This was extremely important for someone as strong-willed as Ningning.

Especially since she had this sort of relationship with Chen Yuan, she felt an even greater need to prove her abilities, rather than just coasting on her boyfriend’s influence with a clear conscience.

Every class has all sorts of students.

If Chen Yuan were the type of student who balanced studies and fun and never seemed to study proactively, then Jiangg Ning was definitely the type who would feel guilty for missing a single point and blame herself if she didn’t get first place.

As for Jiangg Yao... she could barely be considered a student.

"You don’t have to work so hard. We finally made it out here to have some fun, and you’re still thinking about work," Chen Yuan said, scratching his head.

"I was just thinking out loud. It’s not like I have anything else to do when I get home anyway."

Jiangg Ning gave him a small smile and asked, "So are we waiting for the rain to stop before we head down the mountain?"

"Yeah," Chen Yuan nodded. "Once the rain lets up a bit, we’ll go to the nearest cable car station to get down. It’s just a short walk from there to the parking lot."

"Yay! The cable car ride should be exciting!" Jiangg Yao was secretly delighted that she wouldn’t have to keep climbing. She had been sitting, but now she jumped to her feet.

She looked up and out of the pavilion.

A fine, misty drizzle drifted down from the sky, and the piled-up dark clouds seemed to be pressing down on the entire mountain.

Jiangg Yao suddenly pulled up her hood, took small, quick steps out of the pavilion, and walked to the middle of the ascending steps. Rainwater flowing down the mountain washed over her heels and parted around them. The hood of her sweatshirt pressed down a few strands of her hair.

"Yaoyao, what are you doing out in the rain? Don’t catch a cold," Jiangg Ning said, trying to call her back, her voice soft but insistent.

Those few strands of hair hid Jiangg Yao’s profile as she squatted down and played with the rainwater with her hands for a moment.

"Little Young Master," she called out without lifting her head.

"What’s up?" Chen Yuan replied.

"If I folded a paper boat, would it float all the way down to the foot of the mountain? Would the cable car be faster, or would the boat?"

"Your paper boat would probably get soaked by the drizzle in three minutes. And even if it didn’t, it would only make it to that open area just below us before getting stranded."

"Huh?" Jiangg Yao pouted, displeased.

"Setting aside whether it would get stranded or not, since when do you know how to fold a paper boat?" Jiangg Ning asked, crossing her arms as she watched her sister.

"Okay, fine. I don’t."

"Then get back here right now."

Jiangg Ning sighed. She took a tissue from her pocket and, as Jiangg Yao walked back through the rain, wiped her dripping hands and then brushed the raindrops off her hood.

"You’re all dirty. You’re a grown-up, but you’re still so playful. What if you catch a cold?"

"I’m not that fragile. Besides, if I get sick, I’ll have you to take care of me, right, Sis?"

"I won’t have time."

"Then I’ll still have my Little Young Master."

"He won’t have time either."

"How do you know he won’t have time? He will too! He’ll make time for me. Does that make you mad?"

"Hmph. Childish."

Jiangg Ning scolded her verbally, but she didn’t stop wiping her down.

After tossing the wet tissues into a nearby trash can, she came back and smacked Yaoyao’s hood, knocking it so far down that it covered half her face.

When Chen Yuan lifted the hood, Yaoyao’s small, resentful gaze immediately floated out.

"Young Master, she’s bullying me! Aren’t you going to do something about it?"

"Your sister has a point. What if you catch a cold? That’s not really bullying..."

"But didn’t you see my sister hit me? I’m not that smart to begin with, what if she keeps hitting your wife and makes me dumber! Then you’ll just have to marry a dumb wife," Jiangg Yao lamented, leaning against his chest.

"Don’t worry, Chen won’t marry a dumb wife, because he’s marrying me."

Jiangg Ning immediately supplied the logical answer.

"In your dreams!"

Jiangg Yao retorted, not to be outdone.

Seeing that the two sisters were about to start bickering over this again, Chen Yuan quickly mediated and then swiftly changed the deadly topic.

The downpour was brief, weakening considerably after just a few minutes. He held out his hand and felt the fine, hair-like drizzle on the back of it, cool and refreshing.

He noticed the surrounding mist was getting thicker.

"Why don’t we get going? We should leave before the fog gets so thick we can’t see the path. The cable car station isn’t far from here."

"Okay, that works."

"Let’s go. I want to get home quickly. I’m already imagining how comfortable it would be to lie in bed on a rainy day like this."

Both sisters readily agreed.

"Alright then. Both of you, take my arms. Walk slowly, and be careful not to slip. If one of us slips, the other two will go down as well," Chen Yuan reminded them.

"Wouldn’t holding arms be even more dangerous?"

"Can’t be helped. You can’t see more than a few meters in this fog. It would be even more dangerous if one of you got lost."

Without another word, Chen Yuan put an arm around each of the sisters, using a perfectly legitimate reason to have one in each arm.

They were pulled into his embrace and exchanged a look. Although they had their reservations, neither of them said anything.

’Oh well,’ they were probably both thinking. ’In weather this bad, I guess we can let him get away with it this once.’

With slightly flushed cheeks, the two sisters immersed themselves in this strange atmosphere. They leaned against him, trying their best not to look at each other, each pretending that she was the only one there, taking a romantic walk in the rain with her boyfriend.

Occasionally, a strand of rain would be blown by the wind onto their necks, making them shiver uncontrollably. Their shivers were perfectly in sync, and they would immediately snuggle deeper into Chen Yuan’s embrace.

...

"What?"

"You can’t take the cable car right now. You’ll have to wait for the fog to thin out. Otherwise, it’s easy for an accident to happen. You’ll just have to wait."

「At the cable car station.」

The old man in charge of fees and safety spoke in a gruff voice, a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth as he exhaled a cloud of pungent white smoke.