Chapter 7: Food Conquest Strategy
Xia Meng thought that after Li Han achieved the second best result in the grade in the final exam, his academic performance would stabilize and remain among the top ten in the grade or the top ten in the class.
However, after the principal announced that Li Han would not be expelled, he immediately returned to his original state: coming to school in dirty clothes, with bottles and cans in his backpack, no textbooks, and his grades plummeting back to the bottom of the class.
In order not to let Li Han drag down the class's average score, the head teacher assigned Li Han and Xia Meng as long-term study partners and arranged for them to sit together. Because of this study partnership, Xia Meng suffered a lot and grew extremely disgusted with Li Han.
"How come you still haven't changed your clothes? You stink to death!" Xia Meng said, covering her nose and frowning.
"Does it smell?" Li Han chuckled and leaned in close to Xia Meng, "This smell, you'll get used to it."
"You're so disgusting! And those sneakers of yours, how many years have you been wearing them? Can't you change them?!" Xia Meng pointed at Li He's shoes, which had lost their original shape, and said, "If you don't change your shoes tomorrow, don't sit next to me, got it?"
"Uh-huh, I remember, let's start our supplementary lessons then." Li Han smiled mischievously.
"How did you get second place last time?" Xia Meng looked at Li Han in disbelief. The invigilating teacher was from another class and was very strict, so cheating was absolutely impossible. Moreover, Li Han sat alone in the corner, making it also impossible for him to copy from other classmates.
"Are you doing well as the class monitor?"
"Impossible! I've been coaching you and there's no way you could have improved that much!" Xia Meng shook her head.
"If you don't coach me seriously, my grades will immediately drop to the last place!" Li Han looked down at the math test paper that had just been handed out, with a big "2 points" written on it.
"You, you, you!" Xia Meng pointed at Li Han, then at the 2 points on the test paper, and shouted in a state of desperation: "If you get such a score again next time, don't come to school anymore!" After finishing speaking, Xia Meng's tears fell down involuntarily. She was a strong and perfection-seeking person, her exam scores had never fallen below third place in the grade, she really couldn't accept that there would be such a poor student in her class, and this poor student was even her study partner.
"What's wrong with you?" Li Han looked up to see Xia Meng wiping away tears, and suddenly became flustered. "Don't cry, don't cry! I'll do better next time, I promise! It's all my fault, Class Monitor, you can scold me or hit me if you want!" Li Han hung his head in shame, looking extremely guilty and self-reproachful, which made Xia Meng feel a little sorry for him. Maybe he had tried his best, but just didn't perform well, and she shouldn't be so hard on him.
"You must study hard, strive to do well next time!" Xia Meng wiped away her tears, opened the book, and seriously explained the exercises on the page to Li He, then had him do some practice questions, and finally had him retake the math test.
"You see, as long as you study hard, you can do your best. Bai Dan, actually you're not stupid at all, but quite clever!" Xia Meng looked at Li He and saw that he had done all the test questions correctly, and happily grasped his hand.
Li Han looked at the pretty little girl holding his hands, her peach-colored face had a pair of bright eyes, which were still wet from crying, making her long eyelashes look like they were growing out of two pools of clear water. When she lifted her head, her big, flirtatious eyes sparkled, and her slightly upturned eyelashes jumped up and down in a bewildering way. Under her high nose bridge was embedded a small cherry mouth, with a ponytail pointing upwards, a pink hairband on her head fluttering about like two dancing butterflies. She wore a white cotton long dress, with bare feet tucked into a pair of white cloth shoes. What Li Han especially loved was the way she spoke when she opened her mouth, that clever little mouth.
Li Han stared at Xia Meng's small mouth opening and closing, lost in thought.
"Are you even listening?" Xia Meng angrily punched Li Han.
"Huh? Oh oh oh, I'm listening, is it time to do exercises?"
"What are you doing?! I haven't even finished explaining the example questions to you, can you do it?!" Xia Meng puffed out her chest and pointed at Li Han, "If you can't do it, I'll never pay attention to you again!"
"Which one? I'm listening carefully! You tell me what to do and I'll do it! Don't ignore me, okay? Otherwise, I'll be the worst student in class, holding our class back. If we're evaluated, our class won't stand a chance!"
"You also know that you pulled down our class average score! Because of you, I couldn't even go home on time to eat dinner. Originally, every day after school, my grandmother would prepare delicious desserts for me at home. But because of you, I'm still hungry in the classroom!" Saying this, Xia Meng couldn't help but start crying again, and finally, she buried her face in her arms on the table and sobbed loudly.
"Monitor, don't cry, I'll listen to you! By the way, after finishing our homework, let's go eat liangfen together, I know a place that serves super delicious liangfen!"
Xia Meng lifted her tear-stained face, licked her lips, and swallowed hard: "Can you listen carefully now?" Li Han hastily nodded repeatedly.
Xia Meng gave out a few exercises, and Li Han quickly finished them all. "Huh? I haven't explained the example for this question to you yet, how did you do it?" Xia Meng looked at Li Han suspiciously.
"Hurry up, let's go eat liangfen together, or the sun will set!" Li Han changed the subject and kept urging Xia Meng.
Xia Meng looked at Li Han's homework and found that there were no errors in his answers, but she still felt that something was off.
"Monitor, are you leaving or not? If not, I'll leave first!" Li Han shouted at the classroom door.
"What's the hurry? Here I am!" Xia Meng slung her backpack over her shoulder and caught up with Li Han.
Li Han brought Xia Meng to a small alley, where a large ice cabinet was placed at the end of the alley. The ice cabinet was filled with all kinds of desserts. An old lady stood in front of the ice cabinet with a smile, serving desserts to customers. There were too many people, but only a few stools were available, so many people could only stand and drink liangfen (a type of dessert) while holding their bowls.
"Xiao Han, you're here! Is this your classmate?" The old lady warmly greeted Li Han and brought out a folding chair from behind her, inviting Li Han and Xia Meng to sit down.
"Grandma Li, you've had a long day and must be tired. Please sit down in the chair, we can stand while drinking." Li Han moved the chair back to Grandma Li's side, "We'll have two bowls of black liangfen, with all kinds of fruits added."
Li Han said to Xia Meng beside him: "I hardly touch the things on the roadside stalls, only Li Nainai's family's things I dare to eat."
Xia Meng glared at him: "Are you saying that street stalls are unsanitary? There's nothing dirtier than you!"
"It's not necessarily so! Do you like the flavor of this liangfen (cool noodle) shop? My parents used to eat liangfen at this very shop when they were young."
This family's liangfen is absolutely the best summer heat-relieving dish, Xia Meng has never had such delicious liangfen before. It's tender and smooth to the mouth, and when mixed with rock sugar water, it melts in your mouth instantly. The liangfen also contains various seasonal fruit dices, making Xia Meng eat with relish.
"I want another bowl!" Xia Meng wiped her mouth and squeezed towards the ice cabinet. With a "bang", Xia Meng bumped into a girl who was carrying a bowl of liangfen (chilled rice flour noodles) and turning around, causing the liangfen in the bowl to spill all over Xia Meng's skirt.
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