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

Chapter 170 The top student in Chinese in this monthly exam is from our class

The scene before the holiday ended after the monthly exam seems like it was just yesterday, but in the blink of an eye, the holiday is over.

With make-up classes and time off in lieu, there are nine consecutive days of classes before the next one-day weekend break arrives...

Unlike the energetic atmosphere at the start of the holiday, the classroom seemed listless upon returning from the break, even the cactus that Zheng Yining, who sat in front of us, had wilted.

"Ugh, my cactus died! The classroom must have bad feng shui..."

"Can this die from being raised like this?"

Chen Shi'an was surprised. He put down his backpack and picked up Zheng Yining's small potted cactus to look at it.

"You probably watered it too much, and with the classroom doors and windows closed these past few days, the roots are rotting."

"Chen Shi'an, you even know this!"

"Yes, cacti are relatively easy to care for."

"Yes, now that you mention it, that might be it... Before my vacation, I was worried it would dry out, so I watered it a lot, and then just now I saw it was wilting, so I watered it again."

"Forehead."

"Is there any hope for it?"

"Yes, it's not that easy to kill. The soil in the pot is too wet. In a little while, you can dig it out, cut off all the rotten roots, and then change the soil."

Where can we find soil?

"Aren't there plenty of soil in the school's flower beds?"

Lin Mengqiu rolled her eyes at Chen Shian.

When you were stealing soil from my school, could you at least try to hide it? Why were you openly plotting in front of me?
"Oh dear, if you ask me, why bother with potted plants? You might as well learn from me and grow water plants."

Xie Mengxuan, who was standing next to her, took out her mineral water bottle with the packaging film torn off. The bottle was more than half full of water, and there were many colorful, translucent little balls floating in the water.

"What is this?"

Curious, Chen Shi'an took the bottle of water beads that Xie Mengxuan had been raising. He gently shook the bottle, and the little balls inside were bouncy and looked quite fun.

"This is a water baby! Chen Shi'an, haven't you played with one before? It's originally a tiny little bead, and then it absorbs water and grows bigger. See? My water baby even gave birth to many little babies!"

"Can you still have a baby?"

Chen Shi'an had never played with this before in his life. He looked inside the bottle and sure enough, in addition to the larger beads, there were many smaller beads as well.

"Are these smaller ones the offspring of the larger ones?"

"Yeah! Isn't that amazing?"

"Hahaha, Mengxuan, you're so childish! You're such a grown-up, and you're still raising water babies! I stopped playing with them in elementary school!"

"You're amazing! You even managed to kill a cactus!"

While the three were chatting, Lin Mengqiu sat quietly in her seat and took out her homework.

Chen Shi'an held the bottle of water and asked her curiously.

"Class monitor, have you ever raised this water baby?"

"...I've raised them."

When were you adopted them?

"primary school."

Will they also have babies?

"...How do I remember?"

Lin Mengqiu didn't want to talk to him about such childish topics; it went against her public persona.

In fact, she had tried to grow both cacti and water sprites, but unfortunately, she didn't manage to keep them healthy...

"interesting."

Chen Shi'an asked Xie Mengxuan, "Mengxuan, do you still have any Water Babies seeds? Could you give me some?"

"Do you want to raise Chen Shi'an?"

"Try it."

"Okay, I have a lot, I'll give you a pack."

Xie Mengxuan took a packet of Water Babies seeds from the drawer and placed it on Chen Shian's desk.

Lin Mengqiu raised an eyebrow and looked at Chen Shi'an with a puzzled expression.

She had always thought of the Taoist priest as a mature and composed person far beyond his years, but she never expected him to be interested in such childish things...

And... can you please stop being so shameless and asking other girls for things so casually?!

"Thank you."

"You're welcome! Chen Shi'an, do you have a bottle? Raising water babies is very simple, just soak them in water. They will usually grow noticeably in a few minutes, and after a day or more, they may even have little babies! Just don't expose them to the sun, or they will fade."

"Okay, I'll treat you to milk tea later."

Chen Shian never thought raising water babies was a childish thing. In his opinion, taking good care of something is a rare kind of fun.

He took out the milk tea that he had originally intended to drink himself from the bag and handed it to Xie Mengxuan.

"They really do have milk tea! Thank you!"

"Mengxuan! Share half with me! I brought my own cup—"

"Someone just said my Water Baby is childish?"

"I was blind!"

The two girls at the table in front of them shared the milk tea, and their eyes lit up when they tasted it.

"Chen Shi'an, where did you buy this milk tea? It's so delicious!"

“My roommate makes them herself. She sets up a stall by the Xijiang River. You can go and buy them when you have time.”

"Could you please bring us milk tea next time?"

"sure."

Seeing the two girls drinking milk tea, Lin Mengqiu, who was standing next to them, also picked up her own cup of Osmanthus Jade and took a sip.

I must say, the taste is indeed very unique and delicious.

When Lin Mengqiu first heard that it was Wanyin who made it, she was a little shocked. But when Chen Shi'an said it was his recipe, the girl felt that it should taste this good. After all, the things that the stinky Taoist priest usually brought out were indeed very unusual. He could make different flavors from others using the same ingredients, which was amazing...

Chen Shi'an took out the mineral water bottle he used to drink water from, poured in the water baby seeds, and then added half a bottle of water.

He screwed the cap on and placed the bottle between himself and Lin Mengqiu.

"Squad leader, can I put it here?"

"……Um."

Lin Mengqiu took a sip of milk tea politely, blinked, and looked at the colorful little particles floating with the water in the transparent water bottle.

No need to worry about complicated interpersonal relationships or unfinished tasks; just watch those tiny particles slowly unfurl and become round and translucent in the water, and your tense nerves from the day seem to be healed little by little...

It's fun.

Next time, she'll buy some water babes to keep in her dorm.

……

The class bell rang.

Thankfully, the monthly exams just ended, and there are no weekly tests this week since the holiday, otherwise I would have been really dizzy.

The more fun you have during the holidays, the more chaotic it will be to catch up on homework when you get back to the classroom.

Looking around, the classroom was almost full of students rushing to finish their homework. Some were doing it themselves, while others were copying from other students. Chen Shi'an took a new math test paper out of his drawer and returned it to Lin Mengqiu.

The class monitor is very diligent. Of all the homework, she only had this math test paper left to do. If she hadn't lent it to Chen Shi'an in the afternoon, she would have finished it all by then.

Chen Shi'an didn't have to rush to finish his homework. With Teacher Liang's special permission, he didn't have to hand in his homework. He would only take the test papers from each subject to practice when he needed them.

Right now, he's taking out his high school math textbook, which he hasn't finished studying yet, and starting to learn.

Lin Mengqiu glanced at him, then looked away and lowered her head to write her math test.

time flies.

With ten minutes left before the end of the first self-study period, Teacher Liang pushed open the door and walked into the classroom.

Apart from Chen Shi'an, who was in a state of flow and focused on studying mathematics, almost every student in the classroom looked up at Teacher Liang as she entered the classroom, including Lin Mengqiu.

Seeing the stack of answer sheets in Teacher Liang's hand, everyone became excited.

"Teacher Liang! Are the grades about to be released?"

"Teacher Liang! Let me help you send it!"

The students who had been quietly studying below immediately started chattering away. Whether they did well or poorly on the test, the results were always exciting.

Even Lin Mengqiu's unchanging expression changed slightly. Her gaze moved towards the podium and focused on the stack of answer sheets in Teacher Liang's hand, showing some anticipation.

Her Chinese language scores are relatively stable, generally fluctuating around 130 points.

She was more curious about Chen Shi'an's grades than her own.

"There are still ten minutes left in get out of class, what are you all shouting about? Send it out when get out of class ends."

"Teacher Liang! Send it now! I feel like ants are crawling all over my body! I can't take it anymore!"

"If these are handed out, how can you concentrate on studying? Get back to what you were doing!"

"Teacher Liang! What was the highest score this time?"

"Wasn't Zihan the lowest score? Teacher Liang, please say yes!"

"Your mother... can't stand to see Dad doing well, can she?"

The crowd was unwilling to give up and tried every trick in the book to get information out of them, as if they had a piece of meat in front of them but couldn't eat it, and they were all itching to get it!
"Our class got the highest score in Chinese this year."

"...!!"

As soon as Teacher Liang finished speaking, the classroom erupted in chaos! Even the usually quiet Lin Mengqiu's eyes widened in surprise.

The school is divided into arts and sciences, but the Chinese exam papers are the same. After taking the exam so many times before, everyone in Class 5 assumes that the highest score in Chinese in the grade is in Class 11, and it is highly likely to be Wen Zhixia.

But then Old Liang, that scoundrel, suddenly made a shocking statement: the highest score in this monthly exam was actually in Class 5?!
No one in Class 5 has ever scored over 140 in Chinese. To compare with Wen Zhixia's exaggerated Chinese score, you need to score at least 140.

Did Wen Zhixia fail her exam this time and not score above 140?

Or did someone suddenly have a burst of energy and break through 140?

"The highest score this time is 145 points."

"...!!!"

Teacher Liang's words were even more explosive than the previous one!
"How much?! Teacher Liang, how much are you asking for?!"

One hundred and forty-five points?! In Chinese?! In our class?!

"Anyone who gets 145 in Chinese is human?!"

Lin Mengqiu gripped the pen tightly.

As one of the top students, she knew very well who the students ranked at the top in each subject were; it was basically always the same few.

But since starting high school, I've never heard of anyone scoring 145 in Chinese. The closest I've heard of is Wen Zhixia, who once scored 143. She's the only one who can score over 140.

If Teacher Liang hadn't mentioned that the highest score was in Class 5, her first thought would have been that Wen Zhixia scored 145 points.

But the person who scored 145 points is in Class 5!
She quickly went through the list of students in Class 5 who were good at Chinese, eliminating them one by one, including herself.

Although she was reluctant to admit it, the girl's gaze still fell on Chen Shi'an's face...

...Could it be Chen Shi'an?!
But in the last weekly test, he only scored 132 points, which was two points lower than hers.

She couldn't be sure it wasn't him, and she found it hard to believe it really was him.

While the classmates were whispering about who the student who scored 145 points was, Lin Mengqiu finally couldn't stand it anymore and poked Chen Shi'an, who was engrossed in studying math and oblivious to everything else.

"What's wrong, class monitor?"

"...Teacher Liang said that someone in our class got 145 points in Chinese."

"Who?"

"...Who do you think it is?"

"Then it should be me."

"?"

Lin Mengqiu almost laughed out of anger at him, but she couldn't utter a single word in rebuttal.

"Teacher Liang, stop being so mysterious! I feel so uncomfortable! You can't even hide your smile! Just hand out the test papers!"

"Alright, alright, hand out the papers now. Take a good look at where you fall short compared to others! What have you been studying all this time!"

Teacher Liang finally relented and distributed a stack of test papers to several students sitting in the front, asking them to pass the papers down.

There were still five minutes left before get out of class ended, but at that moment, no one in the class could concentrate on studying.

The student in charge of distributing the test papers walked back and forth in the classroom like an official announcing good news. Whenever he encountered a high-scoring student, he would announce the good news. For a moment, the classroom was noisy, just like a street where the results of the test were posted.

"Zhong Ying! 137 points!!"

Zhong Ying, as the former class representative for Chinese, was also the student who most frequently ranked first in Chinese in the class.

When Teacher Liang mentioned that someone scored 145 points, most students immediately thought of Zhong Ying, and even Zhong Ying herself had fantasized about it with her heart pounding...

When she received the results, Zhong Ying was overjoyed for a moment, but then felt a pang of regret... it wasn't hers.

"Yu Fu! 132 points!!"

"Yue Haoran! 134 points!!"

"Class monitor! 136 points!!"

Upon hearing her score and receiving her test paper, Lin Mengqiu's expression remained unchanged; she knew that the 145 points couldn't possibly be hers.

None of the top students everyone guessed were the winners, making the person who scored 145 points even more mysterious.

Some students even began to suspect that Lao Liang was joking.

When Zou Xiaokun, who was in charge of distributing the exam papers, looked at the paper that was showing in his hand, he was completely stunned.

"Master Dao!!! It's Master Dao!!!"

"Daoist Master scored 145 points!!!"

"No need to look anymore! The test paper with 145 points is with me! It's Dao Ye's!"

"Holy crap!! Dao Ye only scored a little over 130 in the last weekly test, right?!"

"Damn! 59 points on the essay!! A classical Chinese essay! 59 points!!"

The bell rang just then.

Class 5 erupted in cheers, and everyone rushed to Zou Xiaokun's side.

He held the test paper with a score of 145 high in his hand.

The candidate information section reads:

[Chen Shi'an, Class 5, Grade 11]
(End of this chapter)