Chapter 123: Are You Kidding Me?

When Meng Ran said this, Zhang Shen finally understood what it meant to be broad-minded and comfortably plump.

“Of course. Since you’ve offered, I won’t stand on ceremony. You can see how many papers there are—pick whatever you like.”

With that, Zhang Shen pointed toward the thick pile of exam papers.

At that moment, Meng Ran felt his scalp prickle. After all, he had already boasted. Otherwise, no matter how much he argued, there was no way he would have taken on this “porcelain job” himself.

Following the direction of Zhang Shen’s finger, Meng Ran walked toward the papers step by step. Though he was somewhat reluctant, he still picked up roughly a third of them and carried them back to his desk.

Zhang Shen was clearly dissatisfied with this. He said bluntly, “Fatty, you’re not exactly putting your back into this. Even that little girl was more decisive than you. At the very least, you should help me write half of them! Wang Ying promised she’d help me finish everything, you know. If you can’t handle it, I might as well call for reinforcements.”

When Meng Ran heard that Zhang Shen was still planning to ask Wang Ying for help, he immediately felt that it would make him look utterly incompetent.

Although Zhang Shen now possessed a “secret weapon,” he still wanted to toy with Meng Ran a little first.

Meng Ran had barely lowered himself onto the stool when he turned around, went back, and brought over the remaining papers.

The two of them then began their “campaign” to clear the pile of exam papers.

Meng Ran was obviously flipping through books and searching for reference material, starting with the easier questions. Sweat had already gathered on his forehead from anxiety. Zhang Shen, on the other hand, wore a thoroughly confident expression and openly copied the answers as he worked.

…

Time trickled by. Before they knew it, it was nearly two in the morning.

“Brother Zhang, I really can’t go on. I want to go to sleep…”

Meng Ran had not even finished speaking when Zhang Shen cut him off.

“Fatty, I’m almost done over here. Put in a little more effort. We have to hand them in tomorrow morning.”

“What? You’re almost finished?”

Meng Ran looked utterly incredulous. He had not even completed a third of his papers, and he was not confident that all his answers were correct. Yet Zhang Shen, a man whose score was only thirty points, was already nearly finished. Something was obviously wrong.

“Brother Zhang, you wouldn’t happen to be making all this up, would you?”

At that, Zhang Shen immediately turned around and said, “Fatty, you can eat whatever you like, but you can’t say whatever you like.”

The more Meng Ran thought about it, the more suspicious everything seemed. He stood up and walked over to Zhang Shen’s side. Then, to his near-vomiting horror, the truth was revealed before his eyes.

“Brother Zhang… you’re… copying the answer sheet?”

Zhang Shen looked completely unconcerned. He turned around and said to Meng Ran, “Yes. But I have He Lei to thank for this. Otherwise, even if I worked for three days straight, I still couldn’t have finished tonight!”

With a wicked grin, Zhang Shen looked at Meng Ran and continued, “Otherwise, how could I have finished half the papers so quickly?”

Meng Ran’s face filled with outrage.

“Brother Zhang, that’s really not right! You had the answers and didn’t share them, yet you left me there to work on the papers alone. Did your conscience get eaten by a dog?”

Meng Ran naturally launched into a furious tirade, but Zhang Shen did not mind in the slightest. He knew that this sort of outburst was perfectly normal and could understand it.

The reason he had refused to give Meng Ran the answers was entirely because the fatty had shoved him earlier. Since Meng Ran wanted to play the hero and rescue the beauty, he ought to taste a little hardship himself. That was why Zhang Shen had come up with this little scheme to torment him.

“Fatty, the reason I didn’t give you the answers and made you do all these papers was completely for your own good.”

Although Zhang Shen spoke to him with great sincerity, Meng Ran saw it all as a feeble, hollow excuse. At that moment, he could not take in another word.

Seeing that Meng Ran remained unmoved, Zhang Shen continued, “He Lei told me the same thing. If you do one more paper now, then when the exam comes, you’ll only need one glance to know how to fill in the answer. That’s what you call broadening your experience. And I’m giving you this opportunity right now. Shouldn’t you be thanking me?”

After saying all that, even Zhang Shen found himself impressed by his own eloquence. Carried away by his speech, he delivered one final, crucial point.

“Fatty, don’t you want to spend time with Wang Ying? Look at that girl’s grades, then look at your own. Isn’t the gap between you two still rather large? If you ask me, you need to read more—and read better books—if you want to catch up with Wang Ying. So, in my opinion, you still haven’t done enough of these papers.”

Listening to Zhang Shen’s “crooked logic,” Meng Ran somehow felt that it made perfect sense. Before he knew it, he was nodding repeatedly.

Seeing this, Zhang Shen seized the opportunity. “Then why are you still thinking about sleep? Keep writing! The answers are right here. If you want to look at them, take them. If you want to improve, keep fighting on your own.”

Zhang Shen’s words were unmistakably an act of provocation, leaving Meng Ran unable to retreat. Yet when the fatty thought of Wang Ying’s grades, he fell into a long silence before finally returning to his seat and continuing to write furiously.

Watching this, Zhang Shen could only marvel at the immense power of love. But the moment he thought of that, he could not help recalling Jiang Muyun. He did not know why that girl had suddenly come to mind. Perhaps this was the best explanation for being unable to control one’s feelings.

After Zhang Shen finished copying all the answers, he prepared to turn off the light and go to sleep. On the other side, however, Meng Ran had already collapsed face-first onto the desk and fallen asleep.

Zhang Shen walked over, only to be confronted by a nauseating sight.

Meng Ran’s saliva was dribbling from the corner of his mouth onto the exam papers beneath his arm. In a panic, Zhang Shen had no choice but to smack him awake.

“Damn it, wake up!”

Only after Zhang Shen slapped Meng Ran’s remarkably elastic cheeks more than a dozen times did Meng Ran slowly open his eyes. His expression was so dazed that he clearly had no idea what had just happened.

“What is it, Brother Zhang?”

Seeing that Meng Ran was conscious again, Zhang Shen immediately pulled the paper tainted by his saliva out from beneath Meng Ran’s arm.

At that moment, the word “damn” could not possibly express the full extent of Zhang Shen’s displeasure. How were they supposed to hand in papers like this to He Lei the next morning?

Meng Ran, meanwhile, finally noticed his own “masterpiece.”

“Brother Zhang, this… I did this?”

“Who else? Was it my saliva?”