Rebirth 07: Start adding points from elementary school students

Chapter 33: Two Bad News

Early on Friday morning, Li Yan walked into the campus with excitement.

Many students had gathered next to the teaching office on the first floor of Yucai Primary School.

The memories before rebirth invaded Li Yan's mind again without warning.

This was a moment that left a deep impression on him, so he remembered many details and it was extremely vivid.

On the same sunny morning, I thought the results of the competition would be announced during class, and I didn’t notice the female classmate standing next to the teaching office.

Until he noticed the girl looking at the notice board.

Oh, that female classmate’s face is also very lively, with a high ponytail, a watery face, and bright eyes. She is the study committee member Li Xinyuan.

On a plain A4 white paper, there were words that made Li Yan's breath stop:
List of winners of the “Celebrating New Year’s Day” on-site essay competition.

At that time, Li Xinyuan and the aloof and talented Li Yan had not had much communication. They looked at the list nervously and silently.

There were thirty-three first prize winners, listed in seven rows. Li Yan was afraid of missing anything, so she looked down one by one...

No, no, I can't see...

When he saw the sixth line and still nothing, his heart sank to the bottom.

A finger suddenly appeared and pressed between the only three names in the seventh row: Yucai Primary School, Li Yan.

Fireworks exploded in her mind. Li Yan, who was always calm and cool in the eyes of her classmates, jumped up with excitement, spun around three times on the spot, and shouted with ecstasy in her throat.

He still remembered that Li Xinyuan, who was scared by him, had a relieved smile on her face.

He thought at that time, you are really proud of me, I have brought honor to our class!
You can skip this part about being a fool, thank you.

Then he excitedly left Li Xinyuan behind, rushed into the classroom, taking three steps at a time, and waited for the head teacher to announce the happy result with a smile.

He even sought confirmation from Chen Wenjing later and received a satisfactory reply that "the ranking on the list has nothing to do with the results".

All the details are so clear, which shows how much importance he attached to this exam back then.

Until she was 24, Li Yan still missed that feeling of ecstasy, but in the days that followed... she never experienced it again.

It’s different now!
Li Xinyuan was not eligible to participate that year, there were not so many students gathered in front of the bulletin board that year, and I was really just a child that year.

But the same cardiac arrest occurred because Li Yan saw Zhang Ming with a smile on his face after reading the notice board.

He even slowed down his pace and waited until some of the onlookers had left before he hurried forward.

Li Xinyuan stood by as she did back then, but her face had a complicated expression.

There were still thirty-three people and seven lines on the list. Li Yan frowned and scanned the list. No, no, I couldn't see any...

This time there was no sudden outstretched finger, only complicated expressions from the classmates around me.

What about the second prize? No.

It won’t be the third prize, right?
Yucai Primary School, Li...Xinyuan.

Li Yan was a little shocked. He looked again carefully, but no, his name was not there.

The classmates probably didn’t know how to express their opinions, so they pushed and shoved each other and ran back to the classroom. He and Li Xinyuan were still the only ones in front of the notice board.

The study committee member hesitated to speak.

Li Yan has adjusted her mentality and said, "Congratulations. Hard work always pays off."

"Could it be that the list... was typed wrong?"

"Writing is a very subjective thing. It's normal to win an award or not." Li Yan laughed.

The two then walked back to the classroom in silence.

As soon as she entered the classroom, Li Yan felt a completely different gaze, comfort, pity, ridicule, hostility...

Fortunately, he still had the mentality of a 24-year-old. He sat down calmly. This was much easier to accept than being rejected four times in a row in an interview.

Lin Zhiyuan's tangled expression revealed his thoughts. Li Yan had no choice but to move closer to the little fat boy and say:
"It's just a city-level competition, it doesn't matter." "Come on, how can you still show off at this time? It's hard to defend against."

Seeing the little fat boy return to normal, he felt a little more relieved.

The discussions in the class stopped abruptly the moment Chen Wenjing and Huang Qiuying walked into the classroom together.

Almost everyone knows what it means when the English teacher walks in during the first Chinese class.

The faces of Zhang Ming's group had already fallen.

Teacher Huang looked like she was breathing out hot air from her nose. She really couldn't hold it in any longer. If she wasn't in school, she would even want to fire a salute:

"Dear students of Class 601, I have a great announcement to make. Li Yan from our class won the provincial first prize in the National English Contest, and ranked fifth in the province. She is the first student in Lincheng City to win the provincial first prize!"

There was thunderous applause, mixed with various exclamations of "Wow", "Oh my God", and "Oh my God".

No one could hear Teacher Huang's subsequent words: "Please give a warm round of applause to Li Yan" and "He is the pride of our Yucai Primary School."

However, Li Yan's reaction was beyond Lin Zhiyuan's expectations. He just smiled slightly and maintained a stiff expression.

"Hey, what the hell? You didn't win a prize in the city competition, but you won first prize in the provincial competition. This good news beats the bad news, okay? Be happy."

“It should be considered two pieces of bad news.”

"Master Yan, it seems that you also know that you have to speak softly. If you speak loudly, you may be beaten."

Li Yan did not explain, but the stiff expression on her face showed her true feelings.

Needless to say, he didn't win the essay competition, it was a completely unexpected defeat. Winning first prize at the provincial level was considered to have achieved his goal, but the ranking of "fifth in the province", which should have made him very happy, brought him completely opposite emotions.

The so-called expectations before the exam are one thing - under the influence of various inexplicable superstitious ideas, exams are always linked to "character", so even Li Yan is not willing to say something that he is not sure of, such as "being the first in the province is my goal".

Commonly known as, ruining one's character.

What does it mean to be ranked fifth? In Linjiang Province alone, there are four primary school students whose English level is higher than his.

He built a high building on an already talented and excellent foundation by adding points through the rebirth cheat system.

The English score is 25 points, which is a % progress bar. This is for all human beings who can speak English, even foreigners whose native language is English!

And he is just a primary school student.

But there were still four elementary school students above him, which made him feel frustrated.

The platform of Lincheng City is still too small.

Damn it, it’s such a small platform, but I couldn’t even win the essay writing competition?

That was a game I won before my rebirth.

The more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt. Li Yan could no longer hear Chen Wenjing's various compliments from behind him. His body responded mechanically, and his soul had already ascended to the sky.

After class, Teacher Huang had praised Li Yan for everything she needed to, and didn't pull Li Yan aside to say anything else. It was the students' turn to become agitated.

But Chen Wenjing stepped down from the podium first, checked the plagiarism rate 100%, praised Li Yan again in person, and then got to the point:
"Essay competitions are different from English competitions. The subjective criteria are hard to judge. Although I don't know the reason, your writing style has been very sophisticated since sixth grade. Perhaps... the judges don't like your style in elementary school competitions."

There is something else behind your words, Teacher Chen. After a class of psychological struggle, Li Yan has become more indifferent and blocked Chen Wenjing's hidden and inappropriate words:
"The judges also have their own standards. They don't make guesses. If someone wins, then they win. If someone doesn't win, then they don't win. Instead of comforting me, the teacher should give recognition to the study committee member who won the award."

Then he foresaw the future and stopped Lin Zhiyuan who was about to make a vulgar face with a fierce look.

Chen Wenjing left with a satisfied and appreciative expression, and Li Yan still benefited from it.

It's much better than the fanatical look in the English teacher's eyes just now...

The next person to come to his seat was, as expected, Zhang Ming.

But what he said was somewhat surprising:
"Congratulations on bringing honor to our class and to Yucai School."

Then, with his irrepressible smile and frivolous tone, everything became as expected:

"It's just a waste of an opportunity to participate in the essay competition."

(End of this chapter)