Chapter 80: Progress
So many things happened over the weekend that, as a result, Gu Qinghuan almost overslept on Monday.
She had been tossing and turning on Sunday night, sometimes thinking about how to help Yu Yuan calmly and clearly face the truth, sometimes thinking about how hard Yu Wenxiu had worked searching for her daughter all these years.
She kept her eyes open until one or two in the morning, waking up with two dark circles under her eyes.
Qin Yue came into class, and after sitting down, habitually turned to greet Gu Qinghuan. Looking at her face, he burst out laughing: “Did you stay up sneaking around last night?”
Gu Qinghuan rolled her eyes dramatically: “You’re the one sneaking around.”
“Then were you up late playing games or watching dramas?” Qin Yue continued to guess.
“Neither. Let’s just say… some very difficult problems came up, and I was thinking about how to solve them,” Gu Qinghuan said, feigning seriousness.
Qin Yue’s interest was piqued: “What kind of thing could trouble our class president like this? Tell me!”
Gu Qinghuan shook her head: “It’s a bit private, so I can’t say.”
The moment Qin Yue heard “private,” he knew this was not something he could meddle in.
Though disappointed at missing the gossip, he said: “Fine then. But if you ever need help, just ask me!”
“Of course, we share hardships together,” Gu Qinghuan replied, giving a thumbs up.
Hearing that, Qin Yue remembered the message Gu Qinghuan had sent him over the weekend—this person, already provoked by a top student, was dragging him into it too!
“You won’t share the good fortune, huh?” Qin Yue teased with a smirk.
Gu Qinghuan immediately looked away: “Ah, why hasn’t the head teacher arrived yet? I wonder how the midterm results will turn out.”
This silenced Qin Yue, making him anxious: he also thought the midterms were tough, and if he didn’t do well, he didn’t know what would happen at home.
The students of Class Three were also heavy-hearted. The weekend had been fun, but now that school had resumed and midterm results awaited, the joy evaporated.
Xu Xinghe quietly asked Yu Xin, “class president, do you think this midterm was difficult?”
Yu Xin thought for a moment: “It was okay.”
Instantly, the brilliance of the top student nearly blinded Xu Xinghe.
He slunk back to his seat, deciding never to ask Yu Xin about exams again.
The midterm results were soon released.
As Gu Qinghuan expected, the test difficulty had increased significantly compared to the first monthly exam. Several questions seemed correct at first glance, only for her to realize she had fallen into a trap once she received the paper.
She wasn’t the only one—many students in Class Three struggled, and by the end of the morning, the class was in dismay.
Luckily, Class Three had top students!
Yu Xin continued to hold the first place in the class, and her grade-level ranking had managed to move up one spot to third.
When homeroom teacher Chen Zelin announced the rankings, his face flushed with excitement, and the whole class applauded—nothing but admiration.
But that wasn’t all: Class Three’s average score remained stable!
Many students fell into traps, but the test couldn’t be all traps; most questions were standard.
Miraculously, many students in Class Three achieved the “correctly answered the right questions, fell into the traps where necessary” balance, indirectly causing several ties across subjects.
Especially in Physics, Chemistry, and Biology, teachers laughed after grading: “Are you lining up just to jump into the traps?”
Class Three students: obedient, not daring to make a sound.
Chen Zelin was delighted. What did maintaining the average mean? Class ranking would rise!
Indeed, Class Three’s overall average jumped to third place in the grade, up from fifth in the last monthly exam.
As for individual grade-level rankings, even the last student in Class Three ranked 198th out of 252 students, surpassing at least two other classes in total numbers.
Gu Qinghuan, though scoring slightly lower in total points, moved up to ninth in class and 75th in grade-level ranking.
Jiang Chuchu jumped to first in class, 11th in the grade—a huge improvement.
But if anyone had the happiest smile about progress, it was Qin Yue: class rank from 17th to 12th, grade-level from 153rd to 92nd.
“The top tutoring class really works!” Qin Yue wished he could tell Su Lin: “My mom’s going to praise me tonight!”
“By the way, how many points did Su Lin get?” Gu Qinghuan asked.
Yu Xin silently showed her the chat log with Su Lin.
Gu Qinghuan peeked, covered her chest, and walked away.
Had the test really gotten harder? Why were Su Lin’s scores almost unchanged from last time?
Oh, her English score even increased by one point, from 146 to 147.
But the highest English score in Class Three, Xie Xiangxue, got 142!
When other students heard about Su Lin’s scores from Yu Xin, they all expressed curiosity.
Yu Xin, after obtaining Su Lin’s consent, shared all her scores in the class group.
After a brief silence, exclamation and ellipsis marks flew across the chat, accompanied by uniform emojis.
Bao Qingsong: “Oh my god.jpg”
Xu Xinghe: “(((( ;°Д°))))”
Ming Xiaolan: “…We’re just classmates, you crossed the line.”
Song Yi: “I don’t even know what to say; even if I switched brains, I couldn’t get these scores.”
Xie Xiangxue: “How did she get 147! How did she solve that question?!”
Once everyone had gaped enough, Gu Qinghuan posted in the group: “Get those wrong questions ready—”
Everyone realized: right! After the test, they had a chance to have Su Lin explain the wrong questions. They needed to prepare quickly!
Having experienced this during the last monthly exam, this time the students were more experienced. Since there were fewer mistakes on basic questions, they could focus on difficult ones.
Before the end of school, everyone handed their wrong questions to Qin Yue.
Probably because he had a whole evening to organize them, and there were fewer mistakes this time, Qin Yue cheerfully waved his hand: “Don’t bother. I’ll do it all myself.”
Gu Qinghuan, happy to have some work spared, replied: “Then it’s up to you.”
There were so many wrong questions that Qin Yue couldn’t fit them all in his bag. Gu Qinghuan took a milk tea bag from under the desk and handed it to him.
“You kept this for later?” Qin Yue was surprised.
“Isn’t it useful now?” Gu Qinghuan replied.
Qin Yue inspected it, ensured it was clean, packed the wrong questions tightly inside the milk tea bag, sealed it, and carried it off.
He had to rush home and tell his mom how well he did—maybe she’d agree to buy him those sneakers signed by his favorite basketball player!
As for his older brother… Even if this score didn’t impress him, it was progress. He’d probably be happy for Qin Yue anyway.
