Soul Returns to Hong Kong: From Tailor Shop to Richest Woman

On September 30th, São Paulo's first monthly comprehensive exam officially began.

The classroom of Class 1, Grade 4 was quieter than ever. Before the morning reading bell rang, the lockers at the back of the classroom were already overflowing with all sorts of expensive backpacks. Mr. Luo stood on the podium ahead of time, watching the teacher on duty walk from the front row to the back, checking each desk one by one.

Only pencils, erasers, rulers, and student IDs are allowed on the desk; even pencil cases with writing on them are not permitted.

"Lin Ying," Tang Shiya said nervously in a low voice, "I was memorizing my general knowledge textbook until 11:30 last night. My mom told me to go to sleep, but I didn't dare close my eyes. I was afraid that if I closed my eyes, I would forget all the Hong Kong government organizational charts I had memorized yesterday."

Lin Ying lined up three sharpened pencils in a straight line: "Relax a little, the more nervous you are, the more chaotic your mind will become."

"But……"

"Just make sure you get the points you know how to do," Lin Ying said calmly.

The first subject was Chinese literature.

The exam papers were passed from front to back, and once they were in hand, the only sound in the classroom was the rustling of the paper turning.

Lin Ying glanced at the entire test paper from beginning to end. São Paulo lived up to its reputation; this school didn't like to test students according to the textbook at all.

The basic vocabulary dictation was manageable; however, the difficulty level increased dramatically when it came to reading comprehension! This was definitely beyond the curriculum for a fourth-grade student.

Lin Ying's expression remained unchanged as she picked up her pencil and began answering the questions. For her, these kinds of questions didn't test rote memorization; they tested comprehension and core logic. The amount of reading she had done while confined to her sickbed in her previous life was more than enough to handle this type of article.

The second subject was English, proctored by a foreign teacher. The audio recordings were spoken at a speed that sounded like a news broadcast. The third subject was math, with the last two challenging word problems: one on the distribution of a mixture based on proportions, and the other on the area of ​​an irregular shape.

In the afternoon's general knowledge exam, the questions included the Hong Kong Observatory's typhoon signal icon, simple household circuit diagrams, and even identification of organizations with English abbreviations...

The bell rang for the end of the exam.

Tang Shiya handed in her test paper and then came back crying softly: "I didn't finish the last six-point question in the general knowledge section. I misread the time."

As Lin Ying tidied up the pencils on the table, she asked, "Have you filled in all the answers you knew how to do before?"

"It's full."

"That's fine then." Lin Ying put the ruler back in the drawer. "The test paper is finished, and no matter how hard I try, I won't get a single point higher. Pack your bag and get ready to go home."

It must be said that São Paulo is extremely efficient.

Because of the strict small class size system, the number of students in each grade is not excessive. On the afternoon of the last day of the monthly exam, several subject teachers gathered in the office to cross-grade the papers.

Just one night later, during the first class meeting the next morning, the grades had already been compiled.

Mr. Luo walked up to the podium carrying a thick stack of test papers. Instead of writing on the blackboard as usual, he placed the stack of papers heavily on the podium, pressing his palm down on the top grade sheet.

The classroom, which had been whispering about the questions, fell completely silent in an instant.

Mr. Luo's gaze swept across the faces of all twenty-six students in the class: "This monthly exam is your first major exam since entering the fourth grade. You all know how difficult the questions were after you finished the exam."

No one in the audience dared to speak.

"The school didn't expect you to get full marks by setting these advanced tests. It's just to find out your extracurricular knowledge and see who is thinking hard and who is just memorizing."

He picked up the report card, his tone softening slightly: "Let me first talk about the overall situation of our class; the full score for all subjects in fourth grade is 400. In this exam, the highest score in the class was 398."

"Wow!" The classroom was filled with excited chatter.

"Lin Ying," Officer Luo announced her name. "100 in Math, 100 in English, 100 in General Knowledge, 98 in Chinese, for a total of 398. Undisputed number one in the grade!"

The boy in the front row, who was usually excellent at math and wore round glasses, looked at Lin Ying in disbelief.

"She only lost two points in Chinese? Everything else was perfect? ​​How did she even solve that basic circuit problem?"

"Her English listening comprehension was so fast! I got most of the questions wrong, but she got a perfect score?!"

"Three hundred and ninety-eight... Is this even human?"

Inspector Luo tapped on the edge of the podium: "Quiet!"

Once the murmurs subsided, he continued reading: "Second place, 370 points. Third place, 350 points; these two students usually have a good foundation, but do you see the difference? This first place student has a difference of a full 28 points!"

A whole section of the fault was crushed.

After the results were announced, the test papers were handed out. Tang Shiya looked at her paper with a score of 320, and then at the stack of papers next to her that were almost entirely marked with red checkmarks. She couldn't help but lean over to take a look.

Lin Ying took the Chinese exam paper, her gaze immediately skipping over the full marks section at the front and flipping to the back to find the points where points were deducted.

Both points were deducted for details in the Chinese language subject.

One point was deducted from her essay. She used an overly classical and profound idiom, and the teacher circled it next to the paper and wrote: "[The word choice is extremely precise, but it does not fit the context of a primary school student's daily life and is slightly mature]."

The other point was deducted from a reading comprehension question. The answer was logically correct, but I forgot to copy a clause from the original newspaper to support it.

After reading it, Lin Ying casually folded the paper; the deduction was justified, the teachers at St. Paul's wouldn't relax their standards just because your previous papers were neat.

The school bell rang in the afternoon.

The students in the class packed their bags, preparing to catch the school bus and their private cars. Just as Lin Ying zipped up her bag, Mr. Luo, standing on the podium, spoke up: "Lin Ying, stay behind for a moment, come to my office with me."

Tang Shiya slung her backpack over her shoulder and asked softly, "Should I wait for you on the playground?"

"No need, you go take the school bus first, don't wait for me." Lin Ying shook her head.

In the faculty office at the far end of the second floor, several other teachers were tidying up their lesson plans. Mr. Luo walked to his desk, pulled out a chair, sat down, and pointed to the empty seat opposite him: "Sit down and begin your lecture."

Lin Ying didn't sit down, but stood properly in front of the table: "Officer Luo, you wanted to see me?"

Mr. Luo pulled a brand-new "Interest Class Registration Form" from his drawer, placed it on the table, and tapped it lightly with his fingers: "I called you here today for this. As I mentioned in yesterday's class meeting, the results of this monthly exam are directly linked to the number of places available for the interest classes."

He looked at Lin Ying, his eyes filled with admiration: "Three hundred and ninety-eight points. The teachers grading the papers are extremely pleased. You're definitely first in the grade. According to the rules, you have the highest priority to choose from all the school's popular extracurricular classes. What do you think? What do you want to enroll in?"