Rapid Progress

The monthly exam—something that had become routine in senior year.

Maybe by then, exams would feel as ordinary as home-cooked meals, more commonplace than commonplace.

So, really, there was no need to care too much about ranking once or twice.

What mattered at this point was finding and making up for one's shortcomings, seeing which areas were weak, and taking advantage of every moment to improve them.

Sure enough, the senior division of Jinghuai No. 1 High School soon held another monthly exam.

The monthly exam followed the same format as the Gaokao: Chinese and math on the first day, science and English on the second.

During the evening self-study session after the exam, the teachers all went to grade the papers, while the students studied on their own in the classroom.

But when the teachers left, they did so in the least reassuring way possible, insisting on writing the answers on the blackboard for the students to check themselves.

It was practically torture.

During the evening self-study session after the English exam, the blackboard displayed all the correct answers for the science exam and English.

The students wailed as they checked their answers.

Lu Shuai marked off each answer one by one, smugly claiming that he had probably done well on the science exam this time.

His deskmate, Li Pingqiu, was as composed as ever, gentle and refined with a smile on his face. After checking everything, he let out a relieved breath.

Hmm, looks like I did pretty well too.

Ding Yebai's female deskmate wore every emotion plainly on her face.

She snickered happily whenever she got one right, then frowned painfully and muttered regretfully for several sentences whenever she got one wrong.

Ding Yebai propped up his chin and lazily swept his eyes across the answers on the blackboard. Then he raised his brows slightly and exhaled with confidence.

Ugh, I get the highest science score in class every time. What a headache.

"Hey, Ye Bai, I'll probably get around 285 on the science exam, assuming nothing unexpected happens," Lu Shuai said, turning to him.

Ding Yebai looked at him directly, his expression calm. "I estimate at least 298?"

Lu Shuai wasn't very surprised. After all, this was Ding Yebai.

He patted Li Pingqiu on the shoulder and asked, "What about you?"

Li Pingqiu told him with a beaming smile, "I estimate 293."

"Damn, that high?" Lu Shuai made no attempt to hide his admiration.

His female deskmate said, "Oh my gosh. Are you really that amazing?"

Li Pingqiu was quite modest. "Actually, I only did all right on the science exam."

Ding Yebai watched the three of them from the side. After a while, he suddenly said, "Anyone who can get into Jinghuai University is pretty amazing."

Li Pingqiu said, "Ah, looks like that was a double entendre."

Lu Shuai said, "You also complimented that older sister in your family."

Li Pingqiu: "..."

Ding Yebai: "Hmm?"

He abruptly raised his eyes and looked at the three pairs of eyes before him. He even began to panic, quickly picking up his pen and pretending to work out a problem. "I wasn't talking about her. I was simply complimenting Li Pingqiu."

He paused, then continued in a low voice, "A graduate student at Jinghuai University would be even more impressive, right?"

Lu Shuai said, "Huh? I remember Ding Yuerong isn't a graduate student."

Ding Yebai: "Huh?"

Li Pingqiu: "..."

His female deskmate: "..."

Ding Yebai said, "So you were talking about my older sister? Ding Yuerong?"

Lu Shuai blinked his large eyes, his face full of confusion. "Who else would I be talking about?"

Ding Yebai chuckled and shook his head. "It's nothing. No one. Go on and check your answers."

The four of them had originally planned to discuss their English scores, but a school leader happened to come by for an inspection, so they hurriedly lowered their heads and pretended to study.

They had only just finished the exam that day, yet the results began coming out one after another the next day.

The class representatives carried the papers over and handed them out to the students one by one.

He remembered how his heart had risen and fallen back then, as if it were about to leap out of his chest.

Ding Yebai took the papers he had been given and silently calculated his total score. "Chinese 120, math 150, science 300, Eng—"

"Damn, I got 99 in English!" Lu Shuai said brightly, holding his English paper as he looked at Ding Yebai.

Ding Yebai looked confused and said nothing.

Lu Shuai said, "I got 120 in Chinese, 145 in math, and 290 in science. Although you're 15 points ahead of me right now—hmph—but I'll definitely score higher than you in English. Once that makes up the difference, my total score should be higher than yours."

His female deskmate said, "Oh, nice, Lu Shuai. You got 99 in English this time."

Lu Shuai said, "Of course. I've put in a lot of effort and studied for ages, all right?"

His female deskmate nodded, then looked at Ding Yebai with some sympathy. "Ding Yebai, you'd better watch out. Lu Shuai has improved in English this time. What about you? How much did you get in English?"

"Yeah, yeah, how much did you get?" Lu Shuai also looked at him expectantly.

Although Li Pingqiu had his back to them, he was actually listening very carefully to their scores.

Ding Yebai blinked, calmly picked up his paper, and said, "116."

"What?????" Lu Shuai widened his eyes in disbelief, snatched over his paper, and practically wished he could press his two enormous eyeballs against that bright red score.

"It really is 116!!! Damn, your improvement is lightning-fast."

His female deskmate giggled as she looked at Ding Yebai. "I told you your tutoring would be useful. It's only been a month, and you've already broken your long-standing curse of scoring in the eighties or nineties and reached 116."

Li Pingqiu turned around and smiled at Ding Yebai. "You have to admit, Ding Yebai, it's not that you can't learn English. You simply never studied it."

Ding Yebai was secretly delighted, but his face remained cold and aloof. "It was only one test. It would be better if I could score higher on every exam from now on."

Lu Shuai said, "By that calculation, you're still higher than me."

His female deskmate beamed at Lu Shuai. "Work harder next time."

Ding Yebai's gaze fell on Li Pingqiu. He asked, "What about you? How much did you get?"

Li Pingqiu raised his brows and looked at Ding Yebai. In an unhurried voice, he said, "The same as you."

Ding Yebai nodded. "Oh."

Li Pingqiu said with a faint smile, "I should score higher than you next time."

"That's not necessarily true." Ding Yebai raised one brow, replying with absolute confidence.

Thanks to Molu for the 4,500 Origin Point Coins reward.