Chen Zhao stood up and handed in his paper under the astonished gazes of everyone in the exam hall, then walked out.
This felt great!
Half an hour of exams, an hour and a half of fun!
Chen Zhao deliberately walked slowly, glancing casually into the other exam halls as he passed. Every student was still hunched over a narrow desk, red-faced and struggling with their test papers. When they saw Chen Zhao walking past the windows in his school uniform, many of them stared in confusion. Most didn't even consider that he might have finished and handed in his paper already. It was far too early—only half an hour had passed, and most people hadn't even finished the multiple-choice questions!
Chen Zhao couldn't go back to his classroom either, since there were still students taking exams inside. After giving it some thought, he remembered that the afternoon exam was Chinese, and his essays were still pretty bad. He headed to the school library, planning to borrow a couple of essay books.
The middle-aged woman in charge of the library was snoring at the desk by the entrance. Chen Zhao didn't disturb her. He slipped inside without a sound, found a copy of One Hundred Perfect Essays for the College Entrance Exam on the shelf, and sat down at a little table by the window to read.
Chen Zhao's memory was now astonishingly good. Anything he read carefully once stayed as clear in his mind as if it had been carved there with a knife. He wouldn't forget it anytime soon.
The essay book looked pretty good, so Chen Zhao began reading it carefully.
One essay.
Two essays.
Five essays.
Ten essays.
After an hour, he had read the entire book, and every word was stored in his mind exactly as it was written. Chen Zhao felt he should be able to manage the Chinese exam that afternoon. The perfect-score essays in the book covered a wide range of topics, and many of them could be adapted to fit different themes. For instance, the book had an essay about "labor." If the exam topic was "diligence," he could make a few changes and use it. Even if the afternoon's essay topic was obscure, he could still borrow a few good sentences or passages from the essays he'd memorized. He could pad it out to a thousand words, and the score probably wouldn't be too low.
After all, it was hard to get a perfect score in a subject like Chinese. The exam was worth 150 points, and Chen Zhao figured that getting 130 or 140 would be good enough for now. He could keep studying Chinese after the exam and aim for a perfect score in the mock exams and the college entrance exam.
After finishing the essay book, there was half an hour left before the exam ended.
Chen Zhao felt a little tired, so he got up and went outside to take a relaxing stroll by the small lake on campus.
As soon as he reached the lake, Chen Zhao realized he wasn't the only one there.
A figure in a long white dress was crouched beside the emerald-green water. She had a ponytail and delicate features, and sunlight filtered through the willow branches to fall all around her.
The view from behind looked familiar. Chen Zhao walked over and saw that it was Zhao Xiaobai, the second-ranked student in the entire school.
"Oh, what are you doing out here? Finished the exam?" Zhao Xiaobai looked up at Chen Zhao, surprised.
"Finished." Chen Zhao nodded. "What are you doing?"
"Feeding the turtles," Zhao Xiaobai said, then lowered her head to watch the water again.
She really was feeding the turtles. She held a little two-yuan bread roll from the school shop, tearing it into small pieces and tossing them into the water. Several palm-sized turtles bobbed on the surface, stretching out their necks to bite the crumbs.
"Why are you feeding the turtles? Are you fattening them up so you can fish them out and make soup?" Chen Zhao asked. "I hear hen-and-turtle soup is delicious."
Zhao Xiaobai suddenly stood up and stomped hard on Chen Zhao's foot.
Chen Zhao yelped in pain.
"It's not for turtle soup! I'm just feeding them!" Zhao Xiaobai was furious. She treasured these little turtles, and now someone wanted to catch them and make soup? How despicable!
"I was just kidding! The little turtles are so cute. Of course I wouldn't stew them!" Chen Zhao quickly backed down.
Zhao Xiaobai crouched down again and continued tearing up the bread to feed the turtles.
Chen Zhao thought feeding turtles was pretty dull. Zhao Xiaobai was beautiful and kind, but the two of them weren't close and didn't have much to talk about. He decided to leave.
Before he could turn around, Zhao Xiaobai spoke again:
"Chen Zhao, what answer did you get for the last big math problem, the second-to-last part?"
Chen Zhao paused. Was this what people meant by comparing answers?
It had been a long time since Chen Zhao had compared answers with his classmates. After every exam, two groups of top students in his class would argue fiercely about whether the first blank should be "6" or "8." Chen Zhao would look down and see that he'd written 1030. Not even close. Once he realized how badly he'd messed up, comparing answers felt like asking for misery. So whenever his classmates started comparing answers, he'd lie face-down on his desk, cover his ears, and shut out the world.
But now he'd leaped into the ranks of the top students. Comparing answers seemed like an exciting activity he could actually take part in.
"I got 681," Chen Zhao said.
Zhao Xiaobai suddenly threw the whole bread roll into the water. The turtles immediately started fighting over it.
"Oh no, I got it wrong," Zhao Xiaobai said glumly.
"Maybe you didn't get it wrong?" Chen Zhao tried to reassure her. "I'm terrible at math. Maybe I'm the one who made a mistake."
To his surprise, Zhao Xiaobai shook her head and said something that astonished him. "I know you're better than me. I'm probably the one who got it wrong."
Chen Zhao scratched his head, a little flattered. He hadn't expected the second-ranked student in the whole school to think so highly of him.
"The math rep in your class was my classmate for all nine years of elementary and middle school. She told me about the two problems the principal gave you. I tried them, and it took me twenty minutes to solve one and half an hour to solve the other." Zhao Xiaobai seemed to notice his surprise and explained, "But you solved them right away, so you must be better at math. A lot better than me."
Chen Zhao immediately understood. So Zhao Xiaobai had tried the problems the principal had given him. That explained it.
"Why did you deliberately do badly on exams for three years?" Zhao Xiaobai stood up and looked at Chen Zhao curiously. "You're clearly capable, but you deliberately perform poorly on tests. Why?"
Chen Zhao thought for a moment and decided to show off a little.
"To temper my character," he said seriously.
"Temper your character?" Zhao Xiaobai looked completely bewildered.
"Humility leads to progress, while pride leads to failure. Failure is the mother of success. Hardship makes people stronger." Chen Zhao launched into one platitude after another. "I want to be someone who doesn't get arrogant in victory or discouraged in defeat. Winning is easy, but failure is rare for me. So I deliberately did badly on exams, to taste what it's like to keep failing. That way, I could temper my character and remind myself to keep learning."
Zhao Xiaobai stared at him, dumbfounded. "That's awesome!"
"There are a few math problems in my notebook that I can't solve. Could you teach me?" Zhao Xiaobai suddenly asked.
Chen Zhao froze. The second-ranked student in the whole school was asking him to explain problems?
"Sure, but I might not know how to solve them." Chen Zhao nodded.
"Let's go to the milk tea shop by the school gate after class. I'll bring my notebook," Zhao Xiaobai suggested.
"Okay." Chen Zhao nodded. The milk tea shop by the school gate also sold fried chicken and burgers. It would be nice to grab lunch there. And explaining a few problems to Zhao Xiaobai would be no trouble.
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