Chapter 938: Chapter 26: Xiao Chong Extra Story (Bonus Chapter for Monthly Tickets)

By evening, the competition-related trending topic suddenly spawned another hot search about Xiao Chong alone.

This time, he’d been crowned with the title of "gold-medal school hunk," and the comment section was unusually harmonious—there wasn’t a single dissenting voice.

Well, yeah. With a face that handsome it breaks the game and unifies everyone’s standards, who could possibly find fault? Calling him a school hunk was practically an insult to grass everywhere.

The only pity was that the photos showing his face were still the same old few.

And the star of this hot search was, at this moment, turning down all kinds of interviews, hiding his merit and fame, and holed up in his room video-chatting with Lin Wanwan.

Lin Wanwan had been excited about Xiao Chong’s news the whole day, and when the two of them were on video, they didn’t talk about anything motivational or self-improving at all—just chattered randomly about everything under the sun.

Without realizing it, they’d already been talking for almost an hour, and when she snapped out of it, Lin Wanwan was startled.

The moment she thought about how she’d been so hyped over Xiao Chong all day that it had delayed her studying, she hurriedly told him she had to go.

Before Lin Wanwan could rush him into hanging up, Xiao Chong casually dropped a piece of news that made her unwilling to end the call—he had turned down the guaranteed admission from Qingbei.

"Are you crazy?" Lin Wanwan was so shocked she looked like a cat that had bitten into a chili pepper, her pupils blown wide.

But a moment later, she deflated and sighed. "Don’t tell me you want to go to college overseas?"

If Xiao Chong chose to go abroad, would the three-year promise between them still count?

A long-distance relationship across countries—just thinking about it felt impossible.

As for Lin Wanwan herself, she had never even considered studying abroad.

On one hand, her family’s finances wouldn’t allow it; on the other, she knew that the thing her grandparents regretted most was pouring everything into raising her uncle too well and sending him overseas. In the end it was like having had a son for nothing; when they grew old, they couldn’t count on him for retirement at all.

If she showed any sign of wanting to study abroad, her grandpa would definitely be heartbroken.

Right when her mind was spinning with all sorts of messy, sentimental thoughts, Xiao Chong spoke from the other end of the video: "I don’t really have any plans about going abroad. I just want to give the college entrance exam a shot, that’s all."

Lin Wanwan said crossly, "You can still take the exam even if you accept the guaranteed admission. If you’re not going abroad, aren’t you choosing between those two schools anyway?"

In fact, Xiao Chong only had one reason for wanting to sit the exam—to take first place in the province, and then, when the top scorers were being fought over by universities, bundle Lin Wanwan into the same school with him.

Of course, if he first signed an intent agreement with a university saying he wouldn’t use the guaranteed spot, that technically wouldn’t stop him from taking the unified college entrance exam later. But that clashed with his values.

To him, a person stands on their credibility. If he’d signed, he wasn’t going to use his own integrity as a bargaining chip.

So the idea of signing first as a fallback was something he vetoed himself; he’d rather choose the more difficult path.

This kind of thing absolutely couldn’t be said out loud, not even to Lin Wanwan. Plans succeed in secrecy; words bring failure when they leak.

The two of them kept talking about the guaranteed admission issue for another half hour, with it basically being Lin Wanwan trying to talk Xiao Chong out of being impulsive and telling him to pick a nice university to marry—oops, to attend.

After hanging up, Lin Wanwan forced herself to read and study, and not think about Xiao Chong anymore.

He was someone who could juggle basketball, schoolwork, and competitions without dropping any balls, and even had the luxury to turn down Qingbei and take the exam himself. She absolutely couldn’t.

If she didn’t work hard, she’d only fall further and further behind Xiao Chong, and she’d also be letting down her grandpa, who worked so hard to support her.

Back in the Capital, just as Xiao Chong hung up the video call, there was a knock on his door.

He opened it and looked at his dad and mom standing outside. "Mom, Dad, you’re still up?"

They came into his room, and his father spoke first: "Chong’er, let’s have a family chat, the three of us.

You’ve always had your own ideas. When you got first prize in the national competition and didn’t immediately accept Qingbei’s guaranteed admission, it was because you wanted to win more honor for the school and focus on preparing for the IMO.

Now you’ve already got the gold medal. What’s your reason for turning down the guaranteed place? Are you planning to go abroad for undergrad? If you want to apply to a foreign top university, we need to start preparing, and Mom and Dad are fine with that."

Xiao Chong closed the door, showing a helpless expression. "I’m sorry for making you worry. It’s that I haven’t figured things out yet. I’m not sure where I want to go, and I want to leave myself another year to think about it."

His father patted him on the shoulder. "Alright, as long as you have a plan in your heart. Take your time. If you need our input, just come ask. Whatever you decide to do, your mom and I will support you. If you want to go abroad for undergrad, with the connections your parents have built up in academia all these years, it won’t be hard to find someone to write recommendation letters for you."

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