Study Monster Cultivation System-Chapter 331 - 330 He is the lion that was bitten

When Li Zheng went up to the 12th floor to find Lin Yujing,

unexpectedly, it was Lin Xiangye who opened the door.

"Have you moved in already?"

"Ha... just moved in," Lin Xiangye swallowed, adjusting his collar as he opened the door. "I was just changing clothes, sorry..."

"Then I’m disturbing you..." Li Zheng coughed and walked into the room.

Lin Yujing was sitting on the messy bed, putting on her shoes without looking up. "Finished coaxing?"

"We were discussing studying..." Li Zheng sat on the bed exhausted, "No, I can’t talk anymore, I’m going to vomit..."

"Study until you vomit?!" Lin Yujing stood up in surprise, even somewhat elated, "You have your days too!"

"Don’t talk anymore." Li Zheng hung his head in embarrassment, "I’ve studied continuously for this long before, but it was at my own pace... Studying with Jian Feng felt like suddenly getting on a fast train, sprinting toward the end of days..."

Lin Yujing crossed her arms and scolded, "Then why didn’t you come to me for help?"

"It’s a long story... Shall we go down to eat first?"

"Uh-huh." Lin Yujing said as she jumped up, spreading her arms in front of Li Zheng with a look of anticipation.

"Huh?" Li Zheng thought for a moment, his eyes widened and he got up, spreading his arms tenderly, "Even though it’s sudden, I’m always ready for a ’French vacuum kiss’."

"AAAAAH...." Lin Xiangye covered her face and backed away, speaking through the gaps between her fingers wide as a compass, "I didn’t see anything, I didn’t see anything..."

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" Lin Yujing hugged herself and scolded, "Who wants that? Haven’t you noticed anything different about me?"

"Hm?" Li Zheng looked her up and down, "Nope."

"I’m angry!" Lin Yujing glared and yanked at her collar forcefully.

Seeing this, Lin Xiangye quickly stepped closer, striking a pose. "Look at me again, see anything different?"

Li Zheng shook his head blankly, "You don’t seem to have grown taller..."

"Ah..." Lin Xiangye, in despair, covered her face, "I can’t save you."

"Didn’t you notice we changed our clothes?" Lin Yujing huffed.

"Ah." Li Zheng nodded honestly, "I did not notice."

"..."

"Don’t be mad, don’t be mad..." Lin Xiangye tried to console Lin Yujing by pulling at her arm, "Guys never notice these things, at least he’s honest..."

"I am mad, I am mad!" Lin Yujing stomped her feet in frustration, "This week he was supposed to coax me, but he ended up coaxing Jian Feng... Next week I won’t get this treatment."

"That’s true..." Lin Xiangye hastily signaled Li Zheng with her eyes, "At least give some feedback, hey..."

Li Zheng suddenly realized, and as a master of styling, naturally stroked his chin and began to assess, "Hmm... this short tight sports hoodie... fits very well... wait, why does a tight hoodie even exist..."

"Because it’s mine..." Lin Xiangye raised her hand, "We swapped clothes..."

"No wonder." Li Zheng was startled, then looked toward Lin Xiangye, "As for this oversized shirt on you... forgive my frankness, it’s extremely disharmonious. On one hand, the shirt is too long, on the other hand, the design is meant for those with a smaller chest, your size must make it difficult to button up..."

Li Zheng continued with a furrowed brow, resting his cheek on his hand, "But... on closer inspection, there’s a new sensation, this sloppy long fit with an overly prominent bust... might indeed be an interesting combination. Unexpectedly, this perfectly neat shirt on Lin Yujing could create such intense levels of depth, representing a casual natural sexiness, which in my view is much more sophisticated than any deliberately coy charm, at least in her lifetime Lin Yujing cannot wear this effect, she’s more suited to the flat..."

Li Zheng said this, then suddenly shivered.

Something seemed off.

Amidst Lin Xiangye’s gaze that read "please stop talking," Li Zheng swallowed.

He quickly changed the subject!

"However."

"From a technical standpoint, this is still not the highest level."

"Restraint!"

"Fashion is also a form of art, and high-level art requires restraint."

"Unrestrainedly accentuating certain parts like you do can overpower other elements due to cheap stimulation."

"Personally, I lean towards simplicity and regularity."

"After going around in circles, I find that I’ve come back to the beginning."

"Compatibility is most important, simplicity is more comfortable than anything."

Only then did Li Zheng dare to turn his head. "Jingjing, do you think I’m right?"

"Hmm..."

Li Zheng was then locked out of the room.

He stood alone in the corridor, reflecting over and over.

Historian Teacher Shi once said, when flattering someone, avoid focusing on their flaws.

For instance, when Teacher Shi flattered an average-looking girl, he would compliment her figure.

If her figure wasn’t good either, he would praise her cuteness.

If she wasn’t even cute, then he would compliment her temperament.

"If you can’t find even a hint of charisma, you’re left to compliment kindness."

So, if a boy tells a girl, "You are really kind."

It’s essentially the same as a girl telling a boy, "You are really honest."

This time, Li Zheng had made a mistake, completely focusing on the professional aspect of clothing style while overlooking Teacher Zhou’s proverb.

Up until now, Lin Yujing had identified two fatal weaknesses about herself.

One was her father, and the other was her bust size.

Talking recklessly about someone else in front of Lin Yujing must have triggered this landmine.

But on the other hand,

she really is quite large.

Li Zheng couldn’t help but look down and gesture with his hands, thinking how tiring it must be to walk around with those things.

At that thought, Li Zheng’s eyes widened.

Got it.

Turn disadvantage into advantage.

For example, if a girl has crooked teeth, the right move is to compliment her on her cute canines.

Teacher Zhou.

I’ve seen the light!

As the epiphany hit him, the door also opened.

Li Zheng, still maintaining his gesturing position, quickly turned around.

"You see,"

"Carrying this kind of weight puts a lot of strain on the body, wastes energy, and could even lead to spinal curvature—and heaven forbid it blocks your view when you’re trying to work on problems."

"Jingjing, this is where you truly excel, conserving energy, being able to lift your head and stand proud without any embarrassment, and even your visual field when solving problems is perfectly clear."

"If someone were to study the relationship between bust size and academic performance, I’m convinced it would show a negative correlation."

"No wonder your studies are going so well; you have a huge advantage."

"..."

"Ah." Lin Xiangye was in despair, his hand on his forehead, "Run..."

"Huh?"

"Run fast…"

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"..."

Following this series of efforts, Li Zheng even missed out on the elevator.

Why can you compliment canines, but not this?

Where is the itty bitty committee?

…

Dining hall.

When Li Zheng and Gu Jianfeng were sitting opposite Lin Yujing and Lin Xiangye with their trays,

the awkwardness was hard to describe.

"Hey, long time no see." Gu Jianfeng waved and smiled.

"Psh." Lin Yujing turned her head disdainfully.

"Ah, ha..." Gu Jianfeng scratched the back of his head, "I’m just borrowing Li Zheng for today, I’ll give him back to you tomorrow."

"No way." Li Zheng muttered, continuing to eat, "I would not be at ease tomorrow either; let’s wait until the day after tomorrow, after both tests are done."

Hiss...

That was the sound of Lin Yujing’s fork scraping the bottom of the plate.

"Should be fine..." Gu Jianfeng jostled Li Zheng’s shoulder, forcibly smiling at Lin Yujing, "you two go running tonight, I’ll just go to sleep when I get back."

"I’m still not at ease, need to keep an eye on you 24 hours a day now."

"No need, no need…"

"Fengfeng." Lin Xiangye stiffly looked up, "Just give up, this person is beyond saving, I’ve already thrown all the life preservers I had."

"…" Gu Jianfeng helplessly looked towards Lin Yujing, "Anyway… I’m very sorry, please forgive us."

"Hmm…" Lin Yujing put down her chopsticks and spread her hands, "There’s nothing I can do… Scum Chap just turns into this in public settings, and I can’t exactly lock him up; let’s just lend Scum Chap to you for a few days."

"Hehe…" Gu Jianfeng finally picked up his utensils, "Thank you so much."

"But…" Lin Yujing narrowed her eyes looking toward Li Zheng, "Ignoring these two days, your status for the week will be postponed."

"!" Li Zheng looked up in shock, "Then these two days... aren’t I just wasting my time being your junior!"

"I have to criticize you now." Lin Xiangye suddenly interjected, "Spoiling your girlfriend is only natural, a lifelong duty for a guy."

"...Forget it." Li Zheng bowed his head to eat again, "I won’t argue with kids."

"I’m an adult now, I’m 16."

As he was speaking, Gao Shan passed by with a tray, checked on Gu Jianfeng’s condition, and then said to Li Zheng.

"Uh, Teacher Zhou wants you to come to his room after you finish eating."

"What’s the matter?"

"From what I’ve observed and analyzed... it should be a surprise tutoring session." Gao Shan nodded firmly, "All the teachers know you have a high study efficiency, I guess they’ve prepared dozens of hours’ worth of material, probably exam techniques, key problems, that kind of thing."

"......" Li Zheng’s body began to tremble violently, "Do... do I have to go... "

"After all, Teacher Zhou is a famous competition math teacher... If you refuse, it would be really embarrassing for him." Gao Shan patted Li Zheng heavily, "Just hang in there a bit longer. The Jijing Team is counting on you to fight for a spot this year, you’ve got to stand firm for the sake of the junior students next year."

Li Zheng frowned, "Then I... will try to hang in there a bit more..."

Having said that, he turned to Gu Jianfeng.

"Dad’s been with you, you’ve got to come with dad too..."

"Ah... I’m already feeling dizzy." Gu Jianfeng held his head, "If I really go, I’ll definitely fall asleep halfway, wouldn’t that be even more embarrassing for Teacher Zhou..."

"Xiao Lin." Li Zheng glared and turned to Lin Xiangye, "Don’t you want to go for the extra tutoring?"

"I have an exam early tomorrow morning..." Lin Xiangye said, tapping his forehead, "With my brain capacity, better let it rest."

"Alright, alright." Lin Yujing laughed and said, "I’ll go with you."

"!!!" Li Zheng was moved, "What’s generosity? People like Lin Xiangye are just superficial, real magnanimity is like yours, the broad-mindedness inside is what truly matters..."

Lin Xiangye wanted to throw a lifebuoy, but it was already too late.

"Forget it, you can die..." Lin Yujing walked away with her tray.

Li Zheng gritted his teeth in frustration, "Did I compliment her wrongly again? That angle looked pretty good to me..."

Lin Xiangye sighed and got up with his tray, "God Zheng, some questions are unsolvable, no matter how hard you try... you’ll only get deeper into them... and you’ve offended me a lot today already..."

"Sorry, sorry..."

"But you’re right." Lin Xiangye bowed his head and turned around, "It’s indeed... very tiring... thank you for your understanding..."

...

At eight in the evening, Li Zheng and Lin Yujing arrived at Zhou Mingyang’s room.

The three teachers were already busy grading papers.

Seeing Lin Yujing was there too, Zhou Mingyang shyly turned his head, "You’re not even competing... why did you come too..."

Lin Yujing had already prepared her response, generously saying while patting Li Zheng’s hair, "What he needs most right now is encouragement in terms of willpower. Look, teacher, what studying has done to him..."

The three teachers looked closely.

By then, Li Zheng no longer had the aura of unspoken authority he had in the morning; his entire face was drooping.

Such changes also frequently occur in nature.

For example, the male lions of Africa during mating season are very impressive in the early morning, roaring to dominate the entire savannah.

(Dominate: A shorthand for flipping the grass, an activity when energy levels are high).

Li Zheng is usually like this, charging as much as his knowledge allows.

(Charge: referring to launching an attack on learning challenges).

Typically, both the male lion and Li Zheng have enough energy to cover their targets, which makes them very impressive.

But sometimes, there are issues.

After all, the female lions in heat are equally active.

If a pride has too many eligible females...

A situation might arise where the male lion is exhausted (meaning his energy is depleted) and half of the females still haven’t been attended to.

Then, a dreadful event occurs.

The unattended females, angry and anxious, start chasing the male lion, repeatedly biting his groin.

Now, Li Zheng showed the expression of that bitten male lion.

His face drooping, his usually intimidating inverted brows now showed a straight frown of aggrievement.

Seeing this, the teachers of Normal University Affiliated School, having glanced at Lin Yujing, could hardly contain their fear.

With the battle ahead, this isn’t how things should be!

"My apologies..." the male teacher struggled as he looked at Lin Yujing, "Did you... do this?"

"It was Gu Jianfeng." Li Zheng lifted his hand weakly.

"Wow..." the male teacher was at a loss for words.

"Didn’t you sleep during the day?" Zhou Mingyang glared, "Were you doing math all day with Gu Jianfeng?"

"Hmm..." Li Zheng shivered, feeling a residual fright, "From eight in the morning... until seven in the evening... 11 hours... not a second of rest... not even allowed to pee..."

"Don’t cry, don’t cry..." Lin Yujing quickly pulled Li Zheng over and patted him.

"I... I’ve always really liked math... No, I can’t even say those words..." Li Zheng leaned on Lin Yujing’s shoulder, "Is this PTSD... I don’t even know how to face it anymore..."

"Then forget it, you should head back and rest!" Zhou Mingyang quickly stood up, assisting Li Zheng out, "Go back to sleep right away... try to forget about today..."

"Thank you, Teacher Zhou..."

"But, if, I mean if..." Zhou Mingyang added, "If you wake up before 6 a.m. tomorrow and feel fine, you can come here for a quick session to stimulate your mind, I’ll try to distil the important techniques to within an hour."

"Teacher, I... I’m not sure I can get past this..."

"It’s okay, no worries if you don’t come, I usually get up at 5:30 anyway."

"Thank you, Teacher Zhou."

Only after the two had left did the three teachers return to their seats in the room.

"Li Zheng really isn’t ordinary..." Zhou Mingyang was not sad but rather joyous, continually praising as he raised his hand, "To discuss math problems with Gu Jianfeng for 11 continuous hours. Our school’s last year’s Deng Muyao couldn’t do it. If I remember correctly, he broke down in less than four hours... and didn’t come to school for three days."

Zhou Mingyang, indeed, was a very perceptive person.

He not only saw the look of a lion being bitten but also saw the hundreds of fully satisfied lionesses behind him.

Achieving this level was honorable despite the defeat.

The other two teachers, even though they didn’t know the full story,

could roughly understand that "the duration of discussing math with Gu Jianfeng" is likely a symbol of a scholar’s stamina, as powerful as last year’s top scholar, who also lasted just about 4 hours.

"How’s Deng Muyao doing now?" the male teacher asked.

Zhou Mingyang answered indifferently: "He went straight to MIT, didn’t even attend Ji University."

"Ah..." the female teacher sighed, "It’s always like this... Sometimes I don’t even know... who we are training for, who we are selecting for..."

"Hey, respect personal values, everyone has their own choices," the male teacher laughed, "If I were him, I’d go if MIT gave me an offer. The god of academia from the year before went straight to Wall Street to become a fund partner, making millions of dollars a year, who wouldn’t go."

Zhou Mingyang suddenly raised his hand towards the door: "I don’t care about others, this kid for sure won’t go, that girl won’t either."

"Is Li Zheng that tough?"

"Hard to say, huh, Teacher Zhou..."

"The two of them, because of messing with Yellow 2, even gave up on IPHO, did you know that?" Zhou Mingyang spoke forcefully, "Do you know that people who have been through the aerospace system have a 5-year declassification period during which they can’t leave the country? Do you understand what kind of values someone who makes such choices has?"

"..."

"So you’re still holding a grudge and want to admonish Li Zheng?"

"I want to admonish that girl…" Zhou Mingyang became shy again, "How can she be so pretty..."

"...We know, we know."

"Please, stop saying it…"

...

In the hotel garden, Li Zheng couldn’t run anymore and just held hands with Lin Yujing for a simple stroll.

In fact, his situation was not really that dire, it was purely for Zhou Mingyang’s benefit.

But unexpectedly, Old Zhou was quite thoughtful, even willing to wake up early the next day for a makeup class, which made Li Zheng feel a bit guilty.

"That...," Li Zheng swayed his arm and said softly, "these days, I might really need to go all out with math."

"I know, I know," Lin Yujing also swayed leisurely, "I know from the way you clench your butt what you’ll fart, the moment you entered the hotel lobby, saw all those competition students, your eyes changed... not to mention Gu Jianfeng using the meat buns to beat the dogs, splitting open the melon seeds…"

"Haha..." Li Zheng started laughing and then began scratching his head, "You came all this way to be with me, and I haven’t been able to properly accompany you... after the exams, you say where to go and we’ll go."

"For me it’s easy to say, but it’s really about you," Lin Yujing’s hand suddenly tightened a bit, "You are too deeply involved in the Yellow 2 project. I asked my mom about it... if you have a chance to go to the IMO, she’s also not sure if the organization will approve... "

"It’s okay, I never planned on going," Li Zheng said nonchalantly, "We no longer need competitions to prove anything, just to perform our best... just one thing is a bit regrettable..."

"What?"

"There’s a guy from Russia..."

Just as he was speaking, a foreign war cry struck.

"Li!!! Zheng!!! Find you!!!"

Li Zheng’s eyes widened, and he suddenly turned around.

A long-haired, bespectacled monster was running flamboyantly towards him.

"!!!" Li Zheng let go and shouted, "Aleksei Konoplev!!!"

The monster was also shocked, hurried forward, ran his hand through his hair, and grabbed Li Zheng’s hands saying in English, "You can actually say my full name!"

Li Zheng nodded vigorously: "Of course I can, I’ve been regularly maintaining your ICHO medals."

"So… where are my medals???"

"Haha, I didn’t bring them!!"

"..."