The Chinese teacher sensed something was off. Why was a colleague holding Xia Yu’s exam paper?
Looking at the paper, he saw:
“140”
He inhaled sharply. Picking up the exam, he carefully checked and confirmed the score was correct. He skimmed through several questions and found no marking errors. It was indeed 140 points!
Considering that the Chinese score of the provincial college entrance exam champion was usually around 130 points!
This exceeded the champion’s score by ten points!
Combined with math already reaching the champion level…
Putting down the exam paper, the Chinese teacher looked at the four colleagues surrounding him: “How many points did Xia Yu get in history?”
The four teachers shook their heads. The history papers hadn’t been graded yet.
“Why don’t we go check it out?” one teacher suggested.
His suggestion was met with unanimous agreement.
The five of them went to the history department, intercepting a history teacher who was about to go for lunch.
“What are you doing!” Seeing the aggressive approach of the five, the history teacher felt a bit scared.
He guessed it might be about his taking Chiluochun tea from the Chinese teacher.
It was just some tea, was it really worth this!
Reluctantly, the history teacher took out a key, unlocked a drawer, and retrieved his jade Guanyin statue: “One cup each, no steeping for too long!”
“Who wants your tea!” The five indicated they weren’t there for the tea.
“Then why did you come here?” The history teacher tried to retrieve the tea jar but was stopped by the Chinese teacher’s hand.
“Let’s handle the main matter first, then we can drink tea.” Placing the tea jar out of the history teacher’s reach, the Chinese teacher and his four colleagues surrounded the history teacher.
Their serious expressions made the history teacher rather nervous.
What could be more serious than wanting tea?
Looking at the empty office, the history teacher regretted not leaving earlier.
“Have you finished grading the history papers?” the Chinese teacher asked.
“No, isn’t the deadline tomorrow? It’s still early!” The history teacher was someone who liked to procrastinate.
“How come your efficiency is so slow? We’ve already finished grading the Chinese papers, which were the last exam!”
An idea flashed in the history teacher’s mind. Had they come to pressure him into grading the papers?
He cautiously said: “Then I can grade them after lunch?”
“Forget lunch. Grade the papers first.” Flipping through a nearby desk, they found the exam papers and placed them in front of the history teacher.
Quickly finding Xia Yu’s paper, they placed it on top of the stack, forcing the history teacher to start grading under the gaze of five people.
Feeling the five pairs of eyes behind him, the history teacher, holding a red pen, felt uneasy.
He suppressed his anxiety and continued grading.
The first question was correct, the second was also correct. All multiple-choice questions were correct.
However, the first question in the next section was wrong.
As he marked an ‘X’, the history teacher heard five sighs from behind.
This frightened him so much that he nearly dropped his pen.
What did their sighing mean? Wasn’t he supposed to mark it wrong? Were they trying to force him into some underhanded manipulation?
He glanced again at the examinee’s name. Wasn’t this the student who played guzheng very well? He already had a recommendation from Huazhong University; why would he need any underhanded manipulation?
Was it for better appearance during future interviews?
Was this the principal’s idea?
As the history teacher pondered whether he should go against his conscience, the Chinese teacher pointed to a subsequent fill-in-the-blank question: “That one is also wrong.”
They were actually pointing out mistakes? Not here for manipulation?
Then what did they want!
The history teacher looked confused but dared not ask.
He had a good relationship with the Chinese teacher but had little interaction with the other four, who were strangers to him. Their sudden visit made him anxious and even fearful of being beaten.
Trembling, he finished grading the last question. Before he could calculate the total score, the Chinese teacher snatched the paper away.
The five of them went to an empty table and began calculating.
Ninety-nine points.
They sighed. This score was a bit low. Although the history exam was only out of 120, the college entrance exam champions usually scored over 110.
They calculated Xia Yu’s total score: 99 + 140 + 148 = 387.
This didn’t include the 40 points from the additional questions. Generally, scoring over 35 points on the additional questions wasn’t difficult, especially considering Xia Yu’s 140 in Chinese, where scoring full marks wouldn’t be surprising.
By this calculation, the total would be at least 420.
They exchanged glances and inhaled sharply.
Last year’s provincial liberal arts champion had exactly 420 points!
And Xia Yu’s 420 was just a conservative estimate!
If such a score came from No.3 High School, known for its high college admission rate, it would be normal—last year’s provincial liberal arts champion was from No.3.
But they were No.1 High School, an ordinary school!
The five remained silent for a while before one teacher spoke: “After all, these are our own exam papers, and the difficulty differs from the college entrance exam.”
“But this was modeled after last year’s college entrance exam!”
“Exactly because it was modeled after last year’s exam, the students might be somewhat familiar with the questions.”
“Do you really believe that? We didn’t copy the question formats, and the main exam setters were from No.3 High School!”
The Chinese teacher stopped the debate among his colleagues: “Regardless, this proves that he has the qualifications to compete for this year’s provincial champion.”
None of the four spoke, but they shared the same thought.
Their breathing became somewhat rapid.
A provincial champion was an extremely important honor! The news coverage would feature the champion’s school, making it a significant promotional opportunity!
“Let’s go find the principal.” Holding the exam paper, the five hurried out of the office.
Left alone at his desk, the history teacher remained puzzled.
The table where the five were gathered was quite far from him, and due to his age and some hearing loss, he couldn’t hear their conversation clearly.
In his view, the five had suddenly come to the office, threatened him into grading the exam paper, then mysteriously chatted about something he couldn’t understand before rushing off.
He looked at the remaining papers.
So, should he continue grading the rest?
Thinking about the five surrounding him, the history teacher picked up his red pen.
…
In the afternoon, the first class was originally art class, but before the students headed to the art room, the Chinese teacher stopped them.
“Today, the art teacher isn’t feeling well. This class will be replaced with Chinese.”
Groans of disappointment echoed from the students below the podium.
Pretending not to hear, the Chinese teacher asked two students to distribute the exam papers.
Gui Zixiao quickly received his paper.
He prayed a bit as he had done that morning and opened the paper.
“Hahahaha, 110!” Gui Zixiao was delighted.
This score was already quite good. Combined with math, he had already reached 215 points. Adding his history score and the additional questions, he was sufficient for the second-tier universities and could even aim for the first-tier.
However, Gui Zixiao didn’t think that far ahead. He was simply happy about his 110 in Chinese.
He looked toward Xia Yu, a smile curling on his lips.
He had lied earlier. He had said his reading comprehension was terrible, but in reality, he only lost 9 points out of 39 in the modern text comprehension section.
This was because two of the modern texts were ones he had practiced before, from other schools’ mock exams, with similar questions.
Gui Zixiao felt no guilt about deceiving Xia Yu. Pretending to be bad but then scoring high was a basic move for top students.
He was already looking forward to seeing Xia Yu’s astonished expression upon seeing that he had only lost 9 points in modern text comprehension.
“Xia Yu, your exam paper.” A student distributing the papers arrived in front of Xia Yu.
Gui Zixiao immediately grabbed the paper: “Let me see.”
Flipping to the first page, he saw the total score:
“140”
He closed the paper, gave the score two seconds to escape, and then unfolded it again.
The bright red “140” was still there.
“…”
He flipped to Xia Yu’s modern text comprehension section and checked Xia Yu’s lost points.
Three modern texts, nine questions, only the last one had lost two points.
Looking at his own “-9” and then at Xia Yu’s “-2”, Gui Zixiao’s mindset completely collapsed.
Tossing Xia Yu’s exam paper onto his desk, Gui Zixiao looked at Xia Yu with grievance.
“How can you be like this!”
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