Chapter 134: Announcement and Examination

"Thanks to 'Azure Coastline' for the tip~! Every tip fills me with motivation, thank you all~!"

"She's started a company now, running a magazine called *Fantasy Youth*. It's very popular," Zhang Ye chimed in eagerly.

"Oh? I thought she was writing full-time now. I had no idea she started a company. Where is it located?" Zhang Haiguan asked, looking slightly surprised.

"Right over near Guanghua Building, just a block away, and not far from oldest uncle's factory," Zhang Ye replied.

"How do you know about it in such detail?" Liu Meiju asked with a hint of suspicion. Although the two families were close, everyone had their own affairs to attend to. Liu Meiju was busy with her shop, and Zhang Haiguan was occupied with the start of the school term, so neither of them had kept up with Wang Mengzi's recent situation.

Zhang Ye's heart skipped a beat. He cautiously glanced at Liu Meiju, and letting out a sigh of relief when he saw no unusual expression on her face, he realized she hadn't suspected anything about their relationship.

If his parents were to find out that their son was tangled up in an ambiguous relationship with Wang Mengzi, and that the very magazine they were talking about had been funded by him, how would they react?

"Because I'm one of the authors for her magazine," Zhang Ye said after careful consideration.

Revealing this matter was something he had thought through thoroughly. After all, he couldn't keep his affairs hidden forever. Furthermore, he needed a plausible explanation for the source of his income, so he decided to confess his identity as an author to his parents.

"An author?" Sure enough, once Zhang Ye let slip some details, a barrage of questioning from his parents followed.

It took quite a while before he managed to explain everything clearly and even made a guarantee that it would not affect his academic performance in the slightest, finally winning their approval.

As for his royalties, they didn't ask, and Zhang Ye didn't mention them. No doubt, in their minds, the earnings must have been negligible.

In reality, however, the starting rate for submissions set by Yuan Yuqing for *Fantasy Youth* was quite high. Once accepted, the minimum was fifty per thousand characters, with the potential for higher rates if performance was good...

Laughter is something that is never lacking in a school.

As soon as he stepped onto campus, Zhang Ye saw two youthful and energetic girls frolicking on the playground. They hopped and skipped, teasing each other and playing tricks to make one another look foolish, bursting into merry laughter every now and then.

These were two junior schoolmates, their petite figures already concealing a captivating charm that drew the admiring glances of many.

With the National Day holiday just ended, the students had endless topics to discuss. Gathered in groups of twos and threes, they boasted or showed off, recounting their exciting experiences to their companions.

Even in an elite class, the atmosphere became a bit more vibrant than usual right after the end of the holiday. At least it wasn't like before, when everyone was completely consumed by study under a heavy, oppressive mood.

However, the moment Zhang Ye stepped into the classroom, the entire class instantly fell silent, filled with an eerie hush.

Zhang Ye had a premonition that something was wrong.

...

Zhang Ye's prediction was spot-on, or rather, he had mentally prepared himself the moment he walked into the classroom.

Skipping classes might be a common occurrence in some schools, but in an elite class at a prestigious high school, it was a rare event—and a thoroughly unforgivable one if discovered.

Zhang Ye had skipped classes for an entire day. What's more, school inspectors happened to be conducting a routine check at the time, and elite classes were naturally their primary focus. For Zhang Ye to play truant under such circumstances was viewed as a very serious offense, at least in the eyes of the teachers.

Therefore, just a few minutes before the class was due to start, the head teacher, Miao Jianghong, came in and called Zhang Ye outside.

Although she was now the head teacher of an elite class, Miao Jianghong's office remained the same as before, shared with two other teachers.

"Speak! Why did you skip class?" Miao Jianghong sat in the office and slammed her hand heavily on the desk. "Do you have any idea what your current ranking is? Dead last! You're placed in the elite class, yet you don't even try and instead you skip classes—"

In his former class, he had been third from the bottom, but in the elite class, he naturally dropped to dead last.

"As long as my grades are good, it won't matter, right?" Zhang Ye suddenly said, standing before the desk.

He naturally understood why Miao Jianghong had called him over; a lecture was undoubtedly inevitable. However, as someone who had been reborn, he had no desire to sit through such a reprimand, even though the teacher meant well.

"What?" Miao Jianghong asked, failing to hear him clearly due to her agitation.

Meanwhile, the two other teachers in the office—since the first class of the morning wasn't theirs—were all present. They appeared to be grading homework, but their minds were entirely focused on the unfolding scene.

"As long as my grades are good, it doesn't matter, does it?" Zhang Ye raised his head slightly. "If I can test well and take first place in the class, skipping class shouldn't be a problem either."

Facing the teacher, Zhang Ye showed not a trace of nervousness; instead, he wore a look of quiet pride. This level, direct gaze made Miao Jianghong feel somewhat unaccustomed.

"Wait until you actually rank first before talking," Miao Jianghong said with a trace of awkwardness.

"And what if I do get first place?" Zhang Ye was not someone willing to come out on the losing end. Of course, he knew he was genuinely in the wrong regarding this incident. However, as his business ventures expanded, he found that his spare time outside of class was no longer sufficient to manage and perfect everything properly.

Therefore, negotiating with the teachers at school was his next logical step. Even though such an approach was bound to draw attention and appear overly bold, he didn't care much.

"Fine! If you can manage to take first place every single time, you can play truant all day long and I won't bother you!" Miao Jianghong replied, provoked into an angry laugh.

At this, the two nearby teachers became even more interested. Dropping all pretense of a disguise, they stood up to see who on earth could be so arrogant.

"However, if you fail this upcoming exam, it will be absolutely necessary for me to call your parents here and let them see how their son studies," Miao Jianghong said, her face chilling as she looked at Zhang Ye, clearly taking the matter seriously. "Teacher Yu, Teacher姜, you don't have classes this morning, do you? Act as witnesses for me today. I want to see just what kind of score this kid can actually get."

It was the first time she had ever encountered such an unrepentant student.

Thus, under the watchful eyes of the two teachers, Miao Jianghong pulled out several test papers directly, handed them to Zhang Ye, and told him to complete them right there on the spot.

Since he had already brought it up, Zhang Ye naturally showed no cowardice. Without wasting words, he took the pen handed to him by the teacher and began answering the questions.

However, upon seeing the questions on the paper, Zhang Ye paused slightly. Because of his recent review sessions, he had an exceptionally clear and thorough understanding of the high school curriculum and knowledge points. Looking through the test, he realized that many of the questions covered material from the first and second semesters of the first and second years that was often easily missed or poorly grasped.

Yet, this posed no real difficulty for Zhang Ye. When he first started his review, he had harbored the ambition of mastering the knowledge of the entire high school grade level.

Thanks to his astonishing memory, he had cleared all the difficult concepts of high school within just a single month. Although some questions on this test exceeded the typical grasp of a second-year high school student, he dismissed them without a second thought.