Chapter 21

The perfect score on the Chinese exam paper is like a boulder thrown into a calm lake, and the ripples it creates are spreading rapidly. At the eye of the storm—the student named Xie Qingyan—has just entered Class 12, perhaps completely unaware of the impending cataclysmic wave, or perhaps already prepared.

The office clock pointed to the start of the first class, and rumors about the "perfect score in Chinese" and the "dark horse" had already spread like wildfire, about to sweep across the entire senior year.

——

When Xie Qingyan stepped into Class 12 of Senior Three, the classroom was as noisy as a market. The sounds of people discussing answers, lamenting the difficulty of the questions, and speculating about rankings mingled together, and the air seemed to be filled with invisible gunpowder.

His gaze swept quickly across his seat—the second-to-last row by the window. Jiang Ci was already seated there, wearing headphones, flipping through a book with a blank expression, radiating an aura of coldness that kept strangers at bay, completely out of place with the surrounding noise.

Xie Qingyan felt slightly relieved, then silently walked to his seat and sat down. He didn't look at Jiang Ci, and Jiang Ci didn't look up either. The two of them played the role of strangers with remarkable tacit understanding. But only Xie Qingyan himself knew that when he sat down, his backpack lightly brushed against the back of Jiang Ci's chair, which was placed on the outside, and the other's fingertips, which were turning pages, paused almost imperceptibly for half a second.

"Hey Zhang Qiang, guess who will be last in our class this time?" Li Ming, who sat in front of me, deliberately raised his voice, with his usual teasing tone.

His deskmate, Zhang Qiang, chuckled and loudly chimed in without any hesitation: "Is there even a need to guess? It must be Xie Qingyan, the perennial bottom-ranked student! From freshman to senior year, he's been a steadfast and undisputed champion!"

A few low, malicious laughs echoed in the classroom. Many eyes, some openly, some covertly, were cast upon Xie Qingyan, some with sympathy, some with disdain, and many more with indifferent curiosity.

Xie Qingyan seemed not to hear, but simply took out her Chinese textbook from her schoolbag and placed it neatly on her desk.

"Don't speak too confidently." A clear female voice rang out. It was Liang Ying, the English class representative. She adjusted her glasses, her tone calm but with a subtle hint of something else. "The results haven't come out yet. It's still uncertain who will be last."

After watching Xie Qingyan's video of confronting Li Ming, Liang Ying's impression of Xie Qingyan changed somewhat.

Li Ming scoffed, "Class Representative Liang, you don't actually think anyone can suddenly become enlightened and escape the last place position overnight, do you?"

Liang Ying ignored him and only glanced thoughtfully at the profile of the person in the back row who was sitting upright and quietly reading a book.

Just then, the bell rang sharply for the first class. Ms. Long, the Chinese teacher, walked in with a stack of test papers, her face beaming. The classroom noise instantly subsided, so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

"How was your holiday, students?" Teacher Long asked with a smile, but no one dared to respond. All eyes were fixed on the test papers in his arms.

Everyone was incredibly nervous, both afraid to see the scores and eager to see them soon, their hearts were in turmoil.

"Looks like everyone's got their grades on their minds." Without further ado, Teacher Long gestured to the Chinese language class representative, "Come on, hand out the test papers."

The test papers fell like snowflakes, and the classroom was immediately filled with suppressed gasps, sighs, or sighs of relief.

The class representative for Chinese was a quiet girl. When she handed the test paper to Xie Qingyan, she picked up the top one and habitually glanced at the score column first.

Then, as if burned, her eyes widened suddenly, and she blurted out, "Full...full marks?!"

The sound wasn't loud, but in the relatively quiet moment when the curling was being done, it clearly reached the ears of several nearby students.

"What?"

"Perfect score? Who?"

"Xie Qingyan? A perfect score in Chinese? Are you kidding me!"

The whispers exploded like water droplets falling into a hot oil pan. Countless gazes once again focused on Xie Qingyan, this time filled with disbelief and inquiry.

Only Jiang Ci, who had been working on the competition questions with his head down, paused, and a barely perceptible smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

When Xie Qingyan received the test paper from the Chinese language class representative, she secretly glanced at Jiang Ci before quickly sitting up straight.

Teacher Long stood on the podium, taking in everything. He tapped on the podium, and after the classroom quieted down again, he cleared his throat, his voice loud and clear:

"Class, quiet down. It seems everyone has noticed. That's right, in this mock exam, our class, our grade, has produced a perfect score on the Chinese language paper."

He paused, his gaze falling on Xie Qingyan, filled with undisguised admiration and encouragement:

"The owner of this exam paper is Xie Qingyan."

"boom--!"

The classroom erupted in chaos! If it was just whispering a moment ago, it was now a cacophony of shouts!

"Impossible!" Li Ming was the first to jump up, his face flushed red, pointing at Xie Qingyan, "How could he possibly get a perfect score?! Teacher, he definitely cheated! He copied the answers!"

"That's right, Teacher Long, we all know Xie Qingyan's skill level!"

"A perfect score in Chinese? And the composition was perfect too? That's outrageous!"

Several boys who usually hung out with Li Ming echoed his sentiments, and voices of doubt rose and fell.

Jiang Ci kept his head down, looking at the competition book, as if the surrounding noise had nothing to do with him, but the fingers gripping the edge of the book were slightly tighter, and the knuckles turned white.

The smile on Teacher Long's face vanished, and his gaze turned serious. He had anticipated the questions.

"Quiet!" He pounded on the podium again, his gaze sweeping over Li Ming's face with an undeniable air of authority. "Questions must be based on evidence. Xie Qingyan's test paper was reviewed and graded jointly by me, Teacher Tan from Class Two, and Zhang, the head of the Chinese language teaching and research group. From basic knowledge to composition, every point is well-received."

"I know many of you don't believe it. So, everyone can take a look at this exam paper, starting from the first row. Take turns reading it! Use your own eyes to see for yourselves whether this perfect score exam paper is 'fake' or not!"

This decision stunned everyone. Teacher Long continued, his tone firm: "For other subjects, there might be a possibility of 'borrowing' ideas. But in Chinese, especially in composition, can you really copy such a well-researched and insightful article? Can you write such beautiful calligraphy? This is the only perfect score in the entire senior year! If this was copied, then tell me, whose work did he copy?"

A series of rhetorical questions, delivered with resounding force. In particular, the fact that the three teachers reviewed the case and that it was unique among the entire senior year acted like two giant rocks, temporarily suppressing the wave of doubts.

The exam papers began to be passed from the front row. Each student who received the exam paper, upon seeing the neat, printed pages and the pleasing handwriting, and then reading the magnificent essay, gradually had their doubts replaced by shock and disbelief.

"This handwriting...did he really write it?"

"This essay... is amazing..."

"My goodness, I've never heard of this story before..."

Quiet gasps of amazement filled the classroom. Facts speak louder than words; when the impeccable exam paper was placed before them, those classmates who had doubted Xie Qingyan began to waver.

Just then, the class representative distributing the test papers paused, placing a test paper on Jiang Ci's desk. The handwriting on the paper was messy, with large blank spaces, and the essay appeared to consist of only two paragraphs. A bright red score, utterly disproportionate to Jiang Ci's abilities, was written in the upper right corner—62.

Most students were drawn to Xie Qingyan's perfect score paper and didn't pay much attention to this ordinary low-scoring paper. Occasionally, someone would glance at it and think, "Oh, the transfer student didn't do very well either," before looking away.

However, Xie Qingyan, who was sitting to the side, suddenly narrowed her eyes when she caught a glimpse of that score out of the corner of her eye!

62 points?

How could Jiang Ci only score 62 points?

Shock washed over him like a bucket of ice water. For Jiang Ci to score this high in Chinese was a hundred times more unbelievable than if he had gotten a perfect score himself!

But in the next split second, a thought pierced through the fog and struck him—the mock exam scores would be ranked citywide. Jiang's father's ever-present, controlling eyes… Jiang Ci's forced transfer to another school and his situation of hiding his whereabouts…

He deliberately failed the exam!

In this way, he completely erased himself from any potentially attention-grabbing rankings, disappearing from everyone's sight! He personally buried his proudest achievement in this humiliating score!

Xie Qingyan felt a chill run down his spine, followed by a surge of almost suffocating heartache and anger. He could almost see Jiang Ci in the exam hall, forcing himself to write down wrong answers, leaving only a few perfunctory sentences on an essay that could have amazed everyone... How much determination did that require, and how much despair and rebellion did it carry?

He could hardly contain himself and looked at Jiang Ci. But at that moment, Jiang Ci's gaze didn't linger on the 62-point test paper for even a second, as if it were some insignificant piece of trash. He simply picked up a thick competition book and, with a "smack," firmly pressed the test paper under it.

The movements were swift and decisive, carrying a resolute air of cutting off everything.

Then, he put his headphones back on, completely isolating himself from the classroom, the exam paper, and all the surrounding noise—whether of surprise or doubt. His profile was cold and hard, his lips pressed together until they were white.

Only Xie Qingyan understood the towering waves and silent roar beneath that cold exterior.

Xie Qingyan's exam paper finally reached Li Ming's hands.

Li Ming's face turned pale, then flushed. He snatched the test paper from his deskmate and quickly glanced at it, especially the essay section. His Chinese grades were decent, so he could tell the essay was significant. A surge of anger, mixed with deeper resentment, rose within him. He slammed the test paper down on the desk behind him and sat down, gritting his teeth.

But he was not convinced.

Cheating might be difficult in Chinese, but what about other subjects? Math, physics, chemistry? English?

How could Xie Qingyan, that good-for-nothing, suddenly take off across the board?

There's definitely something wrong!

His cold gaze fell upon Xie Qingyan once more. The latter remained seated calmly, seemingly oblivious to the commotion caused by the circulation of his exam paper, as well as the surrounding discussions and stares. That detached composure, in Li Ming's eyes, now appeared to be nothing more than a guilty conscience's feigned posture.

On the podium, Teacher Long watched the class gradually calm down and breathed a sigh of relief. He knew this was just the beginning. A perfect score on a Chinese exam was enough to shock the whole class, but not enough to completely turn Xie Qingyan's career around; on the contrary, it might push him to an even bigger crisis.

The real test lies in the scores of each subsequent subject and the final overall ranking.