Chapter 8: From a small town
For Xiao Yunyun, history changed the moment Su Can walked through the door. Life at Rongcheng No. 27 Middle School was dull and tedious, with everyone desperately racing ahead and competing over grades. That competitive drive came from a sense of superiority shared by everyone at the school, something akin to being "unbeatable in the province."
In fact, No. 27 Middle School did represent the highest standard of regular secondary education in the province. Students who ranked first or second in their classes and in the top ten of their year at ordinary high schools in prefectural cities and counties would amount to no more than another nameless extra here.
The students at No. 27 Middle School were undoubtedly medium-range guided missiles with their targets already set on the launchpad. Launched from within China, they could at least break through the second island chain and hit Guam.
Their targets were also the country's very best universities, and they harbored the ambition of becoming part of the lifeblood flowing through every facet of society's uppermost tiers. Inevitably, most were proud and self-assured. Among them were the top students of each class, as well as privileged children from powerful families, the offspring of high-ranking officials within and outside the province, or of well-known entrepreneurs.
The waters ran deep, the forests dense. Hidden talents abounded.
After transferring to Rongcheng No. 27 Middle School, Xiao Yunyun seemed rather ordinary among its students. Perhaps her looks gave her a slight advantage, but in her current class of eighty, she was hardly the most outstanding. At the very least, she would have to rank behind the top five or six.
Before she transferred in, the centers of the class's various social circles had already formed. Broadly speaking, they fell into