Chapter 85

Early morning, Sanmao Residential District.

Zhai Da's stationery was lined up on the dining table for inspection.

"I'll say this first: I brought the 2B pencils, two of them."

To prevent being scolded for no reason, Zhai Da chose to answer preemptively.

Yu Xiaoli raised a hand to tell him not to interrupt: "I'm not blind; I can recognize your little pencils."

Zhai Da:...

Today is the day of the third mock exam. Zhai Da will be taking it alone, while Lu Wei will be studying at home.

Upon learning that Lu Wei was preparing to take the college entrance exam, Yu Xiaoli used her connections to get her a long leave of absence.

Zhai Da isn't going into the factory anymore, but the workshop director shouldn't have accepted those tea leaves for nothing, right?

As for why she didn't resign completely, it was purely out of Yu Xiaoli's old-school "just in case" mentality. Anyway, leaving is very simple; it's just a matter of saying the word.

Originally, Lu Wei wanted to go to the school gate every day during the third mock exam to wait for Zhai Da. It's a two-day exam, and they could eat together and so on, but Zhai Da felt that would be too much of a waste.

Lu Wei's time is also precious and needs to be utilized. Under the dual persuasion of Zhai Da and Yu Xiaoli, she had to give up.

Everything was ready, and the three of them went their separate ways.

Yu Xiaoli went to work, Zhai Da went to take the exam, and Lu Wei stayed home.

When leaving, Lu Wei said with a calm expression: "Zhai Da, good luck."

Zhai Da smiled: "You should add some energy, otherwise it doesn't seem sincere."

Lu Wei thought for a moment, and with both hands, she pushed up a tiny smile at the corners of her mouth: "Good luck."

Zhai Da commented: "Average. Remember to switch to automatic mode next time."

The road to school is very short. A long queue had already formed at the gate of Maofang Middle School. Zhai Da calmly lined up at the end, waiting to enter in turn.

He was poked in the back. Turning his head, it was Liu Meng, who possesses the "Will of D."

During the last subject level test, she wore casual clothes, and Zhai Da realized she wasn't actually fat; it was just that she was too short and her presence was too prominent, plus the school uniform was baggy. From the perspective of most boys looking down, she appeared too heavy.

But if you squatted down to look, you would find that she was actually quite well-proportioned.

High school students don't understand; this is actually a quite rare body type!

Zhai Da was still very gentle toward this little girl, asking curiously: "What's wrong?"

Liu Meng whispered: "Did you see the message in the QQ group last night?"

"No, I haven't been playing with my phone much lately."

Liu Meng thought to herself, no wonder his grades are improving.

"Isn't there a day off after the exam? A few classmates in the class said they wanted to go out and play together to relax. Are you coming?"

Zhai Da: "What kind of relaxing? Do I need to bring my ID card?"

Liu Meng was stunned: "Just... eating together, hanging out, and things like that."

"Then forget it, I'm not interested."

He thought to himself, you guys are really carefree, gathering together before the college entrance exam...

Liu Meng felt a bit regretful, but Zhai Da has been a maverick lately, so it's not surprising that he was rejected.

When classmates gather, they always hope to have a backbone to hold the fort. If Zhai Da doesn't go... Lin Lin Shuyao probably won't go either.

If Lin Lin Shuyao doesn't go... most of the boys probably won't be willing to go either...

Why does it feel like a food chain...

Soon it was Zhai Da's turn to enter. The security guard checking him saw it was Zhai Da and said with a smile: "You didn't bring those magic props of yours, did you?"

Going to and from school, Zhai Da often practiced while walking, leaving a deep impression on the school security guards.

School celebrities aren't just known among students.

Zhai Da smiled: "That won't happen. After all, I don't rely entirely on props to perform magic."

As he spoke, he showed off, and an eraser appeared out of thin air in his hand.

The security guard was silent for a long while:

"Come over to the side, I'll search you carefully."

And so, Zhai Da goofed around and wasted an extra three minutes.

He was also patted down eight hundred times.

Zhai Da's exam room was in a classroom for the first-year students. When he walked in, it was basically full.

Placing his admission ticket and stationery bag, Zhai Da waited for the Chinese exam to begin.

To this day, he is no longer that loser who wrote a perfect-score essay and still only got 132 points (out of 160).

But he was also approaching the ceiling. There are only so many points in Chinese; raising it by one point is very difficult. Conversely, mathematics has huge potential.

This is considered his safety subject, with a goal of scoring around 150 points.

The first day of the exam went smoothly, both for Chinese and English. At noon, because the cafeteria was closed, Zhai Da managed a meal at the school gate.

After coming out of the exam room in the afternoon, it was only past three o'clock. Zhai Da didn't join the discussion group at the school gate to chat blindly with people he knew or didn't know about the right or wrong of a certain question, but walked straight home.

The mock exam was organized by the city (county), and the answers were all on answer cards and answer sheets. The exam papers were almost clean and allowed to be taken out by the candidates.

Lu Wei was still waiting at home for this exam paper to conduct a third mock exam of her own.

Returning to Sanmao, that girl who seems to be the moonlight of regret for many people was standing prettily at the entrance of the residential area.

Lu Wei was still wearing those washed-out jeans and a simple T-shirt.

Holding an English dictionary, leaning against the pillar of the residential area, the sunlight reflecting on her pale skin, she waited quietly for someone to return.

Zhai Da waved: "Waiting for me?"

Lu Wei tilted her head, as if to say: Otherwise what?

Putting away the dictionary, she followed Zhai Da's footsteps with her hands behind her back, her extra-long ponytail swaying slightly at her hips.

Zhai Da glanced behind the girl and understood in his heart.

After spending a long time together, he summarized a pattern that wasn't quite a pattern.

Although the expression on her pretty face is always calm and her tone doesn't sound much different, when Lu Wei is in a good mood, her pace might be a little lighter, and her ponytail might be "livelier."

Swaying left and right on her hips, it can be considered Lu Wei's emotion indicator.

Or, the keychain in her pocket would make a crisp sound.

"There's a day off after the exam. Is there anything you want to do?"

Lu Wei shook her head: "I don't."

"Then accompany me?"

"Okay..."

The two continued to move forward like this, until a few minutes later.

"... Just now... where were you looking?"

"I wasn't."

"I really wasn't!"

——————

The two-day mock exam flashed by. Zhai Da would bring the exam papers back completely every day, letting Lu Wei take the exam independently at home again.

To ensure authenticity, Lu Wei would be locked in Zhai Da's room, while Zhai Da himself would review outside.

Timing, closed-book, no stationery other than those allowed by college entrance exam rules.

Except for not needing Zhai Da to perform a body search and security check, it basically replicated the exam environment.

Because they had to wait for Zhai Da to return before starting, it was eight or nine o'clock every day when Lu Wei "finished the exam." Yu Xiaoli, worried that cooking would affect the "exam room," would bring food back from a restaurant.

A total of four subjects. Zhai Da and Lu Wei completed the mock exam simultaneously in staggered space-time. Finally, because both had extremely high standards in "Language/Foreign" and "Math/Physics," they didn't wait for the school to announce the correct answers and started grading each other on the day it ended.

At night, a rare family meeting began. A dim yellow light hung over the dining table, casting the shadows of the family of three.

Yu Xiaoli now likes to participate in the "great cause of learning" very much. After all, what she hears is basically good news; who doesn't like that?

"How is it? Can you two calculate the scores by grading them yourselves like this?"

Zhai Da stretched: "The basic error won't exceed 10 points... although 10 points in the college entrance exam is also quite important, it still has reference significance."

Yu Xiaoli said excitedly: "Then report it quickly and let me be happy."

Lu Wei calculated Zhai Da's score. She didn't even need a calculator and finished calculating the total score in less than a second.

"Zhai Da's total score... 402... Physics 99 (120 full score), expected to be an A."

Physics is a grading system. The top 20% in the province is an A. The school has pondered it and predicts that this year's A-line is around 90.

And the rarer A+, which requires the top 5% in the province, is considered to need at least 100 or more.

Yu Xiaoli applauded: "402! A full 30-point improvement from the previous small test? How long has it been!"

However, it was not yet time to celebrate. She turned to look at her son: "Zhai Da, what about Xiao Wei's score?"

Zhai Da let out a long breath, feeling a bit emotional and also a bit helpless.

"Lu Wei... total score 440... Physics 115, a solid A+..."

The total score was nearly 40 points different... the other party's math 160+40 basically didn't lose any points... even if the Chinese score wasn't good because the essay was mediocre, it didn't affect her getting a terrifying score at all.

The partial-subject war god whose shortcomings were filled in by Zhai Da using various methods... is really terrifyingly strong.

Even his own 402 should already be in the top five of Maofang Middle School...

He has been working very hard lately, but it seems he still can't bridge the gap between the two.

After all, the cheats he used were all shared with Lu Wei, and Lu Wei also possesses the talent recognized by the system...

Especially the additional questions, which are basically at the Olympiad level and not even in 【Book of High School Mathematics (Lu Wei Edition)】. Zhai Da is gnawing on them purely with his own ordinary talent...

If both were liberal arts students, Zhai Da might be at a similar level to Lu Wei. For Lu Wei, the additional math questions are about the same as the ordinary questions; they are all free points...

Of course, this is all nonsense...

Lu Wei also seemed to have realized something. There was no joy in her eyes, but instead...

Well, nothing can be seen.

But this little girl subconsciously lowered her head, looking at Zhai Da's paper in her hand, silent.

This posture clearly means there is something on her mind.

And it is highly likely to be something sad.

The score gap between the two is even larger than she imagined...

Until she was nudged by Zhai Da's elbow.

Lu Wei turned her head.

Zhai Da: "What are you thinking about! It's already stable, okay!"

Lu Wei: "What... is stable?"

Zhai Da spread his hands: "Study god, your score has already overflowed! Didn't I tell you? Even if the score line for Jing University and Qing University is only around 415, the rest, even if you score 480, is just like that."

Lu Wei's eyes widened bit by bit: "That is to say..."

"That is to say, although I am 40 points behind you, in fact, as long as I improve by about 15 points, we will be completely consistent in terms of applying for colleges."

Zhai Da smiled: "Getting into the same university is highly likely to be no problem."

He has been squeezing himself very tightly lately.

It's easy to say "who is it for," but it's very tiring to use actual actions to pursue "being good together."

But fortunately, everything is worth it, and someone doesn't have to worry anymore.

Lu Wei was silent for about three seconds, just when Zhai Da was looking at her expectantly, thinking that Lu Wei was finally going to show a smile for the "first time."

This girl directly took his hand and walked toward the bedroom.

"Hey~? What are you doing? My mom is here, don't mess around."

"Study, let's go study."

"No, didn't you hear what I just said? I'm only 15 points away, it's easy."

"You said it's highly likely, there's still a small probability..."

Zhai Da looked back at Yu Xiaoli helplessly:

"Uh, then I'm going in to study..."

Yu Xiaoli sat at the dining table, covering her mouth and laughing: "Go, go... you two do whatever you want."