8 Chapter 8

Why is an exam still required?

Zhan Xinyue had only finished half of the English test paper on the table. She picked up her pen and examined the handwriting closely; it was the handwriting of her teenage self. The ink had only been dry for a day or two, but to her, it felt like half a lifetime ago.

After watching for a while, she finally began to work on the test paper she hadn't finished when she was seventeen, Zhan Xinyue. Now, going back to doing high school English was truly...

That's too easy.

English is, after all, a tool subject that she can still use after graduation. She passed the CET-4 and CET-6 exams in college and even went abroad for an exchange program for a year. Now, when she looks at these questions, she hardly needs to think about them. She just glances at them and easily ticks off the options.

Learning suddenly became easy, which felt strange and was something to be thankful for.

She quickly finished the reading passages, but because they were too unchallenging, she rested her chin on her hand and her gaze gradually drifted away from the test paper.

Xie Wanzhi sat on the other side of the classroom, near the front. Her hair was tied in a bun, and she was leaning forward, slumped over her desk, looking listless. She held a pen in one hand and kept fiddling with a stray strand of hair by her ear with the other, only writing a word or two after a long while.

Xie Wanzhi's grades were not bad to get into the experimental class, but she always struggled with English. Her scores in that subject never exceeded the class average, and her homeroom teacher, Lao Zhou, jokingly called her "walking with a limp" several times. Her overall grades were always hovering in the lower half of Class 10.

Zhan Xinyue watched her retreating figure with a detached expression, her ballpoint pen twirling between her fingers.

At this moment, Xie Wanzhi's hair ends were somewhat yellowish, as if she were malnourished. Her body under the school uniform was thin and frail, and the shape of her shoulder blades could be vaguely seen through the uniform. It was hard to reconcile this with the image of her, so radiant and full-figured, so graceful and charming, that I remembered from my last life when she was beside Xu Shen.

In high school, Xu Shen had to contact her best friend Xie Wanzhi first in order to pursue her, and it was through her that the two started to cross paths. After they got together, Xie Wanzhi often accompanied them on their dates. At that time, Xu Shen would secretly murmur to her when they would be able to have a date alone... She never imagined that the two of them would develop any other relationship besides her.

Xu Shen, Xie Wanzhi. Just the thought of these two names simultaneously surfacing in her mind was enough to cause an uncontrollable pang of pain.

Even today, she still finds it hard to accept that the two people closest to her betrayed her at the same time.

Her relationship with Xu Shen was largely due to Xie Wanzhi's matchmaking efforts. During the years Xu Shen pursued her, Xie Wanzhi was his most supportive partner, speaking highly of him and creating countless opportunities for him. If Xie Wanzhi liked Xu Shen from the beginning, why did she support them so much? If she genuinely wanted them to be together, why would she do something like this?

She couldn't get over it, and couldn't understand it. Her mind was torturing herself as she kept thinking about all sorts of possibilities, like she was trapped in a dead end and couldn't break free no matter what.

The pen in her hand traced chaotic lines on the paper, following her thoughts. They were tangled and incoherent, a jumbled mess.

"Alright, everyone should be finished now. Let's check the answers." Xu Ying's voice rang out again.

She picked up the chalk and copied the answers onto the blackboard: "I wrote the answers on the blackboard, and then exchanged test papers with my deskmate and corrected each other's work."

Zhan Xinyue was finally pulled out of her aimless thoughts.

Beside her, Shi Ziqian had already pushed his exam paper a little closer, waiting for Zhan Xinyue's. Zhan Xinyue absentmindedly took it and casually handed over hers as well.

The moment Shi Ziqian caught the test paper, her peripheral vision swept over it, and her knuckles suddenly tightened, gripping the paper tightly.

The corner of the exam paper was covered with messy handwriting. She suddenly realized that the lines she had drawn while lost in thought were not meaningless, but rather repeated alternations of the names Xu Shen and Xie Wanzhi, interspersed with countless powerful question marks, unmistakably revealing her confusion and pain.

Because of her sudden pause, Shi Ziqian's gaze fell upon the exam paper she was clutching tightly...

In a moment of panic, she snatched the exam paper back.

Shi Ziqian's hand froze in mid-air.

"I...I haven't finished yet." Seeing Shi Ziqian's actions, Zhan Xinyue realized she had lost her composure and quickly added awkwardly.

Xu Ying had her back to the classroom, but it was as if she had eyes in the back of her head. She spoke up to remind everyone, "Everyone, be more conscientious. After exchanging papers for grading, make sure to put the marks on them. Don't cover for each other!"

Upon hearing the sound, Zhan Xinyue felt a prickling sensation on her back. She pressed her hand down on the test paper even tighter, her mind racing as she thought of what to say.

Shi Ziqian had already withdrawn his hand, seemingly oblivious to her embarrassment, and said in a completely normal tone, "It's alright, let's fix our own."

Zhan Xinyue nodded quickly, flipped the test paper over, picked up her pen, and pretended to look at the answers Xu Ying had copied on the blackboard.

When she finally felt that Shi Ziqian was looking ahead, she quietly switched to a black pen and silently erased the marks that she couldn't show to others. Only then did her tense body finally relax.

Beside him, Shi Ziqian calmly looked at the blackboard, without much expression.

Half a day later, he put down the pen, spread his hands, and looked down at it.

A faint bloodstain spread across the palm.

The exam paper is thin, but it can easily turn into a sharp blade when pulled out quickly.

He reached out and wiped away the blood, revealing a clear red mark. The wound wasn't deep, but fine streaks of blood quickly seeped out again.

The English class ended quickly, and Zhan Xinyue put her hastily graded test paper into her storage bag, finally letting out a sigh of relief.

However, when the thin male teacher Chen Rui walked in carrying math worksheets in one hand, she suddenly felt something was wrong.

She realized that she had been celebrating too soon.

"Come on, distribute the worksheets." As soon as math teacher Chen Rui came in, he divided the worksheets and handed them to the first student in each column.

Soon, the study materials, still warm from the printer, were delivered to Zhan Xinyue. She glanced at them, and the anxiety that had been hanging over her finally subsided.

Unlike her initial ease when she saw the English test paper, the densely printed questions on the worksheet left her completely bewildered, as if they were gibberish. After looking at them for a while, she almost began to doubt: Could her past self have really solved such complex questions?

Perhaps people always tend to romanticize the past in their minds. As memories settle, the pain, confusion, and tears of high school students gradually fade, leaving only the happy moments when we look back.

She had almost forgotten that her high school years were not easy.

She wasn't a particularly bright student, and couldn't handle her studies with the same ease as some others, especially in subjects like math, which she always struggled with. The only reason she maintained decent grades over the years was because of her stubborn, unyielding spirit; she suffered a lot because of it and broke down in tears countless times.

This pain resulted in her achieving her highest score in mathematics in three years during her college entrance examination. Unfortunately, she never used subjects like mathematics and science after graduation, and since she didn't particularly like mathematics to begin with, the knowledge she had painstakingly memorized back then was quickly and completely forgotten over time.

"Start working on the questions as soon as you get them. I'll explain them in ten minutes later." After saying that, Chen Rui sat down at the lectern and went to do his own thing.

Seeing that Chen Rui still used the same teaching style as before, Zhan Xinyue could only resign herself to her fate and pull out her math book to study the lesson plan.

The biggest advantage of this private school lies in its faculty, having hired a large number of top-tier teachers from across the country at high salaries. Although young and relatively inexperienced, math teacher Chen Rui is a graduate of a top university's mathematics department and a competition participant, so he was immediately assigned to teach the honors class. He has his own set of teaching principles, disagreeing with so-called "rote learning" and pursuing "inspirational" education.

However, his method of inspiration was rather simple and direct. Specifically, at the beginning of each class, he would hand out the learning materials and ask everyone to study on their own using the textbook. After studying, they would do the example problems on the learning materials. Before the end of get out of class, he would briefly explain the example problems that everyone generally felt they did not understand. That was how a class ended.

This teaching style is indeed beneficial for students with a strong foundation in mathematics, but it's not really suitable for students like Zhan Xinyue who aren't very good at math. Unfortunately, Class 10 is an experimental class, and most students adapted well, so she could only grit her teeth and overcome it on her own.

Soon, the sound of pens scratching filled the air, indicating that everyone had finished their self-study and started working on their study materials.

Zhan Xinyue finished reading the chapter in the textbook, picked up her pen, and got stuck after doing just one problem. She had completely forgotten the subject; she couldn't even recall the most basic formulas and theorems. Although she had read the chapter, she still had no idea how to begin.

She glanced around and saw that everyone else seemed to be doing it smoothly. Shi Ziqian, who was next to her, hadn't even written a draft. He paused for a moment before putting a checkmark on an option.

Zhan Xinyue sighed, quietly pulled out a stack of completed physics papers from her desk drawer, flipped through them page by page, paused for a few seconds, and sighed even more deeply.

In her frustration, she suddenly remembered something funny to cheer herself up.

During my sophomore year, as the new year's college entrance examination approached, the school suddenly issued a strange rule, requiring all students to refrain from taking leave during the college entrance examination period.

At first, everyone was confused, but later they heard that the school was worried about someone taking the college entrance exam for another student. Everyone laughed uproariously: "The school thinks too highly of me! Everyone says that the period before the college entrance exam is the peak of human knowledge, and it starts to decline exponentially afterward. I've forgotten everything I learned since the exam. If they ask me to retake the exam, I probably won't even get into university. How could I possibly take the exam for someone else?"

Thinking of this, Zhan Xinyue chuckled inappropriately. Before the smile could fade, Chen Rui looked up at her, his sharp gaze fixed on her through his glasses.

"It looks like everyone has finished. Is there any question I need to explain?"

"No—" came the drawn-out reply from below.

Zhan Xinyue stopped smiling and lowered her head.

"It would be best if it really wasn't true." Chen Rui withdrew his gaze from her and looked around. "I can secretly tell you that there are original questions from this worksheet in this month's exam. If anyone gets them wrong..." He snorted, the threat obvious.

Monthly exam?

Zhan Xinyue's heart skipped a beat.

She turned to look at Shi Ziqian, instinctively wanting to speak, but perhaps remembering the look of confusion in his eyes when she asked him a question yesterday, or perhaps remembering his polite but distant reminder when she disturbed him in English class, she didn't bother him anymore. Instead, she turned to the other student and asked him across the aisle, "Um... when is the monthly exam?"

The other person looked at her suspiciously: "Monthly exam? Isn't it next week?"

[Author's Note]

Xiaoqian: No, I didn't... I was clearly pointing to your test paper... How did it get misunderstood like this QAQ