CHAPTER 822: CHAPTER 694: LIKING YOU SINCE THE FIRST GLANCE 35

In the second half of senior year, academics became increasingly stressful, and amid the frequent and tedious exams, all enthusiasm for entertainment was exhausted.

A few girls would gather together to study; even Zhao Linlin, who was never fond of studying, was influenced and started going to the library early and late, continually putting in overtime for extra study.

Because with every release of rankings, she felt further away from her friends, even though rankings were just on a piece of paper, it still made her feel embarrassed.

She was really afraid one day she’d hear people say.

"Clearly in the same dormitory, why is there such a big difference?"

"This Zhao Linlin must not be studying, right."

Like she’d been injected with chicken blood, Zhao Linlin became ever more invested in her studies, and super invested at that, deeply afraid that if she left any stone unturned, she’d fall dramatically during exams.

When your grades improve and you finally hang in the top ten of your year, you can’t escape this circle, because the shine of being relied upon can inflate your vanity.

With such motivation, Zhao Linlin seemed to be possessed by a God of Learning.

This puzzled Lai Wei, Mi Lu, and Jian Dan. When Jian Dan returned to the dormitory, she casually asked, "Linlin, have you been injected with chicken blood lately? You look like you’re studying as if your life depends on it, it’s really intriguing."

Zhao Linlin kept her head down, furiously writing, taking a moment to answer Jian Dan’s question, "Not really, it’s more like the sense of glory from good grades makes me feel quite beautiful, and at home, my status has risen sharply, you know? I’m actually the girl in my family with notable academic achievements;

My dad almost went to burn incense and worship Buddha. I think, just to make my dad happy, I have to study hard, once the college entrance exam is over, who knows what kind of benefits You Nuo might promise me;

Besides, having my name in the top ten on the honor roll, being worshipped by people, really feels awesome."

The three of them laughed, and Zhao Linlin continued, "Hey, don’t laugh, just consider me short-sighted."

Mi Lu looped her arm around Zhao Linlin’s shoulder and stuffed a piece of dried mango into her mouth, "You’re not short-sighted, we’ve seen your efforts, even what you said is just the reward for your hard work, we’re very happy for you."

Zhao Linlin’s eyes lit up, "Really?"

"Yeah." The three nodded, Jian Dan smiling, "Then let’s make a pact, let’s apply to the same university, shall we?"

"Of course."

The small dormitory suddenly felt warm and cozy, as the girls talked about their hopes for the future. Sometimes, the confidence brought by studying is something that’s irreplaceable during school days.

This happiness is simple yet also desirable.

The banner of the genius dormitory completely broke out of the circle during the third exam of the second month.

The reason was this: that exam had a five-star difficulty rating. Teachers and students alike predicted that if you could score over 600, you’d definitely be able to add 100 points to your college entrance exam because the questions were so tricky and complex.

Jian Dan and the others originally didn’t have much hope. The affiliated high school was different from other schools; if they said it was difficult, it truly was difficult.

There was absolutely no suspicion of deceiving people.

Thus, the four walked into the examination room, but upon seeing those all-too-familiar questions, they all suddenly thought, "This is called difficult?"

As a result, in that exam ranking, the four from the dormitory occupied four of the top five positions on the honor roll. Zhao Linlin surprisingly scored higher than Mi Lu, ranking fourth, while Mi Lu was fifth. Third place went to someone else, while the first and second spots were still dominated by Jian Dan and Lai Wei.

This seemed to be a very normal thing.

No one knew when it started, but the names of these two long occupied the top spots of the honor roll, firmly unshaken.

The scores of Lai Wei, Jian Dan, Lin Xia, Zhao Linlin, and Mi Lu were 665, 660, 610, 608, and 600, drawing everyone’s attention.

Below fifth place, there was a gap, with the sixth place scoring only 565.

This score was so abnormal that it seemed like the top five knew what would be on the test in advance, a situation never seen before.

During the class meeting, the teacher focused on praising a few of them, Lin Xia was not one of them, but rather a super dark horse from the neighboring class, unanticipated by everyone, yet within reason.

After all, the name Lin Xia still appeared on every list, just with occasional minor changes in rank.

But between the first, second place and the third place, there was also a gap, which was quite interesting.

During the class meeting, the class teacher beamed with joy, especially praising Zhao Linlin, saying she had made swift progress since transferring.

It was also heard that among the top five, several were roommates, and thus the legend of the genius dormitory spread.

Facing the gaze of others looking at them like monkeys, apart from Zhao Linlin feeling immensely proud, the other three felt quite uncomfortable. It was just one exam, really no need to make such a fuss.