On the way to school, Shen Yuan was limping down the road.
"You went a little too hard! I think my leg is fractured. Now when I walk, my back feels like it’s about to snap."
"Alright, alright. I’ll treat you to breakfast!"
Shen Yuan imdiately perked up. "I feel much better now."
Li Zhi turned her head away and hmphed.
Instead of the stead bun shop, Li Zhi chose to get tenggeng today.
This breakfast stall had opened recently.
Tenggeng was a dish similar to Cantonese rice noodle rolls, also made from rice.
In Jiyang, it was a dish eaten in so areas but not others.
As a result, despite growing up in Jiyang, neither Shen Yuan nor Li Zhi had ever tried the stuff.
For so reason, it had recently beco a trend among Jiyang’s food bloggers.
And so the craze had found its way to the gates of Jiyang Middle School.
Jiyang’s version of tenggeng generally used pickled vegetables as a base, with added fillings like tofu, all rolled up.
Of course, you could add other things too.
Shen Yuan added a few at items, and the price shot up instantly.
Watching this made Li Zhi grimace.
Shen Yuan took a bite of his tenggeng. After a few chews, he gave his approval. "Tastes pretty good."
Li Zhi agreed.
"But I want stead buns tomorrow."
Shen Yuan still wanted to challenge the hand speed of the stead bun shop owner.
"If you want them, go buy them yourself. Are you placing an order with ?"
Shen Yuan chuckled. "I’m giving you a chance. Treat to breakfast for half a month, and we can call the punishnt even."
"Hmph!"
Li Zhi looked at Shen Yuan scornfully. "Impossible!"
"This is a limited-ti offer. Take it or leave it."
"Don’t worry. I’m guaranteed to win against you."
During the morning self-study session, Shen Yuan grabbed Eldest Female Cousin.
"Man?"
Eldest Female Cousin’s standard Arican accent made Shen Yuan feel like his ears had just been elbowed.
"Sis, are the monthly test scores out?"
Eldest Female Cousin nodded. "They are, sis. They are."
Shen Yuan’s eyes instantly lit up as he asked impatiently, "When will they be posted?"
Seeing the doofus’s eager expression, Eldest Female Cousin reached out and patted Shen Yuan’s head. "They probably won’t be out until this afternoon. But they’ll hand back the test papers and answer sheets this morning to go over them, so you can calculate your own score."
The corner of Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched. "They’re already graded, and we still have to wait until the afternoon for them to be announced?"
Eldest Female Cousin patted Shen Yuan lightly. "What’s the rush? Don’t the stats need to be compiled? Don’t they need to calculate the average score for each subject? And the class average? Just wait."
With that, Eldest Female Cousin strolled over to Class 14 next door.
Leaving Shen Yuan alone with his anxiety.
After the morning self-study session ended, the first class was Chinese Language.
Just as Eldest Female Cousin had said, the Chinese monthly test papers and answer sheets were indeed handed out before class began.
Instantly, a tense atmosphere began to spread throughout the classroom.
There were no scores on the answer sheets, and the test papers only had the students’ own work shown.
And with a subject like Chinese Language, the scoring was highly subjective.
After Sister Lan spent the class going over the test, Shen Yuan concluded that he had gotten all the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions right.
But as for his score on the reading comprehension and the essay, he couldn’t even begin to guess.
As for English, before Eldest Female Cousin went over the test, she had the class representative copy the answers onto the blackboard.
Besides the essay, Shen Yuan hadn’t gotten a single question wrong.
In the span of one morning: Chinese Language, English, Biology.
Estimating his Biology score should have been easy, but since the answer sheets hadn’t been returned, Shen Yuan had already forgotten his answers.
"This is torture."
After lunch, Shen Yuan flopped onto his desk and complained to Zhou Shaojie.
Zhou Shaojie nodded in agreent.
The source of Zhou Shaojie’s torture was different from Shen Yuan’s; it was all about English.
Although he had improved in English this ti, seeing Shen Yuan’s test paper with almost no corrections made Zhou Shaojie’s spirit crumble.
"Yuan, how in the world do you get good at English?"
"No matter how many tis you ask , the answer is still to morize and recite more. Only on that foundation can you move on to advanced mory techniques."
Ah Jie got excited. "Forget the basics for a second. Tell about the advanced thods!"
Shen Yuan glanced up at Ah Jie. Seeing the thirst for knowledge in his eyes, Shen Yuan nodded.
"Let’s put it this way: contextual mory. You set a scene, find words that fit that scene, and weave them together into a short story that’s easy for you to rember. It varies from person to person."
"For a more advanced level, you can try watching English movies and shows without subtitles."
"And then..."
The corner of Ah Jie’s mouth twitched, and he cut Shen Yuan off. "That’s enough. I think that contextual mory thod is already more than enough for ."
Shen Yuan shifted his position on the desk and said, "Hey, when do you think Old Zhou is going to post the monthly test scores?"
Ah Jie shook his head. "No idea."
As it turned out, Old Zhou was a real troll.
He knew the students were anxious for the monthly test scores to be released, and he also knew they’d be sleepy after their afternoon nap, which wasn’t conducive to absorbing knowledge in the afternoon.
So, he showed up with the monthly test scores right before the afternoon nap ended.
"The monthly test scores are posted here. You can co look after the nap break is over."
Under the watchful eyes of the entire class, Old Zhou slowly and deliberately posted the list of scores on the blackboard at the back of the room.
And then he didn’t leave.
"Dirty. That’s a dirty move!"
Ah Jie buried his head in a pile of books, cursing Old Zhou under his breath.
Shen Yuan felt the sa. He wished his eyes could autofocus, zooming straight in on the score sheet!
"It’s all vanity."
Zhuo Peipei intoned, "Monthly test scores... they’re nothing but a source of anxiety."
But it was clear that the resident shipper still cared a lot about the test scores.
As for Li Zhi, the beauty rely glanced up once before paying it no further mind.
Such was the confidence of a top student!
Old Zhou sat at the teacher’s desk, watching the anxious students below.
In truth, Old Zhou had his reasons.
He had chosen this specific ti because the boarding students were in their dorms, while so day students were in the classroom and others were at ho.
This way, the students could go check their scores in batches.
It would prevent the entire class from swarming the back of the room the mont the bell rang. That kind of congestion could easily lead to small conflicts, which would be a huge pain to deal with.
The rest of the nap break seed to stretch on forever in anxious waiting.
Finally, with the ring of the bell, the back of Class 15’s room was instantly sward by a crowd of boys.
"Stop pushing! Damn it, can’t soone just take a picture and post it in the class group chat?!"
"You think I ca to see the scores? I ca to push you!"
"Ah! Brother Jie! It’s Brother Jie!!"
"Who’s spreading rumors?!" Ah Jie stood up from his seat. "I’m right here!"
Shen Yuan ignored the chaos around him, focusing on finding his na on the score sheet.
There was a thod to looking up one’s score.
Li Zhi usually just looked at the first na on the list.
But people like Shen Yuan usually scanned from the bottom up.
Not last place. Not in the bottom five either.
’Well, I’ll be damned. Is today the day I, Lao Yuan, finally escape the Laojiu Sect?!’
By the ti he scanned up to ninth from the bottom, Shen Yuan could declare himself free of the Laojiu Sect—he had even escaped the bottom ten entirely!
Shen Yuan found his na at rank 47 in the class.
Chinese Language: 118.
Math: 102.
English: 146.
Comprehensive Science: 257.
Total Score: 623.
"HOLY SHIT!!"
In a single bound, Shen Yuan shot over to Li Zhi’s desk.
"623! I got 623!!"
Seeing the boy’s ecstatic expression, Li Zhi, who had been waiting for the scores to be uploaded to the group chat, imdiately stood up.
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