"Math: perfect score."
Ma Shicheng stared at Jiang Ning's test paper, the corner of his mouth twitching.
He put down his phone and looked at his own 48-point paper. Ma Shicheng fell silent.
His composure was gone.
Yet this was only the beginning. From that class onward, as scores from more and more subjects came in, Ma Shicheng gradually went numb.
"Jiang Ning, aren't you going to take first place in the grade?"
Geng Lu was deeply worried. At first, she had thought Jiang Ning's grades were about the same as hers and had even considered sitting with him.
When the Chinese test papers came back, she had remained optimistic. But as Jiang Ning's scores were revealed one by one, she started becoming anxious. With grades this high, Jiang Ning might end up transferring to the Experimental Class.
By then, forget sitting together—they would not even be in the same class. She could not keep calm anymore.
Until that morning, when the sunlight was just right.
All the subject scores had been released, but the students of Class 8 had already come to terms with reality.
Chen Qian, Dong Qingfeng, and the others stopped talking about grades altogether and instead became unusually modest.
A display board had been set up in the open area outside Class 8, with the first-year Monthly Exam rankings posted on it.
Xue Yuantong stood firmly at the top—first in the grade, and first in every subject.
Several students from Experimental Class 1 stood before the board. Lin Zida said to an average-height, ordinary-looking boy beside him, "Du Chuan, you're not much good, are you? How did you only get second?"
Du Chuan said, "Next time. Next time, I'll be first."
"That's pathetic," Lin Zida said. "I think Principal Yu made a bad investment."
After the