The meeting with Deng Zixin's father, Deng Tiejun, was set for next Saturday evening. Chen Zhao would have finished his exams by then and would be free.
The next day, when Chen Zhao arrived at school, the classroom was already buzzing during morning study.
He listened and realized they were all talking about last weekend's exams:
"Holy crap, that physics problem was insanely hard!"
"Chemistry was freaking hard too! What the hell were those questions?"
"Biology nearly killed me. It was all those tiny-print bits in the textbook, and I barely memorized any of them. I wrote a whole bunch of stuff down, but I wasn't confident about a single answer!"
"The Chinese essay prompt was ridiculous. 'Persuade people to study'—who could write a good essay about that? The only thing I know how to persuade people to do is go to an internet café!"
"The big math problems nearly killed me. Whoever wrote that exam, I promise I won't kill you!"
Chen Zhao shrugged. From his classmates' reactions, it was clear the exam had been unusually difficult. A lot of people thought the questions were awful. Chen Zhao didn't feel that way, though. Apart from English, he thought he'd done pretty well in every subject.
The total was 750 points. Chen Zhao estimated... he'd probably get around 670 or 680?
"How do you think you did on the exams the other day?" Xu Lanlan nudged Chen Zhao with her elbow. "Think you can get past second-to-last place?"
"Second-to-last?" Chen Zhao laughed, sounding incredibly cocky. "I wouldn't settle for second place. I'm going for first!"
A few students in front heard him and turned around, laughing. Clearly, they thought he was talking big.
"Forget all that. How many points do you think you got?" Xu Lanlan asked. "I think I'll get close to 380. Can you beat me?"
"Probably around 670 or 680," Chen Zhao replied honestly.
The students in front laughed even louder.
"Boring." Xu Lanlan stopped talking to Chen Zhao. She'd asked him a serious question, but he kept bragging, and it was making her angry.
Even though Chen Zhao had stunned Xu Lanlan with his performance in math class and shown her his incredible memorization skills, she still didn't think he'd improve quickly. Exams weren't just about memorizing textbooks or solving a few difficult problems; they took years of steady work. Xu Lanlan figured he could probably break into the top ten from the bottom, but climbing any higher would take more time.
Chen Zhao felt a little helpless. After all, he'd always been near the bottom, so it wasn't realistic to expect everyone to believe he could come first. It was only natural that they'd laugh at him. But once the results came out, he figured a lot of people wouldn't be laughing anymore.
Just then, the classroom's chatter abruptly stopped, and the whole class quickly switched to reading their textbooks.
Chen Zhao looked up. Sure enough, the homeroom teacher had come in and was standing at the front of the room, looking down over the class. She had an imposing presence that commanded respect without a word.
Chen Zhao pretended to read along, too. He might have done well, but he was still a student and had to keep his head down.
The homeroom teacher suddenly spoke:
"Quiet down. I'm going to read out the results."
The classroom fell silent at once, and everyone looked up at her.
"Our class's results fluctuated quite a bit this time. A lot of students who'd been making steady progress suddenly dropped. And some students who'd always had stable rankings suddenly didn't. I don't know what's going wrong with your studies, so figure it out yourselves! The college entrance exams are coming up soon. If you're still slacking off and muddling through, you'd better get out of here!"
The homeroom teacher's shout rang through the classroom. Most of the students kept their heads down, putting on a meek show of turning over a new leaf. They all knew how they'd done.
"Of course, if some people fell, others climbed up." The homeroom teacher changed tack.
"For example, our class finally has a student who ranked first in the whole grade!" The homeroom teacher smiled.
The top students seated at the front of the classroom immediately stirred. Many of them looked startled! First place in the whole grade wasn't easy to get. It was the highest honor, and meant a ticket to Peking University or Tsinghua University! From the first exam in their freshman year of high school to now, no one in their class had even made the top three in the grade. And now, someone had suddenly come out of nowhere to take first. Who was this incredible person?
Liu Chang, who ranked third in the class, looked at Zhang Shucheng, who was second.
Zhang Shucheng shook his head. "I bombed math. It definitely wasn't me."
Zhang Shucheng looked over at Chen Miaoran.
Chen Miaoran stared with her mouth hanging open, her eyes filled with both shock and intense anticipation!
She thought she'd done pretty well this time. There were a few questions she hadn't felt sure about, but overall, she'd done a good job. Could she... have somehow ended up first in the grade? Chen Miaoran's best result had been tenth in the grade. She'd been so excited that night she hadn't been able to sleep. If she managed to take first this time, she'd probably have another sleepless night!
Chen Miaoran hurriedly went over the exams in her mind. The more she thought about them, the more possible it seemed! Overall, she'd done pretty well. And when she thought about it, who else in the class could take first besides her?
It had to be me! Chen Miaoran was so excited that her fingers began to tremble.
Chen Miaoran looked up at the homeroom teacher, hoping to see approval and pride in her eyes.
But the homeroom teacher wasn't looking down at her. Instead... she was gazing toward a corner in the very back of the classroom?
"This time, first place in the whole grade—and first in our class—goes to Chen Zhao!" The homeroom teacher enunciated each word clearly, her voice excited. "He scored a full 703 points!"
"Let's give Chen Zhao a big round of applause! After three years of hard work, he's finally shown what he's capable of!" The homeroom teacher finished and began clapping!
The whole class joined in, their applause roaring like a mighty river!
But as they clapped, nearly everyone looked completely dumbfounded!
Chen Zhao?
First in the class?
First in the grade!
What was going on?! 703 points? Chen Zhao, the last-place student in the class, had scored 703?
Chen Miaoran was stunned. Zhang Shucheng was stunned. Liu Chang was stunned. All the top students in the front were stunned!
The students sitting in front of Chen Zhao looked like their eyes were about to pop out. Just a few minutes earlier, they'd laughed at him and thought he was bragging. They hadn't realized he was stating a fact!
Xu Lanlan turned to stare at Chen Zhao as if she were looking at a god, her mouth wide enough to fit an orange. She knew what her classmate was like: he never did his homework and slept through class. He'd only started studying seriously a few days ago. It made sense that a few days of effort could earn him ten more points; even a few dozen was understandable. But how could he suddenly gain several hundred?!
Chen Zhao's face flushed with excitement. Even he was surprised by the result. He'd thought he'd get around 670 or 680, and would have been happy with that. He hadn't expected to break 700 and score 703!
"Let's go over Chen Zhao's scores in each subject. Listen carefully and learn from him," the homeroom teacher said.
"Chinese: full marks, 150!"
A chorus of "Holy crap!" rose from the class. That was a brutal opening blow. Getting full marks in other subjects was one thing, but full marks in Chinese was truly shocking. It meant Chen Zhao had written a perfect essay!
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