My Underachieving Seatmate Doesn't Need Any Comforting

Top Pillar immediately said, “Yes! Let’s have an offline competition. Let’s see if they can come up with any more nonsense then!”

Now that matters had reached this point, this crowd of anonymous ghosts all shut up.

They didn’t have any opinions about the president or Qiao Shao. It was just that what the other schools were saying were too offensive to their ears. And they were indeed not very familiar with Larry and so they became suspicious.

Qiao Shao understood and didn’t blame anyone.

Qiao Shao said, “I’ll be troubling you to contact the players from the other schools. If they agree, I’ll go look for a classroom.”

Top Pillar immediately agreed. “Okay!”

After shutting off the group chat, Qiao Shao send a private message to Top Pillar. “I remember that you weren’t able to answer the last question?” When they had just finished the competition, Liang Zhu had chatted with him for a long time and had lamented that he had dropped the ball on the last question.

Top Pillar was ashamed and said, “I thought you weren’t able to do it. I was afraid you might feel burdened so I said I wasn’t able to answer it either.”

After much difficulty, he finally managed to drag in a reliable comrade-in-arms. He didn’t want have a blow dealt on his enthusiasm. After all, this was his first time participating, losing wasn’t anything to be afraid of. What he had to be afraid of though, was the subsequent psychological pressure.

Qiao Shao understood. “You didn’t have to go that far.”

It was just an amateur math competition. How much pressure could it be?

Top Pillar was taking this matter very seriously. “This was a major event to win glory for the school. I didn’t want you to blame yourself too much.”

If Top Pillar had scored very high, but Qiao Shao had scored very low, with just the two of them, Liang Zhu was afraid Qiao Shao would feel uneasy.

Qiao Shao said warmly, “Don’t worry. This time, I will definitely do well.”

Top Pillar had complete confidence in him. “You’ll definitely do fine and I won’t drag you back. That’s right, can you secure the classroom?”

Qiao Shao said, “This won’t be a big problem.”

Top Pillar said, “Alright. Then I’ll ask those bastards from the other school if they dare come and challenge us!”

Qiao Shao smiled and agreed.

Top Pillar sent another message. “Since we’re going to be having an offline competition, should we meet first?”

Qiao Shao thought about it. Sooner or later, he wouldn’t be able to hide it anymore. He said, “Okay.”

Top Pillar asked, “What’s your name and which class? I’ll go look for you.”

Qiao Shao quickly said, “No need to go to the classroom. Let’s just meet by the clock tower after dinner.”

Top Pillar said: “Okay, I’ll send you a photo, you can just look for me.”

He didn’t wait for Qiao Shao to reply back and already sent a one by one ID photo. It was a very prim and proper one, the kind that could be attached to all sorts of official documents.

Qiao Shao already knew who he was and he simply wanted to laugh when he saw the photo. “Okay.”

With the details of how they would have their ‘IRL’ meeting set, Qiao Shao went to tell the whole thing to He Shen.

He Shen said, “The classroom won’t be a problem. I’ll help arrange it for you.”

If the god of learning requests it, the principal would give the green light; not to mention, this was a learning-related matter.

This was why Qiao Shao had been so sure he could secure a classroom.

Qiao Shao breathed a sigh of relief. He Shen added, “Not only can I get you a classroom, but I can also get you a proctor.”

Qiao Shao: “Ah?”

He Shen’s eyes were filled with smiles. “Don’t you think I’d serve as a pretty good examiner?”

Qiao Shao looked at him suspiciously, “What are you up to?” He always felt that this guy wasn’t selling anything good in his gourd!

He Shen assumed a very proper manner. “As long as Test Candidate Qiao gives me a kiss, I will reluctantly ...”

Qiao Shao glared at him. “I’m not going to cheat!”

Teacher He finished saying: “... Refrain from harassing you.”

Qiao Shao: “..................”

What was with this garbage examiner? Please drag out him out and give him a good beating!

Qiao Shao and Liang Zhu were going to meet face to face. He Shen absolutely insisted on coming along. Qiao Shao thought about it and agreed.

In any case, he’ll be proctoring the contest, he might as well let Liang Zhu see him in advance so that he can be mentally prepared.

Five minutes before the appointed time, Liang Zhu was already standing under the clock tower, and He Shen led Qiao Shao over.

The moment Liang Zhu saw He Shen, he was filled with fighting spirit and when He Shen came to him, he couldn’t help feeling a little stunned. “I can’t be...!”

He Shen said, “Good evening.” His entire bearing seemed to say ‘I am looking for you’.

Liang Zhu’s face went green. “Are you Larry??” This offline competition was going to be a joke. As soon as He Shen appeared, all the other schools would definitely run away in defeat. This time, they really...they really did have an unfair advantage!

Qiao Shao stretched out his head from behind He Shen. “President.”

Liang Zhu was still dumbfounded and hadn’t noticed the little one.

Qiao Shao had to speak louder. “I’m Larry!”

Liang Zhu then saw Qiao Shao.

Qiao Shao reached out his hand and said, “My name is Qiao Shao from Class One.”

As soon as Liang Zhu held his hand, it looked as if he had seen a life-saving benefactor. “Are you Larry?”

Qiao Shao nodded. “Yes!”

The president wept tears of joy. “This is great! So great! We really do have a dark horse in East High. We indeed have a glittering Purple Micro-star and we can now hold up the sky even without He Shen!”

Listening to his points of comparison, Qiao Shao thought that Liang Zhu’s language skills weren’t bad, oh ... Of course, they’re not bad. He’s second in their year, after all.

He Shen stared at their hands.

Liang Zhu sensed his dissatisfaction and thought it was because of what he said. “God He Shen, it’s not that I don’t respect you. I just hope you’d be a bit more competitive. You’ve always gotten first place and so you’ve grown numb to it...

He talked on and on. He saw that He Shen’s expression getting worse and worse and he could only continue to talk.

Qiao Shao knew where the root of the problem rested. Although the president talked a lot, he was very flattering. Qiao Shao didn’t want any harm to come to him and so he quickly pulled out his hand.

He Shen’s demeanor eased suddenly.

Liang Zhu thought to himself: The god of learning really has limited tolerance to care about such trivial matters. Sure enough, men always valued matters of dignity.

Having met, it was time for dinner. Qiao Shao invited Liang Zhu to have dinner together. Liang Zhu happily accepted and the three headed to the cafeteria.

Along the way, Liang Zhu talked incessantly. He talked and talked until the matter of grades came up.

Liang Zhu asked Qiao Shao, “What was your score on the last final exam?” He knew everyone in the top ten for their year and he definitely didn’t see Qiao Shao’s name.

Qiao Shao was too embarrassed to say it.

Liang Zhu said, “I didn’t pay much attention to the names beyond the top ten. Did you not perform very well this time? Or was your score dragged down by other subjects? I think that if you can get full marks even on math then all the other subjects are trivial. Especially us on the Science route. All other sciences depend on mathematics. I don’t believe you could have done badly on the exam. Was it because you lost points on Chinese and English? Hey, these two subjects are also my weaknesses, especially English. I only got 130 last time ...”

His each and every word were like 10,000 damage hits to an underachiever like himself.

Qiao Shao couldn’t bear to hear it any longer and cut in. “Actually, I did really badly on the exam.”

Liang Zhu said, sounding profound, “Being unable to enter the top ten is simply unsatisfactory, I understand.”

Are all you learning tyrants like this? You really know how to upset a guy!

Qiao Shao’s thoughts were in a mess. He lay all his cards on the table. “For the last exam, I was last in the class.” It didn’t matter. Liang Zhu would find out when he goes to check it anyway. It would be better if it came from him.

Liang Zhu froze for a while and then said with a smile. “Don’t place such high demands on yourself. Although you didn’t make it to the top ten, you shouldn’t consider yourself last.”

He Shen shot him a look.

Liang Zhu’s heart tightened. He had no idea what he’d done to provoke this esteemed god!

Qiao Shao said embarrassedly, “I really am last...”

He hadn’t even been able to surpass Silly Husky Song. Qiao Shao would remember that all his life.

Liang Zhu was dumbfounded.

Qiao Shao sighed. “You’ll know when you take a look. Or you could go to our class and ask, oh ... He Shen’s also in Class One. You can ask him.”

What need was there for Liang Zhu to ask. His voice was filled with disbelief. “How could you test ...”

He was mid-sentence when he suddenly had a thought, “I get it! You thought since you couldn’t get first in class anyway, you would rather valiantly take last, right?”

Qiao Shao: “..................”

He Shen looked at Qiao Shao. In his eyes, it was written, ‘You see? I’m right, there really is something wrong with his brain.’

Qiao Shao got the message loud and clear and was even more dumbfounded!

Liang Zhu said, “Hey! I understand. If I were also in the same class with He Shen, I would have died from anger. Not only can I not get first in the year, but I can’t even get first in the class. It’s just too cruel!” When the eternal number 2 figured out this way of thinking, he felt that he simply couldn’t bear this grievance!

Qiao Shao quickly said, “No, I don’t think that way!”

Because there’s nothing wrong with my brain!!!

Brother Liang Zhu’s brain was definitely wired differently from everyone else’s. He suddenly had a clever thought. “Are you pretending to be a slacker?”

Qiao Shao: “???

Liang Zhu said, “There’s this really popular book my younger cousin told me about. The protagonist is actually a god of learning but because of reasons, he pretends to be a slacker and he keeps competing with his seatmate for last place all the time.”

Qiao Shao had absolutely no idea what he was talking about!

Liang Zhu patted him on the shoulder and said, “Brother, you are truly awesome to actually dare take last place!”

Qiao Shao found that he had no way to clear up this mess. No, I didn’t! I’m not! I really didn’t intentionally take last place! I relied on my actual abilities when I took the exam. I’m a through and through genuine underachiever!

Translator’s note: The author put in a little easter egg in this chapter. =)