He arrived quite early today. When he entered the examination room, there were still twenty minutes until the start, and most candidates hadn’t arrived yet. Xu Qian hadn’t come either.
However, as soon as he stepped in, Qi Lei felt something was off. The previously preoccupied candidates hadn’t shifted their gaze since he entered, all staring fixedly at him.
Qi Lei found it baffling, wondering if he hadn’t washed his face properly.
Just as he sat down, Xu Qian walked in, swinging a pencil case.
As an eye-catching pretty girl, she also attracted a lot of attention.
But she was much calmer than Qi Lei, probably already used to it. She calmly went to her seat, glanced at Qi Lei, and pretended not to know him.
Qi Lei had no mind to greet her either, his thoughts entirely on physics formulas.
He had memorized them all yesterday, but reviewing them right before the exam would ensure nothing went wrong.
The examination room remained quiet for another five minutes when suddenly Xu Qian, who had been pretending to read beside him, couldn’t hold back anymore. Propping her chin, she slowly leaned toward Qi Lei.
“How did you do on the Chinese exam?”
Qi Lei frowned slightly. Why was she asking about that?
“Not great, at most 30 points.”
Qi Lei wasn’t being modest; based on his own ability, he’d only score over 20 points.
Although he copied a bit, who knew what level this fierce girl was at? If she was similar to him, copying would be pointless.
The rest of the reading comprehension and recitation sections were guesses—who knew how many points he’d get?
All in all, about 30 points.
Of course, that didn’t include the essay.
Upon hearing this, Xu Qian was shocked. “30 points!? Out of 150, you only got 30?”
This wasn’t just poor academic performance—it was like he hadn’t studied at all.
“You’re something else!”
“Hey? Hey, hey!”
Qi Lei wasn’t pleased. Xu Qian’s voice wasn’t quiet, and the whole examination room was looking at him.
“Being so harsh to a low achiever isn’t fair! Isn’t that too discouraging?”
Xu Qian rolled her eyes. “You’re thick-skinned, you can take it! At worst, you can make up for it with Science Comprehensive.”
Then, full of confusion, she retreated. Thinking to herself, is he really that bad? Then why was the invigilator so excited yesterday?
A while later, the invigilator entered on time and, as usual, glanced at Qi Lei first, with a very complicated expression.
The candidates conscientiously handed their exam-related textbooks and exercises to the podium, while Qi Lei noisily tore several densely copied draft papers to shreds and threw them in the trash.
Goodbye!
Xu Qian watched, full of disdain. “Use and discard—no feelings at all?”
The exam officially began. Science Comprehensive was a single paper for physics and chemistry, totaling 120 points, with each subject accounting for 50%.
Qi Lei received the paper, wrote his name and exam number as usual, and then started working on the problems.
Just looking at the first fill-in-the-blank question, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief—he knew how to do it.
Perhaps the two days of review had paid off. Then the second, third, and up to the seventh question, he only got stuck a bit.
He skipped it directly, not wasting time.
In about thirty minutes, Qi Lei had actually finished all the small questions.
Even he was surprised that there were only about seven or eight questions left blank due to uncertainty.
Checking the time, Qi Lei decided to go back and tackle those seven or eight small questions. There was still plenty of time; he’d see if he could solve them.
Actually, those seven or eight small questions stumped him because of their question types.
From last night until this morning, he had been selecting representative question types to review and attempting to solve one or two of each type.
However, the time was too short to cover all question types thoroughly. Qi Lei believed he could overcome the obstacles caused by unfamiliarity alone.
After all, he hadn’t completely forgotten his high school and university knowledge, and his scientific problem-solving mindset and logical abilities remained intact. Given some time, he might very well be able to solve them.
Thus, Qi Lei spent 20 minutes finally conquering all the challenging problems.
This gave Qi Lei a sense of exhilarating satisfaction—the first time in his life he had experienced the joy of learning.
After collecting himself, he formally launched his assault on the calculation problems. This was the real test.
Yet, Qi Lei still didn’t rush to start writing. He first quickly scanned through all the calculation problems, picking out the easier ones to solve first.
These were solid points he could definitely secure—not a single mark could be lost.
After finishing the easy ones, Qi Lei checked the time again. There were still forty minutes left, with eight truly difficult problems remaining.
Instead of feeling pressured by the time, Qi Lei took a deep breath and felt somewhat relieved.
From this point on, every correct answer would be a bonus.
He immediately began calculating the first problem—a highly challenging applied chemistry question.
After pondering for a long while, Qi Lei finally found the solution. By the time he wrote the final stroke, ten minutes had passed.
One problem took ten minutes, and there were even harder ones ahead. Qi Lei didn’t dare pause and continued tackling them.
The second problem was a physics question, which took slightly less time—seven minutes to solve.
By the third problem, Qi Lei seemed to have found his rhythm, finishing it in five minutes.
With less than twenty minutes left and five major problems still blank, Qi Lei worked tirelessly without lifting his head, unaware that the strands of hair on his forehead were soaked with sweat.
Meanwhile, Xu Qian in the next seat was tilting her head, watching Qi Lei. She had already finished answering and reviewed her paper twice, ready to hand it in at any moment.
But the usual early submitter next to her was still there!
Seeing the fine beads of sweat on Qi Lei’s forehead, Xu Qian narrowed her large eyes, filled with curiosity.
Why was this guy so peculiar? His academic performance was poor, yet he wasn’t the least bit annoying. He should have been insecure, but he exuded confidence everywhere. In short, he was a very comfortable boy to be around.
Xu Qian thought, having someone like him as a friend would definitely not be boring.
Unfortunately, they were destined to be on two different paths—briefly intersecting, only to drift further apart.
Due to her family circumstances, Xu Qian was much more mature than other children. She had long understood that adolescent friendships were far from pure and straightforward.
In adolescence, friendships had only one criterion: academic performance!
In school, high-achievers wouldn’t become friends with underachievers. After exams, even if two people had great chemistry, if their scores weren’t on the same level, they would be separated into different schools and different camps.
Then, they would only grow further apart, becoming increasingly distant.
Just like in her third year of junior high, everyone wrote “forever” in their memory books. Yet reality was brutally harsh—for more than half of her classmates, graduation meant farewell forever, with no further intersection in their lives.
If three years of classmates could end like that, let alone a two-day examination hall acquaintance.
Thinking of this, Xu Qian felt somewhat disheartened—unwilling yet powerless to change it.
The bell rang abruptly, signaling the official end of the Science Comprehensive exam.
Li Yanhong didn’t rush to collect the exam papers but instead methodically tidied the lectern. Her gaze occasionally drifted toward Qi Lei, and only when she saw the sweaty boy finally straighten up with visible relief did she call out, “Come on, everyone, put down your pens! If you don’t hand in your papers now, your scores will be canceled!”
“You there! Qi Lei, right? You’re always causing trouble—can’t you be more considerate?”
Qi Lei repeatedly apologized for the proctor’s scolding, but the smile at the corners of his mouth was impossible to hide. He had finally conquered the last major question just as the bell rang.
As he stood up to submit his paper, he glanced next door and noticed that the usually carefree Xu Qian seemed unhappy, her face clouded with gloom, unlike her usual self. He asked quietly, “What’s wrong? Didn’t do well?”
Xu Qian shot him a glare, thinking to herself, “Would I, of all people, not do well?” Instead, she retorted, “What about you? Give me an estimate of your score.”
Qi Lei grimaced. “I don’t know.” He truly didn’t—he had barely finished answering the questions and hadn’t had time to check. Whether they were right or wrong, or how many points he might score, he had no idea.
“You don’t know?”
Xu Qian shook her head, assuming that the teasing before the exam had hurt Qi Lei’s pride, and now he was too embarrassed to even report his score. “Fine, suit yourself! If you had this sense of shame earlier, why didn’t you just study hard?”
With that, she stormed out of the exam hall in a huff, leaving Qi Lei utterly bewildered. “Did I offend her?”
The afternoon exam was English, Qi Lei’s strongest subject. Still, he didn’t dare take it lightly. Returning home, he pulled out his English textbook and started flipping through it from the beginning.
Junior high English wasn’t difficult, focusing mainly on testing students’ vocabulary and basic grammar. Vocabulary wasn’t a problem for Qi Lei, but therein lay the issue: junior high English followed British English, whereas Qi Lei had later taken the TOEFL, which assessed English proficiency for non-native speakers in the U.S. There were differences between the two in many aspects.
Qi Lei couldn’t help but grumble to himself, “Why didn’t I take the IELTS back then? Then I wouldn’t have this problem.”
His goal in reviewing the textbook was to identify discrepancies between the standard vocabulary and sentence structures in the book and his own knowledge, minimizing mistakes in these areas. However, he flipped through the pages much faster than he had for physics and chemistry, almost skimming ten lines at a glance.
Before long, he had finished reviewing the first volume of seventh-grade English. Tang Yi and Wu Ning arrived on time as usual, bringing Qi Lei lunch. Seeing him eating while studying, the two tactfully didn’t stay long and left.
By the time the exam approached, Qi Lei had roughly skimmed through all six volumes of junior high English.
Xu Qian entered the exam hall right on time with the proctor, back to her usual carefree self. She even greeted Qi Lei proactively.
The exam began with the listening section, which was like free points for Qi Lei. The subsequent questions were answered swiftly; including the listening part, he finished in under an hour.
He could have been even faster, but the English writing section took extra time. He had to be extremely careful, replacing all content with vocabulary learned in junior high. Using obscure words wouldn’t earn him points—it would likely lead to deductions.
He didn’t rush to hand in his paper. Since this was the final subject, there was no point in hurrying.
Qi Lei once again marked all the major and minor questions that might have memory errors on the draft paper, then meticulously checked and corrected them one by one.
Drawing from his recent reading memory, he ensured there were no grammatical mistakes.
With half an hour left until the end of the exam, Qi Lei checked repeatedly until he was certain no flaws remained. He stood up and handed in his paper—lingering any longer would be pointless.
Before leaving the examination room, he bowed to Li Yanhong once more and said, “I’ve caused you trouble!”
Li Yanhong watched him walk out of the examination room, her expression complex, with palpable regret evident in her eyes.
Having taught so many students over the years, this candidate had left a deep impression on her.
As for Xu Qian…
Xu Qian stared wide-eyed, almost fuming with anger.
He left? He just left like that!? Like Xu Zhimo’s “Saying Goodbye to Cambridge Again”—”I wave my sleeves, not taking away a single cloud”?
You didn’t even say goodbye?
Her small fists clenched so tightly her knuckles turned white, and she gritted her teeth while glaring at the classroom door for a long moment.
Did he even know what finishing this exam meant?
Going separate ways, never seeing each other again—did he understand? After making use of me for two days, not even a goodbye?
No! Who said you could leave!?
Xu Qian abruptly picked up her pen, wrote a phone number in the corner of the draft paper, then hastily tore it off and clutched it in her hand.
She stood up, handed in her paper, and rushed out in pursuit.
…