At this moment, the math teacher walked in briskly, and everyone’s eyes were fixed on the few exam papers in his hand.
"Look at this, this is Jiang Lai’s score this time."
The math teacher’s tone was a bit excited. He tried to control it, but he clearly couldn’t.
He laid the papers one by one in front of the dean, and his fingers heavily tapped on the scores on the math paper.
"Math score, look at this math score!"
Behind him, Jiang Qu couldn’t help but look repeatedly, but could only vaguely see a series of red marks, like checks, but possibly crosses. With so many marks, it couldn’t all be checks, most likely crosses.
She felt relieved.
The dean glanced through the papers, then bowed his head, picked up a pen, calculated on paper, and finally frowned, taking off his glasses to look at Jiang Lai.
"Was this done independently?"
"Dean, what are you implying! This monthly test was so strict, who else could have done it but her? Besides, with this paper, who else besides me could get such a score?"
Upon hearing this, a few people waiting to watch the drama all crowded over, seemingly at the same time.
Jiang Qu followed from behind, casually took a glance, and that glance made her face turn pale, her heart stopped abruptly, and the almost suffocating feeling made her carefully look through the papers one by one.
Math, one hundred and seventeen.
Chinese, one hundred and three.
English, one hundred.
The rest of the science and politics, history, she couldn’t look carefully anymore, because almost every subject’s score was unbelievably excellent.
Are these Jiang Lai’s papers?!
She eagerly picked up a nearby English paper, and sure enough, it had Jiang Lai’s name, and indeed a full score of one hundred. Even in the hardest part of English-Chinese translation, Jiang Lai scored full marks!
English does have a lower weight, and freshman English is relatively easier, but she achieved a perfect score!
Jiang Qu felt a blackness before her eyes, barely able to stand steadily. When she came to her senses from someone calling her, she raised her head, and an extremely strange expression was fully exposed on her face, startling the boy nearest to her into a tremble.
"Jiang Qu, what’s wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?"
Hearing this, Jiang Qu nodded.
"Teacher, I might be having a low blood sugar episode, I’m feeling a bit dizzy."
Their class teacher was about to let her go rest when she was stopped by Jiang Lai.
"Here, I’ve got some candy, have a piece to hold you over, let’s wait for the dean’s resolution and leave together."
Jiang Qu gave Jiang Lai a look, one that carried a bit of resentment.
Jiang Lai smiled, having achieved scores like this she had to be arrogant, otherwise, how could she live up to her unruly sister persona?
The dean put his glasses back on.
"Jiang Lai did exceptionally well this time, she likely secured the top spot in the grade stably. And this is despite falling behind by a month, showing how much effort and sweat she must put in regularly!"
The two boys behind dropped their heads and dared not speak.
The girl who had been clamoring for Jiang Lai to drop out also dared not speak.
And Jiang Qu, pale-faced, sat beside, continuing to play the role of someone having low blood sugar.
"Jiang Qu! Lying is extremely bad, not to mention borrowing idle books and slandering Jiang Lai, this time you will..."
"Dean, during the last monthly test, Jiang Qu also did well. No matter what, wait till after her college entrance exams before making a decision."
The dean stopped mid-sentence.
Indeed, Jiang Qu was also a promising student aiming for a good school. Losing one would reduce the top enrollment rate, which would be a loss.
"Considering your diligent attitude towards studies, apologize to Jiang Lai, write a reflection and submit it to me! Also, bring your parents here, this matter must be handled seriously!"
In the end, the two boys had it bad. Not only were they criticized, but one got expelled and the other was retained, making Jiang Qu’s punishment seem like nothing.
Such unfair treatment, even though both had once been fond of Jiang Qu, they couldn’t help but feel resentment after getting harshly punished because she was caught borrowing books. They sneered coldly as they left the office.
"No wonder you always asked to borrow books, turns out you were afraid your sister would score better than you."
Jiang Qu kept silent, maintaining a fragile, pained look.
The other boy, feeling a little sympathy, said nothing in the end and packed up to leave.
But the incident of Jiang Qu borrowing idle books and slandering her own sister spread in school, and those who were once friendly with her now deliberately avoided her.
As for Jiang Lai, her one triumphant monthly test, the class teacher wanted to move her from the last row to the middle of the first row to sit with the class president, but was rejected by Jiang Lai.
"I like thinking at the back, and Cheng Lie’s math skills are excellent, greatly benefiting my math studies."
As for Cheng Lie, this monthly test again put him in the second-to-last in the class.
Full marks of one hundred and twenty in math, twelve in English, over thirty in Chinese, and no matter how excellent his sciences were, they couldn’t make up for his appallingly poor humanities, solidifying his hold on the second-to-last position in class.
"You’ve been repeating the year for three years, haven’t you?"
Cheng Lie, at twenty, had been repeating freshman year for three years, like a permanent fixture in the class.
"Yes, bad grades, can’t be helped."
"Then why do you keep studying? It’s a waste of time, you might as well go do something else."
Cheng Lie glanced at her, giving a light laugh.
For the first time, someone was advising him to do something other than studying.
"What else is there to do if not study?"
"Go into business, the market is so promising now, you seem smart enough."
"Hah..."
Cheng Lie scoffed at himself.
"Mind your own business, great scholar, studying diligently is the only way."
His unyielding attitude blatantly resembling a little rascal.
Right then, Little Buding suddenly chimed in.
"Heartbeat Value change, current index: 10."
"..."
"This guy likes you, tsk tsk, people these days are so pure!"
Jiang Lai just chuckled.
Pure?
This guy was just acting on impure impulse.
During the break exercises, Zhou Juan lined up behind her, with a furrowed brow, hesitant to speak, but Jiang Lai ignored her.
Finally, just before the next class started, Zhou Juan came over with a test paper.
"Jiang Lai, can you explain this question to me? I still don’t understand where I went wrong."
Jiang Lai glanced over.
"Here, the condition substitution was wrong, it should be greater or equal to zero and less than forty, you only calculated the less than forty part."
Zhou Juan held the paper, looked at it for a long time, then nodded.
"Oh, no wonder I calculated it wrong, it was me being too careless."
"Indeed careless, be careful next time."
Zhou Juan nodded and went back holding the paper.