Fraction
Teacher Wang deliberately kept them in suspense, distributing the large box of candy, milk, and small cakes to them one by one, which drew cheers from the whole class. Some even dared to ask him, "Teacher, what's the good news? Tell us so we can all be happy!"
Seeing that every one of the fifty students had received candy and small cakes, Teacher Wang turned around with satisfaction and wrote some data on the blackboard. She then pointed to the numbers on the blackboard with chalk: 117.24, 107.88, 116.9, 74.24, 80.01, 76.23.
"These are the average scores for Chinese, Math, English, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in our class. Take a good look at the report cards. Among the schools that participated in the joint exam in Junzhou City, we ranked in the top five in the entire city. However, there is still room for improvement. But to achieve such results in the first joint exam, I hereby announce that all the teachers have unanimously decided that you have no homework this week. Play as much as you want." His cheerful expression was quite proud, not at all like someone who was humble and made progress.
Then Teacher Wang turned her attention to another person, and the others followed suit, focusing on Zhang Yuning. The teacher on the stage smiled and calmly took out two answer sheets. "These two are Zhang Yuning's answer sheets for Chinese and English, respectively. He achieved a perfect score of 150 in this joint exam in Junzhou City. We have already made copies of his answer sheets and distributed them to each student for review. You should all learn from him."
Only then did he vaguely realize where those shadowy gazes that followed him when he came out of the Political Education Office today came from. It turned out that everyone knew he got full marks in both Chinese and English, but he himself didn't know.
The students below were whispering and talking amongst themselves, and they started discussing the answer sheets in all directions. There was no way to stop them. Teacher Wang put his hands behind his back and said that this kind of enthusiastic atmosphere was exactly what motivated them to improve. Then he called Zhang Yuning and Ou Liyao out for a talk.
He didn't say much, just gave them a few words of advice: it's good to stand up for your friends, but next time something like this happens, you should learn to report it to the teacher instead of going to other schools on your own. If you tell the teacher, at least someone will be there to back you up.
He had just finished his conversation when the homeroom teacher of the liberal arts class next door walked out of the classroom, followed by a little girl. Ou Liyao, who returned to the classroom a step later, saw her and burst out laughing. Her eyes met those of Xu Changjia, who was looking up, and she even made a heart shape with her hands in return.
Even Xu Changjia's homeroom teacher found it amusing. When he turned around, he saw the girl smiling with her head down, and for a moment, he felt that those words were not so difficult to say.
The children had already resolved the issue on their own, and they had done a pretty good job, so he felt there was no need to say anything. However, the head of the grade disagreed, fearing that they would not know how to restrain themselves and would cause some serious trouble again, and insisted that their homeroom teacher pass on the message.
Sure enough, the science class had just finished their reprimand when the "troublemakers" from the humanities class started asking her about her school life, continuing until get out of class ended.
Before the answer sheets were even handed out during the day, countless eyes followed them, making their backs feel hot. But once the answer sheets were distributed to all the students at No. 1 High School, and Wang Shun spread the word of their feat from the regular classes to the juniors in grades 10 and 11, it felt like the three of them had become household names.
Many younger students would deliberately pass by their classroom after class, just to see what the academic genius who could get full marks in Chinese and English looked like. Even if they couldn't see the full-mark academic genius, it would be great to see the top student Xu who scored 144 in Chinese. Moreover, it is said that they are good friends and often walk together. If you can see one, you might see the other academic genius.
Their enthusiasm only began to wane slightly when they finally got their monthly break at the end of October. Xu Changjia was never good at interacting with people, so she waited until most of the other students had left before packing up her things and heading to Class 369, intending to walk to the school gate with Ou Liyao and the others.
Ou Liyao hesitated and dawdled, talking to Zhang Yuning alone for a while, seemingly not wanting to travel with her. She looked down at the time and realized it was almost time for her appointment with her mother, so she told the two of them that she was leaving first.
But when she arrived at the school gate alone, she waited for nearly twenty minutes before her mother, who was late, finally appeared. When the back door was opened, several large cardboard boxes were placed on the seat. She could only sit in the passenger seat, occasionally stealing glances at her mother driving, without saying a word.
While driving, Xu's mother initiated the conversation, "Jiajia, you did well on your exam this time. What gift would you like?"
Before picking her daughter up today, her homeroom teacher called her: firstly, to let her know that her daughter did well on the exam. Although she only scored 112 in math, her total score was over 600, which is quite respectable in Junzhou. She ranked 101st in the city with a score of 645. Secondly, because her daughter had been wronged in the joint exam, the teacher asked them, as parents, to take good care of their children.
Xu Changjia gripped the seatbelt tightly, fumbling around, but the turmoil surging within her had already betrayed her. In the more than thirty years she had spent with her parents in both her past and present lives, it seemed that she had never received any proper gifts. Why was her mother bringing it up today?
"Mom, I... I don't want anything. I'm doing fine at school."
The daughter she raised wasn't close to her and didn't want to talk to her about anything. Last time, Yunhe, who was thousands of miles away, reminded her, and this time it was their homeroom teacher who called to remind her. It sounded really sad. Xu's mother didn't mention buying gifts again. Instead, she changed the subject and asked about other little things, such as what she ate at school, what the teacher talked about in Chinese class, and what she and Ou Liyao did in their spare time.
The series of questions thrown out by Xu's mother left Xu Changjia at a loss. She changed the topic of the composition class and talked about Ou Liyao again, until several large cardboard boxes were moved into her room.
She was a little surprised. "Mom, how did these get into my room? Aren't they family's things?"
Mrs. Xu patted her head and smiled. "Those are your things. Look, isn't your name written on them? Open them and you'll see. I asked Aunt Chen to make your favorite salmon for lunch. Come out and eat in a bit."
After closing the door, Mrs. Xu looked left and right but couldn't figure out what was going on. She couldn't imagine who would send her these things. With these questions in mind, she bent down and squatted on the ground, slowly cutting open the yellow tape on the three large cardboard boxes with a knife.
The first large cardboard box was opened, and on top was a thick letter. Below it were stacks of burned CDs. The angular handwriting looked very familiar. It was him, Zheng Ruoqian, who had gone to H country!
Why would he send her a box of CDs?
Xu Changjia didn't open the letter. She put it in the drawer in front of her computer desk, then turned on the computer and casually put in a CD. Soon, melodious piano music came from her room.
She neatly stacked a box of CDs on the bookshelf, counting a total of 21 CDs. He went to H country at the end of February last year, so it's been exactly 21 months now. Did he burn her a piano music CD every month?
Xu Changjia was feeling conflicted. He sat blankly on the floor, pulled his phone out of the bed, tapped on Zheng Ruoqian's profile picture, typed in a long string of text, then felt it wasn't appropriate and pressed the delete button.
After many attempts, carefully choosing her words—more troublesome than writing an 800-word essay—she finally typed out just this one sentence:
Thank you, I received the CDs. Your piano playing is beautiful, but there are 21 discs, so it will take some time. I'll listen to them all at my own pace.
The grayed-out avatar on the other end remained silent for a long time without lighting up again. She was just quietly listening to the piano music, lost in thought, when the phone rang.
When she opened her phone, she saw that it was Yunhe calling, and she couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She wasn't very enthusiastic about answering the video call.
When Yunhe saw this, he teased her, "What's wrong, Sister Xu? Aren't you happy to receive the gift I sent you?"
Xu Changjia looked confused, but the person on the other end of the video call could see the two remaining large boxes in her room through the background and reminded her to open them and take a look, as they were gifts he had carefully selected and prepared for a long time.
She assumed it was a return gift from him, so she opened the remaining two cardboard boxes in front of him. One box contained more than ten books, which he said were all best-selling books from H country. He knew she liked to read these books, so he searched around for them and asked someone to send them back to her country.
The other box contained a huge model of a world house, which she needed to patiently assemble piece by piece. He knew she liked being alone, but he also hoped she could read extensively, travel widely, and see the beauty of the world, instead of locking herself in a small, square room.
As she unpacked it, listening to Yunhe's heartwarming words, her head unconsciously lowered. Thinking back to her past self, it seemed like it had been a long time since anyone had cared for her like this...
Yunhe's little mouth opened and closed, and seeing that there was no movement on the other side, she called out, "Xu Changjia, have you forgotten what day it is tomorrow?"
She looked at him with her reddened rabbit eyes, her face full of questions: What day is it?
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