Essay writing isn’t your strong suit? You write novels instead? (Please follow for more updates)

“How wildly are you laughing right now?”
Cheng Xueming put down his pen, turned to look at the radiant and flamboyant Feng Jiayou, and teased her.

“Xueming, impressive! I’ll reward you tonight!”

After showing off in front of her mother and sister, Feng Jiayou was in excellent spirits—she’d add extra dishes to dinner; tonight, a big grilled sausage!

“So, I’ve passed the test?!”

If she said it like that, the woman’s words instantly excited Cheng Xueming as well, his eyes narrowing into a smile as he asked.

“You’ve passed, you’ve passed! Xueming, you should’ve seen how proud my mother looked just now!”

“That’s all? Well, I suppose it’s not bad.”

With great filial piety, Feng Jiayou sold out her mother, spreading Xueming’s test papers in front of him, then mimicking her mother’s proud tone:

“Xueming, look at your scores. In her mouth, this is only ‘not bad’?!”

“And then there’s that heartless Jiamei, deliberately trying to compete with you, wanting to outshine you, but instead, she was thrashed by you on the spot! Let’s see if she dares to make a fuss in front of her brother-in-law in the future!”

Cheng Xueming could only smile wryly at her words, looking down at the test papers she’d spread before him: 118 in math, 97 in physics, 98 in chemistry, and 92 in politics.

Truly not bad—the solid foundation for a top university was basically regained. In these years, right after the resumption of college entrance exams, these scores would sweep the competition.

Cheng Xueming had always been a science student; politics, now a compulsory subject, was a potential weakness for him. Scoring seventy or eighty would have been considered excellent in his own eyes.

But this time, he’d gotten a 92, which was a pleasant surprise—perhaps thanks to the countless practice essays he’d written for civil service exams in his previous life.

Now that he had a comprehensive sense of his abilities, Cheng Xueming felt ten parts confident about next year’s admission to Yanjing University.

“Xueming, only Chinese is left! How did you do on that one?”

Still riding her excitement, Feng Jiayou asked about his last subject.

“I’m about done with it. I’ll just hand it in as is.”

Cheng Xueming pulled out the Chinese exam paper from the bottom of the stack and handed it to her.

“So fast?!”

Feng Jiayou was genuinely surprised—this was almost miraculous speed!

She accepted the Chinese paper with a suspicious look and found the first page completely filled out.

But when she turned it over and saw the untouched blankness of the essay and the classical text analysis, she asked, “Xueming, you haven’t written the essay or the classical analysis at all. How can you hand it in like this?!”

“Yeah, I wrote a bit too hard earlier, now I’m tired and don’t really want to continue.” Xueming nodded, crestfallen. “Besides, writing the Chinese essay isn’t my strong suit. Just looking at it gives me a headache.”

“Look, sweetheart, my head might just explode right now—I’m really exhausted!”

The truth was, he simply didn’t want to write anymore; he wanted to slack off.

That was also why he’d left Chinese for last, since he hadn’t wanted to write it from the start.

With solid results in math, physics, chemistry, politics, and English, the Chinese score didn’t matter so much anymore.

“Tired?!” Feng Jiayou’s heart instantly ached at his words. “No one told you to go so hard! Jiamei, that heartless girl, is only now finishing her English and math, and she’s acting so proud about it.”

“Xueming, forget it! With over four hundred points in these five subjects, you’ve already passed with Mom!”

“Let me give you a massage—how’s this pressure?”

Moved by concern, she began gently massaging his temples.

“Mmm, just right. Thank you, sweetheart.” Xueming enjoyed her ministrations and added,

“Sweetheart, here’s what I’m thinking: there’s no need to arrange for me to repeat the year or transfer classes.”

“I don’t really want to waste time repeating a year—I’d rather find something else to do!”

By now, they all knew what he was capable of. Whether or not he repeated a year at Yanjing University High School didn’t matter to him.

Moreover, keeping a live-in son-in-law at home, paying for him to repeat a year and take the entrance exam again, was a kind of mockery for both him and the Feng family—fodder for others’ contempt.

Even if he did get into Yanjing University next year, there would be endless gossip—people would always use this as ammunition against the Feng family, saying it was only because his mother-in-law pulled strings for him.

Why let people talk, when he could avoid it altogether?

In fact, Cheng Xueming would rather outsiders see him as a good-for-nothing living off Feng Jiayou than waste time and dignity in a pointless repeat year.

“Alright! If you don’t want to repeat, you won’t. Studying at home works just as well. I’ll explain things to Mom later.”

Feng Jiayou was completely supportive of her husband—if he didn’t want to repeat, he didn’t have to. Besides, she didn’t want to owe her mother any favors.

Her husband was already outstanding, a sure bet for Yanjing University; he didn’t need her mother’s arrangements at all.

Otherwise, if he got into Yanjing University, her mother would claim all the credit, saying, “If it weren’t for me, his mother-in-law, going through such trouble to send him to Yanjing University High School, would he have passed?”

Without her as a mother-in-law, she’d say he could repeat for years and never get in! She’d definitely say that—her mother’s pride was all too familiar to her as a daughter.

“Alright,” Cheng Xueming nodded gently in agreement.

“Then let’s do this, Xueming: from now on, you’ll take me to school every day, and instead of coming home, you can study at Yanjing University. There are classrooms available, and you can read in the library. We’ll eat at school at noon, and come home together after class.”

The two little ones were already enrolled in kindergarten, so Cheng Xueming, as their uncle, didn’t need to stay home and watch them full time.

Feng Jiayou decided that Xueming could be at Yanjing University during the day.

“Alright, I’ll do as you say.”

Xueming nodded. He’d already started writing novels, and it made no difference if he wrote at home or at the university. Besides, he could keep an eye on Feng Jiayou while there.

“Huh? Xueming, you’re so obedient this time?!” His ready agreement made Feng Jiayou suspicious. She pressed, “Just now you were saying you wanted to go out and find something to do, weren’t you?”

She’d heard him say he wanted to find a job, but, as was her habit, she pretended not to hear and offered her own suggestion.

She hadn’t expected the usually proud Cheng Xueming, who wanted to earn his own way, to agree so easily.

“Heh heh!”

“Well, actually, I’ve been writing something lately. Sweetheart, help me take a look—see if it’s any good. If I submit it to Mom’s magazine, do you think it’ll get published?”

Cheng Xueming decided to come clean. He pulled out the novel manuscript from the stack of books in the corner and handed it to her.

“What?! Xueming, what’s going on? Didn’t you just say writing Chinese essays isn’t your strength?”

Taking his manuscript, Feng Jiayou’s face filled with befuddled shock.

Just a moment ago, he’d complained of exhaustion and said essay writing wasn’t his strong suit—yet here he was, confidently producing a manuscript and planning to submit it to her mother’s magazine!

…