Chapter 629: The Gaokao Top Scorer Is a Web Novel Platinum Author?!

"Li Guohong, take a close look—did I see wrong?"

In the quiet bedroom, Lin Xiuhong patted Li Luo's shoulder, her tone still hesitant: "Li Luo's ranking… did I not imagine it?"

"Mom, you're being a bit excessive." Li Luo sighed. "Chanxi got first place—that's perfectly reasonable. Why do I need so much suspicion just for second?"

"You're just too mouthy." Lin Xiuhong tapped the back of her son's head. "I'm just happy."

"I still don't see it."

"Mainly because the excitement of Chanxi getting top scorer has worn off." Lin Xiuhong said. "Now seeing you as second, it doesn't feel especially thrilling."

Li Luo: "..."

To be fair, after three years of adjustment, Lin Xiuhong had gradually accepted that her son wasn't ordinary.

Now seeing Li Luo rank second in the province, though pleasantly surprised, she felt more like a final confirmation.

A sense of solid reassurance settled in her heart.

"By the way..." At that moment, Xu Youyu leaned close to the computer screen, studied it carefully, then asked, "Aren't your scores the same as Chanxi's?"

"Now that you mention it..." Li Luo suddenly realized, then couldn't help asking, "Then why am I second?"

"I remember the college entrance exam doesn't allow tied rankings." Xu Youyu recalled. "After all, as you go down the list, more people tie—there has to be an order."

"Looking at your two scores..."

"This year, they probably ranked by math score alone?"

Li Luo: "... That's discrimination! Why not use Chinese score first?"

"Then go complain to your teacher." Xu Youyu grinned. "Since someone didn't get provincial top scorer, remember to add extra chapters."

"Just four thousand characters." Li Luo chuckled. "I've got plenty of drafts."

"Really?" Xu Youyu snickered, wrapping an arm around Ying Chanxi beside her, then egging her on: "Chanxi, screenshot your score and slap it on his face—make him add more!"

Li Luo: "...?"

"Me?" Ying Chanxi hesitated.

"Yes!" Xu Youyu continued to persuade. "He himself said in his launch announcement: anyone who scores higher than him can demand a 100,000-character bonus update! All readers' hopes rest on you now!"

"Xu Youyu, shut up." Li Luo looked utterly unimpressed. "Our Chanxi is the best—she'd never do something like that."

Hearing Li Luo say she was the best, Ying Chanxi—who had almost been swayed by Xu Youyu—grew even more hesitant: "A 100,000-character update is too exhausting. You already won the bet—make him add four thousand characters instead."

"You're too soft on him." Xu Youyu looked exasperated. "Don't you see his drafts? His new book's draft is already heading toward 200,000 characters—adding 100,000 won't even break a sweat."

"Is that so..." Ying Chanxi, hearing this, felt herself wavering again.

"Don't listen to her nonsense." Li Luo hurriedly said. "I promised anyone who gets into a 985 school can ask me for an update—soon I'll owe dozens or even hundreds of chapters, and my drafts won't hold up."

Hearing this, Ying Chanxi thought it made sense—she didn't want Li Luo to overwork—so she finally muttered softly: "Fine... I'll let you off this time."

Xu Youyu sighed helplessly: "You're way too easy to fool."

"How's that cheating?" Li Luo stood up with a grin, patting Ying Chanxi's shoulder. "Chanxi isn't you—she's not that mean."

After some teasing, Li Luo watched his mother eagerly pull out her phone and snap a photo of the computer screen.

Soon after, he saw his mother post a Moments update.

【Lin Xiuhong】: My son's college entrance exam results are out—pretty good (photo)

Li Luo glanced at his mother's Moments and realized why she'd been so eager to make him check his scores that morning—she'd clearly been planning to show off.

But soon, he saw that Ying Zhicheng and Yuan Wanqing had also posted celebrations.

Ying Zhicheng simply posted a Moments update, while Yuan Wanqing also posted on Weibo, celebrating Yan Zhusheng's top provincial score among music art candidates.

Under Ying Zhicheng's deliberate guidance, within just half an hour, the news that 【Yuan Wanqing's daughter became the top art candidate】 surged to Weibo's trending list.

At the same time, Li Guohong's phone rang.

"Hello?" Li Guohong answered. "Lao Ying, what's up? Asking about Chanxi?"

"Didn't you already send me Chanxi's scores?" Ying Zhicheng said on the other end. "I'm calling to ask about Li Luo's results."

"Him?" Li Guohong chuckled. "Same score as Chanxi, but there must be some subject-based ranking rule—so they put him in second."

"Same score as Chanxi?" Ying Zhicheng sounded surprised. "He did that well?"

"Not bad, not bad." Li Guohong grinned. "Chanxi did well too."

"Is Li Luo beside you?" Ying Zhicheng asked.

"Yes."

"Have him take the call." Ying Zhicheng paused, then said, "I need to speak with him seriously."

"Li Luo." Li Guohong turned to his son and handed him the phone. "Your Uncle Ying wants to talk to you."

"Oh."

Li Luo guessed why Ying Zhicheng was calling. He turned, took the phone, and walked out of the room to the balcony.

"Uncle Ying."

"Mm." Ying Zhicheng said on the other end. "Earlier you mentioned something to me—what's your current thinking? I can arrange it anytime."

"Still mostly following the original plan." Li Luo rubbed his temples, then laughed. "I just didn't expect my score to be this high."

"That sounds like you're asking for a punch." Ying Zhicheng smiled faintly—rare for him. "But you and Chanxi both getting provincial top scores? I never imagined it."

"I just had an off-the-charts performance." Li Luo smiled. "But the top scorer is Chanxi—I'm just the eternal second place."

"Rankings are just for ordering." Ying Zhicheng said. "Same total score means you're both top scorer—you just need to be modest publicly."

"I see." Li Luo thought for a moment, then said, "Uncle Ying, I think we can do this..."

After the college entrance exam scores were released, the internet exploded.

The entire day was filled with discussions about exam results and rankings.

The Class 8 group chat was also extremely lively.

Any student who did well on this exam eagerly posted their score sheet, unable to suppress their urge to show off and share.

In their seven-person study group chat, Li Luo soon learned of Zhao Rongjun's scores this time.

Qiao Xinyan performed exceptionally well this time, with a total score of 686, ranking 340th in the province—making significant progress compared to her second mock exam.

Zhao Rongjun scored a total of 672, placing 1,289th in the province—a very impressive result.

As for Xu Yinghuan, she also broke her personal record this time, scoring 663 total and surging to 2,448th in the province.

After checking her college entrance exam ranking, Xu Yinghuan immediately shared it in the group.

【Xu Yinghuan】: Praise me! Praise me!

【Xu Yinghuan】: Am I not amazing!!!

【Xu Yinghuan】: Now we can all meet up at Qian Da!!!!!!

Xu Yinghuan was extremely excited in the group.

Not just in the WeChat small group, but also in Class 8's large group, she was already wildly showing off.

Even homeroom teacher Kong Junxiang couldn't resist chiming in to praise Xu Yinghuan.

After all, when she first enrolled—at least during her first year—Kong Junxiang had never imagined Xu Yinghuan would one day become Class 8's top talent.

【Zhu Yufei】: By the way, how did the class president and vice president do? @Li Luo @Ying Chanxi

Someone in the group had already asked about Li Luo and Ying Chanxi's scores.

But Li Luo was currently on the phone with Ying Zhicheng.

Ying Chanxi rarely checked the group anyway, and she wasn't paying attention now.

In the end, Kong Junxiang stepped forward.

【Teacher Kong】: Ying Chanxi and Li Luo both scored 735 total, tied for the highest in the province.

【Teacher Kong】: Since their Chinese and Math totals are identical, according to the rules we check individual Math scores—Ying Chanxi's is higher, so she is first in the province, Li Luo second.

【Zhang Guohuang】: Holy shit! 735?! Is that even humanly possible?!

Perhaps due to excessive joy, Kong Junxiang couldn't help sharing a bit of insider info.

【Teacher Kong】: Supposedly, the third-place student in the province only scored 723—these two scores are truly outrageous.

After seeing Kong Junxiang's message, the entire Class 8 group exploded.

Ying Chanxi winning provincial top scorer was understandable—after all, she was Ying Chanxi; she'd already ranked in the top ten in the second mock exam, so pushing to first place made sense.

But what the hell is Li Luo?!

Although everyone knew Li Luo had consistently ranked second in the grade and was undeniably strong, he still seemed far behind the province's elite genius students.

And yet he scored 735 on the college entrance exam?!

【Teacher Kong】: Oh, by the way, Li Luo did especially well in Chinese—not only did he get full marks on the essay, but his Chinese score reached 145, the highest in the province.

【Teacher Kong】: A Chinese score of 145 carries more weight than a perfect score in Math or English.

【Teacher Kong】: I'm pretty happy as a Chinese teacher, haha.

It was clear Kong Junxiang was genuinely delighted.

When had anyone ever seen him say so much in the group before?

At this point, Li Luo had finished talking to Ying Zhicheng and quickly chimed in to the Class 8 group.

【Li Luo】: It's all thanks to Teacher Kong's teaching—great teachers produce outstanding students.

【Zhu Yufei】: Holy crap! The provincial top scorer's here!

【Zhang Guohuang】: The provincial top scorer is the vice president, but the class president? He's the pseudo-provincial top scorer.

【Li Luo】: I'm in a good mood today, so I won't argue with you guys.

【Ren Zheng】: Class president, aren't you supposed to treat us?

【Li Luo】: After the graduation ceremony the day after tomorrow, let's all go out for a farewell dinner—I'll pay.

While Li Luo was chatting in the group, Kong Junxiang sent him a private message.

Li Luo saw the new message and opened it to take a look.

【Teacher Kong】: Tsinghua, Peking University, and several other 985 schools have all contacted the school.

【Teacher Kong】: Tsinghua and Peking University originally wanted to reach out to you two privately ahead of time, but I explained your situation and asked them to prioritize other top-ranked candidates first.

【Teacher Kong】: On the day of the graduation ceremony, teachers from these admissions offices will still want to meet you two—handle it however you see fit.

【Teacher Kong】: With your scores, no matter where you go, you'll get the absolute top treatment.

【Li Luo】: Thank you, Teacher Kong. I understand.

【Teacher Kong】: I should be thanking you—you did an excellent job in Chinese and made me look good.

【Li Luo】: Hehe, Teacher Kong, when are you getting married? Have you set a date yet?

【Teacher Kong】: August 20th. I was planning to announce it at graduation, but I'll tell you ahead of time.

【Li Luo】: I have a small suggestion—wonder if you'd be interested?

【Teacher Kong】: Hmm? Go ahead.

……

Evening.

Several trending topics appeared on Weibo.

One of them was especially eye-catching and quickly rose to number one on Weibo's trending list.

【Provincial Top Scorer Is an Online Novel Platinum Author?!】

Today was the day scores were released, so any college entrance exam-related topics easily climbed the trending list.

For example, at noon, Yuan Wanqing's daughter, who scored top in the province among music art candidates, had already made the top ten trends.

But this evening's number-one trending topic drew an enormous wave of traffic.

The news reported that this year's Gaokao in Qianjiang Province unusually featured a tie for the top scorer.

One of them, a student originally named Li Luo, is also the online novel writer known as Chongran, whose works are wildly popular on the internet.

Interestingly, Chongran had previously mentioned in his new book that if any of his readers scored higher than him on the Gaokao, he would burst-update one hundred thousand words.

As it turned out, the provincial top scorer who tied with him and, according to ranking rules, was placed just above him, was precisely his former desk mate and loyal reader.

At this moment, from noon when the Gaokao scores were released until evening, Chongran had already updated nearly thirty thousand words.

……

Looking at the top trending topic on Weibo, then at Li Luo's single-chapter statement posted in the afternoon, Ying Chanxi narrowed her eyes and asked him: "Didn't I already say I'd let you off once? Why did you still burst-update? And you're saying I made you do it?"

"Cough." Li Luo cleared his throat, speaking without a hint of guilt: "Didn't your father call over at noon?"

"He said this would make promotion easier—it's a great opportunity—so he told me to say this."

"After all, 'Little Joys' is also my work; we can cross-promote everything later."

Upon hearing this, Ying Chanxi's face immediately showed an "I knew it" expression, then she huffed in annoyance: "Dad's so unreasonable—he doesn't know how exhausting writing is? Really…"

"So you're still the kindest to me, Xixi." Li Luo pulled Ying Chanxi close, grinning. "But could you do me another favor?"

"What favor?"

"Use your account to leave a chapter comment under my single-chapter post—better yet, post a photo of your Gaokao score."

"T-This?"

"Yes, but make the tone even more arrogant."

"You're making me look like the bad guy—I didn't even want you to burst-update," Ying Chanxi pouted.

"You're the best, Xixi—it's all for promotion."

"Ugh, I just can't say no to you."

(End of Chapter)