Shen Xīngruò’s face showed no sign of guilt, speaking candidly as if it were true. Lǜ Xīngyán hesitated for two minutes, feeling something was off but couldn’t find the right words. Confronted with Shen Xīngruò’s nonchalant expression, he found himself speechless.
At home, Péi Yuè had already prepared a sumptuous dinner with Zhoū Yí. Even before they could put down their school bags, Péi Yuè urged them to wash up and sit at the table.
As they sat down to eat, Péi Yuè first exchanged pleasantries and then asked about the midterms. “Ruò Ruò, two days of exams must have been exhausting, right?”
Shen Xīngruò replied, “Not really, the exam schedule was quite relaxed.”
Péi Yuè nodded, “Oh… How difficult were the questions?”
Shen Xīngruò answered, “They were okay, not too hard.”
Péi Yuè nodded again. “Hmm… How do you think you did?”
Shen Xīngruò responded, “I think I did alright.”
Shen Xīngruò was patient, answering whatever Péi Yuè asked.
Péi Yuè was about to ask more questions when Lǜ Xīngyán became impatient, “Stop chatting, can we eat first?”
Péi Yuè retorted, “I wasn’t asking you.”
Lǜ Xīngyán was silenced by Péi Yuè’s “I know you couldn’t score more than a few points without being asked” gaze.
Péi Yuè continued to speak softly to Shen Xīngruò, “Ruò Ruò, don’t put too much pressure on yourself with your studies. Just do your best in exams and everything will be fine.”
Shen Xīngruò nodded, “Okay.” Seeing Péi Yuè hadn’t started eating yet, she said, “Aunt Péi, let me serve you some soup.”
Péi Yuè, distractedly trying to steer the conversation, smiled absentmindedly and nodded.
After Shen Xīngruò served the soup, Péi Yuè took the bowl with a smile on her face and casually mentioned, “Uncle Lù arrived at Huìzé today. He met your dad and heard that everything is going well for you here, which eased your dad’s worries.”
Shen Xīngruò paused slightly in her actions. Lǜ Xīngyán also felt something was off and instinctively looked up. But after a moment, Shen Xīngruò resumed serving dishes. “Oh, is the wedding all set up, Dad? There’s a lot of schoolwork lately, so it might be difficult to take time off. I won’t go back.”
Péi Yuè, taken aback by this, swallowed the prepared words and kept quiet.
Lǜ Xīngyán, who had been drinking soup peacefully, suddenly felt something was wrong. He accidentally choked on his soup, coughing violently with his elbow on the table.
Shen Xīngruò didn’t even glance at him, continuing to eat calmly, but it was just… too damn calm.
After dinner, Shen Xīngruò went back to her room to put down her school bag.
As her figure disappeared around the corner of the staircase, Lǜ Xīngyán, who had been lounging on the sofa, suddenly sat up. “Mom, what wedding? Is Uncle Shěn getting married?”
Péi Yuè, already worried about the matter, shot Lǜ Xīngyán a look and scolded, “You’re a guy, don’t be so nosy!”
Before he could respond, Péi Yuè approached him and muttered to him for a while in a low voice.
After listening, Lǜ Xīngyán remained silent for a while, just gazing upstairs.
This weekend passed quite calmly. Shen Xīngruò only left her room for meals; the rest of the time, she stayed inside. Péi Yuè found excuses to bring milk to her room twice, but Shen Xīngruò didn’t do anything else, just calmly working on her papers. Péi Yuè couldn’t shake off the feeling of unease.
When Lǜ Xīngyán mentioned it, she suddenly realized—that nobody would go crazy studying right after exams. Soon, it was Sunday evening, time to return to school. Because there were no evening classes on Sundays, the dormitory building at Mínglǐ was particularly lively.
Shen Xīngruò brought fried chicken wings prepared by Péi Yuè. Originally, she and Lǜ Xīngyán had one box each, but Lǜ Xīngyán didn’t feel like doing dishes. When they got off at the intersection, he tossed his box to her.
Shen Xīngruò didn’t hesitate to take both boxes to the girls’ dormitory. Shí Qìn enjoyed them the most, expressing how delicious they were while simultaneously fretting over tomorrow’s exam results.
Not only Shí Qìn but as Shen Xīngruò walked through the girls’ dormitory corridor, she could hear girls discussing answers and others lamenting about being nervous because “the results will be out tomorrow.”
It was strange. Maybe it was because she had something else on her mind that made her unable to summon any feelings of nervousness.
Monday was sunny. After half an hour of morning assembly on the playground, everyone returned to their classrooms, mostly discussing last week’s midterms.
The efficiency at Mínglǐ was remarkable. This morning, when the vice monitor went to the office to find Wáng Yǒufú, the results were already out. The graded papers were stacked on the desk, and the result sheets were being printed. However, Wáng Yǒufú hadn’t allowed anyone to see the scores yet.
Throughout the morning, everyone seemed somewhat distracted. Before afternoon classes, the geography teacher passed by Class One with a bundle of papers. He peeked inside and then suddenly called the class monitor, saying the papers were the midterm exams, already graded, and asked her to distribute them.
The class erupted in excitement! Following suit, the Chinese and English teachers also called for class monitors to collect the graded papers from the office.
With the three subjects’ papers distributed, the classroom became lively with chatter and excitement.
“How much did you score?”
…
“127? Not bad at all! It’s already impressive to score this high in Chinese!”
…
“Why did I only get 78 in geography?!”
Shen Xīngruò also received her exam paper. She glanced at it without much emotional fluctuation, then quickly stuffed it into her desk hole. Her desk mate synchronized with her—expressionless, they looked at the marked deductions on their papers before stuffing them into the desk hole.
Next to her, Lǐ Chéngfān surprisingly passed the Chinese exam and shouted excitedly, “I got 90! It’s a miracle! Lánge, how did you do?!”
Lǜ Xīngyán gave him a dumbfounded look.
Lǐ Chéngfān’s smile froze momentarily, then he awkwardly laughed a couple of times. Not giving up, he pointed to Shen Xīngruò beside Lǜ Xīngyán and asked in a hushed tone, “And my goddess?”
This time, Lǜ Xīngyán’s look shifted from dumbfounded to downright deadly.
Lǜ Xīngyán hadn’t spoken to Shen Xīngruò at all. It was such a sensitive moment with the grades coming out. If he said something wrong, he might end up being mocked by this white peacock with her grades.
Shen Xīngruò hadn’t spoken to Lǜ Xīngyán either. To be precise, she hadn’t spoken much to anyone today. Seeing her quietly sitting at her desk, emitting an aura of “I don’t want to talk,” no one dared to approach her, even those who wanted to ask about her scores.
The first class in the afternoon was math. When the math teacher, Liáng Dòng, entered the classroom, he also carried a stack of exam papers. Everyone was eagerly anticipating him to call the class monitor to distribute the papers, but unexpectedly, when the bell rang for class to start, he simply announced, “Let’s begin class!”
The familiar scene…
The classmates tensed up in unison.
Shen Xingruo didn’t notice the change in everyone’s expressions. As she sat down, she overheard a classmate from the back saying, “Uh-oh, Mr. Liang is probably going to hand out the test papers himself.”
So what if he did?
Liang Dong: “The monthly test scores are out. I’ll hand out the papers now. When I call your name, come up and collect yours.”
“He Siyue, 142, not bad.”
“Zhai Jiajing, 140.”
“Xu Wei, 135.”
…
Shen Xingruo seemed to understand something.
Liang Dong distributed the papers according to the grades.
For those who didn’t perform well, it felt like a proper execution.
“Li Jiaqi, 127.”
“Zhou Yucheng, 120.”
…
Lu Xingyan yawned, casually glancing at Shen Xingruo. As each name was called out, “Shi Qin, 108,” there was no mention of Shen Xingruo’s score. Not only Lu Xingyan, but many who had already received their scores began whispering.
“Shen Xingruo, 90.”
Shen Xingruo remained expressionless as she stood up to retrieve her paper.
But the entire class was stunned!
With a perfect score of 150 in mathematics, on a percentage scale, 90 was barely a pass. Did Shen Xingruo only manage to pass?!
Lu Xingyan even woke up from his doze.
Glancing at the paper Shen Xingruo brought back, it indeed showed a glaring 90 in red.
“Duan Jianghe, 74.”
“Lu Xingyan, 68.”
In unison, everyone’s minds echoed with the same thought: Even Lu Xingyan only scored 68…
During this math class, many students were absent-minded. As soon as the class ended, Wang Youfu personally brought over the grade sheets, standing at the door and instructing He Siyue to post them at the back of the classroom.
This meant there was no need for score calculation. All the scores were out. The class erupted once again!
He Siyue had intended to ask Shen Xingruo about her score because he couldn’t believe she had only scored this much. But with Wang Youfu approaching him, he didn’t have time to inquire further.
As he walked to the back with the sheets, He Siyue quickly scanned through them. As he expected, his score was on the first line of the first page, ranking first in the class and second in the grade.
Although it wasn’t the first time he had topped the class, for some reason, He Siyue felt relieved. But as he looked further, he couldn’t find Shen Xingruo’s name.
It wasn’t until he flipped to the second page that he found Shen Xingruo’s name in the middle. Her scores were quite ordinary, even slightly below average.
He Siyue glanced at her rank—33rd.
In their class, this could be considered average at best. Over the past month, with the lavish praise from the teachers and the constant compliments from classmates, everyone had automatically elevated her to a high position.
Not only in their class but also in the other two experimental classes, the top students were curious about what remarkable results this legendary model student could achieve.
As soon as the grade sheets were posted, almost everyone, after checking their scores, would automatically look for Shen Xingruo’s.
Hmm… Her scores were indeed quite remarkable, even astonishing.
“What’s going on? How did she only score this much? Could there be an issue with the grading?”
“That can’t be possible for every subject to have grading issues, and this isn’t just a matter of a point or two…”
“But wasn’t she a top student at Huize No. 1 High School?”
“How can we compare Huize with our Mingli? Probably the overall level of their school is just lower…”
“But Huize is also very good, isn’t it?”
After checking their grades, the classmates couldn’t help but whisper.
Shen Xingruo had been the center of attention at Mingli for a month. Coupled with her naturally aloof demeanor, some girls had already developed a dislike for her. Take her roommate, Li Ting, for example. Sitting not far from Shen Xingruo, Li Ting openly chatted with others, “I also thought she would score in the top three of the grade. She never revises before exams and looks so confident. Maybe she thinks the difficulty level here at Mingli is similar to that of their little school.”
“It’s unbelievable…”
One girl disdainfully glanced at Shen Xingruo and said, “She always acts like she’s above everyone else. I thought she was a real top student, but these grades are so disappointing… Is Huize really that different? In a regular class, she would probably rank no higher than fifteenth. It’s just too exaggerated.”
“YeAh it’s so awkward now…”
Shen Xingruo didn’t get up after class, just stayed seated, reading. The discussions nearby naturally drifted into her ears. Most people hadn’t left the classroom and were secretly observing her.
But she remained completely still as if she hadn’t heard anything.
Apart from those who were mocking her, many wanted to come forward and comfort her. But they felt that Shen Xingruo wouldn’t want consolation at this moment, so they just watched from afar, not approaching.
Even He Siyue, who glanced back from the front row, hesitated.
Lu Xingyan went to the bathroom and returned to find a crowd still gathered around the grade sheets. He didn’t join them, but from the discussion around him, he knew what kind of score Shen Xingruo had achieved.
He barely chewed his gum and went back to his seat to play with his phone.
Shen Xingruo ignored him, and he ignored her too.
But those annoying girls in front were just too much. They kept blabbering on as if humiliating Shen Xingruo would make them the shiniest stars in the whole school.
After listening for two or three minutes, Lu Xingyan suddenly lost interest in his phone. He crumpled his paper and threw it to the front lazily, saying, “Hey, you guys, are you ever going to shut up about this extraordinary level? Have you had enough?”
His voice wasn’t loud, but as soon as he spoke, all his classmates turned to look at him.
The girls’ faces didn’t look good. They muttered a few words under their breath, not daring to confront Lu Xingyan. They returned to their seats, silenced.
The other discussions also abruptly stopped, and the classroom during the break fell into an unnaturally quiet state.