It was Wednesday afternoon in the blink of an eye.
Mr. Johnson entered the class with the exam seat distribution list and said, "Quiet, please. The exam seat distribution is out, arranged according to last semester's final exam." After speaking, he projected the paper onto the computer screen.
He glanced at the class and said, "Ellie, since you don't have grades, the school has arranged for you to be in the last examination room. Next time, it will be arranged according to your grades, but it may also be randomly shuffled."
Ellie replied, "I understand, thank you, teacher."
Daniel suddenly realized, looked at the seat chart, and then turned to William and Ellie, saying, "William, Ellie, you are in the same examination room. What a coincidence. You sit together now, and for the exam, you are also front and back seats."
William made a sound of affirmation.
"Right, what a coincidence," Ellie said.
Daniel saw his seat number and excitedly said to the boy in front, "You are in the same examination room with me. Lend me a hand with math this time."
Jason gave him an ok gesture and said, "Then lend me a hand with English."
"Sure, sure, sure."
Daniel patted Hao Ming and said, "Remember to lend me a hand later."
Hao Ming was speechless: "We are all in the same examination room. Aren't we all at a similar level? What's there to copy?"
Daniel said, "That's where you don't understand. Although everyone is in the same examination room, some people are biased towards certain subjects, so it's still possible to copy. I'll copy your English."
Hao Ming: "I might as well write my own with a score of fifty in English."
"Hao Ming, what do you mean? You look down on me."
"I don't. We don't even know if we will sit close to each other."
Daniel said, "That's true. I was happy for nothing. Let me calculate whether we are sitting close to each other."
William glanced at it. Ellie was number 40, and he was number 39. No matter how they were arranged, they would be front and back seats.
"Damn it, Hao Ming, I'm sitting next to you. Lend me a hand."
Hao Ming spoke indifferently: "We don't know how the seats will be arranged. The school doesn't necessarily arrange a certain number of people per row."
"Anyway, I don't care. If you sit next to me, you have to lend me a hand."
"..."
When it was time to move the desks, someone's cup broke.
The class started to shout: "May you be safe and sound, may you be safe and sound."
Ellie finished packing her books and was moving them when she suddenly felt her hands lighten. She looked up and saw William take half of the stack of books from her hands.
William still had that fierce expression, lowered his head and asked her, "Where to move?"
Ellie was stunned for a moment, then said, "Outside."
After delivering the books, William took the books from her hand and carried them outside.
Seeing him come in, Ellie softly said, "Thank you."
The young man had long arms and legs, a straight posture, and was wearing a loose school uniform. His legs were excessively long, and his features were somewhat sharp. At this moment, his eyebrows and eyes were full of laughter as he said, "You're welcome, little classmate."
Ellie stared at him for a while. In fact, William's smile was not fierce at all; it was quite good-looking.
——
The first exam was Chinese. Ellie took her things to the examination room and sat in the second to last window seat. She put her things on the table.
William came in and saw Ellie sitting by the window, reading a book obediently.
A boy walked into Ellie with candy and said, "Ellie, would you like some candy?"
Ellie looked up at the boy in front of her, shook her head, and said, "No, thank you."
Dylan then looked at William behind her and said, "William, would you like some?"
William glanced at him coldly and said, "No."
Dylan sat in front of Ellie, trying to make a connection, and said, "Ellie, I sit in the front row, you might not remember me."
Ellie made a sound of affirmation.
"I remembered Ellie when she came. There has never been such a pretty girl in our class."
Ellie didn't know how to respond, and after a while, she said, "Thank you."
"How's your Chinese, Ellie?"
"It's okay."
The boy finally asked the question he wanted to ask, "Can I copy your multiple-choice questions?"
Someone next to him said, "What's the point of copying Chinese?"
"How can I copy it?" Ellie had never encountered this situation before and didn't know what to say for a while.
"Just don't cover your answer sheet after you finish, my eyesight is 1.0, I can see it."
Ellie said, "Okay."
Dylan clasped his hands and said, "Thank you, Ellie, thank you, Ellie." Miss Clark said if he doesn't score at least seventy this time, he should get out and listen to the class.
Miss Clark's requirement for others is to pass, but for him, it's seventy.
He still remembers Miss Clark's disappointed words to him: "You can't even score more than forty in Chinese? Even if you write an essay casually, you can get more than thirty points for eight hundred words. How did you score more than forty? William didn't take the exam, so his score doesn't count towards the average. You might as well not take the exam as take it."
Ellie said, "You're welcome."
Aria came around the back with two bottles of milk, handed one to William, and said, "Here, have some milk."
"No, thank you."
Aria was used to being rejected and didn't care at all. She then handed the other bottle of milk to Ellie and said awkwardly, "I bought it by the way."
Ellie took the milk from her and said, "Thank you."
The proctor entered the examination room, distributed the papers, and reminded everyone briefly to write their names before sitting at the podium.
He made a round, waking up a few people who fell asleep as soon as the exam started.
"Wake up, what's the point of sleeping in Chinese? You can get more than thirty points just by writing an essay."
The boy rubbed his eyes and continued to sleep.
Proctor: "..."
Ellie first flipped to the last page to look at the essay question, then picked up her pen and started answering the previous questions.
There were people in the classroom passing notes and making gestures. The proctor cleared his throat, indicating that they shouldn't be so blatant.
They gave face to him.
The one making gestures received it from the table to under the table.
The proctor turned a blind eye to the small movements below. Anyway, they were all in the same examination room and couldn't copy anything significant.
William saw Ellie fill in all the multiple-choice questions and then pushed her answer sheet to the side.
Dylan quickly copied it and gave Ellie an ok gesture.
Ellie turned over the paper and started writing the essay.
William glanced at Ellie, who was obediently writing the paper, and felt that she was a bit out of place in this examination room. Next time, she should be in the first few examination rooms.
Fifteen minutes before the exam ended, Ellie stopped writing, checked her answer sheet to make sure there were no missed questions, and then stopped writing.
The exam bell rang, and the proctor reminded the students in the first row to collect the answer sheets.
After collecting the answer sheets, Ellie organized her things on the table and prepared to leave.
Dylan approached Ellie and said, "Ellie, how do you think the multiple-choice questions went? Can you get half right?"
Ellie made a sound of affirmation.
"I'll treat you to snacks if I do well." Dylan calculated that if he could get half the points from the multiple-choice questions, get more than 30 points from the essay, and scrape together some points from the front, he wouldn't worry about not scoring 70.
"You don't have to," she said, stood up, and prepared to leave.
Aria watched Ellie come back to return things and said, "How was the exam, Ellie?"
"It was okay."
Aria said, "Forget about one exam after taking it. See you tomorrow, Ellie."
"See you tomorrow."