Chapter 13: Is Xu Qingzhou Number One?

Guo Ziyang and the others naturally didn’t believe Xu Qingzhou and Song Yao—they thought the two were just joking.

That night, right after the exam, the classroom atmosphere was relaxed.

Someone had somehow gotten a copy of math answers supposedly from the teacher, and it was now rapidly circulating through the class.

“Holy shit, I guessed question 12 right!”

“Me too! The end of science really is mysticism—I tossed a coin three times during the exam, and each time it told me to pick C, hahaha.”

“How many multiple-choice questions did you get wrong?” someone asked their desk mate.

“One.”

Guo Ziyang jolted upright and grabbed his test paper.

Read! {

“Who knows where these answers came from? And couldn’t the teacher have made a mistake?” Xu Qingzhou looked up, smiling faintly as he countered.

First period—no appearance.

“The mock exam results are out.”

The next day, teachers were still working overtime to grade papers.

After writing the answers on the board, Teacher Han told everyone to study independently and hurried off to grade more tests.

He sighed—he shouldn’t have made that mistake; he’d absolutely avoid such small errors in the future.

Upon hearing this, the classmate’s face fell, as if the world were collapsing: “I’m doomed—I got four wrong.”

Guo Ziyang slapped away Xu Qingzhou’s hand, puzzled—he’d always had a good attitude, right? He double-checked his answers again, then continued chatting with Xu Qingzhou: “Just now, when I went to the bathroom, I heard Zhang Yuquan and Huang Yong say this exam was really hard—they think they’ll lose twenty points!”

Guo Ziyang was also checking answers, and grew even more despondent, utterly defeated: “Zhouzi, I got half the multiple-choice wrong and half the fill-in-the-blanks wrong.”

Xu Qingzhou checked his answers too: listening full score, reading comprehension full score, cloze test all correct, one error in grammar fill-in, one error in short passage correction.

Liu Ying’s words chilled the classroom atmosphere.

“Fatty,” Xu Qingzhou patted Guo Ziyang’s shoulder solemnly. “Your mindset right now is perfect—keep it.”

Xu Qingzhou took the answer sheet, glanced at it, and said: “This answer key has mistakes. Question 12 is D, and for fill-in-the-blank question 16, the answer is -2.”

Thursday was homeroom teacher Liu Ying’s evening self-study.

1—5 ACCBA 6—10 BCAAB—all eyes fixed on the answers written on the blackboard.

Many students grew restless, automatically imagining themselves as the “some students” being referred to, and began reflecting on whether they’d been slacking off lately.

Liu Ying had been a teacher for decades; she knew exactly how to pressure students. She walked in, set down the score sheets with a grim face, scanned the room with overwhelming authority, paused briefly on Xu Qingzhou, then swiftly looked away.

!.

Yet she noticed Song Yao’s expression was odd.

“I picked D! And for question 16, I calculated -2 too!” “Of the top ten, we have seven in this class—several students are even outside the top hundred.”

Xu Qingzhou had once loved this moment—the anticipation, the thrill, the nervousness—the bliss of top students, the resignation of bottom performers, the anxiety in between.

Guo Ziyang still thought like a high schooler—he assumed teachers knew everything—but teachers sometimes made mistakes too.

“I got 612, rank 38 in grade!” Ding Jiahui excitedly shared with Song Yao. Last exam, she’d messed up her English answer sheet and lost twenty points, getting placed in Exam Room 4.

The teacher would come in, hand out the answers, then let everyone study independently while he went off to grade papers.

Xu Qingzhou shook his head, amazed Guo Ziyang actually believed it—wasn’t “I didn’t do well this time” the top student’s catchphrase?

Keep going.

A spark lit in his eyes, but it quickly faded: “Zhouzi, this answer key is said to have come from the teacher.”

These questions were simpler than revising a paper—like a college student taking an elementary school test—so after finishing, he ignored them and stared out the window.

In the college entrance exam, the higher your score, the better the resources you can secure in university.

Sure enough, only ten minutes into the second evening self-study, homeroom teacher Liu Ying walked in carrying two stacks of paper—the lower ones with red borders and stiff paper were Chinese answer sheets; the upper ones were ordinary A4 sheets with the scores printed. Everyone’s expression turned tense, caught between hope and dread.

Wednesday, English evening self-study. The English teacher, Mr. Han, was tall and thin, with a beard. He liked to swing his arms or stretch by pulling on the doorframe while letting students study.

“I’ve said before—the college entrance exam is a marathon, not a sprint. It demands persistent patience and determination. Some students are half-knowledgeable and noisy, thinking they know everything, already halfway into a top-tier university—yet when the exam comes, their weaknesses are exposed.”

Though he seemed eccentric, his teaching was undeniably effective—his classes were humorous, his explanations clear and progressive, and he was very popular with students.

Teacher Han walked in, said nothing, picked up chalk, and wrote rapidly.

“How could the teacher be wrong?” Guo Ziyang muttered, glancing at the answers. Seeing Xu Qingzhou reading, he abandoned the idea of arguing.

Seeing Xu Qingzhou lost in thought, Guo Ziyang assumed he’d done poorly and comforted him: “It’s okay, Zhouzi—this English exam was tough. Everyone’s scores will be lower.”

That day, everyone became tense. As usual, teachers could finish grading all papers in one day.

Guo Ziyang felt good—it proved the exam was hard. Even top students lost points, let alone ordinary folks like them.

“No pain, no gain. Your effort—or lack thereof—has already shown up on your test scores.”

Seeing the classroom atmosphere sufficiently charged, Liu Ying divided the score sheets into four piles and began passing them out from the front.

Could Song Yao have failed?

Every time the teacher entered, everyone instinctively stared at his hands, wondering if the scores were already out.

Her eyes immediately landed on the third line: Song Yao.

Song Yao: Chinese 129, Math 141, English 142, Science 270, total 682—ranked third in class and grade.

Wait—her gaze dropped to the top spot.

Xu Qingzhou?!

(End of chapter)