yournovel Chapter 85 The Tense High School Life
Chapter 85 The Tense High School Life
After the military training ended, everyone thought that good days were coming.
No need to assemble early, no need to stand at attention under the sun, no need to be yelled at by Instructor Xu, "Didn't you eat?"
I can go to the classroom at 7:30 every day, sit on a chair and enjoy the fan, buy an iced Coke at the convenience store during breaks, play ball after school, and do my homework when I get home.
This is what high school life should be like.
But reality slapped them in the face.
High school courses are as tightly wound as a clockwork mechanism.
Nine subjects—Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, History, Geography, and Politics—are taught in rotation, eight periods a day, and sometimes two more periods are added for evening self-study.
Homework piled up thicker than textbooks; after finishing one subject, there's another; after finishing today, there's still tomorrow.
The atmosphere in top schools is completely different from that in ordinary schools. No one forces you to study, but everyone is studying secretly.
During the ten-minute break, some students napped on their desks, some chased after the teacher with their test papers, and some sat in their seats flipping through their notes until the bell rang.
Wang Qing emphasizes the importance of the college entrance examination at every class meeting.
She stood on the podium, her hands resting on either side of the table, her gaze sweeping across everyone's faces.
"You were able to get into Jiangcheng No. 1 High School, which means you are already in the top 10% of your peers. But the top 10% is not enough. One more point on the college entrance exam can eliminate an entire playground of people. There are thousands of people on that playground. Think about it, the fate of those thousands of people rests on those few points in your hands."
Zhao Qihang, sitting in the back row, pursed his lips upon hearing this and whispered to Lu Ciyuan next to him, "Then I choose to kill someone on the playground."
Lu Ciyuan removed his finger from his lips. "Can you kill them all?"
"Kill them one by one."
The two chuckled softly, but immediately shut up when Wang Qing glanced at them.
Song Huan sat in the third row by the window, listening to these words with a smile but saying nothing.
He turned his head and glanced at Xiao Yunqing.
She sat upright, her hands folded on the table, her eyes fixed on Wang Qing, her expression as serious as if she were listening to a leader speak.
She listened to every word Wang Qing said, and the frequency of her nods was perfectly synchronized with the frequency of Wang Qing's pauses.
After Wang Qing finished speaking, Xiao Yunqing lowered her head, opened her textbook, and began to do the exercises.
The pen tip scratched across the paper; the writing was steady and fast, without any pauses.
Her innermost thoughts drifted over, clean and clear, like a blackboard that had just been wiped clean.
This problem uses the Law of Sines.
[First find angle A, then find side c.]
[Yes, that's it.]
Song Huan listened to those heartfelt thoughts; not a single word was superfluous, only problem-solving strategies.
He paused for a moment, then listened for a while longer.
It's still the same problem-solving approach; there's not a single "I'm so tired," not a single "I don't want to write anymore," not even a single "Song Huan is watching me."
He leaned back in his chair, looking out the window, and a feeling of emotion suddenly welled up inside him.
The high school life depicted in novels is clearly nonexistent.
The male and female protagonists steal chickens and dogs every day, they're always kissing or holding hands, occasionally run away from home, and inexplicably get into Tsinghua and Peking Universities.
Isn't that ridiculous?
Look at our little Yunduo, this is what it looks like to take the entrance exam for Tsinghua and Peking University.
With a pure mind and no distractions, one should ignore the world around them and focus solely on studying the classics.
This is what a top student should be like; this is what a role model should be like.
As Song Huan was thinking about these things, suddenly...
[Ugh, I'm so hungry. What should we eat later?]
Song Huan's expression froze on her face.
He turned to look at Xiao Yunqing. She was still sitting upright, the pen tip still scratching on the paper, her expression still so serious.
If he hadn't heard that heartfelt statement, he would have truly believed that her mind was filled with nothing but the sine theorem.
He listened for a moment longer.
[The cafeteria should have braised pork today, right? Last time the lady there was really shaky and only gave me three pieces. Give me more today. Also, I'll have scrambled eggs with tomatoes, but I don't want the soup, it'll fill me up. After I finish eating, I'll buy a bottle of strawberry yogurt; Song Huan should like it.]
Song Huan turned back expressionlessly and stared at the blackboard.
The words "trigonometric functions" were written on the blackboard in crooked chalk.
He looked at those three words, and only one thought was in his mind.
I'm wrong.
She is not Xiao Qingbei, she is Xiao Niujin, Xiao Digua.
Wang Qing teaches history.
It's rare for a history teacher to become a homeroom teacher at No. 1 Middle School.
But Wang Qing has her own style; her favoritism is obvious and she never hides it.
If students are doing science exams in her class, she will stand on the podium, arms crossed, with a cold gaze and a voice that is neither loud nor soft, and say, "If you don't want to listen to my class, you can leave. But don't do homework for other subjects in my class. That's disrespectful to me and to your own time."
After saying that, he stared at the student until he put the paper away.
But if students do her history exam in a science class, her attitude is completely different.
She would walk up to the student with a smile, bend down to look at him, then look up at the teacher with a compassionate expression. "Teacher, it's a good thing that the student loves learning, please don't be angry. Let him do it, and remember to come back to me for the answers when he's done."
After saying that, he patted the student on the shoulder and left.
The teacher stood on the podium during that class, his face as black as the bottom of a pot, but he couldn't say anything.
After all, they said "it's a good thing to love learning," so can you stop them from learning?
Song Huan's assessment was: "Wang Qing is wasting her talents as a homeroom teacher. She should be a diplomat."
On Monday morning, when Wang Qing entered the classroom for class meeting, she had a stack of papers in her hand.
These are not lesson plans or test papers; they are exam schedules.
She stood on the podium, slammed the paper onto the table, and said, "Next Monday, the monthly exam."
The classroom was silent for a second, then erupted.
"What? A monthly exam?"
"An exam only a month into the semester?"
"Wow, that's way too fast!"
Wang Qing stood on the podium, arms crossed, her expression as calm as if she were watching a group of monkeys perform.
"What are you yelling about? This is how high school is. There's an exam every month, then rankings, then a parent-teacher conference. You think you're free after the high school entrance exam? Dream on. The college entrance exam is the finish line; the road ahead is just a race. If you don't want to run, you can lie down; nobody's stopping you."
The classroom fell silent.
Zhao Qihang lay down in the back row and whispered to Lu Ciyuan, "I choose to lie down."
Lu Ciyuan ignored him, looking down at his fingers with a serious expression.
He was trying to figure out what he had learned in the past month, but no matter how much he calculated, it seemed like he hadn't learned anything at all.
Wang Qing continued, "After this exam, I will rearrange the seats. They'll be arranged according to scores, from highest to lowest, and you can choose for yourself. If you want to sit in the front, study hard; if you want to sit in the back, continue lying down. Did you all understand?"
No one in the class spoke, but their inner thoughts were already exploding.
[Oh no, oh no, I'm sitting in the last row!]
[If my mom knew I failed my monthly exam, she'd kill me.]
[Front row, front row, front row, I want to sit in the front row.]
Song Huan sat in the third row, listening to those heartfelt words, but felt nothing.
He doesn't care where he sits—front row, back row, window, or wall—it doesn't make much difference to him.
He leaned back in his chair, hands in his pockets, looking out the window.
Outside the window is a playground, where people are running and shouting, their voices distant and hard to hear.
Xiao Yunqing, who was writing a problem next to him, suddenly stopped writing.
Song Huan turned her head and glanced at her.
She was still sitting upright, her eyes fixed on the math test paper on the table, her expression still serious.
But her hand was gripping the pen, and she had only written half of the question on the test paper, with the last equal sign left blank.
Her inner thoughts drifted over, not as calm as before, but a little chaotic.
[The seating has been rearranged.]
[It's based on grades again.]
[From high to low.]
She gripped the pen and took a deep breath.
[Xiao Yunqing, you can do it.]
You will definitely do well on the test.
[Make sure you sit next to him.]
The pen tip touched the paper again, and I continued working on that problem.
The answer was filled in after the equals sign, and the handwriting was a little heavier than before.
Song Huan leaned back in his chair, looking at her profile.
She lowered her head, her ponytail hanging down, revealing the white nape of her neck, and the pen scratched on the paper as she wrote very carefully.
He looked away, turned back, and stared at the blackboard.
The words "Monthly Exam Next Monday" were written on the blackboard in chalk by Wang Qing. They were square and neat, as if they had been cut with a knife.
He sighed. This damn high school life is better for reminiscing than for coming back.
The person next to me was still writing, the pen tip making a scratching sound.
Someone is running outside the window, shouting in the distance.
A breeze blew in through the window, causing the curtains to flutter slightly.
He opened his textbook, found the first chapter, and started reading from the beginning.