Chapter 96: The Real Gap

Nos. 4 and 5, Li Luo and the others spent two days completing several practice tests.

Let's be honest, the memory palace technique is truly powerful.

For purely linguistic subjects like English, Li Luo's mastery of the memory palace gives him an overwhelming advantage.

Aside from leaving the essay blank, he lost only one point on the entire exam.

As for Chinese, since it includes components like reading comprehension, even though there are problem-solving patterns and techniques, it can't be fully mastered solely through the memory palace.

After comparing answers, he lost another five or six points in Chinese, excluding the essay.

Math was even worse—he lost a total of eight points.

That's only because the first-year math curriculum had just begun; Li Luo managed to solve most problems by memorizing formulas and examples stored in his memory palace.

He also had no major trouble with slightly harder problems after putting in serious study during this period.

It's just the multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and the final problem in the open-response section that consistently stump him.

These types of questions can't be solved by the memory palace alone—they test comprehensive application and deep understanding of concepts.

That's where Li Luo's scores mainly suffered.

For subjects like physics and chemistry, since first-year content is just newly separated from middle school science and consists of very basic material, Li Luo only lost one or two points due to carelessness.

For humanities subjects like history, geography, and politics, Li Luo finds them effortless.

If during the high school entrance exam, Li Luo's use of the memory palace was still somewhat awkward,

now it's truly seamless.

"Not bad, Li Luo," Xu Youyu said after calculating his score, looking genuinely impressed. "Didn't you only score that little on the entrance test? I didn't expect such rapid progress."

"What do you mean 'that little'? I got 316 points! The full score was only 360."

"But I scored 1038 out of a possible 1050 across nine subjects," Xu Youyu replied, blinking. "What did Xixi get again?"

"357," Ying Chanxi said casually. "Lost two points on the Chinese essay, one on reading comprehension."

"Damn," Xu Youyu sighed. "Looking at it this way, I lost way too many points."

Fuck…

Li Luo twitched his mouth, thinking these two weren't even human.

Could anyone realistically score that high?

Never mind Ying Chanxi—she got perfect scores in both math and English.

Xu Youyu took nine subjects in his sophomore entrance exam—Chinese, math, English, physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history, geography—and still scored 1038?

He lost only twelve points total.

That's less than two points per subject on average.

Li Luo had been proudly pleased with his 944-point score, but now he was instantly crushed.

Looking at Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu's recent test scores, they were all above 960.

Ying Chanxi got 964; Xu Youyu got 962.

Excluding the 60-point Chinese essay and the 25-point English essay, the maximum possible score was only 965…

"Still, you've done incredibly well," Xu Youyu glanced again at Li Luo's score and praised him. "You're definitely in the top 100 of the entire school, probably even average for Class Two."

"Don't praise him too much," Ying Chanxi added. "The tests these past two days covered only the very basics of first-year material—they're the easiest possible."

"High school content gets harder as you go further. Li Luo, don't get cocky—stay humble and don't slack off."

"Wait until you've finished most of the sophomore and junior curriculum before judging your performance and ranking—it'll be much more accurate."

With you two around, how could I possibly get arrogant… Li Luo mentally grumbled.

But then he suddenly thought of something and asked curiously: "You guys in the elite class started studying over the summer—what stage have you reached now?"

"We've finished all of first-year content; now we're moving on to sophomore material," Ying Chanxi replied honestly. "But I already studied a lot in middle school, so I'll probably finish third-year content this semester, then start preparing for the math Olympiad with Teacher Sun."

Li Luo: "..."

He'd thought his gap with Ying Chanxi was just 944 versus 964.

But that 20-point difference was only because the test was so easy.

This was Li Luo's ceiling—but merely Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu's floor.

For geniuses like them, harder tests are advantageous—they widen the gap between themselves and everyone else.

Fortunately, Li Luo never intended to dominate them; he just wanted to see how far behind the top student was.

Now it seems the gap is still significant, but not insurmountable.

With the memory palace, he can at least make up for any innate learning disadvantage.

Besides, Li Luo never had any intention of fighting for first place.

Staying within the top 100 of the entire school is more than enough for him.

"Don't discourage him," Xu Youyu chuckled, watching Li Luo's expression. "Anyway, this test went really well—keep it up, little brother! Aim to beat Xixi and take first place next time!"

"Though your words are dripping with sarcasm, I still appreciate the encouragement," Li Luo replied with a forced smile.

After calculating scores, Li Luo pulled out his test papers and identified the questions he'd gotten wrong.

Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu each took one side and began tutoring him on his mistakes.

Though both were top-ranked students, their study methods and problem-solving approaches differed greatly.

Ying Chanxi pursued perfection, analyzing every step in meticulous detail.

Xu Youyu's thinking was far more erratic, often skipping several steps entirely.

This was especially obvious in math problems.

Li Luo couldn't keep up with Xu Youyu's leaps of logic, so he chose to focus more on Ying Chanxi's explanations.

But in Chinese reading comprehension, Xu Youyu's reasoning flowed more naturally, while Ying Chanxi's approach required more mental effort to follow.

So when reviewing Chinese reading comprehension, Li Luo primarily listened to Xu Youyu's thought process.

By playing to each other's strengths and compensating for weaknesses, they were making rapid progress.

By evening, when study ended, Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu went out together to buy groceries.

Li Luo stayed home, tidying his desk, cleaning the house, and preparing to cook later.

Just then, his phone rang.

He picked it up and saw it was Yan Zhusheng calling.

"Hello?"

"The theme song is settled," Yan Zhusheng said on the other end. "It's your 'Year Rings.' Aunt Luo Fei has already sent me the contract. When do you want it?"

Li Luo raised an eyebrow, surprised by how fast they'd moved: "Are you free tomorrow?"

"I am," Yan Zhusheng nodded. "Should I come to you?"

"Uh…" Li Luo had meant to go to her, but Yan Zhusheng was being so proactive—"You can come to me. Chanxi and Xinyan are here. Bring your homework and stay all day."

"Mm," Yan Zhusheng nodded, clearly pleased with the arrangement. "I'll come tomorrow morning."

After hanging up, Li Luo was in high spirits.

It wasn't because Yan Zhusheng was coming to visit—it was because "Year Rings" had finally sold.

According to Yan Zhusheng's earlier estimate, the theme song's price was at least fifty thousand.

If this collaboration went well, Li Luo's savings would grow substantially again.

When Yan Zhusheng came tomorrow, Li Luo planned to ask about "Wait for You After Class"—see if her mother's company was interested.

Holding onto this song was like holding a hot potato.

The plot of I Am Really Not a Star didn't need this song yet.

Back then, Li Luo had simply sung it out of excitement in front of Ying Chanxi, never thinking ahead.

If he kept it locked away until Zhou Jielun wrote it, it would be deeply embarrassing.

As Li Luo was thinking about this, Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu returned with the groceries.

The three of them worked in the kitchen for over an hour, preparing several small dishes.

Over dinner, Ying Chanxi said: "Xinyan wants to hang out with me. Since I'm helping you study these days, I invited her to come here directly."

"Now?" Li Luo asked, puzzled.

"Of course not," Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes. "I told her to come tomorrow morning and study with us all day."

"Oh, I see," Li Luo nodded. "By the way, Yan Zhusheng is coming tomorrow too. Just so you know."

"Huh?" Ying Chanxi blinked. "Why is she coming?"

"To study with us."

Li Luo couldn't say he'd sold a song.

If Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu found out about "Year Rings" and traced it back to his novel-writing, he'd be in deep trouble.

After placating Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu, Li Luo went to his bedroom after dinner and began writing.

But halfway through, he suddenly realized: tomorrow, Ying Chanxi, Xu Youyu, Yan Zhusheng, and Qiao Xinyan would all be girls—and he'd be the only boy.

The thought made him slightly uncomfortable.

So he stopped typing, pulled out his phone, and scrolled through his contacts.

Then he made a call.

"Hello? What do you want? Basketball?"

"Rongjun, wanna come over tomorrow?"