CHAPTER 49: CHAPTER 48: SWAPPING THE DRAGON FOR THE PHOENIX

Three weeks passed by in a flash. For the entire three weeks, Su Ziceng didn’t exchange a single word with Yan Wuxu, who also always stayed very cautious, trying to appear in front of her as little as possible, becoming even closer to Fei Qing.

Several times, Su Ziceng wanted to speak out, but remembering the incident with Deng Jiani, anger surged in her heart, and she swallowed back the advice that had almost reached her lips. During Hang Yishao’s school days, he had also changed a few girlfriends, but with Su Ziceng’s meddling, things ended up relatively calm. Fei Qing was a different story altogether; Su Ziceng remembered that during his school days, he had gotten a girl pregnant and nearly caused a fatality. In the end, it was the Fei Family that paid a sum of money to hush up the incident. Yan Wuxu looked timid and probably didn’t dare to actually stir up trouble with Fei Qing.

On the day of the exam, Yan Wuxu took her seat in the front row of the classroom that could accommodate over thirty people, waiting for Mr. Green to come and proctor the exam. Su Ziceng strode in and sat down in the last row in the corner, far away from Yan Wuxu by five or six rows. Yan Wuxu’s head drooped even lower, flipping through the pages of her French book.

The invigilator finally arrived, but it wasn’t Mr. Green; it was Pello. Upon seeing Pello, a ray of sunshine immediately appeared on Su Ziceng’s otherwise overcast face.

Pello first handed the test papers to Yan Wuxu, then stepped over two or three rows, about to hand the papers to Su Ziceng when someone else walked into the classroom.

Wen Maixue, who hadn’t been seen for days, walked to the front row, glanced at Su Ziceng who was smilingly accepting the test paper and Pello who could hardly hold back his amusement, and coughed discontentedly, "I heard Mr. Green got food poisoning this morning, and I just happen to be free now, so I’ll help proctor the exam. There’s no need to trouble Teacher Pello," she said crisply and swiftly patted the second-row seat: "My eyesight isn’t very good, so I’m afraid I’ll have to ask Su Ziceng to move to the second row to facilitate monitoring the exam."

The class president of Kelly Women’s College is akin to a half teacher, and considering the person speaking was the reputed Queen of Kelly Women’s College, Pello looked at Wen Maixue thoughtfully. She was not supposed to be on campus at this time.

Kelly Women’s School employs a credit system, meaning that once the required courses are completed, one can take the entry, intermediate, and advanced level examinations at any time. According to Wen Maixue’s progress, she could completely skip the three years of entry and intermediate levels and move directly to advanced courses.

However, she chose to take the basic courses with fewer credits instead, preferring to participate in family affairs in her spare time and not taking advancement exams. Therefore, Wen Maixue would only appear on campus on Tuesdays and Wednesdays every week, and today is Thursday.

Pello handed over the exam bag and proctor signature sheet to Wen Maixue and took another profound look at Su Ziceng before walking out.

Su Ziceng’s heart skipped a beat; a few weeks ago, Pello had said he would find a way to take Mr. Green’s place as the invigilator, reassuring her that she just needed to memorize about ten French translation articles, and that she could answer questions on the spot if anything was unclear. Trusting in this, Su Ziceng had let go of her mental burden, only to have Wen Maixue appear out of nowhere—truly, fate seemed to be against Su Ziceng.

Yan Wuxu in the front row had already started the exam, writing smoothly with her fountain pen, while Wen Maixue’s piercing gaze rendered Su Ziceng’s mind blank. The exam paper before her became as white as snowflakes, with every character turning into lines of an endless queue, with numerous French soldiers with lofty noses and broad faces marching vigorously before her eyes, yet not a single one turned to look at her.

Twenty minutes passed, and Su Ziceng’s golden pen still lay casually beside her. Seeing her motionless, Wen Maixue picked up a newspaper and began to read. However, Su Ziceng would wager that Wen Maixue’s eyes had x-ray vision, and even through the newspaper, she was still keeping a watchful eye on every one of Su Ziceng’s moves.

The back of the front-row seat trembled, once and then again. Yan Wuxu freed her left hand, and a large portion of her exam paper became visible, waving at Su Ziceng. Yan Wuxu pulled the paper back a bit more, and the front half of the exam became clearly visible.

"She wants me to cheat?" Facing Yan Wuxu’s blatant goodwill, Su Ziceng nearly gave in, feeling the urge to reconcile with her. Just when Su Ziceng was about to see Yan Wuxu’s exam paper, she also saw the fountain pen that Su Ziceng’s right hand was still moving, and one that looked exactly like her Montblanc gold pen, which must have undoubtedly been a gift from Fei Qing.

"She never really considered you a friend, otherwise why would she keep everything from you, not even listening to your advice," Su Ziceng forcefully pulled the desk back, the chair and desk collided, and the figure in front startled, Wen Maixue put down her newspaper, and Yan Wuxu had to pull her exam paper back.

The pen cap was tossed aside, Su Ziceng took a deep breath and composed herself to look at the exam paper beneath her pen, the French soldiers on it seemed to have removed their hats, losing some of their military majesty and gaining a touch of fashion.

"Hmm," Su Ziceng looked at it again doubtfully, the entire exam paper was divided into three parts, the first section was multiple-choice questions, all about French grammar and intonation, which she didn’t remember very well. The second section was true or false questions about anecdotes of French historical figures, most of the names she had never heard of. The third part was an essay with an open topic, and the question was...

The exam paper in her hands was nearly crushed into a paper chrysanthemum by Su Ziceng.

During the ninety-minute exam, for the first half-hour, Su Ziceng was in a state of breathless anticipation and halfway through, she rejected Yan Wuxu’s kind offer of help.

An hour later, both Su Ziceng and Yan Wuxu had handed in their papers, Wen Maixue glanced at Yan Wuxu’s fully written exam paper, and then at Su Ziceng’s, and sealed them into the exam bags.

At dinner, Yan Wuxu wasn’t eating much, looking somewhat downcast, Fei Qing beside her inquired, "How was today’s exam? Did it all go well?"

"Hmm, it was alright, though the questions were a bit obscure, the true or false and multiple-choice questions were all from the textbook content, but the final essay question was ’The life of Coco Chanel,’" Yan Wuxu said with a sheepish smile while biting her chopsticks, "I don’t pay much attention to these things, so I don’t know if what I wrote was any good."

"Chanel? That’s easy, I’ll take you to buy a few pieces tonight, and then you’ll understand," Fei Qing said, patting his chest. There’s a Chanel boutique in Zone 3, and as soon as he finished speaking, Yan Wuxu’s mood seemed much improved. Deng Jiani, hearing this, gave Hang Yishao a sidelong glance.

"Let’s all go together," Hang Yishao caught Deng Jiani’s gesture and took note of it, then glanced at Fei Qing again.

Fei Qing snorted, "How did Su Ziceng do on the exam? If she fails, she might have to transfer to Daoquan University, and then it would be trouble," Hang Yishao’s intention, he understood pretty well.

"I’m afraid the outlook isn’t great," Yan Wuxu felt gloomy again, feeling somewhat guilty towards Su Ziceng.