The day of the college entrance examination

The midnight bells signal the end of the year and the beginning of the new year.

With the new year bringing new beginnings, Jiang Yuan instructed them not to sleep tonight and to stay up all night to welcome the New Year. Jiang Jingshu also voluntarily stayed up all night for the first time.

Jiang Jingshu couldn't remember whether she stayed up all night on New Year's Eve during her first year here. She vaguely felt that she was probably asleep at the time and thought that such a custom was unnecessary to follow.

However, she now finds herself integrated into this era; she acknowledges and abides by these customs, and she no longer rejects these habits that are unfamiliar to her.

Subjectively, she no longer felt like an "outsider." She seemed to be trying to adapt to local customs, learning to make dumplings and stay up late on New Year's Eve.

The sound of firecrackers on the street chased away her sleepiness, and Jiang Jingshu felt refreshed. She took out her phone and swiped around casually.

Xie Zhijin happened to be live streaming.

Jiang Jingshu clicked in, and the boy was still focused on playing the game. There were seven or eight thousand people in the live stream, and everyone was spamming "Happy New Year" in the comments section.

Jiang Jingshu liked the atmosphere, so she typed "Happy New Year" and sent it out.

It seemed that no one was asleep; they were still watching Xie Zhijin play the game with great interest.

She minimized the live stream and downloaded the game she and Xie Zhijin had been playing.

The game was extremely difficult, with a complex and intricate map. Jiang Jingshu couldn't find her way at all, let alone prevent herself from being grabbed by the ghost.

How do you play this?

She was always the first to die.

Jiang Jingshu sighed heavily and typed in Xie Zhijin's comment section, "What should a newbie do if they don't understand how to play?"

Xie Zhijin seemed to have seen the comment. He repeated it and said, "Play with me."

Jiang Jingshu couldn't help but feel nervous. With so many people in his live stream, how could he let his embarrassing skills be displayed in the live stream?

Jiang Jingshu thought Xie Zhijin was just saying it casually and didn't take it to heart. However, the next second, her phone received a message.

Xie: "I'll teach you how to play after the live stream."

Jiang Jingshu was surprised. "You knew it was me?"

Xie Zhijin smiled and sent the screenshot he had just taken to Jiang Jingshu, who then opened the image.

Jiang Jiang Jiang Jiang: What should a beginner do if they don't understand how to play?

"What if it's someone else?" Jiang Jingshu asked again.

"No, I know you," Xie Zhijin typed.

"I'll be streaming until 4 a.m. If you're sleepy, go to sleep first. I'll play with you tomorrow."

Jiang Jingshu replied, "Okay."

However, Jiang Jingshu did not sleep. She stayed in Xie Zhijin's live stream room, playing the game herself while streaming.

She was the first one to be caught.

This completely ignited Jiang Jingshu's competitive spirit. She was determined not to sleep until she won at least one game tonight!

But it seems she didn't win. The only game she won was when her teammates carried her to victory.

She was so engrossed in the game that she didn't even notice the live stream had ended until Jiang Jingshu saw "Live stream has ended" in the upper right corner, which brought her back to her senses.

It's already 4:20 AM.

She quickly returned to Xie Zhijin's chat box, only to find that Xie Zhijin had sent her three text messages.

Xie: "I'm ending my stream. Want to play together?"

Xie: "Are you asleep?"

Xie: "Well then, goodnight."

Jiang Jingshu quickly replied, "Xie Zhijin, are you sleepy?"

The other end replied almost instantly, "Not sleepy."

Jiang Jingshu called Xie Zhijin, "Xie Zhijin, let's play together on voice chat. This game is too hard, I can't learn it."

"You're just unfamiliar with the map and don't know the character's skills." Xie Zhijin opened the game, and the two added each other as friends.

Xie Zhijin was silent for a moment, then said, "Wait a minute, could you add my alternate account?"

Jiang Jingshu nodded. Xie Zhijin's historical rank was too high. The ghosts he was matched with when he teamed up with Jiang Jingshu were all top-tier.

As a novice, Jiang Jingshu was absolutely no match for such a ghost.

So, Jiang Jingshu added Xie Zhijin's alt account, and the two started a voice chat. Jiang Jingshu kept practicing with one character because it had a shield at the start of the game, which allowed her to have some buffer time.

This role made her no longer afraid of being chased by the Ghost Head, since she had a shield and wouldn't die instantly.

Every time she was being chased, Xie Zhijin would save her with pinpoint accuracy.

Jiang Jingshu couldn't help but exclaim over the microphone, "Xie Zhijin, you're amazing!"

With Xie Zhijin by her side, Jiang Jingshu managed to survive for quite some time. She happily sent screenshots of the battle to Xie Zhijin, saying, "Teacher Xie really taught well."

Xie Zhijin kept instructing her on which direction to go on the map so that she could hold out longer, and Jiang Jingshu listened attentively.

Xie Zhijin would also pretend to be a ghost to catch her, telling her as he did so, "You can climb out the window here."

Jiang Jingshu suddenly understood. She had a good memory and after playing so many rounds, she could roughly remember the map.

Next, it's just a matter of applying the formula.

The longer she could hold someone back, the more proud she became.

Before I knew it, it was already the next morning.

At five o'clock, Jiang Jingshu was already feeling sleepy. She turned off the game, lay down on the bed, and fell asleep.

The call didn't seem to have ended yet. When Xie Zhijin heard the girl's soft breathing coming from the other end of the phone, he couldn't help but laugh.

His voice was soft and gentle as he said, "Goodnight."

—

School started, and Jiang Jingshu finally walked into Z City No. 1 High School again. She stepped into Class 1 of the third year of high school and returned to her seat.

She turned her head, looking at the familiar trees by the window, and at everything familiar around her.

She couldn't help but smile, and continued to study diligently. The results of the joint entrance examination were released. Out of a total of 300 points, she scored 257 points, which was a very good score, probably placing her in the top 100 in the province.

After the joint entrance exam, she focused on preparing for the college entrance exam.

During this period, she worked tirelessly, getting up early to memorize vocabulary, classical Chinese texts, history, and politics.

In the afternoon, Xie Zhijin taught her some basic math problems.

Although Jiang Jingshu found it difficult to learn, she continued to make progress.

Finally, in the second mock exam, she achieved a score of 396.

Xie Zhijin gave Jiang Jingshu her report card. He gently tapped her forehead and said, "You're really unbalanced in your studies."

Jiang Jingshu looked down at her grades; her combined scores for math and English were only 60.

Jiang Jingshu: ...

Fortunately, her scores in other subjects were very high, which made her look a little better. She was also glad that she was an art student, and those most difficult days of picking up a pen and drawing every day and night were over.

They can catch their breath for a while, and the cultural score can be a little lower so that they are not under too much pressure.

However, Xie Zhijin asked her, "Have you looked at the notes I made for you?"

Jiang Jingshu really did study everything, except for math and English. She was truly helpless with math, and no matter how many words she memorized for English, she couldn't learn the so-called grammar and couldn't understand the meaning of every sentence.

And she is hostile to English.

She hated foreign languages; learning foreign languages ​​was a disgrace to her.

As a pure-blooded Yongning citizen, she disdained learning the language of foreigners, so English was an absolute challenge for her.

Xie Zhijin seemed to have noticed Jiang Jingshu's aversion to English, so he didn't tell her to memorize more words or anything like that.

During this period, Xie Zhijin has been teaching Jiang Jingshu simple sequence and statistics problems, which together account for 22 points on the math exam.

Xie Zhijin told her that if she learned these two questions, she would definitely score higher in the college entrance examination than she does now.

So every day she would do the sequence problems Xie Zhijin gave her, and if she got one wrong, she would do two, and if she got two wrong, she would do three.

When she has done enough practice problems and seen a wide enough range of question types, sequence and probability/statistics problems are points that she can be sure of getting.

Therefore, Jiang Jingshu scored an excellent 420 in the third mock exam.

Jiang Jingshu cheerfully handed the math test paper to Xie Zhijin, smiling smugly at him. She said,

"Teacher Xie is indeed a good teacher."

Xie Zhijin said as always, "It's because you have talent."

After she mastered two question types, Xie Zhijin taught her trigonometric functions. This question was worth only 8 points, but it was usually the first question in the larger problem set.

Xie Zhijin started by explaining the definition of a triangle to Jiang Jingshu, and even on the eve of the college entrance examination, Jiang Jingshu was still solving triangles.

Her notebooks were filled with trigonometric function formulas, and it was common for her to study until midnight.

When she gets tired, she turns on Xie Zhijin's live stream, listens to her voice, and continues doing her practice problems.

Xie Zhijin seemed to have inexhaustible energy, and the live streaming did not interfere with his studies. Jiang Jingshu asked him more than once, "Xie Zhijin, if you insist on live streaming every day, won't your grades drop?"

Xie Zhijin told her, "There is no conflict."

Xie Zhijin did indeed do a good job. He balanced his studies and work very well, and his mock exam scores were all above 600.

The study atmosphere in Class 1 of Senior Three was intense. There were no students who were just watching the show; even Wang Shengli was making the most of every minute to review.

Jiang Jingshu has been grateful more than once for choosing to return to Z City and the feeling of fighting alongside the people around her. Even if she were to return to ancient times in the future, this experience would be imprinted on her life.

Finally, on the day of the college entrance examination, Jiang Jingshu got up early. She was scrolling through her phone when the first message she saw was from Xie Zhijin asking for leave.

Xie Jin: Today is the college entrance exam, I'm taking three days off!

The live chat exploded with disbelief; no one seemed to believe that this student, who was taking the college entrance exam today, had been live-streaming for them just the day before.

Although surprised by Xie Zhijin's status as a college entrance exam candidate, fans still sent their blessings.

Jiang Jingshu smiled. Jiang Yuan had already prepared breakfast. He was dressed in red and said to Jiang Jingshu, "Let's go, Dad will take you to the exam hall."

Jiang Jingshu stepped into the college entrance examination hall, feeling a surge of nervousness. She gently checked her heartbeat.

Is this what it feels like to head towards the future?

Then, she resolutely stepped into the examination room.

Chinese was not too difficult for her; in fact, it was one of her strengths. The question types were ones she had practiced countless times during her senior year of high school, and she completed the test paper smoothly.

When she came out, she saw Xie Zhijin.

Xie Zhijin told her, "Don't be nervous about math."

Jiang Jingshu smiled and said, "Since you've taught me like this, I promise I won't let Teacher Xie down."

Jiang Yuan waved to Jiang Jingshu from a distance. Jiang Jingshu smiled and said goodbye to Xie Zhijin before walking towards Jiang Yuan.

Xie Zhijin simply watched Jiang Jingshu's departing figure and whispered, "No matter what you do, I won't be disappointed."

For math, Jiang Jingshu skipped the multiple-choice questions and went straight to the trigonometric functions, sequences, and statistics and probability problems she had been practicing for the past few days.

This also proves that all those days of practice were not in vain; Jiang Jingshu solved all three questions.

For the other questions, Jiang Jingshu simply tried her best to answer them. When she didn't know the answers, she would just stare blankly. She still used her usual method: "If there are three long and one short questions, choose the longest one; if there are three short and one long questions, choose the shortest one."

Even when taking English exams, Jiang Jingshu left her fate entirely to heaven.

And so, the college entrance examination slowly came to an end.

She suddenly felt a sense of loss. Her classmates who had attended classes together and worked hard together might never be able to get together again after today.

As Jiang Jingshu walked out of the examination room, the sunlight shone on her. Jiang Yuan was at the school gate, holding a bouquet of flowers, and said to her, "Jingshu, you've worked hard."

All her friends had been picked up by their families. Jiang Jingshu smiled and asked Jiang Yuan, "Where did you buy the flowers?"

After Jiang Yuan told her, she quickly ran to the flower shop and bought a bunch of sunflowers.

She searched for that person's figure back and forth at the entrance of the examination hall until she heard someone calling her name.

Jiang Jingshu turned her head, and the young man was looking at her with a bouquet of flowers in his hands.