It was just over an hour's drive from Jianghai Town to Yunzhou City, and Song Jiawen and Jiang Yan arrived around noon.
After getting off, the two first found a noodle shop nearby to have lunch.
During the meal, Jiang Yan asked Song Jiawen, "How much do your paintings sell for now?"
Song Jiawen held up two fingers, causing Jiang Yan's eyes to light up, "Two thousand? That's not too high of a price, but considering the low cost of living now, being able to sell at this rate is already not bad."
Song Jiawen looked at him as if he were an idiot.
Jiang Yan was taken aback, "Is that wrong? Could it be twenty thousand? That can't be possible."
"You know that's impossible," Song Jiawen gave him a disdainful eye roll.
Jiang Yan stiffened, and after a while, he weakly asked, "It's not two hundred, is it? That's so little!"
"Your weekly food expenses are only twenty, it's enough for ten weeks of your meals, and you call that little?"
Song Jiawen felt like he had water in his brain, or maybe he was just crazy about money.
But...
"How much do they pay you for assembling computers at that internet café?"
"They don't pay me." He was a partner; why would he get paid?
Song Jiawen miraculously understood his point and reminded him without any psychological burden, "Don't forget the five thousand you owe me, I still have the IOU."
"I know, I'll pay you back when university starts and I pay my tuition fees."
Song Jiawen knew he wanted to apply to the same university as her, his ambition was quite grand, but the eventual outcome...
"You need to work harder, this grade won't do."
Jiang Yan responded feebly, "Haven't I always been trying hard? With my current grades, that's all built on sweat and blood, not like you..."
Whatever you look at, you understand, that's just not human.
It's abnormal!
After lunch, the two went straight to the city's number one middle school by bus.
They showed the introduction letter to the guard at the gate, left their luggage in the security room for the time being, and then went to the academic affairs office to find Director Zhai.
"Are you Song Jiawen?"
Looking at the girl in front of him, to be honest, Director Zhai was a bit surprised; he didn't expect the number one student that Yunfeng County Middle School had asked for several times without success to be so good-looking.
Even within their own Experimental Middle School, none could compare to her.
As for Jiang Yan, the additional person, Director Zhai just gave a faint glance without paying much attention.
"Please take a seat and wait for a while; I'll be right back," said Director Zhai before leaving the office with their files.
He was heading to the large office of the senior year teachers. He had given them a heads-up that morning, informing them that the top student from the town would be reporting today, and asked them to decide who would take the student.
Regarding the "top student" title of Song Jiawen, the homeroom teachers were actually skeptical, as they were aware that the resources at rural middle schools were limited and the exam papers they could obtain were basically from the county level. Whether it was regular quizzes or mid-term and final exams, their difficulty level could not compare to those at Experimental Middle School.
It was only last month that the city's education bureau suddenly sent out a notice, requiring all middle schools in the city to conduct a unified mock exam.
Director Zhai happened to visit his hometown, Jianghai Town, at that time, and went to Jianghai Middle School for a tour, where he just learned the mock exam score of their top student.
It turned out to be two points higher than their own top student.
After learning about the history of this top student's performance, Director Zhai made a request to transfer the student over to their school.
Experimental Middle School was a well-established high school in Yunzhou City, having been the top performer in the college entrance examination for many years. However, it had been subtly overtaken by Experimental Middle School over the past two years.
It's not that the Experimental Middle School is particularly remarkable, it's mainly because they like to poach top students from the county middle schools below them, and then shamelessly persuade some of their own students with less than ideal grades to leave. This way, they significantly increase their college entrance exam pass rate.
The teachers at Yunzhou City's Number One Middle School look down upon this practice.
But disdain aside, falling behind them in the college entrance exam rankings after the exam was genuinely distressing for them.
Despite this, City Number One Middle School still never went to such lengths as poaching top students like Experimental Middle School did, but not doing it didn't mean they hadn't thought about it.
Fortunately, Director Zhai met the "top student" from Jianghai Town, so after discussing it with the principal, they called Jianghai Middle School.
But unexpectedly, they were rejected at first.
Director Zhai thought there was no hope left, but a few days later, Principal Wang agreed.
"Teachers, have you discussed who will take Song Jiawen? Oh, right, there's also another student coming with Song Jiawen, a boy, who also has good grades; he is within the top twenty in their school."
"Top twenty?"
The class heads all laughed; they all thought Song Jiawen's first place was dubious, let alone a top twenty.
"You see, should these two students be placed in the same class or in separate ones?"
The class sizes at City Number One Middle School were strictly controlled, with each class having roughly the same number of students. At this time, with less than half a year left until the college entrance exam, actually adding one or two students didn't really matter.
"I think it's too troublesome to put them in separate classes. Just put the two of them in one class," someone suggested.
Teacher Gao, the grade director and also the head of class one, currently had his grade's top student in his class.
Considering Song Jiawen's grades, and fearing that the other teachers might find it unfair, he said, "Song Jiawen's grades are actually quite good; who would like to take her?
The other class heads looked at each other, and in the end, not one spoke up.
Surprised, Teacher Gao asked, "None of you want her?"
Everyone remained silent.
Teacher Gao understood; they looked down on kids coming from the town, believing their grades couldn't possibly justify their ranks.
"Alright then, since none of you want her, she'll be placed in class one."
Director Zhai said, "They are in my office right now, I'll have them come over."
Shortly after, Song Jiawen and Jiang Yan arrived with their backpacks. Teacher Gao asked them a few questions with a pleasant demeanor, then went over some reminders and discussed accommodation issues before taking them to the classroom.
After the two left with Teacher Gao, a female teacher in the office sighed, "That girl is really beautiful."
The other teachers were skeptical; she might be beautiful, but whether her grades were any good was another matter. They hoped Director Zhai hadn't poached a top student only to have brought in a dead weight.
There had been such examples before, confidently claiming to be excellent at their previous schools, only to perform terribly once at the new school.
How could a township middle school compete with City Number One Middle School?
The few teachers in the office shook their heads, not optimistic, feeling that Teacher Gao might have picked up a hot potato this time.
As for Jiang Yan, they never considered him from the start to the end.
At this time, the afternoon classes had not yet started, and the students had just returned to the classroom not long after having lunch.
Seeing Teacher Gao bringing two students into the classroom, everyone was slightly surprised, transfer students at this time?
"Let me introduce to you all, these are our new classmates, Song Jiawen, Jiang Yan."
Wow, there really were transfer students.
But....
However, as soon as everyone got a clear look at Song Jiawen's face, the classroom fell briefly silent, followed by someone leading the charge with a round of warm applause.