Chapter 25 (Part 1)

When Mrs. Ye Bing entered the Evergreen Class with the exam papers, her lips were pressed tightly together, forming an ugly frown.

The whole of the Evergreen Class could feel how angry she was and how she was about to unleash that anger unto them.

When they heard her first sentence of, “Our overall results this time is not bad, there isn’t much difference from before”, they all let out a sigh of relief.

But in the next second, they all watched as she slammed the exam papers on the podium!

“But you have all done so badly in the Maths paper!”

“None of you scored full marks for it!”

“There are three people who scored full marks, including someone from the upstairs International Class. So why isn’t there anyone from our class who got full marks?!”

“Is it because I’m a worse teacher than the other two Maths teachers?!”

Ye Bing was burning up on the inside. She could forget about the fact that she always lost to the Gold Medal Class’ Mr. Jiang. After all, their class made up the School Representative Team, so it was normal for her to be unable to win against them.

However, this was the first time in a few years that she had been overtaken by the International Class’ Mr. Lu!

When she recalled how back in the office, Lu Wangwei was smiling in absolute delight as he said to her, “all is fair in love and war”, with his look of having obtained advantages yet choosing to put on an innocent farce, the fire in Ye Bing’s heart raged stronger.

“That person from the International Class must have been very lucky,” someone beneath the podium muttered.

That question was so difficult. It was hard for them to even understand it.

Not only was it beyond their syllabus, it was way beyond the scope of the Tournament.

They knew based on how Ye Bing said that only three people from their block managed to answer the question. Not even all six members from the School Representative Team managed to answer it— So how could someone from the International Class who always scored results lower than theirs be able to answer it?

No one took it to heart. It was just one question. In the end, they would still trump over the International Class’ total marks.

Zhao Yuan wasn’t bothered by it either. Although she didn’t complete that question, she was still quite good in her other subjects, so her final ranking will not be too bad.

All in all, it was impossible for the only person from the International Class who scored full marks for the Maths paper to be Zhao Mingxi.

She continued to keep her head lowered, her eyes focused on the book. However, her mind was where the teachers were moving on to the next step of announcing the rankings.

The projector was turned on. Zhao Yuan was getting increasingly nervous. Although she did not seem like it, her hands which were unconsciously clenching the pages of the book were covered in sweat.

Pu Shuang who was sitting beside her whispered, “Don’t be nervous. So long as you’ve performed as you normally did, you will be in the Top 20 amongst the three classes. Zhao Mingxi just transferred here from the Normal Class last month. She probably has yet to catch up with our syllabus, so how could she possibly compete against you?”

“I’m not nervous.” Zhao Yuan shook her head and said, “I am certain that my results will be better than hers. I’m just afraid that—”

She was afraid that the gap between her results and Zhao Mingxi’s will not be big.

Afraid that Zhao Mingxi would have made great improvement in her studies.

Although Zhao Yuan didn’t finish her sentence, Pu Shuang understood what she meant. “True. As Zhao Mingxi started from the bottom, whenever she makes any progress your family will definitely notice it. But as your results have been consistently good, your family members must be used to it already.”

Zhao Mingxi’s transfer from the Normal Class to this building must be accompanied by a huge fall. She has to fall to the bottom of the rankings. Only then will Zhao Yuan’s family notice the difference between them.

“Yeah.”

Zhao Yuan closed her eyes and regained her composure.

When she opened her eyes once more, the results were displayed on the screen.

She held her breath as she searched for her own ranking, looking through the results of each and every subject.

Pu Shuang looked from up to down and found her name first. She said, “Oh my God, Yuanyuan, you’re amazing! Ranked No.5 in class and ranked No.20 among the three classes!”

“You got into the Top 20 again!”

Zhao Yuan immediately let out half a sigh of relief. She smiled at Pu Shuang as she spoke, “I didn’t do my best this time.”

Pu Shuang said, “I think you shouldn’t worry about it so much. There are a total of 150 people among the three classes. Zhao Mingxi will either be in the 149th or 150th place. Her results weren’t that good to begin with with her average being near the bottom of the Normal Classes. Besides, it is practically impossible for someone who had just transferred from the Normal Class to catch up to our syllabus!”

The more Zhao Yuan listened, the more she felt relieved. She said, “I do hope that she doesn’t get such bad results, or else my eldest brother will have to be called here by her homeroom teacher again.”

While the two of them were talking, Ye Bing pressed a button and changed the screen from displaying the results of their class to the results of their whole building. She said with a cold expression, “Don’t think that you ought to be happy just because you scored good results. Look at the results of the School Representative Team and observe the gap between your results and theirs.”

The students from the Evergreen Class began to seek for the results of the people they were familiar with on the list of the whole building’s ranking.

Suddenly.

Someone said, “Oh my God, wait a minute. Am I seeing this right? Is that Zhao Mingxi’s name?”

“What place is she in—? Have I gone blind? Teacher, can you zoom in a little?!”

“Li Haiyang, was she the one who rejected you?”

“What do you mean Li Haiyang*? You should call him Li Jingyu*. That Young Master from the Fu family personally gave him this nickname. Isn’t that exciting?”

*Haiyang = sea. Jingyu = whale.

Li Haiyang said, “Shut up.”

…

What’s going on?

When Zhao Yuan and Pu Shuang heard someone mention Zhao Mingxi, they thought they were imagining it at first.

Usually when Ye Bing displayed the rankings on the screen she would scroll down slowly from top to bottom. She has only shown the rankings of this block for a few minutes, so they should still be looking at the Top 50.

Zhao Mingxi got into the Top 50—?

Zhao Yuan’s heart fell to the pit of her stomach. She quickly raised her head and looked towards the screen.

Then, she saw a sight which she simply could not believe or comprehend.

White background, black boxes. The number in front of Zhao Mingxi’s name was 19.

From left the right, the one which attracted their attention the most was the Maths column.

Full marks.

She scored full marks.

Voices began to appear beside her ears:

“Zhao Mingxi who just transferred from the Normal Class is ranked 19????? She got into the Top 20?”

“What the hell? Oh my God! It is so hard to get into the Top 20. Usually more than 10 students from the Gold Medal Class will take up those spaces and only around five students from our class can get in. No one from the International Class has ever gotten into the Top 20! But why is it that this time— Didn’t Zhao Mingxi say that she was from the Normal Class?”

More and more people were noticing Zhao Mingxi who was in 19th place.

Then, someone took note of the same thing as Zhao Yuan—

“Wait, she’s the one who scored full marks for Maths?!”

The moment someone made this statement, everyone fell into shock.

Then, the whole class went into an uproar which was akin to boiling water.

The person from the International Class who was one of the three who scored full marks for Maths as mentioned by Ye Bing just now was her??

When Ye Bing saw how the whole class started to make noise due to Zhao Mingxi, she pulled a long face. “You still have the courage to talk about others? She had just transferred here for a month and is still trying hard to catch up to our syllabus, yet she could obtain full marks for Maths! I have taught you all for so long but none of you had any idea on how to answer the last question?!”

Zhao Yuan looked at the name which was sitting right on top of hers.

For the next five minutes, she felt as if she was in a dream.

She wondered if she had encountered a demon.

She appeared extremely uncomfortable.

Her whole mind was aloof. In the end, she couldn’t help but to regain her composure. She whispered to Pu Shuang, “…Am I hearing things? Is that Mingxi? 19th place…? In front of me?”

Pu Shuang was still in shock, so much so that she had yet to shut her mouth and return to her senses. “What?”

When the guy in front of Zhao Yuan heard her, he thought that she couldn’t see it properly, so he turned around and told her kindly, “Yes, that is Zhao Mingxi. She actually got full marks for Maths! Who would’ve known? And it was such a tough question too! How did she end up in the Normal Class anyways?”

“Is your elder sister good at one subject— Wait, it can’t be considered as being good at one subject. She’s only bad at Biology, seeing as how she scored quite well for her other subjects.”

“Wait, why do you look so pale? Are you feeling unwell?”

Zhao Yuan, “…”

*

Meanwhile, the International Class was still in an uproar.

Their homeroom teacher Mr. Lu didn’t even use the projector. The moment he ran in excitedly to hug Zhao Mingxi, he told her on the spot that she obtained full marks for Maths this time. She was ranked No.1 in the International Class and ranked No.19 in their whole building.

The whole class looked at Zhao Mingxi in surprise.

“Oh my God, Little— No, Zhao Mingxi, you’re quite good, aren’t you?” Ke Chengwen exclaimed. “If only we knew that your results were this good, Xi ge and I would have copied from you.”

“Copy, copy, copy. You only know how to copy!” Fu Yangxi had a proud smile on his face. He gave Zhao Mingxi a look and emphasized, “I have never cheated on my exams, alright?”

Ke Chengwen said, “Yes, you’re lazy to even answer the paper, so why would you cheat? Are you trying to copy her name into your top left corner?”

Fu Yangxi picked up a dictionary on Zhao Mingxi’s table. “You’re getting brave, aren’t you?”

Ke Chengwen quickly smiled and retreated.

“I’m in 19th place?” Zhao Mingxi had yet to return to her senses. She pointed at her own nose and looked at Fu Yangxi. “Did they mark the papers correctly? Is it true?”

The thing is, she had always gotten 1st place back in Tong City. But ever since she got here, she had never obtained good results. Not only did this cause her to be unable to determine her true results, it also made her think that the Maths standard over here had trumped over Tong City’s by a lot. Thus, it led to her going from the 1st place to nearing the end of the ranks.

Who would’ve known that without the disadvantages, she would immediately come in 19th place?

Why does she look so silly when she’s shocked?

Fu Yangxi’s heart almost melted. He couldn’t help but to ruffle her hair, unable to keep in the smile on his face. “Don’t be crazy, Little Mask. You’ve already gotten 1st place and yet you’re asking me who is probably in the last place if you’ve gotten 1st place? You’re purposely showing off, aren’t you?”

With her hair in a mess, Zhao Mingxi was pulled to sit down by Fu Yangxi.

After sitting down, her heart started to beat at a fast pace. She was trying her best to accept the fact that she really wasn’t that bad.

As she continued to think about it, she couldn’t help but to place her face in her hands in excitement.

However.

—”Are you sure that there was nothing wrong with the marking process? And there’s cameras in the classroom so don’t you think about suspecting that I’ve cheated.”

Mingxi didn’t want her feelings to go up and down like a roller coaster.

“Silly child.” Mr. Lu’s gaze upon her was filled with affection.

He returned to the podium and looked toward Zhao Mingxi with an excited gaze which positively screamed ‘I finally have one promising child from my household’.

“Ahem, everyone settle down. I want to say a few words.”

“This is the happiest day of my teaching career. No one from the International Class has ever gotten first place for Maths. Although this time we are tied with two others from the Gold Medal Class, but we still got No.1! This means that my teaching has been effective. It means that all my hard work did not go to waste…”

What followed after was an endless speech of hurt and pain, spanning all the way to when Mr. Lu had yet to lose the hair on his head and decided to spend the rest of his life educating the young.

Just as a group of people from the International Class was about to throw spoiled chicken eggs at him, what made their hearts go through a roller coaster really appeared.

A Biology teacher appeared at the entrance to their class and called for Mr. Lu. He said that there was a problem with two students’ Biology papers.

They needed to rearrange the final marks again.

“What?” Mr. Lu was shocked. Their class had just gotten someone who squeezed into the Top 20, so please do not let it be Zhao Mingxi’s results. With an anxious heart, he asked, “Which two?”

“Your class’ Zhao Mingxi and the Gold Medal Class’ Dan Qi.”

“…”

Mr. Lu followed the Biology teacher with his emotions on tenterhooks.

The mood in the International Class turned anxious.

Fu Yangxi looked out the window and frowned. “They released the results before checking it properly, and now they’ve got to rearrange it again. What if your results become lower? Then wouldn’t they have made us happy for nothing?”

Mingx sighed. She actually thought of this as the plot going in the right direction— Or else how was it possible for her to get into the Top 20 so easily?

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in Fu Yangxi’s luck. She simply didn’t believe in herself.

Achieving such good results so suddenly after obtaining terrible results for the past two years. Even she thought she was dreaming.

“Relax.” Mingxi was surprisingly calm. She took a sip of the milk from her table and poked a straw into it.

…