“Yang Ming, Mengyan, what are both of you discussing? If you don’t mind, let me sit with you!” Wang Zhitao approached with a smile.
Of course, I mind or rather, I mind it a lot! Yang Ming secretly scolded from the bottom of his heart. On the surface, he pretended to be delighted as he said, “Great class monitor, quickly take a seat!”
Wang Zhitao was puzzled with Yang Ming’s attitude and his facial expression wasn’t at ease this morning. How could he suddenly be so passionate to me? There’s no way that he didn’t suspect me for last Saturday’s situation. Even if I covered it up nicely this morning, he would definitely be wary of me. What happened to him? Is there any scheme lying behind him?
“Haha, no. I’m just passing by to simply say something. I still need to go back home and study. Tomorrow will be the joint examination of the four schools!” laughed Wang Zhitao. The more Yang Ming acted like this, the more uncertain he felt. Hence, he quickly made an excuse to leave.
“Passing by? Hehehe.” Yang Ming gave a cold sneer for a bit.
“Why are you laughing?” Chen Mengyan glared at Yang Ming. “What’s so funny?”
“I sit in the last row. Unless he breaks through the wall, why would he pass by this place? It is obvious that he feels uncomfortable because we were being intimate!” Yang Ming smirked.
“Who is being intimate with you?” Chen Mengyan was embarrassed as she deliberately made a big fuss. Actually, she was smart and she knew that it was just an excuse! A pretty girl was always surrounded by men. Even though Chen Mengyan didn’t mind, she secretly chuckled to herself. There was someone who had gotten jealous because of her but she felt embarrassed when Yang Ming mentioned it.
“Hehe, even though it is not happening right now, it will be later on!” Yang Ming laughed.
“Let’s talk about future things in the future! Do you still want me to explain the questions to you?” said Chen Mengyan as she feigned anger.
“Of course, I want to listen to it. Tomorrow is the joint examination. It is hugging the Buddha’s leg … I mean, hugging your leg!” Yang Ming spoke in a serious tone. [1]
Chen Mengyan thought about her leg being hugged by him… She felt extremely embarrassed. Yang Ming had a big mouth! However, seeing his serious expression, she concluded that he didn’t mean it that way. She didn’t say anything about it.
Hehe, Yang Ming was happy deep down in his heart. He finally figured it out. In the future, he wouldn’t see Chen Mengyan rolling her eyes at him if he spoke to her in a serious tone.
In fact, Yang Ming wasn’t scared of the monthly examination but rather excited about it. After all, the examinations before this were merely small assessments in class. Yang Ming wanted to test his “capability” and see his level for himself! The No. 4 High School was the school in the center of attention in the province. Theoretically speaking, the students who ranked in the top three hundred of the No. 4 High School already had a foot in the door of a university.
Originally, Yang Ming was below the top five hundred. At this time, he wasn’t sure what level he had reached! It was important to note that Chen Mengyan ranked in the top ten of the school. Even though he could cheat to enrolled into a university, there was the difference in the rankings of the universities. Chen Mengyan would be enrolled into a famous university for sure. If he failed to do so that meant that he had to give up on his position of the number one pursuer!
For the joint exam of the four schools, this time, Song Jiang No. 4 High School, Song Jiang Yu Cai High School and two other popular schools that were outside of the province had created the exam questions together. Not only were the type of questions similar to those in the National Higher Education Entrance Examination, the rankings would be integrated together. As long as Yang Ming scored a good grade on this exam, his National Higher Education Entrance Examination results wouldn’t be too far off from a certain viewpoint.
After school, Yang Ming still went to Zhao Ying’s place for mathematics tutoring. Zhao Ying enquired about Yang Ming sickness in a concerned manner. Yang Ming only touched over it.
The good thing was that Zhao Ying didn’t tangle with Yang Ming with regards to this matter. She only took out a sheet of questions and said to Yang Ming, “Tomorrow is the day of the joint examination. Here’s a copy of last year’s exam paper. The type of questions would be similar to this year’s. Start doing the questions and I will explain those you can’t do!”
“Sister Ying, how about you just give me the questions for this year!” said Yang Ming as he took the exam paper.
“Nonsense. Aside from the fact that I don’t have this year’s exam paper, and even if I did, I cannot give it to you!” Zhao Ying kept a straight face as she said, “The exam questions are only known by the heads of teaching and research from a few schools. Any course teacher wouldn’t know them beforehand!”
“Hehe, Sister Ying, I am just spouting nonsense! I wouldn’t resort to such a lowly act of cheating!” Yang Ming laughed as he said this. His meaning between the lines was that his cheating method would be far more advanced!
“That will be the best! It is half past six now and you have until eight o’clock!” Zhao Ying looked at her watch. “It is half an hour less than the usual exam, but the time is sufficient.”
Yang Ming looked at the starting questions of the paper. As expected, they were the questions from the joint exam of the four schools last year! He didn’t utter a single word. Rather, he answered the questions in detail. Yang Ming had targeted his mathematics recently. Thus, this exam paper didn’t pose a challenge. He finished it within one hour. He answered all the questions in one shot from front to back.
Zhao Ying was surprised as she took Yang Ming’s exam paper and started grading. She decided to put an end to her doubts as she asked, “Yang Ming, have you completed this set of questions beforehand?”
“Sister Ying, I can barely complete the test paper that you give me every day. When would I have time to do other questions?” Yang Ming gave off a bitter smile.
After listening, Zhao Ying nodded her head. What Yang Ming said was true. It seemed that it was due to the extraordinary intelligence of Yang Ming’s brain! In the situation where he did not check the answers, he could obtain 138 points! Among the mistakes, six points were deducted because the steps in the comprehensive questions were too brief.
After a few thoughts, it made sense. In junior high school, Yang Ming had received a reward for the Olympics. His intelligence must be great! It was just that the reason why Yang Ming gave up on himself was unknown.
Zhao Ying actually wanted to ask the reason behind it. But, since Yang Ming never mentioned it and Zhao Ying felt that it wasn’t great to pry into his business.
“Yang Ming, I think you don’t need to come over here anymore for personal tutoring!” Zhao Ying said with a sigh.
“What!” Yang Ming was surprised. “Zhao Ying, why? Is it because I didn’t study well or I made you angry? Or do I make you feel irritated?”
“Of course not! Silly little brother, how would I be irritated by you? But, you don’t need my special tutoring right now. Your scores are comparable to the top math students in your grade! You scored 138 points for this set of questions. Based on my knowledge, the highest score of the joint examination of the four schools last year was 142 points. Also, six points of yours were deducted due to the unstandardized procedure in the solution. In other words, if you did it carefully, you would be two points higher than the first place score!” Zhao Ying laughed.
“What? I scored 138?” Yang Ming would never have thought that he would solve the questions seriously. Moreover, it was purely based on his own capability. Yet, he scored such a high grade!
Aside from being surprised, he felt a little sorry. After all this time, he was used to spending his evenings with Zhao Ying. The sudden realization that Yang Ming no longer needed to come made his heart feel empty!
“Sister Ying, this time it was by chance. You also said that my steps weren’t standardized… So, there are still a lot of things for me to learn, right?” Yang Ming was persistent.
“Alright, that will be a day where the mentee would need to leave the mentor. The reason I don’t want you to come is for your benefit also. The National Higher Education Entrance Examination doesn’t only cover math. With this, you have time to review other subjects every night!” Zhao Ying was actually on the same page as Yang Ming. During their interactions over this period, she never considered Yang Ming solely as a student. Aside from his studies, both of them tended to talk about the topics revolving around youngsters. She treated Yang Ming as someone who was the same age as her all the time. They could be friends, or maybe he was like a little brother.
“I understand!” Yang Ming knew that Zhao Ying considered his best interests. There would be many days ahead of him. In a sentimental tone, he said, “Sister Ying, even after I graduate in the future, can I come back and look for you?”
“Of course. Why? Are you afraid that you can’t find a wife and want to blame it on me?” Zhao Ying noticed the atmosphere wasn’t quite right. Consequently, she made a joke about it.
“Yes, you already saw everything about me. You need to be responsible!” Yang Ming laughed.