Upon entering Class B, Qiao Nian realized that she was the only Class A student around. She didn’t know anybody else at all.
Everyone looked at her the moment she entered, eyes full of curiosity and some with mockery.
Qiao Nian didn’t bother looking at anyone. She prepared her 2B pencil and a liquid gel pen, placed them on the desk, and then took a seat.
A while later, the invigilator arrived with the papers.
First High School took the Third Year examinations very seriously. To prevent cheating, each class was assigned two invigilators. What a coincidence, the invigilators for this classroom were Chen Xi and another teacher she did not recognize.
The whole examination would be completed in a day, with a morning paper and an afternoon paper. The one in the morning was Mathematics, the subject most dreaded by students.
The other invigilator was responsible for checking the student’s candidate number against their seating position. Chen Xi stood in front of the class and scanned the students condescendingly, before landing her gaze on Qiao Nian and saying—
“All of you are First High School students and you should know the examination rules and regulations without me saying more. I will just briefly emphasize once more, so listen carefully. Cheating is not tolerated. Anyone found cheating will be banned from the examination and the results will be nullified. Also, my personal principle goes like this: if I find anyone cheating, I will report it to the school at once. Expulsion is possible for serious cases. Are you clear?”
“Yes, we are.”
The students in venue 1102 responded.
Qiao Nian couldn’t be bothered with her. Instead, she was busy checking on her 2B pencil. Those eyes were dark, pure, and beautiful, but they just were not looking in Chen Xi’s direction.
Chen Xi pursed her lips and kept her gaze. She then tore the envelope holding the papers and said, “Alright, we will start distributing the papers now.”
…
The atmosphere was tense. Besides the sounds of writing and erasing, it was practically silent.
Chen Xi grabbed a chair and took a seat right in front of the first row once the examination began. She kept her eyes on Qiao Nian and Qiao Nian only.
Given the way she invigilated, cheating surely would not escape her eyes. Hell, if Qiao Nian even made an odd move, she would notice it right away and catch her for “cheating”.
But Qiao Nian didn’t look anywhere outside her paper since the beginning of the examination. She just flipped through the pages and answered the questions.
Qiao Nian shaded the answers on the answer sheet with much ease. It was as if the questions that Chen Xi had scoured all over for were a piece of cake for her. Soon, Qiao Nian was done shading all of the multiple-choice questions.
She went on to the short-answer questions, then the open-ended questions…
Qiao Nian wrote very quickly and practically did not use her rough paper for any drafts at all.
In less than an hour, she had completed the paper. Chen Xi thought that she would check through her answers, but to her surprise, Qiao Nian flipped the paper and kept it face-down, then put it aside. She then yawned and rested her head on the table, taking a nap.
“Ha.” She couldn’t help but chuckle as she witnessed this scene.
It was as if she had already won.
For the next few papers, Qiao Nian acted the same way. She was the first to complete the paper and would put it aside without even checking. Then, she would sleep.
In the blink of an eye, the four papers were over. The sun was already beginning to set.
Qiao Nian packed her belongings and then casually bade her farewell to Shen Qingqing and a few classmates. Then, she leisurely walked out of the school gate.
Her cell phone had been turned off the entire day. The moment she turned it on now, she saw ten notifications.
There were missed calls, text messages…
Qiao Nian narrowed her eyes as she looked at one of the missed calls, which was from the hospital. This was her personal cell phone, and she only gave this cell phone number to people she was very close to. But she remembered putting this number down at the hospital as an emergency contact for Uncle Chen.
Her heart sank. Had something happened to Uncle Chen?