is just too sweet! A cool, aloof academic genius taming a wild school bully, what an absolutely beautiful storyline!"

Beside her, Shen Hao, the sports committee member, was holding a basketball. Instead of going over to watch, he stood two meters away, looking at Lin Lu with an expression as if she were crazy.

"Really? Brother Wang is clearly memorizing vocabulary words."

Shen Hao scratched his head and said in a silly tone, "I saw his brows were furrowed like that, he must be suffering from the torment of knowledge, right? Your thought process is really strange, you girl."

Lin Lu glanced at him with disdain and moved to the side, as if afraid of being tainted by his sweat:

"There's no way to communicate with a straight man like you who's all brawn and no brains. You have absolutely no romantic sense. You deserve to spend your life with basketball."

"What's wrong with basketball? Basketball is way more interesting than dating."

Shen Hao muttered something indignantly, then, as if suddenly remembering something, he glanced at the other end of the corridor. "Oh right, I think I saw Xu You carrying a bunch of homework to the office earlier. It's so late and she's all alone... I'll go see if she needs any help."

After saying that, Shen Hao ignored Lin Lu's continued shipping of the couple and ran towards the office with the basketball in his arms.

Lin Lu rolled her eyes dramatically: "Tch, you big oaf."

She continued to peek through the crack in the door, watching the beautiful scene inside the classroom, and a maternal smile appeared on her face.

……

One o'clock in the morning.

An underground auto repair shop in the western district of Jiangcheng.

The roller shutter door was half open, and blues jazz music was playing inside.

Inside the LW modification shop, Lu Wen was holding a welding torch, sparks flying as he aimed at the exhaust pipe of a motorcycle.

"Give me a pack of cigarettes, the coldest kind."

A figure slipped inside.

Lu Wen stopped what he was doing, took off his goggles, revealing a handsome and dashing face.

He looked at Xie Wang as he walked in.

The kid wasn't wearing his filthy school uniform today; he was wearing a black T-shirt instead, but the dark circles under his eyes were more pronounced than they had been a few days ago.

"Oh, what a rare guest!"

Lu Wen casually tossed a pack of menthol cigarettes from the shelf. "Weren't you supposed to be in seclusion these days, trying to get into the top 100? What, you can't study anymore and are escaping reality here?"

Xie Wang took the cigarette, but didn't light it. He just held it to his nose and smelled the cool aroma, trying to calm his brain, which was about to explode.

"I'm not running away, my brain's just stiff. I've come to get some parts."

He threw the book he had been holding onto the table, which reeked of engine oil.

Lu Wen glanced at the book.

High-Frequency Vocabulary for College Entrance Examination in English (Handwritten Version by Su Qinghe)

Lu Wen's peach blossom eyes narrowed instantly, as if he had discovered a new continent, and he picked up the notebook and flipped through it.

"Tsk tsk tsk."

As Lu Wen flipped through the pages, he exclaimed in admiration, "This character? Ah Wang, you're something else. I remember someone telling me 'It's okay' last time?"

He leaned closer to Xie Wang, a suggestive smile on his face: "You're already using someone else's personal notebook, and this isn't a problem?"

Xie Wang snatched the notebook back, patted off non-existent dust as if it were a precious treasure, and said, "Don't touch it with your hands."

"Oh my, they've protected her."

Lu Wen leaned against the table, lit a cigarette, and laughed so hard his chest vibrated. "Alright, stop pretending. If you're really into it, just say so. I won't laugh at you."

Xie Wang did not refute.

He opened the cigarette pack, took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth, but didn't light it.

He remembered Su Qinghe's profile under the moonlight during evening self-study, and how she patiently organized his notes even though she disliked his poor foundation.

"She's a good person."

Xie Wang said something in a low voice, so soft that it was almost inaudible amidst the jazz music.

"It's a pity that the swan shouldn't have landed in the mud."

But he quickly regained his indifferent demeanor, looked up at Lu Wen, and said, "Enough nonsense, give me the hard drive. I need to go back and run that encrypted file. The results should be available in the next few days."

"Give."

Lu Wen took a hard drive out of the drawer and casually tossed a small cloth bag over.

It's a dark blue sachet with a faint herbal scent that's very refreshing.

"What is this?" Xie Wang frowned.

"Exam preparation tool".

陆文笑得一脸欠揍，「本少爷去庙里求的『状元符』。虽然你小子不信这个，但为了你的爱情……哦不，为了你的前100名，挂着吧。挺灵的。」

Actually, it was a calming herbal medicine that he specially asked an old Chinese medicine doctor to prescribe, knowing that Xie Wang must have had a headache from staying up late these past few days.

Xie Wang held the sachet in his hand.

Although he verbally expressed his disdain for "feudal superstition," he eventually stuffed it into his pocket—together with Su Qinghe's handkerchief.

Thanks.

Xie Wang picked up his things, turned around, and left. "I'm going back to memorize vocabulary. I still have two hundred words to memorize."

Lu Wen watched the boy's figure disappear into the night, shook his head, and exhaled a smoke ring.

"Memorizing vocabulary... like a mad dog turning into a domestic dog."

"However, Su Qinghe does have some skill in pulling this sludge out of the swamp."