Chapter 149: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 149: Xiao Hua Enters the Special Elite Class

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Wang Dashan wanted to enlist in the army; on one hand, to raise tutoring fees for his little brother Xiao Hua, and on the other, he himself truly could not continue studying.

Whenever he attended cultural classes, he felt as if he were listening to heavenly scripture, completely unable to understand.

Only physical training courses would light up his eyes.

In the previous math exam, he actually scored only ten points.

On a math paper worth a total of 150 points, he scored only ten points!

This score could be said to be shockingly low!

However, Wang Dashan knew clearly in his heart that ten points was not his lowest limit; he had scored ten only because he was lucky. If he had been unlucky, he might have gotten a zero outright.

He could score ten points because he guessed two multiple-choice questions correctly; if he had not guessed those two correctly, he would definitely have gotten zero.

Every winter, when the recruitment office came to the school for publicity.

A banner reading "Enlist in the army, defend home and country, bring honor to the whole family" was hung at the school gate, very eye-catching.

Wang Dashan specifically went to ask his Homeroom Teacher if he could sign up, but the Homeroom Teacher told him he could not yet this year and had to wait until he was eighteen to participate in the selection.

"Wang Dashan, do you really want to join the army? Your sports grades are quite good; it's just that your cultural classes are a bit weak. I think if you just put in a little effort in your cultural classes, you could get into a decent sports college."

The Homeroom Teacher earnestly advised Wang Dashan.

He felt Wang Dashan going to university would have a brighter future.

He also said:

"If you really want to join the army, there's no rush. After you get into university, you can still deliberately participate in the selection. Moreover, joining the army from university offers a much higher ceiling for development than joining from high school; it's easier to become a non-commissioned officer and easier to stay in the unit."

Wang Dashan was muddled; he knew the Homeroom Teacher said these things for his own good.

But he had no confidence in himself:

"Teacher, I only scored ten points in math last time. Adding up all seven subjects, my total score is only over two hundred. Which university would want me with this score?"

The Homeroom Teacher encouraged him:

"If you want to score over five hundred, I estimate it's not easy. But scoring over four hundred is completely achievable through effort. Four hundred points is enough to get into a decent sports college. You're only in the first semester of your second year of high school; you still have two years. Work harder, you can do it. Don't think about nonsense now."

Wang Dashan sighed:

"Alright."

On the surface he followed the Homeroom Teacher's suggestion, but in reality he was still thinking about joining the army.

He had no confidence in his studies from the bottom of his heart; since he was seven and started preparatory class, he had always been at the tail of the class in academic performance—in primary school, in junior high, and now in high school.

In the sports specialty class, his studies also often ranked in the bottom ten.

He truly could not imagine himself getting into university with these grades.

So his desire to join the army grew stronger day by day.

On the other side, Wang Erhai also entered high school.

When he first entered high school, he was very unaccustomed, and his grades plummeted. High school courses were not only more numerous, but the learning difficulty was incomparable to junior high courses.

Wang Erhai was never much of a student; he had always been at an average level.

Now that he had come to high school and not yet adapted, his grades dropping was unexpected but also reasonable.

However, Wang Erhai had a good mindset; he didn't care at all. He ate when he should eat, drank when he should drink, and ran to the basketball court after school in the afternoon.

Because he knew he definitely could not get into university.

Even if he could get in, it would only be some private junior college, with tuition of ten or twenty thousand, even thirty or forty thousand a year. Who could afford that? Anyway, his parents definitely could not afford it.

Even this high school, his parents hesitated before sending him. Although he said nothing, he was very clear about his parents' attitude.

So from the first day of high school, he only thought of coasting for three years, then getting his high school diploma, and that would count as completing the task.

As for Xiao Hua, at this time he was already in the second year of junior high.

He smoothly entered the only Special Elite Class in the whole school.

Competition in the class was very fierce.

The students in the Special Elite Class were not only all intelligent but also very hardworking.

Everyone was from a rural background. Being able to enter this class meant they definitely had some aptitude, and they all understood deeply that to change their fate, they had to study desperately.

Xiao Hua was infected by the effort level of his other classmates and doubled his efforts in studying.

However, his fatal weakness could never be made up for.

His English grades kept dragging him down.

So although he worked very hard, his grades found it hard to make any new breakthroughs.

Throughout the second year of junior high, his grades always ranked between fifteenth and twenty-fifth in the class.

That could only be considered above average, and he could never squeeze into the top ten.

The ranking in this Special Elite Class was actually equivalent to the top ranking of the whole grade.

So Xiao Hua's class ranking of fifteenth to twenty-fifth was also the fifteenth to twenty-fifth of the whole grade.

In terms of studies, Xiao Hua increasingly felt overwhelmed.

At the same time, the troubles of puberty began to bother him.

The other classmates in the class all started growing taller.

He also started growing taller, but not by much.

In the second year of junior high, he grew to about 1.5 meters.

Most male students were now around 1.6 to over 1.7 meters tall, and a few well-developed ones had even grown to nearly 1.8 meters.

Wang Xiaohua felt inferior about his height.

At the same time, because he had not paid attention when losing his baby teeth as a child, his teeth were uneven; he had not cared before, but now that he was in puberty, it made him feel very inferior.

He was originally introverted and rarely spoke, and because of his teeth, he dared not speak even more.

His weak, short, and ugly image, if placed in a regular class, would probably have long made him a target of bullying by those hooligan students.

Fortunately, his grades were decent; in the Special Elite Class, everyone focused on studying, and bullying simply did not exist.

And the bad students from other classes did not dare to provoke the students of the Special Elite Class.

The Special Elite Class was the hope of the whole school; whether they could achieve good rankings in the high school entrance exam depended entirely on these forty-plus students of the Special Elite Class.

So not only did teachers take extra care of the Special Elite Class students, but even the Academic Affairs Director and even the Principal would pay special attention to them.

For example, this year, the Principal personally issued an order saying that if Special Elite Class students lived in the same dormitory building as other students, it might affect their rest and studies, so the dormitory management staff were to arrange for Special Elite Class students to live in separate dormitories.

Thus the female students of the Special Elite Class were arranged to live in a room in the teachers' dormitory, which was equipped with a toilet inside.

And the male students of the Special Elite Class were arranged to live in a room next to the classroom; although this room had no toilet and one had to go downstairs to the public toilet to use it, it was quiet and hygienic, and most importantly, no dormitory staff restricted their freedom—you could use the toilet whenever you wanted, and you could skip the afternoon nap if you wished.

Many students who moved into this dormitory next to the classroom chose not to take an afternoon nap; first, they had never had the habit of napping since childhood, and most of the time napping meant just staring with eyes open, and even if they fell asleep, they would wake up groggy.

Second, everyone wanted to use the nap time to study.

Anyway, the classroom was right next to the dormitory, so if they did not want to sleep, they could go straight into the classroom to study on their own.

The Special Elite Class students were very competitive; at first only one or two did not nap and chose to study in the classroom, but gradually everyone followed to study in the classroom.

No one napped much anymore.

Wang Xiaohua also followed everyone in not napping and went to study instead.

The school leaders neither opposed nor approved of this, as long as no major disturbance was caused.

This was the special care given to the Special Elite Class students.

This was very realistic; school leaders would favor students with good grades, and resources would be tilted toward these students, giving them the best teachers and the best living environment.

Someone might ask, would the school's approach bring dissatisfaction and complaints from certain parents?

One can only say that the atmosphere back then was different from now.

Back then, complaining and reporting was not in vogue; complaining and reporting was a disgrace.

Separate class teaching was a tacitly accepted norm; after all, every student's comprehension ability was different, and any normal person would understand that teaching students with similar grades in the same class would definitely be better for both teachers and students.

Putting poor students among excellent students to follow along, poor students simply could not keep up with the pace, their grades would still be impossible to improve, and it might instead damage their confidence and make them worse.

Additionally, the parents of students with poor grades had no face to complain; they knew their children's poor grades were mostly the children's own problem, unlike some parents nowadays who would kick up all sorts of fuss as soon as their child suffered a slight loss.

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