Chapter 29

By the afternoon, the head teachers of each class announced to the students: "Starting next week, the Lecture Hall will open at 6:00 AM and close at 10:00 PM on Saturdays and Sundays, and teachers from various subjects will be on duty in rotation."

"Students who haven't signed up for classes at home on Saturdays and Sundays can consider staying at school to review; if you encounter any problems, you can ask the teachers."

Every class was shocked for a moment, and immediately thought of that uncle of Zhao Jiu's after the morning exercises ended.

Was this changed for Zhao Jiu again?

"Su Cheng, your sister has such a good relationship with Zhao Jiu, has she ever told you what Zhao Jiu's family does?" In Class Eight, the person sitting behind tapped Su Cheng's chair.

Ever since Zhao Jiu arrived, it's been changing the School Cafeteria and adding study rooms; anyone would be curious.

What kind of background must one have to be treated with such meticulous care?

"Yeah, yeah, it seems like only when Jiang Xiangnan's dad came over before did we have this kind of treatment." The person in front also turned around.

"Now Zhao Jiu's uncle gets this treatment."

"That uncle of his looks like he dotes on Zhao Jiu a lot; his biological father is probably not bad either."

Su Cheng looked at their curious expressions, her fingertips pinching her pants tightly; the people nearby were all watching her, waiting for her answer. She hadn't felt it as intuitively as she did today when she heard Jiang Xiangnan talk about the Zhao Family of Beijing, especially seeing the way his uncle indulged Zhao Jiu, which showed just how pampered Zhao Jiu was at home.

"I don't know, my relationship with Su Li has worsened because of Jiang Xiangnan." Su Cheng lowered her head to continue reading, remembering what Jiang Xiangnan said: the Zhao Family has a vast business and would never agree to them being together.

She suppressed her feelings of unwillingness.

Only then did everyone remember that Su Li used to pursue Jiang Xiangnan, so it was indeed impossible for her to tell Su Cheng.

They felt a bit disappointed.

However, although they didn't know what Zhao Jiu's family did, it didn't stop Zhao Jiu's popularity from skyrocketing even further.

After each class ended, the frequency of people passing by Class Thirteen suddenly increased, and the restrooms started to become overcrowded.

Su Li looked up and rubbed her neck, not noticing the people passing by outside, and continued to lower her head to drill problems.

Zhao Jiu finished grading Su Li's workbook, closed it, and handed it back to Su Li; Su Li reached a hand behind and caught the book.

Zhao Jiu said: "Chemistry workbook."

Su Li flipped out the workbook from her desk and handed it to him.

Zhao Jiu took Su Li's workbook and started drilling again.

Su Li opened the physics workbook Zhao Jiu had returned to her, wanting to find an example problem, when suddenly a small slip of paper fell out; she picked it up and saw that it contained the physics problem she had been stuck on Saturday, along with the solution steps.

Zhao Jiu solved it?

Su Li looked at the process and could tell at a glance that his was correct.

Su Li hurriedly took out the test paper again and recalculated the problem.

Zhao Jiu was writing chemistry in the back; chemistry is too scattered and the testing is detailed, so there is no such thing as a single problem covering all the knowledge points of a section.

Zhao Jiu could only start drilling from the beginning.

He calculated the time; the time between classes this week was only enough to finish the chemistry workbook.

Chen Xue and Liu Jiajia looked at the two of them, their hearts feeling stuck; ancestors, look outside!

So many people are here to see Zhao Jiu!

Can we please pay some attention!

Those two didn't even lift their heads.

Liu Jiajia leaned back: "That girl outside has gone to the restroom three times in eight minutes."

"And every time she goes with different people," Chen Xue also whispered.

In fact, everyone who passed by their class would take a look inside, but there was a wall right next to Zhao Jiu, and since he was in the corner, it was quite hard to see him.

Qian Lei passed by while eating snacks: "It's not just that more people are passing by, more people are walking into the wrong classroom too."

Chen Xue and Liu Jiajia looked to the front and saw someone from the next class enter the wrong door, then take an accurate look at Zhao Jiu before backing out and turning back to their own class.

The three of them: "..."

It felt like their class had become a zoo.

They all looked in unison toward the corner by the wall at Zhao Jiu, who was quietly drilling problems.

People say that a man working hard is the most handsome.

This saying is not false at all.

But Zhao Jiu was truly turning a deaf ear to everything outside the window and focusing only on his studies.

He and Su Li seemed to have entered a state of self-forgetfulness; even if the sky fell outside, they might not come out.

The three of them didn't want to bother with them anymore; if these two didn't worry about themselves, why were they worrying for nothing!

Isn't drilling problems happy?

And so, after a week, Xiao Wang was shocked to discover that Class Thirteen, which had been relatively lax and lacked a strong study atmosphere, seemed to have everyone loving to study? The atmosphere had intensified?

Did their class have hope of getting off the bottom of the rankings?

Xiao Wang felt at ease; even the amount of goji berries in his thermos decreased.

A few days later, the Midterm Exam finally arrived.

At the school gate, Su Lin personally dropped off Su Cheng; he looked inside, and the No. 1 High School in the morning seemed a bit deserted because most of the students lived on campus.

"Is your Midterm Exam today?" Su Lin asked.

In the passenger seat, Su Cheng, who was looking at her error notebook, came back to her senses and nodded with a smile: "Yes."

The Midterm Exam was on Thursday and Friday; after finishing these two days, school would be dismissed directly, and the teachers would finish grading the papers within two days.

Su Lin looked at the side of the Grade 2 teaching building, gripped the steering wheel tightly, and said: "Do well on the exam; Dad isn't busy these two days and can come pick you up."

Su Cheng was pleasantly surprised: "Okay."

She got out of the car and flipped through her error notebook as she walked, not noticing that Su Lin's gaze was still fixed on that teaching building behind her.

She just knew that recently, more people in the school were doing this; everyone knew clearly who was putting the pressure on them.

Su Li and Zhao Jiu were studying like their lives depended on it, and almost everyone in the entire Grade 2 level had seen it.

Su Cheng was a bit afraid that Su Li's grades would slip back again.

But Su Li had also been studying very seriously last month, yet the grades had dropped instead, so it was very likely that Su Li was also doing futile work this month.

Su Cheng thought that even if they couldn't get into the Key Class for the Midterm Exam, they still had to do better than Su Li.

Su Cheng seriously flipped through the error notebook.

In Class Thirteen, Su Li and Zhao Jiu were reciting Chinese; the first subject to be tested was Chinese, and those few giveaway questions were things that absolutely could not be missed.

Su Li recited while thinking about the content that would be tested on the Chinese paper, and remembering something, hurriedly took out the essay collection bought previously and placed it on Zhao Jiu's desk.

Zhao Jiu looked up: "Hm?"

Su Li: "You haven't written a single essay in these two weeks!"

Their Chinese teacher would assign one essay every week, but Zhao Jiu was busy catching up on knowledge points for other subjects and hadn't even touched the essays.

Moreover, his previous speech drafts were all written by her, which meant that Gouzi hadn't written an essay in over ten years.

Zhao Jiu looked at Su Li's essay, picked it up, and said: "It's too late for me to catch up now, right?"

Su Li: "After finishing the book, look at it more before the exam to find the feel."

Zhao Jiu: "..."

Fine.

Zhao Jiu flipped through that essay and fell silent; he was used to reading contracts and the speech drafts Su Li wrote, and now looking at an essay, he suddenly felt very unaccustomed to it.

Damn it, he actually missed the essay part.

Zhao Jiu closed the book and hurried to memorize the rest.

Over an hour later, students had already started moving outside the window, waiting for the people in their class to come out.

Zhao Jiu barely finished memorizing the book, glanced outside, and said: "What time is it?"

Su Li and the others also packed up their things: "Normal. We'll look again when we get to the exam hall later."

Zhao Jiu brought that essay collection and the Chinese textbook, walking upstairs while reading.

The exam seating at No. 1 High School was based on the results of the previous exam; Zhao Jiu had just transferred and hadn't participated in the last Monthly Exam, so he could only be in the last exam hall.

The last exam hall was in Class One, while the first exam hall was in Class Sixteen.

Therefore, every time there was an exam, one could see students on the top floor walking down, and those downstairs walking up.

The stairwell was crowded.

Jiang Xiangnan came down from upstairs, saw Zhao Jiu still reading at this time, stopped his steps and said: "Is the young master planning to catch up with everyone else's progress in two weeks?"

The surrounding students stopped as well, looking at them with bright eyes.

It's on!

Zhao Jiu turned his head to look at him, smiled lightly and said: "How would I know if I don't try? Catching up to you is a bit difficult, but I can still work hard for the others; maybe I can move up a few exam halls."

The people from Class One looked at him one after another; by the time he arrived, hadn't the subjects already been taught mostly?

Mastering all the content in two weeks?

Even the academic slackers at No. 1 High School wouldn't let someone who hadn't really studied surpass them by too much, right?

Jiang Xiangnan glanced at the essay collection in his hand, recognized whose it was, and said indifferently: "Then work hard; the Final Exam won't just test the content of the second half of Grade 2 alone."

Zhao Jiu: "Rest assured, I will work hard. I'll strive to see you in the first exam hall next semester."

These words were very arrogant, and those in Class One were impressed for a moment.

Jiang Xiangnan withdrew his gaze and walked down; Zhao Jiu opened the essay collection to continue looking at the structure—improving his writing style was impossible, as he hadn't written one in so many years.

The people around heard their conversation and only then realized that Zhao Jiu's progress was far behind theirs.

Although he had been quite desperate these two weeks, science subjects couldn't be mastered overnight; simply memorizing formulas wouldn't lead to high scores. But at most, he should be able to struggle into the middle-to-lower tier?

Everyone thought, if he didn't do well on the exam, no one would blame him, right?

Zhao Jiu went upstairs; the desks in the exam hall had been moved last night, and the seat numbers and names in the corners had already been posted by the class monitors of each class.

Zhao Jiu sat directly in the last seat of Class One; he opened the essay and took the opportunity to memorize some sentences, hoping to use them later.

Downstairs, Su Li entered the exam hall; because she was truly too famous—chasing Jiang Xiangnan in Grade 1, and having Zhao Jiu by her side in Grade 2—the students in the exam hall had all sorts of gazes fall on her from the moment she entered, each one surprised and gossiping.

Su Li calmly found her seat, ignoring those gazes.

In her past life, she wasn't trusted at home, was cold-shouldered, and was scrutinized at school; she suffered a lot, bore too much psychological pressure, and so she performed worse with each exam.

But as long as she didn't take those gazes to heart and was open and aboveboard, the students' curiosity would naturally diminish; on the contrary, the more she hid, the more curious they would be.

Su Li found her seat and sat down; it turned out her ranking from the last Monthly Exam had already dropped to over 280.

Although they had been reviewing like crazy for two weeks, she hadn't taken exams for so many years, and she wasn't sure where their review results would rank at No. 1 High School.

This time, she didn't ask to get into the top 100, just hoped not to drop out of the top 300.

After a long while, the Chinese exam began; Su Li received the paper, took a look, and breathed a slight sigh of relief—the problems weren't big, and she shouldn't get a shameful score in Chinese.