Chapter 17: Results

Chapter 17: Results

“See clearly now? Then I’d like to ask Teacher Zuo, how could I copy problems she hasn’t even done yet?” Su Chunfeng sneered coldly. “Speaking lies so boldly… how can that be worthy of a teacher’s conduct?”

“You…” Zuo Hongbin’s face flushed red instantly, his eyes wide with anger.

Su Chunfeng sat back down, pulled the test paper towards himself, lowered his head, picked up his pen, and continued working on the problems. As he did, he said, “Teacher Zuo, I only refused to help you copy your teaching lesson plans, and you deliberately cause trouble for me like this? Now you even want to use your invigilator’s power to frame me… do you deserve your title as a People’s Teacher?”

Ooooh…

The class erupted in a wave of boos.

All the students understood what was happening now. While they all despised Zuo Hongbin with united contempt, they also felt genuine admiration for Su Chunfeng deep down—this guy’s courage really was getting bigger and bigger!

“You, get out!” Zuo Hongbin roared, losing control.

“No!” Xu Yunxia suddenly spoke up, her pretty face filled with anger as she looked at Zuo Hongbin. “Teacher Zuo, even though you are the invigilator, you don’t have the right to strip a student of his exam qualification without a proper reason!”

Su Chunfeng, who had apparently already started working on his test again, looked up at Xu Yunxia. “Thank you, Teacher Xu.”

Xu Yunxia nodded slightly, her smile as warm and pleasant as spring breeze.

“Good, very good, fine!” Zuo Hongbin spat out several “goods.” His earlier speechless, flustered appearance had clearly exposed the fact that he had framed Su Chunfeng without cause. Moreover, Su Chunfeng’s words had backed him into a corner. Now, he could only clench his fists angrily, grit his teeth, turn around, and stride out of the classroom in rage.

Xu Yunxia walked unhurriedly to the teacher’s platform. She turned her head to look at the students below and revealed a gentle, smiling face. “Students, focus on your exams. Don’t let what just happened affect you… Also, don’t cheat, okay?”

Under Xu Yunxia’s gentle smile, all the students lowered their heads and went back to taking their exams.

Wang Haifei felt a wave of relief in her heart. She glanced sideways at Su Chunfeng and saw him working diligently on his test. Suddenly remembering Teacher Xu’s warning about not cheating, she quickly turned her head and glanced guiltily towards the platform. It so happened that Teacher Xu was looking in her direction, which made her even more nervous. She lowered her head, her cheeks flushed red. Yet, she thought somewhat happily, “Su Chunfeng’s hard work over the past two months finally wasn’t in vain. His grades have risen.”

During the following parts of the exam, Zuo Hongbin requested to swap with the chemistry teacher Ren Zhao who was invigilating in Class 15 of the first year. He no longer came to invigilate in Class 14; he couldn’t bear the embarrassment.

The incident that happened during the math exam invigilation in Class 14 quickly spread among all the students in the school. Soon, it reached the ears of the principal, vice-principal, the head of academic affairs, and other members of the school leadership. However, they only gave a verbal warning about it. After all, everyone understood the practice of making students help copy lesson plans last minute. Over half the teachers in the school did it…

As for retaliating against a student, that was really something hard to definitively judge.

Zuo Hongbin could simply insist that he saw Su Chunfeng constantly looking at his deskmate’s test paper, and that’s why he determined he was cheating.

In fact, that’s exactly what Zuo Hongbin did.

Meanwhile, Su Chunfeng heard that the algebra teacher Song Ping—who was thirty-three this year—had gotten into a huge argument with Zuo Hongbin in private. Students’ exam results were linked to the teachers’ individual performance records. Zuo Hongbin, driven by personal spite in retaliating against a student, almost disqualified a student who was improving and whose academic performance was becoming increasingly excellent. That would have pulled down the class average math score for the entire Class 14!

Song Ping was, of course, very angry.

The geometry teacher Guo Fa was more mature and steady. He didn’t participate in reprimanding Zuo Hongbin, but he was probably also extremely unhappy about it.

A few days later, the Final Exam results came out.

On Thursday afternoon, after announcing the results to the students, the school would begin summer vacation.

Inside the classroom of Class 14, Grade 2.

The Homeroom Teacher Li Jichun stood on the platform, holding a list of results. With a smile on his face, he announced the students’ scores for this exam:

“First place, Li Jiankun, 643 points.”

“Second place, Chen Li, 639 points.”

“Third place, Wang Rui, 622 points.”

…

The exam subjects included: Math, Chinese, English, Physics, Chemistry, Politics, Geography, Biology. Among them, Geography and Biology were on one test paper. There were seven subjects in total, each with a full score of 100 points.

Su Chunfeng scored 589 points, with an average close to 85. He ranked 11th in the class.

This result surprised and delighted both the teachers and the classmates.

Su Chunfeng himself was also very satisfied.

Because last time, his exam result was only 39th among the 79 students in the class, and that was even with cheating.

Wang Haifei’s results were also good; she ranked 19th in the class.

Su Chunfeng felt a bit strange. He remembered that in his previous life, Wang Haifei’s academic performance only began to improve significantly during the latter half of the third year of junior high.

Zhang Lifei’s results weren’t that great; she ranked 29th.

“Haifei, not bad! Much better than last time… Congratulations!” Su Chunfeng gave Wang Haifei a thumbs-up.

Wang Haifei’s face turned red. In this era, such an intimate form of address between a boy and a girl left her unable to adapt for a moment. Yet, her heart felt sweet. She whispered, “Your results are even better, aren’t they?”

In her heart, she understood clearly: if she hadn’t seen Su Chunfeng studying so hard during this period, she wouldn’t have listened attentively in class every day, taken notes, reviewed her lessons properly during morning and evening self-study sessions, or studied for over an hour after returning home before resting. She did this firstly because Su Chunfeng no longer chatted and joked endlessly with her like before, and Wang Haifei’s personality wasn’t one for playful banter with others anyway. Secondly, she felt a bit of hidden anxiety, worrying that if her grades fell while Su Chunfeng’s improved, would he look down on her?

“Sigh, your grades have both gone up, but mine slipped.” Zhang Lifei said with a troubled look, pouting. “Really annoying. If it weren’t for all those boring people often writing me those annoying letters, I wouldn’t have had such trouble focusing on studying.”

The so-called annoying letters were naturally love letters from boys pursuing her.

Su Chunfeng smiled but said nothing.

Wang Haifei bit her lip lightly and teased, “I suspect the reason you can’t focus is because you have a target in mind, huh?”

“You’re awful!” Zhang Lifei reached out and pinched Wang Haifei’s waist. Her eyes, however, looked somewhat melancholy as she glanced at Su Chunfeng—she had actually heard that intimate “Haifei” just now. The reason she didn’t tease them about it as usual was that she suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of loss.

Girls are naturally extremely sensitive about matters of the heart. Zhang Lifei had always been aware that Su Chunfeng, like most boys in the class, secretly liked her. Once, he had even taken out a letter folded into a heart shape to give to her, but just when she curiously asked for it, Su Chunfeng hesitated awkwardly and stuffed that very delicately folded small letter back into his pocket without handing it over.

Before, Zhang Lifei hadn’t paid much attention to Su Chunfeng’s crush on her. After all, many boys pursued her, and she genuinely hadn’t ever considered Su Chunfeng in a romantic way.

But now, seeing Su Chunfeng and Wang Haifei becoming more and more intimate…

Zhang Lifei suddenly felt that Su Chunfeng was really quite nice. He wasn’t tall and burly, nor was he aggressive or eager to show off toughness. He was fair-skinned, handsome, seemed gentle and weak on the outside, yet carried an air of elegance and maturity. Moreover, he had excellent handwriting, a mild temperament, and seemed to never refuse anyone’s requests, which made him quite popular among the girls in class. Now, his academic performance had also improved rapidly. Even his once-despised timid personality, after the incidents involving Yao Xinbo and Teacher Zuo Hongbin, was now called broad-minded by his classmates. When provoked, he could erupt like a tiger descending a mountain—brave and not to be bullied.

“He really hasn’t been taking the initiative to talk to me much lately,” Zhang Lifei thought, resting her chin on her hand, propped on the desk. She blinked her big eyes, looking at Su Chunfeng.

Sensing Zhang Lifei’s gaze, Su Chunfeng joked, “Don’t stare at me, I’ll get shy.”

“Ah.” Zhang Lifei snapped back to reality. Her pretty face flushed red all the way to her ears. She shot Su Chunfeng a glare, bit her lip lightly, and said, “Who’s staring at you? Annoying!”

On the platform, Homeroom Teacher Li Jichun had just finished announcing all the students’ exam results. He continued, “In this Final Exam, some students improved their grades very quickly. Especially Su Chunfeng. He has been behaving very well lately, working hard and diligently. Everyone should learn from him!”

Su Chunfeng put on a silly, somewhat embarrassed expression.

Most of the classmates, especially the girls, turned their eyes to Su Chunfeng, their expressions full of envy and admiration.

“During the summer vacation, students, don’t just focus on playing at home. Review your lessons more, lay a good foundation… When you return after summer break, you’ll enter the third year of junior high…”

Li Jichun began a long speech.

Down below, the students had already started whispering among themselves.

Being young, they weren’t interested in teachers’ lengthy, earnest lectures. They just hoped for the vacation to start quickly so they could go home and fully enjoy their free summer time.

“Haifei, come find me at my place to play if you have time during summer vacation,” Zhang Lifei suddenly whispered, leaning close.

“Mm-hmm,” Wang Haifei nodded.

It was completely normal for middle schoolers to ride their bikes around during summer vacation, visiting friends to play. Sometimes, several would even plan together to go visit a classmate’s home in a farther village… But Zhang Lifei had just had a sudden idea. Using the invitation to Wang Haifei as a lead-in, she also looked at Su Chunfeng and said with a giggle, “Hey, Su Chunfeng, do you have time? We could go together then.”

“Oh, we’ll see,” Su Chunfeng nodded, not directly refusing.

“Haifei will be there too! I’ll arrange a private space for you two to be alone together…” Zhang Lifei said with a hint of mystery.

Su Chunfeng smiled, neither agreeing nor disagreeing.

Wang Haifei, however, blushed furiously and pinched Zhang Lifei’s jade-white arm hard.

After school, Su Chunfeng, while no one was paying attention, secretly slipped Wang Haifei a letter folded into a heart shape. Then, he slung his backpack over his shoulder and left the classroom, chatting and laughing with Li Zhichao and a few other classmates who lived along the way home.

Wang Haifei hid the note in a panic, afraid someone might see. Only after hurrying home and darting into her bedroom did she quickly open that small, delicate heart-shaped letter. On a full large sheet of paper were written lines and lines in familiar, beautiful, bold fountain pen handwriting: