Mr. Zhang adjusted the silver metal frame of his glasses with one hand and looked at the students with a stern expression. "Let me start with an overview. From this preliminary exam, I've noticed that many of you still lack a sense of urgency."
Sensing the change in atmosphere, the students began to lower their heads, fearful that making eye contact with Mr. Zhang might lead to being singled out and criticized.
Mr. Zhang tapped the score report in his other hand a few times and continued, "In this exam, our class had only one student scoring over 700 points, and that's Lu Chuan. There are two others scoring between 680 and 700—Xu Yifeng and Liu Meina. Their scores are relatively stable."
When Liu Ruoyan heard that only Lu Chuan had scored above 700, she felt a bit disappointed but wasn't too surprised. However, when she heard that no one else had achieved 680 or more, her spirits sank.
Not only had she lost, but she had also lost quite badly, which made her feel that perhaps she had overestimated herself.
"There's one more student with a decent score," the homeroom teacher continued, "that's Liu Ruoyan, with 668 points, just behind these few. But as far as I know, you could have done better. You need to keep working hard next time."
"Among the remaining students, those who showed significant improvement include An Ran, Ye Ziming, Su Ranran, and Wang Ting. Especially An Ran, who made considerable progress this time and deserves special praise. The rest either made no progress or showed a steady decline."
Mr. Zhang's agitation grew as he spoke, "The difficulty of this preliminary exam wasn't high; it was even easier than the college entrance exam. So, you can say your performance was quite poor!"
The students in the front row could clearly feel Mr. Zhang's spittle flying as he spoke.
No one dared to make a sound. After a long silence, Mr. Zhang continued, "Now, I'll distribute the exam papers. Review them carefully. We'll have a class meeting next period."
After working so hard recently, Liu Ruoyan felt disheartened by her disappointing results and lay weakly on her desk.
Seeing the angle at which Liu Ruoyan's head was drooping, Lu Chuan knew how frustrated she must be at that moment.
"Liu Ruoyan~" Lu Chuan nudged her chair with his hand instead of his foot.
Liu Ruoyan didn't want to deal with Lu Chuan at this moment. She didn't want him to see her face, which was filled with the signs of failure.
"Ruoyan, let me see your exam paper."
Liu Ruoyan ignored him and even covered her ears.
With a sigh, Lu Chuan had no choice but to get up and go over to her side to pick up her paper.
"What are you doing?" Liu Ruoyan, embarrassed and angry, glared at him, thinking, if you did well, then great. Why do you need to see my paper? Are you trying to make fun of me? Is it necessary?
Lu Chuan didn't respond. He simply checked the scores for each subject: Mathematics 145, Chinese 132, English 136, Physics 90, Chemistry 94, Biology 91.
"That's strange; your total score is 20 points less." Lu Chuan had seen that Liu Ruoyan's scores in each subject were not much lower than his, so the total score should not be this much less.
"Really?" Liu Ruoyan quickly recalculated and found that her total score was indeed 20 points short. She hadn't even suspected there was a mistake in the score calculation.
Liu Ruoyan rubbed her eyes in disbelief. "Wait, did I see that right? I scored 145 in Mathematics?"
Her scores in various subjects were quite good, but her Mathematics score usually dragged her down. Since high school, she hadn't scored above 130 in Mathematics.
"Who's calculating these scores? This difference is too much," An Ran said, feeling frustrated for Liu Ruoyan.
Ye Ziming leaned over and, not minding the trouble, said, "Yeah, Lu Chuan, this isn't your calculation, is it? Afraid Liu Ruoyan might surpass you?"
"If you don't know how to talk, just keep quiet." Lu Chuan gave him a glare.
Lu Chuan had a pretty good guess about who had made the mistake, and he suspected it was Liu Meina.
"I'm going to find Mr. Zhang before the score reports are printed." Saying that, he took Liu Ruoyan's paper and walked out.
Although Liu Ruoyan actually scored 688, which was still lower than Lu Chuan, she had already adjusted her mood. It was better to face it head-on than to be humiliated by him. Liu Ruoyan turned to Lu Chuan and gave a bow with her hands.
"Thank you, handsome Lu, for stepping up and seeking justice for me. For the next month, I'm willing to serve you with all my effort. Of course, 'to the death' is a bit much, but please go easy on me."
Lu Chuan raised his hand. "It's alright. Just be prepared, and you may leave now."
The first class meeting of senior year began promptly with the last bell of the class. As usual, the homeroom teacher delivered a passionate speech emphasizing the importance of the college entrance exam and studying.
Later, Mr. Zhang proposed a suggestion that many had participated in before—setting goals.
"To help you have a clearer target, take out a piece of paper now and write down your goal for the next exam, your long-term goal, and the university you want to enter a year from now."
"After you finish, post it on the back of the classroom wall. When the college entrance exam is over, we'll look back and see who achieved their initial goal."
He added at the end, "If you feel embarrassed, you can keep it anonymous."
The classroom instantly burst into lively discussions as everyone looked around for their "goal targets."
Some had already chosen, like Liu Meina. Regardless of the field, her goal was singular—Lu Chuan. It would be even better if they could attend the same university, but she didn't know where Lu Chuan wanted to go.
"Hey, hey, hey, what's your target university?" Ye Ziming started a group chat.
His parents never cared much about his studies. To them, if he didn't perform well, he could just come back and inherit the family business. He didn't have any particular aspirations. Good grades depended on his intelligence, and he happened to have a friend like Lu Chuan, not a bad influence.
"I want to go to B University and study clinical medicine," An Ran said, blushing. "But it's just a dream. I'm not sure I can get in…"
"I didn't expect that, An Ran. With your excellent Chinese, I thought your dream was to become a journalist or something." Liu Ruoyan encouraged her seriously, "Keep it up. You can definitely do it."
"What about you, Ruoyan?"
When someone asked Liu Ruoyan, Lu Chuan quietly perked up his ears.
Liu Ruoyan scratched her head. "As for me, I haven't decided yet."
"Lu Chuan, your goal must be to get into the best Q University, right?"
Lu Chuan was silent for a while. "I haven't decided yet."
"Alright, alright. I didn't ask you to discuss your goals as a group. Shouldn't you be focusing on your own goals rather than asking others?"
Seeing that the classroom discussion was getting more heated, Mr. Zhang finally couldn't resist and began to knock on the desk to maintain order.
"One more thing: There will be a parent-teacher meeting on Sunday at 3 PM. It's the first parent-teacher meeting of senior year and it's very important. Make sure to tell your parents to attend."