Chapter 651: Chapter 651

In the end, Huo Feng didn’t receive a penny of the 1 million yuan in compensation.

Upon hearing all the circumstances, Pu Sangzhi couldn’t help but laugh, finding him deserving and also thinking his parents were amusing.

Pu Sangzhi could feel that happiness permeated Huo Feng’s family.

His parents had a good relationship, and the family atmosphere was very pleasant.

Huo Feng, who grew up in such a family, was a boy with a sunny disposition.

Of course, he sometimes had his bad moments, like right now after losing the 1 million yuan...

However, this bad mood and the incident itself didn’t last long for Huo Feng.

Pu Sangzhi comforted him all night.

The next day, he had seemingly resurrected on the spot, eager to go find Pu Sangzhi for the winter break.

After entering the second year of high school, every vacation time was shortened.

Winter break was sadly short, and there was a heap of homework to boot.

At the end of this semester, Huo Feng obtained the second rank in his section.

He took pride in this and developed a sense of arrogance and complacency in his studies.

To adjust Huo Feng’s attitude, this winter break Pu Sangzhi specifically asked Yan Siyuan to go to the library—Huo Feng was, of course, also brought along.

Under her arrangements, Yan Siyuan reluctantly accepted Huo Feng’s study challenge.

That day, they engaged in a study competition at the library.

It was the same set of exam papers, starting at the same time, the contest being over accuracy within the given time frame.

The papers were from last year’s college entrance examination, serving as a mock test.

Due to time constraints, they only compared Chinese, Math, and English.

Huo Feng, ranking second in his section, challenged Yan Siyuan, the top student at Ruizhong. Although it seemed like an egg striking a rock, Huo Feng didn’t remember ever losing to Yan Siyuan.

The contest lasted half a day, starting in the morning and going until noon.

Yan Siyuan took a total of 3 hours to complete the three papers, which included checking his work thoroughly twice.

Huo Feng, on the other hand, took 4 hours and 30 minutes, also including two rounds of checks.

Although both finished within the allotted time, Yan Siyuan was still much faster than Huo Feng.

While Huo Feng was toiling away, Yan Siyuan, who had finished his papers, was leisurely enjoying the coffee and pastries Pu Sangzhi had bought him.

Free food and drinks were the conditions under which Yan Siyuan had agreed to face Huo Feng’s challenge.

When the scores came out in the afternoon, Huo Feng, despite taking longer, was still crushed by Yan Siyuan...

Even without considering the subjective scoring of the Chinese and English essays, just the scores of sections with standard answers showed Huo Feng lagging behind Yan Siyuan by several dozen points.

Moreover, comparing the quality of the Chinese essays between Huo Feng and Yan Siyuan was like comparing heaven and earth!

In a single day, Yan Siyuan’s excellence completely shattered Huo Feng’s pride in being second in his section!

Throughout the rest of the winter break, Huo Feng’s studying began to pick up momentum again.

Because there truly wasn’t much time left.

It was already second year.

He had only a year and a half left to make his sprint for Tsinghua.

By this point, Huo Feng was experiencing his most confusing phase.

Because he was already an exceptional student, striving to be even more excellent, refining his excellence to the level of Pu Sangzhi or Yan Siyuan, was a very difficult task!

Thus, the closer it got to the end, the more even Pu Sangzhi felt at a loss, uncertain about where to pinpoint the problems?

Hence, the learning tasks ahead were not only heavy but also complicated. Huo Feng needed to put forth more effort than before, maybe even double!

After the entire second year ended, Huo Feng achieved all A’s in the ten subjects of the mock exam, maintained his second-place rank in the section, and even put a small gap between himself and Chen Ruixiang, who ranked third.

As the curriculum entered the third year, Pu Sangzhi, Huo Feng, and Chen Ruixiang had indeed become the stable triumvirate of top achievers in their senior class.

Huo Feng’s rise from among the 600 of his section to second place became a legend recounted by his grade mates.

Beyond that, it became well-known throughout the grade that Huo Feng was aiming for Tsinghua.

Therefore, the Tsinghua pact between the two top scholars, Huo Feng and Pu Sangzhi, also became a well-known feat to all at Longxiang High School!

Following their senior year, the school authorities turned a blind eye as to whether their relationship was that of classmates or lovers, not caring in the slightest.

Because, when it comes to students, the most important things are academic performance, study attitudes, and having the correct outlook on learning.

Moreover, with Huo Feng’s grades firmly placing him second and his goal for Tsinghua set in stone, the school authorities also paved a shortcut for Huo Feng to Tsinghua: the Leading Talents Program released by Tsinghua.

Within Longxiang School, only Huo Feng participated in this activity. The opportunities were extremely limited; supposedly, the school authorities had to make a strong appeal to Tsinghua’s admissions office to secure a single spot.

It turned out that the school’s effort to obtain this opportunity for Huo Feng owed much to Huo Mingshan’s contribution. A donation of 900,000 yuan wasn’t made in vain and earned Han Guobang’s willingness to return the favor, helping Huo Feng secure the opportunity.

Since there was only one spot and considering Pu Sangzhi’s excellent performance, which gave him a real chance to get into Tsinghua on his own merit, the spot was given to Huo Feng.

Huo Feng also had the good fortune to become the only student from Longxiang School to go to Tsinghua early and participate in the Leading Talents Program released by Tsinghua.

It took several days, and the results were unknown. Thus, this was just a brief interlude in his busy senior life.

Senior year was hectic.

The summer vacation from senior year two to senior year three was short, with classes resuming early after a mere twenty-something days off, and dozens of homework assignments to take home.

After starting senior year three, Huo Feng and Pu Sangzhi no longer made plans to meet up.

Their lives were confined to the same routine within the school grounds.

Classrooms, dormitories, cafeterias, libraries.

The library tutoring sessions increased from three days a week to every day.

After entering senior year three, the group of ten brothers also started to buckle down academically.

Seeing Huo Feng attending tutoring in the library every afternoon, the ten brothers followed suit and went to the library to review together.

Thus, Pu Sangzhi, alone, led the eleven of them, teaching the key points she had marked for Huo Feng to the others.

By the start of senior year three, Chen Ruixiang no longer tutored the eleven brothers, as he was also busy with his own revisions and overwhelmed with his studies.

Senior year three was an extremely busy time; every student faced immense pressure, each striving for the goals they had set for themselves.

However, precisely because of the busyness of senior year three, the relationship that Zhu Dandan and Wang Chao had stubbornly maintained finally came to an end during the second semester.

The day Zhu Dandan and Wang Chao broke up was a Saturday.

There was no evening self-study on Saturdays, and Wen Miao and Dai Ya’an had gone home after school at noon.

Zhu Dandan should have gone home too.

But that Saturday afternoon, she had just broken up with Wang Chao, and he had agreed to it.

She was so upset at the time, she didn’t want to go home for fear of crying in front of her family.

So, in a daze, she suddenly decided to look for a bar through a group-buying website.

She went there by herself...

It was Zhu Dandan’s first time going to a bar, and it happened to be a particularly lively one.

That night, naturally, some trouble ensued...

That Saturday night, in the school’s library, Pu Sangzhi and Huo Feng were studying together.

There were not many students in the school library to begin with, and even fewer on Saturdays.

Huo Feng’s ten brothers had gone out for dinner and karaoke that night, it was said that Wang Chao was treating them.

Huo Feng didn’t join them.

In fact, ever since being easily defeated by Yan Siyuan, Huo Feng had declined many invitations to social gatherings.

Aiming for Tsinghua, yet when compared with someone truly capable of getting in, he was effortlessly devastated...

This was Huo Feng’s humiliation and also the greatest motivator for him to study earnestly and independently.

Therefore, for over a year, Huo Feng had barely hung out with his ten brothers and no longer participated in their gatherings.

In a way, he missed many wild moments of youth that he should have had for the sake of his studies...

At 7 PM in the library, Huo Feng and Pu Sangzhi were studying quietly.

He was doing test papers, and Pu Sangzhi was flipping through a book, each engrossed in their own study tasks.

When tired, they would occasionally look up, exchange glances, and share a smile.

"Let’s take a 15-minute break, finish these two papers, and then call it a night," Pu Sangzhi said.

Huo Feng heaved a long sigh, "Okay..."

Huo Feng was serious about his studies.

And he was genuinely tired.

Having been so diligent for all these years, Huo Feng had forgotten the carefree days of playing hooky back in junior high.

He was now accustomed to a life of hard work and study.

However, when he checked his phone and saw videos of his brothers partying hard at KTV, he felt an indescribable pang in his heart.

"I haven’t sung, danced, drank, fought, smoked, ridden a bike, or had fun... haven’t hung out with the sons for over three hundred days," Huo Feng murmured to himself.

Pu Sangzhi, who was looking over the problems he had just finished, heard his complaints and couldn’t help but look up at him, "Do you want to go out and have fun now? We can finish the remaining two papers tomorrow."

"No. I won’t go," Huo Feng replied, lazily stroking his hair as he tossed his phone on the table.

Pu Sangzhi curled her lip and suggested, "Then we’ll make time to have you compete with Yan Siyuan again." For origınal chapters go to 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡⚑𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙚⚑𝙣𝙚𝙩

"No. That won’t do," Huo Feng objected firmly, "I’m not ready yet. If I lose to him again, where will my face be?"

Pu Sangzhi didn’t press the issue, "Then let’s see who comes out on top in the college entrance exams."

Huo Feng nodded, "Right. Let the college entrance exams decide! I must surpass Yan Ji and be the name right after yours on the city leaderboard!"

With that, Huo Feng picked up his phone again, opened the group chat with his sons, and sent them a voice message, "You ten, come back early after having your fun. Tomorrow morning, come to the library for tutoring."

After sending the message, Huo Feng scrolled through the sons’ group comments and saw that they had posted many videos.

Huo Feng opened them one by one, exclaiming as he watched, "This is crazy, sheesh, so crazy..."

Pu Sangzhi remarked, "Of course, they’re having fun; someone is treating."

"Yeah. It’s rare for Chaozi to treat. This guy seldom does... so rare for him to treat both to food and fun, he must have good news!" Huo Feng commented.