Chapter 29: Let's give each other a hug!
Chapter 29: Let's give each other a hug!
Cheng Bing remained remarkably calm and said, "Mm."
"Huh? What's the result?" Fang Yuenian was also impressed by his calm demeanor, and anxiously rushed in front of him, glaring at him. "Did you pass the exam?"
"Yes, I passed the exam."
He said it so casually, like a normal "I've eaten" or "I know." Fang Yuenian was stunned for a moment before realizing that he really meant "I passed the exam."
"Holy crap!" Fang Yuenian shouted, "Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap—"
Cheng Bing's brows furrowed, and she suddenly lunged forward, forcefully covering his mouth with her hand.
His fingers were fair and beautiful, and because he often did handicrafts when he was young, they were also nimble and long. His palm covered Fang Yuenian's incessant mouth, but he inadvertently touched his warm... even slightly moist lips.
Fang Yuenian suddenly fell silent, like a chicken with its feathers ruffled. She stared wide-eyed at Cheng Bing. Their eyes met, and Cheng Bing's brows twitched. She quickly let go of his hand.
"I've told you not to swear, how many times have I told you?" He turned his face away and said in an unfriendly tone.
Fang Yuenian was no longer afraid of those two words of admonishment. He completely ignored the little incident and continued shouting excitedly, "You passed the exam! You passed! You're guaranteed admission to the top class at No. 1 High School! Ah? The top class—"
He even opened his arms towards Cheng Bing, as if he was about to pounce on her and give her a bear hug.
Cheng Bing tilted her head slightly, looking at his posture with some confusion.
Fang Yuenian: "What?! Such a happy thing, shouldn't I...give you a hug?"
He maintained his open arms, his face beaming with a big, bright smile, and a hint of anticipation.
Cheng Bing quietly touched her cheek with her tongue.
He seemed reluctant, but a hint of pleasure was clearly showing on his face. He stood up straight, slowly opened his arms, his eyes deep and containing a smile, "...Then, hug me."
Fang Yuenian suddenly pounced on him, hooking his arms around Cheng Bing's neck, who was slightly taller than him.
"I knew my brother Cheng could do it! Did I pray to God for nothing?! Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap, holy crap— um…"
Cheng Bing knew he would have to say this to express his excitement, so she had no choice but to compromise and reach out to cup the back of his head, silencing him on her shoulder.
Fang Yuenian was pressed down so hard she couldn't breathe, her face turning red. She quickly struggled to let go, panting, "Okay, okay, I won't say anymore..."
They were still quite close. Cheng Bing lowered her eyes slightly as she looked at him, as if she had thought of something. But soon, Fang Yuenian took two steps back, looked up, and asked, "What about the other three? Did they pass the exam?"
As he moved, Cheng Bing frowned almost imperceptibly, but only for a moment. He quickly composed himself and said calmly, "No."
"Huh?" Fang Yuenian subconsciously felt regretful, but then she thought there was nothing she could do. Cheng Bing's success in getting into high school was already a historic achievement. "What else did the teacher say? Did he mention your high school entrance exam?"
Cheng Bing nodded and said, "He said that No. 1 Middle School suggested that those who have qualified for direct admission should also take the exam, since it is a major exam and it is very important experience."
Fang Yuenian said, "Then let's take the exam. It's not a big deal to take an exam. If we don't take it, we'll have nothing to do and it'll be very boring."
Cheng Bing turned to pack her schoolbag, but after thinking for a moment, she couldn't help but say, "I told you I would take the high school entrance exam."
Fang Yuenian had already turned around to collect her own things when she heard this, and looked at him with confusion: "I did say that."
"You know that's good," Cheng Bing said sullenly.
Fang Yuenian was even more puzzled: "...You know, huh?"
Cheng Bing didn't say anything more.
In any case, Cheng Bing's passing of the direct admission exam greatly reduced Fang Yuenian's anxiety about the upcoming second mock exam results. However, after returning to school over the weekend, that anxiety quickly returned.
The teachers were busy grading exam papers, and Sunday evening tutoring sessions were changed to evening self-study sessions. The whole class was whispering and passing on rumors from different sources.
Reports of people getting ridiculously high scores on Chinese essays and solving math problems more concisely and efficiently than the answer key have been circulating, causing widespread anxiety.
Fang Yuenian was sweating profusely while waiting for his results. This was the first time in his student life that he had been so anxious about his exam results. He hadn't been this anxious during the class placement exam in the first year of junior high school. Back then, the pressure wasn't that great. As long as he got into the top fifty, he could probably be placed in the same class as Cheng Bing. It was very different now.
However, teachers are cruel. During the break between the second period of evening self-study, the math class representative was called away, and the class was immediately filled with wails and screams, as if everyone was about to be sent to the execution ground.
Amidst the somber atmosphere, Fang Yuenian silently turned around and glanced at Cheng Bing's seat. Because of his height, he always sat towards the back, still with that aloof and cold demeanor, looking down at a physics study guide, seemingly studying something.
His deskmate noticed his gaze, glanced over, and exclaimed with immense admiration, "You can still concentrate on physics at a time like this? That's amazing!"
Fang Yuenian nudged him with her elbow, "How did you do on your physics exam?"
“It’s terrible,” the deskmate rolled his eyes. “I can’t understand that circuit diagram at all, but Cheng Bing will definitely get a 90. He gets a 90 every time.” Before Fang Yuenian could speak, the deskmate said enviously and jealously, “He can also get a 60 in chemistry. I think those 150 points are practically a gift to him, damn it.”
Fang Yuenian scoffed: "So he's number one."
My deskmate said, "But I heard that the people from No. 1 High School Affiliated to No. 1 High School are even more amazing. They can actually get 730 out of 750. Last time during the physical education exam, I ran into a good friend from my childhood. He's now at No. 1 High School Affiliated to No. 1 High School. He looks at the scores of those good students every day. Damn, all I can do is stare blankly."
Fang Yue Nian paused for a moment, the smug look on her face freezing slightly. She then glanced back at Cheng Bing and slowly said, "Oh... really impressive."
"Sigh, that's why some people are just bookworms—hey, hey, the math test is back!"
The distribution of test papers brought joy to some and sorrow to others. While her deskmate remained unfazed, Fang Yuenian's heart pounded.
He didn't even score 120 on the last mock math test, which was a huge drag on the overall score. However, when the math class representative handed out the papers to him, they specifically pulled his paper out of a stack of answer sheets and exclaimed with delight, "Fang Yuenian, you got 132!"
The sound wasn't loud, after all, the class representative was a girl who usually spoke very gently, but to Fang Yuenian it sounded like a blow to the head, and he was completely stunned.
His deskmate jumped up, snatched the test paper, glanced at it, and immediately yelled, "Holy crap! Fang Yuenian! Did someone give you a brain makeover?!"
Fang Yuenian snatched her test paper and looked at it twice more in disbelief, only to find that it was indeed her name and that she had scored 132 points.
The class representative also said, "The teacher said you did very well on the test, keep it up!"
Fang Yuenian stared with her mouth agape.
“Maintain? Uh—” His voice trembled, “Maintaining is impossible, I’ll never score higher than this in my entire life, I’m going to enshrine this test paper!”
My deskmate burst out laughing: "After being your deskmate for a year, I've only just realized you're a top student!"
Fang Yuenian ignored him and quietly turned around, only to meet Cheng Bing's gaze.
He subconsciously mouthed something, but didn't actually say anything. Cheng Bing pursed her lips, smiled briefly, and then went back to reading.
Over the next few days, the results for each subject came out one after another.
Fang Yuenian received the final exam paper for the political history subject amidst her agonizing wait, and then awaited the final ranking.
Cheng Bing continued to perform consistently and ranked first. Apart from him, the top few names in the grade kept changing. Moreover, before the rankings of the second mock exam came out, the school announced the good news that Cheng Bing had passed the entrance exam for the direct admission class. The homeroom teacher has been beaming with joy these past few days, as if he had won the lottery, and even walks with a lighter step.
Fang Yuenian ranked 26th in her grade.
He fell into deep thought, feeling quite embarrassed. Was this good, or not good enough?
However, his classmates all looked at him with new respect. Several teachers even specifically called him out to praise him when reviewing the test papers. His homeroom teacher was so happy that he patted him on the shoulder several times in the corridor outside the classroom and said, "Not bad, not bad! I told you you just wouldn't put in the effort. If you had just tried a little harder, you would have improved. Keep it up!"
This is not as simple as "making a little effort." Fang Yuenian forced a smile and said, "Okay, I know."
That afternoon after class, the students rushed to the cafeteria to grab food. Fang Yuenian, unusually, didn't bring his little notebook. Instead, he brought a note with two ancient poems that he still couldn't recite from memory during the second mock exam.
Cheng Bing got him his food, and the two sat down to eat. Fang Yuenian mustered up his courage and asked, "Um, you know... I ranked 26th, right?"
Cheng Bing said, "The whole class knows now, right?"
Fang Yuenian's ears burned. "This isn't something I publicized. I didn't know our teacher had such low expectations of me. Even though you got first place, he didn't get carried away and take pictures of you in the hallway."
Cheng Bing looked up at him, paused for two seconds, and asked, "You seem dissatisfied."
"No, no, no," Fang Yuenian quickly shook her head, "It's not that I'm dissatisfied, I never thought about breaking into the top ten right now. I just... wanted to ask, what do you think, is it okay?"
Cheng Bing remained silent for a moment.
Fang Yuenian felt a chill in her heart.
"That's great, you've made a lot of progress."
A small firework exploded with a "bang".
Fang Yuenian couldn't help but laugh.
"Damn it," he thought to himself, "I've never waited until my hands and feet were freezing cold just to hear a single word."
"Regarding the bookshelf you mentioned, I already talked to my dad about it when I went home last week, and he agreed."
Fang Yue Nian paused, "Uncle Lin?"
“Yes,” Cheng Bing nodded, “When summer vacation starts, my dad will come and help us. We can go to the furniture factory, where there are more tools and better materials.”
Fang Yuenian was practically getting carried away.
He chuckled twice, and in his heart, he sincerely shouted: I love the second mock exam!
Seeing his expression, Cheng Bing smiled slightly, but what she said wasn't so pleasant: "Eat quickly, we have to go to our intensive review class soon."
Fang Yuenian: "..."
He doesn't like cram school, okay, he doesn't like Chinese cram school.
He shamelessly went to the Chinese language intensive class last week, only to find that the class was talking about a poem he had never heard of before. What's worse, everyone else seemed to know it, and they all recited the whole poem together with the teacher—even Cheng Bing, who was sitting next to him, started reciting it.
How am I supposed to teach this class?
He grumbled, "I haven't finished memorizing these two songs yet." He waved the note in his hand.
"It seems like today's lesson was on classical Chinese reading comprehension. Didn't you want to brush up on that?"
"But this can't be made up in just one class, can it?"
"So, are you going or not?"
"..."
Cheng Bing said coldly, "Let me remind you, you took the Chinese exam..."
“Go!” Fang Yuenian immediately shouted, then tried to save face, “After all, I’m already in the top thirty of the grade, so it’s perfectly legitimate.”
Cheng Bing continued eating, satisfied.
Fang Yuenian gritted her teeth and shouted in her heart: Destroy it! Intensive Course —
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