Just as Bich Quyen predicted, Ms. Minh just entered the class. Minh Hong looked down. As Ms. Minh stood on the podium, her gaze swept over the whole class, as if counting to see if the class was missing anyone. When Ms. Minh's gaze swept to the back of the class, she saw Bich Quyen sitting below. The sharpness in her eyes softened a bit. Bich Quyen raised her eyes, gently bowed her head a little, and said in a small voice, "Good to see you, Miss Minh," which only Quyen could hear. Today, the English class did not learn new lessons. Ms. Minh put a set of questions on the class president's desk and asked Minh Hong to give them to the whole class to do the exercises at the end of the class. When Bich Quyen received the question paper, she took a look at it. With all the knowledge she had learned, it was not too difficult to do. She already read about this knowledge yesterday before going to class.
- Quyen, come up here.
Ms. Minh opened her bag, took out a thin piece of paper, and called out to Bich Quyen, who was standing near the teacher's desk. Quyen bewilderedly stood up and slowly walked over to the teacher's desk. What's up? Why did Miss Minh call her up?
- You don't need to do these exercises. Do this one.
Receiving the thin piece of paper, Bich Quyen glanced at it once. The words "School level English test" startled her. Ms. Minh looked at the student standing in front of her, the red pen in her hand lowered.
- You are going to try this one. Today, you will study two English lessons in a row, just enough time to do this school-level test.
Quyen nodded, softly said "yes," and then returned to her seat. While looking at Minh Hong's desk, she briefly felt an unfriendly gaze on her. Bich Quyen smiled bitterly. She also did not want to redo this English test. Anyway, the exam was over, the results were out, and she didn't take the exam. No matter how badly Minh Hong took the exam, Hong was the one to take the exam on her behalf. In fact, Bich Quyen could understand why Ms. Minh did that, she simply wanted to see how many points Quyen would get if she took the exam. But perhaps, in Minh Hong's eyes, this action was tantamount to insulting her because she did not achieve the minimum score on the test.
Bich Quyen picked up a pencil, took a piece of scratch paper next to her, and slowly read the entire exam question at once. It was not difficult questions, it was all knowledge that she has learned. If there was advanced knowledge, it had been just supplementary knowledge that was not taught in class. Originally, Quyen thought that, for someone who had studied English outside like Minh Hong, surely questions like these couldn't be difficult for her. Quyen sighed and started to redo this test once more.
The atmosphere in the classroom was silent, probably because the teacher who was teaching was Ms. Minh and not another teacher. Even Tung Lam did not dare to wiggle or talk. Forty-five heavy minutes passed, and the school drum sounded, signalling the end of the first lesson. Even during recess, the students didn't dare mess around in class, they just sat in their seats, forming small groups to talk to each other. Only Bich Quyen was still sitting in the lower corner of the class, slowly taking the school's English test. In the last forty-five minutes, she had barely done half of the test. A group of students sat in class. Someone looked at Quyen, who was still working hard, pouting sarcastically. In their eyes, Bich Quyen would never be equal to Minh Hong, just a fake kid who likes to please teachers. But, Bich Quyen also didn't care about those things. She didn't care what they think. She didn't want to let those things affect her mood.
- Hey, Tuan.
Not far from Quyen's place, Huong Linh sat next to Manh Tuan. She reached out and lightly nudged his arm.
- Is something wrong?
- How many points do you think Quyen got?
- Hmm? What's the point?
- That test score. How much do you think Quyen got?
In fact, since Mrs. Tuyet arranged for Manh Tuan and Huong Linh to sit next to each other, the two of them talked a lot. Rather, only Huong Linh talked a lot, while Manh Tuan just listened silently and sometimes responded to a sentence or two. Every intermission time, Huong Linh would quietly nudge Manh Tuan's hand and talked with him. The topic that the two of them talked about was not much, it mainly revolved around Bich Quyen. Perhaps, Huong Linh was the only person in the class who did not isolate Bich Quyen and still befriended her. Huong Linh frequently stated that whoever she chooses to be her friend, she would never leave alone. For that reason, Huong Linh was the only person in the class who still talked to Bich Quyen.
Manh Tuan listened to Huong Linh's question and remained silent. He didn't know how difficult or easy the test was, but one thing he was sure of was that Bich Quyen would get a high score. More than anyone, Tuan understands how important Bich Quyen's learning capacity was. When she was in primary school, she took the city English exam once and won the first prize. After that, she competed at the national level and won second place. Bich Quyen's learning capacity was really high. The only thing is, she can learn English and literature, but can't learn math. Sometimes, Manh Tuan wondered whether or not she had a grudge against numbers. Actually, Quyen's math isn't that bad; at least she can grasp it in class. But if I let Quyen do the exercises a little more advanced, she would run away immediately. When he and she took the entrance exam for good students at the primary school where they studied together when receiving the results, Bich Quyen's literature score was second in school, but her math score was so low that she didn't dare to look. It's okay, she's not good at subjects with numbers and calculations.
When did not receive an answer, Huong Linh pouted and turned around to sit back down. She discovered that Manh Tuan is not a person who likes to talk. Not quite right, he only talked to Bich Quyen. It's just that since Quyen was isolated from the whole class, Manh Tuan and Quyen no longer talked as much as before. What a pity for a beautiful friendship! Huong Linh sighed.
The second English class seemed to be hell for class 6B. A heavy and dreary atmosphere enveloped the class. As Ms. Minh sat on the teacher's desk, red pen in hand, grading each worksheet that students submitted, her brow furrowed unhappily. Perhaps the students' wrong knowledge was too much, that's why she was not happy. Bich Quyen sat below the class. She completed the last questions of the test, and then rechecked all of them once. With her bright eyes blinking quickly, Quyen mumbled and re-read what she had written one last time and then handed it over to the teacher. Ms. Minh received the test paper from Bich Quyen's hand and told her to stand up here and wait a bit. Where Miss Minh's eyes went, the red ballpoint pen in her hand marked it there. In less than ten minutes, Ms. Minh finished marking Bich Quyen's exam.
- Minh Hong, come up here.
After finishing Quyen's exam, Ms. Minh suddenly looked up and looked down at Minh Hong with her stern eyes. In a moment, Bich Quyen could see that Hong's face had paled a bit. Perhaps Minh Hong was really afraid of being called up by Ms. Minh to talk like this.
- You look at Quyen's exam and compare it with yours.
Minh gave Quyen's test paper to Minh Hong and then took out Hong's exam from her bag. Bich Quyen looked over, filled with red dashes and dashes, enough to understand how badly the exam was judged. When Minh Hong received the test from Ms. Minh's hand, Hong's hand trembled with fear.
- How many points?
- Yes?
- How many points is Bich Quyen's exam?
- 98 points.
- What is the total score?
- It's 100.
Miss Minh sighed. She didn't want to say more. In the past, when Quyen was still at school, Minh Hong studied well. In fact, Hong was even considered to be Quyen's rival in terms of learning capacity and performance in class. But for some reason, since Quyen left school to be hospitalized, Minh Hong's learning capacity decreased. To the extent that even one test could not achieve the required score. Ms. Minh took the test back and told Hong to go back to her seat. Minh Hong lowered her face and clenched her fist as if controlling her anger. When Hong had already returned to her place, Ms. Minh turned to Bich Quyen and said,
- Next semester, the school will have another English exam. I hope you will join this time.
- I'll try.
Bich Quyen just softly said a sentence, then went back to her seat.