He intuitively turned to the next page.
To his surprise, the three long questions on the second page were filled too. He'd practically memorized all the answers on the first page.
But this was the first script he saw that had all answers on the second page filled. He held the answer key on one hand while marking the script against it.
"Mr. Gao, is this... Xu Yaoguang from your class?" Mr. Xu, who was marking the paper, exclaimed as he held the script out to Gao Yang. "I haven't taken a look at the multiple-choice questions, but the heavy-weight questions at the back are all correct. Take a look."
The paper set by Hou Delong was too difficult. They could only differentiate the geniuses from the rest in First Middle School.
It was impossible to differentiate between the average and the really poor students.
They thought about it and felt that only Xu Yaoguang who'd represented Heng Chuan First Middle School in Mathematics competitions could possibly have completed this script.
"Xu Yaoguang?" Gao Yang turned his way curiously. "Full marks for the long questions?"
He'd seen the paper before that. The last question set by Hou Delong was definitely a competition question and the sort that would appear as ultimatums in those competitions.
If Xu Yaoguang had learned that in his classes before, then it was possible that he did it.
But Mr. Gao shook his head when he took the script and looked at it. "This isn't Xu Yaoguang's handwriting."
The script was very neat.
And the words seemed to be written very slowly and leisurely.
Xu Yaoguang's handwriting was more similar to the other students. They were all a little cursive. This sort of neatness was not characteristic of Xu Yaoguang.
"Then it's got to be Pan Mingyue. She has the potential too. I remember she failed the Mathematics paper when she first came here." The rest of the teachers began discussing too.
But some of them had finished marking their set of scripts.
The highest mark so far was 86 marks, and Gao Yang confirmed that it was Xu Yaoguang's.
The only full-marks script was left there.
Over time, some teachers became evidently distressed as they doubted their teaching skills. Their students were scoring 30 to 40 marks. But when they saw this full-mark paper, they were more motivated to go on marking.
The Mathematics teacher of the First Class was more than happy.
**
Over at the hospital, Qin Ran had no idea that the whole group of teachers was discussing her script.
It was a Sunday afternoon, so only Grandma was in the hospital.
The healthcare worker wheeled her downstairs.
Ning Qing and Ning Wei came over yesterday, but none of them was around now.
Qin Ran took over the wheelchair and wheeled Chen Shulan around.
"How was your examination today?" Chen Shulan spoke slowly and gently.
Qin Ran wheeled her towards a group of children playing around. "Alright."
Chen Shulan nodded. "That's good. Don't get too near them, I don't want to infect them or anything."
Qin Ran wanted to tell her that her organs were deteriorating due to age, not because of any illness. What was there to infect them with?
But she decided not to. Her grandma would definitely have a way to keep her quiet.
Hence, she simply wheeled Chen Shulan to the fountain nearby.
"Go to the ward and bring me my bag." Chen Shulan was a little tired, but she didn't want to return to the ward. She coughed softly and asked for Qin Ran to get her things for her.
Qin Ran was holding her cell phone while tossing a ball back to the children. "What do you want from your bag?"
"A box, a metal box." Chen Shulan described it to Qin Ran.
Chen Shulan did not have many things. They were all just in one bag.
Her other clothes were newly bought by Ning Qing.
Qin Ran found the metal box in her bag. It looked rather old and even had a passcode lock on it.
She thought for a bit but couldn't figure out what her grandma would keep inside it.
When she came down, she saw the few children around Chen Shulan, laughing and talking to her.
Qin Ran went over and one of the boys turned to look at her.
Qin Ran handed the box to Chen Shulan and sat at the bench there as she scrolled through her cell phone.
She looked rather serious and kept silent.
Those children looked at her for a while but dared not approach her.
There were so many notifications from her class chat group.
[Qiao Sheng]: Ding-Dong. Science and English papers killed us all.
[Zhong Da]: 1
Followed by a lot of seconded comments.
[Qiao Sheng]: I asked the students from First Class. They said that Pan Mingyue didn't write a single thing on the last long question for Mathematics. @Xu Yaoguang Young Master Xu, how much did you write?
[Xu Yaoguang]: I didn't finish it.
[Qiao Sheng]: I feel better now.
Chen Shulan placed the box on her lap and stroked it. She then glanced at Qin Ran sitting by her side.
After a while, she suddenly said, "Ran Ran, your grandpa..."
"Ah." Qin Ran looked up. She leaned back on the bench as if knowing what Chen Shulan was about to say. She calmly responded, "I don't want it."
Chen Shulan paused.
The sky seemed to be getting darker and the breeze cooler.
Qin Ran zipped up her jacket.
A nurse came over and reminded Qin Ran to wheel Chen Shulan back to her ward.
**
In the blink of an eye, it was Monday.
Most of the papers had been marked. On Monday morning, some of them were already saying that the results this time weren't too good.
The Technology Department had already put together the results in order.
Teachers and students were all rather nervous about it.
It was the self-revision period again in the afternoon.
The Chemistry representative who went to the staff room to submit assignments came back with a mysterious look. "I saw a few teachers holding the scripts! I think the marks have been finalized!"
The whole class erupted.
"Did you see the marks? What about the ranking?" Some students excitedly came forward to ask.
"I saw Ms. Chen holding some scores. I think they're still being printed." The Chemistry representative wasn't too sure. "Maybe they'll distribute the papers in the afternoon."
The students of the Ninth Class were even more nervous now.
But being nervous did not help at all.
Some students tried to find out what was going on in the staff room.
"Young Master Xu, are you going to take a look?" Qiao Sheng was anxious too.
All the students did their best for this examination. Li Airong abandoned the class because of Qin Ran, and the rest of them were worried that Qin Ran would feel pressured because of that.
Qiao Sheng felt that if Xu Yaoguang went, he might be able to get hold of the result slip.
After all, it was more likely for Xu Yaoguang than for himself.
So, he kept instigating him to go to the staff room to get it.
Xu Yaoguang looked at his cell phone as he distractedly responded to Qiao Sheng. "Nope, I already have an estimate of my results."
Qiao Sheng paused and then rolled his eyes.
Xu Yaoguang was a very rational person. Every question that he could do, he'd obtain full marks for it. As for questions that he couldn't do, he knew very well how many marks he lost too.
His estimates were mostly accurate, and it was only for the Language paper that he'd be two to three marks away from the actual marks.
The accuracy was terrifying.
Qiao Sheng saw that Xu Yaoguang was analyzing the Physics paper from yesterday.
There were two sheets of rough paper beside him. He wrote on one of them.
But there was another.
Qiao Sheng noticed that Xu Yaoguang was zooming in on an image on his cell phone. If he guessed right, it was Qin Yu's thought process for her answer. Xu Yaoguang was analyzing that.
Qiao Sheng didn't find it very interesting and turned away to look at Qin Ran instead.
Qin Ran was covering her head with her uniform as usual and wearing her black earphones. She might be sleeping.
In preparation for the examinations, Qin Ran hadn't read novels and other books for a while.
It was rare for her.
Qiao Sheng decided not to disturb her rest as he looked for other classmates to chat with.
**
In the staff room.
The teachers already got hold of their respective papers, but they were the multiple-choice questions answer sheets, so there was nothing much to look at.
The teachers put down their scripts and turned on their computers to look at what the Head of each department sent.
Li Airong was always the most excited.
She taught the First Class, the best students in the school. They never failed to get into the top 50.
This time was no different.
She looked at the total marks for their class. Unsurprisingly, Pan Mingyue was first.
After the examinations, Li Airong had discussed the papers with the other teachers of First Class. They agreed that the papers this time were more difficult.
Pan Mingyue's total score was 709, second in the whole school. Without a doubt, Xu Yaoguang must have been first.
It wasn't a surprise anymore.
Li Airong looked at the English results.
She was very confident of the students in her class. During every revision period, the First Class students were always working on English questions and papers.
The table was already done up, and there were five columns for each individual subject.
The first column was the name, the second was the score for that subject alone. The third was the ranking in the class for that individual subject, the fourth was the school ranking, and the fifth was the city ranking.
Pan Mingyue's row looked like this.
Pan Mingyue, 143, 1, 3, 4.
The first two columns were right, but what was with the third column?
Li Airong straightened up immediately. First in class but only third in the school?
Besides Xu Yaoguang, which other student could possibly beat Pan Mingyue? Who could possibly beat her student?!
Li Airong had seen the English paper. It was difficult. And the Listening Comprehension section was profound. The Reading Comprehension was full of long sentences and difficult vocabulary. Many students barely understood what was going on in the passage after finishing it.
Which student was so lucky?
Even so, Li Airong wasn't happy about it.
Her students had always been her pride. She could let it go if it was just Xu Yaoguang coming in first, but which other student could do so well?
Li Airong was planning to look for Pan Mingyue's paper to see where she didn't fare so well.
But now, she was looking for someone else.
"Mr. Li, how are the English results for your class?" Li Airong turned around and asked Mr. Li, who had rejected to take over Gao Yang's class.
Because of his rejection, Li Airong became a bit closer to him.
"Not too bad. The highest in class is 121, 45th in school. Four people in the class managed to make it into the top 100 in school." Mr. Li smiled. He was evidently happy with the results.
A good portion of the top 100 students was from First Class. The other 40 students or so were equally divided across the 18 classes. Having four from his class alone was a rather impressive result.
Li Airong smiled, not minding it too much. "Oh, how lucky."
Then, she turned to ask Ms. Chen. "Ms. Chen, the English results for your class aren't too bad, right? What's the average?"
Ms. Chen did not answer her as she looked at her computer screen, stunned.
Ms. Chen looked a little odd. Were her class's results so bad that she was disappointed?
The other teachers exchanged glances in silence.
Only Li Airong was smiling as she tried to rub salt into her wound. She held a cup of tea and walked over to Ms. Chen. "Let me see how Xu Yaoguang from your class did."
She bent over slightly and looked at the Ninth Class results on Ms. Chen's screen.
She looked at the first rank to see how well Xu Yaoguang did.
His results were always very close to Pan Mingyue's.
Based on Li Airong's estimation, Xu Yaoguang would be scoring 144 or 145 marks this time.
As she looked at the first rank, her hand was suspended in mid-air.
Third column, class rank, 1.
Fourth column, school rank, 1.
If this wasn't shocking enough, the fifth column scared Li Airong.
Fifth column, city ranking for English, 1!
First! First for all!