So, after finishing his routine patrol today, he told the others to go and handle their work first. He then took ten or twenty minutes out of his own time to pick up and drop off his child.

It's both fulfilling a personal wish and a small indulgence of power. After all, no matter how busy he is with work, he can't be deprived of his rights as a father.

After dropping off the children, Shang Zhengxin continued driving to the examination site to work.

Meanwhile, Chen Bing and his companion, who had returned home, set off again after a short rest to take the political history exam.

After another two or three hours of the day have passed, finally only one English subject remains for tomorrow.

It is well known that the less developed a place is, the more backward its English education is. Shangping County, as a medium-sized county-level administrative unit on the North China Plain, is not exactly wealthy, but it is far from being described as underdeveloped.

That being said, English education in Shangping is not particularly good. At the junior high level, schools like the Experimental Junior High and No. 11 Middle School in the county seat offer decent English education. However, schools in less developed rural areas, such as No. 1 and No. 2 Middle Schools, are truly disappointing.

If it's a primary school at the next lower level, it's obviously even worse.

Many of the English teachers I encountered had limited proficiency, quite different from the young and fashionable female teachers I remembered from my high school and university days. Most of them were older, and their pronunciation wasn't very standard.

This has led to a situation where, even though many people have taken English classes for six years during the compulsory education stage, their English proficiency is still largely based on guesswork when taking English tests.

Therefore, for many people, the high school entrance exam was already over when the exam ended on the afternoon of the second day.

After all, they knew absolutely nothing about the remaining subject, English, so they could only glance at the answers randomly in the exam hall. If they could sneak a peek at someone else, that would be great; if not, they'd just have to lie down and sleep.

In short, they are under no pressure at all. As soon as they finished the exam, they ran off excitedly.

Chen Bing's English was decent in his previous life; he scored over 110 on the college entrance exam, not letting it drag down his other subjects. But he could still understand how these people felt. Because in his past life, he had a good friend who was also a little genius who could only score 20 or 30 on the middle school English exam.

I remember back then, the other person kept preaching to Chen Bing that English was useless, and urging him to learn Japanese with him when he got to high school, and to become Japanese soldiers together, so that he could watch some good stuff raw.

Chen Bing naturally refused this lewd, vulgar, and shameless request. And that was the end of it. After the high school entrance exam, the two gradually lost contact, and neither knew what became of the other.

In this life, Chen Bing didn't know where things went wrong, and the other party didn't even come to Baishi No. 1 Middle School.

We used to be good friends, but after graduation, we couldn't even see each other anymore.

Reflecting on the past and connecting it to the present, Chen Bing thought that once the middle school entrance exam was completely over and she went to high school, she might never see some of her middle school classmates again.

Thinking about this, I couldn't help but feel a little sad. Just then, a light rain began to fall from the sky.

Snapping out of her reverie, Chen Bing took Shang Yunmiao's hand and led her at a brisk pace, finally getting them into the car and home before the rain intensified.

Honestly, there's not much to review for English. Just listen to the audio and do a few practice questions to maintain your feel for the language.

After taking a shower and having dinner, Chen Bing returned to her bedroom as usual to study, wash up, and go to sleep.

A high degree of self-discipline may indeed preordain one's achievements. While hard work may not guarantee ideal success, it will certainly yield better results than not working hard at all.

At 10:30 p.m. that night, Chen Bing, who had been studying for several hours, sent Shang Yunmiao a "goodnight" message and went back to bed to sleep. Meanwhile, Shang Yunmiao, several dozen meters away, replied to the message, put down her phone, and continued studying diligently.

Nothing more was said that night...

At 9:00 AM on July 13th, the rain that had been falling intermittently since yesterday afternoon reached its heaviest rainfall.

The examination room was filled not only with the sound of heavy rain, but also with the howling of the wind whipping up the leaves and the windows rattling loudly in the wind... All of this caused some trouble for the English exam at the time, but those who had prepared thoroughly were relatively better able to cope with it.

Gradually, the rain subsided, and the exam entered its final stage.

After checking her answer sheet again, Shang Yunmiao focused her attention on a listening comprehension question.

The sound from the window was quite loud, and she couldn't hear a part of the recording clearly, only vaguely remembering a few words.

Looking at the few words written next to the test paper, Shang Yunmiao was troubled. She hesitated, wondering whether to change her answer from C to D.

In the listening passage, the man seems to be expressing his agreement to attend the woman's birthday party. While these few words suggest the man has indeed been very busy lately, he also mentions later in the text that he agreed.

Then why say he's been very busy lately?

Staring at those few words, Shang Yunmiao closed her eyes, trying to find the listening recording from that time in the whispers of her mind.

With five minutes left in the exam, the surrounding students couldn't contain their excitement and started packing up their things.

Shang Yunmiao remained unmoved by these thoughts, still grappling with the answer in her mind.

Is there any possibility?

The man's later mention of agreement didn't refer to the birthday party; the real answer was actually hidden in the sentence he had missed.

Focusing on those words again, Shang Yunmiao recalled the review she had done the night before.

After thoroughly analyzing them, she suddenly remembered that one of the words sounded the same as another and made more sense in meaning, pointing more clearly to the answer d.

Shang Yunmiao understood!

The answer suddenly became clear. After repeatedly confirming it in her mind, Shang Yunmiao finally chose to change C to D.

At that very moment, the bell rang, signaling the end of the exam, and the girl's high school entrance exam results, the culmination of three years of hard work, were finalized. Just then, sunlight pierced through the clouds, casting a warm glow throughout the classroom.

After the test papers were collected, Shang Yunmiao packed up her things and jogged off to find Chen Bing to confirm the answers.

Just as she stepped out of the exam hall, she bumped into the boy she liked.

"Chen Bing, Chen Bing, what's the answer to the fifth multiple-choice question in the listening section?!"

Startled by the girl's eager question, Chen Bing regained his composure, placed a hand on her shoulder, and then, with a mischievous smile, thought for a moment before whispering in her ear, "If you want to know the answer, you'll have to pay a fee."

(Next chapter will be later...)