The Sickly Beauty Gives Up Struggling [Rebirth] Chapter 13

Friday. Li Rong dragged his sick body to school to wait for the release of mock exam results.

This mock exam was a joint effort between five schools, with a formidable lineup of examiners, making the results highly prestigious. The top 100 students were to have their rankings displayed on the school’s main building screen.

Li Rong hadn’t attended classes all week, and the stack of blank test papers left for him could probably wallpaper an entire room.

His pale complexion and listless demeanor made him look like he was barely hanging on. Propping his chin on his arms, he occasionally sniffled or coughed, as if he had only half a life left in him.

“Skipping classes is great. Why didn’t I realize… cough, cough… the joy of this before?”

Cen Xiao glanced at him, calmly watching the performance.

In the past, Cen Xiao was the last-ranked student in their class—a notorious troublemaker who flouted school rules. 

Now, in this field, Li Rong was catching up quickly.

“You’ve already gone this far; why not just stay home?” Cen Xiao’s voice carried a hint of irritation.

To get sick, Li Rong had deliberately soaked in cold water and exposed himself to the wind. Using the last of his strength, he came to school for a mentally exhausting exam. Once utterly drained, he could present his weakest, most pitiful side. He even went to the hospital for a blood draw, making sure Cen Xiao noticed the faint bloodstains near the needle marks.

Every step was meticulously calculated to ensure Cen Xiao had no room to refuse him.

When scheming, Li Rong was anything but the obedient and honest persona he often portrayed.

While coughing, Li Rong frowned, tilting his head slightly and wrinkling his reddened nose. He pitifully defended himself, “I’m feeling awful, but I still came to school just to check on your results.”

Cen Xiao smirked coldly. “Still pretending?”

Li Rong held his gaze for a few seconds, blinked, then smiled and leaned back before Cen Xiao could reach for him. “Alright, fine. I came to watch other people laugh.”

Watching the drama—how could he miss it in person?

The joy of seeing Cui Mingyang and his crew’s reactions couldn’t be delayed.

Before Yang Fenfang came to post the scores, Jian Fu had already retreated into self-imposed silence.

A stellar example of a lopsided academic performance, Jian Fu always led the last-ranked group with perfect math scores and abysmal results in every other subject, solidifying his position in the grade rankings.

Even the other students in the last-ranked group had figured out by now—copying his math answers was pointless!

So now, Jian Fu’s only bragging point was gone.

With a worried expression, Jian Fu scribbled a few lines on a piece of paper, crumpled it, and threw it at Cen Xiao.

Cen Xiao temporarily let Li Rong off and unfolded the note, scanning it quickly.

Jian Fu had written: “Bro, when the rankings are announced, those Hongsuo guys are bound to start bragging again. I suggest we skip this period and avoid the frustration altogether.”

Cen Xiao, unwilling to stoop to such childish antics as throwing notes, placed the crumpled paper aside and sent a message to Jian Fu via phone.

From the front row, Jian Fu exaggeratedly gestured and mouthed, “No battery! No battery! I’m not stupid; if I could use my phone, why would I bother with notes?”

Cen Xiao: “…”

Li Rong stifled a laugh, his amusement obvious in his crinkled eyes.

How juvenile, he thought. High schoolers, indeed.

Seeing Li Rong laugh, his smile radiant and unguarded, Cui Mingyang felt a pang of envy and dissatisfaction.

With a sarcastic tone, he remarked to his group, “Everyone seems excited about the rankings today, huh?”

“But strange, what’s Li Rong so happy about? Does he really think he did well?”

“Not a chance,” one replied. “You saw how sick he was the other day—he looked like he was about to cough up blood. His parents just passed away; no one bounces back that fast. It’s probably just pride keeping him here.”

“Yeah, there’s no way. We’ve studied way more than he has—no way he outscored us.”

“Once his ranking drops, there won’t be any objections to Mingyang becoming class monitor.”

“Speaking of objections, who even raised them? And why did Old Yang agree? It’s not like Li Rong’s done anything for the class lately.”

Before Jian Fu had the chance to escape, Yang Fenfang entered the classroom, carrying the grade rankings.

Li Rong, despite his apparent frailty, straightened in his seat, resting his chin on his hands with an air of quiet confidence.

Yang Fenfang’s eyes involuntarily landed on Li Rong. Her expression was complex, and she hesitated for a long moment before speaking.

It was Cui Mingyang who prompted her, “Teacher, are the rankings in?”

Yang Fenfang collected herself and cleared her throat. “Yes, I’m here to announce the results. Li Rong, if you’re not feeling well, you can rest your head on your desk.”

Cui Mingyang’s heart skipped a beat.

Yang Fenfang hadn’t started with the rankings. Instead, she’d shown concern for Li Rong.

Looking at it this way, Li Rong’s grades weren’t as disastrous as expected—in fact, they even made Yang Fenfang somewhat pleased.

How was that possible?!

Li Rong, looking weak, said, “Don’t worry, teacher. I can hold on.”

Yang Fenfang awkwardly scratched her face, her tongue twisting around in her mouth, before she finally squeezed out a barely passable smile. “Still, we have to praise our class monitor. Once again, he’s ranked first in our class, first in the grade, and even first across the five-school joint exams.”

The awkwardness stemmed from the fact that she had severely underestimated this academic god’s abilities. She had naively assumed that Li Rong’s grades would plummet dramatically.

Ha, how foolish of her.

Cui Mingyang’s expression completely fell apart.

He’d heard similar words countless times—from childhood through high school—but none hit him as hard as this.

He had always thought that Li Rong was ahead of him because he put in more effort. Now reality was telling him that even when Li Rong slacked off, he still outperformed him.

Jian Fu gasped audibly. “Holy cr*p, he really pulled off first place.”

He hated Hongsha. He hated Li Rong. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t respect genius.

Jian Fu himself was a prodigy in mental math, so he understood all too well—Li Rong was no mere bookworm who studied mindlessly.

The class broke into murmurs again.

“Gotta hand it to him. He’s insane. I’m impressed.”

“All the stuff happening with his family really hasn’t affected him at all?”

“Not at all? This morning, No. 1 High was bragging that their first place was only five points behind Li Rong.”

“Five points behind and they’re bragging?!”

“Used to be fifty points behind, thanks. No. 1 High’s first place must’ve lost their mind with joy.”

“D*mn, with that mindset, no wonder Cui Mingyang is falling apart. He’s gotta be losing it.”

Yang Fenfang tapped the podium, signaling for the class to quiet down.

“Li Rong, are you rushing to study university-level material? A lot of your problem-solving approaches went beyond the scope of high school knowledge. While they were correct, it’s best not to do that again. It could lead to misjudgments. The grading team spent a long time deliberating over your paper.”

Li Rong nodded, his eyes filled with a profound sense of remorse. “I was indeed too hasty, learning too many scattered things. I’ll make an effort to keep my problem-solving methods within high school standards. Also, I wasn’t feeling well this time, so my performance slipped a lot. Don’t worry, teacher. Next time, I’ll adjust myself and aim for a normal performance.”

Yang Fenfang’s smile stiffened slightly. “Actually, you… you don’t really need to… You did perfectly fine this time…”

Anyone could hear that Yang Fenfang believed his performance was already extraordinary and that there was absolutely no need for reflection.

Cui Mingyang nearly coughed up blood.

Li Rong’s feigned humility was deliberate—a pointed display of how far ahead he was, even when “underperforming.”

Yang Fenfang continued, “Second place: Cui Mingyang. Third: He Lu. Fourth: Tang Ran… And in tenth place, Cen Xiao. Cen Xiao, you made impressive progress this time. Keep it up.”

Jian Fu’s eyes nearly popped out of his head.

“Holy cr*p, man! Did tutoring actually work? Li Rong’s a god!”

Cen Xiao often appeared uninterested in studying. Though he mostly attended school and occasionally did his homework, he had never once scored well on an exam.

Jian Fu knew that with Cen Xiao’s intelligence, there was no way he should be at the bottom of the rankings. But since Cen Qing and Xiao Muran both expected him to bring honor to the family, Cen Xiao deliberately tanked his grades to spite them.

Jian Fu didn’t believe for a second that cramming for one night could lead to a miraculous improvement, nor did he believe Cen Xiao would willingly aim for good grades. To him, doing well in exams would mean Cen Xiao had yielded to his family.

But now, Cen Xiao had decided to.

The group from Hongsuo was once again stunned.

“Cen Xiao ranked tenth? Better than us?”

“No way. Li Rong’s that good? He must’ve had the exam questions in advance.”

“This test was highly secure—there’s no way the questions were leaked. Besides, Li Rong doesn’t even have the connections to get them right now.”

“…If Li Rong hadn’t had those issues, he’d probably become a key figure opposing Bue Pivot in the future. But now, it seems he’s gotten tangled up with Cen Xiao.”

“Traitor. What’s there to pity?”

Li Rong didn’t seem particularly surprised. Instead, he turned his head and curiously asked, “Why tenth?”

Cen Xiao replied flatly, “Aimed for twentieth but miscalculated.”

Li Rong chuckled softly, his lips curling into a playful smile as he blew at the stray strands of hair on his forehead. “You’re overestimating them. This test was harder than last semester’s finals. You should’ve scored a bit below whoever ranked twentieth last time.”

Cen Xiao said calmly, “Didn’t have time to worry about their performance.”

Li Rong immediately countered, “But did you have time to worry about mine?”

Cen Xiao glanced at him but pretended not to hear.

Li Rong’s smile deepened. His eyelids lifted slightly as he leaned subtly closer to Cen Xiao.

He moved his lips, speaking in a soft voice, his tone carrying a slight upward lilt, layered with meaning. “Or… have you been focused on something less serious?”