Follow with heart

Almost just before the bell rang for the end of the last class, Zhao Changling finished writing the last few words of his essay.

Teacher Li rolled up the test paper. "Principal, I'll make some arrangements in a while. Once all the teachers have finished grading the papers, I'll give you the scores."

He turned to Zhao Changling and said, "Remember this for the next exam: the first thing you must do is write your name."

This is the only flaw he can point out, and of course, it's also the most important one.

"Alright! Go home. I won't mention Jinling No. 2 Middle School anymore."

The old principal slumped into his chair; he had suffered too much shock today and needed to recover.

Something's not right! After Zhao Changling had been gone for a while, the old principal suddenly realized that something was amiss.

No child would not want to attend a top-tier school.

Could this child have done it on purpose during the high school entrance exam?

If that's the case, what is his purpose?

I need to ask about this properly when I have time.

.......

"Little Zhao, wait a minute!" Zhao Changling stopped when he heard the shout just as he was about to step out of the school gate.

Teacher Li rushed over and, pretending to be casual, said, "It's on my way home from school, let's chat for a bit."

Zhao Changling sneered inwardly; he knew what Teacher Li was thinking without even asking.

He turned around and saw Wan Chunyan walking slowly behind him.

He waved to Wan Chunyan, "Sis! Let's go home together after school."

Ah! Teacher Li panicked as soon as she saw Wan Chunyan! She quickly whispered, "Zhao, I have a favor to ask..."

"Since it's an unreasonable request, it's best not to say it."

Zhao Changling's words made Teacher Li swallow back the words that were about to come out of his throat.

"Teacher Li is here too!"

Wan Chunyan came over and greeted him politely, then turned to Zhao Changling, "Little brother! What did the principal want to see you about this afternoon?"

"The principal discussed with me the matter of accelerating the high school learning pace."

Zhao Changling could spout off without hesitation, and his words would start flying off into a train of thought.

"The principal's idea is to compress the senior year curriculum into the first semester of the junior year, leaving one and a half semesters for all-out effort in preparing for the college entrance examination."

"So, you're here to get a feel for things first, and we might need to consult you later."

Wan Chunyan was stunned. She lowered her head and pondered. She had just taken over the high school and had no experience at all.

She couldn't even figure out where to begin with such a profound question.

She really wanted to ask Teacher Li next to her for advice and learn from her experience.

The problem is that she and Teacher Li aren't that close yet, so asking such a crucial question so abruptly might be inappropriate.

Just then, she heard Zhao Changling's voice.

"Teacher Li, Teacher Wan is my homeroom teacher and also my older sister. She can make decisions about my affairs, so you can ask her."

Now, if Teacher Li were to bring up the previous topic with Wan Chunyan in person, he wouldn't have the nerve to say it.

Because he had previously wanted to poach Zhao Changling, from the first year of high school all the way to the third year.

He knew that if Zhao Changling hadn't brought it up himself, it was basically hopeless.

Fortunately, he had a compromise. Thinking of this, he sincerely said to Wan Chunyan, "Teacher Wan! I want to ask you for a favor..."

"Is Teacher Li asking me for a favor?" Upon hearing this, Wan Chunyan's eyes lit up. "What is it?"

"I think your younger brother has a real talent for math; his math skills are exceptional. I think..."

Teacher Li paused for a moment.

"I hope you can persuade him to take some time to tutor our graduating senior class in math. Don't worry, it won't take up too much of his time or affect his classes. I'm considering weekends."

"His math skills are very high?" Wan Chunyan wondered if Teacher Li had made a mistake. Wasn't Zhao Changling supposed to be very good at physics?

"How about this, let's talk as we walk, you tell me in detail."

Wan Chunyan thought to herself that she might have missed something.

The two started walking and talking, with Teacher Li doing most of the talking and Wan Chunyan occasionally asking a question.

Zhao Changling trailed behind the two men; there was nothing more for him to do at this point.

As Wan Chunyan listened, she glanced back at him suspiciously, her eyes looking as if she had seen an alien.

Zhao Changling felt a bit unwell while walking, so he made an excuse and slipped away.

"Sis! I have to go now. I'll visit my little niece tonight."

Wan Chunyan gave birth to a girl.

......

"What was Zhao Changling thinking? He didn't want such a good opportunity, even though it was right in front of him."

While breastfeeding her child, Wan Chunyan asked Zhao Gang what she had just heard.

"To be honest, there are some things I can't quite see through about our little brother."

Zhao Gang tilted his head and sighed, "But there's one thing I can rest assured about. Judging from my judgment of people, whether he's looking at me or you, his eyes are very clear. I'm not mistaken about that."

"You don't need to worry about his mindset. I feel that he has a real connection with our family, a very close one. Especially with you, he may very well be a benefactor in your life."

"This child will definitely achieve great things in the future. We just need to keep in touch with him."

"As for what he thinks, aren't you two like siblings? You don't need to hide anything from each other, just ask directly. That will show that you're close. If you overthink it, it'll easily make you feel distant in the end."

After saying this, Zhao Gang considered it for a moment.

"I think you should help with the request from the high school teacher as much as you can."

"Originally, you were a newcomer to the high school, and the teachers should have been mentoring you. Now that they need your help, it's more beneficial for your future development in the high school."

Wan Chunyan pouted. "I don't know how to help them."

What?! This is more than just "pregnancy makes you stupid for three years"! Zhao Gang stared at his silly wife.

Wan Chunyan is good in every way, except she's too stupid. She was stupid in the past, and she's even stupider now.

"With your skill level, you definitely can't be of any help."

"But your little brother can help. The key is that you have a good relationship with him, and he listens to you. If those teachers want his help, who would dare offend you?"

"Oh!" Wan Chunyan gave a blank "oh," it was unclear whether she understood.

Zhao Gang was extremely disappointed in him!

"No matter how much your younger brother can help you, he can only help you for three years at most."

"In these three years, you need to seize the time to improve yourself and establish a firm foothold."

"If you make the most of these three years, your future status at school will be so high that even Xu Junjie wouldn't be worthy of licking your boots, understand?"

"Oh!" Wan Chunyan absentmindedly uttered another "oh."

Zhao Gang was completely defeated; such good conditions were wasted on this foolish wife.

Zhao Gang could only lament that he wasn't so lucky. If only he had someone like Zhao Changling by his side who could help him out at the factory.

Needless to say, he could pave the way to factory leadership in just one year, let alone three. Becoming the factory's top leader would only be a matter of time.

"Hurry up and feed the baby until he falls asleep. I'll wait for Brother Zhao at the door so he doesn't have to see us and feel awkward."

Zhao Gang made an excuse to get to the entrance of the building, and immediately lit a cigarette.

He was so bored because he couldn't smoke indoors.

Zhao Changling arrived before he had even finished his cigarette.

"Brother-in-law! That's terrible! My sister kicked you out to the door to smoke."

"There's nothing we can do. The kids are the bosses now; we can't afford to offend them."

"Hey! Brother Zhao, you're here, but what are you doing bringing things? You haven't even made any money yet."

Zhao Gang spotted Zhao Changling carrying something immediately.

"Brother-in-law! This isn't for you, it's for my niece."

Zhao Changling brought some fruit and milk powder this time, showing he understood the basic etiquette of not arriving empty-handed.

Zhao Gang didn't stand on ceremony and led Zhao Changling upstairs.

"Yanzi! Your younger brother is here to see you. Open the door!"

Zhao Gang turned around and chuckled. "I forgot my keys when I went out."

"Almost done! Just a moment." Wan Chunyan's hurried voice came from inside the door.

After a while, Wan Chunyan opened the door, dressed neatly.

After playing with the children for a while and exchanging pleasantries, Wan Chunyan couldn't hold back any longer and brought up the topic first.

"Young man! I heard today..."

After finishing her explanation, Wan Chunyan asked with a question in her voice, "Little brother! What are you really thinking?"

"Sis! I definitely have a reason for doing this, and I have a lot of reasons."

Zhao Changling looked up and said seriously, "First, Teacher Li wants me to take the college entrance examination with their class, which I will not agree to."

"For me, my academic career is very short. Once I graduate from university and enter the workforce, my academic career will end. I don't want to shorten my already short academic career, especially my high school years."

"These three years of high school will be the most beautiful memories of my future youth, and I will slowly enjoy this process during these three years."

Wan Chunyan listened with a mixture of understanding and confusion. She felt that Zhao Changling's words sounded a bit like those of a young girl, and she secretly chuckled to herself.

Zhao Gang's eyes narrowed as he listened: Is this still a child? He's terrifyingly mature.

Zhao Changling remained focused, saying, "That's secondary. The most important thing is that I have ideas for our school."

"In the past, when our school had fewer college students, we didn't have a single student admitted to college."

"Later, when enrollment was expanded, I occasionally got into a second-tier university, but most of the time I got into a third-tier university. I didn't get into any top universities."

Are the students at our school intellectually deficient? Or is there a problem with the teachers' teaching abilities?

"That's probably the problem," Wan Chunyan said uncertainly.

"Yes! No!" Zhao Changling affirmed and then denied.

"It's true that there are problems in these two areas, but these are only superficial issues, not fundamental ones."

"The textbook only has so much content. Even if teachers can recite it from memory and teach it in a variety of creative ways, they still can't come up with much new content."

"There's only so much in the textbook. No matter how smart you are or how hard you work, if you encounter unfamiliar question types in the college entrance exam, you won't be able to answer them in a short time, no matter how sharp your brain is."

At this point, Zhao Changling offered an explanation.

"I'm not making this up; it's a conclusion I reached after looking at many schools' mock exams before the college entrance exam."

"These schools' exam papers have one thing in common: they are almost never released before the college entrance examination, but may only be released after the exam."

"To put it bluntly, it means that other people don't share resources with each other before the college entrance examination, especially key high schools with high college admission rates."

"Little brother! You mean to say that you actually did that set of questions from Xiangnan No. 2 Middle School a long time ago, and that score doesn't count?" This was the unexpected thought that came to Wan Chunyan's mind.

Zhao Changling sighed, and even Zhao Gang, who was standing next to him, couldn't help but secretly roll his eyes at his silly wife.

"I didn't get the exam papers from Xiangnan No. 2 Middle School. I got them through a distant relative of mine. They were five sets of mock exam papers from Hengwan No. 1 Middle School in Hebei Province for the last semester of the college entrance examination preparation period."

"Then, by comparing this year's college entrance examination papers in Hebei Province, I discovered a problem."

"This year, the college entrance examination papers in Hebei Province covered nearly 80% of the question types in all subjects by those five sets of test papers."

"Even in this year's college entrance examination essays, all five of their papers contained similar content."

"No wonder Hengwan Middle School is a major contributor to the college entrance examination in northern Hebei this year. Nearly thirty students from their school were admitted to Tsinghua and Peking Universities."

"My God! Hengwan High School is that amazing? Their predictions for exam questions are incredible!"

This was the first time Wan Chunyan had heard of it; she wouldn't have believed it if her younger brother hadn't told her.

"Yes! What I'm trying to say is that if our school could provide students with this type of question every year before the college entrance exam, over the years, they would definitely be able to get into top universities, and even Tsinghua and Peking University would be possible."

"What should we call this?" Zhao Changling tilted his head and thought for a moment.

"Perhaps it can be considered the school's heritage, or even its resources."

"Of course, their ability to produce such exam papers is related to their strong teaching staff, which is the reason for the high college entrance rate of key universities."

"But... little brother! Our school doesn't have the resources to obtain this kind of thing. Do you have a way?"

Although Wan Chunyan was simple-minded, she still understood this point.

Let alone their ordinary high school, even among top high schools, these resources are not shared before the college entrance examination; there is competition between them.

"Taking it is definitely out of the question; the secrecy surrounding these things is almost on par with military secrets. But..."

Zhao Changling chuckled, "Just because we can't get it from others doesn't mean we can't make it."

"Do it yourself? What will you use to do it?" Wan Chunyan didn't dare to think about setting the questions herself.

She had this experience in junior high school. When she was preparing for the exam, she thought about creating some novel questions.

After a month of effort, the questions were either simply copied from others or were just old, repetitive problems.

It's really too difficult to come up with a new question type from scratch.

She pondered it for half a semester before giving up. She didn't have the skills; she wouldn't dare take on a job she wasn't qualified for.

Wan Chunyan looked at Zhao Changling, a high school student.

Why does it feel like I'm the teacher, and he's the student? Wan Chunyan's train of thought has already gone a bit off track.

"Teacher Wan, don't overthink it."

"Your main task now is to plan the curriculum and figure out how we can finish the three years of high school courses in one and a half semesters."

"You should contact the teachers of each subject and convey the specific plan to the school leaders. It would be best if you could get their support."

"Personally, I plan to spend the next year and a half thoroughly studying the trends in the college entrance examination question types for each subject."

"Once we enter the second semester of high school, we will arrange a mock college entrance examination every two months, and strive to ensure that our students can take 10 mock exams before the college entrance examination."

"I don't have high expectations for these ten exams. If I can predict 50% of the questions correctly, and if the students are used to the college entrance exam and are no longer nervous during the exam, and if they perform well on the day, they will likely get into a few top-tier universities."

At this point, Zhao Changling glanced smugly at Zhao Gang and Wan Chunyan.

"My expectations aren't high. Didn't our school send 10 outstanding students to top high schools during the middle school entrance exam? Aren't their parents extremely relieved that their children have escaped hardship?"

"Hehe, proportionally speaking, it's impossible for all ten students to get into a top-tier or second-tier university; most of them will only get into a third-tier university."

"I'm prepared to make most of these parents regret it, because what I'm prepared to do is make our group, the ones who were left over by others and seemed hopeless, score higher than the ten students who went to key universities in the college entrance exam."

"They only have ten people, while we have more than forty. If more than ten of our students get into top-tier or second-tier universities, we will crush their results."

Zhao Gang and Wan Chunyan were both stunned, speechless as if they were mute.

"Teacher Wan! Do you think my idea is feasible?"

"Huh! What did you say?" Wan Chunyan's head was buzzing.

Zhao Changling was too lazy to explain any further.

"Teacher Wan, you don't need to think too much. There's too much content for you to digest anyway."

"Right now, you should focus on how to arrange the high school curriculum. We'll work with the teachers in the second semester of your junior year to discuss that further. Right now, our main task in the first year is to finish the coursework. Rome wasn't built in a day."

"Alright, it's getting late, brother-in-law! Sister, you should get some rest too, I have to go home."

After finishing his sentence, Zhao Changling left quickly, ignoring any attempts to persuade him to stay.

It took Wan Chunyan half a day after Zhao Changling left before she finally recovered.

"Honey! Do you think his idea is feasible?"

Zhao Gang smacked his lips.

"It sounds incredible. But, it's worth a try."

"Yanzi, think about it, what's the state of high school at a school for children of employees? How many students have gotten into second-tier universities after all these years?"

"Anyway, things aren't going to get much better right now, so let's just try anything. Even if only two of you get into second-tier universities this year, it'll still be a breakthrough."

"With Brother Zhao like this, I feel he'll have no problem getting into a good school. With him as your foundation, your class of homeroom teachers will definitely be the most spectacular in the history of the affiliated middle school."

"What are you afraid of? Let's do it! Fire the cannons and blast them to smithereens!"

"But they have no idea what to expect," Wan Chunyan said with concern.

"You never had any confidence to begin with." Zhao Gang hit the nail on the head, and Wan Chunyan pouted slightly in anger.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Zhao Gang said, "Because you don't need a bottom line at all. You are like the commander of an army. As long as you sit firmly in the central command tent, you can leave the bottom line to your generals. This is called strategic planning."

"Your brother Zhao is one of your top generals; just give him the hard work."

"But I don't feel like I'm in charge of anything. I just listen to him in everything. He does the work and gives me ideas. I always feel guilty about it."

Wan Chunyan, being a girl, was shy and said everything that came to mind.

"What's there to feel guilty about? Just consider it good karma from your past life. He's so lucky to have such a beautiful and gentle older sister like you."

At this point, Zhao Gang said slyly, "Wife! It's been so long, your body should be fine now, right? How about tonight?"

"What? It's only been a short time! The wound isn't fully healed yet. Wait another two months."

"You men are really something, you never think of anything good. Oh dear! The baby needs a diaper change."

Wan Chunyan quickly got up and busied herself tidying up.

Zhao Gang immediately deflated, looking at his daughter on the small bed, and sighed, "My little sweetheart from my past life! I don't know how much I owed you in my past life, causing your old man to be locked up for more than a year and still not let it go."

"Pah!" Wan Chunyan spat. "You'd better not owe me anything in this lifetime."