Chapter 14: First Place in the Joint Exam
Chapter 14: First Place in the Joint Exam
“Yang Qi! Who is he?”
Just like the head of the Academic Affairs Office, all the teachers present wore expressions of confusion and bewilderment. They simply could not remember who the owner of this name was.
Only one person’s eyes were filled with pure surprise and delight, genuine shock and joy. This person was Zhou Yanchang, the homeroom teacher of Class 3 where Yang Qi belonged.
“Teacher Zhou, Yang Qi is from your class. Can you tell us about his situation? Why was he not showing any signs of brilliance before, and suddenly performed so amazingly in this exam?” The head of the Academic Affairs Office looked at Zhou Yanchang, and the other teachers did the same.
As for which students in the senior year had good grades, all the homeroom teachers present naturally knew them well. They were very unfamiliar with this Yang Qi. Where did he come from? Regarding Class 3, all the teachers present knew that the best student was Qin Muchu, consistently among the top five in the senior year.
“Yang Qi got first place.”
Zhou Yanchang still found it hard to believe. He said, “About this, I am also very surprised. Student Yang Qi’s academic performance was usually only average at best. Moreover, he was somewhat dull and often absent-minded. It seemed very difficult for him to concentrate.”
He really wanted to just say that Yang Qi was usually called an idiot by everyone, but now it was clearly not appropriate to say so.
“Oh? In that case, it really is a bit strange. What was his study attitude like recently? Did he suddenly become very hardworking?” The head of the Academic Affairs Office asked again.
“His study attitude didn’t change much. But there is one thing that might be related.” Zhou Yanchang thought carefully and said, “Last week, he was beaten up by some bully students at school. After that, he suddenly seemed to become more alert. His speech and actions were no longer as clumsy as before.”
“There’s such a thing!”
The head of the Academic Affairs Office pondered for a moment and said, “Since that’s the case, all teachers, please go to your classes first and announce the exam papers and results. Teacher Zhou, after you announce the results, please have Yang Qi come to my office.”
After saying that, he left the file folder and walked out of the senior year office, his expression still puzzled. It was impossible for the exam questions to have been leaked. As for cheating, that was even more impossible. Who could cheat their way to first place! Moreover, he had personally looked at Yang Qi’s answer sheet. Some of the essay questions were answered brilliantly. This was a student with clear thinking and solid knowledge. The essay, in particular, made him want to applaud.
After the head left, the remaining homeroom teachers naturally started discussing, but soon the bell rang. They all stopped talking and headed to their respective classes with the exam papers.
Zhou Yanchang was very excited. Two students from his class ranked in the top ten in this joint exam, and one of them was first place. Although this first place came a bit suddenly.
“The results of the Ten-School Joint Examination are out.”
Zhou Yanchang habitually tapped the desk. His expression was much more relaxed than usual, and he even showed a rare smile. He said, “This time, our class’s overall grades have improved. Moreover, two of the top ten places in the joint exam are from our class. One is sixth place, and the other is… first!”
Hearing this, most of the students became excited. First place in the Ten-School Joint Examination undoubtedly meant first place in Ruiyun City. Generally speaking, the top scorer in Ruiyun City had a good chance of being the Gaokao Top Scorer of Jiangzhe Province.
Particularly excited were the top students in the class. They all hoped they had performed exceptionally well to get first place, or at least sixth. Most people looked towards Qin Muchu because Qin Muchu was the best student in the class. As expected, he was most likely the one who got first this time.
So awesome, wealthy family, and great grades too.
Qin Muchu’s expression remained normal, but he couldn’t hide his inner excitement. Given his family’s financial situation, he didn’t really need to care about this ranking. But he was a very competitive person who wanted to be first in everything. So far, he had only gotten first in the whole school twice. It would be great if he could get first place in the ten-school joint exam.
Zhou Yanchang tapped the desk to quiet everyone down and said, “These two people are Qin Muchu and Yang Qi.”
“Huh?”
Hearing Qin Muchu’s name, no one was surprised. But when the name Yang Qi followed, everyone was somewhat stunned.
“How is that possible! Yang Qi is in the top ten?”
This question almost echoed in everyone’s mind, and some even said it out loud. They all looked towards Yang Qi.
“Why not? Yang Qi’s intelligence is beyond what you ordinary folks can imagine!”
Yang Qi looked completely calm, his attention fully on the task completion notification sound in his mind. Beside him, Lu Liangjie looked excited and whispered to those who doubted. Chen Gong felt the same. In Chen Gong’s eyes, Yang Qi’s intelligence had long surpassed god-like levels. Getting into the top ten was nothing difficult.
There was also one person who was only slightly stunned by this result and chose to believe it: Xun Tuizhi. He was now certain that Yang Qi was smart, and not just ordinarily smart. But his face showed great disdain. He said to Qin Muchu beside him, “Sixth place is nothing special. Still can’t compare to your first place, Big Bro.”
But deep down, Xun Tuizhi really hoped Yang Qi was first. That way, it would be enough to make Qin Muchu lose face.
“The phrase ‘what you think about constantly will have a response’ is always true. Just like before, I always thought Zhang Baizhi and Ajiao were good-looking, and wished I could, you know… Sure enough, later Teacher Chen came with a camera.”
And just like at this moment, as if cooperating with Xun Tuizhi’s thoughts, Zhou Yanchang’s voice rang out: “Qin Muchu, 898 points, sixth place in the Ten-School Joint Examination. Yang Qi, 991 points, first place in the Ten-School Joint Examination! Among them, Chinese 195 points, Math 200 points, Arts Comprehensive 296 points, Science Comprehensive 300 points!”
When he heard he got sixth place, Qin Muchu’s face completely fell. When he heard later that Yang Qi got first place and the scores for each subject, his face sank to the extreme. Getting sixth in the joint exam was already his best result ever. But this brought him no joy because someone had scored better than him, and much better at that. The key was that this person was Yang Qi. If it were someone else, Qin Muchu might not have cared so much. But it was Yang Qi!
When the other classmates heard that Yang Qi got first place and the subsequent scores, their faces showed shock.
“No way, it’s not Qin Muchu in first place, but Yang Qi!”
“And, his scores are too… brutal!”
“Yeah, perfect scores in Math and Science Comprehensive. He only lost four or five points each in Chinese and Arts Comprehensive. This result is insane!”
“Last year’s Gaokao Top Scorer probably didn’t have such high scores!”
“Oh my god, how did Yang Qi get such awesome scores?”
“I bow to you!”
Instantly, the classroom exploded into noisy chatter. These voices sounded especially harsh to Qin Muchu’s ears.
“Could it be cheating?” There were also voices of doubt.
“You cheat and get first place, let me see,” said Lu Liangjie quite loudly.
“Alright, quiet!”
Zhou Yanchang had been observing Yang Qi the whole time. Seeing Yang Qi look calm and even somewhat absent-minded now, he was also full of doubt. Who would remain so calm after suddenly getting first place? Zhou Yanchang was an experienced teacher who had taught countless students, but he had never seen one like this.
“Yang Qi, what do you have to say about getting first place this time? Or do you have any experience you’d like to share with your classmates?” Zhou Yanchang called out to Yang Qi and asked.
“Nothing,” Yang Qi snapped back to attention, stood up, and said with a smile, “Unless I tell everyone to go get beaten up by Zhuang Zhoufeng too.”
Upon hearing this, the classmates burst into laughter, naturally knowing Yang Qi was joking. But to Zhou Yanchang’s ears, it felt rather unpleasant because he had indeed handled that incident with an attitude of minimizing the issue and hadn’t pursued it specifically.
“In that case, please go to the Academic Affairs Office. The head of Academic Affairs wants to see you.”
“Okay.”
Yang Qi stood up, left the classroom, and headed for the Academic Affairs Office. Regarding getting first place this time, Yang Qi felt it was within reason but beyond expectation. During the exam, he gave his all because he was afraid of failing the task.
He knocked and entered the head of Academic Affairs’ office.
“Hello, Head.”
“You must be Yang Qi. Please sit.”
The head of the Academic Affairs Office was named Yang Zirong. He asked Yang Qi to sit down and said with a smile, “I asked you to come here this time. You probably have a rough idea of why. It’s not that the teacher doubts your results, but I’m just too curious. After all, the change in your results this time is quite significant.”
“Teacher, I understand what you mean.” Yang Qi looked very composed. He said, “It’s like this: I was constantly thinking about some issues before, which made it hard for me to concentrate. Because I recently figured them out, I was able to shift all my focus to studying. My memory is very good. I’ve always remembered the things I learned before. This exam was just about flexibly applying the knowledge points I remembered. The Gaokao is also approaching. I know my biggest task now is to get into a good university, not to think about other things. Also, this Ten-School Joint Exam had a substantial prize, right? Five thousand yuan. So I put in extra effort!”
Yang Qi’s words weren’t completely flawless, but their emphasis on attitude made Head Yang Zirong very happy. He was even amused by Yang Qi’s last sentence and laughed, saying, “In that case, our school also has a rule: a 100,000 yuan bonus for getting the provincial Gaokao Top Scorer. You should also work hard to get that.”
As soon as Head Yang Zirong’s words fell, a notification sound rang in Yang Qi’s mind.
“Ding! Task triggered: Achieve the highest total score in Jiangzhe Province in the Gaokao.”
“Task completion reward: 20 Level-1 Energy Stones.”
“Task failure penalty: Deduct 20% of the current cultivation value from all super abilities.”
…
Seeing that Yang Qi didn’t speak, Yang Zirong didn’t press further. Instead, he took a book from the shelf nearby and handed it to Yang Qi. He said, “Young Student Yang, you just said your memory is very good. The teacher is very curious about how good it is. Could you demonstrate it for me?”
Yang Zirong had seen Yang Qi’s answer sheet, so he believed it couldn’t have been achieved through cheating. But he still decided to test Yang Qi, at least to feel more at ease. He could also confidently handle other teachers’ doubts or even challenges. Most importantly, this concerned the honor of Ruiyun High School. If it was fake, it would be a huge embarrassment.
If it was real, then the school administration would naturally pay special attention to Yang Qi in the future to avoid missing a promising student. As for the beating incident mentioned by Zhou Yanchang, it absolutely must not happen again.