Even the most boisterous students seemed somewhat listless and constrained on this day.
Yao Nan didn’t even bring his basketball to school, standing among the crowd, he appeared somewhat dazed.
It was unclear whether he was still groggy from the morning or apprehensive about the upcoming exam.
The students were whispering among themselves about the exam—
“Have you memorized that particular text? I’m sure it will be on the test.”
“I think this type of question will be the big final one, but I’m not yet proficient at it, what should I do?”
In the hallway, every classroom door was swarmed with students huddling together, all abuzz with nervous energy.
Hua Jie clenched her fists, nervously staring at the exam room door, while Shen Mo, standing next to her, patted her shoulder.
“If you dare fail after I tutored you, you’re going to get it!” His voice was deep, thick with a menacing threat.
Hua Jie, amused by his deliberately fierce demeanor, puffed out her chest:
“Don’t worry, I won’t let you down. I’ll take first place just to show you.”
“That’s impossible,” Shen Mo said from above her.
“Huh?”
“First place belongs to your deskmate, me.”
“Ha, that’s true.” She nodded seriously, conceding the point.
“…” Shen Mo couldn’t help but smirk as she readily accepted his claim to first place.
Did she really think he was that good at studying?
So naturally assuming he would be the one to take first place?
His eyes flickered as he leaned against the wall with one arm, lazily looking towards the window across the hallway, his lips unconsciously curling up.
The teacher began organizing the students to line up and then randomly handed out cards, which corresponded to their seat numbers.
Hua Jie stepped forward to collect her card, and Shen Mo nudged her arm with the back of his hand.
Turning her head to look at him, his figure was backlit, encircled with a halo of golden light, like a character from a manga.
His expression was casually indifferent, and his voice cool as he spoke:
“I know your abilities the best, getting into the top 20 in class will be no problem for you, so don’t be nervous.”
His words were warm-hearted.
“…” Hua Jie glanced at his hand that had just pulled away; in that instant, it seemed as if warmth had transferred from him to her, making her feel cozy and warm.
She tilted her head up with a slight smile:
“Top 20 isn’t enough, I need to be in the top 10.”
“Why not aim for the top 5 then?” he retorted with a smirk.
“…Goodbye!” Glaring at him, she walked to the homeroom teacher, picked up a number 7 card, and like a feisty little rooster, strode into the exam room with great determination.
Shen Mo picked up a number 21 card and sat in the back row of the classroom.
He first pushed the chair in front of him and then bumped the desk behind him, making some room for himself to feel a bit more spacious and comfortable.
The senior year students had monthly exams and did not participate in the midterm exams, so during these three days, the seniors were off, and their classrooms were freed up for the exams for the first and second-year students.
With the students of a class distributed across two classrooms, every other seat was occupied to prevent cheating.
However, many students still harbored a hope of cheating during exams.
Once seated, everyone checked around to see if there were any class monitors or student representatives nearby. If there was a particularly good student around, they would immediately seek help or discuss signals for sharing answers.
No one approached Hua Jie, though, as her scores in the entrance exams were exceptionally low.
The homeroom teacher stood at the door drawing lots for seats, while the chemistry teacher assigned to help supervise the exam stood at the back of the classroom maintaining order.
Once all students were seated and the preparatory bell had rung, the director of studies brought over a stack of sealed exam papers, and the homeroom teacher, after receiving his class’s set, closed the door and started distributing the papers.
They were divided into four parts, passed from front to back.
As the students passed the papers backward, they groaned.
“These questions are way too hard; who made this paper?” a bold student complained aloud.
“Quiet!” Ms. Liang Ping commanded sharply, chalk in hand, ready to throw at any moment.
Hua Jie, after receiving her paper, dutifully wrote her class, name, student number, and other information on each sheet before quickly scanning the entire paper.
Estimating the time each section might take, Hua Jie spread out her scratch paper and started writing.
She tackled the sections that took less time and were easy to score first, ensuring those points were secured.
Tasks that consume a lot of time without yielding more points, as well as those with less straightforward thought processes and smaller points values that require considerable time, are postponed for later.
She worked from front to back with high efficiency.
Before Hua Jie even reached the major questions, Shen Mo had already submitted his paper.
She looked up briefly at the carefree figure of the young man as he left, took a sip of water, and buried her head to continue.
When she reached the last question, she went back to work on the higher-point questions she had skipped before, moving from those to the smaller ones.
If she got stuck, she would think it over twice and then move on to fill in other gaps.
She then began checking her work from the beginning, filling in any omissions during the review to ensure she had written something for each question and that there were no careless mistakes.
Her scratch paper was soon filled with numbers, and she flipped it over to use the other side.
After several passes, she also managed to fill in a remaining blank, and finally looked up and rubbed her wrists.
Many students had already submitted their papers and left their seats, with 12 minutes still remaining until the end of the exam.
She frowned at her paper, somewhat dissatisfied with her own speed.
She resolved to learn more thoroughly in the future so that she could proceed more smoothly through the simpler questions and improve her speed significantly.
She didn’t rush to submit her paper but instead reviewed the major questions again until it was time to submit. Then, she walked to the podium and placed her paper on top of the stack of answer sheets.
The homeroom teacher, a math teacher, was supervising from the podium while taking the opportunity to grade Shen Mo’s paper, which had been the first to be submitted.
She was chatting with the chemistry teacher who had come up to the podium to organize the papers:
“I haven’t seen a perfect score in math in a long time.”
“Shen Mo?” the chemistry teacher raised an eyebrow.
“Yes, the kid is a bit too smart for his own good. He doesn’t seem to put in much effort usually, but his results are indisputable,” Ms. Liang Ping clicked her tongue twice.
“Some kids are just blessed,” the chemistry teacher said, slapping the desk before looking up to tell the other students to stop dawdling and submit their papers.
The last four girls finally stood up with gloomy faces, holding their papers and slowly walking forward.
Ms. Liang Ping received the stack of papers, and noticing Hua Jie’s on top, she unconsciously picked it up and glanced through it.
“Huh? All the multiple-choice answers are correct…” She compared it with Shen Mo’s perfect paper, raised her eyebrows, and flipped to Hua Jie’s essay questions, exclaiming unconsciously:
“Wow!”
“What’s wrong?” the chemistry teacher asked, snatching the papers from the girls and organizing the stack in his hands while turning to ask.
“Hua Jie’s answers are surprisingly good. She got both the multiple-choice and the essay questions right on the first page,” Ms. Liang Ping shook the papers in her hand, passing them to the chemistry teacher while expressing her astonishment.
“Wasn’t she failing before? How could she improve so much in just two months?” The chemistry teacher was somewhat incredulous, following Ms. Liang Ping out while examining the topmost paper of the stack.
Whether the answers were correct remained to be seen, but Hua Jie’s paper was indeed neatly organized.
As they walked through the corridor towards the office, Ms. Liang Ping saw Liao Shanshan quizzing Hua Jie and couldn’t help but smile.
One of the slow-to-submit girls passed by Hua Jie and couldn’t help but turn back and say:
“Hua Jie, the math teacher said you got all the multiple-choice questions and the last essay question on the first page right.”
“Really?” Hua Jie looked up incredulously.
“Of course, I heard it myself.” The girl sighed and hurried off to the bathroom, as she had to come back for the Chinese exam later.
“Wow! Hua Jie, you are so amazing!” Liao Shanshan exclaimed excitedly, grabbing Hua Jie’s arm and shaking it.
“I don’t know about the other questions, I just hope I didn’t make too many mistakes,” Hua Jie clenched her fists, feeling a bit anxious.
“Ah, my answer for the sixth multiple-choice question was different from yours; that must be wrong,” Liao Shanshan remembered a discrepancy from their earlier discussion and immediately lamented.
Hua Jie comforted her for a moment, and they started to check other answers together.
For several questions where their answers differed, Liao Shanshan took notes and went to ask other classmates.
When they reached the second fill-in-the-blank question, another disagreement occurred.
Just then, Shen Mo returned from the restroom, and Hua Jie took the opportunity to tap his shoulder and asked:
“Shen Mo, for the second fill-in-the-blank question, is the answer 8 or 19?”
“8,” Shen Mo replied.
“Ah!” Liao Shanshan frowned. She and another boy both had 19, and it was different, so who was right then?
“The correct answer to this question is definitely 8,” Hua Jie concluded naturally.
“Ah? Why? Just because both Shen Mo and you got 8 doesn’t mean it’s the correct answer,” the class representative for Chinese, who also got 19, retorted.
“Shen Mo’s answer must be correct,” Hua Jie said with exceptional seriousness.
“?” Liao Shanshan was dumbfounded. Oh my, Hua Jie, wake up, has Shen Mo brainwashed you?
“…” The Chinese class representative was almost persuaded by Hua Jie’s firm belief.
Even Shen Mo looked back at Hua Jie, wondering why this little potato had so much confidence in him.
With several people getting 19, how could it not be possible that he was wrong?
“That’s not necessarily true, he’s not a teacher,” the Chinese class representative argued, coming to his senses.
Hua Jie turned her head to meet Shen Mo’s gaze, thought for a moment, and still asserted confidently:
“Shen Mo can’t be wrong.”
Especially not on a math question.
“…” Shen Mo himself was slightly embarrassed by Hua Jie’s high praise.
Turning his gaze away, he walked back into the classroom, his lips curving upwards uncontrollably.
His favoritism wasn’t misplaced; she was a good little follower.
If he ever started a sect, he’d recruit her as his first disciple.
Sitting down comfortably in seat number 21, he stretched out, looking completely content and proud.
…
Hua Jie and Liao Shanshan’s discussion continued until they ran into the girl who had been the last to submit her paper at the restroom door.
“The homeroom teacher said Shen Mo got a perfect score,” the girl said with a tone full of envy.
“…” Hua Jie smiled.
Indeed, that’s Shen Mo for you, destined to score a perfect math paper in the future college entrance exams!
“…” The Chinese class representative mourned silently, “Ah, I got another question wrong…”
“…” Liao Shanshan was stunned; Shen Mo was really something…
“Let’s stop comparing answers and relax to prepare for the next exam,” Hua Jie patted Liao Shanshan on the shoulder, did some chest-expanding exercises, and then dashed into the women’s restroom.
Due to it being a pit latrine, a faint smell of smoke wafted over from the men’s toilet next door.
Hua Jie frowned and thought: Indeed, the pressure from exams is tremendous!
…
During the morning Chinese language class, Hua Jie’s essay was written with overwhelming emotion.
Perhaps having lived another lifetime, she faced many topics with a multitude of insights and thoughts.
Thus, she wrote swiftly and joyfully, not only filling the required 800 words but also exceeding it by over a hundred.
In the afternoon’s English exam, many students already showed signs of fatigue on their faces.
It was the kind of weariness wrought by the ordeal of the exams and post-exam analysis.
During the listening test, the principal happened to stroll into the classroom of Class 1-7.
He stood at the doorway, listening to the English cassette playing, accompanied by the rustling sound of a slow English conversation.