Test progress

"Information is power; however, it hinged on how people use them." Many people assumed that information was worthless; they evidently missed the functions of those pieces of information. People gathered others' birthdays, anniversaries, and major events, even people's secrets, yet they have no clue how to use those pieces of information to their favor. For example, if you knew a friend's birthday, you could organize a surprise birthday party which might pull you closer to him. To be precise, information can create or destroy. "Just what the hell am I blabbing."

The morning of the next day, people had already spread funny rumors. I was in my room as expected, mulling over the series of reoccurring thoughts. I lay on my bed casually with my legs crossed, staring at the ceiling incredulously. This morning I heard side whispers about a student in class B. Today was only the second day of the test. Surprisingly, students had started to locate their targets. Some students were interested in the rumors and got stuck in other's scheme. However, many other students appeared incredibly calm. This game was interesting.

Towards mid-day, Li Min came to my room again. "Guang Fang, have you found any clue?" Apparently, this person had gotten more impatient.

'What the hell is wrong with this girl.' When I finally thought I had rid myself of her continuous disturbance. It happened that she had become too dependent on me. Which ghost is blowing this fire? I'm a casual person who often lazy myself around. I couldn't have anyone turn my life into a sorrowful erudite. I only wanted to be an observer of this test; why was she even impatient?

"Haven't I told you not to disturb my newfound peace till third to the fourth day?" She exasperated me with her continual bugging. However, she did not look like she wanted to back down. As I took a closer look at Li Min, I saw minor changes, much to my surprise. Anyone would have dismissed these changes if they were not observant enough. However, I was different. I've always been attentive. So I knew this girl's behavior quite too well. This person had become way too casual with me. In fact, if we didn't tread carefully, people could tag us as a dating couple. It creeps me out! One of the crucial issues that led to my conclusion was simple: the way she storms my room—it had continuously made me speechless.

"Haven't you noticed that things are off lately?"

"Where exactly are you getting with these profound findings of yours." I feigned confusion and ignorance. I understood where she wanted to anchor those theories, but I wasn't about to spend my calm afternoon listening to her rubbish. Of course, that would have happened if she was another person, but this witch would make me listen to those pieces of nonsense regardless.

In fact, my question happened to give Li Min the opportunity to spill the water. "Fu Wei has…." She began to explain the rumor about Fu Wei. She sure was talking a lot lately—it couldn't have been my imagination. Maybe she was excited. But delighted, about what? Did she befriend the gods of heaven?

She explained how Fu Wei had a phobia of failure. He was just like a child who hated creeping insects. And it was said his father hated blunders so much that he was obsessed with success. So this obsession triggered Fu Wei's fear of failure. Li Min also hesitantly explained something about bribing and stealing. However, I didn't know the truth. Of course, I had to listen to her until she finished up and got lost as soon as possible.

In fact, there were three variables in play here. The first rumor was about hatred for failure; the second was rumors of bribery and the last rumors of theft. Who formed the relationship between these three compendia of details. At a glance, someone could easily see the rumor manipulation. Of course, it didn't mean that one of the rumors might not be credible.

"Are there more detail, perhaps information on any of these acts?" I asked with a calm face. I only tried my best not to waste her effort in telling me. Honestly, if I wanted this information from her, I would have asked, but now she delivered it straight to my doorstep. It meant my value in her life had become indispensable, and she had lost in the game of significance. Of course, I still had to be careful before the lifted hammer smashed my feet.

"Are you indirectly asking me to dig the information out? You know that I am not particularly close to him."

'Indirectly ask you? Isn't this thing what you were supposed to find out before reporting it to this lord?'

How could a reasonable person like you think like a senseless goat? I couldn't exactly understand this Li Min. You didn't necessarily need to befriend anyone with the direct source of information or victim. All you needed was his secondary subjects and schools. There must be people that knew him. No matter how the original gossipers got the information, you could also obtain them, except you are hopeless—saying you are inferior to those people. But of course, I could not tell her these things before she finally lost her patients and expelled me from this school.

"Well, he certainly has a story about bribing his way to enter this school. It happened during his junior high school," she replied casually.

Just as Li Min remained in my room, I was almost certainly getting impatient. I stared at the taskbar on my computer discretely. "I guess that information is fine, then," I said after a momentary pause. I understood it was not good to talk too much; hence, you might give out nonverbal evidence from your speech. Who knows if she is probing me.

"What is your progress on the test?" I smiled slightly.

Since Li Min was way too curious, I had to play the role of passing the ball to her, even though I knew it was likely impossible to have discovered anything.

"There are three students everyone is shooting at—they are likely the victims. The first one is Weisheng Zhi from second-year class A and Jingjie Chuantao from second-year class B..." Li Min mused.

Well, many people must have made some progress. However, it was relatively easy to find victims of a case than the assailants. After all, victims were somewhat timid and schemed little. If they were great schemers, their assaulters wouldn't have seen them in the first place. Their trails were also easy to find than the bullies. Of course, the said people Li Min mentioned might only be the school's camouflage.

"What about the bullies? Have anyone made progress with those?"

"There are rumors, but I am not sure; I have not investigated."

She answered honestly. Anyway, at this point, she had nothing to hide from me because we were in this mess together. This girl now depended on me to help her score high records, much to my irritation. This task was a hassle, and I never loved it when people bothered me. But of course, the benefit was worth it for now.

When Li Min saw—I changed my focus to her. She immediately accepted that she may not get anything from me today. I continued to ask her trivial things, but I understood the bugger knew my main priority for asking those questions. She was angry, but what could she do about it? It was not as though she could open my brain and see what I was preparing. In fact, it was simple. Since I've told her to be patient—that's all she should do. She could go independently to solve those problems if she wanted. But it wouldn't be helpful. After all, she knew that her finding wouldn't matter when I could provide her with the original answer. In fact, how this girl came to become dependent on me still amazed me to no end. I seemed to be a treasure she didn't want others to know about—like a hidden masterpiece.

After a while, she stood and left with an unwilling heart. I wondered why she wanted to spend time with me. I was incredibly occupied, and I couldn't have known how I would solve those riddles, except I just wanted to. As she left, I went to the kitchen and heated a cup of water. I made a cup of coffee and sat in a relaxed manner as I drank the coffee slowly. I didn't dare to expose my laptop too soon. After all, I didn't want to be too busy with the program and miss out on the opportunity when someone came in and spy on me.

At this moment, I thought about what Li Min had said to me. I always knew that Fu Wei was hiding something. So he appeared to be in the same line as Xiu Ying: they happened to be afraid of something. While Xiu Ying wanted to prove she wasn't useless, Fu Wei was more afraid of failure than anything. Something must have transpired to make him that terrified. Perhaps, a demonstration. I sighed as I drank my coffee.