Chapter 8

  As soon as Monday arrived at the classroom, Qiao Jia excitedly pulled Yu Cai and said in a low voice, "You're actually Jiexi's cousin, I had no idea, why didn't you tell me!"

  Yu Cai was speechless at her matter-of-fact tone, but still patiently smiled warmly.

  Qiao Jia obviously didn't expect her to answer and continued, "Are you free this week? The four of us can go out and have some fun together?"

  Okay, Mo Fei, Qiao Jia, Qi Shi Zhi and Yu Cai, Yu Cai can already imagine the endless fun in it, also known as no fun!

  "Yesterday was already a waste of time, I was planning to study hard this weekend, my math is not good, if I don't work harder, the mid-term exam will definitely fail!" Yu Cai said with a regretful face.

  Qiao Jia felt even more regretful and said, "It's just one day, what don't you understand? I'll get Li Miao to explain it to you, isn't that better than you being confused on your own?"

  Okay, when did Li Miao become your private assistant, Qiao Dajie?

  Yu Cai maintained a polite smile, "No need, some things are better remembered when figured out yourself. Besides, Jixie might not have the time."

  "You can talk to him..."

  Lao Mei's timely appearance finally stopped Qiao Jia's chatter, and Yu Cai quickly took out an English book to pretend to be diligent.

  "After reading the next two lessons, there will be a test!"

  The class suddenly boiled over, Qiao Jia's attention shifted over there, complaining again, and said that Yu Cai's English was good, it must not be a problem.

  Yu Cai, in order to not appear so out of place, also started complaining along with the crowd, saying this wasn't done and that hadn't been seen. Li Miao jumped in, starting to predict who would be tested, ten minutes flew by in a flurry.

  When the test papers were handed out, Yu Zai deliberately slowed down and intentionally did a few questions wrong, estimating that she could get around 80 points. Only then did she hand in her paper with the crowd.

  Just rested for less than 10 minutes, a bigger bomb was dropped - the math test in the next two periods.

  Yucai's math has been abandoned for seven or eight years, and most of the time was spent on geography. He thought that math couldn't be caught up with a short period of intense study like geography, and now he just wants to keep up with the pace and gradually work hard, but unexpectedly there is a sudden exam.

  I don't know about others, but after this trial exam, countless brain cells have died, and my confidence has hit rock bottom. Fortunately, it's the current me; if it were ten years ago, I estimate it would take more than half a month to recover from this blow.

  Yu Cai didn't expect that an even bigger blow was yet to come, as the afternoon brought another test on physics and chemistry. Due to Yu Cai's lack of effort during this period, she had only listened to the teacher's lectures under pressure, and hadn't touched her books outside of class. When she saw the questions, they were basically a mix of words that she recognized separately but didn't know what they meant when combined.

  Everyone else was worried about how to do the problem, but Yu Cai was worried that if the high school scores weren't announced, it would be hard to come up with a name this time.

  After two physics and math exams, Yucai felt that her brain was completely dead, and her stomach was also churning. She remained in a daze until the class with Qi Shi.

  After Yu Cai made her nth mistake, Bing Ku couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "What's wrong?"

  Yucai suddenly remembered that the person in front of her was a student from their original high school, and it was as if she had grabbed onto a floating log after drowning. "Do you know when the exam scores will be announced?"

  "Mid-term and Final Announcement".

  "That means it's usually not announced?"

  Nod of relief.

  Yu Cai was overjoyed at first but then became depressed again. Although mid-term and final exams are far away, they will come one day!

  The next day, the first two classes were math, and Yu Cai got a score that made her laugh and cry, 73, just barely passing the line by one point. Compared to the scores of those around her, she scored the lowest, but fortunately, the math teacher said that this exam was particularly difficult, and it was already good enough to get a passing score. However, Yu Cai knew that there were many people in the class who had scored over 100, so it seemed like ten years of living had been in vain!

  The second class was physics, Yu Cai sadly held her 36-point paper, not daring to meet the pitying and mocking eyes of the physics teacher. The whole morning, Yu Cai was half-dead under the gaze of the physics teacher, even when the bell rang for dismissal, she didn't have the energy to get up. Gu Yueyue came to call her to eat, but she just said she wasn't feeling well and didn't want to eat, continuing to pretend to be dead.

  The large classroom was left with only her, this feeling was very uncomfortable. Yu Zai slowly got up, listlessly walked out of the classroom and made a phone call home. She originally wanted to talk about the exam, but ended up holding back when she got to the point.

  Yu Cai felt that she was completely useless, having originally made up her mind not to waste another minute on physical chemistry, yet a small test had thrown her into a state of great mental turmoil, and at the age of twenty or so, she was even more useless than a high school student.

  At this time, Yu Cai particularly wanted to find someone to talk to, but after searching in her mind for half a day, she couldn't find a suitable person. Ding Si's grades were not as good as hers and never wanted to discuss scores with her. Gu Yueyue was also a science idiot, besides they were too young and wouldn't have any ideas. As for her parents, it was unspeakable earlier, now even more so, and they would inevitably say that although they didn't like it, they couldn't just abandon...

  Qishu Fan, a name suddenly popped into Yucai's mind. Although they had only met once, Qishu Fan left a good impression on her. He was the kind of person who had gone through hardships and finally succeeded, with sharp edges worn smooth by time, leaving behind only warmth and kindness that made people trust him unconditionally.

  She took out her phone book and dialed the number with a surge of determination, fearing that if she waited any longer, she would lose her courage.

  "Hello, who is it?" It's a female voice, probably the maid.

  "Hello, is Mr. Qi in?"

  "Wait for a moment."

  Yu Cai heard the sound of slippers, and soon the phone was picked up again. A pleasant male voice spoke, "Hello, who is this?"

  "Hello, I'm Yu Cai."

  "That side of Qi Shu Fan laughed and said, 'It's Little Yu teacher, what's wrong, is it that Shi Zhi didn't listen to orders?'"

  "No, it's me who has something to ask you, I hope I'm not disturbing you."

  "Oh?"

  "If it were you," Yu Cai paused for a moment, "would you ignore others' cold eyes and your family's disappointment for the sake of your own goals?"

  The other end of the phone fell silent, and after a while, a low voice came through, "I will, I've tried before".

  "Have you reached your goal?"

  "Reached."

  Yu Cai let out a breath of air, "Oh, thank you, sorry to bother you, goodbye."

  Qishu Fan held the receiver and sighed a few times, then returned to the dinner table.

  "Who's calling? Sounds like a young girl, and she speaks Mandarin really well."

  "It was that little teacher who was invited by A Xi".

  "Is Ah Xie having problems at school?" Auntie asked with concern.

  "No, she asked me a question," said Ji Shu Fan, who could see that his son was still in an icy state but listening very seriously, so he answered very seriously.

  "Auntie was also clearly surprised, 'Ask you?'"

  "Yes, I was also a bit surprised at first, but that little girl is quite interesting."

  Aunt obviously didn't find Yu Cai interesting, couldn't continue the conversation, and changed the subject. "That little girl is going to study again, and also give Shi Lei extra lessons, it's really pitiful. Why don't we invite her home for dinner one day?"

  Qishu Fan looked at Jie Shi and said, "Jie Shi, what do you think?"

  Qizhi's expressionless face replied with a casual tone, Qishu Fan couldn't help but laugh, wanting to get two words out of her son's mouth wasn't easy, even if it was just "whatever".

  "What's wrong with your little teacher? She seems to be in a bad mood."

  Ji Shi thought of Yu Cai's abnormal behavior last night, "Maybe it was because I didn't do well on the exam".

  "Oh, I heard from Teacher Mei that Yu Cai is a good student with excellent academic and moral performance, how could she not have done well on the exam?"

  "She asked me yesterday if the exam results would be announced."

  Qī shū fán àn zì jì yì, zì xiǎo jiù bù xǐ huān shuō huà, yóu qí bù xǐ huān gēn zì jǐ shuō huà de ér zǐ, jīn tiān jìng rán jiù zhè ge huà tí píng xīn jìng qì de gēn tā shuō le zhème duō.

  Ji Xuan returned to his usual self, but Ji Shu Fan's expression didn't change. He seemed nonchalant and said, "It's normal for her to do poorly on the test once or twice, but the questions she asked were a bit strange." With keen perception, he noticed the curiosity hidden beneath Ji Xuan's wooden expression. Ji Shu Fan smiled and changed the subject, "But it's also normal for girls of this age to have some strange ideas. I'll be going back to work this afternoon and will return in half a month. Let's talk about dinner then."

  Although he was curious, he wasn't curious enough to ask his father about it, so he stopped talking and finished eating in a few mouthfuls before going to his room for a nap.

  After getting the answer she had in mind, Yu Cai's mood improved a lot. She casually ate something and went to the library to read some magazines. It wasn't until class time that she hurriedly rushed to the classroom. Because high school students are mostly buried in their studies, they don't have time to read extracurricular books, and there is a fixed classroom for self-study, so the library is rarely visited, which is vastly different from the university library, which is like a vegetable market.

  The first class in the afternoon was geography, and Yucai could now understand it, so he became more serious. The geography teacher was a chubby middle-aged man who was very easy-going and liked to ask Yucai questions all the time, which would become a rare phenomenon for Class 5 of the science department in the future.

  The last two lessons were in English. Old Mei came in with a stack of papers, beaming with joy, and said, "This time everyone did very well on the exam, it seems that everyone's English foundation is quite good, especially Yu Cai and Zhang Wenjing."

  Yucai has already started regretting her modesty in the English exam after being hit this morning. If she could get a perfect score, others would definitely forget her miserable history of physics and chemistry. The teacher's gaze on her would be at most like looking at an English genius with a strong suit, rather than a hopeless fool, which wouldn't make her so uncomfortable. But now, why is Old Mei still praising her when she deliberately did several questions wrong?

  "This test paper is as difficult as the college entrance examination, and it's already very good if everyone can get around 50 points in English basics. But this time, Yu Cai scored 83 points and Zhang Wenjing scored 75 points, which really exceeded my expectations. I didn't expect that our class would have students who could score so well, while the best scores of other classes were only 72 points."

  Yu Cai also understood that, after all, she was a graduate student in English, and when she got the high school test paper, she thought it was simple and couldn't judge its difficulty for high school students. Fortunately, she still had some humility, otherwise, if she scored 100 or 99 points, the whole school would have been stirred up.

  After the volume came down, Qiao Jia immediately borrowed Yu Cai's and handed it to Li Miao. Several people in front and back whispered and sighed for a while, and the volume returned to Yu Cai's hands just before Old Mei began to explain.

  Next lesson, familiar and unfamiliar people surrounded Yucai in a large crowd, asking Yucai how she learned it. Yucai could only smile foolishly, and when pressed, said that she had watched many English movies.

  After finishing the test paper, Old Mei took advantage of everyone's discussion and walked to Yu Cai's side to ask her why she didn't come to class for self-study.

  Yu Cai didn't expect Lao Mei to be unaware of the subsequent situation, so she could only reply that she liked reading books in her dormitory.

  Lao Mei frowned and said, "You didn't do very well in physics and chemistry this time, what's going on?"

  Yu Cai gritted her teeth and said, "I understand when I'm in class, but when it comes to doing the exercises, I just can't seem to get it right. I've asked my classmates before, but even after they explain it again, I still don't know how to do it. Since I'll be studying liberal arts in the future, it shouldn't make a big difference, right?"

  Lao Mei's brow furrowed even tighter. "Science is easier to test than liberal arts, and it's also easier to find a job later on. Our class will be a science class from now on."

  Yu Cai really wanted to say a sentence, "I'm happiest when I can get rid of your class, get rid of Qiao Jia Li Miao, and by the way, that little white face".

  But in reality, Yu Cai didn't have the guts, so she just lowered her head and remained silent.

  "Your physics teacher and chemistry teacher said you like to daydream in class, is it true?"

  Yu Cai could only respond vaguely with a "yes".

  Lao Mei dropped a sentence, "You're only in high school, don't be partial to one subject," and returned to the podium, beginning to talk at length about the importance of developing all-around talent. Yu Cai felt that every word was directed at her, and her back felt like it was on fire, as if the whole class was staring at her, and her face began to flush with heat.