Chapter 20

When Feng Yiping and Wang Changning arrived at the school, it was almost five o'clock, and the third-grade classes had just finished. The school was bustling with activity.

When they reached the classroom, Xiao Zhijie was already there, his textbook spread out on the desk, but it seemed to be just for show. His face, still a bit chubby, was full of smiles as he whispered something to Zhang Qiuling. Zhang Qiuling, listening, would occasionally cover her mouth and laugh, her youthful vitality overflowing. But she didn't forget her studies. At that moment, she asked Xiao Zhijie, "Xiao Zhijie, how do you spell 'family'?"

Xiao Zhijie was stumped and was about to flip through his book, "Let me check!"

Zhang Qiuling pressed his book down, "What's the point of spelling it out by looking at the book? Write it down like this."

Xiao Zhijie, looking a bit worried, took the pen and wrote on the paper. After writing a few times, Zhang Qiuling said, "Tsk, none of them are right."

Seeing Feng Yiping, Xiao Zhijie quickly called out, "Yiping, come here, come here."

Feng Yiping thought something serious had happened, but when he saw this, he realized it was simple. He had seen public service advertisements about this word countless times, and even his son, who was in the middle class of kindergarten, had memorized it. He wrote the word first and then the sentence, "You should remember this word like this: father and mother I love you. Right? The first letters of these words add up to 'family,' right?"

Xiao Zhijie looked at it, "Oh, that's true. Break it down into a sentence and then remember it as a whole. That way, you won't forget it."

Zhang Qiuling was surprised, "Feng Yiping, how did you think of that?"

She added, "No wonder you did so well on this exam!"

Feng Yiping was taken aback; the results hadn't come out yet. "How do you know?"

As soon as he asked, he knew the answer, "Oh, I forgot you're the principal's daughter."

"What principal's daughter, that sounds so old-fashioned. I'm not some ancient noble lady," Zhang Qiuling said, then asked him, "How did you think of remembering words like that?"

"Coincidence, coincidence! We break down Chinese characters, right? I tried breaking down English words once, and that's how I found this one." Feng Yiping laughed it off and walked to his seat. He greeted Huang Jingping, put his backpack in his desk, and took out his homework book. After the exam, he could think about "creation" again. Otherwise, he had no money or reason to ask his parents to rent a house in the town to quickly escape the dormitory life he found hard to adapt to.

He flipped through the outlines he had written down, feeling more confident. Just as he was about to start writing, Huang Jingping asked him, "Feng Yiping, you got first place in the political exam for the whole grade!"

"Huh?" Feng Yiping thought these people were all so well-informed. He then realized that her second uncle was the political teacher for the three first-grade classes.

"Really?" He was happy but tried to be modest, "Lucky, absolutely lucky! If I had performed normally, I wouldn't even be as good as you."

"Phony!" Huang Jingping rolled her eyes, looking very cute.

"Hey, what were you talking about just now?" Feng Yiping asked.

Feng Yiping decided to give Xiao Zhijie a chance, "Xiao Zhijie,"

Xiao Zhijie turned around, and Feng Yiping waved him over, "Come here!"

"What's up?" Xiao Zhijie was in the middle of a good conversation with Zhang Qiuling and was quite impatient. "What you just told me, tell Huang Jingping."

"Okay," Xiao Zhijie was happy to do so. He grabbed a chair and leaned over Huang Jingping's desk, explaining and writing as he went. Soon, both Huang Jingping and Wang Jinju said, "Oh, that's really it!"

"Feng Yiping, are there other words you can remember like this?" Wang Jinju asked, and Huang Jingping looked at him.

Feng Yiping thought he shouldn't have shown off, "No, I've only come across this one so far."

"Oh," the two girls were a bit disappointed but still encouraged him, "Feng Yiping, you have a lot of good ideas."

Xiao Zhijie returned to his seat with a smile, trying to talk to Zhang Qiuling, but she ignored him, turning her head away and showing him her back. Even someone as dull as he was could tell something was wrong. He looked at Huang Jingping and understood why Zhang Qiuling was ignoring him.

So, during dinner, Xiao Zhijie was sighing dramatically. Feng Yiping and Wang Changning asked what was wrong. After some hesitation, he told them. The two just watched the show, tasting each other's dishes—both were pickled vegetables, completely ignoring his troubles. After a while, the two were leisurely eating while still mocking him.

Wang Changning pointed at him and laughed, "Serves you right, who told you to try to date two girls at once?"

Feng Yiping added, "Yeah, and you were so obvious today."

Xiao Zhijie kicked Feng Yiping, "You're still saying that, it was you who told me to go."

Feng Yiping ate slowly, "I knew you liked Huang Jingping, so I was giving you a chance. If you want, I won't try to help you anymore."

Xiao Zhijie quickly said, "No, let's talk about it later. Help me figure out how to make her not angry."

"Simple," Feng Yiping winked at Wang Changning, "We can help you make Zhang Qiuling not angry, but what's in it for us?"

"Right," Wang Changning chimed in, "We won't help unless there's something in it for us."

"You guys are so mean," Xiao Zhijie said, "Okay, what do you want?"

Feng Yiping gestured for Wang Changning to speak, "Creamy sunflower seeds, a big bag."

Xiao Zhijie let out a small sigh, "Okay, no problem!"

Feng Yiping and Wang Changning were just teasing him. This big bag of creamy sunflower seeds was about three times the size of a later supermarket bag but only cost 1.5 yuan.

"What's the plan?" Xiao Zhijie asked.

Feng Yiping waved them over, and the three leaned in close. After he finished, Xiao Zhijie was smiling, but Wang Changning looked at Feng Yiping, "I feel like you're a bit of a playboy too. How else could you come up with these ideas?"

Xiao Zhijie nudged Wang Changning with his shoulder, "You don't know, he's a real playboy."

When Zhang Qiuling finished eating and returned to the classroom, Xiao Zhijie quickly stood up to let her pass, but she lowered her head and went in from the other side. Feng Yiping wanted to laugh and turned to look at Huang Jingping, who also seemed a bit uncomfortable.

The evening self-study was Chinese. Wang Yumin entered with a stack of papers, and as her high heels clicked, the classroom fell silent.

She slammed the papers on the podium, "This exam was so easy, and the amount of content was not much, yet some people still failed! Huh? Are you just wasting your time? With such an easy exam, how can you expect to get into high school? If you're just going to waste money playing around at school, you might as well go home now and help your parents with the farming. At least you'd be a bit of a laborer!"

The classroom was dead silent, and many students lowered their heads. Wang Yumin then changed her tone, "Of course, a few students made significant progress, and they deserve praise. Now, I'll hand out the papers. Feng Yiping, 98,"

Feng Yiping walked to the podium, and Wang Yumin smiled at him, "Good job, keep it up!"

"Second place, Tang Shaokang, 91." He was the class president.

After handing out the papers, Wang Yumin said, "I'll announce the total scores for this exam. First place, Feng Yiping: Chinese 98, Math 99, English 99, Physics 99, Chemistry 99, Politics 99, History 99, Geography 98, Biology 95. Feng Yiping, with 885 points, is the top student in the grade, ranking first in all subjects except Biology."

The class was silent again. Looking at it, it was clear that except for Biology, the other eight subjects were almost perfect. Everyone knew that the teachers' principle in grading was that even if you answered everything correctly, they wouldn't give you a perfect score, always finding some reason to deduct a point or two, such as messy handwriting or a dirty test paper, to prevent you from becoming complacent.

Overall, Wang Yumin was satisfied with this exam. The top student in the grade was from Class 1, and four of the top ten were from Class 1. Especially Feng Yiping, who had ranked third in the small exams in Class 1, had now jumped to first in the grade, and his scores were almost perfect in all subjects except Biology. This exam, though not very difficult, covered a wide range of knowledge, including all the key points of the past two months. Moreover, she knew that Feng Yiping studied subjects unrelated to the exam in his free time, and he had crammed the three minor subjects in the last two days. Despite this, he still performed so well. If he could maintain this, by the time of the high school entrance exam, not only would he be able to get into the top high school in the county, but with some effort, the top high school in the city would also be within reach.

So, after the self-study, Wang Yumin specifically called Feng Yiping outside the classroom, "Feng Yiping, you did well on this exam, but it's not a big deal. You know, this exam was very easy. If you didn't do well, that would be a problem. So don't be proud, and you need to work hard."

Feng Yiping nodded repeatedly, "Also, you must maintain this level. If you fall behind and let others catch up, you won't need to go to Mr. Zhu anymore. Got it?"

Feng Yiping was stunned, and Wang Yumin walked away with a smile.

Oh, this is self-imposed pressure! Feng Yiping finally realized.

Sigh, why did I become so honest? I didn't know teachers could be so cunning! It would have been fine to just get first, second, or third in the class, but why did I have to get first in the grade and have to maintain it? This will affect my plans for making money. I'm just making things harder for myself!

Feng Yiping felt terrible.

At this moment, Xiao Zhijie walked over and put his hand on Feng Yiping's shoulder, "Mr. Wang praised you, right?"

Feng Yiping shrugged off his hand and went back to the classroom to pack up his things. Xiao Zhijie called out, "Aren't you going back to the dorm?"

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