Don't Doubt Your Students

Teacher Gao did not dare say the word outright, only hinting, "There may be a problem with this exam."

Teacher Zhao flipped through the answer sheets and, after examining them carefully, said, "Teacher Gao, you're overthinking it. Don't you know the students at Heaven Origin? They have the nerve to cause trouble, but there's no way they'd have the nerve to cheat."

The moment he finished speaking, a teacher beside him immediately changed expression and tried to come over and cover Teacher Zhao's mouth.

However, Teacher Zhao gave the other person's chair a light kick, sending him sliding away out of reach.

Patting the grade sheet in his hand, Teacher Zhao said calmly, "Besides, I spot-checked the scoring. Most of the points were gained in multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. Their Talisman Arts scores improved noticeably, but their scores on essays, major math problems, and compositions remained unchanged. Compositions were the hardest-hit area. The content was all sorts of bizarre things, nothing like they knew the questions beforehand."

Teacher Gao's expression immediately improved considerably, but he still uneasily pulled out a dozen or so papers to inspect. Only then did he nod in relief.

"Indeed, I was hasty. The scoring pattern clearly doesn't match a leaked exam. My initial judgment was too rash."

Teacher Gao sat down shamefully and looked at his chalk-covered hands. "As teachers, we should trust our students unconditionally. But when I saw their grades improve, my first reaction wasn't happiness, but suspicion that the questions had leaked. It seems I'm still not steadfast enough."

"Me too." A young teacher raised his hand with a bitter smile. "I suspected them too."

"Me too. I really want to slap myself twice."

"I feel like I've wronged the students."

"Good thing we didn't rashly ask them about it. Otherwise, really... sigh."

"When I get back, I need to reflect on this properly for an hour, then punish myself by making another set of questions for the students. If a teacher doesn't trust their students, what kind of teacher am I?"

Teacher Zhao smiled. "To be honest, I wavered too. Their grades improved so suddenly and by so much that anyone would think something was wrong. But setting aside the fact that there isn't a problem, even if there were, it would have something to do with our usual education. Heaven Origin is too obsessed with scores now. It's as if students have no other way out if they can't test their way upward. In that environment, anyone might take a desperate risk."

Teacher Gao gave a bitter laugh. "Isn't that the truth? Other than testing their way out, what other path do cultivators from Heaven Origin have?"

"...That's true."

After a long silence, Teacher Zhao clapped his hands. "All right, everyone, now isn't the time to be discouraged. Improved student grades are a good thing, so we should celebrate. How about treating the students to iced lemonade? Sports High School's lemonade is delicious."

Teacher Gao nodded. "Sure. Two dollars a cup, so we just need to pool together twenty-four hundred."

"No need!" Teacher Zhao waved grandly. "I did some private work a while ago and earned two thousand mana. I'll pay for it!"

Teacher Gao immediately became interested. "What kind of side job pays that well? You actually earned two thousand mana."

Teacher Zhao crossed his arms proudly. "I made a Dreamscape for a student and helped improve the students' sports grades while I was at it. That student of mine is incredible. His Dreamscape... wait!"

A flash of inspiration struck Teacher Zhao, and he suddenly felt that he had caught onto something.

Could this be my student's doing again?

But after thinking it over, he felt it was unlikely.

Even a first-rate Dream Maker might not be able to create two outstanding Dreamscapes in a row, let alone a novice.

Yet, somewhere deep down, he had a feeling that this really might have something to do with Chen Yu.

However, he still had to enter grades with the other teachers, then report and reward the outstanding students. This matter could only be set aside for now and dealt with later.

The grades were entered that night and sent to every student's phone the next day.

The moment Liu Qing saw her score, she excitedly found Chen Yu and said, "Eighty! I scored above eighty in cultural studies for the first time ever!"

"I scored above forty for the first time too!" Ma Daqiang said excitedly from the side. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river. Who says I can't score above forty in this life?"

"It's east and west of the river," Chen Yu corrected helplessly. "With your intelligence, I'm not very convinced by your score."

"Whatever, I scored above forty anyway! My treat today. Let's splurge and go to Forty Without Doubt!"

"Don't even think about it!"

Chen Yu pulled up his own grades and saw that his cultural studies score had only risen by one point, reaching ninety-four.

He knew that once a score was above ninety, improving by even one point was already remarkable. But compared with everyone else's gains of nine or ten points, this little progress still was not enough.

After reviewing his grades, Chen Yu felt that he would need to make up for labor later.

Although his grades had not improved as much as he hoped, he had accumulated quite a lot of emotions.

Negative Emotions had already reached ninety-five thousand. He was just a little short of filling it up.

The increase had not been very fast recently, which was related to the exams.

But now that the exams were over, everyone could continue playing Dreamscapes. He would definitely harvest a huge wave of Negative Emotions and make money easily.

Just as Chen Yu was about to let out a "heh heh heh," he saw Teacher Zhao stride in while carrying a box on his shoulder.

Setting down the box, Teacher Zhao said, "Everyone did well on this exam, so I'm treating you all to lemonade!"

"Long live Teacher Zhao!"

"Teacher Zhao, we adore you!"

"Teacher Zhao, I actually have multiple personalities. Can I take two extra cups?"

After forcing everyone to take only one cup each, Teacher Zhao glanced at Chen Yu and said, "Chen Yu, get ready."

"Get ready for what?"

"The top student in cultural studies from each school needs to give a speech and share their experience. People from Culture High School will be coming later too. Prepare properly, and don't embarrass us."

Chen Yu looked at him helplessly. "...Teacher Zhao, why didn't you tell me after it was over?"

"It was decided at the last minute. This exam really went pretty well, so the teachers decided to have a last-minute exchange and see what happened."

"Oh."

Chen Yu casually searched for some material on his phone, then used the skills he had gained from writing weekly reports to put together some empty pleasantries. After thanking everyone in the school from top to bottom, he felt it was about enough.

When it was time for the morning exercise break, everyone laughingly made their way to the sports field.

Chen Yu left the main group and went to the preparation room behind the sports field platform, idly waiting for the upcoming speech.

Though he was waiting for the speech, all his attention was focused on his Constitution. He hoped his emotion points would rise faster, because their slow growth was making him anxious.

As a result, he did not notice a graceful girl, so beautiful that she could make people forget to breathe, walk in. She sat beside him for a while and looked through the speech he had prepared.

Then she left, walked openly to the front of the platform, and said softly, "Hello, everyone. I'm Wang Chuyun, a student from Class One, Grade Two of Culture High School."