Chapter 128: The Underachiever’s Comeback
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He raised his brows, cleared his throat, and, just as countless hearts began to pound, opened the kraft-paper envelope and pulled out a stack of exam papers.
“I see it, I see it! Right at the bottom—Chai Jing, one hundred!”
Three years ago, back in middle school, scoring one hundred in mathematics had been enough to make people green with envy. Now, with the full mark raised to one hundred and fifty, all those students who had once worshiped a score of one hundred were reduced to tears.
Chai Jing’s expression was far from pleasant. She glared viciously at the short boy sitting in the front row.
You little bastard. Why did you have to announce it?
“Don’t tell me, Tang Hai, that you’re the only one with good eyes! But let me tell you this: you only scored eighty-five yourself! You’re a full fifteen points behind Chai Jing, and you still have the nerve to shout so loudly...”
The entire class burst into laughter. Tang Hai screwed up his face, howling as he pounded his chest.
Chai Jing’s stormy expression instantly brightened.
Ha! Someone had done even worse than she had. Serves him right!
Supporting her chin with one hand, Sui Yi watched the youthful faces around her light up with unrestrained laughter. Her own mood improved considerably.
Beside her, Yan Qingwu smiled. “You seem inexplicably happy. Did you do well?”
“The results aren’t out yet, so I have no idea... But when someone is laughing, there’s usually something worth being happy about. It doesn’t cost me anything to laugh along.”
Sui Yi said it all so casually, revealing the effortless nature of her character. Beneath those long, swift brows, her eyes glimmered like startled birds in flight. They reflected Yan Qingwu’s thoughtful expression, followed by a carefree smile.
That was true. If someone else was laughing, she might as well laugh too. There was no loss in it.
Lin Zhong soon began handing out the papers one by one. In those days, people were not yet so concerned with appearances, and teachers had never considered that openly announcing grades might wound the students’ fragile young hearts. In the schools around town, high school education was especially blunt and bare.
You scored what you scored.
Whether it was good or bad, everyone could see it clearly. If you felt ashamed, then study harder. Whom else could you blame?
“Lan Yun, one hundred and two.”
“Chen Chao, one hundred and twelve.”
“Xu Quan, ninety-eight.”
“Wang Xian, you did well this time. One hundred and thirty.”
The sudden leap from ninety-eight to one hundred and thirty instantly warmed the gloomy classroom. Of course, how many people were genuinely happy was impossible to say. Every classroom always had a portion of students who could not resist making a commotion at every opportunity.
Even if they had just received a paper with a score of thirty-eight.
The next second, they could still cheer at the top of their lungs for someone else’s perfect score.
As though they themselves had earned it.
Wang Xian’s expression relaxed somewhat. Almost unconsciously, he glanced at Yan Qingwu behind him.
He wondered how many points the top student would get.
Surely more than one hundred and forty.
Although the mathematics exam had been rather difficult this time...
Another twenty-odd names were called, and the papers continued to be handed out.
Some students wailed, while others secretly rejoiced. Sui Yi watched it all with half-lidded eyes, her gaze seeming faintly languid.
“Little Fatty Zhou! I suggest you don’t go home tonight...”
The name Little Fatty Zhou was clearly a common nickname.
“Ah! Teacher, don’t scare me!” Little Fatty Zhou was genuinely frightened. He clutched his chest.
He then went up trembling to collect his paper. The moment he saw the score, his expression shifted several times before finally settling.
“Ha! I got ninety! Great Ancestor of Pure Heaven, Mother Mary, I love you!”
Lin Zhong held his breath in exasperation and slapped him.
“Have some ambition! Get back to your seat!”
Amid the laughter, Little Fatty Zhou happily waddled back down, shouting, “Yoyo, check it out!” He held the paper between his thick fingers and waved it in the air, twisting his waist and shaking his hips with exaggerated elegance.
The pose resembled a courtesan in the Moulin Rouge who was about to earn the favor and embrace of a grand duke.
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What a hopeless idiot.
Several people raised their middle fingers at him.
Lin Zhong had no answer for such a naturally foolish optimist and could only shake his head.
“There are three papers left. These belong to the top three students in this mathematics exam, and they’re the only ones who scored above one hundred and forty. I’m rather dissatisfied. The class next door has seven students above one hundred and forty, while you have only three! Those who haven’t received their papers should already have some idea of what they scored. I’ll announce them now... Wang Fang, one hundred and forty.”
It was exactly one hundred and forty, making her one of the three. Wang Fang was not particularly delighted, but at least she was not disappointed. She offered a faint smile, adjusted the glasses on the bridge of her nose, and went up to collect her paper.
That blazing red score of one hundred and forty made many people feel sour inside.
Damn, I’m still stuck in the single digits.
One student who had scored twenty-five pursed his lips and drew a one in front of the number.
Yet when Wang Fang walked back down and drifted past Sui Yi’s desk with the paper in hand, her expression abruptly stiffened.
Only then did she notice that there was no exam paper on Sui Yi’s desk.
It was bare except for a single mathematics textbook.
Could Sui Yi’s paper have been hidden somewhere?
Or could it be...
“Although only three students in your class scored above one hundred and forty, there is still one thing that makes me happy. Yan Qingwu from your class scored one hundred and fifty this time.”
One hundred and fifty. Damn, that was a perfect score!
“Holy crap!”
“Monster!”
“Goddess of Learning!”
“Please take me in!”
The announcement of Yan Qingwu’s name caused Wang Fang, along with several others who had been harboring secret hopes, to relax.
Surely Sui Yi’s paper had been lost, or perhaps...
“Wait, wait! I’m not finished yet!” Lin Zhong waved his hand. He held one paper in his left hand and picked up another with his right.
The two papers were both clean and elegant, with remarkably similar layouts, though the handwriting was different. The only identical feature was the huge red score of one hundred and fifty at the top, complete with two bold strokes beneath it.
Lan Yun, seated in the first row, leaned forward for a look. Her beautiful face lost all its color.
“Sui Yi!”
The classroom erupted as though a kettle had suddenly begun to boil.
“Right, it’s Sui Yi. She did extremely well this time. Her mathematics has always been good, and her way of thinking is very sharp. She must have made up the fundamentals this time, which is why she performed so well. You should all study hard and take her as an example...”
He continued for quite some time, saying little more than the usual exhortation to study diligently and strive for improvement.
The students below were like a kettle whose plug had been pulled. The boiling water soon fell silent, though it remained scalding hot.
Sui Yi and Yan Qingwu went up to collect their papers. Since Sui Yi had received a perfect score and was not particularly obsessed with such things, she had no interest in checking her answers any further. She simply placed the paper on her desk and fell silent again.
Yan Qingwu was different. She took Sui Yi’s paper and examined it unhurriedly. Only when she reached the final few questions did she compare her own method with Sui Yi’s and discuss the solutions with her.
Wang Fang and the others had initially found it difficult to believe that Sui Yi had scored one hundred and fifty. Even Wang Xian was only half-convinced, because her improvement had been far too rapid.
But then the two girls began discussing the final questions as though no one else existed, and Yan Qingwu smiled.
“The teacher was right. Your thinking really is very quick. Like a bird in flight, you always find the precise branch to land on by following the lightest, most graceful path. Your method is even simpler than mine.”
After that, the others took the papers and examined them as well.
Once they had finished, most of them could only sigh in admiration.
A struggling student turning things around could not be proven by a single good score. That was far less convincing than having a publicly acknowledged top student recognize them on the spot.
Sui Yi had clearly risen straight to the heavens. Yan Qingwu had personally established her reputation as a mathematical genius.
While everyone else remained silent or murmured in impressed disbelief, Sui Yi turned her head and smiled at Yan Qingwu, who looked like a little fox pleased with a successful scheme.
“Is this one of the benefits of having a deskmate?”
“No. It’s a condition. If anything happens to me, you have to help me like this too.”
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“All right.”
Sui Yi agreed without hesitation, but her gaze lingered, soft as mist drifting through willow branches.
Yan Qingwu froze for a moment, then smiled with pure delight.
Mathematics class soon passed in the course of reviewing the exam papers.
Later, the other subjects appeared one after another. Even when a subject was not being taught, the class representatives would return during the breaks carrying stacks of papers. Another bloody struggle would ensue, and in the midst of it, everyone would learn the grades of numerous classmates and shout them aloud.
The higher the score, the louder the announcement.
Even the corridors between the classrooms were in uproar.
Yet between Class One and Class Two, only two names were mentioned with any real frequency.
“It’s Yan Qingwu. Damn it, Class Two has her, so they’re always showing off! How much did she get this time?”
“No idea. I heard she got full marks in mathematics... full marks in English, full marks in the sciences... Her worst subject was Chinese.”
“She did badly? How much?”
“One hundred and forty-two.”
“Get lost!”
A monster. Yan Qingwu was truly a monster.
That had been the universally accepted legend ever since the Second High School was founded.
She was beautiful, an academic prodigy, born into a wealthy family, and possessed of extraordinary grace.
She was destined to become a legend at Second High, and perhaps, after this examination, a legend throughout Nansun Town’s entire high-school system.
But...
In Class One, someone had agonized for a long while before finally shouting, “I can’t take it anymore! If I’m going to die, then so be it!”
He slammed his hand on the desk.
Then he shot out of the classroom like a rocket.
In less than a minute, Yu Hang was standing in the corridor outside Class Two, and Sui Yi had been called out to him.
Seeing the nervous look on his face, Sui Yi raised a brow.
“Is there a problem with the competition?”
“No.”
“Then what is it...?”
“How did you do on the exams? Er, if you don’t want to say, that’s fine...”
You came charging over here with such determination. How could I possibly not tell you?
Sui Yi lowered her eyes and recalled her scores.
“One hundred and fifty, one hundred and fifty, two hundred and fifty, one hundred and forty-four.”
She did not need to explain. From the maximum scores for each subject, and the fact that no one could possibly receive a perfect score in Chinese, it was obvious that the two one-hundred-and-fifties were mathematics and English, the two-hundred-and-fifty was the sciences, and the one-hundred-and-forty-four was Chinese.
The comforting speech Yu Hang had prepared died unborn in an instant.
Those nearby seemed to hear the crack of him turning to stone.
Of course, there were also the students who had begun gathering from all around after seeing Sui Yi appear.
Whether they were from Class One or Class Two, they all descended upon her at once.
“Sui Yi, Sui Yi! I heard you got this many points in this subject—is it true?”
They bombarded her with questions without pause.
The petrified Yu Hang was pushed out of the crowd.
When Xiao Nan and Chi Gao arrived, they dragged him away. Chi Gao stared at Sui Yi in the distance and said in disbelief, “Xiao, did Sui Yi really score that well? Full marks in both mathematics and English? Holy crap, she’s become a total monster!”
To be continued.
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