The fake crying had an unexpected effect.
Zheng Yang came back looking displeased and immediately slumped onto the desk, staying that way until the end of self-study class.
When she got up, her eyes were red, because she had fallen asleep while lying down.
Red from sleeping.
But others didn’t know that, especially Zheng Siyuan and Zhang Zihan.
They just thought she was upset, and it made them feel very sorry for her.
Zhang Zihan felt he had led Zheng Yang into trouble and was too embarrassed to comfort her, so when class ended, he left the classroom to clear his mind.
Zheng Siyuan and Zheng Yang both stayed in their seats without moving.
Zheng Yang rubbed her eyes, then covered her face for a while.
Suddenly, her elbow was poked twice.
She looked and saw a note being passed from Siyuan’s direction.
‘This kid, finally taking the initiative to talk to me!’
Zheng Yang felt a weight lift off her chest.
But when she read the words on the note, she laughed in exasperation.
“Got your lovebirds broken up?”
She crumpled the note into a ball and threw it forcefully at Siyuan, but still not satisfied, she reached over and twisted his forearm hard.
Siyuan winced in pain, sucking in cold air with a hissing sound, but he didn’t dare yell.
But Zheng Yang smiled, feeling a sense of vengeful pleasure—
Yes, she was pinching her own son and feeling vengeful pleasure.
She gritted her teeth and glared at Siyuan.
“That’s what you get for talking nonsense!”
Her voice wasn’t loud, but Siyuan heard it clearly.
‘A cute girl, even when she’s fierce, she’s still cute.’
That’s what Siyuan thought as he held his arm.
Even though it hurt like hell, he was happy inside.
Because in a way, a girl pinching and twisting you is also a sign of a close relationship.
For the rest of the break, neither of them interacted further, but they were in silent agreement, both knowing that their relationship was probably starting to mend.
Until the next class started, they began passing notes again, as if only note-passing could create the right atmosphere.
Zheng Yang also noticed that for high school students, sometimes communicating via notes was indeed more effective.
That secretive, restrained feeling, along with the anticipation of the other person’s next line on the paper, was quite interesting.
Siyuan asked a very serious question on the note:
“Do you like Zhang Zihan?”
Zheng Yang couldn’t help rolling her eyes.
‘Ah, adolescent boys—they’re like this. If they don’t get a completely definite answer, they won’t let it go.’
She angrily wrote back a few words:
“I can’t possibly have feelings for him.”
Still not satisfied, she added three exclamation marks with a tap tap tap.
Siyuan read the note, unable to suppress the grin spreading across his face, and laughed foolishly for a while.
Zheng Yang took the note back and wrote another sentence:
“Remember our pinky promise? I told you not to date, and I won’t either.”
Her intention was to reassure Siyuan that she wouldn’t have feelings for Zhang Zihan or any guy.
But after pushing the note to Siyuan, she worried he might misunderstand, so she snatched it back and added:
“So don’t get cocky!”
Siyuan read that and laughed again.
Zheng Yang felt she had gilded the lily.
‘Sigh,’ she suddenly realized that between adolescent boys and girls, if you don’t make things completely clear, it always seems to get more muddled.
If that’s the case with Siyuan, then isn’t it the same with Zhang Zihan?
If Zhang Zihan really did have feelings for her, and she had never explicitly rejected him, wouldn’t that cause trouble later?
Zheng Yang’s head started to ache.
But then again, Zhang Zihan had been affectionate for a while but never confessed.
She couldn’t just go up to him and say, “I don’t like you, there’s no chance between us,” could she?
Whatever, she would just take it step by step.
At this point, Zheng Yang brought out the confidence of an older man, that attitude of “high school stuff is nothing.”
Regardless, since her relationship with Siyuan had eased, she could now ask him about his thoughts on subject selection.
During another break, the two discussed it.
“I want to choose the physics track—physics, chemistry, biology,” Zheng Siyuan said.
“Why? I’ve noticed you pay the most attention in history class,” Zheng Yang said, puzzled.
“Because my dad was a science student.”
“Pfft… what does your dad have to do with you? My dad was an arts student!”
She blurted out.
When Zheng Yang said “my dad,” she meant her father from when she was male, which was Siyuan’s grandfather.
Back then, besides disliking politics class, she also hated her father’s stubbornness.
She always thought it was caused by the arts, so she chose science.
But Siyuan’s words stirred a complex feeling in her.
She wanted Siyuan to choose the history track with her, but she was afraid that studying arts for too long would make him stubborn as well.
However, looking at Siyuan, he didn’t seem to hate arts—was he choosing science only out of blind admiration for his dad?
She felt a bit gratified, ‘So in my son’s eyes, I have such a presence.’
While thinking this, Zheng Yang didn’t realize that her earlier blurted words could be misunderstood.
“So, Yangyang, are you also going to choose science?”
Siyuan asked, pleasantly surprised.
“Huh? I…”
Zheng Yang snapped back to reality.
“No, I actually want to choose arts—the history track…”
“Then why did you say ‘my dad was an arts student’? I thought you wanted to be different from your dad,” Siyuan said, his tone disappointed.
Zheng Yang couldn’t explain that “my dad” was actually his grandfather.
“Oh well, anyway, I haven’t decided yet. I might change my mind tomorrow.”
“Whether you change or not… the job situation doesn’t change. We have to consider that. Our middle school teacher said the undergraduate admission rate for history is less than one-third of that for physics.”
“But the number of history students is also much smaller,” Zheng Yang defended her preferred arts track instinctively.
“But my teacher also said that top history students still have a harder time finding jobs than mediocre physics students.”
Zheng Yang was speechless.
It seemed there was indeed such a saying;
She had heard it too.
But as a former science student, Zheng Yang really wanted to say, so what if science majors find jobs easily? She went to a second-tier university back then—
A second-tier university twenty years ago was still quite valuable—
And chose civil engineering.
She still started as a laborer on construction sites, worked all the way up to now, only to become a measly director at a shabby construction company, earning a salary of five thousand, and acting like a sycophant everywhere?
That was definitely not the life she wanted.
But she couldn’t say that.
What if she persuaded Siyuan to choose arts and his fate turned out even worse than being a sycophant?
Wouldn’t she have ruined his life?
Her own confidence in choosing arts now came from having Zheng Shiqiang to back her up, but Siyuan had no one to back him up.
Huh—
A sudden thought occurred to her.
What if—
Just hypothetically—
Siyuan were her boyfriend?
In name only, absolutely just in name!
Then Zheng Shiqiang would also be able to secure Siyuan’s job, right?
Worrying about one’s child’s job is normal, something all parents do, so it’s normal for me to think this way, right…
No, no, no! Not even in name!!!
‘What am I even thinking!’