The second mock exam arrived as scheduled.
The weather had already turned warm, and the wind in the early morning hours no longer cut to the bone.
Most students could roughly estimate their scores as soon as they finished the exam.
No matter how many tests they'd taken.
Yet under the pressure of Chinese-style education, the students never grew numb to it.
In fact, what was heard most often after leaving the exam hall were voices of regret and self-blame.
Regret over why they had changed an answer while filling in the answer sheet.
Blaming themselves for vaguely remembering a certain big question—but only vaguely.
After the last exam ended, the answer keys were handed out across the desks during the dinner break.
Checking answers was even more nerve-wracking than waiting for scores.
When the answer key for the final subject was being passed back, Wen Qing waved her hand behind her for a long while, but no one took it.
Only when she turned around did she realize Duan Huaian had taken leave.
The three of them hadn't suspected his connection to the principal for no reason—even under the crushing pressure of senior year, he remained utterly relaxed.
The second mock exam was the second major test of senior year.
During the first evening study period, excited discussions checking answers could still be faintly heard around the classroom.
By the last period, the air had quieted down.
Wen Qing's pen tip paused as she reviewed her mistakes.
Faint, fragmented sounds of crying drifted through the classroom.
So suppressed it made one's eyes sting.
This exam was far harder than the first mock.
The math multiple-choice section ramped up in difficulty starting from the third-to-last question.
Leaving people with nowhere to start.
There were sounds of sobbing nearby.
Not unrestrained weeping, but the muffled kind of someone who didn't want to disturb others yet couldn't hold it in.
But what could be done about it?
For utterly ordinary students, grades mattered more than anything.
Her paused pen tip began moving again, leaving a black dot of ink on the test paper as it lifted.
The moment she flipped the page, a drop of water suddenly spread across the paper.
Wen Qing casually wiped it away with the back of her hand and started reviewing the next problem.
On the third day, the score report was posted beside the water dispenser.
Chen Zhi was still joking with Duan Huaian, saying that this time he was without a doubt the last in the class.
Bursts of discussion erupted around the water dispenser, wave after wave.
Zheng Shiyi squeezed through the crowd, standing on tiptoe to peer at the score report.
Wen Qing worked through the problems Zhou Shixu had assigned her for the day.
She had already estimated her score fairly accurately.
As for her ranking, she didn't really care.
She had a score line she wanted to reach for herself.
Seeing how transformed Wen Qing was after returning from a week's leave, Duan Huaian asked with a smile:
"Aren't you going to check your scores?"
Back then, the two of them and Zheng Shiyi could spend an entire evening study period poring over a single score report.
Now she didn't even lift her head, just flipping through her scratch paper as she said:
"I've estimated roughly. Besides, Shiyi will definitely check it for me."
Duan Huaian had originally assumed she was studying so hard out of despair over doing badly.
But the moment he saw the score slip Zheng Shiyi brought back, that thought vanished instantly.
Wen Qing had performed very well.
Even in Chinese—the hardest subject to master—she had returned to her usual level of over 130.
Her math had also risen from the 100s to 120.
In the last mock exam, because of their mindsets and placing too much faith in superstition, all of them had underperformed.
This time, back at their normal levels, Chen Zhi and Zheng Shiyi were already cheering with joy.
But even though Wen Qing had actually done somewhat better than usual.
She only gave her scores a cursory glance before returning to her practice problems.
Duan Huaian swallowed what he'd been about to say, and quietly told Chen Zhi to keep it down.
A light rain fell when school let out.
Wen Qing actually hated rainy days.
The school sat on low ground, and every time it rained, puddles would form everywhere.
Her pant hems would get soaked, staying damp all day long.
Whenever the rainy season came to Qingcheng, complaints filled the classroom.
Why is it raining again?
Everyone hoped the sky would clear up soon, the sooner the better.
Zhou Shixu always kept an umbrella in his bag—a folding one, on the small side, meant for two people.
He didn't ask Wen Qing about her grades.
He never did.
Back in middle school, every time results came out, Wen Qing would spill everything on the walk home—her scores in every subject, her class rank, even her grade ranking.
If she did well, she'd brag about how smart she was; if she did poorly, she'd complain that whoever wrote the test had made it too tricky.
Zhou Shixu bent down slightly to look at her.
Because of the rain, the two of them stood very close.
Wen Qing hugged her backpack to her chest, eyes lowered to the ground, lost in thought.
"Wen Qing."
No response after he called out, so Zhou Shixu took hold of her wrist to stop her from walking on.
"Hm?"
Perhaps because they were standing in a shadowed spot, she looked up in confusion, the light in her eyes somewhat dimmed.
"I told you, we don't necessarily have to go to City A."
Water droplets fell onto the umbrella's surface as the rain grew heavier.
The raindrops bounced back up the moment they hit the ground, as if dancing.
Wen Qing stared at the ground for a long while before speaking:
"But you promised you'd go with me."
"I am going with you."
"I know."
How could she not understand what he meant?
But she was Wen Qing. She would never let anyone give up anything for her sake.
Everything she wanted, she would fight for herself.
She didn't need anyone's sacrifice as the price.
Zhou Shixu released his grip on her wrist.
Then he worried that he might have gripped too hard, whether her wrist had turned red.
The rain had soaked nearly half of Zhou Shixu's shoulder. Normally, Wen Qing would have immediately tilted the umbrella back toward him.
But she was too lost in thought.
As if she were still wrestling with some unsolvable math problem.
·
The one-hundred-day countdown pep rally for the college entrance exam.
They said parents were coming voluntarily, but each class actually had mandatory quotas—day students' parents were required to attend.
Ms. Zhao started swapping shifts a week in advance.
She even used up Old Wen's annual leave.
Making him serve as Zhou Shixu's parent for a day.
The school had started setting up the "Dragon Gate" ten days early.
Eight out of every ten students who passed by complained about how ugly it was.
No one knew which school first came up with the "leaping through the Dragon Gate" gimmick before it spread to campuses everywhere.
And it wasn't just the Dragon Gate.
The school administration also insisted on inviting a motivational speaker.
This speaker's credentials had to include lectures at famous schools across the country.
Nothing else mattered—what mattered was firing up the students' fighting spirit.
"Sounds more like a master con artist to me."
Duan Huaian had been taking leave more and more frequently lately—he wasn't even at the pep rally. Chen Zhi, who already talked a lot, now unloaded everything on Zheng Shiyi.
"As if anyone could con people like you. When they ask for student volunteers to go on stage, you should go up and snatch his microphone."
"The students down there are all plants. I'd never get the chance."
While Zheng Shiyi chatted with Chen Zhi, since she was facing in Wen Qing's direction, her gaze kept drifting now and then to Duan Huaian's empty seat.
"Chen Zhi, what's going on with Duan Huaian lately?"
"His family probably hired a private tutor."
Just as the two of them were talking, Wen Qing happened to return from the restroom.
Her gaze shifted to the desk behind her.
An indescribable premonition spread through Wen Qing's heart.
After morning reading class, the day students were to go to the school gate together to meet their parents.
The night before, Wen Qing had already told Zhou Shixu that Old Wen was coming.
They would all meet at the school gate.
Before they even arrived, they could see Ms. Zhao from a distance, holding up her phone on a video call with Ms. Shi.
Old Wen, left to the side, was holding the two bouquets he'd bought.
"Hello, Uncle and Auntie."
The moment Zhou Shixu finished his greeting, Old Wen shoved a bouquet into his hands.
Ms. Zhao had excellent taste.
There were none of those tacky congratulatory cards on the bouquets.
Wen Qing's bouquet was wrapped in pale yellow floral paper, with no heavy colors as accents.
As she took it, the little daisies inside brushed lightly against her cheek.
Zhou Shixu's bouquet was wrapped in English newspaper.
As it happened, he was wearing his thin gold-rimmed glasses that day.
When the two of them accepted their bouquets, it didn't look like they were heading off to the college entrance exam with fighting spirit.
It looked more like two actors from a youth romance film taking their curtain call at the school gate.
As usual, and with Zhou Shixu still holding an overwhelming first place in the second mock exam,
there was no doubt he would be called up to give a speech.
Old Wen had even started eagerly drafting a speech a week in advance,
afraid he'd be called up as an outstanding student's parent to say a few words.
But the motivational speaker the school had invited vetoed the segment where the student representative would speak,
saying that instead, he would invite Zhou Shixu to speak alongside him.
Wen Qing, whose spirits had been worn down by endless practice problems, even asked Zhou Shixu, quite unusually, whether they had rehearsed in advance.
The answer, surprisingly, was no.
Then again, that made sense.
If there had been a rehearsal, Zhou Shixu probably would have flatly refused the invitation to speak.
For some reason, Xu Jinqi had come to utterly hate his homeroom teacher.
According to him, even though his grades had started improving by the second mock exam, the teacher still picked on him, making veiled jabs at class meetings about how he didn't study seriously.
If you won't be kind to me, don't blame me for being unkind in return.
Xu Jinqi spread the word that his homeroom teacher had been begging on hands and knees for Zhou Shixu to give a speech.
Over the past few days, the story had gradually spread.
The students didn't know how good the motivational speaker was, but everyone knew how Zhou Shixu's speeches went.
When the speaker finished, morale would just be rising—then he'd suddenly toss a question at Zhou Shixu, and morale would be snuffed out on the spot.
And the school leadership wouldn't dare say a word of blame about it.
The first item on the agenda of the pep rally:
Bow to the homeroom teachers and parents.
As luck would have it,
Xu Jinqi was placed first in line.
He had to face his homeroom teacher and bow.
His height of 1.9 meters put him in the front row.
Before it even started, he was already complaining about being set up.
With the weather warming up, the sun was beating down hard.
Wen Qing had just carried her stool over and sat down, and was already looking at the problems in her hands.
Ms. Zhao sat beside her and ruffled her hair a couple of times.
Wen Qing's grades had never been bad to begin with, so her sudden burst of diligence had startled the whole family.
It was normal for parents to worry about their child's grades, but Wen Qing's scores had always been in the upper-middle range, and the family had long been content with that.
Her sudden burst of motivation now—it was hard to tell whether it was good or bad.
Zhou Shixu had already been called to the stage to prepare.
Old Wen was already surrounded by a crowd of parents in Class One, asking for his advice on teaching their kids to study.
Thinking back to Wen Qing's childhood performance as the king of kings among children—
a small disaster every three days, a big one every five.
In elementary school, if Zhou Shixu hadn't been there keeping an eye on her, she could have torn the classroom roof off.
Old Wen had even been forcibly summoned to sit in class with little Wen Qing,
just because she was far too rowdy.
From a distance, Old Wen could be seen standing among the other parents, smiling along politely.
In a lull in the chatter,
music began playing from the stage.
After a burst of dramatic entrance music, the Master took the stage.
Never mind whether he was a master of lectures or a master of con artistry.
The students at the school all called him the Master.
The Master opened by recounting his lecture tours at various prestigious schools.
He said the students on those campuses were so hardworking—they studied late into the night by lamplight, even ate their meals in the cafeteria standing up, trays in hand.
They even ran up and down the stairs in their daily lives.
Then Zhou Shixu was called up on stage.
The Master began asking him whether he was usually this diligent too.
In front of several thousand people, he couldn't very well embarrass his school.
So he nodded along.
"See, that's why he ranks first in exams. This is the gap between you and the good students. What is studying hard for? Come on, this student here, you tell us."
What had been a lecture had now turned into a one-on-one Q&A session with Zhou Shixu.
"To improve."
"And what else?"
Zhou Shixu's gaze swept precisely and unerringly to Wen Qing, who was hunched over, working on problems.
"To make more money."