Chapter 35
The tutoring that Xu Xin mentioned was not something top students would casually do; it was genuinely designed from the perspective of ordinary students.
He first looked at all the test papers that Bai Nan had graded in her first and second years of high school, and comprehensively sorted out her weak subjects and difficult question types. It took him half a day just to do this.
Then, all the relevant basic knowledge points were listed out in parallel. By the time this notebook, which was named 'Ice Book' by the younger generation, was officially handed over to Bai Nan, it was already time for the dormitory lights to go out.
"For me?"
Seeing Xu Xin nod, Bai Nan reached out and took the book. His fingers slowly traced the self-drawn guide on the table of contents page, then he turned to the back and paused, looking at the pages with handwriting that ranged from neat to messy.
"Ahem, time is a bit tight. If there are any words you don't understand, just ask me." Xu Xin tried to save face by explaining when he saw her staring at the increasingly flamboyant handwriting on the notebook.
"No..." Bai Nan murmured, "Your handwriting is very good."
She just felt a sour, swollen feeling in her heart, a little uncomfortable, and her eyes were also a little sore and hot.
From childhood to adulthood, no one has ever truly cared about her grades, and some have even spent a whole day compiling difficult points into a booklet just to tutor her.
This day was a holiday that even all the students in the school dreamed of.
Soon, the first monthly exam arrived.
After the teacher finished giving the announcement, everyone started to get moving. Except for the senior year, the monthly exam rankings for the first and second years of high school were not included in the class placement, so the students' expressions were relatively relaxed.
Among the group of relaxed individuals, Bai Nan appeared the most solemn.
After looking at the exam schedule, the solemnity weighed even heavier—she had been assigned to a regular class.
"Shushu, do you know which class he's in?" Huang Wang asked Chen Shu quietly, pointing to the front row while holding the exam schedule in his hand.
Each person receives a copy of the exam room chart, which includes their personal information and the classroom number for each subject. It serves as their admission ticket, but does not include other people's exam room information.
Upon hearing this, Chen Shu leaned close to his ear and whispered a number. It was unclear where she got the information, but judging from Bai Nan's state, it was almost certainly true.
Their voices were very soft, and Bai Nan in the front row did not hear them.
Bai Nan's seat was by the window. She put all the books on the table into the desk drawer, then flipped the desk over and stuck the seat number on the upper left corner. She didn't need to move the desk at all.
Setting up the exam room was very simple. There were forty seats in the class, one desk per person, with the desk facing forward. Any extra items were stored in the lockers at the back. That was it for setting up the exam room for Class 1 of Grade 11.
Most students took the exam in their own classrooms, so they packed their things casually. Only four or five students, like Bai Nan, who were assigned to other classes, lowered their heads and quietly moved their desks and chairs.
After Bai Nan finished setting up, she sat down, propped her head up with one hand, and looked around the classroom. When she first entered this class, she was always a little uneasy, with the feeling of a poor girl sneaking into a glamorous high society, fearing that the patch in her pocket would be accidentally exposed and discovered.
But looking at their faces, whether relaxed or heavy, it was as if they were looking through a semi-transparent membrane that was difficult to see.
Only then did she realize that the poor man's enemy was himself, and that this membrane was precisely on her own body.
She couldn't tell if she was Runtu or Ah Q anymore; in any case, she had to overcome herself first in order to survive here.
Grade 1 (10) class, the first monthly exam, Chinese language test.
Bai Nan took a deep breath before entering the room. If she felt a sense of disappointment when she saw the teacher's number on the exam schedule, the feeling of being tricked by fate became even clearer when she officially stepped into the parallel class where she had actually spent a year.
Following the seat number on the chart, she walked to a seat near the book corner, took another deep breath, and sat down.
This seat had been with her for a whole year. Even though the surrounding gazes brought a suffocating burning sensation, Bai Nan couldn't help but feel a sense of security from familiarity.
"It really is him, the one from Class One..."
"He really is the guy who was paired up with Senior Xin. I've seen his picture as a host; he's actually quite handsome up close..."
A girl on her left was whispering to the girl in front of her. Even though Bai Nan heard everything clearly, she could only remain calm and pretend that she hadn't heard anything.
She focused her attention on the math book she had brought. Chinese was one of her strengths, so she didn't feel any pressure.
Before the proctor went to the podium, Bai Nan put her book on the last bookshelf. As she returned, she heard the boy behind her mutter, "What are you pretending for..."
It was probably because they noticed she was holding a math book, not a language arts book.
Bai Nan ignored him, returned to her seat, and sat down to wait for the exam to begin.
The school attaches great importance to every exam. Even for the monthly exams, they specially prepare answer sheets similar to those used in the college entrance examination. Two invigilators distribute the answer sheets first, and only after the students have pasted their names, admission ticket numbers, and barcodes on them are the exam papers opened.
After receiving the test paper, Bai Nan, as usual, first scanned through the question types: two modern text reading passages, one classical Chinese text reading passage, five lines of fill-in-the-blank dictation, three lines each of error correction, imitation writing, and completion writing, and one choice between argumentative and propositional essays.
The difficulty level was moderate. After scanning it once, she even recalled the content she had written when she did it last time.
But when she tried to recall the correct answer, her memory became blurry. Bai Nan sighed helplessly, shook her head, and shook off the distracting thoughts.
The exam bell rang, and the only sound in the classroom was the scribbling of writing.
Find the word in each of the two lines that best expresses the poet's emotion...
After silently reciting the questions in his mind, Bai Nan looked up and returned to the original text to check. The exam had just begun, and everyone was on edge.
"Click, click, click—"
Suddenly, she heard the sound of a pen being pressed behind her. She didn't pay attention at first, until the girl on her left raised her hand, indicating that the noise from the back seat was affecting her.
The proctor stopped behind her and whispered a reminder to the boy. Bai Nan heard him squeeze out a weak "hmm" and knew he was a little resentful.
However, exam time is precious, and the invigilator wouldn't dwell on the issue. After giving a reminder, the invigilator returned to the podium and didn't pursue it further.
Ten minutes later, the "click" of a pen being pressed came from behind again. This time, the girl on the left just frowned and no one paid any attention.
Find the imagery in the poem.
The classical Chinese reading passage in this set is somewhat abstract. The author is an official from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, but he writes about the mundane daily life of courtesans.
Bai Nan tapped his forehead with his pen. Even if the author himself didn't have any ideas, the teacher who set the question would force in some kind of emotion like "chaotic times and national collapse" or "the impermanence of life".
While she was having a headache, she suddenly felt the chair shake. She looked down and saw a foot shaking next to the chair leg.
It was the boy in the back seat shaking his leg.
Bai Nan frowned. Was he doing it on purpose or unintentionally? If it was intentional, she didn't even know him, so why would he do something so disgusting?
I was already having a headache from the questions, and the guy in the back seat was shaking his leg faster and faster, which made it even more annoying.
She raised her hand, explained the situation to the proctor, and moved her chair forward; she didn't want to waste time arguing with others.
To his surprise, the proctor's several quiet reminders only angered him. As if his pride had been punctured, he retaliated by making even louder noises.
He kept moving his chair, flipping through the papers vigorously, and pressing his pen hard, which made everyone feel restless and irritable.
The proctor was probably not a teacher from Class 10, so they had to ask the academic affairs director, who was patrolling the hallway, to come over before the boys calmed down.
After the Chinese exam ended, the boy dashed out, leaving the students in Class 10 with nowhere to vent their anger, which then turned into passionate complaints.
Bai Nan will still be in Class 10 for the next history exam. She can only pray that the boy behind her will be moved to a different exam room, otherwise she'll have another headache.
Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned; the boy returned just before the history exam.
As Bai Nan sighed silently, she heard a heavy sigh coming from her left. She glanced at the girl.
It refers to a girl who is good-looking, with a simple ponytail, and seems to have a straightforward personality.
After a painful morning, everyone looked pale and sickly. With only an hour for lunch break, many people opted to buy a bag of bread from the convenience store to tide them over, while few, like Bai Nan, went to the cafeteria.
She randomly chose a stall with few people to queue up at, and when it was her turn, she realized why there were so few people—it was expensive.
With a "beep," 35 yuan was deducted from Bai Nan's meal card. Her heart was bleeding, but she was stunned when she saw the balance on the card.
Since she started boarding school in high school, Bai Hua would deposit 600 yuan into her card every month. This money was not only for food but also for living expenses.
She doesn't have any extra expenses; she doesn't buy clothes or school supplies like pencil cases. Everything she has, from head to toe, is provided by the school.
So six hundred yuan was enough for her to survive at school. Only occasionally, when the teacher asked her to buy a few study guides, she would take a little from her piggy bank, which she had saved up from working part-time during winter and summer vacations.
Although it wasn't much, it was the only pillar that supported her through university.
"Excuse me, classmate? Could you please move aside?"
The person behind her patted her on the shoulder, and she realized what was happening. She immediately picked up her tray and left the stall, then casually found an empty seat to sit down.
Perhaps because she was back in Class 10 of the first year of high school, she had actually forgotten that she was Bai Di. This meal card belonged to him, and the money in it was paid for by Bai Hua.
That's why she didn't react immediately after seeing the balance. But she was quite happy, since the money was now hers and she could deposit it into her university tuition.
She didn't encounter that boy again during the next day and a half of the exam, which was one of the lucky things.
Another stroke of luck was that Bai Di didn't come looking for the money back. Since the tuition and the first month's living expenses were paid together at the start of the semester, Bai Di had no reason to take the money back then.
She didn't know why they didn't come looking for her this time, but since it was already in her pocket, she couldn't possibly give it back.
As a key high school in City C, No. 1 High School has a very strong teaching staff. The day after the monthly exam, all the scores and even the rankings for all subjects were released.
Bai Nan clutched the report card in her hand, staring at the rankings on it, her eyes welling up with tears.
She jumped from 85th to 65th, a rise of 20 places in just one month. She suddenly wanted to rush to Xu Xin and tell him the good news!
After glancing at her classmates, she held back. She was now a top student, Bai Di, ranked sixty-fifth in the grade, so she couldn't be too happy.
She could only take out the 'ice book' from under the desk, gently stroke it with her hand, and solemnly tuck the grade sheet inside.
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