Rebirth 2004: A lone figure in the literary world

Chapter 9: Failed the test? I am the best in the city
Liu Xuyang was a little restless, and he looked at the dormitory door from time to time. When he went to Pang Yun to pick a fight, he thought Pang Yun would use a more covert and roundabout way to teach Zhang Chao a lesson, but he didn't expect that this guy seemed to have taken the wrong medicine and came to the class to "discuss" with Zhang Chao like a gangster.

Liu Xuyang, who had not watched any TV series for three years, certainly did not expect that Pang Yun was not learning about gangsters, but about "Meteor Garden".

The Taiwanese version of Meteor Garden was introduced to the mainland in 2002 and became a hit among thousands of young boys and girls. Daoming Si, Hua Ze Lei, Ximen, Mei Zuo, and Sang Cai, played by Da Xian, are the youth memories of a generation.

Pang Yun’s favorite is the domineering Daomingsi.

But he didn't expect that before he could finish his sentence, he was killed by Zhang Chao's completely unreasonable operation. He didn't even finish a complete sentence.

"What a waste!" Liu Xuyang cursed in his heart. When he saw the two teachers appear in the corridor, he knew that the matter was completely ruined. He was most worried about whether Pang Yun would betray him.

It was not until the lights were turned off at 10:30 that Zhang Chao returned to the dormitory. He looked normal, washed up and went to bed.

Liu Xuyang finally felt relieved.

In fact, Zhang Chao was puzzled as to why Pang Yun came to see him. He had no memory of this episode, and he didn't even remember Pang Yun.

Twenty years have passed, and many things and people from high school have become blurred in his mind. He also can't remember any grudges he had with anyone during this period.

So when Pang Yun suddenly appeared, he did not associate it with Liu Xuyang; or he simply did not care.

To some extent, Zhang Chao has become indifferent to his high school relationships after his rebirth. In 2024, he has not contacted his high school classmates for many years, and even his former buddy Chen Huan is nowhere to be found.

Moreover, he was mentally mature and did not care much about the "grudges" between these high school students. He just didn't want anyone to disturb his plan of going to college through his special method.

Huang Jianguo was so dry-mouthed from what he had just said that he finally agreed to let Pang Yun and Xie Zijian come to apologize to him the next day and promise not to bother him again.

It’s not that he is so generous, but when he heard that Pang Yun was going to participate in the semi-finals of the "New Concept Composition Competition", he started to hold back his laughter.

Pang Yun probably did not win the award in the end, otherwise I would have remembered the school’s much-publicized award.

Moreover, on the day of the semi-finals, copies of Southern Weekend should have spread all over China. As the most influential weekly newspaper in China in the early 21st century, with sales of over a million per issue, it would create a phenomenal social focus almost every one or two months.

With such influence, Southern Weekend can even survive comfortably without relying on newspaper subscription income, as its advertising revenue alone exceeds 100 million yuan each year.

Although I am not sure what impact my article will have on the "New Concept Essay Contest", it will undoubtedly be seen as the "death knell" of this competition - as long as the course of history does not change, universities will no longer directly admit winners starting from the next session.

If you can make your own appearance at the right time and continue to produce high-quality works that cause a large enough social response, it is entirely possible to gain an opportunity to be specially recruited into university within half a year.

Of course, these are all later stories. Zhang Chao just wanted Pang Yun not to dare to mess with him in the future, so he wanted to scare him in one go.

That day, I slipped out of the dormitory at 11 o'clock again, went into the computer room, took out the floppy disk and inserted it into the floppy disk slot, logged into Blog China, and quickly copied, pasted, and sent the article. That was it.

After being able to use the computer stably, he naturally didn't need to stay up late anymore. Zhang Chao also found that his third article criticizing the New Sprout magazine had been deleted from major forums as usual, and only the blog China had been preserved.

Then I browsed through various major news websites, copied the key news that were worth writing about, and went back to the dormitory to sleep. It was not yet twelve o'clock.

It's a new week again, but this Monday is not going to be easy.

The first mock test results have been announced!

The first class was the political class taught by our homeroom teacher, Lao Wang. He stood on the podium with a serious face, stared at the whole class for a while, and then slowly spoke:
“Overall, the results of this mock test were pretty good. However, there were both joys and sorrows.

I am so happy, I won't say more. Shen Ming, with a total score of 668, is not only the first in the liberal arts class of the whole school, but also the third in the whole city, only 2 points less than Xu Yingfeng from No. Middle School. He can definitely challenge the first place in the liberal arts class of the whole city, or even the first place in the whole province! "

After that, he started to applaud, and the students below also clapped twice. Shen Ming's face showed no joy or sadness, as such a result was completely within his expectations.

After the applause, Lao Wang continued, “However, there are also some students who are usually very confident, even arrogant, and think they can do everything. But they failed miserably in this exam!” His tone was much more severe.

Zhang Chao's heart skipped a beat, thinking, could this be talking about him?

Lao Wang went on to say: "Some students are stubborn in their studies and don't listen to others' advice. This is courting their own destruction!"

Zhang Chao complained in his heart, Lao Wang is so dirty, isn’t it enough to scold him once?
Then they started announcing the scores from highest to lowest, which was like a public execution:

affirmation, 668;

Chen Junyu, 625;

Liu Xinyu, 622;

Xu Heng, 617...

These four are considered the four great warriors of Class 2. Their scores are basically stable at above 600 points, but Shen Ming is in a unique class.

Wang Chengcheng, 601;

Wang Chengcheng is the representative of the Chinese language department, but he is not very good at math. His scores are occasionally above 600, so this time he performed well.

……

Liu Xuyang, 557;

Zhang Chao glanced at Liu Xuyang and saw that his face was pale and he was almost sliding off the chair.

Lao Wang also glared at him fiercely, then continued to announce the results with an expressionless face.

...Zeng Ming, 501.

Zeng Ming is the least visible member of Zhang Chao's dormitory. He doesn't play sports like Chen Huan and Zhang Chao, nor is he a good student like Liu Xuyang. This score is within the normal range.

But after mentioning him, Lao Wang mentioned several other classmates, but Zhang Chao was not one of them. This was a bit abnormal.

Chen Huan, 395.

He was the second to last in the class, and the third to last had 450 points. Originally, his grades were not good enough for him to be in Class 2, and he would definitely go to Class 6 or Class 8, but he had a good father.

Zhang Chao's name was still not mentioned. At this time, other students in the class also noticed that Chen Huan had always been the last one in the class, so how could he suddenly "improve" this time? So they all turned their eyes to Zhang Chao. Even though Zhang Chao had lived two lives, he couldn't help but blush.

Lao Wang took a deep breath before uttering the last name:
Zhang Chao, 337.

The whole class was shocked. Although Zhang Chao's grades were not outstanding, they were still above the second-tier line. This time he dropped nearly 200 points, which was not something that ordinary people could do.

Zhang Chao felt neither happy nor sad, as this result was already within his expectations.

Lao Wang looked at Zhang Chao strangely, but he did not get angry immediately. Instead, he said, "The results have been announced, and all the students know the results. You will know the specific results of each subject after the answer sheets and test papers are distributed during the evening study tonight. Now let's go to class."

After class, Lao Wang still did not let Zhang Chao go. He first criticized Zhang Chao harshly, saying that he was obsessed with one subject and was asked to take the test paper home for his parents to sign this weekend. Zhang Chao's parents also wanted to come to the school next week to have a good talk about his future.

Zhang Chao agreed to all of them, but he didn't really care. He had already decided to give up on his grades. Even if he only slept two hours a day for the next six months, it would not work - besides, he wasn't a hard-working person.

When I returned to the classroom, I saw Chen Huan approaching me with a touched face. He said, "Brother Chao, you are really my brother! You can't bear to see me being at the bottom for so long..."

"Get lost!" Zhang Chao didn't want to pay any attention to him.

At this time, Liu Xuyang silently passed by his seat and snorted in a nasal tone, which showed a mixture of three parts of pride, three parts of sarcasm, and three parts of the satisfaction of having had a great revenge.

Several classmates who were close to Zhang Chao came over and wanted to ask how he managed to drop 200 points. Did he hand in a blank paper for the liberal arts exam?
Fortunately, the break was only ten minutes, and as soon as the bell rang, all the curious kids returned to their seats.

This class is Chinese. The Chinese teacher is named Zhang Ting, with an ordinary name but an unusual nickname - "Tingmei" - those who have seen Ni Hongjie's "Being a woman is beautiful!" advertisement should know what it means.

"Tingmei" is dressed particularly beautifully today. The pink high-necked slim sweater brings out her best features. Her hair is tied up in a bun at the back of her head with a few strands hanging down beside her face. With the elegant frameless glasses, she looks even more cool and pure. It is hard to believe that she is already in her thirties.

Chen Huan poked Zhang Chao's shoulder from behind and whispered, "What good thing happened to Tingmei today that you are wearing such beautiful clothes?"

It is no longer a secret in the class that Zhang Ting dresses beautifully when she is in a good mood, and dresses sloppily when she is in a bad mood.

Zhang Chao whispered back: "How would I know. She..."

"Zhang Chao!" Zhang Ting suddenly called Zhang Chao's name.

Zhang Chao secretly thought that it was bad. He didn't expect to be called out just after he said something bad. It seemed that he was going to be scolded again today. But the teacher had given the order, so he had to stand up from his seat:
"To!"

"Do you know why I screamed?" Zhang Ting asked.

"Teacher, I shouldn't have talked in class. I'm sorry." Zhang Chao apologized to Zhang Ting honestly.

"You just talked..." Zhang Ting obviously didn't expect Zhang Chao to answer like that, but she quickly realized it and said, "You shouldn't talk in class. But I didn't ask you to stand up because of talking. Do you know how many points you got in the first mock exam?"

Zhang Chao felt annoyed. If I failed the test, I failed. Is it necessary for me to repeat what Lao Wang said? But he still answered loudly: "337 points. I didn't do well in the test. I failed the teacher's expectations."

Zhang Ting was stunned again, thinking that today's class was only three minutes long, and there were more twists and turns than a novel. What kind of score is 337? But this was not the focus of her class, so she continued: "... 337 points is not ideal. But do you know how many points you got in Chinese?"

Zhang Chao said: "I don't know. Teacher Wang only announced the total score."

Zhang Ting could no longer control the smile on her face and said loudly to the whole class: "145 points. Zhang Chao scored 145 points in Chinese in this mock exam."

The whole class was filled with exclamations. Chinese is not like math or English. Subjective questions are really "subjective", especially the mysterious "essay", so getting more than 140 points is rare.

Zhang Ting went on to say, "145 points is not only the highest score in the class, but also the highest score in the school, and even the city!" After saying that, she led the applause.

The students couldn't help but applaud.

Zhang Chao was relieved and happy. If he could maintain his first place in the city's subject until the college entrance examination, he might even have a chance to compete for the first place in the province in Chinese. If there were any universities willing to recruit him at that time, this result would play a certain role.

After the applause died down, Zhang Ting said, "Student Zhang Chao, your Chinese was already very good before, and this time you were able to go one step further. Can you tell me how you did it?"

Zhang Chao's mind moved, and he thought of some possibilities, and he answered: "I studied Chinese before, and although I could score over 120 or 130, I felt that I had reached a bottleneck. Recently, I have indeed found some study tips. I think these tips are quite applicable. If you are willing to listen, I will share them with you."

Zhang Ting originally thought that Zhang Chao would just be polite, but she was pleasantly surprised that he would actually show her the real thing. She knew that this kind of study and test-taking method summarized by students themselves is often more popular among students, and she was also very interested in knowing the secret of Zhang Chao's progress.

Zhang Ting asked, "Can you talk about it now, or do you need to go back and prepare?"

Zhang Chao said, "It's better to have this class today than to wait for a day. Teacher Zhang, is that ok?"

Zhang Ting said: "Of course, let's start the 'flipped classroom' now. You come up and I'll go down and listen." After saying that, she gave up the podium.

Zhang Chao was not stage-frightened. He strode up to the podium, picked up the chalk, and looked at the pairs of young and pure eyes below the podium. He suddenly felt that he had "returned" to his middle age, the days when he was in high spirits on the podium.

(End of this chapter)