When 60-minute time was up, the teachers collected everyone’s test papers.

The four teachers graded and swapped the papers on the spot and they quickly graded all 8 sets of them.

The dean looked over everyone’s test papers carefully, had a discussion with the other teachers and finally arrived at a decision on how to split up the teams.

“Let me announce the dividing up of teams.” The dean wrote them down on the blackboard as he talked.

“Event 1, mathematics, Gu Xi, Sheng Xiuyan, Wang Zhouwei.

“Event 2, chemistry, ……”

Each group consisted of three members.

Nevertheless, it looked like he wasn’t planning on revealing his identity to her just yet?

“Here, you can use this.” Gu Xi handed him a pen.

“!”

Gu Chenyi was dumbfounded when he saw the pen that Gu Xi was handing over to him: Xixi offered to lend him a pen! And her smile was so friendly!

It had only been a day!

It must have been his chivalry act yesterday that had earned her fondness.

Gu Chenyi felt very emotionally secretively.

Over on the other side, after Gu Xi had shoved the pen into Gu Chenyi’s hand, she thought about it some and also gave him half of her scratch papers.

Gu Xi completed another set of examination questions before she put her draft papers away and logged into the webpage of Tianchuang Competition to check on the latest updates.

Seeing that her status was now [approved], Gu Xi let out a sigh of relief.

What she didn’t know was that owing to her registration, the upper management of the competition had just adjourned a secret conference.

– A few hours ago, the worker responsible for the reviewing of the contestant’s information for Tianchuang Competition was startled by the registration information from “Gu Shao”. He thought he read it wrong.

Right after Gu Xi had gotten rid of the classmates using “classmates should help each other out” as an excuse, Dong Mingming, her deskmate, poked her head over and asked in a gossipy way, “Gu Xiao Xi, out with the truth. What is your relationship with Gu Chenyi.”

“No relation.” She didn’t even know him. Gu Xi didn’t know what to make of that.

“I guess he’s just a very friendly person and decided to help me carry the books back since we will be in the same competition and that I am a girl.” That was the best reason that Gu Xi could think of.

As soon as she was done talking, however, she got a “yeah right” look from Dong Mingming.

“Xi, ahem, Schoolmate Gu Xi?”

Hearing her own name, Gu Xi was taken aback a little. She turned and noticed that the boy who was standing next to Sheng Xiuyan earlier was now standing next to her. He was smiling at her.

For some inexplicable reasons, his look immediately reminded Gu Xi of a husky.

Gu Xi, “……”

What a silly smile.

Just a moment ago he was such a handsome boy and now…… was he actually a fool?

Gu Xi grumbled and, as though she was avoiding some strange person, subtly scooted away from him some.

“Something’s the matter?” asked Gu Xi. Her look clearly stated I-don’t-know-you and who-the-heck-are-you?

On the other end, Xu Fei, who was swiping his friend's circle, saw another article shared by his boss.

It was another public soft-skill article: The Importance of Parents Leading by Example.

Xu Fei’s finger who was clicking on “Like” quivered a little, “……”

Why did he feel that his boss change of style was a bit abrupt?

The key was that his boss even left a message under the soft-skill article. “Only when one is outstanding can they set a good example for their children.”

What was it that his boss was boasting about in between the lines?

Was that the difference when one had a child? Was his boss going to start canvassing in his friend's circle in a few days’ time?

He had spent some time over at NTN Technology Center fixing the issues with the product. When he arrived home after that was taken care of, it was already 10 PM.

As soon as he walked inside the door, he saw this “gecko” daughter all up against the way outside of his study, hanging half way from the door and peeking at something inside with her head cocked.

Had he not known that this was his birth daughter related to him by blood, he almost thought this girl was a thief.

“What are you doing there?”

Startled by Gu Shao’s voice coming from behind her, Gu Xi quickly bounced away from the door and turned toward Gu Shao.

“Da, uh, Dad. You are home.”

Seeing how thief-like Gu Xi was, Gu Shao raised his brows and asked, “What were you looking at?”

As he had to take care of the issues with the product, Gu Shao had yet to go home.

After dinner, Gu Xi discussed the Tianchuang Competition with [AAA] and [Lin] from her room.

With less than 10 minutes of discussion, the three decided on the project they would use to enter the competition. To be more precise, Brother [3A] was the one who made the decision.

[AAA]: Okay, then. Our project will be smart butler company system.

This ‘Smart Butler Companion System’ was an upgrade from Gu Xi’s earlier idea –– to put it simply, it would somewhat resemble an AI smart butler. This Smart Butler line would only be 70% programmed when they leave the factory and the remaining 30% would be reserved for self-learning and upgrading later on.

Looking at how excited Dong Mingming was in gossiping, Gu Xi’s lips twitched. She patted Dong Mingming on her shoulder and really wanted to tell her that dating at such a young age was just wrong.

As it turned out, Gu Xi didn’t even have the chance to say those words out before the group walked over to them.

Someone stopped the two of them.

“Hi there, fellow schoolmate, we are working on a Wall of Smiles for our Art Festival next month. Our goal is to put people’s smiling pictures on a display wall.” One of the girls explained to Gu Xi and Dong Mingming. She then asked, “Can we can picture of the two of you?”

Gu Xi and Dong Mingming exchanged a look.

With the celebrity effect, the news of Sheng Xiuyan being in the Joint Science Competition spread quickly to all the classes.

Gu Xi, as the tagalong, was also mentioned.

“Gu Xi? Which Gu Xi?”

“A sophomore? No, I have never heard of her before. Why isn’t Yan Xu from their class or Zou Le from Class #8?” said someone in another class after reading the latest news on the school forum.

Gu Chenyi, who had been playing on his cellphone leisurely jumped up all of a sudden.

“Who did you say are going?”

“Sheng Xiuyan, of course. Who else?” replied someone.

“No, the other one. Did you say Gu Xi?”

Once Gu Xi had walked over to her class teacher, the class teacher said to her, “Well, next week is City B’s Joint Science Competition. You know about that, right?”

Gu Xi nodded, “I do.”

This Joint Science Competition was a joint event hosted by the top 26 first and second tier academically-focused junior high schools in City B.

It was hosted at the same time every year.

Gu Xi represented Liming last year. As such, she was aware of this competition.

Seeing that Gu Xi had nodded, the class teacher smiled and carried on, “This time our plan is to have 2, 3, and 3 representatives from freshman to junior year, respectively. Our grade will have 3 openings……”

On the other side, Gu Xi went her classroom after she had parted with Gu Shao.

It wasn’t too early when Gu Xi arrived at the school and, as such, there were already quite some people in the classroom when she got there.

What baffled Gu Xi was why these people were surrounding her desk instead of getting ready for class.

Someone noticed Gu Xi before she walked over and shouted out, “She’s here. She’s here. The center of discussion is here now~”

What is going on?

Gu Xi grumbled suspiciously to herself as she walked over to the crowd.

The other students in the class voluntarily made a path for Gu Xi to get through.

Next to her, Gu Shao had no idea what was going through Gu Xi’s head. He mistook her frown as her feeling nervous and anxiety from the idea of having to meet with other Gu family member that she didn’t know from before.

“It’s not that scary,” said Gu Shao. At least the Gu family wasn’t like the Lin family.

“Hmm? What?” Gu Xi turned to look at Gu Shao after she had recollected herself.

“Over on the Gu family side, there’s my dad, which is your grandpa, your big uncle’s side, and your little uncle side. Three boys in total, about the same age as you……” As she had not yet met them, Gu Shao merely gave her an overview of the Gu family members to let know that things over there was not that complicated.

“I guess so,” said Gu Xi softly.

She rubbed her burning ear subconsciously before she said in a feigned nonchalant, “I have read some articles on NTN Technology Center in the past and felt that it was a mighty place and I hope that I will also one day become a mighty person and join NTN Technology Center.”

Having said that, she even gave Gu Shao a nonchalant smile that gave herself away.

Gu Shao didn’t not comment on what Gu Xi had said.

That being said, at an angle that Gu Xi could not see, the corner of Gu Shao’s lips curved ever so slightly upward.

Returning quickly to his solemn look, Gu Shao said to Gu Xi seriously, “Getting into NTN Technology Center is not easy.”

Gu Xi noticed that the two of them seemed to know each other.

When the two of them started chatting among themselves, Gu Shao logged out of the group chat and got ready for bed.

As for the meeting that 3A had mentioned, Gu Xi had decided against it after some thought.

She worried that they would find out that she was just a noob who hasn’t even graduated high school yet and didn’t want her on their team.

That being said, Gu Nian started planning in her head that she needed to bring up her level of technicality. Ideally, she would be able to get her hands on some professional books or sit in some courses and learn them in a systematic manner.

After going through Gu Xi’s homework assignments from beginning to end, Gu Shao finally signed his name on the very bottom with his vigorous and powerful writing.

“Anything else?” He asked.

“No, just these.” Gu Xi took back her homework notebook and her practice notebook. Clutching them in front of her chest, she said “goodnight” to Gu Shao before she turned and left.

She had not forgotten to give the document pouch one last look before she walked out.

While Gu Shao was going through her homework assignments, Gu Xi took the opportunity when he was distracted and moved two books on the table over the document pouch.

She hoped that it would be out of sight and out of mind for Gu Shao.

In the backseats of the car.

Neither one of the father and daughter said a word.

A document pouch next to Gu Shao’s hand suddenly caught Gu Xi’s attention as she lowered her head.

It looked somewhat familiar.

Gu Xi thought about it some and she recalled: This looked a lot like the document pouch that was given to Gu Shao by the principal of Liming yesterday that contained all of her past academic work!

Gu Xi glanced up and Gu Shao, who was on the phone, did not appear to be paying attention to her at the moment.

As she was too curious, Gu Xi reached her hand over stealthily while Gu Shao was distracted, opened up a corner of the document pouch, and carefully peeked at the content inside of it.

Over on this side, only after they saw that Gu Xi kept on walking did the two boys that looked like they were “fighting” separated from each other and looked nervously in Gu Xi’s direction.

“Whew. Okay, she’s gone finally.” Gu Chenyi let out a sigh of relief.

Before he was done talking, he was smacked upside his head by Gu Yanxiao. “Gu Chenyi, why the heck did you hide?”

Gu Chenyi retorted, “Nonsense. Of course we have to hide. We don’t want her to spot us, do we?”

Having said that, Gu Chenyi looked again nervously in Gu Xi’s direction and said to himself, “Xixi didn’t notice us earlier, did she?”

“Are you brain dead? Xixi had never seen us before. She wouldn’t recognize us anyway, alright?” said Gu Yanxiao. It would be odder when they looked like they had something to hide.

The school day was over.

Gu Xi adapted to the few classes quite well. She felt that she had returned to her state back in Liming.

When school was over, Gu Xi put away her textbooks one by one, slugged her backpack over her shoulder and was about to take off.

She had only gotten two steps in when she was stopped by Dong Mingming, her deskmate.

“Gu Xiao Xi, why are you going to fast? Wait for me.”

Dong Mingming held onto Gu Xi with one hand and picked up her speed at putting her textbooks and stationaries into her backpack.

On the other side of the classroom, seeing how early that Sheng Xiuyan had showed up today, everybody looked like they had seen pigs flying.

“Brother Yan, how come you are here so early today?” That made no sense.

Sheng Xiuyan glanced over at the one who spoke, coldly, and said nothing – he couldn’t possibly tell him that he had gone to bed early last night before nobody responded back to him in the chatgroup and was, therefore, not able to sleep in this morning.

“Did you have insomnia, Brother Yan?”

“… …