The afternoon sun slanted into Class D's classroom, and there was a lazy and noisy atmosphere in the air.
There are still a few days before the end of the month, but the students obviously have not shown any restraint due to the special nature of this time point.
It's been a while since the bell was rung, but the classroom is still noisy.
Some people are lying on the table to catch up on their sleep, some are blatantly playing games on their mobile phones, and some are gathering in small groups to chat about last night's animation and late-night snacks.
Someone else was playing a popular music video on the multimedia screen in the classroom. The volume was turned up quite loudly, which made several sleeping students mutter dissatisfiedly, but no one actually turned it off.
Sae Chabashira walked into the classroom with unhurried steps amidst such noise.
She was wearing a pressed teacher's suit, holding a stack of test papers in her hand, with an indifferent expression, as if she was accustomed to the chaotic scene in front of her.
She did not slap the podium hard to maintain order like teachers in other classes, nor did she raise her voice to reprimand the students. She just stood on the podium and scanned the classroom with her somewhat alienated eyes.
The noise subsided a little, but it still wasn't completely quiet.
"Give me some peace--"
Sae Chabashira spoke, his voice not loud, but with a cold and penetrating power, "I need you to take the class a little more seriously today."
"What's going on--Teacher Sae?"
A boy sitting in the front row raised his hand with a playful smile and spoke in an overly friendly tone, "Why are you suddenly so serious today? Is there something good you want to announce?"
"Because, this is the last week of this month, and at the end of the month, we have to take a quiz."
Sae Chabashira did not answer his question. He just handed the test paper to the student sitting in the first row and said, "Pass it to the back."
The students in the first row were stunned for a moment, as if they didn't expect a test to pop up suddenly, but they still took the test paper, turned around and started passing it to the back.
Stacks of white test papers were passed between the desks, accompanied by murmurs of surprise and dissatisfaction.
Soon after, all the students got a test paper with the questions printed on it.
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji was sitting in the second to last row by the window and looked down at the test paper in his hand - the questions from the five main subjects were divided into five areas, and each subject had several small questions.
There are not many in number, and the layout does not look complicated. It really looks like a "quiz".
But the dissatisfied voices in the classroom suddenly exploded.
"Hey--I never heard of an exam! How cunning--"
"Yes, why do we need to take the exam? Teacher, at least give us some hints in advance! We don't even have time to review!"
"That's right! I was playing games with other people until the early hours last night! My points are almost used up. Only by winning can I get some living expenses. How can I have time to read a book!"
Complaints flowed to the podium like a tide, and the students' faces were full of dissatisfaction and protest - as if this exam was a great offense to them.
Sae Chabashira Faced with these complaints, his expression remained unchanged.
She spoke calmly, her tone as calm as if she was stating a trivial matter. "Don't say that. This test will only be used as a reference for the future and will not be reflected on the transcript. It will not cause any risk to you, so don't worry."
She glanced around the classroom and lowered her voice a bit. "Of course, cheating is strictly prohibited during the exam. You all know this."
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the classroom changed instantly, as if someone pressed a switch.
"Oh - that's no problem! I was shocked, I thought it was some important exam!"
"It won't be recorded on the transcript? Then it's okay if I don't write it? It won't matter anyway. To be honest, I'm really tired from playing games. I want to take a nap..."
"Ah - the above questions look so difficult. Just write them down casually. It won't affect your grades anyway."
It was as if a heavy burden had been lifted off the students. Their originally tense expressions instantly relaxed and they resumed their lazy demeanor.
Some people even threw their pens on the table and lay down to catch up on their sleep.
But Kiyotaka Ayanokouji did not let down his guard.
He looked down at the test paper in his hand and frowned slightly.
His intuition told him that there seemed to be some unusual information hidden in Sae Chabashira's words just now.
"Generally speaking, grades will only affect the transcript. However, what Chabashira-sensei said is a little different - 'It will not be reflected on the transcript.' This statement seems to imply that the grades will be reflected on something other than the transcript..."
He raised his head and quietly observed the classmates around him - but no one showed similar doubts as him.
Some of the students were spinning their pens, some were in a daze, and some had already begun to scribble answers on the test paper, looking completely absent-minded.
He glanced at Sae Chabashira on the podium again - she was leaning beside the podium, looking out the window with an indifferent expression, as if there was an invisible wall between the students in this classroom and her.
"But... I probably think too much. Since it won't affect your transcript, there's no need to be so vigilant."
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji said to himself silently in his heart, suppressing the vague uneasiness temporarily.
The quiz officially begins.
He lowered his head and scanned all the test questions - Chinese, Mathematics, English, Science, and Social Studies. There were four questions in each subject, a total of twenty questions.
Each question is worth five points, with a total score of one hundred points.
"The difficulty of the questions... are quite simple. They are even about two levels lower than the questions in the entrance exam."
"But this is strange - generally speaking, after receiving a month of high school education, the test questions you face should be more in-depth than during the entrance exam, but the difficulty of this test paper has actually been reduced..."
While he was thinking in his mind, he turned the test paper to the last few questions.
Then his eyes froze.
The difficulty of the last three questions is completely different from the first seventeen questions.
The last question in mathematics - it is impossible to solve it without listing a rather complicated formula.
The last reading question in English uses a lot of uncommon vocabulary and has very complex grammatical structures. Its level of difficulty is not at all what first-year high school students should be exposed to.
The last question of Mandarin is similar, and the depth of the content examined goes far beyond the scope of classroom lectures.
"This... the difficulty of these questions is indeed extraordinary. It doesn't look like it can be solved by a first-year high school student. Moreover, it is clearly said that it will not affect the score - so what exactly is this test measuring?"
He pondered for a moment and finally made a decision.
"Forget it - I'll just be the same as I was during the entrance exam. Keep the same pace - not too good, not too bad."
He suppressed this doubt in his heart and began to write to answer the questions.
What is a little surprising is that today's Sae Chabashira seems to be a little more responsible than usual.
She did not sit behind the podium and play with her cell phone or correct homework as usual after handing out the test papers. Instead, she began to pace slowly in the classroom, glancing back and forth among the students, monitoring with extreme vigilance whether anyone was cheating.
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji took advantage of the gap when she passed by him, and without being considered as cheating, he quietly glanced at the figure of Suzune Horikita sitting diagonally in front of him.
She held a ball pen in her right hand, and the pen tip moved on the test paper with almost no pause. Lines of answers appeared smoothly in the answer column, and it seemed as if she could easily get full marks.
Her expression was focused and calm, as if this quiz was just a trivial matter in her daily course and not worth her extra emotion.
When the bell rang for the end of get out of class, Sae Chabashira announced the order to stop writing.
She asked the students sitting in the first row to help collect the test papers, but each of the students was still immersed in their own little world.
Some were discussing what to eat for lunch, some were debating the outcome of last night's game, and some were already carrying their schoolbags and preparing to rush to the cafeteria - no one took the initiative to reach out to help collect the papers.
Suzune Horikita also stood up neatly when the bell rang, put the test paper on the podium, and then left the classroom without looking back, walking calmly, the direction was obviously Student Cafeteria.
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji just stood up from his seat, and before he could take a step forward, two figures blocked his way, one on the left and one on the right.
"Eeeeeee--Ayanokouji!"
Hiro Ikechi winked and came up to him, "I saw it just now - you secretly looked at little Suzune! You must be copying her test paper! How nice that she was willing to show you the answers!"
"That's right!"
Haruki Yamauchi also helped, with a joking expression on his face that said, "I caught you!" "Did you secretly talk about something in class again? Talk about something you can't tell us? For example - a date? A date? Or a date?! Ahhh, I'm so jealous!"
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji looked at these two living treasures with a blank expression, and his tone was as calm as a glass of boiled water. "No, she didn't show me the answer. I just glanced at her casually."
"I don't believe it! I don't believe it!"
Hiro Ikechi covered her chest exaggeratedly, "How could a beautiful girl like little Suzune be nice to you for no reason! The only one in this school who can win the favor of a beautiful girl is my Kushida!"
"What's your Kushida! That's my Kushida!"
Haruki Yamauchi immediately retorted dissatisfiedly, and the two began to argue over a girl who did not belong to either of them, and they were noisy, as usual.
Kiyotaka Ayanokouji Looking at this familiar scene in front of him, his heart was not as calm as usual.
He always felt that something was quietly changing in this seemingly peaceful daily life.
The change was so subtle that almost no one noticed it.
But he still caught the signal.
This quiz at the end of the month will never be as simple as it seems.