"Once again, we have a tie for the first-place in the pop quiz, Yue Qingqing and Qian Wentao."
In the classroom, the old teacher handed out the test papers.
Qian Wentao stared hard at Yue Qingqing, his gaze shifting from disdain to caution.
The students from Experimental Middle School found it unbelievable.
"This math test was so tough, and yet Yue Qingqing managed a perfect score again."
"It’s the first time I’ve seen such an expression on Qian Wentao’s face..."
"I really didn’t expect it; she was a few points behind in the previous tests."
"Now our genius has met his match."
The speaker took pleasure in the misfortune.
Although they were all students from the same school, Qian Wentao was so conceited that he did not fail to offend others regularly.
Most people at Experimental Middle School seemed to find the situation somewhat amusing.
Some, however, looked displeased, feeling that someone from Number One High had stolen the limelight from Experimental Middle School.
Qian Zheng’s slightly overweight face showed not a hint of a smile, and his complexion was rather unpleasant.
His nephew was a math prodigy; he wasn’t weak in other subjects either, but they simply couldn’t compare with his math skills.
Yet that girl, Yue Qingqing, seemed to have the upper hand, especially in subjects that required memorization—she seemed to never lose marks.
He had thought that Yue Qingqing’s math was obviously inferior to Qian Wentao’s, which could have created a gap between them.
But unexpectedly, in just two short weeks, Yue Qingqing had caught up, stunning all the teachers with her improvement.
This wasn’t good news for Qian Zheng.
The teacher beside him saw Qian Zheng’s expression and made a joke on purpose, "Maybe we should forget about the bet we made earlier, it’s not too late now."
Qian Zheng sneered, "What are you talking about? Girls lack stamina and can’t compare with boys. There’s still more than half a year before the middle school exams, just wait and see."
The teacher who spoke was taken aback, not expecting Qian Zheng to say such things.
But the students at Experimental Middle School were already accustomed to it.
Teacher Qian often showed this attitude in class, outright favoring boys over girls.
In his eyes, boys being naughty was a sign of intelligence, but if it were girls, it would be considered shameless, worrying they might have trouble finding a husband in the future.
Since they were quite a distance away, the students from Number One High did not hear what the teacher at the back was saying.
The students had received their own papers and were reviewing their incorrect answers.
Qu Ruorui looked at Yue Qingqing’s paper and couldn’t help but exclaim.
"You even got this question right; that’s amazing!" She turned her head and asked Zhuang Lan, "May I have a look at your paper? I want to see how you approached it."
The paper lay spread out on the table, but Zhuang Lan didn’t say a word.
Qu Ruorui was surprised when she saw the score, "How is this possible."
Zhuang Lan was always the second in the school, and math was not his weak point.
Yet his score on this paper was even lower than Qu Ruorui’s.
Zhuang Lan remained silent, and Qu Ruorui immediately realized she had overreacted.
She quickly tried to make amends, "This test was indeed quite difficult; everyone didn’t do very well."
Zhuang Lan finally spoke, "Yue Qingqing did, though."
Qu Ruorui didn’t know how to comfort Zhuang Lan.
Qingqing’s progress was clear for all to see, while Zhuang Lan seemed to be regressing more and more lately.
Last semester’s end-term exams showed them only seven points apart.
Zhuang Lan’s hand rested on the paper, the bright red score seeming to mock him.
Once he thought he was close to being a genius, just a few points away.
But now he realized he got a high score because that’s all he could achieve.
And Yue Qingqing’s perfect score was because that’s all the points there were on the paper.
When the paper wasn’t particularly difficult, you couldn’t really tell the difference.
But in a tutoring class , everyone could soon see the gap.
He truly envied her, envied Yue Qingqing, and even envied Qian Wentao.
They didn’t have to work as hard as he did to effortlessly achieve high scores.
This kind of gap, like a chasm, made Zhuang Lan feel what despair was.