Chapter 119

"Come on, let's go, hurry down the stairs."

Right after the parent-teacher meeting began, Zhu Yufei called out to Zhang Guohuang, and the two of them sprinted straight downstairs.

Since the report cards were sealed in envelopes, neither could see them, and they were now itching to know their scores.

Though these two goofballs were usually irresponsible, during the entrance exam they'd both ranked in the top five of the class.

Now they were burning with impatience and rushed straight to the first-floor notice board, desperate to learn their scores first.

For good students, school rankings often had a positive effect.

Just like playing ranked matches in a game.

Winning in competition, and thereby gaining a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction, was itself a driving force for continuous progress.

For high school students, many might not truly understand the meaning behind studying so much every day.

But with rankings provided by scores, at least they could taste some victory, letting them savor the joy of learning.

Even if that joy came from competition.

Seeing Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang racing downstairs, other students from Class Eight also hurried down the stairs.

Students from other classes, after leaving their classrooms, also gathered toward the notice board.

Shao Heqi was also a little anxious, eager to know how he'd done this time.

But he cared about his image and didn't want to be as hasty and unrefined as Zhu Yufei.

So he simply walked calmly through the crowd, taking his time to reach the first floor.

The notice board was already surrounded by a crowd, packed shoulder to shoulder.

Even though Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang had come down early, they couldn't compete with the classes that had claimed the prime spots on the first floor, and barely managed to squeeze into the far right edge of the board.

"Xu Guangtao! I see you!" Zhang Guohuang shouted, "520th in the whole school—awesome! Your love life's coming!"

"Shut up, Zhang Guohuang!" Xu Guangtao's face darkened, quickly silencing him, "What's so special about my rank? Look at the ones ahead!"

"Don't rush." Zhu Yufei pushed leftward, "Guys, make way! Please let me take a peek!"

Zhang Guohuang followed behind, glanced at the higher rankings, then loudly announced: "Fang Chen! You're 439!"

"Zhou Juanling is 438—you two are practically tied?"

"Lin Yuan 387, Hua Xiuxiu 352, Wei Chun 327, Shao Heqi…"

Hearing his name, Shao Heqi, standing outside the crowd, instantly perked up and strained his ears.

Then he heard Zhang Guohuang shout: "280!"

Nice!

Shao Heqi clenched his fist tightly.

Last time, during the entrance exam, only Chinese, Math, and English were tested—he'd ranked a few hundredth overall. But now, with Physics and Chemistry—his strong subjects—his total score shot straight into the top three hundred.

This ranking result was exactly as he'd expected.

And he knew Li Luo's science subjects weren't as strong as his own; if Li Luo's three main subjects were still at his entrance exam level…

This time, he'd definitely beat him!

Thinking of this, Shao Heqi looked forward eagerly, waiting for Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang's next announcements.

But then he suddenly felt a pang of doubt.

After all, Zhang Guohuang had just been scanning from right to left for classmates' names—the further left, the higher the rank.

Li Luo's name hadn't been called yet—was Li Luo still outperforming him this time?

The thought made Shao Heqi's face darken, and he focused intently, listening as Zhang Guohuang continued announcing names in the crowd.

But as Zhang Guohuang's announcements climbed higher and higher, Shao Heqi's expression grew increasingly strange.

Yan Zhusheng 220th… Wang Xinyu 167th… Ren Zheng 149th… Zhu Yufei 128th… Zhang Guohuang 97th… Shi Yanran 83rd… Lu Jiahao 47th…

Still no Li Luo's name!

Shao Heqi thought this, then suddenly brightened, asking from outside the crowd: "Where's Li Luo? Did you guys miss him?"

After all, the crowd at the notice board was packed—it was perfectly normal for Zhang Guohuang and Zhu Yufei to have missed one name.

Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang, too, were stuck in a mental rut, assuming their class's top student had to be Lu Jiahao, and hadn't bothered looking further ahead—they genuinely thought they'd overlooked someone.

But after retracing their search, Zhu Yufei and Zhang Guohuang still couldn't find Li Luo's name.

At this moment, Yan Zhusheng, who had been quietly watching from the side, suddenly raised his hand and pointed to the far left of the notice board: "Why not check the top 40?"

At these words, all the Class Eight students turned to Yan Zhusheng, thinking: truly, love blinds.

Though everyone acknowledged the class monitor was outstanding, it was mostly based on his overall qualities.

When it came to exam scores alone, Lu Jiahao, who'd cracked the top 50 in the whole school, was already the undisputed top dog of the parallel classes.

Those who could displace students from Class One and claim spots in the top 40 were usually the elite students from Classes Two to Four—students admitted through independent enrollment.

They might've just underperformed on the entrance exam and ended up in Classes Two to Four, but that didn't mean they were truly inferior to Class One students.

Yet the divide between parallel classes and key classes was as absolute as reproductive isolation—very few ever broke through that barrier.

For example, in this mid-term exam, Class Eight had six students in the top 160, making their class average the second-highest among parallel classes.

Among the top 160, students from parallel classes totaled only about thirty-some.

And most of them were ranked well beyond the hundredth place.

Only a dozen or so parallel class prodigies had broken into the top hundred.

Under these conditions, you're saying a parallel class student could crack the top 40 and displace someone from Class One?

That's ridiculous!

Especially Li Luo, who'd ranked only 328th in the entrance exam.

Shao Heqi would rather believe the school had accidentally missed entering Li Luo's score.

But just then, Qiao Xinyan, who had finally squeezed to the front, glanced at her ranking and suddenly gasped:

Fuck! Li Luo is ranked 27th? How the hell is he higher than me?!

"Who's Li Luo?" asked other students from Class One curiously.

"Ying Chanxi's cousin—the monitor of Class Eight. You don't know?" Liu Shaowen crossed his arms and remarked to the Class One students, "Didn't expect him to be this strong—he still scored this high in a parallel class. No wonder he's Ying Chanxi's relative."

"I think I remember him a bit."

"Didn't he sing during military training?"

"The one who bought drinks and ice cream for the whole class? My friend even bragged about it to me."

Although many Class One students were oblivious to outside matters, some recalled Li Luo after Liu Shaowen's reminder.

"Fuck! When Teacher Sun scolded us today, he said another student from a parallel class made the top 40—was he talking about Li Luo?"

"What a damn shame—why didn't this guy apply for early admission? Why join a parallel class and make us get scolded?"

The Class One students grumbled in frustration.

Class Eight had already gone numb.

Many still couldn't believe it.

As the crowd in front of the notice board thinned, students from Class Eight crowded toward it, staring at the far left.

Li Luo, total score 954, ranked 27th.

Qiao Xinyan from Class One was right after him, ranked 28th nationwide.

Shao Heqi's mouth hung open; he couldn't believe it. He instinctively stepped back half a pace, feeling as if the two characters "Li Luo" had been a giant sword, cleaving him clean in two.

How the hell did he get this score…?

The maximum total was only 1050!

"When did our monitor get this strong?" Zhu Yufei stared at the ranking, gasping in shock. "Did he just randomly take the entrance exam?"

Lu Jiahao's eyes burned as he stared at Li Luo's name and rank. Suddenly, he felt a surge of motivation. After seeing the gap between himself and the monitor, he turned decisively and walked toward the sixth-floor self-study room.

He'd thought his rivals were only the elite-class students—but now he saw there was a genius right in his own class.

Lu Jiahao's gaze was utterly serious; he was already re-planning his study strategy.

The rest of the students left in shock, and Li Luo's name spread through Class Eight and Class One, gradually circulating among all the other classes.

A parallel-class student defeating Class One's prodigies—that was seriously cool.

Li Luo was the only one in the entire school who'd done it.

Below him, the closest to Class One's level was a girl from Class Sixteen named Shen Shuhua, ranked 43rd.

Among all parallel-class students in the top 50, besides these two, only Lu Jiahao made the cut.

"Is this guy really this strong?" Xie Shuchen stared at Li Luo's ranking and whistled. "He's almost catching up to me."

In this midterm, Liu Shaowen ranked 25th, Xie Shuchen 17th—barely avoiding being overtaken by Li Luo.

Even so, Xie Shuchen still thought it was insane.

Liu Shaowen sighed beside him: "Maybe it's just innate talent. Li Luo probably just played too much in middle school—once he started studying seriously in high school, he became unstoppable."

"After all, he's Ying Chanxi's relative," Xie Shuchen nodded in agreement.

Then their gazes slowly rose, landing on the name ranked first nationwide.

Ying Chanxi, total score 1014, ranked first nationwide.

She was the only student in Grade One to break the 1000-point barrier in this midterm.

The second-place student had only 998—16 points behind!

"How the hell did she get this score?" Xie Shuchen grimaced, baffled. "This is insane."

"There are nine subjects," Liu Shaowen pointed to the subject-specific rankings on the other side of the board. "Ying Chanxi ranked first in seven subjects, top ten in Chinese, top three in biology."

Here, Liu Shaowen chuckled and slapped Xie Shuchen's shoulder: "Get used to it. I was crushed by her for three whole years at Yucai."

"Get used to shit…" Jian Zhenyuan, vice-monitor of Class One, glared bitterly at the board—998 was his score, second place.

He racked his brain but couldn't figure out how to make up those 16 points between himself and Ying Chanxi.

"Zhusheng, Xiaoshu." At that moment, Gao Er's Niu Qingling arrived with Shao Youpeng from the Grade Two building, waving to the two. "Come on, let's head to the club to get ready—the performance's about to start."

"Oh, by the way, where's Li Luo?"

"Isn't Zhusheng in his class?"

"He's the monitor," Yan Zhusheng said. "He's helping host the parent meeting—he'll be here later."

Fuck!

Shao Heqi, who had already been about to leave, suddenly felt sick at heart upon hearing this.

The thought of Li Luo getting praised by Teacher Kong in front of all the parents made his stomach twist with envy.

He imagined the entire class's parents staring at Li Luo—and he felt like he was about to climax.

But knowing the hero of that scene was Li Luo, Shao Heqi was consumed by envy.

So fucking annoying!

He'd thought he'd been working hard enough.

Yet… why was the gap growing even wider?