At school.
Walking along the shaded path of the campus, the students passing by were whispering to each other:
"Do you guys know Ella Lacey?"
"I know of her, I heard she's an orphan and she doesn't study hard. Her grades are pretty low."
"And she's always at the bottom of the class!"
"But hey, do you know? She topped the class in the last test!"
"What?!"
"Holy shit, are you serious? It must be the bottom, right?"
...
The fact that Ella Lacey moved in with the Lindsey Family was excellently concealed. Almost no one in the school knew about it, except for one person... Hence, in everyone's eyes, she's still an orphan.
Anyways, she didn't mind.
Walking through the crowd, listening to the discussions all around, she felt a rush of excitement mixed with anxiety. As she walked into the classroom, she glanced at the exam posting on the back wall, written with red chalk:
Top ten of the first preliminary test, first place: Ella Lacey (600 points), second place Ostin Sullivan (591 points), third place Shannon Gasper (590 points)...
Turns out it's true!
Ella Lacey was thrilled as if a dream had come true. She quickly took a picture of the ranking wall and immediately sent it to Arthur Lindsey via Whatsapp, adding a note:
Arthur, did you see? I am number one! When can I visit your mysterious castle? I'm super excited and looking forward to it, whine whine whine...
Before Arthur could reply, it was time for the class.
The homeroom teacher praised Ella Lacey in the classroom, calling her an example to all, an embodiment of inspiration. From being a poor student to becoming number one, it's indeed not an overnight achievement. The teacher encouraged everyone to have a positive attitude towards learning, to persist and persevere. Maybe the next one to succeed could be them!
While the teacher passionately delivered his speech, the classmates applauded enthusiastically, looking at Ella Lacey with awe and ready to learn from her.
Ella Lacey felt a little embarrassed and slightly lowered her head, her cheeks turning apple red.
Okay, she admitted that she did exploit her "secret weapon" well —
About a month ago, while trying on her mom's diamond wedding ring at home, she noticed a slight bump where the ring had been. Even after she removed the ring!
Upon closer inspection, she found an invisible ring on her finger! But others couldn't see it. She herself hadn't noticed all these years, or perhaps it had just appeared recently?!
Even more oddly, when she touched the ring, her soul automatically entered a virtual space, approximately one square meter in size!
She excitedly named this virtual space - Ring Space.
It took her three weeks to thoroughly understand the ring space. It contained various study materials, key exam questions, error-prone question types, dictionaries, calculators, cell phone, and even computers. She also added a few compartments to sort them out.
But that's not all, the biggest surprise was — during the exams, while reading the test questions, the Ring Space often fed her brain with necessary semantic information, mathematical theorems, or even answers! Especially for non-math subjects, mostly the answers got transferred into her brain!
Ella Lacey had to admit, she discovered herself a treasure, no, she gave birth to a treasure, a treasure ring fixed on her finger!
All day, Ella Lacey was repeatedly praised by various teachers. Seeing her dealing with classmates asking for her success secrets was quite overwhelming. She was more eager for the school bell to ring than any other time.
After two hours, it finally came to the end of school.
She hadn't yet received a reply from Arthur and was a bit disappointed while walking towards the school gate. However, her spirits lifted immediately when she saw the familiar blue luxury car in the distance!
Avoiding others' gazes, Ella Lacey hurried over and jumped into the front passenger seat, excitedly saying, "Arthur, I didn't expect you'd come to pick me up after school!"
With his long slender hands expertly turning the steering wheel, Arthur started the car and said without glancing at her, "Taking you to the castle."