Chen Zihan hung her head low, biting her red lips. It seemed like she silently agreed.
Stimulated by Chen Zihan, Xiao Han became even more diligent and put in more effort. He truly had fallen behind in many subjects during the first and second years of high school. Over the past half month, Xiao Han had been frantically catching up on his studies. To his astonishment, he discovered that his learning ability had become incredibly strong. In just a short span of half a month, he had managed to catch up on all the coursework he had missed.
When it came to the mock exams, to say nothing of ranking second in his class, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say he could easily clinch the second spot across the whole grade.
Xiao Han was not one to seek attention, but this time, for Chen Zihan, he decided to go all out.
In the blink of an eye, the second mock exam for the entire twelfth grade was upon them.
The mock exam was designed to test the examination abilities of twelfth-grade students and to gauge where they stood.
Linjiang No.1 Middle School conducted a large-scale mock exam almost every month, scheduling it over the weekend. The whole school would have a day off, leaving only the thirty-some twelfth-grade classes to take the exams at school. This time it was a city-wide joint examination, so the tests were strictly administered following the procedures of the college entrance examination.
Each class retained only thirty students, and there had to be an empty desk and chair's distance in every direction around each student. To ensure an accurate assessment of the students' abilities, each class was assigned two teachers to proctor the exam. Electronic devices were strictly prohibited in the exam room. If discovered, they would be severely dealt with.
"How do you feel? Confident?" Li Dapang grinned at Xiao Han.
"No problem," Xiao Han smiled back.
All was ready except for the opportunity.
Li Dapang smiled and said, "These teachers are really ruthless. Most of the students with good academic performance have been moved to the next class to take the exam. How are we supposed to take the test now? Isn't this just bad luck waiting to happen?"
"Don't worry, I'll let you copy," Xiao Han flashed Li Dapang a strange smile.
"Forget about it," Li Dapang replied disdainfully, then added, "Last mock exam, I got three hundred and one points just by guessing, and you, studying hard every day and reviewing, barely scraped together three hundred, ranking last in class."
The school went to great lengths to accurately assess the true abilities of this group of twelfth graders. Twenty of the top students in the class were all reassigned, leaving thirty students with mediocre or poor academic performance in the original classroom. This meant the poor students, led by Xiao Han and Li Dapang, were significantly affected. Moreover, even among these thirty students, the ten who performed slightly better were seated in the very front. As a result, it was impossible for the last twenty students in the class to cheat off anyone.
The two worst performers in the class, Xiao Han and Li Dapang, were placed by Liu Jinmei in the last row, their backs almost touching the rear wall of the classroom.
"Haha..." Xiao Han laughed heartily, "You love to copy, don't you?"
At that moment, the bell signaling the start of the exam rang.
The two proctoring teachers walked slowly into the classroom. One of them was Teacher Liu, the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Grade 12. Upon entering the classroom, she scanned the scene once, then said sternly, "Mobile phones, tablets... hand over all electronic products. Otherwise, if discovered, they'll all be thrown out the window."
Silence fell over everyone.
Seeing no one make a sound, Liu Jinmei began to distribute the test papers.
As she handed out the papers one by one, she paused beside Xiao Han, sneered, and said, "Xiao Han, remember the words you once said to me."
Xiao Han remained silent.
After Liu Jinmei moved on, Li Dapang grinned and said, "Heh, you're in trouble now. The Old Witch is still hung up on that."
"Afraid of what?" Xiao Han scoffed.
"I know you're capable, but securing the second rank in the class is not so easy!" Li Dapang glanced at Xiao Han and continued, "Besides, you're indeed capable in logic, but subjects like Chinese and English rely on memorization."
"Heh heh..." Xiao Han chuckled mysteriously.
The first subject of the exam was Chinese. Over the past month, Xiao Han had really buckled down on his studies, especially in Chinese, where he spent almost every day pouring over the textbook. Thus, he was quite confident about today's exam.
As it turned out, the questions were very simple. From the fill-in-the-blanks at the beginning to the multiple-choice questions, and reading comprehension later on, Xiao Han swept through them all with ease. For the final essay question, he only needed to ponder for a short while, made a quick outline, and then his pen flowed with inspiration.
After finishing, Xiao Han gave his paper a brief check and immediately submitted it. Note that, from start to finish, Xiao Han had only taken a little over an hour, whereas the Chinese exam was the longest, lasting a full two hours.
Everyone was dumbfounded as they watched Xiao Han.
"This kid must have given up," one muttered.
"Probably!" another agreed.
"And to think he vowed to take second place, what shamelessness."
Many were discussing him, particularly a few boys who were on good terms with Jiang Xiaoliang; they looked down on Xiao Han disdainfully.
However, Xiao Han strode confidently out of the classroom.
The following exams proved to be no pressure for Xiao Han either. The English exam that afternoon didn't pose any difficulties, and for the mathematics exam the next day, he finished and handed in his paper after just one hour, while the rest of the students were still struggling to calculate or even wildly guessing. Some even resorted to rolling dice to decide on the answers to the multiple-choice questions.
Whoosh...
The sight of Xiao Han submitting his paper after only one hour caused a stir amongst the crowd.
Liu Jinmei was also shocked. It wasn't until Xiao Han had left that Liu Jinmei hurriedly picked up his test paper to check his results. What followed left her even more astonished and speechless. Because for the subsequent questions, Xiao Han's accuracy rate was over ninety percent. Of course, Liu Jinmei's so-called accuracy rate was relative to her own standards.
What Liu Jinmei found most unbelievable was that not only was Xiao Han's accuracy rate extremely high, but he had also completed all the questions in just one hour. And she, a math teacher... an hour had passed, and she still had a few problems left unsolved. Well... that was embarrassing.
Liu Jinmei quickly put Xiao Han's test paper away, but her heart could not settle for a long time.
On the afternoon of Sunday, as soon as the examination was over, all the teachers began to dive into grading.
"Teacher Liu, this Xiao Han's performance... isn't there some trickery there?"
"Not at all, out of three hundred points in comprehensive science, he actually scored two hundred and seventy-three."
"And Chinese as well, he actually scored one hundred and thirty-five points."
"And I have here a perfect score in English."
The senior year teachers were shocked and astonished at Xiao Han's scores. They all felt this was simply too incredible to believe. Xiao Han's scores were truly unimaginable. It's not that such scores were unthinkable, but because in the last mock exam, Xiao Han had ranked last in the whole class, and now, his score had suddenly skyrocketed by many times over.
Liu Jinmei smiled and said, "Let's just think of him as a miracle for now."
"A miracle?!" Everyone was dumbfounded. They couldn't imagine these words coming from the always strict Teacher Liu.
"Yes!" Liu Jinmei nodded.
......
The examination was over.
"Xiao Han, you're quite something, my friend!" Li Dapang slapped Xiao Han on the shoulder and grinned, "You're always the first to hand in your paper, and you finish about half the time earlier. How confident are you about the exams?"
"Of course, I am!" Xiao Han nodded, "This time I must secure second place."
"Whoa, that's quite the ambition," Li Dapang chuckled, "Come on, we've finally made some money, let's spend a bit in the city center."
Five-thirty in the afternoon.
The two headed toward the city center.
To treat himself, Li Dapang specifically chose a Korean barbecue restaurant. He had a particular fondness for meat, and he had eaten Korean barbecue once before, a sensation he never forgot. Now that he had finally made some money, he decided to give himself a good treat.
They walked into the Korean barbecue restaurant. The decor was nice; the overall effect was very impressive. Inside, the girls, all decked out in Korean attire, greeted customers in Korean.
"There are a lot of beauties here," Li Dapang said with a smirk, "Big chests, round butts. Tsk tsk..."
"You can tell they have big chests and round butts through their clothes?" Xiao Han caught him off guard with a comment.
"Hehe..."
Li Dapang pulled Xiao Han to sit down at a table.
At that moment, Chen Zihan and another girl walked in.
"Isn't that Chen Zihan?" Li Dapang quickly pointed toward the entrance.
Xiao Han swiftly looked over, and indeed, Chen Zihan and Yang Xiaoyan were entering, talking and laughing together as if they were close girlfriends.
"Xiao Han?" Chen Zihan looked at Xiao Han in surprise.
"You guys are here too?" Xiao Han smiled and said, "Why not join us and sit down together?"
"Are you treating?" Chen Zihan giggled.
"No problem," Xiao Han nodded.
"Can you afford it?" Yang Xiaoyan said disdainfully from the side, "A shoeshiner, do you know the prices here? I'll tell you, one serving of barbecue is over a hundred. Can you even afford that?"
"Xiaoyan, what are you saying?" Chen Zihan cast a glance at Yang Xiaoyan.
"I'm just telling the truth," Yang Xiaoyan pursed her lips and then said, "He only makes four yuan for shining a pair of shoes. Do you know the average consumption here? Eighty-eight yuan. Almost four hundred for four people. Does he really think he's some wealthy guy?"
"Student Yang is right," Xiao Han nodded, "Having Korean barbecue is indeed expensive. But, is it necessary to be so insulting? It's a favor to invite you to eat; if you don't want to eat, you can leave."
"You!" Yang Xiaoyan was furious.
"Okay, let's cool it," Chen Zihan quickly said.
Yang Xiaoyan was a typical materialistic woman, who adored wealth and was a gold digger. She had a wealthy and handsome boyfriend when she was in her second year, but after growing tired of her, he dumped her. However, she became even more infatuated with material possessions. She always looked down on poor people, especially children from poor families, with scorn and disdain. Xiao Han was a typical poor student, so Yang Xiaoyan had always looked down on him.