The Chinese Language exam was actually manageable. Even after years without cracking a book, Ye Zhibai wasn’t completely clueless.
For that reason, she hadn’t relied much on Guang Yu’s abilities during the exam.
The real challenge came in the afternoon session, with the Mathematics exam.
That was when Ye Zhibai truly understood what it meant to call someone a “silly little fox.”
“The answer to this question… the answer… is fish!”
The tip of Ye Zhibai’s pen froze mid-stroke.
She simply couldn’t fathom how “fish” could be the answer to a fill-in-the-blank question on a math exam.
Through a mind transmission, the girl and the deity exchanged words amicably.
“Guang Yu, why don’t you think it over again? Give me another chance—and yourself one too.”
“We… sob, we don’t recognize that symbol at all. It just looks like a fish!”
A symbol?
Ye Zhibai latched onto the key word in her response. With her pencil, she sketched a simple little fish on her scrap paper.
She turned the shape this way and that, considering the problem itself.
“Isn’t this just ‘α’?”
“Ah… Alpha?”
“Never mind.”
Ye Zhibai quietly filled in the correct answer on her answer sheet.
She had already solved all the problems earlier, when she’d sent Guang Yu to scout Lin Zihan’s answers.
This was just her double-checking for safety.
As before, Ye Zhibai felt her mind was sharper than ever. After only two nights of review, she couldn’t promise a top score on this paper, but she’d finished answering with thirty minutes still on the clock.
“Guang Yu, take another peek at the last fill-in-the-blank. I’m not too confident on that one.”
“Okay…”
The poor little fox was deeply demoralized.
The Mortal Realm was far too complicated. Back when she’d been in the heavens, skimming through countless books, she really shouldn’t have used her divine power to instantly comprehend them all. Now she couldn’t even recognize the symbols on the page!
When Guang Yu reported back this time, she didn’t let Ye Zhibai down.
“The last fill-in-the-blank’s answer is two tons and five stools.”
“…”
I see. You want us both to go down in flames right here in this sacred Gaokao exam hall.
In the end, drawing on her extraordinary imagination and racking her brain, Ye Zhibai arrived at the conclusion.
Two tons and five stools equaled 2.5π.
Fine, you don’t recognize “pi.” But you can’t even read a decimal point right?
Ye Zhibai weighed her options and glanced up at the clock. Twenty minutes remained until the end of the exam.
Rather than spend more time puzzling out Guang Yu’s riddles, she decided it might be better to review the entire paper from start to finish herself.
With that, Ye Zhibai issued her final instruction to Guang Yu.
“You can perch on the edge of the desk if you want. Or go lie down in the hallway for a nap. Once the exam’s over, I’ll drag you home.”
“!”
The little fox had just landed her first job—and now she was fired!
A chill ran through Guang Yu’s heart.
Her fox tail whirred around like an electric fan.
Lin Zihan, who had already finished her paper and double-checked it, suddenly felt a cool, refreshing breeze.
Whoa, it must be because Little Bai’er was taking the exam nearby. Even the air circulation felt smoother.
Guang Yu dodged with a flicker, evading the proctor’s irregular patrols.
She pouted her little mouth, her tail fluffed out in outrage!
Yesterday, she had sworn an oath to the bright moon!
~~~
Today, she was determined to be a useful little fox!
With resolve burning in her heart, Guang Yu began gathering the divine power she’d been saving up for days.
Just as Ye Zhibai had declared earlier, Guang Yu now hung her head and made her own proclamation.
“Human… behold the ways of a deity. In the future, remember to set up an altar for us.”
“Sure, sure, why not? We’ll set one up for you.”
“Hmph!”
Your casual attitude right now will turn into abject worship later!
Guang Yu had originally planned to save up this divine power until she could one day create her own wasabi without needing to buy it—a grand achievement.
But now, she couldn’t stand it anymore!
She was going to splurge it all and show this human exactly why deities were called deities!
A flash of light appeared—one that only Ye Zhibai could see.
By the time Ye Zhibai turned her head, Guang Yu had vanished into thin air.
“?”
Did she actually go nap in the hallway?
No.
Just a few seconds later, Ye Zhibai sensed an extra field of vision blooming in her mind!
What it showed was the back of Yun’er’s head, along with her elegantly scripted answer sheet on the desk.
“Guang Yu…?”
“Hmph hmph! Ye Zhibai, hurry up—this divine power of ours won’t hold out long. Check your answers against hers! We sensed where your little sister is and shared our vision with you. Foolproof now, right? Her grades are definitely top-notch!”
Guang Yu! Well done!
No planting you in the ground when we get home!
Comparing answers didn’t take much time.
After ten minutes of scribbling and erasing, an upgraded version of Little Zhibai’s answer sheet was complete.
On a side note, during this process, Ye Zhibai noticed that Yun’er had clearly finished the exam but never set down her pencil.
Her slender fingers gripped it tightly as she scribbled dragon-and-snake strokes across the scrap paper—though her head blocked the view.
Look at that. A true top student.
She never slacked off, always striving for perfection!
In the final five minutes of the math exam, Ye Zhibai happily set down her pen.
“Guang Yu… step aside a bit. I want to watch Yun’er powering through the exam hall. It’s pretty inspiring.”
“Oof, got it.”
Delighted by her own usefulness, Lady Guang Yu’s tail wagged like a husky’s—fox or not—and she obediently stepped to the side!
Now Yun’er’s utterly serious, meticulous expression came fully into view.
Sure enough, it held not a trace of hesitation—pure tenacity.
But this angle revealed more than just her expression.
~~~
It showed her scrap paper too.
Yun’er wasn’t confused at all.
Guang Yu and Ye Zhibai, however, were equally baffled.
“You know… Ye Zhibai, isn’t this supposed to be a math exam? Are they testing drawing skills too?”
“Nope. Guang Yu, come back. Mission accomplished.”
“Gotcha!”
Yun’er… had indeed powered through right up to the very last second.
Super seriously, super diligently, she’d drawn a portrait of Ye Zhibai on her scrap paper!
It looked exactly like Ye Zhibai!
The level of detail and care put into it surely exceeded a thousandfold the effort she’d devoted to the actual exam!
Gaokao rules forbade doodling on scrap paper.
So in the end, Yun’er painstakingly erased every trace of the “evidence” with her eraser.
Ye Zhibai had pulled the same stunt in her previous life.
But back then, she’d at most doodled Ultraman battling little monsters out of boredom after finishing.
The shared vision cut off just as Yun’er contentedly blew the eraser crumbs off her now-pristine paper.
She acted as if nothing had happened.
Before the erasure, though, Ye Zhibai had clearly seen the rows of tiny words scrawled beside the portrait.
—”Yun’er, big sis likes you, okay?”
—”I like Yun’er the most.”
—”Let’s be together forever.”
So… that was Yun’er’s little post-exam self-indulgence, huh?
Gotcha!
Yun’er would never guess that while taking her exam, she’d earned herself a massive social death at her big sister’s hands.
When Ye Zhibai turned in her paper, there wasn’t much sparkle in her eyes.
She didn’t know why, but it was just an exam.
Yet it felt like she’d been through so very much.
The myriad states of the world were truly shocking.
The Gaokao, which lasted a full three days, finally drew to a close amid Ye Zhibai and Guang Yu’s struggles—ally though they were, locked in a battle of wits and perseverance.
After finishing the very last subject and setting down her pen, Ye Zhibai handed in her paper. She stretched lazily and tilted her head back to gaze at the classroom ceiling.
She listened to Guang Yu’s chattering boasts of her accomplishments.
Deep down, she had one phrase that summed up the whole ordeal.
—I brought my little fox to take the Gaokao. No regrets.
Ye Zhibai took her little fox by the hand, striding dashingly out of the exam hall.
But just before they left the classroom, she heard Lin Zihan’s slightly urgent voice from behind.
“Little Bai’er, could you wait just a moment? Please?”
“…”
Though she was dying to rush home for a nap…
She had to hear what Lin Zihan wanted to say.
After all, she’d copied so many answers from her this time! Wuwuwu!
