"Who's eating at this hour? Where's that aroma coming from?"
"Look over there."
"What's going on? Lunchtime already?"
"Looks like Xia Nuannuan brought it for him. It's quite a spread; I saw ribs and shrimp."
"Damn, that's too much. I'm still hungry from lunch, and the cafeteria food today is terrible."
"Are you focusing on the wrong thing here?"
"..."
In the classroom, more and more students who had woken up were looking in that direction, discussing with envious eyes.
Especially the boys.
Seeing the increasingly beautiful Xia Nuannuan being so good to Qin Tian, even bringing him a homemade lunch, they were incredibly envious.
Xia Nuannuan also noticed the surrounding gazes and blushed shyly.
Qin Tian, however, was unfazed. He ate heartily as if no one else was there, continuously praising the food.
"Delicious, these ribs are so fragrant, and this soup is good too. Auntie's cooking is truly excellent."
"Mom will be very happy to hear that. Eat more, finish it all!" Xia Nuannuan said happily.
"No problem, don't worry. I can eat another portion too," Qin Tian mumbled with his mouth full, nodding.
"Hey, hey, hey, Brother Tian, give me some too!" Zhang Peng grinned and sidled up.
"Go away, this is for me, nothing for you." Qin Tian waved his hand without looking up, moving the lunchbox further in.
"No way, you're too stingy!" Zhang Peng wore a dejected expression, his eyes fixated on the food in the bowl, swallowing hard.
Xia Nuannuan couldn't help but smile. She took the lid of the thermal lunchbox and spooned out some rice and dishes for him.
"I didn't bring enough, so this is all I can give you."
"Haha, it's fine, it's fine, a little is enough. Sister-in-law, you're so generous!" Zhang Peng hastily accepted, a broad smile plastered on his face as he offered a compliment.
Xia Nuannuan's face turned even redder.
Zhang Peng buried his head and started shoveling rice, shamelessly snatching dishes with Qin Tian.
"Hey, that's enough, don't fight me for it."
"You just ate at the cafeteria. You can't possibly finish all this; I'm helping you share a bit."
"Get lost, I don't need it!"
"I do, I do."
They bickered while wolfing down the food.
Everyone else in the classroom watched with longing. Some also wanted to share a bite, but their relationship with Qin Tian wasn't as close as Zhang Peng's, making it difficult to approach.
"Tsk, eating in the classroom at this hour, don't they know they might disturb others?" Xu Ying muttered disdainfully, hugging her arms.
Wu Xin, flipping through a study guide with absentmindedness, sneered, "Exams are about to be graded, and they can still eat so happily." He had also eaten at the cafeteria earlier and was actually quite envious now, but of course, he wouldn't show it.
Xu Ying nodded in agreement, "You're right. After class, the math scores should be announced. They won't be smiling for long."
...
Within minutes, the two had completely cleared Xia Nuannuan's brought lunch. They even finished all the soup, wasting not a drop.
"Burp—" Zhang Peng let out a very ungraceful burp, patting his stomach with satisfaction and exclaiming, "So comfortable!"
"Get lost quickly. Don't come again next time; I didn't even get full!" Qin Tian glared at him, feigning annoyance.
Zhang Peng completely ignored him and smiled at Xia Nuannuan, saying, "Thanks for the meal. Should I go to the supermarket and buy you a bottle of water? What do you want to drink?"
"No need." Xia Nuannuan waved her hands in a hurry, politely declining.
"Don't be polite with him; hurry up and get us two bottles of Pocari Sweat. She wants peach flavor, I'll have whatever." Qin Tian chimed in, speaking to Zhang Peng.
"Alright!" Zhang Peng responded, turned around, and left the classroom through the back door.
Qin Tian tidied up the thermal lunchbox and handed it to Xia Nuannuan. "Remember to thank Auntie for me. Tell her the dishes were all very delicious, and praise her a lot; you know what I mean."
"Hehe... Okay." Xia Nuannuan nodded, suppressing a smile, and took the lunchbox, placing it into her drawer.
Just then, the bell signaling the end of the lunch break rang. Most of the students in the classroom were awake and began discussing the recent math exam.
"Are they going to hand out the answer sheets this period?"
"Definitely. Several other classes have already received them. I have a friend in Class Five who said he scored over 120, and I'm so envious."
"Ahhh, I'm so nervous. I don't know how I did in math."
"I didn't finish the last two big problems. I'm definitely done for this time. I hope I didn't make too many mistakes earlier."
"Who do you think will get the highest score in math this time?"
"Do we even need to guess? It has to be Wu Xin; isn't he always the strongest in math?"
"Can't say for sure, the class monitor might also get it!"
"No, no, Wu Xin's math and science are stronger. The class monitor is better at Chinese and English."
"That's true. What about Qin Tian? Do you think... a miracle will really happen?"
"No way. If miracles happened that easily, they wouldn't be called miracles, right? I think he's just too confident."
"..."
Everyone was in a flurry of discussion. Almost no one bet on Qin Tian in the bet between him and Wu Xin. Most people were more anxious about their own scores.
"Here he comes, Teacher Shen is here." Someone suddenly exclaimed.
Hearing this, everyone's gaze swept towards the corridor outside the classroom. Indeed, they saw a middle-aged male teacher, carrying textbooks and a stack of answer sheets, heading towards the classroom's front door.
The math teacher for Class Thirty, Senior High, was named Shen Yi. He was in his early forties and had been teaching graduating classes at Yucheng Middle School for years, considered a teacher with considerable teaching ability. Seeing Teacher Shen walk into the classroom with a beaming face and appearing to be in a good mood, everyone felt a sense of relief. It seemed the math performance in the class during this mock exam was likely good.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Shen Yi walked onto the podium with a smile and placed the books and answer sheets on the lectern. The students' expectant gazes in the classroom were, as expected, focused on that stack of answer sheets.
"Teacher Shen, do you need help handing out the answer sheets?" a boy in the front row asked.
"Thank you, no need." Shen Yi shook his head with a smile and said, "I'll hand them out one by one after class starts. Some students need special praise this time."
Many students showed surprise at this. This situation seemed even better than they had imagined!
"Qin Tian, it seems like everyone did well in math this time!" Xia Nuannuan turned her head to look at Qin Tian beside her, saying excitedly. Math had always been her weak subject, but this time, she felt somewhat confident. If nothing else, she felt quite certain about 70% of the basic problems. There were also a few medium-difficulty and difficult problems, similar ones that Qin Tian had explained to her in the past few days.
"Mhm!" Qin Tian smiled and nodded. He had already noticed that Teacher Shen on the podium was constantly glancing at him from the corner of his eye.