But she really did her best.
Yu Xiaoya, standing to the side, looked worried. "Genius, didn't you miss the Chinese exam that day? Is it because you're missing a subject's score?"
Ruan Chen twirled the pen with some annoyance. "Of course not."
Having missed one subject, and not wanting Zeng Han to hold her accountable, she reluctantly tried to get full marks in the other subjects, but the top classes were too competitive, and she still came in last.
Feng Yuankai, a dignified school principal, acted as if nothing had happened, remaining silent about what had occurred that day.
Yu Xiaoya quickly did some calculations on her scratch paper, then paused, exclaiming in a low voice, "Ruan Chen, did you get full marks in all your other subjects? No... you only lost two points! Was it only English that got deducted?"
Ruan Chen said casually, "Yes, but missing one exam is still unavoidable. Now Zeng Han is really going to hold a grudge against me."
"Then what are you going to do?" Yu Xiaoya looked genuinely anxious. "Zeng Han has always disliked you, and she's definitely going to put you in a regular class this time! You'll have to apply for a make-up exam, Ruan Chen!"
Zeng Han slammed her hand on the table. "You two, one in last place and the other second to last, still have the nerve to keep talking?"
Yu Xiaoya rolled her eyes and shut her mouth.
The rankings only published the overall scores and overall rankings. Individual subject scores and rankings were sent privately to students' campus email addresses, so apart from Ruan Chen, no one knew about her outrageous score distribution.
Zeng Han looked at Ruan Chen with the same interrogation eyes she would use on a criminal, "Your grades in the last two weekly tests were below average, and the teacher thought you had improved. Now it seems, you weren't cheating all that time, were you?"
Ruan Chen didn't bother with any more words, so she got up to pack her things and asked, "Teacher, which class do I go to?"
She stood in the aisle, her slender wrists carrying her schoolbag, seemingly indifferent.
It doesn't matter where you read it.
Zeng Han felt like she had punched cotton; Ruan Chen's unyielding attitude made her feel very frustrated.
"There's no rush to put you in a regular class. For a troublesome student like you, the teacher needs to communicate with other homeroom teachers to see which class is willing to accept you."
Zeng Han was thinking to herself, if only she could use this opportunity to get Ruan Chen to drop out of school voluntarily. She felt uncomfortable when she saw Ruan Chen's beautiful and flawless face. Why was she so lucky? She had the family background and the looks, and she could have things that she could never achieve in her entire life without lifting a finger.
“Okay,” Ruan Chen said in a cool and indifferent tone, “then I’ll have to trouble you, teacher.”
Seeing that Ruan Chen really didn't care about being in the advanced class, Yu Xiaoya couldn't sit still any longer. She stood up and loudly explained, "Teacher, Ruan Chen missed the first Chinese exam that morning. She should be given a chance to retake it!"
Ruan Chen sighed and whispered to Yu Xiaoya, "If I have to retake the exam, you'll be last."
Yu Xiaoya said a few days ago that the children in her Yu family face great competitive pressure—people from other branches are eyeing her, who has been designated as the heir since childhood, so she is extremely anxious before the exam.
Zeng Han scoffed, glancing down at Ruan Chen's report card. "So what if she has to retake the exam? Even with the retake and her Chinese score, she's still..."
Zeng Han's expression changed slightly.
If Ruan Chen got this score because she missed one subject, it means that she only lost two points in the other subjects!
Zeng Han strode down from the podium, pointed at Ruan Chen's nose, and said, "Where did you steal the answers from! Do you know how serious your behavior is! I'll have your family come here, and I'll process your expulsion today! Even if the principal comes to plead for you, it won't do any good!"
The whole class fell silent, exchanging gloating glances.
The more than 60,000 people who got in through connections throughout the city have finally been exposed.
"Teacher, you definitely won't believe me if I say I didn't cheat, right?"
Zeng Han scoffed and waved her hand dismissively, like shooing away a fly. "Don't waste your breath on me. Have your parents come over and get you expelled! By the way, where did you get your answer?"
Ruan Chen tapped his head and said sincerely, "I wrote it myself."
Mocking laughter echoed from the classroom.
"If she had written it herself, wouldn't she have missed out on two points out of a perfect score? Even if you gave me the answers, I wouldn't dare to copy like that!"
"He's quite good-looking, but he's really not very bright. In this physics exam, was Bo Nian the only one who solved the last big question?"
“Bo Nian already had excellent grades, and he was the top student in the city in the high school entrance exam. His family is also wealthy. I heard that a one-on-one private tutor can cost several thousand yuan per lesson.”
"Isn't the Ruan family even richer?"
"Is Ruan Chen not smart enough? Only an idiot would dare to copy a perfect score."
Yu Xiaoya was furious.
She knew Ruan Chen's abilities. Although she didn't know what had happened to Ruan Chen during his high school entrance exam, she thought that if Ruan Chen wanted to, what did it matter if he was number one in the city?
Zeng Han's lips curled into a sneer. "Ruan Chen, hurry up and tell us where the answer came from?"
Ruan Chen was silent for a few seconds, then threw down his schoolbag, sat back down, took the notebook from Yu Xiaoya, tore off a piece of paper, and began to write furiously.
Zeng Han waited to see even more amusement, and mocked from above, "Oh, writing a self-criticism or a letter of repentance? Ruan Chen, do you know where you went wrong? Your only mistake was that your brain just doesn't work. You could have stayed at No. 1 High School, but who knew you couldn't even copy the answers. You deserved to be expelled."
"Are you planning to prove Goldbach's Conjecture right here and now, to show the teacher that he wronged you?"
"Actually, the teacher thinks this is a good idea. How about this, the teacher will wait for you for ten minutes. If you can prove it, we won't have to drop out of school."
The class burst into laughter. Zeng Han sat on the podium, legs crossed, looking smug.
Ruan Chen remained silent throughout, his back straight and indifferent, without even raising his head.
As the last punctuation mark fell, she stood up and coldly slammed the paper in front of Zeng Han. "Withdrawal application, you sign it first, then I'll go find the grade head and the principal to sign it. No need to call my parents, I can make this decision."
The classroom fell silent for a moment.
Zeng Han didn't expect Ruan Chen to be serious.
In her mind, dropping out of school was a huge disaster for students of that age, but Ruan Chen really didn't care.
It's really careless.
Ruan Chen leaned on the lectern, pointed her index finger at the bottom where the homeroom teacher's signature was, and urged, "Didn't you dislike me from the first day you entered the class? Sign it, and you'll feel better after you sign it."
Her tone was calm, without any hint of dissatisfaction or sarcasm; it was simply a statement of facts.
Zeng Han's face twitched with anger—why was she so indifferent! She, on the other hand, looked like a complete clown!
Thinking of this, she looked at Ruan Chen again and found that her eyes were indeed filled with pity and sympathy—as if she were looking at a clown!
Unable to control her emotions any longer in front of the students, she slammed her hand on the table, stood up, and glared at Ruan Chen, "You really came with me, didn't you!"
Ruan Chen remained standing calmly. "Teacher Zeng, I was just fulfilling your expectations and fantasies. Can you honestly say that you didn't dislike me for no reason from the very first day I entered the class? My dropping out of school is exactly what you wanted to see, so why are you getting so anxious?"
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