72 Chapter 72
◎A decent performance◎
Whether Xu Shen's lucky charm worked or not is unknown, but Zhan Xinyue's eyes were completely glazed over after the afternoon's math exam. She felt that she had done enough practice problems this month, but when she saw those similar questions in the exam room, which were slightly modified and still left her completely confused, she helplessly realized that there was still a long way to go from understanding the examples to being able to flexibly solve similar problems by applying what she had learned.
She silently encouraged herself before starting to read the questions. She stumbled through each question, and by the time the bell rang to signal the end of the exam, she hadn't even started the last big question. Just as she handed in her paper, Xu Shen turned around and said, "How was it? Weren't you lucky? It's been a long time since I've encountered such an easy test paper."
"Yes, we're so lucky," Zhan Xinyue said numbly, standing up and going to the back to get her physics error notebook.
The school's grading efficiency was as high as ever; the Chinese and English exam papers were already handed out before evening classes started.
I was a little careless on two English reading comprehension questions in this month's New Moon Exhibition, failing to notice the tricky options. I also lost a few points on the cloze test and the composition. Fortunately, my total score was still just under 140 points, exactly 140 points, not a point more or less. My Chinese score was slightly higher than last time, at 131.
The overall rankings haven't been released yet, so she doesn't know where she ranks in the class for these two subjects, but she's still quite happy with her results.
However, this pleasant feeling dissipated considerably after glancing at the test paper on the corner of Shi Ziqian's desk. Shi Ziqian glanced at the paper after receiving it and casually tossed it aside on the corner of the desk, continuing to work on math problems. At this moment, two bright red numbers peeked out from the corner of the test paper: English 149, Chinese 137.
Needless to say, Chinese is a subject where scores above 140 are rarely given; around 130 is generally considered a high score. As for English, his score suggests he didn't lose any points except for the essay. The common perception is that people strong in math, physics, and chemistry are often weaker in subjects like Chinese and English, but Shi Ziqian seems to be consistently strong across all subjects, leaving no room for argument.
Zhan Xinyue sighed silently for a while, but didn't have too many thoughts on it; she had long been used to it.
The math and science papers for the next few evening classes hadn't been handed out yet, and the longer it went on like this, the more uncertain Zhan Xinyue felt. However, she had been on edge all day and decided to deal with tomorrow's problems tomorrow, instead of worrying about it prematurely. As soon as the evening class bell rang, she stepped out of the classroom.
Unexpectedly, just seconds after Zhan Xinyue stepped out of the classroom, the math teacher appeared at the door from the other side, placing a stack of test papers on the lectern: "The math test papers are out, come up and get them yourselves." Then, looking at Dai Yun in the back row, he added, "I also brought your class's ranking list, class monitor, come up and put it up."
Dai Yun went forward to post the report cards. There weren't many people left in the classroom to begin with, and soon everyone crowded to the front to see the rankings.
After quickly posting the papers, Dai Yun squeezed out of the crowd with difficulty. Taking advantage of the fact that there were still few people on the podium looking at the math test papers, she quickly found a few papers and took them back to her seat.
She took the exam papers from the people around her and distributed them to everyone on the spot. Then she placed one exam paper on Shi Ziqian's desk and looked at the remaining exam paper in her hand with a slightly troubled expression.
"Is the new moon gone?" she asked Shi Ziqian.
"Um."
"Oh, okay." Dai Yun flipped the test paper over and placed it face down on her desk. She paused for a moment, as if she wanted to say something but hesitated.
Shi Ziqian glanced at her twice: "What?"
Dai Yun shook her head. "It's nothing, it's just that Xinyue's performance was a bit off this time. I'm worried she might be upset when she comes tomorrow morning."
"Did she not do well on the test? What score did she get?" Dai Yun's deskmate, who was also a girl, heard their conversation and curiously turned around, craning her neck to look at Zhan Xinyue's desk.
"Don't look at it, it's not particularly high." Dai Yun grabbed her hand and changed the subject, "How come you did so well on the test this time? I scored much lower than you."
"What do you mean 'a lot'? It's just a few points. I was lucky this time; I guessed right on the two multiple-choice questions I wasn't sure about, haha..."
The two turned around, chatted about the exam papers for a while, and then quickly packed up their things and went back to their dormitory.
After they left, Shi Ziqian sat for a while longer, then reached out and took Zhan Xinyue's exam paper, turning it over.
92 points.
As Dai Yun said, Zhan Xinyue's score this time was extremely abnormal, barely two points above the passing mark.
Zhan Xinyue's math skills aren't great, but only compared to those in the experimental class. Most of the time, her scores are above 120, and occasionally she even scores over 130.
Although we don't know the current class average score yet, given the difficulty of this exam, the class average score is probably close to 120.
Shi Ziqian's gaze lingered on the score for a while before moving on to the next question. He read very slowly, pausing to think about each wrong answer. Half a day passed, and the test paper was still stuck on the first page.
The classroom gradually emptied out, and a voice came from the front row: "Brother Shen, don't sit there, it's our turn to do chores today."
Xu Shen was sitting in his seat. Instead of squeezing into the crowd to see the rankings, he reached out and pulled out his math test paper—that's one of the advantages of sitting next to the podium.
He scored 148 on the test, only losing points for steps on one proof question. However, math in the experimental class is always incredibly competitive, so while this score is high, it's not particularly outstanding, so he didn't react much.
After quickly glancing through the exam paper, he began to carefully review the question for which he had lost points. He muttered to himself, "That's really ruthless," and then picked up his pen to rewrite the proof process on the side.
Hearing his name called, Xu Shen looked up blankly: "Huh, duty? I've only been here a few days and you've already put me on duty. Your class is pretty efficient."
"Of course, that's what you call treating everyone equally. It's written on the blackboard in the back row." The other person urged, "Come on, let's finish and go back to the dorm. I'm so sleepy."
"Alright, alright, I'm coming." Xu Shen tossed his pen aside and stood up.
Aside from the bi-weekly deep cleaning, the daily chores weren't many; it mainly involved sweeping, mopping, and wiping the blackboard and the windows on both sides of the classroom. Seeing that another person had already gone up to the podium to clean the blackboard, Xu Shen went to the back of the classroom to get a broom and began sweeping row by row.
"School's out! Please push your chairs back in before you leave, thank you everyone."
A few people were still in the classroom, gathered around their seats discussing the questions. Xu Shen muttered to himself and casually joined in for a few words. After a while of laughter and chatter, he continued scanning the classroom.
In the last row, Shi Ziqian remained seated, head down, writing something. Xu Shen scanned the area under his seat, glancing at him as he reached him. His smile faded, and he asked in a flat tone, "Do you need me to scan under your seat?"
Shi Ziqian looked up at him, then quickly lowered his head again, his pen never stopping.
"Need not."
"Oh." Xu Shen didn't seem to care, but when his gaze swept across the table, he raised an eyebrow in surprise.
He had initially thought Shi Ziqian was working on some other problem, but it seemed he was redoing the math exam. There was a math exam paper next to Shi Ziqian, and the proof he was working on was the same one Xu Shen had just half-finished; he recognized it immediately.
Xu Shen himself didn't understand his own motivation, but in any case, he glanced at Shi Ziqian's desk a few more times. He wasn't particularly familiar with Shi Ziqian, and as the perennial top student, there was absolutely no reason for him to do this extremely routine math test again.
While I was still wondering, Shi Ziqian had already finished the proof problem, turned the exam paper over, and started working on the next one. He wrote out his steps in great detail, quickly filling more than half a page with his work on a simple function problem. He would even stop after writing a few lines to add a couple of annotations.
Xu Shen immediately understood that Shi Ziqian hadn't written this problem for his own practice, but rather for someone else to see, which explained the detailed steps. The math test paper beside him also confirmed his guess; the last question on that paper only had a few lines of answers for the first part, with large blank spaces for the following parts, clearly indicating that it wasn't his own test paper.
As for who it was written to...
Perhaps he had lingered there for too long, for Shi Ziqian had already noticed and turned around indifferently: "Is there something you need?"
Xu Shen didn't avoid his gaze and directly asked the question that had been on his mind: "Is the paper on your desk Zhan Xinyue's?"
Shi Ziqian: "Yes, how so?"
Xu Shen shrugged. "It's nothing."
Shi Ziqian didn't seem inclined to pay him any more attention, and he didn't say anything more, going straight to get the winnowing basket.
Zhan Xinyue arrived late in the morning. When she returned to her seat, the table was covered with a layer of white paper. She reached out and flipped through it. On top were the worksheets that had been handed out that morning, and below them were the math and science papers.
She glanced at her score, showing little emotional reaction. She was satisfied with the improvement she'd made in such a short time. However, compared to her previous rankings, she was likely to face criticism this time.
Sure enough, before she could move, Dai Yun had already turned around, first comforting her for a few moments, then saying with a troubled expression, "Xinyue, before you came here, Lao Zhou came over and asked you to go to his office during the next break."
Zhan Xinyue nodded and began tidying up the messy test papers and worksheets. Once the desk was organized, she noticed a thin notebook had appeared on it, having been hidden under the test papers.
She opened it with a puzzled look and immediately recognized Shi Ziqian's handwriting. The pages were filled with math problems, the solutions written in dense, detailed steps.
Zhan Xinyue didn't react immediately. She had seen Shi Ziqian solve problems before, and he always simplified the steps whenever possible. When had he ever solved problems in such detail? Upon closer inspection, she realized that the pages were filled with the questions she had lost points on in this math test, including the multiple-choice questions, all with extremely detailed solutions.
When she left yesterday, the math test papers hadn't been handed out yet, so she didn't know when or how long Shi Ziqian had written them.
She glanced to the side and saw Shi Ziqian with his head down, working on his problems, looking calm and not planning to speak.
Zhan Xinyue hesitated for a long time without speaking, but simply reached out and pressed the notebook back under the test paper.
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