Cheating Craft

Quiz 40: Teacher Wang’s Derision

In the southern part of the country, it would rain whenever the temperature suddenly dropped. On the day of the list posting, many students were woken up early by the sound of thunder. They then rushed over to school with umbrellas and their backpacks to see their grades.

Lin Xian Central High was different from other buildings in the thunderstorm. The building’s color didn’t seem to grow any darker. It was as if the school building was covered by a raincoat, which gave the whole “even if it’s raining outside, it’s still sunny within the school” kind of feeling.　　

The entire school had finished midterms, so there were many lists. Because the hallways couldn’t possibly fit all of the people, the lists had all been neatly posted along a long display window outside of the school doors.

　　

　　

“May I ask where the first year lists are?” The umbrella-holding Huang Qiao Yi loudly asked another student.　

“What?!”　　

The lists for each year were located in different places. The display window was very long with many things on it, so it was hard to find anything specific.　　

“I said, first year lists!” Huang Qiao Yi’s actions seemed somewhat hysterical, but her voice had been drowned out by the pouring rain.　　

“Can’t hear you!” The other student seemed to copy her infectious actions as he yelled back at her.

Someone tapped Huang Qiao Yi on the shoulder and pointed at the lists—they were right next to her.　

Huang Qiao Yi turned her head and immediately saw the first year lists. Aside from a huge group of students underneath the lists, Meng Ming and Zhou Lun Yu were also there.

She moodily thought: Brother Meng Ming found it first, yet didn’t tell me…didn’t we agree that whoever had found it would give the other person a shout?　　

　　

　　

“Hehe, just wait and see how many points you lost by!” [Meng Ming]　　

“Hmph. No matter what, my points this time will definitely be higher than yours.” [Zhou Lun Yu]　　

The two were standing underneath the lists and hadn’t even seen their grades yet, but they had quite a bit to say.　　

“Look for your name. It’ll definitely be behind mine!” [Meng Ming]　　

“My name doesn’t need to be looked for, it’s always in the top 3.” [Zhou Lun Yu]　　

Huang Qiao Yi quickly interjected, “Ok, ok, it doesn’t matter who’s first. Just hurry up and look at the lists….”

“Can’t hear you!!”　　

　　

　　

The entire year was ranked starting from first place downwards. It was as such:　　

 

RankNameLit. & Lang.MathEnglishGeographyTotal1Jin Nai Nai607699.580315.52Huang Qiao Yi915697703143Xu He875298683054Zhang Mao Xiang805695.566297.5

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………　

“Oi, you’re not in the top three.”

“Don’t be so proud of yourself, you’re not there either.”　

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………

 

RankNameLit. & Lang.MathEnglishGeographyTotal27Gao Yue8274516427127Liu Yu Qiong8044806727129Bai Jiu91406969269

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………

“Oi, you’re still not there.”

“What are you in such a rush for, keep looking.”

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………

 

RankNameLit. & Lang.MathEnglishGeographyTotal42Duan He5151.581.57325743Dong Da Wen4068707725544Sun Ge Ge317687.559253.5

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………

“Sister Duan He? How did she get that math score…”

“You still have the mind to worry about others? You’re almost up.”　　

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………

 

RankNameLit. & Lang.MathEnglishGeographyTotal49Zhou Lun Yu935697224850Zhuge Meng Ming8160978246

　　　　　　　　　　…………………………

　　…………

　　……

　　……

　

“Didn’t I say it already? You can’t beat me.” Zhou Lun Yu said expressionlessly with his umbrella raised and his weight on one hip. He simply stood there with his head high and chest out.

“Stop acting so lofty! You have a subject with 0 points! …Huh? …Wait, hold on!!” Meng Ming then saw Zhou Lun Yu’s grade. He remembered that Zhou Lun Yu’s geography should’ve been 0 points; how had he suddenly gotten 2 points? Meng Ming hurriedly protested, “…Oi! Hey, how did you get 2 points!”　

“How would I know, aren’t 2 points still points.” Zhou Lun Yu said confidently and righteously. However, he was also very puzzled.　

“Only 2 points! Moreover, those 2 points are impossible for you to have!”　　

“Winning by 2 points still means it’s my victory. Either way, I beat you.” Just like how he’d been back at the teahouse, Zhou Lun Yu seemed super pretentious on the outside. However, seeing that he was only ranked #49, he was actually feeling a bit down.　

“You clearly acted shamelessly in that last round!” Meng Ming noisily argued.　　

Zhou Lun Yu replied, “It’s not like I went against the exam site regulations. Even if I did and nobody caught it, it would count as my own strength. You’re the one that just had to use pencils; who else can you blame?”

“You despicable…next time, I’ll definitely think of a way to keep touching the pencil after the exam ends! …But, how exactly did your 2 points…!” Meng Ming wanted to know what was up with those 2 points, even if he was on his dying breath. However, Zhou Lun Yu himself didn’t know either.

They both clearly remembered that Zhou Lun Yu hadn’t submitted a test. It was reasonable to say that the result of this duel should’ve been a tie.　　

Zhou Lun Yu couldn’t be bothered to care about it so much. In the end, he was the one ranked higher than Meng Ming. “Either way, I already won. You have to comply with the bet!”　　

　　

　　

Room 301 in Lin Xian Central High was filled with a mysterious atmosphere.　　

All the students could pretty much understand their scores. However, they kept feeling like there were some students whose grades didn’t match their expectations, Zhou Lun Yu in particular. He was publicly known by everyone as the number one in the class, yet he’d ended up ranked #49.　　

Zhou Lun Yu could only helplessly endure the looks of contempt from his classmates.Originally, I could’ve easily gotten first place. It was all because of that Zhuge Meng Ming guy, making me lose over 70 points….　　

“Sire Zhu, Sire Zhu—”

Shi Yun, who was on Meng Ming’s right, was in a very good mood. Shi Yun’s total score wasn’t that good; he seemed to be ranked lower than 100. However, he was still very happy. “The lowly me was able to get 83 points in literature and language, 2 points higher than Sire Zhu!”　　

Meng Ming felt goosebumps from hearing this guy’s words, but he didn’t know how to respond, so he could only tremble. 　　

“Sire Zhu, how come your distinguished self’s geography…”　　

“Don’t ask…” Meng Ming was still vexed by it. My geography score…I’m screwed, I’ll be exposed as a C-type.　　

At some point, Teacher Wang had already appeared, fiercely standing in the front with her pointer in hand. With a bang, the sound of her pointer made everyone’s minds turn numb. “Oho~” This time, she only said “ho” once. “Everyone did quite decently! On a whole, it was better than I’d expected!”　

After that brief laugh, Teach Wang’s expression completely changed. With a threatening cough, she said, “However, there’s also a portion of the students whose grades are worse than expected!!”　　

Is she about to come at us… [Meng Ming]

Who cares what she says…I’ll just ignore her… [Zhou Lun Yu]　　

Huang Qiao Yi suddenly whispered to Meng Ming, “Brother Meng Ming, Lin Jing Xuan just told me…that in a time like this, you have to stand up if your name is called.”　　

“No way…” Meng Ming whispered back. “I can’t be punished while remaining seated…?”　　

“It’s best if you stand up, and let some of her anger dissipate….otherwise, perhaps she’ll get even more furious….”　

Meng Ming swallowed hard, already mentally preparing himself to be yelled at. Teacher Wang loudly announced, “This is the first major exam since everyone has entered senior high. I can only predict people’s grades based on their everyday performances. However…some students did worse than I had anticipated! The most severe case is you, Huang Qiao Yi!”　　

What….?!?!?!?　　

The whole class uniformly turned their heads to the last row. Meng Ming stared blankly at first, before looking to his right in great astonishment. Huang Qiao Yi hadn’t imagined that she’d be the first one to be called out, and was stunned into a daze. After a long time, she seemed to finally remember that this was supposed to be the time to stand up. With awhoosh, she hurriedly stood up from her seat.

“Why weren’t you number 1?!” Teacher Wang inquired, cutting straight to the point.　　

“Eh…” How was she supposed to respond? Huang Qiao Yi was at a loss for words.　　

“We were able to draw such a good exam site, yet why was the number one rank taken away by a student from Class C!?!” The pointer struck the table with another bang.　　

So this was what had bugged Teacher Wang…

As expected, it was her selfish motives…

Becoming the target of someone’s frustration venting….Little Qiao is really unlucky.　　

Huang Qiao Yi was asked those two questions in succession, but she didn’t know how to respond. This was the extent of her strength. She’d been pretty satisfied with herself, so why did she still have to answer such strange questions…　　

“Ah….mm.” Huang Qiao Yi couldn’t really explain, nor could she sit down. Moreover, she was still being stared at by dozens of pairs of eyes and the unyielding stare from that queen-like figure. She could only say, “…I was crammed into a corner during the exam, which felt so stifling that I began to panic…”　　

“Don’t forget, the corner has the best fengshui!” Teacher Wang said, “It doesn’t matter which subject it is, literature, math, English, or geography, if you had answered just one one more question, you would’ve been first!! Properly reflect on yourself, and sit back down!” After Huang Qiao Yi had gloomily sat down in her seat, Teacher Wang continued without end, “Aside from her, there are a few others that didn’t reach the expected grades, particularly the two that got below 10 points in geography!!”　

Meng Ming and Zhou Lun Yu had already washed their necks while waiting to be yelled at.　　

“To not even be able to get 10 points! —Zhou Lun Yu’s previous style is one that everyone knows; he doesn’t touch tests that he doesn’t want to take, and gets the highest points on the ones he wants to do. However…did you have some kind of complaint towards the sudden change of subject to geography?! You didn’t write a single word, and ended up dragging yourself down to only rank #49!”　　

Zhou Lun Yu didn’t reply, and thought: She even knows that I didn’t write a single word, so where exactly did those 2 points…

“Our grade’s geography teacher was the one that suggested to change the exam to geography at the last minute. It was quite difficult for us to get the school to accept this! In the end, you purposely got 0 points instead. It was him that had suggested to change the subject, yet his own student had instead gotten 0 points. He was afraid the principal would scold him for this, so he forced himself to give you 2 free points….also, Zhuge Meng Ming!”

Meng Ming quickly stood up.　　

“You’re even more unique than Zhou Lun Yu,” Teacher Wang locked her gaze onto him. “To think that you only did the last calculation question! Each question is worth 10 points, and not a single student in the grade could do it, yet only you managed to get 8 points! But you left all of the other questions blank…why is that? Did you find the hard question interesting, and only put your effort into that, resulting in wasting the entire time given for the exam?!”　

Meng Ming was at a loss for words. He looked at the even more speechless Zhang Chuang sitting in front…

There were some students that thought the same as Teacher Wang. There were others that began to think that due to the sudden change in subject to geography, all the physics challenges written against Meng Ming lost meaning, so he’d randomly done whatever because it no longer mattered.

“Zhuge Meng Ming, just because nobody challenged you in that subject, you don’t seriously take the exam?! If either of you had gotten the first 70 points, you would’ve been the first place in the grade!” Teacher Wang resentfully whacked her pointer three times in a row. “Alright, Zhuge Meng Ming seems to be a new student, so he doesn’t really understand the exams. Moreover, the geography teacher has a pretty high evaluation of you. Whenever he meets other teachers or students, he happily tells them that Zhuge Meng Ming solved out the hard problem he’d given. So…”　

Classtime was almost up, so she didn’t continue picking out people to yell at.　　

“In short, our class wasn’t number one in our year. You guys just wait and watch what’ll happen in the afternoon class meeting, ohohohohohohohoho!!!” Teacher Wang crazily laughed as she walked out of the classroom.　

First place should depend on the class’s average score right….

Does being first in the year mean you get a lot of awards…?

Don’t tell me…it’s because the principal is good-looking?　　

Meng Ming let out a sigh of relief. Fortunately, he hadn’t been considered to be a C-type. However, his character among the students had become more prominent.

　　

　　

After Teacher Wang had left, the mysterious atmosphere in the classroom had mostly faded. Everyone had originally been puzzled about Zhuge Meng Ming’s and Zhou Lun Yu’s geography scores, but now they finally understood.　

Afterwards, with the diligent cooperation of the class monitor and the academic council members, they managed to calm down the extremely disturbed class. Nobody knew that because of Meng Ming’s and Zhou Lun Yu’s fight during the geography exam, the class had lost a total of 148 points in geography (Meng Ming’s 70 pts + Zhou Lun Yu’s 70 pts + Zhang Chuan’s 8 pts). Getting the highest class average was no longer something they could hope for.

The midterm examinations ended chaotically with Teacher Wang’s derisions.　　

Oh right, the matter hadn’t ended yet.　　

Later, during literature and language class, the neurotic language teacher gave evaluations for this time’s tests. He praised Zhou Lun Yu’s essay that had gotten full marks, as well as….specially mentioned Meng Ming’s essay: the writing had been very well organized, had a neat writing style, and the word count had been enough. Aside from the content not matching with the topic’s demands, there weren’t any other major issues.　

“The essay was written very well. However, you must carefully read the topic next time.” The language teacher emphasized strongly, “The topic this time was “Distance”. I know everyone was upset with the topic, but don’t get mad at me; this topic wasn’t my idea. It was the young female teacher from the next class. The question specially demanded for the reader to be able to feel the distance just from reading the essay without actually using one’s mind to think…it’s really strange.”　　

Meng Ming picked up his language test, and saw that his essay had gotten 28 points. Huang Qiao Yi sighed in praise, “Wow! Brother Meng Ming, this is the first time you’ve written such a thing before, right…getting 28 points is really amazing.”　　

Meng Ming hadn’t ever imagined getting this kind of score on an essay. He’d thought that even if he’d gotten 0 points, it was something he couldn’t do anything about. On the other hand, Zhou Lun Yu felt depressed as he thought: The essay is something that both Zhuge Meng Ming and I have to write ourselves. If the total score had dropped the essay part…He’d gotten a full score of 40 points on the essay. When he looked back, he saw that Meng Ming’s head was still lowered, secretly smiling at his essay.

Hmph…you were just lucky! Zhou Lun Yu glared at Meng Ming.　　

Those 2 points of yours are what’s actually luck…! Meng Ming glared back.　　

Zhou Lun Yu was getting more and more irritated. In the end, he finally stood up and burst out at Meng Ming, “Stop acting so proud of yourself, it’s a fact that your essay only got 28 points!”　　

“Your 2 points clearly don’t even count!”　　

“In short, you lost this time, so you have to listen to me.”　　

“You two!” The neurotic language teacher was very mad. “Class hasn’t ended yet! If you want to argue, do it outside!”　　

　　

　　

“We’ve finally gotten our senior high IDs…” Bai Jiu stood on the bell tower, welcoming the cool breeze after the rain had passed. She took out her student ID and looked at it again and again. The pale red card had a pretty picture of her printed on it.　　

This was the highest place in the school. There were railings completely surrounding it, and four pillars supporting the large clock.　　

Huang Qiao Yi stood next to her, holding a student ID as well. “Phew…how dangerous. I barely got it.”　　

“No way, you’re number 2 in the entire grade. How could you not get one? Teacher Wang was just trying to scare you…”　　

“She let out her anger on us…she almost suppressed Brother Meng Ming’s and Zhou Lun Yu’s student IDs just because of their geography scores. It’s a good thing that they were both in the top 50 of the grade, so they still got their student IDs in the end.”　　

Surveying Lin Xian from such a high place during the dusk after rainfall permeated a relaxing feeling in their hearts.

“…Huang Qiao Yi is really amazing, to have gotten number 2. You must have worked very hard.”　　

“How do I respond to that, I guess you could say I did, haha…” She was too embarrassed to admit that she’d actually never been serious about her studies before.　

“Mm, I’ve also tried my very best…from now on, I’ll work even harder. I won’t lose to you.”　　

“Alright, whenever classmate Bai Jiu beats me, I’ll hand over my spot—you can be together with Brother Meng Ming every day!”

“Ah…” Bai Jiu blushed as bright as the setting sun, and immediately tried to defend herself, “As, as if that’s my reason…”　　

“Either way…” Huang Qiao Yi pulled out a letter from her bag, “I’ll keep this letter of challenge you gave me for now. When Bai Jiu beats me next time…”　

“Ah?” Bai Jiu had a question mark written all over her face, “Letter of challenge?”　　

Huang Qiao Yi had originally thought that Bai Jiu had written it. After hearing Bai Jiu ask, she quickly tore open the letter to read it.

“This wasn’t written by classmate Bai Jiu”　　

Bai Jiu said that she’d never written such a thing.　　

“There’s no name on it, and I’d thought only you would do something like this…”

Huang Qiao Yi re-read its contents and mulled over the handwriting for a bit. However, it didn’t ring any bells.

“Whatever. In short, the midterm examinations have ended. Let’s continue working hard in the future!”