Old Wang slapped the test papers onto the podium and emphasized:
“Miscalculations are the most basic errors, and you should slow down if necessary to ensure accuracy. Qi Yaguang, you’re in your second year of high school, not elementary school. Take this test paper and reflect on it thoroughly!”
After this stern lecture, Qi Yaguang was left stunned.
She walked up to the podium and retrieved her test paper. The bright red score of 67 on the front was particularly glaring. The places where she had made calculation mistakes were all circled heavily by Old Wang.
The intense pressure of the red circles, almost piercing through the paper, reflected Old Wang’s fury as he marked the exam.
This was the worst score Qi Yaguang had received since starting high school, and she felt absolutely awful.
Although it was an Olympiad test paper, she had never scored below 70 before.
After finishing with Qi Yaguang, Old Wang moved on, scolding one student after another.
Ever since Xie Cheng returned from winter camp and took a week off, Old Wang’s temper had been lightened by his presence. When Xie Cheng was there, he bore the brunt of Old Wang’s anger, allowing the rest to escape relatively unscathed.
However, this time, Old Wang spent half the class reprimanding the Rocket Class.
He held up each student’s test paper and listed their weaknesses one by one before finally taking a sip of his goji berry and red date tea to calm down.
“Xu Haobo, how many times have I told you not to calculate everything in one go? Can you not afford to write down a few more steps? Are your hands that precious?”
“Li Simiao, get up here! Explain to me what on earth you were thinking when you solved this problem… huh?” Old Wang gritted his teeth as he spoke.
The entire Rocket Class was trembling, barely daring to breathe.
With a sharp “pop,” Old Wang slammed the lid of the thermos back onto the podium.
“I’m starting to think my usual problems are too easy, making all of you believe you have some kind of talent. Your basic skills are so weak. With this level of skill and attitude, how do you expect to compete in the Math Olympiad? You won’t even survive the college entrance exam math.”
The top students in the Rocket Class: “…”
Some students, who usually seemed glamorous, were regulars on the award podium and the pride of their families, but here they were being scolded like grandsons.
Don’t we have any dignity left? All our flaws have been exposed. The top students felt bitter, too bitter to speak.
In the second half of the class, Old Wang finally took a breath and began explaining the test questions.
He patted his chest, almost out of breath.
The difficulty level of the test wasn’t particularly high, but the questions were comprehensive, with a significant amount of calculation required. The places where students were most likely to make mistakes needed extra thought. The purpose of this test was to give a lesson to those students who were “arrogant.”
However…
It was the top students of the Rocket Class who had first crashed and burned.
After finishing the explanations, he lamented, “Look at this—haven’t I covered all these concepts before?”
The top students: “…”
Sorry, our little brains must have failed us this time. We really didn’t remember.
Maybe our memories are just as short as a goldfish’s.
When the papers were handed back, there was a mix of joy and sorrow. As expected, several students had failed, and the scores were astonishingly low. Many scored only thirty or forty points.
Qi Yaguang, who had been scolded until her face turned pale, looked at the scores of the students around her. Not many had scored higher than her, and even those who did didn’t score much higher.
Gradually, her complexion regained some color.
The highest score in the Rocket Class was Xu Haobo with 73 points.
Li Simiao had completely missed the mark on one of the proof problems and ended up with a dismal 70 points.
Compared to that, Qi Yaguang’s 68 suddenly didn’t seem so terrible. She felt a lot better.
However, the moment Old Wang had compared her to a student from a regular class, the looks from all directions—full of surprise, ridicule, and mockery—had completely overwhelmed her.
How could she, Qi Yaguang, be outperformed by a student from an ordinary class like Zhou Xiu?
After class, Old Wang grabbed his goji berry tea and headed back to the office.
Qi Yaguang suddenly called out to him, “Wait—”
“Mr. Wang, I’d like to know Zhou Xiu’s score from Class 24 this time.”
As soon as she spoke, the Rocket Class students turned their heads in surprise.
At that moment, the air in the classroom seemed to freeze. The room fell silent, and everyone turned their curious eyes to Qi Yaguang, shocked.
Was she not scolded enough?
Recalling what Old Wang had said earlier, that she couldn’t even outperform Zhou Xiu from a regular class, the top students were also curious. They held their breath, waiting for the answer.
Old Wang replied nonchalantly, “Her? She didn’t do that well either.”
“She did terribly,” Old Wang said dismissively.
Although Zhou Xiu’s final score was actually pretty good, Old Wang wasn’t about to admit it.
The students let out a collective sigh of relief.
Qi Yaguang wanted to ask for Zhou Xiu’s specific score, but Old Wang had already left with his goji berry tea, heading back to the warmth of his office on this cold day.
Qi Yaguang stood there, mulling over Old Wang’s words: “didn’t do well,” “terribly…”
Did that mean she hadn’t passed? The suffocating feeling in Qi Yaguang’s chest suddenly lifted. Even being compared to Zhou Xiu by Old Wang didn’t seem so bad anymore.
In Class 24
Zhou Xiu was called out by Old Wang. The nearly sixty-year-old teacher handed her the test paper.
He frowned as he lectured her, “Zhou Xiu, what were you thinking when you wrote this test? This kind of shortcut strategy will only work this one time.”
“You should have done well on this exam, but you performed poorly.”
The wrinkles on Old Wang’s face deepened, and the tight furrow in his brow clearly etched a “川” shape.
Finally, he said coldly, “Come see me in the office after school.”
Du Feiyang, who was lounging in the hallway and soaking up the sun, shivered at the stern tone and shuddered involuntarily.
Geez, the Rocket Class teacher is fierce.
Even if Xiu Xiu bombed the test, did he really have to call her to the office just to scold her?
Zhou Xiu glanced briefly at the test paper, pursing her lips slightly. “Okay, thank you, teacher.”
Zhou Xiu returned to the classroom, stowed the test paper in her drawer, and continued working on her unfinished physics exercises.
The students in Class 24, seeing Old Wang’s stern expression as he scolded Zhou Xiu, figured that she must have flopped the test this time.
When they went to play basketball with the students from the Winner Class, the Winner students would whisper privately, “Looks like your Xiu Xiu didn’t do as well as the Rocket Class.”
“It’s just a bet. It’s no big deal. You shouldn’t take it so seriously. The Rocket Class students didn’t take it to heart either. Why not just make peace with them? Why get so worked up?”
Isn’t it all just a bit of fun?
The faces of the Class 24 students slowly showed a string of question marks: “???”
Du Feiyang nearly spit out in anger. Who the hell was just fooling around?
You’re the one fooling around. Your whole class is fooling around.
A gentleman’s word is his bond. We agreed to meet on the honour roll at the end of the term, so we’ll meet there. Our Xiu Xiu is amazing—who said she wasn’t?
But at this moment, as Du Feiyang watched Zhou Xiu return to her seat and “sullenly” work on her physics exercises, the hope he had felt dropped like a stone in his chest.
Fine, whatever. The bet was about the final exam, not the Olympiad monthly test.
He tried to cheer her up by saying, “Xiu Xiu, it’s okay. Rome wasn’t built in a day.”
“Even though we didn’t beat them this time, if we keep working hard, we’ll win the final exam.”
Hua Xu, who never wanted Zhou Xiu to join the Math Olympiad competition class, added, “Let’s forget about the Math Olympiad. Those top students always look down on us lower classes.”
“Xiu Xiu, you should focus on preparing for the Biology Olympiad instead.”
Wait—
Zhou Xiu paused, twirling her pen, furrowing her brow as she asked, “Why should I forget about the Math Olympiad?”
She said seriously, “No, I don’t want to ‘forget about it.’ I want to keep going.”
Du Feiyang frowned. Zhou Xiu’s competitive spirit was stronger than he thought.
He patted his thigh, offering some post-exam counselling, “Uh… failure is the mother of success. Xiu Xiu, in this aspect, you’ve got nothing on me.”
“A temporary failure means nothing. We have to keep our eyes on the bigger picture. Our goal is the final exam. As for the competition, let’s just give them the Rocket Class for now.”
Du Feiyang’s words were full of self-importance, particularly shameless.
Zhou Xiu furrowed her brows. She felt that she hadn’t done too badly, but Old Wang had been angry, saying she had performed poorly.
Could it be that everyone else did really well on this test?
Zhou Xiu pulled out the test paper from her drawer and stared at the bright red number for a long time.
She admitted that her foundation was indeed weak, and she had used a shortcut strategy, but she had done her best.
Zhou Xiu thought to herself: If the competition class doesn’t want her and she’s excluded from the school’s group registration for next year’s Math Olympiad, she’ll just register as an individual on the official website.
In the Winner Class
The next period was Old Wang’s math class.
As usual, Old Wang gave the Winner students a thorough scolding.
“Zhang Qi, don’t tell me your math was taught by the PE teacher.”
There were many students in the Winner Class who made basic mistakes, not just Qi Yaguang from the Rocket Class. Old Wang’s blood pressure was now officially off the charts.
This test had included sequences and geometry, both of which required a lot of calculation. Many students were completely overwhelmed.
Seeing the students’ defiant expressions, Old Wang decided to pull out his ace in the hole.
“Let me show you how it’s done.” He casually pulled out a photocopy of a student’s test paper.
The math test paper was beautiful, with every step marked correctly. Every calculation was accurate.
However, every question was solved using unconventional methods.
This student had deliberately avoided the available shortcuts, choosing instead a more labour-intensive approach that resulted in several times the normal amount of work, yet the answers were correct.
What the heck? You can solve problems this way?
It’s so simple and straightforward!
Old Wang said, “Although I don’t encourage you to use this method, the clarity and simplicity of the thought process, combined with strong calculation skills, are enough to put you miles ahead of the others. If you tried to use your little brains to solve problems this way, well—”
You’d probably crash and burn.
Old Wang flipped the first page of the test paper, revealing a bright red number.
75.
Only one student in Class 25, Xi Shaoyuan, had scored above 80 this time. The rest had scores in the low 60s or had even failed.
Suddenly seeing a score of 75 was blinding.
Whose brilliant test paper was this?
Was it Xu Haobo’s, or Li Simiao’s? Or Qi Yaguang’s?
After all, no one in Winner Class had achieved this score.
Yet Old Wang didn’t reveal whose test paper it was. The only clue was the half-exposed school ID number on the score sheet: Senior 182—
The students in Winner Class who noticed this detail widened their eyes. A strange thought crossed their minds—
Could that 2 be followed by a 4? Senior 18 Class 24?
The students of Winner Class furrowed their brows in growing suspicion: “…”
They had a feeling they were on the verge of discovering something big.
This scene was so familiar, and Old Wang’s gloating was so predictable.
Wasn’t this just like what happened during the last monthly exam?
Then Old Wang moved the test paper, revealing the name page: Senior 18 Class 24, Zhou Xiu.
Seated in the classroom, Xi Shaoyuan saw Zhou Xiu’s test paper for the second time. If the first instance could be called a coincidence, the second time couldn’t be.
When did Zhou Xiu’s grades get this good?
The students of Winner Class were crushed: “…”
Damn, it really was Zhou Xiu.
If they could turn back time, they would definitely not have bragged to the students of Class 24.
Their Zhou Xiu was the real deal, no wonder she dared to challenge the Rocket Class students.
Thinking back to how they had pitied Zhou Xiu last week, fearing she might be dismissed from the competition class, the students who had failed the test felt awful.
Old Wang said coldly, “It’s one thing if you can’t beat the Rocket Class, but to be outdone by a regular class is just embarrassing.”
How tragic.
The Winner Class students were thinking with despair: We can’t even beat the regular class.
After finishing his review of the test, Old Wang, still not fully satisfied, said, “I’m going to put Zhou Xiu’s test paper up on your bulletin board.”
“Though the method she used is cumbersome, it’s simple and clear in thought. For students with strong calculation skills, it’s a valid approach. In competitions, there’s no need to be confined to just one way of thinking.”
Old Wang encouraged, “When you practice, try to be like Zhou Xiu. Think outside the box and explore different methods of solving problems.”
The Winner Class students, thoroughly humbled, nodded slowly.
After School
Zhou Xiu finished her homework quickly and, following Old Wang’s instructions, headed to his office.
She had just descended the stairs and was approaching Old Wang’s office when the Rocket Class students poured out of their classroom.
They swarmed down the stairs, and Qi Yaguang was surprised to see Zhou Xiu heading toward Old Wang’s office.
She quickened her pace and called out to Zhou Xiu, “Zhou Xiu, how many points did you get this time?”
Hua Xu, Du Feiyang, and a few others had just finished their homework and were walking downstairs with Zhou Xiu when they suddenly encountered Qi Yaguang.
They all knew Zhou Xiu had bombed the test and was about to be scolded by Old Wang in his office.
It was one thing for Old Wang to scold Zhou Xiu—he was her teacher, after all.
But what was with Qi Yaguang’s smug expression, as if she had done well and was about to show off?
So what if she did well?
Du Feiyang tightened his grip on his backpack, stepping in front of Zhou Xiu to shield her.
He smirked at Qi Yaguang and said, “Good student, what’s the meaning of this? Our Xiu Xiu didn’t do anything to offend you, did she?”
Qi Yaguang shrugged, “Zhou Xiu once told me she’d show me what she was capable of, and I’ve been looking forward to it… But seeing you like this, silent as a mouse, did you not do well?”
“No worries. A lot of students in our class didn’t pass either. As long as you didn’t do too badly—”
Xu Haobo, who had just come out of the classroom, accidentally stumbled upon this scene and called out to Qi Yaguang.
Hua Xu’s face flushed with anger.
Xu Qing patted Zhou Xiu on the shoulder, “You should head to the office first. It’s not polite to keep Mr. Wang waiting.”
Zhou Xiu suddenly raised her eyebrows. She had initially thought she had done poorly when Old Wang scolded her.
But after hearing Qi Yaguang say that many students in the Rocket Class had also failed—
Zhou Xiu’s eyes suddenly brightened.
She shook her head at Hua Xu, bypassed Du Feiyang, and stepped in front of Qi Yaguang.
She slowly unzipped her backpack, searching for the test paper, and said calmly:
“Sorry, I didn’t meet your expectations again. I didn’t bomb the test.”
With both key science classes flunking their tests, Zhou Xiu was still claiming she didn’t bomb it?
How was that possible? Even Xu Haobo couldn’t maintain his usual performance.
Xu Haobo’s curiosity was piqued, and he couldn’t help but ask, “Zhou Xiu, how many points did you score?”
At this moment, the Winner Class students also started coming downstairs. When they saw Zhou Xiu, they couldn’t help but glance over.
They curiously asked, “Hey, does your class not know Zhou Xiu’s score yet?”
The students of Winner Class were suddenly indignant. Why hadn’t the Rocket Class been scolded like they had? They had been chewed out for an entire class period.
Qi Yaguang and Xu Haobo’s faces slowly registered confusion: “???”
Why should they already know Zhou Xiu’s score?
The Winner students pointed at Xu Haobo, saying angrily, “It’s not fair! Old Wang didn’t scold you at all.”
Zhang Qi added, “Zhou Xiu did really well this time. Let’s get acquainted—I’m Zhang Qi from Class 25. Maybe we can study together sometime.”
Du Feiyang’s eyes widened in shock as he turned to look at Zhang Qi, then back at Zhou Xiu.
Zhang Qi was one of the top students in Winner Class, frequently ranking in the top ten of the year.
He was usually the silent type, yet here he was, initiating conversation with Zhou Xiu?
At that moment, Du Feiyang suddenly realized what might have happened.
He couldn’t help rubbing his hands together, eyes filled with anticipation.
Du Feiyang whispered to Zhou Xiu, “Hey—Xiu Xiu, are you hiding something from us?”
Zhou Xiu shook her head at Du Feiyang. “You heard what Mr. Wang said earlier, right?”
Du Feiyang had heard it. The Rocket Class math teacher had almost pointed at Zhou Xiu’s nose while scolding her.
Zhou Xiu had considered the possibility.
She had only attended two of Old Wang’s classes, so she didn’t know him well. Her impression was that he was a serious and responsible teacher, honest and straightforward. Although he had a bit of a temper, he wouldn’t deceive his students, right?
After searching for a while, Zhou Xiu finally found the Olympiad test paper in her stack.
She held it up and shook it slightly, “See? I didn’t bomb it, did I?”
Compared to her last score of sixty, anything above that could be considered not bombing.
Xu Haobo considered this possibility and sighed with mild relief.
But when he focused and saw the number on Zhou Xiu’s test paper—
The bright red 75 stared back at him.
Xu Haobo’s eyes filled with shock.
Qi Yaguang’s smile froze on her face, her mouth slowly twisting downward, disbelief filling her eyes.
“How… how?” She stammered.
How was this possible?
Zhou Xiu had scored 75, higher than the top score in their class, Xu Haobo. If she were in the Rocket Class, she would have topped the class.
Seeing the colour drain from Qi Yaguang’s face, Zhou Xiu asked softly, “Satisfied this time?”
“I’m tired of you always offering yourself up for humiliation. Remember this, and don’t come looking for me again.”
“And you, Class President—” Zhou Xiu said, stepping in front of him and speaking softly:
“I love both math and biology. I don’t intend to give up either. Sorry.”
Xu Haobo’s eyes darkened, momentarily at a loss for words.
After that, Zhou Xiu confidently walked into the office.
Hua Xu couldn’t help but smile. She had known all along that Zhou Xiu wouldn’t give up so easily.
Every morning when she arrived at the classroom, Zhou Xiu was already there, diligently studying. During lunch, she was always hard at work. Zhou Xiu was so serious and determined—she deserved this success.
Hua Xu breathed a sigh of relief, her eyes shining with pride.
Du Feiyang was instantly smug, already on cloud nine before he even knew the score. Now, with such a satisfying moment, he could barely contain himself.
His smiling face could no longer hold back, but he reminded himself not to be too arrogant or smug—it would be embarrassing for Xiu Xiu.
He lifted his chin, looking at Zhou Xiu’s retreating figure, and sighed, “See that? Our Xiu Xiu did really well.”
“So from now on, no more looking down on her. We may be in a regular class, we may be slackers, but slackers have their own dignity too!”
Xu Qing, witnessing such a dramatic scene, couldn’t help but smile as he watched the girl walking into the office.
For the first time, he felt that she was someone who stood by her words.
As for the final exam, well… see you on the honour roll.
Author’s Note:
Winner Class: Unfair! They didn’t get scolded!
Rocket Class: Some top students may seem impressive on the surface, but in reality… They’re getting scolded like dogs.
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