Evening self-study had not started yet, and the students were unusually excited today.
After returning from the weekend break, they found that a television had actually been installed in the classroom!
Everyone had one of these things at home, but having one installed in the classroom was quite novel.
Someone ran over and turned on the TV. Nobody felt like doing problems anymore, and even the top students watched with great interest.
The entire class watched a cartoon together.
"It's him, it's him, it's him, that's him. Our friend Little Nezha..."
When the ending song began, quite a few students sang along.
Some deliberately sang "Nezha" in the local dialect as "Nazhui," making the other students burst out laughing.
This cartoon had first aired that summer, with only the first twenty-six episodes produced at the time. Now, it had finally begun airing content beyond episode twenty-six.
They watched until evening self-study was about to begin, when their homeroom teacher, Liu Shuying, suddenly appeared. By then, it was too late for them to turn off the television.
Smack! Smack!
Liu Shuying picked up a bamboo pointer and rapped the lectern twice. "The televisions installed by the school can only receive the national comprehensive channel. I won't stop you from watching programs, but you may only watch Legal Report after lunch. And keep the volume down. Don't disturb the other students."
"Yay!"
"Woohoo~~~"
The entire class cheered. Their dull, tedious senior year finally had a leisure activity.
Well, Legal Report could count as entertainment too!
"Quiet, quiet!"
Liu Shuying continued tapping the pointer. "There will be a monthly exam the weekend after next to assess your review progress. The questions will mainly cover the reviewed material, but they will also involve knowledge from all three years of high school. This is the final monthly exam of 2003, so I hope everyone takes it seriously."
After saying that, she sat down at the podium and announced the start of evening self-study.
Class monitor Li Rui hurried over to turn off the television.
Chen Guiliang took out a math practice paper and began working through it seriously. Whenever he did not know how to solve something, he flipped through the textbook and his notes. If he still could not solve it, he circled the question and planned to ask the top students after class.
The major questions especially required the combined use of many knowledge points, and Chen Guiliang had not yet reviewed some of the material involved.
When the first evening self-study period finally ended, homeroom teacher Liu Shuying got up and left.
Xie Yang ran over and whispered, "Chen the Hero, hurry up and call President Tao. Ask what's going on tonight."
Chen Guiliang smiled. "Weren't you going to study seriously for college?"
"It doesn't conflict," Xie Yang said.
Chen Guiliang left the classroom and headed toward the rooftop. The stairwell door leading up there was locked, but someone had pried it open long ago.
After connecting the call, Chen Guiliang asked, "Brother Gang, the siege of Shabak has started, right?"
"Hahaha, I'm dying here," Tao Chenggang said, bursting into laughter as soon as he answered. "The other guilds aren't attacking Shabak at all. They've joined forces to surround and attack Boss Shi instead. Boss Shi's guild has the most players, the highest levels, and the best equipment, but several major guilds have already joined forces and killed them all the way back to the Safe Zone."
Chen Guiliang asked, "How did he provoke everyone's wrath?"
Tao Chenggang said, "His identity was exposed. Several major guilds have been shouting, 'Kill Brain Gold!' Even independent players who haven't joined a guild come running to help when they hear that slogan. I even sent Boss Shi a QQ message explaining that I wasn't the one who leaked his identity."
"What's the situation now?" Chen Guiliang pressed.
Tao Chenggang said, "Boss Shi's guild members don't even dare leave the Safe Zone now. Some have even quit the guild. Boss Shi's Void Judgement was also dropped. Right now, he's leading a bunch of underlings in typing insults back and forth with the other players."
"This is kind of affecting CEO Shi's gaming experience. He won't quit in a fit of anger, will he?" Chen Guiliang was afraid the rich spender might leave.
"Hold on, he just sent me a QQ message."
Tao Chenggang stopped speaking for two or three minutes, then continued, "Boss Shi plans to stay tough and openly reveal his identity as he keeps fighting. He wants me to change his ID to 'Gifts I Accept Only Brain Gold.' He topped up another three thousand yuan and said he was too lazy to keep attacking Shabak. First, he wants to fully gear up the core guild members with the Abyssal Zuma Set."
"Then change his name. We have to serve our customers well," Chen Guiliang said cheerfully.
Boss Shi was cursing people out at that very moment. He had already figured out that a power-leveling account had exposed his identity.
That power-leveler had bragged in the game before, showing off that he was CEO Shi's gaming secretary. Many veteran players on the same server knew him.
But Boss Shi only cursed a few times before quickly leading his underlings to farm the Abyss Zuma dungeon.
His overpowered weapon, Void Judgement, had just been dropped by someone else. He had to farm another one.
Once they had farmed enough Abyss Zuma gear, they would head to higher-level maps to run dungeons.
In the next Battle of Shabak, he would be able to crush everyone with his equipment and win.
Oh, right. The Woma and Zuma dungeons only required one ticket to enter.
But higher-level dungeon maps required two or three tickets. Without deep pockets, no one would dare run them repeatedly!
After recounting what had happened in the game, Chen Guiliang made Xie Yang laugh uproariously. Xie Yang wished he could personally chop Boss Shi a couple of times.
Back in the classroom, Chen Guiliang took his math practice paper and went to ask the top student Wu Meng for help.
He also chatted with Bian Guanyue for a few moments.
"Wu Meng, I don't know how to do this problem. Could you explain it to me?" Chen Guiliang asked as he walked over and crouched down.
Wu Meng had already finished the entire paper. She immediately picked up a pen and said, "First, establish a coordinate system and determine the coordinates of points A, B, C, and D. Then, based on the conditions given in the question, derive the equations of lines OF and GE. Combine the two equations to obtain the parametric equation related to point P. Then eliminate the parameter to get the locus equation for point P..."
Chen Guiliang listened carefully. Whenever he did not understand something, he wrote down the relevant knowledge point. It was all material he had not reviewed yet.
After asking about two major questions in a row, Chen Guiliang said, "Thanks."
"You're welcome." Wu Meng lowered her head, blushing.
It was not because Chen Guiliang was especially handsome. She blushed whenever she spoke to any boy.
Still crouching there, Chen Guiliang blinked at Bian Guanyue. "How was your weekend?"
"Reading and doing problems at home," Bian Guanyue said.
Shamelessly, Chen Guiliang said, "I want to eat spicy little potatoes. Bring me some tomorrow, okay?"
Bian Guanyue asked, "What level of spice do you want?"
"Regular spicy is fine," Chen Guiliang said.
"Okay."
After agreeing, Bian Guanyue said nothing more and silently lowered her head to work on her problems.
Chen Guiliang returned to his seat with the math paper, then pulled out an English paper and continued working.
Zheng Feng was a little anxious, wanting to know what Chen Guiliang and Bian Guanyue had said just now.
Li Jun, meanwhile, was sprawled over his desk sleeping soundly. He would probably sleep until evening self-study ended.
Guan Zhiqiang kept reading his novel, and before he knew it, he was drooling again.
After doing problems for a while, Wu Meng finally could not help asking, "Are you dating Chen Guiliang?"
"No," Bian Guanyue replied.
Wu Meng said, "Then why are you bringing him little potatoes?"
Bian Guanyue said, "He's my good friend."
Wu Meng usually did not talk much, but she got along very well with Bian Guanyue. She looked around furtively like a thief, then whispered, "Do you think Chen Guiliang has become more handsome?"
"He changed his clothes and hairstyle. It's already been several days."
Bian Guanyue was quite satisfied with her own taste. She had picked out all those clothes, and she had also taken Chen Guiliang to get his hair cut.
Wu Meng asked, "Have you ever dated anyone?"
"No." Bian Guanyue shook her head, then smiled. "You want to date someone?"
Wu Meng hurriedly denied it. "I want to get into Peking University. Once I'm at Peking University, I'll date someone and take walks with my boyfriend by Weiming Lake. That would definitely feel especially romantic."
Bian Guanyue sighed. "Sigh, I'd be lucky just to get into a second-tier university."
Wu Meng asked curiously, "You learn very quickly. You don't seem like someone who can only get into a Tier 3 University."
"I used to be an arts student. When I was little, I learned opera singing from my grandparents. Since traditional opera had no future, I started studying vocal music in middle school instead." Bian Guanyue gave a simple explanation.
Wu Meng said, "Then you don't need to worry about the College Entrance Exam. Being able to get into a Tier 3 University with your academic grades already makes you very impressive among arts students."
"I don't want to be an arts student anymore," Bian Guanyue said. "The arts entrance exams will be coming up soon, but I haven't registered for a single school. I want to get into a real university on my own merits and show certain people what I can do!"
"You're really brave. You only switched to the regular track in your senior year," Wu Meng said admiringly.
Bian Guanyue said, "That's why I have to work twice as hard and catch up on all the knowledge I missed. My goal is to get into a moderately ranked second-tier university."
"Keep it up!"
"You too. I hope you get into Peking University."
While those two girls worked hard toward their goals, Chen Guiliang's new deskmate, Qin Shanshan, was in a dazed state.
She lay sprawled across her desk with nothing to do. She could not focus on reading, nor was she interested in doing problems.
She was sick of studying.
In fact, Qin Shanshan used to have pretty good grades.
"Hey, aren't you bored?" Qin Shanshan asked.
Chen Guiliang pointed at his English practice paper. "What should I choose for this one?"
"B." Qin Shanshan's English was fairly good. She glanced at it and immediately gave him the answer.
Chen Guiliang asked, "Why B?"
Qin Shanshan said, "No reason. It's a fixed phrase."
Chen Guiliang took out his little notebook and copied down the phrase he had long forgotten.
"Are you pursuing Bian Guanyue?" Qin Shanshan asked.
Chen Guiliang smiled. "You guess."
Qin Shanshan wanted to find something interesting to do. "Want me to help? I can ask her out over the weekend."
"Do you think I need help?" Chen Guiliang asked.
Qin Shanshan thought about it. "Seems like you don't. The two of you are pretty close."
After saying that, she lay back down on her desk and let her thoughts drift away again.
In senior year, there were always people who fell into a state of confusion, muddling through every day without knowing what they should do.
--
(While writing this chapter, I suddenly thought of an older woman I knew.)
(She had graduated from a technical secondary school. After her husband died, she returned to her hometown with her son. Her son was in middle school, while she came to high school to fulfill her dream of attending college. She had not touched a textbook in nearly twenty years, yet she got into Sichuan University in her first year, though she did not go. The next year, she audited classes in our class and got into Zhejiang University!)
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