Her cousin’s son had barely scraped into a second-tier university at best, yet her Jiabao was going to be the top scorer of the national college entrance exam!
Just thinking about the look of envy and jealousy on her cousin’s face in the future made Zhang Meilan feel delighted.
“My son is so lucky!” Zhang Meilan hugged Song Jiabao and couldn’t help but kiss his cheek.
Song Qiaoan watched them coldly, sneering inwardly. The results weren’t even out yet, and they were already daydreaming.
Forget it let them enjoy laughing while they still could. After all, their good days were almost over.
In the afternoon, they would sit the final exam, and that Secretary Zhang would come for an inspection.
As usual, Song Jianren and Zhang Meilan escorted Song Qiaoan into the exam hall.
Perhaps because it was the last subject or because they were lost in the fantasy of Song Jiabao becoming the top scorer the two of them were noticeably more relaxed.
“Qiao’an, do your best. Don’t be nervous,” Zhang Meilan said gently at the door, unusually soft in tone.
“After the exam, Auntie will take you to the department store.”
“What are we going to the department store for?” Song Qiaoan frowned, instantly becoming alert.
“It’s almost Young Master Shicheng’s birthday. I’ll take you to pick out a gift for him, and also buy you a few nice outfits. You’re his fiancée you can’t lose face at social events,” Zhang Meilan said with a warm smile.
“Think of it as your exam reward. I’ll cover all the expenses!”
Since the girl had done fairly well, she would indulge her this once. Dressing her up nicely would also make her more pleasing to Young Master Wang Shicheng in bed, wouldn’t it?
During exams, parents were not allowed to linger outside the classrooms, and Song Jianren and Zhang Meilan were no exception.
The invigilator was a man in his fifties with a classic receding “M-shaped” hairline and rimless glasses.
Normally, invigilators were supposed to be rotated, but no one knew what methods Song Jianren had used this man was fixed to supervise the exam room where Song Qiaoan was seated.
Holding a pointer stick in his hand, the man paced back and forth with his hands behind his back. Every time he reached Song Qiaoan’s desk, he would stop and stare at her paper for a long time.
This blatant targeting wasn’t even concealed. After two days of exams, many students had already figured out his pattern and started getting restless.
They looked around, trying to sneak glances. The bolder ones even copied directly when he wasn’t paying attention.
“Hey!! You two! What are you doing?!”
Sun Maocai suddenly looked up and caught two boys passing notes, shouting at them sharply.
“Take it out! Now! Don’t make me search you!”
The two boys shuddered in fear, looking utterly defeated as they slowly pulled out the paper slip.
Sun Maocai snatched it away and immediately began striking them with a ruler.
“Shameless! You dare pull tricks under my nose? Do you think I’m blind?!”
“Trying to be clever with these petty tricks aren’t you ashamed?!”
“You don’t study when you should, but you think about these dirty shortcuts! What were you doing earlier?! You’re worse than pigs and dogs! When you enter society, you’ll just be tools of capitalism!”
“You two, get out! I’ll report this immediately to the leadership. This is the fairest exam in the country cheating is absolutely not allowed! Just wait for your punishment!”
Sun Maocai wrote down their names and dragged them toward the door by their collars.
One of the boys was nearly crying.
“Teacher, please! We won’t do it again! Please forgive us just this once…”
“Useless! You’ll just have to wait to be publicly criticized in the streets!”
“No, teacher!”
“We really won’t do it again!”
The two boys completely broke down, crying uncontrollably without caring about their dignity.
They hadn’t expected the consequences to be so severe. They thought at most they would be disqualified, but they never imagined Sun Maocai would send them for public criticism.
Meanwhile, Song Qiaoan continued working on her paper while keeping half an eye on the situation outside.
At three o’clock sharp, someone knocked gently on the classroom door. A teacher standing outside waved to Sun Maocai. He dropped the two boys and walked over.
The man’s expression was serious. He leaned in and whispered something to Sun Maocai. Whatever was said made Sun Maocai’s face change drastically, his expression turning visibly panicked.
He quickly returned to the classroom and impatiently waved at the two boys still slumped on the ground.
“Fine, I’ll let you off today. Get back!”
Song Qiaoan observed him from the corner of her eye. His previous arrogance was gone; instead, he looked uneasy and kept glancing toward the door.
It seemed that Secretary Zhang had arrived.
She raised her hand. “Teacher, I need to use the bathroom.”
“The bathroom? What were you doing earlier? Why didn’t you speak up when the papers were handed out?” Sun Maocai suddenly raised his voice, implying suspicion. “Are you trying to sneak out to copy answers?”
Holding her stomach, Song Qiaoan pretended to be in pain.
“No… my stomach hurts…”
Sun Maocai glanced at her and snorted through his nose.
“Women are always so troublesome. So delicate and you still want to take exams? Might as well go home early!”
Song Qiaoan took a deep breath, suppressing her anger.
“I really have a stomachache,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Then suffer! There’s no toilet in the exam room. If you keep making noise, I’ll mark you as cheating! Which girl comes to an exam acting like she’s about to give birth? With that attitude, you think you deserve to go to university?”
Sun Maocai frowned deeply.
He had just received word that a high-level leader had arrived for an inspection. The school only found out at the last minute and was now in chaos, terrified of making any mistake.
The head teacher had also just warned him to be extra careful.
At a time like this, how could he let her wander out?
It wasn’t even that he thought she would cheat her previous scores were excellent, and anyway she was taking the exam on behalf of Song Jiabao, so as long as the results passed, nothing else mattered.
He was simply afraid of that visiting leader. If anything went wrong, it would be disastrous.
He just needed to get through this moment. Once that “big shot” left, the girl could go wherever she wanted.
Seeing that he refused to budge, Song Qiaoan stood up from her seat, leaned close to his ear, and whispered word by word:
“If you don’t let me go, I’ll tear up the exam paper. Then let’s see how you explain it to Song Jianren.”