Chapter 029: Spending the Night in the Classroom with the Campus Belle

Lin Feng didn't take Duan Tianlong's warning to heart.

With what was recorded in that diary, it wasn't just Duan Tianlong and Wang Zhengjun who would face justice — the core members of the Heavenly Wolf Gang would all be brought to account as well.

With Wang Zhengjun thrown behind bars and the Heavenly Wolf Gang destroyed, what was there left to fear?

Although things had been mostly taken care of, Lin Feng worried that something unexpected might happen, and so he stayed awake the entire night, remaining in a state of heightened vigilance.

The following morning, news came from Li Haidong's side.

Li Haidong had delivered Duan Tianlong's diary to the Provincial Public Security Bureau. The bureau's leadership took the matter very seriously and immediately conducted a preliminary verification of the information recorded in the diary.

With the mistress shared by both Duan Tianlong and Wang Zhengjun providing testimony, the bureau's leadership concluded that the contents of the diary were essentially true.

The relevant authorities immediately placed Wang Zhengjun under control.

The Heavenly Wolf Gang was certain to be swept up in its entirety. Li Haidong was a man of loyalty and sentiment, and Lin Feng couldn't help but worry about whether he might get dragged down with them.

However, Li Haidong told Lin Feng not to worry. He had never been a core member of the Heavenly Wolf Gang, had not committed any serious offenses since his release from prison last time, and had since withdrawn from the gang. On top of that, handing over the diary counted as a major meritorious act. As such, the bureau's leadership had already indicated that, as long as Li Haidong's account checked out, they would not pursue any charges against him.

Wang Zhengjun was finished. The Heavenly Wolf Gang was finished.

With that, Lin Feng finally let out a long breath of relief.

Having stayed up the entire night, and now with the confirmed news in hand, the tension that had been coiling through his nerves finally loosened. He promptly slumped forward and buried his face on his desk.

Tian Mengqian, sitting in the row ahead, turned to glance at Lin Feng. A faint trace of worry flickered in her eyes.

She knew about the agreement between Lin Feng and Tian Guoliang. With less than half a month until the monthly exam, placing in the top five hundred — it seemed like an impossible task for Lin Feng.

Even if Lin Feng failed to crack the top five hundred, Tian Mengqian wouldn't think any less of him. But she was worried that her father would use it as an excuse, turning it into a massive obstacle standing between the two of them.

She took a deep breath, clenched her small fist, and made up her mind to do something for the both of them.

At noon when class let out, Tian Mengqian woke Lin Feng up.

"Time to eat, time to eat." Lin Feng shook his head groggily and got to his feet, heading toward the classroom door.

"Wait a moment, I need to talk to you."

"What's wrong?"

"The monthly exam is coming up soon. How can you keep going on like this? Starting today, I'm going to tutor you."

Lin Feng was a little taken aback.

But soon he understood — Tian Mengqian had clearly found out about his agreement with Tian Guoliang.

With two Peach Blossom Points still unused, Lin Feng wasn't the least bit worried about the monthly exam. He shrugged and said, "Qianqian, stop joking around. There are only a few days left. Even if you tutor me, there's no way we could make it in time — not even if we strapped a rocket to my back. But don't worry, I have my own way of handling it."

"How do you know there's no hope if you've never even tried?" Tian Mengqian lowered her head slightly, looking a little shy. To her, this was already being quite forward.

While Lin Feng wasn't at all concerned about the monthly exam, Tian Mengqian's words struck something within him.

He had assumed that once Tian Mengqian found out he might end up with many women, she would leave him. But he had never actually tried. How could he know there was no hope?

Her words seemed to fling open a window inside Lin Feng's heart, giving him a sudden sense of clarity.

There was no real need for tutoring, but Lin Feng couldn't exactly reveal his trump card to Tian Mengqian. After thinking it over, he said, "But you have classes too — where would you find the time?"

"I have time in the evenings!"

"That won't work. You definitely wouldn't come to my place, and going to yours would be life-threatening."

Tian Mengqian burst out laughing, shooting him a playfully exasperated look. "You're so dramatic. Anyway, I have a place in mind. Don't leave after school this afternoon."

Lin Feng had no interest in being tutored, but Tian Mengqian's earnestness was hard to refuse.

Although Tian Mengqian didn't seem to be lying, Lin Feng couldn't quite figure it out — where on earth could she take him to study at this hour of the night?

Since it was a question he couldn't answer, Lin Feng simply stopped thinking about it.

He slept straight through until the afternoon bell rang.

Lin Feng was about to leave the classroom when he suddenly remembered what Tian Mengqian had told him at noon. He turned around and saw that she was still hunched over her desk finishing homework with no sign of leaving, so he stayed behind as well.

Five minutes later, only Lin Feng and Tian Mengqian remained in the classroom.

"Where are we going?" Lin Feng walked over and asked.

"Still haven't figured it out?" Tian Mengqian kept him in suspense.

Lin Feng furrowed his brow slightly. A moment later, his eyes widened. "You don't mean... right here in the classroom?"

"Got it in one." Tian Mengqian was the class study representative and was well-favored by Thunder Tiger. Though she wasn't technically responsible for locking and unlocking the classroom, Thunder Tiger had still given her a key to the classroom door.

"Let's eat first then!" Unable to think of an excuse to get out of it, Lin Feng figured he'd go along for now and think of a way out later.

"If we go eat now and people see us coming back to the classroom together, it'll look suspicious. Just bear with it for a little while — let's study first, and when it gets later and there are fewer people around, we'll go eat. I've already told my parents I'm staying at a classmate's place tonight. You should call your aunt and uncle too."

Left with no other choice, Lin Feng slumped down into the seat beside Tian Mengqian with a defeated look.

As for the call — Lin Feng had no intention of making one. He'd stayed out all night at internet cafes plenty of times before. Calling home to say he was studying would only make it look more suspicious.

"With less than half a month to go, there's no way to review everything. But thankfully, the college entrance exam is still nearly a year away." Tian Mengqian opened her math textbook. "The math teacher is also our homeroom teacher, so let's start with math. Hopefully you can score a bit better on the monthly exam!"

Tian Mengqian had already laid out a plan. With nearly a year until the college entrance exam, she would help Lin Feng review subject by subject. Even if he didn't place in the top five hundred on this monthly exam, it didn't matter. By the time the college entrance exam came around, she could align her application with his level and apply to the same university.

For Lin Feng, being tutored in math was completely unnecessary. To put it bluntly, his math ability was good enough that he could have been tutoring Tian Mengqian instead.

But regardless of what subject was being reviewed, Lin Feng simply couldn't muster any enthusiasm. He sat beside Tian Mengqian, pretending to pay attention while his mind drifted far away.

About two hours later, dusk had fallen.

Lin Feng's stomach had long since been growling with hunger. He glanced out the window and said, "Alright, there's practically nobody left on campus. Let's go eat."

Tian Mengqian nodded, and the two of them headed outside the school grounds together.

After grabbing a quick bite to eat, Tian Mengqian brought Lin Feng to a shop to buy candles and mosquito-repelling incense.

There was a hotel right at the school gate, and Lin Feng had over ten thousand yuan on him — but there was no way he could take Tian Mengqian to a hotel room to study, could there?

Even if they really were going to a hotel just to study, and even if Lin Feng didn't care, Tian Mengqian would never be able to get past that mental hurdle. A boy and a girl booking a hotel room to study — just saying it out loud was asking for trouble.

Just last year, at a private middle school in the south of the city, a boy and a girl had been walking along the railway tracks at night. Nobody knew exactly what happened, but the boy was killed by a passing train. The story later made the news, with reports claiming that the two had been so engrossed in discussing their studies on the railway tracks that when the train came, the boy heroically shoved the girl to safety and was killed in the process. The school had even filed an application on the boy's behalf for a bravery commendation, calling on all students to learn from his example.

However, no matter how hard the school tried to spin it, it only ended up as a laughingstock.

Lin Feng had privately scoffed at the whole affair back then.

Discussing schoolwork on the railway tracks in the dead of night?

Right. Sex ed, more like.

The two returned to the classroom. Lin Feng chose to sit at his own desk to endure the long night ahead. The corner of the classroom wasn't breezy, but it was a good spot for the mosquito incense to do its work.

Lin Feng lit the candles and the mosquito incense, then settled back in to listen to Tian Mengqian's lesson.

Tian Mengqian wore a look of deep concentration. The warm, amber glow of the candlelight played across her delicate features, and a few loose strands of fine hair brushing her cheek lent her an air of pure, gentle charm.

Having finished explaining a concept, Tian Mengqian turned to look at Lin Feng, intending to ask whether he had understood — only to find him staring at her in a daze.

In an instant, Tian Mengqian felt as if a jolt of electricity had shot through her heart. Flushed with shy delight, she shot him a look and said, "Brother Xiaofeng, did you understand everything I just went over?"

"Ah — yes, I got it all."

"Good. Then solve this problem for me."

Lin Feng glanced at the problem. Without so much as a moment's pause, he picked up his pen and breezed through the solution steps.

Tian Mengqian looked at him in surprise, genuinely impressed by how quickly he had absorbed the material. The problem wasn't all that difficult, but being able to solve it without a moment's hesitation was no small feat.

"What about this one? Can you do this one?"

This problem was a step harder than the previous one — but to Lin Feng, the first problem had been like a normal high school student doing single-digit addition, and the second was like single-digit multiplication.

Again he glanced at the problem. Without any hesitation, he solved it cleanly and efficiently.

Tian Mengqian's mouth fell slightly open, a look of disbelief spreading across her face.

A problem at this level wasn't too hard for her now, but if she had never seen it before, there was no way she could have solved it as effortlessly as Lin Feng just had.

"You... have you done this problem before?" Tian Mengqian asked.

"I just listened to you explain it, and then I knew how to do it," Lin Feng said, playing dumb. "What, did I get it wrong?"

Tian Mengqian shook her head. She pointed to the most challenging problem on the page and said, "Then what about this one?"

Lin Feng took one look at it and immediately had the solution mapped out in his head. Just as he was about to pick up his pen and write it down, the sound of footsteps came from outside the classroom.

Tian Mengqian's face went slightly pale. In the quiet of the school at night, the sound of footsteps triggered something in her — not rational thought, but primal fear.

Lin Feng, however, knew it had to be a person.

"Don't be scared. It's a person." Lin Feng blew out the candle and took Tian Mengqian's hand.

Tian Mengqian gripped his hand tightly back. Feeling the steady, reassuring warmth of his grip, she felt a little better.

The two sat motionless in the corner of the classroom, hoping that whoever was outside would simply pass by.

But things didn't go as they hoped. From the sound of the footsteps, whoever it was had clearly entered the building and was heading up toward the classrooms — and they came to a stop right outside the door of Class 3-1.

Moments later, the sound of a key turning in the lock reached their ears.

Innocent conduct may fear no scrutiny, yet the saying about suspicious appearances in a melon patch still exists for a reason.

Lin Feng didn't care for himself, but he had to think of Tian Mengqian. Without hesitation, he made a split-second decision — he pushed Tian Mengqian's head down, and the two of them ducked together under the desks.