Chapter 57: Too Desperate to Progress

Leaving the exam room, Li Heng caught up with Mai Sui and handed back the pen: “Mai Sui, thanks for the pen. Here you go.”

Mai Sui didn’t take it. “No rush, keep using it. Return it after the exam.”

Then she leaned in and asked, “Did you really finish this whole paper?”

Hearing this, many people around turned to look.

Li Heng had wanted to be modest, but then remembered Teacher Luo had already betrayed him—further modesty would seem fake.

So he grunted, “Maybe I got lucky. I just filled every blank with something, but I don’t know if it’s right.”

“Fuck! You call that luck? Are you trying to kill me? I might not even pass!” Liu Li groaned, having always thought he was decent at math—only to be humiliated so badly this time.

“Li Heng! Li Heng! What did you pick for the last multiple-choice question?”

As Li Heng was thinking how to comfort Liu Li, a loud voice suddenly came from the corridor entrance—Yang Cheng, his hometown buddy, charged up from the second floor.

Li Heng answered, “I picked A.”

“Holy shit! I picked A too! I’m so damn awesome, bro! I just knew A was meant for me the second I saw it!”

Yang Cheng ranked 119th in last semester’s final exam, barely scraping in this time—he was desperate to break into the top 100 and was almost obsessed.

After confirming one answer, Yang Cheng blurted out again: “Third fill-in-the-blank—what did you write?”

Li Heng thought back and said, “Something like root three.”

“Yes! Really! I’m so damn good!”

The chubby Yang Cheng jumped up excitedly. “You don’t know—half our class couldn’t solve this. I did it once and got it right!”

At that, Yang Cheng threw his head back and laughed loudly, slinging his arm over Li Heng’s shoulder: “This is solid! Top 100 for sure—maybe even top 30 for the scholarship! I’ll treat you to soda when I make it.”

Everyone in the first exam room was quiet, but Yang Cheng, a regular-class kid, was shouting like a fool—completely out of place.

Zou Aiming, also from the former town, asked: “Yang Cheng, how many of the last three big questions did you solve?”

Yang Cheng didn’t answer right away—he turned urgently to Li Heng: “Li Heng, did you solve them? You probably couldn’t either, right?”

Li Heng smiled, not wanting to crush his confidence before his next exams: “Nope. I left them blank too.”

Yang Cheng turned to his acquaintance Xiao Feng: “Xiao Feng, what about you?”

Xiao Feng glanced at Li Heng, then shook her head.

“Shit! I knew it—you two couldn’t do them either. No one could. Who the hell wrote these questions? Total nonsense!” Yang Cheng had tensed up for a second, then hugged Zou Aiming and burst into laughter again.

Just then, Teacher Luo emerged from the exam room carrying a stack of papers and grabbed Yang Cheng’s ear:

“Disrespectful brat—what class are you from? I’m telling your homeroom teacher.”

Yang Cheng didn’t know Teacher Luo well and wasn’t scared of him—but he terrified of the deputy headmaster behind him, so he instantly caved: “Teacher, I’m sorry! Please just treat me like a fart and let me go, please!”

“Hey! You’re flexible!” Teacher Luo chuckled at his exaggerated expression and actually let him go.

But before leaving, Teacher Luo added with a sly grin: “Jieji, if you want top 30, you need at least 90 in math—otherwise, forget it.”

Once the teacher was far away, Yang Cheng counted on his fingers and beamed: “Minus the last three big questions worth 32 points, I’ve still got 88. Eighty is easy.”

Maybe I’ll actually hit 90—those last questions, I filled them with formulas. I’ll get some points for sure.”

With Yang Cheng’s antics, the mood instantly improved.

They called Yang Cheng a “living treasure” because he always came to Li Heng after every math exam to compare answers.

And every time, he’d puff out his chest claiming he’d score this or that—only for his actual score to fall far short.

Over time, everyone in the first exam room got used to him and just watched for amusement.

The following politics, history, and geography exams were much easier. They were hard too, but not like math—where if you didn’t know, you just stared blankly.

Politics, history, and geography were different—they were like Chinese: full of subjective questions. Even if you didn’t know, you could still write something, which eased the mind considerably.

The last subject was English—multiple choice, grammar, cloze, reading, listening—he finished it all in one breath. The feeling? Not as good as he’d hoped, but decent.

He guessed he’d messed up several grammar and cloze questions, but reading and listening felt effortless.

As he turned in his paper and walked out, Li Heng asked Song Yu: “How’d you do?”

Song Yu replied: “Besides math, everything else was fine.”

Then she looked at him with a faint smile. “And you? With your math advantage, you must’ve done really well.”

Li Heng stayed silent until the people behind passed by, then said slowly: “I don’t know yet. Maybe I’ll finally fulfill a dream I’ve had for a long time.”

Song Yu asked quietly: “What dream?”

Li Heng stared into her eyes for three full seconds—but didn’t reveal his secret. As he passed her, he said: “Guess. You’re smart—you might figure it out.”

Li Heng walked off, his bladder bursting—he had to rush to the restroom.

Song Yu quietly watched his back, and a strange voice inside her whispered: His dream might be connected to me…

She trusted her intuition—it had always been right.

But this time, she was afraid of it, and didn’t want to think further.

Seeing Li Heng leave, Mai Sui, who had been waiting on the other side of the corridor, walked over and teased her:

“Song Yu, do you know what you just looked like?”

Song Yu’s eyes sparkled. “What?”

Mai Sui linked arms with her, a sly glint in her eyes, and said slowly: “The Stone That Waits for a Husband.”

Song Yu smiled prettily at her friend’s teasing—but didn’t take it seriously.

…

Today was Sunday—half a day off after the exam.

Finally having free time, Li Heng, like everyone else, washed and hung out his accumulated dirty clothes.

Then Zou Aiming and Zhang Zhiyong called him to play basketball—Liu Li was there too.

Because they both secretly liked Chen Lijun, Zou Aiming had completely broken ties with Liu Yejiang. During a break, he said:

“Lao Heng, if you beat Liu Yejiang by 20 points, I’ll treat you to stir-fry at the staff cafeteria.”

Free food—especially a feast—was all Li Heng needed. He didn’t know the meaning of politeness: “Can I order whatever I want?”

Zou Aiming patted his pocket. “Since I’m treating, you can order anything.”

Li Heng grinned. “Alright, I’ll remember. I’ll crush them two during the game—won’t crush you.”

Hearing this, Zhang Zhiyong—who’d just been thoroughly beaten—immediately protested, cursing:

“You son of a bitch! We’ve been together all winter break and you never touched a basketball—how’d you suddenly get this good?”

Liu Li nodded in deep agreement: “I think Li Heng’s been secretly evolving behind our backs.”

Li Heng ignored them, full of energy, and dragged the three back onto the court to crush them again.

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(End of Chapter)