This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 121 It's only a year late.
As we entered the third week of September, the weather gradually began to feel like autumn.

Temperature changes become more pronounced in the early morning and evening, with a daily low of 21°C and a high of 31°C.

Some female students in the class have started wearing an extra long-sleeved school uniform in the mornings.

This includes Lin Mengqiu, who is afraid of the cold.

It's likely that Lin Mengqiu brought her long-sleeved school uniform with her when she went home for the weekend, because starting Monday morning, she began wearing two school uniforms to class.

The inner layer was still a thin summer short-sleeved school uniform, while the outer layer was a fall/winter school uniform jacket.

Usually after morning exercises, she would take off her coat and wear only a short-sleeved shirt. Perhaps when the school changes morning exercises to recess exercises, it will be truly winter.

Chen Shi'an found it quite interesting that the class monitor, named Qiu and with a cold personality, was actually afraid of the cold; while Wen Zhixia, named Xia and with a warm personality, was actually afraid of the heat.

Little Zhi is absolutely smitten with this kind of weather right now. Just like Chen Shi'an, she still wears short sleeves to and from school every day. I reckon it will be at least another ten days or two weeks before she takes her long-sleeved school uniform out of the closet.

Having been a Taoist priest for eighteen years, Chen Shi'an is now a high school student. In the past two weeks, he has adapted to his new, regular life.

The main goal right now is to improve performance quickly.

By this time of the third week, he had already finished learning all the basics of junior high school math and was starting to learn high school math this week.

Chen Shi'an has caught up with the class's current English curriculum and has reached the fifth compulsory course. However, despite catching up, he has not followed the class schedule. Teacher Ye is very good, but for Chen Shi'an, her teaching pace is too slow, so he simply continues to study on his own.

Having finished the English textbooks for junior and senior high school, Chen Shi'an now spends his days reading English articles, classic works, or simply memorizing a thick dictionary.

As for Chinese, there's not much to say. The main thing is to strengthen your modern writing and informational text reading skills. Just accumulate more knowledge in your daily life.

As for physics, chemistry, and biology, Chen Shi'an hasn't started studying them yet. He plans to finish high school math before starting to study science.

Chen Shi'an spent two weeks studying and practicing math throughout junior high school. At this pace, even though high school math is more difficult than junior high, Chen Shi'an estimated that he should be able to finish it in about three more weeks.

Looking back now, it seems my teacher was being a bit conservative by arranging for him to transfer to the second year of high school...

Perhaps we could just put him in the senior year of high school, and he'd be just as successful in the college entrance exam a year later.

Chen Shi'an had actually thought about it before: why not talk to Principal Lin and transfer directly to the senior year of high school, get into university sooner, get his diploma sooner, go back to inherit the Taoist temple sooner, and then just stay in the mountains?

But after meeting Wen Zhixia and Lin Mengqiu, he gradually gave up the idea of ​​skipping a grade...

It seems like a good idea to experience high school life and take the college entrance exam together with the two first friends I made after coming down the mountain.

Regardless of their relationship, Chen Shi'an felt that he and they could at least be considered friends.

For the past eighteen years, Chen Shi'an has cared about only three things: his master, Fei Mo, and the Taoist temple. Now, for the first time, he has made friends of the same age.

Chen Shi'an can tell fortunes, but he can't tell his own. He doesn't know who will be part of his journey, who will accompany him, or what kind of impact and change his actions and choices will bring to the future.

Even now, Chen Shi'an believes that the most likely future is still to get into university, graduate, go back to inherit the Taoist temple, and then live in seclusion in the mountains, only a year later than directly transferring to the senior year of high school.

……

Once you establish a regular lifestyle, time flies by.

The third week of September ended with the conclusion of the weekly tests.

In this week's weekly tests, Chen Shi'an scored 132 in Chinese, 141 in English, 0 in Math, and 0 in Science...

It's normal for Chen Shi'an to get 0 points in the combined science section, after all, he hasn't even started studying yet, and he doesn't guess on the multiple-choice questions.
As for math, although he has started learning the first compulsory course material, the weekly test mainly covers the material he has recently learned, and he got zero points... Putting aside the class monitor's murderous glare, Chen Shi'an could accept it.

In just one week, their Chinese scores improved by 7 points and their English scores by 13 points. Teacher Liang and Teacher Ye were overjoyed!

Anyone who has been to school knows that the higher the score goes, the more difficult it becomes to improve it. If this score had increased so much in a month, that would be one thing, but it's only been a week! Others struggle to improve their scores in this range, but Chen Shi'an does it as easily as eating and drinking.
If this happens during the monthly exam at the end of the month, won't their Chinese score be close to 140 and their English score close to full marks?!
The term "Wenquxing" was first coined by Principal Lin, and Teacher Liang didn't believe it at the time.

Now Teacher Liang believes it, and Teacher Ye believes it too.

Now I finally understand why teachers love top students. After Chen Shi'an demonstrated a learning talent far beyond ordinary people, all the subject teachers looked at him with such admiration, just like a top elder of a sect who had a chance encounter with a disciple with top-notch talent. They couldn't wait to take him under their wing. Just imagining Chen Shi'an achieving something in the future and saying, "Back then, my teacher XX was so great," would be such a smug thing to do!

The other teachers in the office were as anxious as ants on a hot pan. They thought to themselves, "Chen Shi'an should study science subjects and math!" So one by one, they privately called Chen Shi'an out for a talk, hoping he would quickly catch up on his subjects.

"Don't worry, Teacher Zhang, I'm learning math now, and I've just gotten to the first compulsory course."

Teacher Zhang was overjoyed.

"Good, good, good. Don't fall behind in your core subjects. I look forward to your future performance. If you don't understand anything, feel free to come to my office to ask me. You're taking compulsory course 1, right? ...I'll go back to my office and find you some practice papers for compulsory course 1!"

"It's okay, Teacher Zhang. I'll just do the tests that the class monitor has done before."

"Hey, I'll get you some new ones. There are plenty at the first-year math group!"

"..."

The science teachers knew that the science subjects were not as important as the three main subjects, so they had no objection to Chen Shi'an taking extra math lessons first. However, it was important to decide which science subject to study first after math.

The physics teacher said, "Shi'an, I suggest that after you finish your main subjects, you should brush up on physics first. Physics is the subject that studies the most universal laws of motion and basic structure of matter, and it hardly depends on the knowledge of the other two subjects. It can be started independently, so it is best to learn physics first."

The chemistry teacher disagreed: "The core knowledge modules of chemistry are relatively independent. Unlike physics, where a lack of understanding of a certain part can affect subsequent learning, even if you are temporarily weak in a certain module of chemistry, it will not affect your learning of other modules. It has a higher tolerance for error and is more suitable for you to learn first."

The biology teacher's reasoning was even more direct: "Study biology first. Biology is simple. You don't need to look at junior high biology; you can start directly from high school biology. Biology is the fastest way to improve your score in the science subjects! Biology has the strongest humanities attribute among the science subjects. You don't even need to study math first; just start with biology!"

Teacher Zhang: “???”

You're trying to steal my person, aren't you!

The study materials that his subject teachers specially sent him were almost piled up on his desk, so much so that Teacher Liang even brought a storage basket from the office to give to Chen Shi'an for storage...

……

It's Saturday again before we know it.

September has four and a half weeks. There won't be any weekly tests next week because it's the last full week of September. The school has scheduled monthly exams for the last two days of the month, and then we'll have a five-day National Day holiday after the exams.

However, the price of the five-day holiday is that the last week and a half is spent in classes, a total of eleven days. The holiday day in the middle is directly taken away by the make-up day, and the week after the holiday, there are also nine days of classes.

This left Chen Shi'an, who was experiencing a time-off adjustment for the first time, somewhat bewildered. Could holidays really be adjusted like this?
So, if you calculate it this way, two out of the five-day holiday are made up for by working overtime, then it's like you only got three days off!

It would be better to just have a three-day break, so we don't have to have classes for so many days in a row for two weeks before and after...

"Hmph, we've got it all figured out! Senior high school students will also have to adjust their work schedules like us, and then they'll only get three days off!"

On Saturday evening, on the way home from school, Wen Zhixia spoke to him.

"...How many days off do first-year high school students get??"

"Seven days."

So many holidays?

"Yeah, but the first year of high school will probably only have this one time. Next year during National Day, they'll be doing the same thing as us."

"When is our next long holiday?"

"It should be the winter vacation, since it's Chinese New Year, so it should be at least ten days long."

"...Only ten days off for Chinese New Year? That means we'll have to go back to school before even the Lantern Festival?"

"Is the Lantern Festival considered a festival?" "Is the Lantern Festival not a festival?"

"Anything that doesn't have a holiday isn't a holiday!"

"Are there no holidays for the Mid-Autumn Festival, Winter Solstice, and Little New Year?"

"Yes, there will be a day off for Mid-Autumn Festival."

"..."

Chen Shi'an was helpless. When he was in the mountains, he had never experienced a life where even his holidays were scheduled. It was truly a life of hardship.

However, the girl, who had long been accustomed to this kind of life, was still feeling fortunate:
"Luckily, this monthly exam wasn't scheduled after the National Day holiday."

"Isn't it all the same no matter how you put it?"

"Of course it's different. Taking a holiday after exams versus taking exams right after returning from holiday is a completely different experience.

As Wen Zhixia walked, her schoolbag swayed back and forth as she kicked pebbles. "I feel guilty for having fun during the holidays just thinking about having exams when I get back!"

Chen Shi'an chuckled. After all, for someone like him who has a photographic memory and a stable mindset, once he learns something, he has mastered it. He never worries about forgetting it because he didn't study it one day or if his performance declined. Exams before and after the holidays make no difference to him.

Do you think what I said is right?

"...Yes, yes, yes."

Seeing Chen Shi'an's perfunctory expression, Wen Zhixia slapped him in annoyance.

That stinky Taoist priest! He has absolutely no sympathy for the suffering of us ordinary students!
In this week's weekly test, on the same Chinese and English papers, Wen Zhixia scored 142 in Chinese and 147 in English. She scored 10 points more in Chinese than Chen Shi'an, but only 6 points more in English.

There are still eight days until the monthly exam. Who knows if Chen Shi'an will score higher than her in Chinese and English when the exam comes?

It's only been twenty days since we met, and this stinky Taoist priest has gone from barely recognizing letters to scoring 141 points on his test. It feels like a dream...

"What if you actually get first place in science in the future? Do you really want to get first place in humanities too?"

Remembering what Chen Shi'an had said before, Wen Zhixia asked curiously. At that time, she thought the stinky Taoist was just bragging, but now that she thought about it... that ice spirit might really not be able to stop him.

"correct."

"So, if you want to get first place in the humanities, do you need to apply to the school to transfer to our class, tell our homeroom teacher, and then sit next to me?"

Wen Zhixia became more and more excited as she thought about it, her big eyes sparkling.

"...Why does it sound to me like you're giving me a plan, rather than asking me what to do?"

"That's how it is... If you don't transfer to the humanities class, how can you get first place in humanities? Our Class 11 is the strongest in humanities, why would you want to transfer to another class?"

"So what's the deal with telling your homeroom teacher and then having your deskmate?"

Wen Zhixia blushed slightly, but pretended to be calm and said, "You're already sitting next to the top student in science. If you transfer to humanities, shouldn't the top student in humanities take you under his wing?"

"Don't you already have a deskmate?"

"...Xiaoyan's grades are very good, she doesn't need my help anymore."

"Then I'll tell her next time I see her."

"Get out! Get out!"

After being hit twice more by the girl, Chen Shi'an chuckled and said, "We'll see about that later. Apart from Chinese and English, I still got zero in all my other subjects."

"That's true, Bing... your class monitor isn't so easily defeated either."

Wen Zhixia strongly agreed with Chen Shi'an's idea of ​​switching to humanities after getting first place in science.

Chen Shi'an hadn't told Lin Mengqiu about this, and she didn't know if the class monitor would agree after hearing it, since she had never liked having a deskmate from the beginning...

Of course, nothing in the world is immutable. Even stones can be weathered. Chen Shi'an could tell that Lin Mengqiu was initially very resistant to having a deskmate, but now that they had spent so much time together, he believed that his relationship with the class monitor was quite good. He thought he must have gained a lot of points in her heart.
Where is your class monitor?

"You've gone back."

Wen Zhixia had originally planned to let her have her dinner partner today, but she didn't expect that Chen Shi'an would not go to Lin Mengqiu's house for dinner, but instead wait for her to leave together as usual.

As Wen Zhixia walked out of the campus, she kept looking back. With the experience of the previous two times, the girl knew that the ice spirit was cunning. Who knew what tricks she was playing? First, she pretended to walk with the Taoist priest, and then she suddenly jumped out of the bushes like she did.
But even after walking all the way to the school gate, she still hadn't seen Lin Mengqiu, so Wen Zhixia asked curiously.

"Didn't she invite you to dinner today?"

"Yes, the class monitor even invited me to his house for lunch this morning."

"...She's leaving now, will you go over by yourself in a bit?"

"No, I'm not going this week."

Wen Zhixia blinked, and when she heard that Chen Shi'an had rejected Lin Mengqiu's invitation, she immediately perked up.

"Would you like to come over for dinner?"

"No, I'll eat at home today."

Oh no, I rejected Lin Mengqiu, and I rejected her too!
What a mistake! We should have asked him why he didn't eat at Lin Mengqiu's house first!
"...Did Sister Wanyin cook at home?"

"Yes, I'll go home and eat with her. She's planning to set up her stall tonight, so I'll help her out after I finish eating. I'll come to your place for dinner another day."

"Eh?"

Wen Zhixia was taken aback. "Set up a stall? What kind of stall?"

"Setting up a street stall, huh?"

"Sister Wanyin is going to set up a street stall!"

"Ah."

"That sounds really interesting!"

"what?"

"Where will she set up her stall?"

"It's near the Xijiang River."

What are you selling?

"She originally wanted to sell milk tea, but she hadn't bought all the equipment yet, so she set up a stall to sell sweet soup first, as a way to gain some experience."

"What time will you be there?"

"I'll go over after I finish eating."

"Okay, I'll come find you by the West River after I finish eating! Bye-bye!"

Wen Zhixia picked up the pebbles she had kicked along the way, turned a corner, and quickly walked back home.

(End of this chapter)