The monthly exam results came out on the first day after the National Day holiday ended.

Ruan Mian’s situation with unbalanced subjects was as serious as ever. She got full marks in mathematics, scored 280 out of 300 on the comprehensive science test, was lucky enough to break into triple digits for English this time, and her remaining subject, Chinese, hung right on the passing line—ninety points, not a single point more.

After the results came out, she was unsurprisingly invited to the office by the Chinese teacher, Zhao Qi.

Teacher Zhao was a provincial first-level teacher who had taught students in many key classes and had seen those with unbalanced subjects before, but never anyone this unbalanced.

After reading Ruan Mian’s essay, he pushed up the frame glasses on the bridge of his nose and didn’t speak for quite a while before finally saying: “If I had graded this essay, I wouldn’t have even given you thirty points.”

Ruan Mian kept her head lowered, revealing a small section of her fair neck, not daring to respond.

Zhao Qi flipped her test paper over and looked through it from beginning to end. Finally, he jabbed his finger at the test paper and interrogated her: “Look at the hundred-plus students in the two experimental classes—whose Chinese score is lower than yours? If you could just put a fraction of the effort you put into mathematics into Chinese, you wouldn’t have scored so few points.”

During student years, when teachers are lecturing you, they’ll think you’re being defiant if you say even one extra word. Ruan Mian had frequently encountered this situation at No. 6 Middle School before and had long since figured out a set of methods for dealing with teachers.

She first let Teacher Zhao lecture her to his heart’s content, then opened her mouth to admit her mistake, saying she would practice diligently in the future and strive to get good results next time.

Teacher Zhao saw that her attitude in admitting her mistake was sincere, and setting aside Chinese, her other subject scores weren’t bad. At the end of the day, she was still a good seedling, so he didn’t question her further. “I heard from your Teacher Zhou that you just transferred to No. 8 Middle School this semester. I don’t care how your Chinese teacher at your previous school taught you. Now that you’re with me, I have no other requirements—just study hard and strive to improve a little each time.”

Ruan Mian nodded and said: “I understand. Thank you, Teacher Zhao.”

“In studying, you shouldn’t just bury your head in hard work. Sometimes you also need to see how others study. Listen more, observe more, learn more—you can’t go wrong with that.” Zhao Qi picked up his teacup and took a sip. “Look at your deskmate. His comprehensive science and mathematics scores this time are comparable to yours, but his Chinese score was 130. How do you think he managed that?”

What a coincidence—the second after Zhao Qi mentioned Chen Yi, the person in question just happened to walk past outside the office. Zhao Qi had sharp eyes indeed. Holding his teacup, he called out: “Chen Yi.”

Ruan Mian instinctively turned her head to look out the window.

The boy was holding a stack of test papers in his hand. His fluffy hair looked soft and fluffy in the sunlight. His gaze fell over in response to Zhao Qi’s enthusiastic greeting.

That face had clean, sharp features, full of vigorous and forthright youthful energy, his eyes carrying an inexplicably bewildered look.

Zhao Qi put down his teacup and beckoned with his hand again: “Chen Yi, come here for a moment.”

As Ruan Mian watched him turn and walk inside, her entire body went stiff. If Zhao Qi had told her to return to the classroom at that moment, she probably could have walked out moving the same arm and leg together.

But fortunately, Zhao Qi didn’t do that. Chen Yi quickly walked in, his straight and tall figure standing beside Ruan Mian.

His scent was all around her—crisp and clean, like a sudden downpour on a scorching summer day, making one abruptly clear-headed yet also languorously intoxicated.

Zhao Qi picked up Ruan Mian’s test paper from the desk and handed it to him: “This is your deskmate’s essay. Take a look at it and tell me what you think.”

Ruan Mian felt that Zhao Qi wasn’t quite clear-headed: “…”

The test paper was spread out on the unevenly stacked textbooks. The wind from outside lifted a corner of the paper, and Chen Yi reached out to press down on it. His knuckles were sharp and distinct, the veins on the back of his hand faintly visible.

Ruan Mian’s peripheral vision traveled from his fingers to his wrist, then she lowered her head, like a criminal awaiting judgment, clearly knowing what awaited her ahead yet still filled with panic and unease.

Chen Yi scanned through it at ten lines per glance, ignoring the huge “30 points” beside it, and laughed to himself: “This isn’t badly written.”

Zhao Qi’s eyes widened, wishing he could seal his mouth shut with tape.

“I mean the handwriting—the characters are written quite beautifully. As for the essay…” Chen Yi clicked his tongue lightly and said: “She wrote completely off-topic and still managed to get thirty points. Was that grader not quite clear-headed at the time?”

With a “clang,” the invisible blade hanging over Ruan Mian’s head fell steadily down, accompanied by the boy’s seemingly amused tone.

Killing someone requires no more than a nod of the head, yet his casually understated joke had already devastated Ruan Mian. She felt like she was sitting on pins and needles, wishing she could dig a hole right there on the spot and bury herself in it.

Zhao Qi ignored his joke and brought up the real reason he’d called him in: “Your deskmate’s unbalanced subjects situation is quite serious. When you have time, help her out more. Share any technical study methods you have with her. As a big guy, don’t be stingy about it.”

Ruan Mian hadn’t yet recovered from that previous statement when she heard the boy’s drowsy, lazy voice beside her ear: “Okay, got it.”

She felt surprised and looked up.

But from this angle, she could only see the boy’s high, straight nose bridge and the arc of his dense, long, curled lashes. She couldn’t make out his expression, nor could she detect any emotion in his words.

For a moment, Ruan Mian couldn’t figure out whether he had agreed sincerely or was just giving a perfunctory false response.

How could Chen Yi know that his casual remark could become something so obscure and difficult for someone else to understand? He maintained that same nonchalant attitude: “Teacher Zhao, if there’s nothing else, I’ll head back first.”

“Alright, go ahead.” After Chen Yi left, Zhao Qi instructed Ruan Mian again: “Study well with your deskmate. He’s the only person who has won first prize three consecutive times in the New Concept Writing Competition.”

Ruan Mian’s face couldn’t hide her surprise.

Zhao Qi smiled: “Didn’t expect that, did you?”

“A little.”

“That’s normal. Chen Yi doesn’t look like someone so literary. That kind of temperament is too contradictory on him.” Zhao Qi said: “But he has two elders at home who research literature. He’s been immersed in it since childhood, so his accomplishments in writing are definitely much stronger than yours. If you study well with him, you’ll definitely make great progress in essays in the future.”

Ruan Mian nodded and said she understood.

After leaving the Chinese department office, Ruan Mian went to Zhou Hai’s office to pick up this month’s biology answer sheet.

Although No. 8 Middle School’s monthly comprehensive science exam followed the same format as the college entrance exam this time, the three subjects’ answer sheets were separate. This way it was convenient for teachers of each subject to grade, and also convenient for later test paper explanations.

Zhou Hai knew she had just been called over by Zhao Qi and specifically consoled her with a few words: “Your Teacher Zhao just has a sharp tongue. He’s actually quite nice. If he said anything to you, don’t take it to heart.”

Ruan Mian nodded and said: “I understand.”

“For this monthly exam, overall you did pretty well. Your math teacher has praised you to me several times. Next time, work a bit harder and try to catch up with Chinese too.”

Ruan Mian: “Okay, I understand. Thank you, Teacher Zhou.”

“No problem. You can go back now. Class will start soon.”

“Alright.”

Ruan Mian had just returned to the classroom when the class bell rang. The several boys who had been gathered around Chen Yi at the back of the classroom dispersed.

She returned to her seat. On her desk was the just-distributed physics answer sheet—104 points.

Chen Yi’s physics answer sheet was also spread out on the desk. Ruan Mian looked up and glanced at it.

Wow.

Perfect score.

The grader, as if afraid no one could see it, had written the three digits “110” extra large, and the pen stroke at the end had even torn through the paper from excessive force.

Chen Yi noticed the girl’s gaze, grabbed the test paper and placed it in front of her, his tone flat: “If you want to look at it, just take it and look. Say something—I’m not going to eat you.”

“…”

Ruan Mian always reacted too slowly when facing him. The English teacher had already entered the classroom with test papers, and it was only amid the class’s collective “Good morning, teacher” that she said “thank you” to him.

Actually, Ruan Mian didn’t have much to look at. A 104-point paper and a perfect score paper were only one multiple-choice question apart.

But she still looked at it very carefully. The boy’s handwriting was very beautiful—vigorous and powerful, with concealed edges subtly revealing their sharpness, and exposed edges also showing restraint. Clearly he had practiced specifically; ordinary people couldn’t write characters like this.

On the podium, English teacher Song Wen told everyone to take out their test papers. Ruan Mian returned the answer sheet and said thank you again.

Chen Yi made an acknowledging sound and casually stuffed the paper into his drawer.

Teacher Song’s pace in explaining the paper was very fast. By the end of one class period, only the essay remained unaddressed. She used a few minutes of break time to briefly mention the essay’s writing direction and theme: “Students who scored less than twenty points on the essay, come to my office at noon.”

Hearing this, Ruan Mian couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. She had been lucky with English this time. The essay was the same type of topic she had written before at her tutoring class, and for the first time she got a score starting with “2.”

When morning classes ended, Ruan Mian and Meng Xinglan went off campus to eat. During the meal, she mentioned that Teacher Zhao wanted Chen Yi to teach her essay writing.

Meng Xinglan bit into a spare rib, her voice muffled: “Chen Yi agreed?”

“He said ‘okay, got it’ at the time.” Ruan Mian poked at the rice grains in her bowl with her chopsticks. “I’m also not sure if that counts as agreeing or not.”

“Oh well, then don’t worry about it. If you want to learn, I can teach you too. After all, I won first place in the elementary school essay competition.”

“…”

The two of them talked back and forth, laughing non-stop, not noticing that someone was coming down the stairs beside them. Three boys walked toward them, one after another.

Suddenly a hand reached out from the side and ruffled the top of Meng Xinglan’s head. A boy’s teasing voice followed immediately: “Meng Xinglan, still eating? You’re getting as fat as a pig.”

Ruan Mian heard the voice and looked up to see Chen Yi and Shen Yu standing behind Jiang Rang. She quietly put down her chopsticks.

“Bullshit! You dog, Jiang Rang!” Meng Xinglan shouted as she swatted away the boy’s hand. Turning around and not seeing the familiar person, she frowned and asked: “Where’s Liang Yiran? He didn’t come to eat again?”

“He’s now the vice president of the student council. He’s been busy to death with sports day preparations. How would he have time to come out to eat?” Jiang Rang placed the packaged meal on the table: “We’re going to get haircuts in a bit. Can you deliver this for us?”

“Get lost. I’m not going.”

“Then what do we do? You can’t let Liang Yiran keep starving and waiting for us to come back, can you?” Jiang Rang smiled: “Can you bear to do that?”

“…” Knowing it was a lie, Meng Xinglan still couldn’t help falling for it. She waved her hand impatiently: “Go, go, go get your haircuts.”

“Sure thing. I’ll treat you to bubble tea when we get back.” Jiang Rang withdrew his hand and also greeted Ruan Mian, who was sitting across and hadn’t said anything the whole time.

After walking out of the restaurant, Shen Yu put his arm around Jiang Rang’s shoulder and asked: “Was that girl sitting across from Meng Xinglan just now Chen Yi’s deskmate?”

Jiang Rang looked at him sideways: “Yeah, didn’t you see her before?”

“I’ve only seen her a few times.” Shen Yu patted Chen Yi’s shoulder: “You don’t even know how many times Old Yan praised your deskmate in our class this morning.”

Yan Heshan was the shared math teacher for experimental classes one and two. This math test paper was difficult, and Ruan Mian was the only one in the two experimental classes to get a perfect score.

Chen Yi looked up: “Praised her for what?”

“Praised her for being amazing.” Shen Yu cleared his throat and imitated Yan Heshan’s tone: “For this problem, that Ruan Mian from Class One—her problem-solving approach was very clear and concise. If any of you know classmates who know her, you can borrow her test paper to look at after class.”

“Words aside, she really is amazing. Even Chen Yi didn’t get full marks on math this time.” Jiang Rang showed no stinginess in displaying his praise for Ruan Mian: “Plus her comprehensive science score was 280, leaving the other girls in our class far behind. But she seems to have pretty serious subject imbalance too—her Chinese just barely passed the passing line.”

“That subject imbalance must have reached the Atlantic Ocean, right?” Shen Yu said with a laugh.

“For sure. Old Zhao even called her to the office because of this.” Speaking of this, Jiang Rang suddenly remembered something, his expression dawning with realization: “No wonder. During the placement test at the start of school, when I said she was amazing, she told me that by the next exam covering all subjects, I wouldn’t think that way anymore. Turns out it was because of this.”

Chen Yi, who hadn’t been participating much in the conversation, thought of the essay he’d seen in Old Zhao’s office that morning and found it inexplicably funny. It really had reached the Atlantic Ocean.

The essay required them to create their own title based on the materials provided. From beginning to end, she hadn’t written a single sentence related to the materials.

Who knew what she was thinking at the time.

—

Author’s Note: Comprehensive science total is 300 points—physics perfect score 110, chemistry 100, biology 90 (reference: this province’s 2008 comprehensive science score distribution)