Despite his arrogant and condescending demeanor, Mr. Chen, the proctor, is just an ordinary middle school teacher.
The reason he so easily concluded that Guan Baiyu had cheated and even gave Guan Baiyu a zero score was because he looked down on Guan Baiyu from the bottom of his heart and didn't think Guan Baiyu would resist.
The students at this school all had very poor grades, and in his opinion, it wouldn't matter whether they participated in this slightly competitive exam or not.
He didn't expect Guan Baiyu to be so tough, unwilling to settle things peacefully, and even dragging the Education Bureau into it.
Making a big fuss about this won't do them any good.
Upon hearing this, another proctor, Teacher Wang, became anxious: "Teacher Chen, let's just let this go!"
Teacher Wang didn't understand why Teacher Chen was so insistent on it.
If it were her, she would probably just give a warning and tell the student to take the paper and let it go—the students here can't win awards in the city even if they cheat; at most, their grades will look better, but it's really nothing.
Most importantly, the boy in front of me was so confident and didn't seem guilty at all, which clearly meant he hadn't cheated.
Thinking this, Teacher Wang smiled at Guan Baiyu.
"You cheated and you still think you're right? Do you think the Education Bureau is your private property?" Teacher Chen glared at Guan Baiyu, but he seemed somewhat timid.
Guan Baiyu doesn't like to get into conflicts with people and usually stays alone without much presence. However, he likes to observe others and is therefore always able to keenly sense other people's emotions.
At that moment, he realized that Teacher Chen was scared.
Guan Baiyu looked at Teacher Chen seriously: "The Education Bureau is neither owned by my family nor your family! You are a teacher, yet you framed me, your student. I want to make my... I want my dad to go to the Education Bureau, to your school!"
He originally wanted to say my brother, but in the end he changed it to my dad.
Teacher Chen's face turned even uglier.
These country folk are particularly good at throwing tantrums, acting like scoundrels, and cursing. The education bureau is in the city, so this person's family might not be able to find a place to make a scene. But even if they do go to his school to cause trouble, he will lose all face!
Mr. Chen was a little embarrassed and stood there frozen. Mr. Wang glanced at him, walked up to Guan Baiyu, and said gently, "This student, let me see your test paper. Don't worry, if you didn't cheat, we definitely won't give you a zero! Mr. Chen, let me see that note of yours too."
Guan Baiyu handed the test paper to Teacher Wang: "Teacher, my handwriting is definitely different from the handwriting on that note. I didn't cheat!"
Guan Baiyu could sense that Teacher Chen simply wanted to cause him trouble, and even without concrete evidence, she wanted to give him a zero. Naturally, he didn't dare to hand over the test paper, but this female teacher had no ill intentions towards him.
Twenty years from now, in any school, a child who is completely unsupervised will not be able to get the top score in their grade unless they have an exceptionally high IQ and are extremely self-disciplined.
Parents back then valued education and would do their best to provide their children with the best learning conditions within their means, while children who were left unattended rarely had access to such conditions.
But it's 1994 now, and this is still the countryside.
In their village, very, very few parents value their children's education.
Middle school students are easily influenced by their surroundings; they are like ghosts that can't be pulled away. Parents who value their children's studies and have some understanding of education would never let their children study in a school where classmates don't want to learn. They would basically find a way to send their children to schools in town.
People like Yan Jiangtao's father, who value their children's grades but don't understand education... haven't read many books themselves, and their so-called "valuing" just means scolding their children a few times and letting them study on their own. Whether they value it or not makes little difference.
Therefore, Guan Baiyu and the other children in the school were on the same starting line.
Although Guan Baiyu usually has to do housework and doesn't have much time to study after school, other children also have to help their families cut grass or take care of their younger siblings after school, and they also go out to play in groups.
What about at school? Other children don't like school and their minds aren't on studying, but Guan Baiyu likes school and wants to gain recognition in his studies, so he naturally studies more diligently than others.
Without family by his side or any entertainment, Guan Baiyu spent his free time reading and memorizing books.
In the end, he could recite those articles in the textbooks that didn't need to be memorized at all.
Moreover, while other children scribbled carelessly to get by with their homework, he wrote each character exceptionally neatly, stroke by stroke, following the standard printed font in the textbook.
He was so bored that he eventually forced himself to write his handwriting to look almost like printed text.
Later, when Guan Baiyu entered junior high school, an old teacher at his school found his handwriting interesting and gave him one of his notebooks, asking him to practice writing by copying his handwriting. Guan Baiyu's handwriting soon became almost the same as that old teacher's.
The old teacher's family was very wealthy when he was young. He was a capitalist who was overthrown in his early years. He was not good at math, physics and chemistry, but his calligraphy was really good. After his grandmother passed away, Guan Baiyu would take a sharpened twig and trace those characters on the tiles whenever he had free time. When he did his homework, he would try his best to write the same characters as those characters.
His handwriting is very beautiful.
What about the words on that crumpled piece of paper? Some of the words are so illegible that no one but the person who wrote them would be able to decipher them.
Furthermore, it was obvious at a glance that most of the questions Guan Baiyu had already completed were correct, but the so-called "answers" on that crumpled piece of paper... Teacher Wang was too embarrassed to call it an answer.
If you copy this answer, you'll only get a maximum of 30 points on a 100-point test!
“Teacher Chen, the notes are completely different. This crumpled piece of paper wasn’t written by him. Someone else must have cheated,” Teacher Wang said softly to Teacher Chen. “Let him go back and continue the exam.”
Teacher Wang offered a way out, and Teacher Chen snorted and took the opportunity to back down: "I'll let you off this time because the evidence is insufficient, but I'll be keeping a close eye on you, so don't even think about cheating!"
"I won't cheat," Guan Baiyu said firmly. "I'm going to take the exam."
He was worried that he wouldn't have enough time to write an essay for the Chinese exam.
Teacher Chen didn't stop Guan Baiyu from entering the classroom to take the exam, but he followed Guan Baiyu in and stood next to Guan Baiyu's desk, watching Guan Baiyu do the questions.
Most students can't stand being watched by proctors during exams, and Guan Baiyu is also a little uncomfortable with it.
But he quickly realized that if he did poorly on the exam because someone was watching him, wouldn't that hurt his loved ones and please his enemies?
He had always told his brother that he was number one in the grade, and if he made a mistake on the test this time... that would be absolutely unacceptable!
Guan Baiyu ignored Teacher Chen and focused on doing the problems.
Reading comprehension questions in Chinese have always been Guan Baiyu's weak point. His school teachers rarely let them do these kinds of questions, and they don't talk about them much in class. Sometimes, even the teachers themselves don't know what a certain sentence means. That's not all; they don't even bother to look up any information. They just leave after class, thinking only of getting by.
But in the past few days, Guan Baiyu has done a lot of practice questions in this area and summarized the answers in that exercise book. He wrote down everything that was even remotely related, and it went very smoothly.
As for the final essay...
The essay topic for this exam is "My XX". You can write about your relatives, friends, or something you own...
Guan Baiyu paused for a moment, then wrote down the title without hesitation: My Brother.
For exam essays, it's best to write something warm and positive.
He had rarely experienced warmth from his relatives before, and he had never possessed anything of value.
But now he has an older brother!
Guan Baiyu had countless things he wanted to write, but felt that the number of spaces on the exam paper was far too small.
Because he really wanted to write, he wrote with exceptional fluency.
When Teacher Chen saw Guan Baiyu writing his essay smoothly in beautiful running script, his face darkened even more.
He knew long ago that Guan Baiyu couldn't possibly cheat, but he was still very dissatisfied with Guan Baiyu and couldn't stand seeing Guan Baiyu get good grades.
Fortunately, even if students in this kind of school read a lot and get good grades in Chinese, their grades in math and other subjects are not that good. In the end, when the total score is calculated, this person's grades will definitely not be very good.
Before the exam bell rang, Guan Baiyu had finished his exam paper. After handing it in, he watched as the two proctors sealed it up, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
After using the restroom, Guan Baiyu returned to his seat and didn't move again—the math exam was in half an hour.
However, he didn't move, but some people came to him and asked him what happened when the teacher called him out during the exam. Some people were indignant and felt that the proctor had a bad temper and was framing Guan Baiyu.
There were four classes in their third year of junior high, only one of which was an advanced class. Guan Baiyu always ranked first in his class, which was equivalent to being first in the grade.
He couldn't possibly copy the answers of people whose grades were worse than his, could he?
And then there's Yan Jiangtao... It was Yan Jiangtao who said Guan Baiyu cheated; he clearly wanted to harm Guan Baiyu!
Everyone chimed in, but in the end, Guan Baiyu couldn't get a word in edgewise and didn't manage to say anything.
He simply didn't want to say anything.
Seeing that Guan Baiyu was surrounded by people, Yan Jiangtao, who was sitting behind Guan Baiyu, snorted coldly.
All these people do is fawn over Guan Baiyu, the top student in the grade!
Is having good grades all that great? Guan Baiyu cheated on the exam and the teacher didn't even care!
The thought of cheating made Yan Jiangtao's face even uglier.
After throwing the crumpled paper and accusing Guan Baiyu of cheating, he waited to see Guan Baiyu suffer. But Guan Baiyu was fine, and afterwards, the proctor stood next to Guan Baiyu the whole time!
You should know that he was sitting right behind Guan Baiyu!
He could have asked a friend to pass him the answers and then treat his friend to a meal afterwards, but the teacher was right in front of him, standing as still as a pillar, so how could he dare to try anything funny?
If his dad finds out he cheated, he'll definitely beat him.
In the end, he felt his mind go blank. He couldn't do the questions he was supposed to be able to do, and he hadn't finished his essay. He had no idea how he had done on his Chinese exam.
He missed school a few days ago, but the teacher didn't tell his dad, so his dad didn't know about it... Now that he's doing poorly on his test, his dad will definitely ask the teacher, and once the teacher asks, the fact that he hasn't been to school will be exposed!
Yan Jiangtao was in a state of utter confusion when the preparation bell rang.
Everyone returned to their seats, and the proctor arrived.
Mathematics was Yan Jiangtao's weak point, and he had no confidence at all... Yan Jiangtao glared at Guan Baiyu's back.
As if he had eyes in the back of his head, Guan Baiyu suddenly turned around to look at Yan Jiangtao, his eyes icy cold.
Yan Jiangtao didn't know what was going on, but he inexplicably felt a chill.
He must be mistaken. How could he be afraid just because of a glance from Guan Baiyu? Yan Jiangtao was about to kick Guan Baiyu when Teacher Chen started speaking again, glancing at Guan Baiyu as he spoke: "Don't even think about cheating. I'll be keeping a close eye on you!"
Yan Jiangtao had no choice but to retract his foot.
The math exam has begun.
Guan Baiyu's math scores were always better than his Chinese scores.
Even if he encounters a math problem he hasn't done before, he can figure out the solution by thinking about it a bit more. It's different with Chinese; if the teacher hasn't explained the standard answer, he'll have a hard time guessing correctly.
When the math test was handed out this time, he was able to answer all the questions at the beginning.
Teacher Chen, who was proctoring the exam, was still standing next to Guan Baiyu, but it didn't affect Guan Baiyu at all.
Teacher Chen became even angrier upon seeing this.
He was a math teacher, so he could tell that Guan Baiyu had answered all the questions correctly.
The person who's going against him seems to be doing quite well academically... He's unhappy about it!
Guan Baiyu didn't care what Teacher Chen was thinking; he only focused on the exam.
However, there were three difficult questions at the end. Although he did them all, he didn't know if he did them correctly. He did the last question in particular, but he only wrote down a few steps and couldn't find the answer at all.
Guan Baiyu didn't give up on struggling with the last question until the bell rang to signal the end of the exam.
The students in this classroom are all from the advanced class, so they only hand in their papers when the bell rings. Other classes usually hand in their papers early, and it's noisy outside.
As soon as the test papers were collected, the students in their class rushed out.
They were all hungry and waiting to eat!
Guan Baiyu was one of them—his brother said he was going to bring him food, so he rushed to the school gate to find his brother!
Guan Baiyu rushed down the stairs, and as soon as he got downstairs, he saw Shi Zhen standing downstairs in their teaching building.
Shi Zhen wore his best outfit today. At over 1.8 meters tall, he was the tallest in the school, making him stand out and look particularly handsome.
A sense of pride welled up in Guan Baiyu's heart.
Shi Zhen specially bought a lunchbox to deliver the food. It was a rectangular stainless steel lunchbox with two layers and looked shiny. Although it wasn't cheap, it was still worth it because Guan Baiyu could use it when he went to high school.
"Xiaoyu," Shi Zhen greeted with a smile, handing the lunchbox to Guan Baiyu, "I made a few dishes, eat up."
They've been eating pig's head meat every day lately, so Shi Zhen didn't give any to Guan Baiyu. Instead, he made stir-fried pork liver with chives, stir-fried cabbage with minced meat, and fried an egg.
Guan Baiyu took the lunchbox and asked, "Brother, have you eaten?"
“I’ve already eaten,” Shi Zhen said.
He had already eaten before coming, but he only bought a little bit of pig liver, which was all with Guan Baiyu; he didn't eat any himself.
"Brother, shall we go sit over there?" Guan Baiyu asked, pointing to the cement steps next to their school playground.
There must be a lot of people eating in the classroom right now, and he doesn't really want to go back.
Shi Zhen agreed without hesitation: "Okay."
Guan Baiyu School's playground is quite small, entirely paved with cement. At the northernmost end of the playground is a platform and a flagpole, while on the east and west sides are steps made of bricks and cement slabs, providing places for people to sit.
This is newly built; last year, the playground was a dirt field, and whether you were playing jump rope or shuttlecock, it would kick up clouds of dust.
Guan Baiyu sat down on the steps, opened the lunchbox, and was surprised: "So many dishes!"
"Only three." Shi Zhen smiled and handed the chopsticks in his hand to Guan Baiyu.
Guan Baiyu took the chopsticks and started eating. When he got to the pig liver, his eyes crinkled into a smile.
Many people don't like pork liver, but Shi Zhen remembers that Guan Baiyu did. He not only liked pork liver, but also chicken liver, duck liver, and goose liver.
Shi Zhen and Guan Baiyu were eating, while on the other side, the proctors who had sealed the exam papers came out of the classroom, chatting as they walked.
Teacher Chen kept complaining: "The students here are really unruly, none of them study properly! In one of our classes, people are even passing notes..."
As he complained, he started talking about how a student was disobedient, caught cheating and still refused to repent...
He didn't lower his voice, and Guan Baiyu and Shi Zhen, who were not far away, both heard it.
Shi Zhen subconsciously looked over and met Teacher Chen's gaze.
Shi Zhen knew that the school's educational quality was not very good, but at that time, rural education was like this. In their village, many girls did not even have the opportunity to attend primary school. His stepsisters had both dropped out of school after two or three years.
Even now, with the one-child policy in place and fewer children in each family, when he came out, many families still wouldn't let their daughters go to school.
It's really not good for a teacher to criticize someone so loudly.
Shi Zhen frowned, his gaze towards Teacher Chen full of disapproval, which startled Teacher Chen.
Teacher Chen never expected that the person he was talking badly about was not far away, and that there were parents there too... He shut his mouth, dared not say anything more, and was a little worried.
Someone from that student's family brought him food, and the food was quite plentiful, which was enough to prove that the student was very spoiled at home... If such a student was wronged, his family would stand up for him, and he couldn't afford to offend them.
Teacher Chen and the other teachers hurried to the cafeteria to eat.
These proctors were from the town, and the school cafeteria specially prepared for them stewed pork with preserved mustard greens, stewed cabbage with wood ear mushrooms and fried tofu, and tomato and egg drop soup.
However, Teacher Chen was still not satisfied, feeling that the braised pork with preserved mustard greens was full of fatty meat: "Who would want to eat something so greasy!"
Teacher Wang, who was enjoying her meal, was speechless.
Immediately afterwards, Teacher Chen criticized the students' food: "Those students only had one dish: stewed cabbage with wood ear mushrooms and fried tofu. That's not nutritious!"
Other teachers: "..."
Although Shi Zhen glanced at Teacher Chen and disapproved of him, he was unaware of what had happened during the exam.
Guan Baiyu didn't tell Shi Zhen anything, only saying that he had solved most of the questions and that his score shouldn't be too bad.
“But the students in the town’s junior high school will definitely do better. There are also junior high schools in the city…” Guan Baiyu thought that the students there might be able to get full marks in math.
“We don’t compare ourselves to them, we only compare ourselves to people from our own school,” Shi Zhen said.
He would be satisfied if Guan Baiyu could be recommended for admission.
If he can't get into a top high school through the guaranteed admission program... Guan Baiyu can attend a regular high school first, and once he's earned more money, he can transfer Guan Baiyu to No. 1 High School. That would be fine too.
People at that time didn't have the concept of school district housing, so transferring schools was much easier than in later generations.
For example, in junior high school, even without a local household registration, you can pay some money to send your child to school in town.
Unfortunately, most people at that time wouldn't do that.
"Mm." Guan Baiyu smiled.
After Guan Baiyu finished eating, Shi Zhen took the lunchbox and left.
After watching Shi Zhen leave, Guan Baiyu returned to her classroom in the third year of junior high to rest.
When he went in, Yan Jiangtao was already there. That was bad enough, but there was also a puddle of vegetable soup mixed with rice grains on his stool, and his schoolbag was also splattered with vegetable soup, making it look greasy and disgusting.
The books in his schoolbag were probably all wet, including the practice problems that Shi Zhen had bought for him.
"You poured it?" Guan Baiyu asked Yan Jiangtao with a cold face.
Yan Jiangtao replied nonchalantly, "So what if it is?"
Guan Baiyu rarely got angry, since getting angry was useless.
But at this moment... he had an urge to hit Yan Jiangtao with a stool.
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