This time, the handwriting was Juan Xiu’s.
—There are always more solutions than problems. Sister Nian’s future is incredibly bright!
“???” Gu San craned his neck to read it once again. Having read two of those notes, he was getting confused. He turned to ask Liang Bowen, “What have you guys written, why don’t I understand a thing?”
Liang Bowen intuitively turned to look at Qiao Nian. He wasn’t planning to talk about it, but with Gu San repeatedly asking, he had to say it tactfully. “Previously, we called Sister Nian to ask about her results and she said she couldn’t gauge it. Everyone felt bad and worried for her. But the College Entrance Examination is approaching and there are no school breaks anymore, so the rest of them couldn’t come. Thus, I came alone.”
On that note, he turned to look at Qiao Nian. He looked a bit shy, like a young man who was inept at expressing himself. But more than anything, he was determined to carry out the mission well, since the class depended on him. Liang Bowen clenched his fists and said in a serious tone, “Sister Nian, that examination wasn’t your only chance, we still have our College Entrance Examination to go. It’s alright if you don’t do well this time, it doesn’t mean anything. We can work hard together for the College Entrance Examination. We’ll be alright!”
Qiao Nian’s eyes were dark, and she didn’t say a thing about how she felt. It was already October, and the weather was cool, but she felt warm and fuzzy deep down. She held the bottle close to her and turned around, asking him, “Who told you I didn’t do well?”
Liang Bowen thought that she was trying to hide her vulnerability, and his mood sank along with hers. “Nobody told us that you didn’t do well, we guessed it ourselves. I had my call with you on speaker mode, and everyone heard that you were unable to gauge your score...”
Not being able to gauge a score basically meant that one did not do well. If anyone felt that they did well, they would have a rough gauge of what grades to expect.
If Qiao Nian couldn’t even figure out how many marks she could score, it must mean that she had done badly.
Gu San couldn’t bear it anymore and cut him off with a look of incredulity. “So, you guys heard Miss Qiao say over the phone that she wasn’t able to gauge her score, and you flew all the way to Beijing to comfort her in person?”
“What’s wrong with that?” Liang Bowen asked him in return.
Gu San’s expression was a mix of many emotions. He shook his head. “...Nothing’s wrong with that.”
He knew that Qiao Nian was on good terms with her classmates, but he didn’t expect their relationship to be so close that they would send someone to comfort her because they were worried she’d be disappointed in herself. This was good... but it also seemed wrong.
They were comforting the wrong person!
Would the top student of Qing University need any comforting?!
“Uh, did it not cross your minds that Miss Qiao might have been unable to gauge her score because she did too well?”
Liang Bowen was stunned. “What does that mean?”
She did well but couldn’t gauge her score?
Gu San had no idea how to explain it to him. Seeing the luggage he had brought along, Gu San was caught between laughter and tears. “So... you know when people do too well, they won’t be able to figure out whether they’ll be able to score the last few marks. For instance, if you’re scoring about 650, you wouldn’t know whether the teacher would award you the last few marks.”
He said it so plainly, it was as if he had experienced it himself. But the fact was that he was in Liang Bowen’s shoes the day before, thinking that Qiao Nian had not done well.
He wouldn’t have thought that Qiao Nian could score full marks!
Liang Bowen was stunned initially, then a little confused. Then, he stared at Qiao Nian in a daze and took a long while to find his voice. Even when he spoke, his voice was hoarse, and he struggled to vocalize his thoughts. “Sister Nian, you scored 650?”
Sister Nian hadn’t scored 150 or 350 marks as they had guessed, but 650 marks?!