When Teacher Zhao finished speaking, the classroom was silent for half a minute before the noise picked up again.
"Teacher, are you saying An Ning got first in the grade this time?"
"Oh my god, that's amazing?! So I'm in the same class as the grade's top student now."
…
"Quiet, quiet!"
Zhao Wen had originally wanted to build up the suspense, but the students started guessing wildly. Afraid of putting pressure on An Ning, she slapped the podium and waited for the students to settle down before continuing. "This time, An Ning is first in the class and third in the grade. Although her total score is third, An Ning scored first in both math and English in the grade. There's still a lot of room for improvement in the science comprehensive. But An Ning, don't feel pressured—keep up this momentum. Rankings don't matter."
An Ning was now Zhao Wen's precious treasure. She wanted someone from her class to take first in the grade, but she was also afraid of putting too much pressure on An Ning.
She watched An Ning smile like a blooming peony.
An Ning nodded under Teacher Zhao's eager gaze.
This result was about what she had estimated. She was twelve years apart from the original owner. Although the high school knowledge wasn't much different, comparing the question types, the current exam format was clearly simpler.
After adapting for a few more months, by the final exams her scores should be able to rise even further.
It wasn't just Class Nine discussing An Ning's results. When An Xin heard the homeroom teacher say that a dark horse had emerged in Class Nine during this monthly exam, she felt something was wrong. When the teacher said An Ning's name, her emotions got the better of her, and she stood up without regard for the occasion, saying it was impossible.
"She must have cheated. She was dead last—how could she suddenly become third in the grade!"
An Xin was used to looking down on An Ning. She had already been furious when her own middle school exam score was forty points lower than An Ning's. There was no way she could accept An Ning's grades, which had been a complete mess, rising again.
"She's first in her class—where would she go to cheat?" the homeroom teacher said irritably.
A dark horse had emerged from the rival class, and as for his own class—forget a dark horse, even the average score was worse than last month's exam. He was already in a bad mood, and hearing An Xin make a fuss, he snapped, "If you can copy, go copy me one. You failed math and barely passed English—how did you even manage to score like that!"
An Xin's eyes were red with defiance. "Then the exam questions must have been leaked."
"Go stand in the back. You did terribly yourself, and now you suspect other students' good grades are fake. What a character!"
An Ning's improvement was so dramatic that even without An Xin's suspicion, the second-year teaching group had already examined her test papers with doubt.
First, the math invigilator proved the authenticity of An Ning's paper.
He had stood beside An Ning for quite a while, looking not only at her paper but also at her scratch paper.
Second, the subject teachers of Class Nine also attested to An Ning's progress during this period.
"Why not call her in and have her write another paper?" a teacher from Class One suggested. Although the possibility of a paper leak was low, An Ning's step of progress was just too big.
"If you doubt the authenticity of An Ning's grades, the midterm exam is not long after this monthly exam. The papers can't be leaked every time. An Ning's entrance scores weren't bad to begin with—her grades only declined because she was sensitive. I believe her grades are authentic, and I don't agree with making her feel isolated by having her retake a test!"
Zhao Wen grew more and more agitated as she spoke, slamming the table and standing up to protect her student. Seeing her like this, the other teachers gave up on the idea of having An Ning retake the exam.
In truth, if her math score was proven to be genuine, it was unlikely that her other subject scores were fabricated.
Besides, as Zhao Wen said, there would be plenty more exams after the monthly test. Whether someone was a dragon or a worm would come to light sooner or later.
An Xin stood at the back of the classroom for the entire morning reading session.
Standing at the back of the room while people cast furtive glances at her, An Xin realized she had acted impulsively.
She had no evidence. Others wouldn't see her questioning An Ning as righteous—they would only see it as jealousy.
How could she possibly be jealous of An Ning?
A delinquent girl abandoned by both her biological parents, who looked like a fox spirit.
The more An Xin thought about it, the more devastated she felt. Anyone could score third in the grade—anyone except An Ning.
As soon as the bell rang, before anyone else could speak, her eyes reddened and she said in a pitiful voice: "Her grades have always been terrible. She cheated on the high school entrance exam too. I just didn't want her to keep making mistakes out of vanity, which is why I exposed her cheating. What she's doing makes the exams unfair."
"Going from dead last to third in the grade—Xin Xin's suspicion isn't unfounded. Even with improvement, there's no way she could improve that much."
"Doesn't she have a boyfriend from outside school? Did those guys steal the exam papers for her?"
"The teachers aren't stupid. If she had copied, why would the homeroom teacher defend her?"
"An Xin, if you think An Ning cheated, then go confront her to her face."
Some people spoke up to support An Xin, while others egged her on from the sidelines.
"Yeah, you're not scared to confront her face to face, are you?"
"Who says I'm scared?"
An Xin didn't absorb a single word in the next two classes. When the long break came and she went downstairs for exercises, she saw the honor roll had already been updated—especially a crowd gathered around An Ning's photo, saying she was pretty.
An Xin was so furious she bit through the tip of her tongue.
Tasting the blood in her mouth, An Xin glared viciously at An Ning in the crowd.
Before, An Ning had no one around her. Now she was surrounded by a lively group—girls linking arms with her as they walked, and a tall, decent-looking boy hovering close to her.
Chu Hang wasn't interested in An Ning's grades. He sidled up to her because he wanted to know why Dong Da looked at her like a mouse seeing a cat, and whether the bruise under Dong Da's left eye had anything to do with her.
"Ning-jie, I'm calling you 'jie' and everything—just give me a little gossip to chew on."
Chu Hang was pushed away by Shi Jiayan the moment he got close, but he didn't care and just laughed, his eyes darting around. When he spotted An Xin, he immediately poked Shi Jiayan's shoulder. "Look behind you guys. Ning-jie, your little sister is glaring at you—her eyes are about to pop out of her head."
An Ning and Shi Jiayan turned to look. Sure enough, An Xin stood not far away, her gaze venomous.
Shi Jiayan shook off the goosebumps on her skin. "The way she looks at people is really creepy."
After becoming friends with An Ning, there was one time An Xin came to find her and rambled on about all sorts of things. The gist of it was that An Ning had a terrible temper and wasn't a good person, and that if she became her friend, she would be used by her.
If she hadn't actually gotten to know An Ning, she might have believed some of what An Xin said about her.
But knowing what kind of person An Ning really was, she immediately felt like crying. She thought An Ning was so pitiful—bullied by An Xin, her malicious stepsister, who spread rumors about her.
She cried and cursed at An Xin for a while, and after that, An Xin would automatically take a detour whenever she saw her.
This time… Shi Jiayan looked at An Ning: "She keeps saying that you're just pretending to work hard in your studies. Now that you've done so well on the exam, do you think she might try something?"
"If she had the ability to cause trouble, she wouldn't just be glaring at me from behind."
After answering Shi Jiayan, An Ning turned back to Chu Hang, "I don't have a sister."
The casual glance An Ning swept over as she turned was, in An Xin's eyes, provocation and mockery. Her mind went blank, and she immediately walked up to An Ning: "An Ning, how can you cheat? You're being completely unfair to the students who actually study hard for their exams!"
An Xin's voice drew the attention of many people. There were already plenty of people on the playground sneaking glances at An Ning, and now they could openly stare at her.
"Are you staying silent because you admit it? Why can't you be honest for once? Mom and I have been pleading for you all this time. You're a sixteen-year-old student—your biological mother doesn't want you, and your father has cut ties with you. You can't just keep relying on those friends you have outside of school!"
The more An Xin spoke, the more pleased she became. She had long wanted to shout it out in front of everyone, to let them all know that An Ning was trash abandoned by her parents—someone who should be trampled underfoot, not have her photo posted on the honor roll, admired and envied.
"Not speaking is because I don't want to respond to a dog's bark. An Xin, can't you be a little decent and stop clinging to me?"
An Ning replied calmly, "Being in the same school as someone as vicious and hypocritical as you makes me sick."
"An Ning, how can you say that? I'm only doing this for your own good."
An Xin's eyes reddened and her voice trembled. The more people watched, the better she performed—unfortunately, An Ning had no intention of playing along.
"I scored forty points higher than you on the high school entrance exam. You and your mother stirred up An Jianhua to interrogate me, and after you forced me to run away from home, you said it was because I had a guilty conscience. Now you're accusing me of cheating again. What can you do? Before, I cared about family, I cared about An Jianhua, so I let your schemes drag my grades down. But now, as you said, I'm an orphan abandoned by my parents. Since I'm an orphan, what use are your tricks anymore?"
An Ning remained composed from start to finish. Even when An Xin publicly exposed her wounds, she showed no shame, no anger—just calm, as if talking about something unimportant.
"I'm going to keep doing well. You're already this jealous over third place in the grade—at this rate, you'll probably vomit blood and die in the future… Wipe the blood from the corner of your mouth."
There was a faint trace of bloody foam at the corner of An Xin's mouth, so light that people around her couldn't even see it.
But An Xin felt guilty, and the moment An Ning mentioned it, she covered her mouth.
Hearing the stifled laughter around her, An Xin's face flushed red with anger. Her reaction only seemed to prove An Ning's words—that she was so jealous of An Ning she was spitting blood.
"I am not!"
An Xin's skill was far inferior to Lu Lijun's.
An Ning's calmness made her look like a clown. Hearing the noise around her, even without knowing what they were saying, she felt they were all joining An Ning in mocking her.
An Xin covered her face and, upon returning to the classroom, collapsed onto her seat crying. The homeroom teacher of Class Five had no choice but to call Lu Lijun and ask her to come pick An Xin up and take her home.
When she saw Lu Lijun, An Xin cried even more pitifully, saying that An Ning had cheated and had scolded her in front of the whole school.
From her daughter's tearful account, Lu Lijun pieced together what had happened.
Learning that An Ning had placed third in her grade, her surprise was no less than An Xin's. As for whether she had cheated, she recalled how An Ning had looked last time and felt that this score was very likely genuine.
The question was whether An Ning was calculating enough to have been secretly studying all along, deliberately scoring at the bottom to mislead everyone, or whether she was truly that intelligent, capable of such tremendous improvement after just one month of hard work.
Neither possibility boded well.
Her stepdaughter's loss of composure made Lu Lijun frown, and further confirmed her resolve to coax An Ning back home.
"Wipe away your tears. When your father gets home, you tell him cheerfully that An Ning has changed and her grades have improved, and join me in persuading him to bring An Ning back."
"Mom!"
An Xin's voice was shrill. She had been wronged like this, and her mother still wanted to bring An Ning back home. "Am I even your real daughter? Did you see An Ning do well and decide you don't want me anymore?"
"It's precisely because you're my real daughter and I don't want you to suffer that I want to bring An Ning back."
Lu Lijun analyzed the pros and cons for her daughter. "When she lived at home, when were you ever wronged? Isn't it true that only after she left did you lose to her every time you faced off? If we keep her right under our noses, she'll be the stepsister who falls short of you in everything."
An Xin felt that Lu Lijun made sense. Although she hated having an outsider in the house, back when An Ning lived at home, it was indeed An Ning who always came out on the losing end.
"She might not come back."
An Xin thought of how An Ning had looked today—if not for her face, she would have truly believed An Ning wasn't An Ning anymore.
Meeting those eyes of hers, it felt like everything she did was just making a fool of herself.
It had been the same last time when she went to demand the household register—her words infuriated people to the point of grinding their teeth, unlike before when she was like a firecracker, exploding at the slightest spark.
Could it be that she truly no longer cared about An Jianhua?
By the afternoon, when An Jianhua got off work, before Lu Lijun could even persuade him, An Jianhua first received a phone call from Teacher Zhao.
Upon hearing that An Ning had placed first in her class and third in her grade, An Jianhua's first reaction was: "Did that shameless thing cheat?!"