Following up on the case of Grandma Sun and her son killing their relatives, Qin Gu did not allow Ruan Bei to continue the investigation. He knew he would have to deal with Tong Hanming, and it wouldn't be good if the Lu family noticed him beforehand.
Furthermore, Ruan Bei has to go to school and doesn't have time, but Qin Gu has asked for leave so much that the teachers have given up on him. As long as he obediently takes the college entrance examination, they don't ask for anything else.
However, it is expected that it will take a few more days to find out the truth about Grandma Sun's murder case. Qin Gu and Ruan Bei should go back to school and wait for the Special Affairs Bureau to contact him.
He exchanged contact information with Zhou Linlin, and Zhou Linlin would relay any updates promptly.
I returned to school on Monday. Although I only had one day off, I experienced so much in the short time since I left school on Saturday.
The students around him were chattering and asking each other about the exam, worried that they wouldn't be able to explain themselves if they didn't do well. This simple, student-like atmosphere dispelled most of the heavy anxiety in Ruan Bei's heart.
A smile unconsciously crept onto Ruan Bei's lips. Even flipping through her textbooks, she felt content. School was the best; all she had to worry about was studying.
When teachers enter the classroom, they always carry a stack of test papers. Everyone is used to it; after an exam, the next step is to go over the test papers.
Teachers of different subjects have different habits; some will read out the grades, while others will hand out the test papers directly. When Ruan Bei received the test paper, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
As for English, there were no surprises. Once you truly master it, unless you fill in the answer sheet incorrectly, your grades won't fluctuate as much as in other subjects.
Of course, there are also cases where the questions are particularly difficult, and nobody knows them, so there's nothing to say.
Ruan Bei scored over 110 on the last quiz, and this time, with the listening section included, his total score rose to 147, ranking second in the subject. The first place was held by the English class representative, who scored one point higher than him, which is quite impressive.
In other subjects, his Chinese score improved a little, but surprisingly, his math and science scores didn't drop too much. His math score dropped by about ten points, and his science score dropped by more than ten points.
But Ruan Bei was not discouraged at all. Instead, he became more determined. He was slow in math, which caused him to run out of time to solve the last big problem. It wasn't that he didn't know how to do it; it was simply that his knowledge was not solid enough, which is why he spent so much time thinking.
Ruan Bei was more than ten points short of his total science score. After some research, he realized that he mainly lost points in biology, while he was good at chemistry and could recover quickly.
Wang Bufan was very good at explaining physics. In this exam, there was a physics problem that was an advanced variation of an example problem that Wang Bufan had specifically explained to him, and he solved it in no time.
However, his physics score was only average, and this time it was a few points lower than his previous average score.
Only when studying biology would Ruan Bei occasionally drift off, contemplating the connection between ghosts and biology, and beginning to doubt the knowledge in the textbook.
Ruan Bei earnestly and silently warned himself that he couldn't do that again. His priority now was to study, and he must not let his mind wander next time.
Overall, Ruan Bei was fairly satisfied with his midterm exam results, though there were some minor shortcomings. However, with Wang Bufan as his excellent tutor, he was confident that he could improve his grades.
He believes that he will definitely get into his ideal university when he takes the college entrance examination.
"Give him a bigger reward," Ruan Bei said. "Last night, I burned all the test papers I had bought for Wang Bufan, but he finished them too quickly."
Or, how about he try burning some university textbooks for him? It would be a waste to waste such talent on high school practice tests; perhaps he'd be willing to delve deeper into new knowledge?
Just as he was pondering this, Dong Yangyang rushed over excitedly, half her body on his desk, shouting, "Quick, let me see the test paper!"
"Which one do you want?" Ruan Bei moved his arm aside, letting him choose for himself.
"I want them all." Dong Yangyang looked back and lowered her voice to Ruan Bei, "They were just calculating their scores. I'll calculate it for you too, and see where you rank."
Although the test papers have been handed out, the rankings haven't been released yet, and the students are all anxious. They're secretly calculating their total scores and asking other students about their scores to estimate their rankings.
Dong Yangyang loves gossip, and he couldn't resist asking about this kind of thing. He specifically inquired about the grades of the students who used to be at the top of the class, and then asked Ruan Bei about it.
He thought that Ruan Bei's English used to be a drag on his overall performance, but now that his English score had improved, his overall ranking would definitely improve, which is why he rushed over so excitedly.
Ruan Bei found it amusing. The rankings would definitely be released by the end of tonight's evening self-study session, along with the grade rankings. The effort he was putting into asking around now wouldn't affect his grades.
But then I thought about it again, wasn't he like this before? Sometimes he would even look at his failing English test paper and secretly fantasize about how much his ranking would improve if he could get such and such a high score in English.
So Ruan Bei got interested and pushed the test paper over, watching Dong Yangyang take a calculator and quickly add up his total score.
"Wow..." Dong Yangyang looked at the score calculated on the calculator, then at the small note in his hand with the scores of other students written on it, and almost shouted excitedly.
"What's wrong?" Ruan Bei asked, "Is there a problem with my grades? Did I do poorly on the test?"
He felt he did quite well on the exam; could it be because the paper was too easy?
Lin Dengke, who was standing next to him, also perked up his ears. Apart from English, his grades in other subjects were not better than Ruan Bei's, especially in Ruan Bei's strong subjects, where he often couldn't outperform him.
Ruan Bei's English suddenly improved, but he felt he didn't do well on the exam because he was sick, so he paid more attention to Ruan Bei's grades.
Dong Yangyang slammed the calculator on Ruan Bei's desk, grinning so hard her gums were showing. She was especially happy for Ruan Bei: "Dude, you're awesome! You're going to get first place in our class this time!"
He caught a glimpse of Lin Dengke out of the corner of his eye, and then added, "Lin Dengke, how many points did you get?" Lin Dengke had always been among the top three in the class.
Lin Dengke subconsciously shifted his elbow to press down on the test paper, and stammered, "Not much, I didn't do well this time."
Ruan Bei knew that he always valued his grades and didn't want to upset him, so she smoothed things over by saying, "Lin Dengke was sick before and didn't perform well."
Seeing that he was unwilling to talk, Dong Yangyang didn't care. She unfolded the crumpled piece of paper and showed it to Ruan Bei, pointing to the highest score recorded inside and winking at him.
After Ruan Bei read it, he understood why Dong Yangyang was so excited. The highest score recorded on the note was the first place in their class last time, but this time the total score was thirteen points lower than Ruan Bei's.
Think about how many people can be left behind by just one point in the college entrance examination. Their school is a provincial key school. Although Ruan Bei's class is not a key class, based on the past college entrance rate, the top 20 students in their class are guaranteed to get into first-tier universities, and the top students aim for key universities.
The higher the ranking, the closer the scores became, sometimes with only a 0.5-point difference between a single rank. Ruan Bei attracted a lot of attention because of his "outstanding" English score among the top ten.
On Dong Yangyang's little note, the top students' grades were still very close, except for Ruan Bei, who suddenly rose to prominence and improved by so much.
Thinking about it carefully, it's not surprising. A score of 90 is the passing mark in English, and he usually scores 70 or 80. This time, his score almost doubled, and his total score increased by 70 points.
Even excluding the lower scores in math and science, there were still thirty or forty points, so he suddenly jumped to first place, leaving his classmates far behind.
Ruan Bei was overjoyed. He knew that his English was a weakness, but he couldn't catch up no matter what he did. Now he finally felt the joy of balanced development.
"Treat me to a meal! You did so well on the exam, you should at least treat your brother to a good time!" Dong Yangyang was very proud and determined to get a good meal from Ruan Bei.
"What's the rush? The results aren't out yet." If he really gets first place this time, Ruan Bei will certainly treat Dong Yangyang to a meal, but things aren't settled yet, so it's not good to be too ostentatious.
“Okay, then you’ll have to treat me when the results come out.” Dong Yangyang knew that Ruan Bei was always quite generous.
Ruan Bei agreed and urged Dong Yangyang to return to his seat. The fourth period was the homeroom teacher's class. He took out the grade sheet and asked the class monitor to post it on the blackboard at the back of the classroom before starting to go over the test papers.
The grade sheet was posted at the back, and no matter how much you wanted to know, you couldn't keep turning your head to look at it. You could only endure it for one class period. As soon as get out of class ended, a bunch of students crowded over, and soon someone would loudly announce the top three.
As expected, Nguyen Bac came out on top.
They even broke into the top ten in the grade, a position that used to be the exclusive domain of the two top classes.
Because of the conflict with his English teacher, everyone knew that Ruan Bei's English grades had improved, and everyone thought that his ranking would improve this time. But the fact that he improved so much at once still amazed everyone. Many classmates came to congratulate him and wanted to see his test paper.
Dong Yangyang winked at Ruan Bei from afar and mouthed "treat me to a meal," to which Ruan Bei smiled and nodded.
At lunchtime, Ruan Bei kept his word and let Dong Yangyang order. Dong Yangyang loudly proclaimed that he would treat him, and Ruan Bei actually did. He only ordered a few fried skewers from a stall near the school gate.
Ruan Bei went to a milk tea shop and bought three cups of water. He and Dong Yangyang drank milk tea, while Kunkun drank lemon water. Because of what happened when he bumped into Song Jiaxi last time, he even went to a different shop.
With Dong Yangyang by his side, Ruan Bei remained calm. But once they got off the bus and went their separate ways, Ruan Bei couldn't hold back any longer and pulled Qin Gu to stand by the roadside.
"Look!" Ruan Bei showed Qin Gu the report card she had photographed, her face turning red as she tried to suppress her laughter.
"Let me see... You did so well on the test! My little Bei is amazing!" Qin Gu went along with his wishes and showered Ruan Bei with compliments, making Ruan Bei beam with joy.
He could maintain a certain composure in front of Dong Yangyang, but in front of Qin Gu, he revealed his true colors, as smug as a little rooster with its tail wagging: "I told you I could do well on the exam. My grades were never bad to begin with, and I'll do even better this time. I definitely won't be outdone by Lu Sibai again!"
Failure in the college entrance examination in his previous life was a deep wound in Ruan Bei's heart, especially since Lu Sibai actually scored better than him, which was unbearable.
Ruan Bei didn't care about those other so-called aristocratic etiquette and other nonsense things compared to him. He had never learned them and didn't think it was necessary to learn them.
But his grades were clearly better than Lu Sibai's; he shouldn't have done so badly.
"What's the point of comparing? No comparison at all. What is that Bai guy anyway? He's not even worthy of being compared to my Little Bei." As the number one fan of Bei, Qin Gu was speaking from the heart.
Ruan Bei loved hearing these kinds of words and was extremely happy to be coaxed.
In his past life, he was compared to Lu Sibai too many times. Everyone felt that apart from his face, he had nothing that could compare to Lu Sibai. No one asked him if he was willing to be compared to Lu Sibai.
Sure enough, your own childhood sweetheart is the best; Kunkun thinks he's perfect in every way.
Having completely shaken off Lu Sibai's shadow, Ruan Bei pointed to her grade ranking on her report card and showed it to Qin Gu: "I used to be terrible at English, always lagging behind others by tens of points, and I felt like that score was so far away. But now I feel like I have a very good chance of catching up. Give me a year, and maybe I can even become the top student!"
Qin Gu had only glanced at the rankings before, without paying attention to the specific scores. Upon zooming in on the photo, he realized it was true; Ruan Bei was ranked ninth in the grade, seventeen points behind the first place.
A brilliant idea suddenly flashed through his mind, so he looked at Ruan Bei's scores in each subject more carefully, and then the idea in his mind became more and more tempting.
"Xiao Bei, your math test score wasn't as good as before."
Qin Gu frowned, looking worried and concerned for him: "Is he falling behind?"
"No, I just haven't fully picked up the knowledge I forgot before!"
Ruan Bei pulled out his math test paper and showed it to him: "Look, these questions involve knowledge points I haven't reviewed yet. I thought about them for a long time during the test, which wasted time. I didn't finish this last question. If I had finished it, I would have gotten twelve more points."
What about the combined science subjects?
“I didn’t have enough time to review,” Ruan Bei said. “Senior Wang is really good at explaining problems. I’ll ask him to go over the questions with me again, and I’m sure I can catch up.”
Qin Gu looked at him without saying a word, his face showing a hint of something he wanted to say but couldn't.
"What's wrong?"
"I... never mind, it's nothing, let's go home." Qin Gu said and took the lead. Ruan Bei quickly followed and asked him all the way. Qin Gu looked preoccupied, but kept his mouth tightly shut and refused to say anything.
After lunch, they took a nap at Ruan's house, which was nearby. Lying on Ruan Bei's bed, Ruan Bei noticed that Qin Gu was still looking sullen. She got anxious and pushed him while lying on her side on the bed, saying, "What's wrong? Tell me, why are you suddenly unhappy?"
Qin Gu turned over, buried his face in the pillow, and mumbled, "It's nothing."
Ruan Bei was anxious but didn't want to press him for answers. In the end, she quietly leaned closer, rubbed her face against the back of his neck, and her voice became low: "If you're unhappy, I'm unhappy too. I'll take half of your burden. You have to be less unhappy for a while."
Qin Guxin's heart softened instantly, and he could no longer pretend. He turned over and pulled Ruan Bei into his arms, saying frankly, "I don't want to be separated from you."
"When did you say you wanted to break up?" Ruan Bei asked in surprise. "Why do you want to break up?"
"I'll be taking the college entrance exam in a little over a month," Qin Gu said unhappily. "Then I'll be going to university, and we'll only be able to see each other on holidays."
Ruan Bei thought about it and realized that he wouldn't be able to see Kun Kun every day, go to and from school with him, do his homework and chat. How boring would that be!
How unhappy I am...
Ruan Bei was very disappointed: "But there's nothing we can do about it."
He remembered that Kunkun had mentioned wanting to take the college entrance exam with him next year, and immediately became wary, saying, "You have to do well on your college entrance exam. You're not allowed to take it carelessly, and you're not allowed to think about retaking it and taking it with me."
"I'll study hard for the exam," Qin Gu said. "There are other ways."
Ruan Bei: "What method?"
Qin Gu stared at him intently and said, "Advance the college entrance examination."
"Early college entrance exam?" Ruan Bei was taken aback: "Me? But my grades are so..."
He wanted to say that his grades were bad, but in the previous life, his grades were definitely not bad at all. In fact, his school had already completed all the high school courses before the second year of high school, and the third year was a series of rounds of review.
Seeing that he didn't immediately refuse, Qin Gu knew there was hope and quickly persuaded him, "Do you remember what I told you about the teacher talking about group cheating?"
Qin Gu was certainly not advising Ruan Bei to cheat; it was their teacher who, out of boredom, told them about a sensational group cheating case from many years ago.
Back then, the measures to prevent cheating in the college entrance examination were not as strict as they are now. A student from one school, through some connections, contacted a group of top students from key high schools in other provinces to take the exam for him, paying each of them tens of thousands of yuan.
Back then, tens of thousands of yuan was a lot of money. Those top students who took the exam for others would ask for leave in advance before the college entrance examination, and then successfully sneak into the examination room. They actually did very well, since the grades of those who had their exams taken by others were beyond saving.
In the end, the whole thing was exposed because a student habitually wrote his own name instead of his own. This led to the exposure of everyone involved, and all those who participated in the cheating were severely punished and banned from taking the college entrance examination for three years.
Regardless of whether the story is true or false, this incident demonstrates that top high school students have a very good chance of passing the college entrance examination.
"Of course I remember," Ruan Bei said. He had even imagined that someone who could take the college entrance exam for a senior high school student must have had exceptionally good grades.
"Shall we give it a try?" Qin Gu really wanted to sit in the same classroom as Xiao Bei and study together, preferably as deskmates, so he could take notes for him and worry about exams together.
He regretted it terribly; he should have stubbornly delayed starting primary school by a year when he was a child.
"Just give it a try, consider it a preview of the college entrance exam. If the results aren't ideal, I can just repeat the year with my original class. I promise I won't say a word of complaint then, okay?" Qin Gu looked at Ruan Bei expectantly, the usually arrogant young man frowning and pleading. Who could resist that?
Anyway, Ruan Bei couldn't resist. He hugged his childhood friend and ruffled his hair until it was a mess, which calmed his pounding heart a little.
"Okay?" Qin Gu was overjoyed to know that he had agreed, and let him fool around. He even leaned over and rubbed his head as he pleased.
"Okay." Ruan Bei joked, "A man can't say no."
Qin Gu's heart skipped a beat, and he almost wanted to personally test whether it would work with Ruan Bei.
Considering that the time is not yet ripe, I forced myself to suppress the urge to act.
“I think you have a point. I’ll give it a try. Whether I take the college entrance exam early or not, I’m going to study hard, and it’s only right that I try harder.”
He didn't want to be separated from Kunkun either, and there were too many things going to happen in the next year. The Lu family's reunion alone was enough to distract him.
Even if they've been through it once, the Lu family can never be judged by normal human thinking; who knows what they might do?
Previously, it was neither expected nor possible, but now Ruan Bei thinks Kun Kun's suggestion is quite good. If he can get into university before the Lu family comes looking for him, the dust will be settled, and he can solve many problems at once. At the very least, he won't have to worry about his college entrance exam being affected again.
"I'll go talk to my mom." Having made up his mind, Ruan Bei didn't hesitate any longer. He jumped out of bed, slipped on his slippers, and ran out to find his mother. He wanted to take the college entrance exam early, so he was determined to have his parents negotiate with the school.
Ruan's mother had already seen Ruan Bei's report card and even signed it. She was very happy when she heard him say that he wanted to take the college entrance examination early.
Ruan's mother immediately guessed that her son didn't want to be separated from Kunkun, but no matter how good the relationship was between friends, they couldn't joke about their future.
Ruan Bei, observing her mother's displeasure, spoke up before she could, "Mom, I just want to give it a try. If I don't do well on the exam, I'll come back and continue studying for my senior year. It's only a little over a month anyway, and I'll still be studying. Please let me give it a try!"
Mrs. Ruan, who could never resist her child's pleas, hesitated for a moment before finally agreeing: "Let's discuss it when your father comes back."
"Okay, I will definitely study hard!" Ruan Bei was overjoyed and rushed back to her bedroom to tell Qin Gu the good news: "Mom agreed, and Dad will agree too. I will work even harder from now on. It's not enough to just pass the college entrance examination; I have to get into a good university."
"Xiao Bei, you can do it! I'll take care of everything. Just tell me what you want to eat or buy." Qin Gu was even happier than him. He finally had the chance to be classmates with Xiao Bei! He wanted to go to the same university and study the same major as Xiao Bei!
Ruan Bei: "...I don't think that will work."
"Um?"
Ruan Bei sat up and asked seriously, "What's your total score now?"
Qin Gu sensed something was wrong. He read out his most recent monthly exam results and asked, "What's wrong?"
Ruan Bei frowned and said, "You didn't do well on the exam again. Did you skip the steps in answering the questions again? What if I take the college entrance exam with you, and I pass but you don't?"
The college entrance examination awards points based on the steps taken; if you only have the answer without showing the steps, you'll lose points.
Qin Gu was stunned. Yes, what should he do?
With Xiao Bei's diligence and the help of Wang Bufan, a top scorer in the college entrance examination who is particularly good at tutoring, his grades improved significantly in less than two weeks. Wouldn't he have left Wang Bufan far behind after a month?
His English is even worse than Xiao Bei's before!
Qin Gu was startled and broke out in a cold sweat. He had finally managed to persuade Xiao Bei, but if Xiao Bei got into a good university while he didn't, it would be a huge joke. He couldn't let Xiao Bei accommodate him by attending a less prestigious university.
He wouldn't do such a thing, and he doesn't have the nerve to do it!
"I'll get tutoring too!" Qin Gu said through gritted teeth.
Tutoring him was easier than Ruanbei's. He just needed to review the formulas; there was no need to relearn and understand them. He just needed to memorize them and remember to use them. He also needed to do a lot of practice problems and write detailed answers.
As for English, there's only a little over a month left, so I can only try to catch up as much as I can.
As a Taoist master, his first thought when faced with a problem was to use metaphysical methods. He rummaged through all the spells and talismans he had learned in his mind and finally found one that was somewhat useful.
Author's Note:
1. Important note: College entrance examination registration ends in November or December of the previous year. Even if you want to take the exam earlier, you still have to register at that time. Please consider this part of the text as fictional and do not take it too seriously.
2. Neither Xiao Bei nor Kun Kun thought about cheating, nor would they cheat.
3. I had considered having Xiao Bei take the college entrance exam early before, otherwise a bunch of important plot points will be concentrated in his senior year of high school. I really don't know how to pull him out of the classroom to advance the plot. Even now, the ghosts he encounters have to be arranged to do things on the weekend. It's really too difficult.
4. I heard the story about the group cheating in it from my teacher in junior high school. It's been many years, and I don't know if it's true or not. I was stunned when I heard it, but now that I think about it, there are too many loopholes. It's probably false. Just take it with a grain of salt.
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