Joint Entrance Examination
In the autumn of 2117, the azure sky was tinged with a gradient of orange, outlining a splash of color in the vibrant lives of the young people.
Xu Changjia and Ou Liyao stood on the corridor reciting their lessons, listening to the younger students laughing and joking as they passed by. It was as if they were seeing themselves a year or two ago. Ou Liyao went through all the physics formulas again, and sitting on the steps, she couldn't help but sigh, "Jiajia, I heard that you liberal arts students will be taking the joint exam at other schools in two days. Time really flies. I still remember when I accidentally bumped into you at the beginning of the first year of high school."
Xu Changjia had just distinguished between Aeschylus and Sophocles in his mind, nodded blankly, smiled, and prepared to continue to the next page.
The person on the steps looked at the densely packed formulas in the notebook, couldn't help but sigh, and then looked up to ask, "Jiajia, you said we're here preparing for the joint entrance exam and the college entrance exam, what is Zheng Ruoqian doing? Will he come back to take the exam?"
Distracted from her train of thought, she glanced resentfully at Ou Liyao. "Fine," she thought, "I'll just study at another time." She closed her book, walked over to Ou Liyao, and sat down on the steps next to her. She watched the sunset with her for a while, then slowly recounted Zheng Ruoqian's recent activities: "It's not like we can't go home every week in our senior year. Before, he would call or text me every week or two to let me know what piano piece he'd been practicing or what dance he'd been doing. Now he just sends a message occasionally to let me know he's safe. I heard he practices in the dance studio until late at night every day; it's no easier than studying for us."
Ou Liyao was somewhat moved. "Yes, I heard Zhang Yuning say last time that he told him about our little script during the school anniversary celebration. He was originally rushing to prepare a stage performance that was scheduled for the next day. In order not to leave any regrets, he stayed up all night to hand over what he had written to Zhang Yuning, which gave us a perfect ending."
"Yeah?"
The person beside her didn't respond, but fell into a deep sleep with her head on her shoulder. Xu Changjia smiled. She really fell asleep instantly. Oh well, it's dinner time anyway, and it's rare to have a moment to relax. Let her sleep for a while. She then took out a humanities test paper from her notebook and started working on the objective questions.
According to the school's notice, the joint exam was scheduled for Friday and Saturday. The answer sheets were to be submitted to the Education Bureau for grading. The exam process and requirements were all arranged according to the standards of the National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao). All students were also randomly assigned to different schools. For example, Xu Changjia looked up in her exam room and didn't recognize anyone at all, not even her classmates or schoolmates.
When she came out after finishing her Chinese exam, she heard a voice from the next exam room calling her "Xu, the academic genius." She remembered that only Li Teng and a few others would call her that. When she turned around, she saw Wang Shun, one of the little followers who used to sneak into their classes every day and even acted in "The Legend of the Republic of China."
Seeing that she had stopped, Wang Shun squeezed through the crowd and chatted with her all the way to the fourth floor. Besides praising her for her good studies, he asked her if she had guessed any knowledge points correctly, and what the exam would include. They were experts at predicting exam questions; they had audited two classes before the placement exam, which had dramatically improved their rankings, with most of their classmates going to the top classes.
Xu Changjia thought for a moment, then took out three test papers from her schoolbag and handed them to him. These were the key points she had compiled for this joint exam a couple of days ago. Since she had already gone through them and memorized them, it wouldn't hurt to show them to him.
Little did they know that their actions had been observed by a pair of malicious eyes that had been watching her for a long time.
During the afternoon's math joint exam, the test papers and answer sheets had just been handed out. Xu Changjia passed them to the girl in the back row and saw her smiling at him, which made him feel quite uncomfortable. He didn't think much of it and buried his head in answering the questions.
The clock had just struck 4:00 PM, and only an hour into the exam, the girl in the back row started deliberately bumping into her chair and whispering threats to let her show her the math exam paper so she could copy it.
She was a little annoyed, so she moved her chair forward and ignored the people behind her.
But the other person was still persistent and even went so far as to torture her in various ways. They would deliberately bump into her chair or poke her back. In short, they wanted her to be able to take the exam in peace if she didn't help them cheat. Xu Changjia had just finished writing the multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions when she covered up all the answers so that the people behind her couldn't see them at all. She also moved her chair forward so that she was far away from the back row.
The girl behind them couldn't copy the answers and got angry, but when she saw the proctor patrolling over to them and standing still in the last row, she calmed down for a while and stayed still.
The proctor stood next to them for a while, counting the number of people in the exam room several times, before walking to the other side.
The girl in the back row knew her chance had come. She pushed the desks and chairs forward, and then, taking advantage of the fact that the two teachers' attention was not on them, she secretly snatched the test paper from the front. The answer sheet that Xu Changjia was pressing down on was almost torn by her action.
In both her past lives, she had never experienced anything like this. She was so anxious and angry she wanted to cry. She cursed the girl behind her a thousand times in her mind, but there was nothing she could do. She started imagining all the possibilities: if the proctor caught her, would she also be marked as cheating and have her exam score canceled? She still had three essay questions unfinished; she was definitely going to fail math this time. What should she do? What should she do? What could she possibly do?
The clock ticked away, second by second. The proctor on the podium glanced at it and began to speak, "Those candidates who haven't finished yet, hurry up. There are twenty minutes left until the end of the exam."
She hesitated for a long time, wondering whether she should raise her hand and tell the proctor, but she was afraid the teacher would ask: Why didn't you say anything when she snatched your test paper?
At this moment, her test paper was thrown back from behind. She was fearless, since she had already copied almost everything she needed to.
Xu Changjia was in a bad situation. She didn't have time to think about those random things anymore. She calmed down and finished working out the few big questions she hadn't had time to answer yet. Fortunately, she had scanned the test paper from beginning to end when it was handed out. The derivative function and hyperbola she used were the ones that Zhang Yuning had explained to her the day before, so as long as she was quick, she could finish.
But the more nervous she was, the more likely she was to make mistakes. Beads of sweat appeared on her forehead, which she wiped away casually with her hand and continued writing. However, when she was asked to draw a diagram on the answer sheet, she drew the diagram for the previous question. When she finished writing the whole question, she realized that there was nowhere to change it.
Xu Changjia took a deep breath, looked up and saw that there were only five minutes left. There was no time left. He hurriedly finished the last question and went back to write as much as he could for the two questions in the gaps. He left it to fate.
"Ring ring—"
As soon as the bell rang to signal the end of the exam, the invigilator immediately told all the candidates to stop writing and stand up. She looked down at her half-finished answer sheet with some disappointment. Only after collecting all the exam papers and answer sheets did she let them leave.
Xu Changjia was feeling down because she hadn't finished her math test. She thought that she could have finished it if the girl in the back row hadn't taken it from her. Thinking about this, she couldn't help but turn around and look back. She saw the girl in the back row smiling smugly and giving her the middle finger.
She laughed in anger. She wanted to go up and say something to get justice for herself, but it was already a done deal that she hadn't finished her math homework. What could she do? She could only watch as the man swaggered away. She slowly walked out of the Second Middle School on the other side, not even hearing Wang Shun calling after her.
Back at Junzhou No.1 Middle School, Ou Liyao had already gotten her food on the second floor of the cafeteria and was waiting for her. As soon as she saw her coming, she waved to her.
After persevering all afternoon, when she saw her support, tears welled up in her eyes and flowed silently down her cheeks. She threw herself into Ou Liyao's arms, venting all her grievances and crying uncontrollably.
Wang Shun, who arrived late behind her, was also at a loss. He winked at Ou Liyao for a long time, still not knowing what was wrong with Xu, the top student. She was fine before the exam, so why was she like this when she came back? Could it be that she did not do well on the math exam?
Zhang Yuning and a few others, who were sitting not far from them and eating, also noticed the commotion and immediately put down their chopsticks and came over.
A crowd had gathered, but Xu Changjia was completely unaware. She was still sobbing on someone's shoulder. Ou Liyao, who was holding her, gently patted her back with one hand and drew two lines with her other finger to make Zhang Yuning stay. Everyone else dispersed.
After crying for a while, Xu Changjia started coughing and couldn't catch her breath. Ou Liyao pulled her to sit down, took some wet wipes from her bag to wipe her face, and then took a pack of tissues from Zhang Yuning to wipe her nose. She also asked Zhang Yuning to buy her a cup of her favorite milk tea. Once she calmed down, she asked, "What's wrong? Jiajia, can you tell us what's wrong?"
Seeing that things were not going well, Wang Shun went back to report to his older brother Li Teng. He came over just in time to hear about the disgusting incident that morning. He slammed his hand on the table and said, "This is outrageous! Don't worry, Xu, the academic genius, I'll have Shunzi take some men tomorrow and beat that woman up so she can't take the exam. That will get revenge for you."
Xu Changjia shook his head. "Forget it. You still have a disciplinary record. You can't do this."
Zhang Yuning brought over the milk tea, listened to her repeat herself, and carefully asked about her exam room location and the girl's appearance. After asking, he told her to focus on the exam tomorrow and that he would handle the matter. Then he turned and left, leaving several people looking completely bewildered.
As a top student—no, the legendary Zhang, the academic genius—always had some privileges at school, and his words were reassuring. Ou Liyao and Xu Changjia trusted him unconditionally. Li Teng, however, asked, "So what do we do now?"
"Let's eat. Jiajia hasn't eaten since she came back from her exams."
He slapped Wang Shun on the head before he could speak, "Yes, eat, eat."
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