Follow with heart

Although such classes are very attractive to students, the senior high school homeroom teacher still rejected this format.

This type of class is good, but they are graduating students, and Zhao Changling is not his student, so he can't control Zhao Changling's schedule.

Zhao Changling's time is very precious now, so he can only use his limited time to ask Zhao Changling to help him make a few more sets of test papers.

For this reason, he visited Zhao Changling's home to offer New Year's greetings during the Spring Festival, and also made a special trip to Wan Chunyan and her husband's home to offer New Year's greetings.

Wan Chunyan's daughter was born at the end of May. Teacher Li even made a special arrangement in advance that the school would book the hotel for Wan Chunyan's daughter's first birthday party without hesitation.

Of course, he couldn't pay for it all by himself.

He applied to the principal for some money, and with the consent of all the teachers, he used all the class funds. No one had any objections to this expenditure.

During the period when Teacher Li's class was preparing for the college entrance examination, Zhao Changling produced a test paper almost every month, totaling five sets of test papers.

Zhao Changling incorporated about 50% of the 2003 college entrance examination questions into these five sets of test papers.

Too many questions might cause trouble; as for how well the students perform on the exams, that's up to fate.

However, Zhao Changling made one point clear to the school leaders: all mock exam papers must not be leaked before the college entrance examination.

After the students finish the exam and the review session is over, all the exam papers must be stored in the school's safe.

After the college entrance exam, I'll just do whatever I want with it.

......

The 2003 college entrance examination arrived as scheduled. On the first day, Teacher Li arrived at the examination hall with trepidation.

There's a math exam today. Although he can't know the results right away, he wants to see how his classmates feel after the exam, to get a sense of their level first.

Surprisingly, the first student he saw rushing out of the exam room was not one of the top students in the class.

Instead, it was an inconspicuous, average student who clearly handed in his paper early.

"Sun Deli, you're out so early, you must have done well on the exam, right?"

Teacher Li stopped the student.

Sun Deli looked smug. "Teacher Li, this math test was too easy. I think I can get over 120 points."

Really? If Sun Deli can score 120 points, then wouldn't some of the top students in his class score 140 points?

In an era when the maximum score for mathematics was 150 points, their school rarely had a passing score (90 points) in the college entrance examination mathematics.

Sun Deli's behavior raised Teacher Li's expectations for the other students even higher.

Later, other students came out one after another. When Teacher Li saw several other students who were good at studying, he especially stopped Zhou Haozhi, who was usually outstanding in math.

"Teacher, this math exam was too difficult. I've never seen almost half of the questions before. I don't think I'll get 100 points."

What's going on? Why is there such a big difference?

Teacher Li stopped the other students, whose answers were all quite difficult. Only Xie Jun dared to say that he might get over 100 points.

The college entrance examination was over soon, but the scores hadn't been released yet. The day after the exam, Teacher Li arranged for all the students to come to the school to estimate their scores.

The estimated scores came out, and to everyone's surprise: Sun Deli estimated 621 points, Xie Jun estimated 545 points, Yu Xiaojuan estimated 534 points, and Zhou Haozhi estimated 512 points.

The estimated score is completely different from the usual mock exam results.

Sun Deli usually never ranks in the top 10 in class exams, but this time his estimated score is high enough to get into a 985 university.

Based on their analysis of the exam papers, all the teachers concluded that the cutoff score for 985 universities in this year's college entrance examination should not exceed 600 points.

Xie Jun, Yu Xiaojuan, and Zhou Haozhi are usually among the top three in the class, so the change in order this time wasn't too surprising.

Teacher Li reported the estimated scores to the principal. Upon hearing that one of the students from his school might get into a 985 university, the principal was so excited that he didn't even consider that the other three students might be aiming for first-tier universities.

The principal's excitement didn't last long; the college entrance exam scores came out quickly.

The final result was that three students in the science class scored 500 points: Xie Jun with 548 points, Yu Xiaojuan with 529 points, and Zhou Haozhi with 500 points.

In addition, there was a student named Liu Yali in the liberal arts class who scored 531 points, also placing her in the top tier.

Xie Jun scored 118 points in math. Sun Deli, who had previously claimed he could score 120 points in math, failed to impress Teacher Li. He only scored 71 points in math, and his total score was just over 400, at 407 points.

His score was more than 200 points lower than his initial estimate of 621, which angered the teacher and principal to the point that they almost smashed their cups.

Some students are too vain and are not afraid of losing face even if they want to have a moment of pleasure.

In the final college entrance examination results, Xie Jun, Yu Xiaojuan, and Liu Yali were admitted in the first tier, meaning they were admitted to first-tier universities.

The school also had 7 other students admitted to second-tier universities, leaving about 10 students admitted to third-tier universities.

During the summer vacation, the district education bureau organized a seminar on the 2003 college entrance examination, and invited principals of affiliated middle schools as the main participants.

This seminar is held every year, but the affiliated secondary schools always just participate as bystanders.

Whether the principal goes or not is nobody else's concern; the principal has made excuses to skip the events several times.

This time it's different. The person in charge of notifying the principal specifically instructed that the affiliated middle school must participate this time, and not only must they participate, but they must also bring the homeroom teachers of the graduating classes.

The principal intended to take Teacher Li with him, but Teacher Li knew his own limitations and refused to go no matter what.

The principal had no choice but to take Ms. Mao, the English teacher from the humanities class, with him.

In the past, when principals attended such meetings, they would just find a seat in the corner and sit wherever they felt like.

This time it didn't work; when he arrived, he was immediately invited onto the stage.

Even though it was a seat on the side of the stage, it was still considered sitting there.

The principal sat on the podium for the first time without feeling uncomfortable at all.

He looked at the other principals on the stage, including the district education bureau leaders who were presiding over the meeting, and thought to himself with disdain: They are all a bunch of second-tier college graduates, and not a single one of them got into a first-tier college this year, while Laozi School suddenly produced three first-tier college graduates.

He doesn't care about his position in the district education bureau anymore, not the county education bureau. What's there to be proud of? A bunch of country bumpkins.

When they exchanged experiences, they all used the same official jargon and nothing substantial.

The principal wasn't stupid either. When it was his turn, he also spoke a lot of official jargon, revealing not a single word about his school's true situation.

During the free conversation, the principal did not intend to try to extract information from the others.

However, just because he doesn't talk to people doesn't mean that others won't talk to him.

"Principal Ge! Your school achieved excellent results this time, congratulations! By the way, why didn't your Chinese teacher come this time?"

The speaker was the principal of No. 61 Middle School in this district, whose surname was Wang.

No. 61 Middle School has always been the best ordinary middle school in the district, producing many students who have been admitted to second-tier universities.

Students in this district who fail the college entrance examination by a few points each year generally choose to repeat their studies at No. 61 Middle School.

This Principal Wang used to be an arrogant and domineering person, and he had basically no interaction with Principal Ge.

Principal Ge looked at Principal Wang next to him and suddenly felt like he was the neighbor next door.

My school's teacher, Ms. Wang, isn't particularly good-looking, so what is it about her that this guy has his eye on?

Teacher Wang, the Chinese teacher, and Principal Ge both knew that he wasn't particularly outstanding and was basically just there for show.

If she has any unique characteristics, it's the rumors circulating among teachers: it's said that this Teacher Wang is particularly harsh on deducting points from essays, and that she specifically targets Zhao Changling.

What Principal Ge didn't know was that Principal Wang from No. 61 Middle School wasn't inquiring about their school's Chinese teacher because he was after Ms. Wang's beauty.

Besides, Teacher Wang isn't that beautiful, and Principal Wang isn't some kind of lecherous devil.

The reason Principal Wang inquired about their school's Chinese language teachers was because some of the content of their school's mock exams after the college entrance examination had been leaked by someone with ulterior motives.

Other things cannot be fully explained verbally, but the topics for those Chinese composition assignments were easily leaked.

The teachers at No. 61 Middle School were surprised to find that several mock essay topics from the affiliated middle school they received had accurately predicted this year's college entrance examination essay topics.

Not only in science subjects, but in both arts and sciences, the predictions were correct.

Although it wasn't a complete prediction, if you've practiced those essays, the college entrance exam essays will be almost effortless if the topic is changed.

The principal of No. 61 Middle School came with a mission: to establish connections with the Chinese language teachers at the affiliated middle school, ideally through mutual exchange of Chinese language teaching experience between the two schools.

Principal Wang explained his purpose, and Principal Ge understood.

He didn't promise anything; it's a school secret, and sharing it is impossible.

This incident also served as a wake-up call for him; he needed to give a proper reminder to the homeroom teachers of each grade when he got back.

He subtly gave Teacher Wang's contact information to the other party. It was impossible to hide it; they lived in the same district and could find out each other's contact information. Hiding it would seem petty.

He only needed to go back and give a heads-up to the senior high school homeroom teacher. He believed that as long as they were in office, no matter how much the teachers at the affiliated middle school struggled, they couldn't escape his grasp.

The new semester has begun, and everything is proceeding smoothly.

Logically, the people most likely to be disturbed by the outside world should be the senior high school homeroom teachers and subject teachers, because they not only have to keep an eye on the students' studies, but also have to keep the exam papers confidential.

To the principal's utter surprise, he was the first person to be approached at the start of the new semester.

Moreover, the person who came to him was not an outsider, but Zhao Gang's father, who had brought him to the top position in the factory.

Zhao Gang and his son did not come for their own business, but for a major event at Huafang Group.

The state-owned enterprise Huafang is now called Huafang Group. It doesn't just have one factory here; it has branches all over the country. The factory in this county is just one of their bases.

When Huafang first came here, this area was basically wasteland.

The government allocated them a piece of land, which belonged to their factory.

However, compared to Huafang, the planned land was not enough, and they had to rent a lot of land.

Initially, both the county and district governments hoped that Huafang would buy the land it had leased, so that the local government could have additional revenue.

However, at the time, Huafang's leaders believed that their territory was large enough and it was not worth spending that extra money.

Moreover, the rent was very cheap, so I chose to rent instead of buy it outright.

As a result, over the years, many plots of land have been reclaimed because their leases have expired.

However, with the increase in the population of Huafang itself over the years, even though the employees now live in apartment buildings, housing is becoming increasingly scarce.

Huafang still owns two of its largest plots of land, which have not yet expired due to long lease terms.

Huafang wants to develop these two plots of land into apartment buildings, which would greatly alleviate the housing problem for its employees.

Huafang's idea is good, but they dare not do it.

If they want to do it, they have to buy these lands first.

However, with the opening up of housing reform, the real estate market is now showing signs of recovery, and land has begun to appreciate in value and become scarce.

Huafang has approached the local government and expressed its intention to purchase the two plots of land.

But now there's a problem. The wasteland that Huafang rented casually when they came here is now a prime location in the district.

There are too many entities eyeing these two plots of land now, all with various connections.

It's impossible to give both plots of land to Huafang. The most likely option is a smaller, more remote plot that used to be Huafang's processing plant, but now only some old workers and temporary workers are left there.

The leaders of Huafang are now unwilling to accept this situation and want to get the bigger piece of land, because it is more than half again as big as the other piece and is in a much better location.

If they acquire this land and build all the buildings on it, Huafang's employees will not have to worry about housing for at least five years.

Huafang's leadership has been working on this matter for over two years. Given Huafang's current situation, it's reasonable for them to receive this land.

Considering the contributions Huafang has made to the country, this matter was perfectly acceptable in the past.

However, Huafang has now declined, and the local government is a local power, so whether or not to give it to them is entirely in their hands.

The local government has remained tight-lipped about the matter, leaving the top leaders of Huafang Textile Group extremely stressed.

Just then, things took a sudden turn for the better.

A powerful leader from the county's land planning bureau, along with his grandson, approached Zhao Gang's father a couple of days ago, asking for his help.

The leader has a beloved grandson who is a senior at Jinling No.1 High School.

His grandson is a very studious child, and he got into the top high school based on his own abilities.

However, during the two years of high school, the child's grades were not outstanding in the grade, barely making it into the top 20, and sometimes even falling outside the top 30.

Although Jinling No.1 Middle School is also a key middle school, its college entrance examination pass rate is much lower than that of Jinling No.2 Middle School.

Jinling No.9 High School had one student admitted to a 985 university and nine others admitted to first-tier universities this year. Two of them were admitted to first-tier universities because they chose less popular majors through the transfer process.

In other words, based on this analysis, it would be extremely difficult for the leader's grandson to get into a top-tier university through Jinling No. 1 High School.

Unfortunately, the leader's daughter-in-law is a teacher, and through connections, she obtained several mock exam papers for this year's college entrance examination at the affiliated middle school.

With her professional insight, she keenly discovered that the five mock exam papers from the affiliated middle school had almost predicted nearly 50% of the questions in this year's college entrance examination.

In contrast, Jinling No.1 High School's mock exams didn't even cover 20% of the key questions correctly, and the Chinese composition section barely touched on the key points, relying entirely on the students' performance on the day.

This angered the leader's daughter-in-law, who insisted that her son transfer to Huafang Middle School.

Moreover, the mother and son were of one mind; after seeing these test papers, his grandson also requested to transfer schools.

Furthermore, his grandson said that if he couldn't transfer schools, he wouldn't care about going to a second-tier university; he would go to Huafang Middle School even if he had to resume classes.

The leader is only a powerful figure in the county and doesn't have the ability to transfer his grandson to Jinling No. 2 Middle School in the city.

However, transferring to Huafang Children's Middle School in the county could still be arranged by asking for a favor.

The leaders haven't considered resuming classes because they'd have to ask for favors anyway, so it's better to do it all at once.

Zhao Gang's father was a leader at Huafang Factory, but Huafang Factory was only at the department level.

Huafang's base is here, and Huafang Group's headquarters are also here. The leaders of the headquarters are also aware of some of the school's relationships.

Therefore, the leaders of the State Administration of Radio and Television explained the matter to Zhao Gang's father.

This is the most important event for Huafang Group this year.

Because when the leader of the county planning bureau met privately with the leader of the headquarters, he first talked at length about Huafang's contributions to the country and the local government, and expressed his determination to support the work of Huafang Group.

Finally, he made the request to transfer his child to another school in his own name.

What else is there to say? It has to be done.

As a result, the senior class of the affiliated middle school gained another student who transferred from Jinling No.1 Middle School.

Moreover, the students' parents also voluntarily paid a school selection fee of 5000 yuan.

That way, if someone else wants to transfer to a school affiliated with the company in the future, it would be unreasonable not to pay this fee. That's what it means to be a good person.

The news of Zhang Haiyun's transfer to another school quickly spread to other schools in the district.

No one followed suit, and some even thought it wasn't worth it, so the matter was gradually forgotten.

After a semester, the one who truly had an impact was Zhao Changling.

Because this Zhang Haiyun is indeed very studious, her past grades were average, which may be related to improper study methods.

After transferring schools, he excelled at his studies at the affiliated secondary school.

This child was also very sensible. When he didn't know the answer to many questions, he didn't ask his teachers or classmates, but went directly to ask Zhao Changling for help.

Over time, the two became good friends.

In the last half semester, he simply moved out of his rented house and moved directly into Zhao Changling's house.

The child's father and parents even made a special trip to Zhao Changling's home to pay their respects during the Chinese New Year.

Zhao Changling also paid close attention to him, and would occasionally give him some questions to test his comprehension. Zhang Haiyun was very quick to understand.

The National College Entrance Examination (Gaokao) has arrived as scheduled, and this year, Huafang's Gaokao results are even better than last year.

Among them, Zhang Haiyun scored 612 points and was admitted to Chang'an Jiaotong University, becoming the first 985 university student in the district.

Zhang Haiyun's score even surpassed that of the top scorer at Jinling No.1 High School this year, placing her among the top 10 in the city's college entrance examination.

Zhang Haiyun's parents hosted a thank-you banquet for the teachers at the best hotel in the county, inviting the senior high school class teacher, Principal Ge, Wan Chunyan and her husband, as well as Zhao Changling's entire family.

In addition, five other students were admitted in the first tier, including three science students and two arts students.

In the past, the principal would count how many students got into second-tier universities each year, but now he's completely indifferent to them.

This year, six students from their school were admitted to top-tier universities, while all other schools in the district combined only had two. It's hard for them to keep a low profile.

The principal was wondering if he would be invited by the county to attend his college entrance examination seminar this year.

A vice principal from Jinling No. 2 High School came to see him, hoping that the two schools could exchange mock college entrance examination papers in advance.

What are you thinking? Back then, the principal had been turned away many times when he wanted to request a set of mock exam papers from Jinling No. 2 Middle School. Thinking back on the past, he was still angry, so he refused Jinling No. 2 Middle School's request without hesitation.

The principal even made a big deal out of it, showing off to the teachers and indulging in a good chatter session.

The principal never received an invitation from the county education bureau; this college entrance examination seminar was actually an invitation from the district.

Just as the principal was feeling bored and packing his things to leave, Zhao Changling came to his door to give him a heads-up.

"Principal! I heard you refused Jinling No. 2 High School's request to exchange mock exam papers?"

"Yes! Why should we share such good resources with them?"

"Principal! We can't think like that. Although our school has a good teaching standard and a strong faculty."

Zhao Changling first praised the school highly, then said, "However, after I take the college entrance examination and leave, I certainly won't have the energy to participate in these miscellaneous affairs of the school."

"I want to work, get married, and have children in the future. My life goal is not to go back to school and become a teacher. In the future, I won't have much interaction with schools."

"The mock exam papers from Jinling No. 2 High School are also of very high quality. As the saying goes, every coin has two sides, and it is necessary to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses."

"In the future, even if we don't have good mock exam papers, Jinling No. 2 High School will not cut off communication with us all at once. At least we can continue to communicate for a few more years."

"Of course, if our school's teaching standards can be maintained in the future, we don't need to worry about these things."

Oh dear! The principal immediately understood: arrogance!

With Zhao Changling gone, where are we going to find such high-quality exam papers?

The exam papers from Jinling No. 2 High School are also quite good. We can just rearrange and modify the previous papers and still manage to pass the exchange exams for a few years.

Thinking of this, the principal said sincerely, "Young Zhao, you are absolutely right. This old man sincerely apologizes to you."

"And also, Xiao Zhao, if you go on to study elsewhere in the future, remember this is your alma mater. If you have some spare time, it would be best if you could help your alma mater create a couple of sets of exam papers."

Zhao Changling couldn't guarantee that he would dedicate his entire life to the college entrance examination; what would be the point of living like that? He wanted to enjoy his own life.

"Let's talk about that later. I won't take up the principal's time any longer. You have a meeting to attend, right?"

"Zhao, come along. You were also a hero this time." The principal's invitation was sincere.

"It's not appropriate for me to go. Goodbye, Principal."

Zhao Changling waved goodbye.

The principal packed his things and went outside to call out to Mr. Zhou, the senior class teacher.

Sigh! Originally, Teacher Wan and this student Zhao should have been brought along, but neither of them likes socializing.

Teacher Zhou is just a bystander; every time he goes, he brings along someone else who's just there for the ride.

Oh right, I guess I'm just a bystander too.