Chapter 107 Where is my ranking?

On Monday, it started to drizzle.

This rain not only fell on the ground and turned into shallow puddles of water, but also became a dark cloud over the hearts of the freshmen of Shilan Middle School.

It rained on the day the entrance exam results were announced. I don’t know if it was a bad sign, but it was definitely bad weather.

The roads near the school were jammed with traffic jams. The sound of honking horns had become a common occurrence. Umbrellas were moving horizontally in the air, like colorful mushrooms growing after the rain.

Some high school students holding umbrellas would stop subconsciously when passing by the notice board in front of the teaching building. When they saw that the entrance examination results had not yet been posted, some would secretly breathe a sigh of relief, while others would become even more nervous.

Su Xiaoqiang was one of them. In fact, with her performance, she didn't need to worry about her ranking. Even if she performed poorly, she could still be firmly in the top 20.

But she had a nightmare last night, dreaming that she was surpassed by Lu Mingfei in the entrance examination.

Although the degree of strangeness of this dream was no less than telling her that Lu Mingfei was a prince who was exiled among the people, the savior of the world, and the Batman of Gotham City, but having such a dream the day before the results were released was not a good sign.

Therefore, the irritable and unhappy little angel would come to the bulletin board early in the morning to check her grades.

She would not be able to feel at ease until she saw with her own eyes that her grades were ahead of Lu Mingfei.

……

Although the list had not been posted yet, when the first class started, the math teacher, Lao Wang, came to the classroom holding a stack of not-too-thick test papers.

Seeing the test papers, some students in the class began to get restless, waiting for the teacher to hand out the papers. Those who were in the middle of the class were the most nervous.

Those at the head and tail actually don’t care that much.

However, Liu Miaomiao and Su Xiaoqiang are two of the few who have top grades but are very nervous about the math scores that will be announced soon.

Liu Miaomiao was naturally concerned about Lu Mingfei's grades and hoped that he could do better.

Su Xiaoqiang's mentality is more conflicted. He hopes Lu Mingfei can perform well, but he doesn't want Lu Mingfei to do too well.

It's like I don't want my buddy to suffer, but I also don't want him to drive a Land Rover.

Lao Wang walked to the podium carrying the test paper. He did not speak immediately, but first scanned the classroom silently, making everyone nervous. Then he pushed his glasses as if satisfied and said:

"In this entrance exam, our class had the best math scores. Not only was the average score high, but the top scorers were also in our class."

Upon hearing the news, the classroom was immediately filled with whispers of discussion.

As if he had expected this, Lao Wang suddenly raised his voice and said a serious "but", which immediately silenced the noisy discussions in the classroom.

It seems that teachers all over the world like to add a twist like this
"But - everyone should still be neither arrogant when they win nor discouraged when they lose! Don't be complacent after doing well in the exam once. Be modest and strive to maintain your ranking next time."

Then Lao Wang was silent again. When he was sure that no one was discussing this, he continued:

"Next, we will start handing out math test papers. Students whose names are called should come up to the stage and take their papers."

"Zhao Menghua, 120 points."

As soon as the results were announced, there was an uproar in the class. You know, the full score for the math entrance exam is 120 points.

Although after the school officially started, everyone in the class knew that Zhao Menghua was the one who got into Shilan Middle School with the first place in the high school entrance examination. But hearing that someone has good grades is different from seeing someone get good grades with your own eyes.

Zhao Menghua walked up to the stage with a smile, took the test paper from his class teacher Lao Wang, enjoyed the surprised gazes of his classmates, and returned to his seat.

"Su Xiaoqiang, 120 points."

When Su Xiaoqiang's results were announced, the uproar that had just subsided a little started again.

Lao Wang did not stop the students from discussing the issue. After all, this kind of praise is actually an encouragement to students with high scores, and it also has a motivating effect on students with medium scores.

Su Xiaoqiang walked up to the podium without looking around, took the test paper, and returned to his seat without leaving, leaving only a gust of fragrant wind in the aisle as he hurriedly passed by.

Su Xiaoqiang was not particularly surprised. After all, she had checked the answers before and knew that she would definitely get full marks.

Next, the head teacher, Lao Wang, picked up the third test paper, paused for a moment, and then slowly read out the name on the test paper.

"Lu Mingfei, 120 points."

After hearing the name, the class fell silent for a while.

It was not until two or three seconds later that an exclamation louder than before broke out in the classroom.

Zhao Menghua and Su Xiaoqiang scored full marks. Although they are both very good, everyone knows that they were among the top three in the school.

But Lu Mingfei was the last one to come in.

Even Su Xiaoqiang and Liu Miaomiao were stunned, thinking they had misheard. It was not until they saw Lu Mingfei walking up to the podium, touching the back of his head, that they dared to believe what they had just heard was true.

"When did Mingfei's grades become so good..."

Liu Miaomiao murmured in her heart.

Did he take extra classes during the summer vacation?

But even if I take extra classes, my math score that is just on the edge of the passing line won't go up to a perfect score.

As Lu Mingfei's junior high school classmate, Liu Miaomiao knows Lu Mingfei's grades in the three years of junior high school very well.

However, although she was surprised, Liu Miaomiao was more happy in her heart.

The better Lu Mingfei's grades were, the more confident she was in asking her parents for extra lessons together.

Of course, it would not be a good thing if things were too good. If Ming Fei became one of the top students in the grade, I would not be sure that I would be admitted to Qinghua University and Imperial University.

...Compared to Liu Miaomiao's happiness, Su Xiaoqiang was really a little panicked.

If she had always felt a sense of crisis from Lu Mingfei before, this time she was truly facing a sense of crisis.

She really never thought that Lu Mingfei could get full marks in math.

Thinking of the huge dark circles under Lu Mingfei's eyes when he came to school every morning, Su Xiaoqiang's mood was seriously shaken:

"How many papers did this guy stay up all night to finish?"

Even in the little angel's imaginative head, she began to imagine a scene in which her final score was lower than Lu Mingfei's, and that guy threatened her with that sentence:

"Su Xiaoqiang, you don't want others to know that you are a person who doesn't keep your promises, right?"

"..."

In addition to a few high-scoring students, Lao Wang then read out the names of several people with scores above 108.

For example, Liu Miaomiao scored 115 points in mathematics, and only got the last question wrong.

For those who scored below 108 points, Lao Wang did not directly announce the scores. Instead, he just read out their names and let them take the test papers.

This is actually to protect the privacy of students. Students who do well in the exam deserve encouragement, but students who do not do well in the exam also need to maintain their self-esteem.

Because we had just finished an exam, the content of the class naturally turned into explaining the exam questions.

However, Su Xiaoqiang didn't concentrate on the whole class, his little heart was beating fast.

She wanted to look back at Lu Mingfei, but she didn’t dare to look at him.

She was afraid that once she made eye contact with him, he would notice how flustered she was.

……

However, this sense of crisis was immediately resolved during the second class.

In the second class, which was a moral education class, the teacher of the class also distributed the test papers.

This time, the highest score in the class for ideology and morality was no longer tied, but the little angel took the lead, firmly occupying the top position with a score of 98 points, and only two points were deducted for the subjective questions.

Zhao Menghua came in second with 96 points.

Lu Mingfei's score was relatively low. Just as he had expected, he was no match for the little goddess in subjects like ideology and morality that relied purely on memorization.

In the end, Lu Mingfei only relied on vague impressions and his own intuition to get a score of 78, which was points behind the little goddess.

However, he didn't take the bet that the little angel made after drinking seriously. The reason why he reviewed it in the past two days was mainly to make Liu Miaomiao happy.

Although I may not be able to give her a good result, I hope that this process can still make her happy.

Su Xiaoqiang was relieved from the anxiety of the first class and completely relaxed.

"That's what I said. How could that guy surpass me so easily?"

But while thinking about it, he was secretly glad that when he mentioned the bet, he temporarily changed it to the entrance examination instead of all the examinations he wanted to mention at the beginning.

If we really give this guy some time...

The little angel, holding a huge advantage of 20 points, finally dared to look back at Lu Mingfei.

But when he saw Lu Mingfei smiling and talking to the person next to him about ideological and moral issues without a trace of regret on his face, he still felt a little unhappy.

This guy...does he care about the bet he made with me...!
……

After the second class it was time for morning exercises, but because it rained today, the playground was wet, so the morning exercises were temporarily cancelled.

The students of Shilan Middle School were naturally happy about this news, because it meant they had ten more minutes to sleep, read and chat in the classroom.

In fact, every student doesn’t like doing morning exercises when they are in school, especially in the summer. Once they do exercises, they will feel sticky all over and feel uncomfortable all day long.

But I don't know who shouted that the results were out, and then everyone rushed to the window to join in the fun, just in time to see several teachers posting the result lists on the bulletin board.

Then many colorful little mushrooms grew in the misty rain.

Although Su Xiaoqiang, who had a 20-point advantage, felt that she had already secured victory, she still went downstairs with the group who came to check the results.

Cutting a path through the crowd of onlookers, the little angel, holding an umbrella, saw Lu Mingfei's name on the list at first glance.

"Lu Mingfei, total score 887 points, ranked 69th..."

This is actually a rather outrageous result, considering that Lu Mingfei's ideological and moral score is only over 70 points.

If Lu Mingfei had the same score of 98 in ideology and morality as her, his total score would have exceeded 900 and reached 907.

However, although that guy’s ranking is quite high, there is still a big gap between him and myself.

The little angel raised her eyebrows and cast her eyes towards the first row of the list with great interest.

Then he was stunned.

"Wait a minute, where's my ranking?"

Looking at the honor roll where she couldn't find her name, the little angel was confused and almost doubted whether there was something wrong with the way she was looking at the list.

……

(End of this chapter)