124: 124 Great idea~ 124: 124 Great idea~ In the following week, Beijing No.1 Middle School’s senior year department set aside two days to organize the first monthly exam of the school year.

During the morning self-study session on the next Monday, class representatives began to distribute the exam papers.

First, Xia Ye and Tang Tianjiao received their comprehensive science papers.

Tang Tianjiao scored 60, while Xia Ye got 87.

Then it was English.

Tang Tianjiao 51, Xia Ye 65.

Tang Tianjiao was becoming anxious, as she was already forty-one points behind her deskmate in just these two subjects.

It wasn’t that she was unwilling to rank behind her deskmate, but the key point was that Xia Ye had just started school not long ago, and yet his scores were so much higher than hers.

If his total score turned out to be higher than hers as well, how could she face being his “wife”?

The math papers were quickly handed out thereafter.

Tang Tianjiao was quite confident about math.

In recent times, after practicing swordsmanship each day, she had managed to find eleven or twelve minutes to look over the review materials Xia Ye provided her.

Though it didn’t seem like much time, consistency was key!

As the paper landed on the desk, Tang Tianjiao compared their scores nervously.

She 64, Xia Ye 43.

Yes!

Heaven indeed rewards the diligent!

She had made up 21 points in one go, now the gap was just 20 points.

The last subject was Chinese, and Tang Tianjiao wasn’t very confident about it.

Her scores in Chinese were usually around forty, and even though she knew “Leisure and Fun Record” by heart, there was only a small fill-in-the-blank question about it on the test, which didn’t have much impact on the total score.

Catching up the 20-point gap with Xia Ye through this subject wasn’t going to be easy.

After all, Xia Ye was no ordinary person, and she seemed to remember him saying that his specialty was Chinese.

Finally, the Chinese papers were distributed.

Tang Tianjiao got 42 points.

As expected.

Resigned to her fate, she turned to compare scores with Xia Ye—

21 points?

Did he underperform this time?

But coincidentally, after the tally, she actually scored 1 point higher than Xia Ye in total!

She had saved face in front of Xia Ye and yet her total score wasn’t too much higher than his; Tang Tianjiao couldn’t be more satisfied!

In the end, amidst this intense battle for marks, Tang Tianjiao moved up one place, becoming second to last in the class, but Xia Ye successfully maintained his position as the last in the class.

Tang Tianjiao sincerely comforted Xia Ye, “Bro, don’t worry about this slip-up, you’ll definitely do better next time!”

However, she failed to notice that Xia Ye was staring contentedly at his answer sheet laid out on the desk, recording the scores of the four exam papers.

Four answer sheets, with scores arranged from highest to lowest.

They were—

’87,’ ’65,’ ’43,’ ’21’…

The first class in the afternoon was Chinese, and Emperor Yang summarized the monthly exam results in combination with the performance.

Overall, class 19 had made progress compared to before, especially in Chinese and math.

The improvement in Chinese was due to the prior influence of “Leisure and Fun Record,” and in math because the math teacher had photocopied Xia Ye’s review materials last week, providing every student in the class with a copy.

Although there was progress, the total scores were still slightly behind the class that ranked second to last.

However, Emperor Yang always practiced encouraging education and affirmed the increasingly on-track learning atmosphere among the students.

During the breaks, the students weren’t as noisy as before; after returning from the restroom, they also kept their heads down, reviewing the wrong questions on their exam papers.

Believe it or not, studying can actually be quite addictive!

Emperor Yang caught a distant glimpse and, to his surprise, found Xia Ye actually writing answers on her test paper.

Her writing speed was pretty fast.

She was moving her hand back and forth in small motions, unlike her slow pace during the exams before.

It seemed that ranking absolute last in the class this time had stimulated her tender little heart.

Emperor Yang, quite pleased with himself, sauntered over, patted Xia Ye on the head, and said in a gentle tone, “Don’t be discouraged, teacher believes that your true level is definitely better than this…”

Before he could finish the word “this,” Emperor Yang’s impassioned voice came to an abrupt halt.

Under the big questions on the physics test, in the blank space, Xia Ye had drawn…

A big rooster!

Pointy beak, tall comb, and a heroic stance with head held high.

Its muscles were very well-defined, looking absolutely delicious to eat!

Emperor Yang thought she had been doing her problems; what was she so serious about drawing for?!

All morning, Class 19 followed the schedule and studied, and although to other classes they were still the worst, they themselves knew they had improved.

At lunch in the cafeteria, Tang Tianjiao and Xia Ye sat opposite each other.

Zhou Yao clung to Xia Ye’s side, craning her neck as she watched Tang Tianjiao and Xia Ye discuss the math problem in between them.

“Are you two drilling extra problems again?”

Tang Tianjiao pretended to be smug, saying with an air of superiority, “The really simple ones aren’t interesting to do.”

She was only saying it to liven up the mood with friends, but inadvertently a group from First Middle School overheard while they were coming to eat.

A few girls walking in front heard her bold claim and laughed in supreme arrogance.

“The simple ones aren’t interesting to do?

May I ask if you scored over a hundred on the math test this time?”

These girls used to be Xia Yourong’s lackeys, and although Xia Yourong had fallen from grace, her spirit lingered on.

They saw themselves as superior and looked down on regular classes.

Moreover, lately even the boys from their First Middle School had started talking about Xia Ye, and every time her name came up, it was with adoring glints in their eyes.

The hostility of these girls had only grown stronger.

Zhou Yao knew them all from before and tried to play peacemaker, “Alright, alright, we were just chatting.

Don’t butt into others’ conversations.”

But these people wouldn’t give her face at all.

In their eyes, a top student who went to a regular class symbolized the beginning of degradation.

“Yaoyao, are you getting defensive already?

Your grades weren’t that great back in First Middle School either, how come you’ve become number one since you went to a regular class and started acting like the boss?”

Zhou Yaoyao clenched her teeth in frustration.

Others thought she was angry because she’d been insulted, but what really made her angry—

“Stop talking nonsense, Xia Ye is our class boss!”

Words could be thrown around carelessly, but the hierarchy must not be messed up!

A few girls exchanged glances and snickered.

“Yaoyao, I didn’t expect you to adapt to Class 19’s life so quickly, even acknowledging a boss.

Seems like you really should have gone to a regular class sooner.”

“And a boss, how middle schoolish of you!”

One of the girls, with the sharpest mouth and monkey-cheeked features, jumped out.

She dramatically suggested, “If Xia Ye really is your class boss, why doesn’t she do something good for your class?

A boss should be like in ‘Young and Dangerous’, just stand in front of our cafeteria’s window, slap the table, and say: ‘From now on, add two walnuts to each of our class members’ lunch every day!

Because…'”

She paused deliberately at this point, glanced around at the others to raise suspense, and then said, “We need brain food!”

The group burst into laughter, thinking Xia Ye would certainly turn as red as an eggplant with rage.

But to their surprise, Xia Ye wasn’t angry at all.

She casually draped an arm over the back of Zhou Yao’s chair and crossed her legs, looking at them earnestly, “That’s a good idea~”