Chapter 38 Fame: "Aren't you going to take a look?"

No. 1 High School is located on Haihe Road, opposite No. 4 High School. The most common phrase heard by No. 1 High School students is, "If you don't study hard, you won't even get into No. 4 High School." In fact, No. 4 High School is not bad at all; it is a good school, a key municipal school, and unlike No. 2 High School, which is at the bottom of the list of key municipal schools, No. 4 High School has been competing with No. 5 High School for the second place in recent years.

The students couldn't understand what was so great about being perpetually second place. But to compete for first place, you need to have the credentials, right? If you can't compete, can't win, and can't get it, how can you compete with Shishi High School? They send ten students to Tsinghua and Peking Universities a year, while your school only gets one. Take No. 2 High School for example; its last glorious achievement was ten years ago—it produced two students who got into Tsinghua and Peking Universities.

I don't know how this class was divided, but surprisingly, Jiang Yueming was assigned to the same class as Li Leshan, Class 3. Xu Qing and Han Jiang are in Class 6.

The moment Jiang Yueming saw the class assignment list, she felt like she was dreaming.

"We're in Class 111, aren't we?" Jiang Yueming could barely speak.

"Third class," Li Leshan joked.

“I know.” Jiang Yueming nudged him with her elbow.

When I first entered the classroom, it was quite deserted, perhaps because everyone was doing their own thing and not yet familiar with the place.

With no seats available in the first few rows, Jiang Yueming and Li Leshan moved to the last row. Neither of them needed glasses; their eyesight was good enough that they could still read the words on the timetable from the very back. Jiang Yueming sat inside against the wall so she could sleep, while Li Leshan sat on the outside.

When he was with Li Leshan, they couldn't help but make small gestures. Jiang Yueming was concentrating on folding paper airplanes, paper boats, and roses, using draft paper that he had picked up from the ground.

“When Tian Tian gets angry, I use this to coax her.” Jiang Yueming handed Li Leshan a piece of paper and muttered to himself, “I use this to coax Xu Qing when she gets angry too. Are all little girls like this?”

A short while later, the homeroom teacher came up to the stage with the attendance list. The homeroom teacher was a middle-aged man who looked very kind, reminding Jiang Yueming of Grandpa Li from the convenience store, and also of his second great-uncle. He first looked around the classroom and introduced himself as "Wu Jinzhong".

Jiang Yueming whispered from the audience, "This old man really looks like my second maternal uncle..."

Li Leshan's hand was also secretly gesturing under the table, "Perform that?"

Before Jiang Yueming could say yes, Wu Jinzhong suddenly stepped down from the podium and walked to Li Leshan's side.

"Your name is Leshan, right? Come out with your teacher." Wu Jinzhong patted Li Leshan on the shoulder.

Jiang Yueming's heart tightened, and he looked puzzled, wondering what Wu Jinzhong wanted to see Li Leshan about. He looked at Li Leshan with a reassuring look before following Wu Jinzhong out.

"Hey, hey, was that Li Leshan just now? Do you know him?" The boy at the table in front of her turned around and spoke to Jiang Yueming after hearing the name "Li Leshan," his tone slightly surprised.

"What's wrong?" Jiang Yueming asked, a little wary.

The boy was much more excited than Jiang Yueming. When he saw Jiang Yueming looking at him with an expression as if she had seen a lunatic, he quickly explained, "Oh, my name is Zhao Yuxuan. Xuan is the same as in 'car'."

"I said, what's wrong with Li Leshan?" Jiang Yueming asked. His focus was on Li Leshan, not on this guy named Xuan.

"To become famous!" Zhao Yuxuan said.

famous.

Hearing those two words, Jiang Yueming's heart tightened. The mention of Li Leshan's fame instinctively brought up the word "mute." It wasn't that Jiang Yueming was prejudiced or overthinking; it had been like this for years. Mentioning Li Leshan always associated him with "muteness." He thought that after entering junior high school, everyone had grown up, and no one would care so much about whether someone could speak or not.

"Don't you know?" Zhao Yuxuan was talking to himself happily, completely unaware of Jiang Yueming's expression. "He's incredibly awesome, the third in the whole county to get into the top high school."

"Ah, oh." Jiang Yueming's heart calmed down. He had been prepared to fight if this guy said anything inappropriate, but he didn't expect it to be like this. He realized that he might have been focusing too much on Li Leshan. Now that they had left Tieta Elementary School and Wang Hao's group, no one would be mocked or bullied for Li Leshan's inability to speak.

"He's like he's cheating," Zhao Yuxuan said, turning his head.

The offices at No. 1 Middle School were indeed better than those at Tieta Elementary School. The moment Li Leshan stepped into the office, he felt a sense of clarity. The large space housed six teachers, unlike the elementary school where ten teachers worked together in Teacher Guangtian's office, which used to be so crowded that the aisle would be packed with students.

The floor is also made of ceramic tiles, and the lights are particularly bright. In the past, Li Leshan always walked on cement floors, and the lights were not as bright.

"Don't be nervous, don't be nervous," Wu Jinzhong said with a smile, his eyes crinkling with fine wrinkles. "Have some water."

He poured Li Leshan a glass of water and gestured for him to sit down.

The office actually has a sofa. Back at the Iron Pagoda Elementary School, even Teacher Tian could only sit on a chair.

Li Leshan sat down, took a sip of water, and wondered what Teacher Wu wanted to say to him. Did he know that he was not good at speaking? He had left in a hurry and hadn't brought paper or pen. How was he going to communicate with Teacher Wu?

"I know you. This time I'll just have a simple chat with you. The content is very simple. You just need to nod or shake your head. If you really can't, you can write it down on paper," Wu Jinzhong said with a smile.

Li Leshan nodded.

Wu Jinzhong's conversation topics were indeed very simple, asking about Li Leshan's studies, life, and family, mainly about whether he had any inconveniences in these areas.

It seems the school is quite humane. Li Leshan basically shook his head. He's just mute, but he doesn't have any inconveniences in life or study. He can hear people talking, so he can study and do exercises. He has all his legs and feet; he can run and jump. That's about it. He just has difficulty communicating with others, but there's really no need for him to communicate with anyone. As for Jiang Yueming, he can understand sign language and communicate with her, which is enough for him.

“Leshan, your grades are so good. You were originally assigned to Class 7, the top class. Although the teaching staff is about the same, there are still some differences. But you told the teacher before that you didn’t want to go to that class. Did you have any concerns?” Wu Jinzhong asked.

Rocket Class.

Li Leshan silently apologized to Tian Xiaoyun for failing to keep his promise to her about the "good class" that Teacher Tian had mentioned.

Li Leshan shook his head, picked up the paper and pen next to him, and wrote a line: "Without any concerns, I don't want to go."

He wrote another line, “Don’t worry, Teacher Wu, I can learn well here.”

He knew that Teacher Wu was doing it for his own good. Therefore, Li Leshan needed to give him a guarantee first.

As for the reasons, firstly, he wanted to be in the same class as Jiang Yueming. Secondly, Li Leshan had looked into the elite classes and gifted programs; they required an extra 1000 yuan to buy some electronic equipment. The school teachers said that students could listen to lectures by famous teachers there, and they talked a lot of nonsense, some of which he didn't even understand.

He felt he didn't need it, and he didn't have the money to buy it. His school fees this year came from his grandmother's earnings selling mung bean cakes and sewing clothes. Actually, summers in Shengping are very hot, reaching over 30 degrees Celsius, and the sun is very strong. If possible, he wouldn't want his grandmother to set up her stall.

“Okay,” Wu Jinzhong couldn’t make things difficult for the student. After understanding the basic situation, he asked, “Do you know anyone in your class or school? That way you can help out. If you have any questions, come find me. My office is in 302…”

Li Leshan nodded, his hand twitching as if he was about to say he had a friend, but then he thought that even if he used sign language, Teacher Wu wouldn't understand, so it would be more convenient to just nod.

Back in class, Jiang Yueming looked visibly worried. He quietly asked, "Is everything alright? Could it be that Wu something heard me say he looks like my second uncle? But he should have come to me..."

“It’s alright.” Li Leshan gestured to him to reassure him, and added, “The teacher just asked me a few simple questions about my situation.”

"Oh..." Jiang Yueming breathed a sigh of relief, "It's good that I didn't make things difficult for you."

Li Leshan seemed to have noticed something. Whether it was when Teacher Wu called him out or just now, Jiang Yueming's expression had been somewhat off. He suddenly grasped Jiang Yueming's hand. "Now no one will make things difficult for me."

They all knew what this meant.

Jiang Yueming nodded, thinking that Li Leshan was right. No one would make things difficult for a mute person, and those who were involved in the gang wouldn't be able to get into the top high school anyway. Besides, the top high school was so far from the vocational school, so no one would go to the trouble of going through mountains and rivers to make things difficult for someone. He and Li Leshan didn't need to worry so much anymore.

No. 1 Middle School truly lives up to its name; the best middle school in the city is different from other junior high schools. They start with a placement test. Everyone knows perfectly well who they're testing. If they were testing Jiang Yueming, there would be no need to test him at all; Jiang Yueming could just reveal all his secrets. There's not much to it, no need to test him.

It sounds nice that it tests previous content, but it actually includes knowledge from the first year of junior high school. After all, Jiang Yueming had never seen "Autumn Lyrics" or "Iron horses and icy rivers enter my dreams" in elementary school poetry recitations.

To put it professionally, it's beyond the scope of the curriculum; to put it simply, it's purely him deliberately making things difficult for people.

Thankfully, the school was somewhat humane, only testing Chinese, math, and English. Physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history, and geography weren't tested. In junior high, students have to study nine or ten subjects, plus physical education. Physical education is also part of the high school entrance exam, accounting for a full 70 points. However, Jiang Yueming wasn't worried about that; he'd never been afraid of physical education.

The placement test left Jiang Yueming exhausted. Now that he was in junior high, things were different from elementary school. There were morning and evening self-study sessions. Jiang Yueming had to get up early in the morning and classes ended at nine o'clock in the evening. But this was the case all over the area. If you asked him which junior high school wasn't like this, Jiang Yueming couldn't think of one.

"I feel like my head is about to explode." Jiang Yueming packed his schoolbag. He had taken three exams in one day, and he felt like he was going to die in the exam room.

The placement test didn't involve changing seats; it was all based on self-discipline. However, those who managed to get into the top high school all had some ability to back up their admissions. Let's exclude those who got in through connections or relatives; those are secondary considerations.

Although Jiang Yueming's grades weren't great, he didn't cheat—well, he didn't cheat himself. The kind of cheating where he helps others, what's it called, assisting in cheating? He did do it a few times, all because of Han Jiang, who almost gave him a "criminal record."

So even though Li Leshan was sitting right next to him, someone he could easily see with a glance, Jiang Yueming didn't even bother to look. With his 5.2 eyesight, and Li Leshan not blocking his view at all, seeing the answer would be a matter of minutes, seconds.

But yes, that's exactly right, he's so upright and self-disciplined.

"Aren't you going to take a look?" Li Leshan asked, puzzled.

"What do you think I am?" Jiang Yueming was even more confused. Good heavens, what kind of image did he have in Li Leshan's mind? He only helped cheat, he didn't actually cheat! And even if he was helping, Jiang Yueming has reformed now, and he can't help anymore if he's not with Han Jiang.

“No,” Li Leshan quickly waved his hand, saying that’s not what he meant. “Teacher Wu said to take it home for parents to sign… I was worried it would be difficult for you, so I put the paper next to you.”

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Author's note: Mercury retrograde has been so bad lately TTTT It feels like all the world's troubles have come crashing down on me, even though I haven't offended anyone (heartbroken).

Wishing all the babies a smooth and successful journey!!!