At the start, I had to choose one of four options, and I immediately picked the Brahmin from the cou

"Brother Xiao, did you check your college entrance exam results today?"

"What? Your college entrance exam results?"

"Yes, you didn't forget that the college entrance exam results came out today, did you?"

Zheng Hao on the other end of the phone was speechless. He never expected that Brother Xiao would forget something so important.

"I really forgot."

Li Xiao was also somewhat helpless. These past few days, he had been busy finalizing the details of the articles of association for Lansheng's registration with Zhou Yanhuai, and he had also personally gone to the south of the city to check the surrounding road network of that land. He hadn't even noticed that the day for checking college entrance exam scores had already arrived.

"Mouse, have you checked? What score did you get?"

"Don't say anything, Xiao-ge. The website has been stuck all morning and I can't find anything. But Xiao-ge, don't you know my score? I'd be perfectly happy with 300 points."

Zheng Hao's tone was carefree, showing none of the anxiety and unease that college entrance exam takers experience before checking their scores.

It's understandable that he was carefree, after all, given the Zheng family's wealth in Jiangyang County, they had already arranged a way out for him.

Getting him into one of those private third-tier universities or Sino-foreign cooperative schools in the provincial capital to get a diploma would be no problem at all. In fact, besides Xida University, he could easily go to the UK or Australia.

He can go abroad to get some experience, date foreign girls for a few years, and after graduation, he can still take over the family business and continue being the glamorous young master Zheng.

South of the city, an urban village.

Xia Kexin woke up early in the morning, or rather, she hadn't slept well all night.

Her grades were only slightly below average in Class 4 of the third year of high school. She didn't even dare to dream of getting into a top-tier university; she just hoped to get into a public second-tier university.

Because only the tuition fees of public universities were the limit that her already impoverished family could barely afford.

If she could only attend those private third-tier universities with tuition fees that easily reach tens of thousands of yuan a year, she would rather drop out of school and work than see her parents worry about her tuition fees anymore.

Because she didn't have a computer at home, she could only repeatedly refresh the score checking system page on her phone, hoping for a miracle.

At this point, the class group chat had already exploded with activity.

Zhao Qiang sent his first message at 5:30 a.m., which consisted of a long string of exclamation marks and the sentence, "I can't sleep, brothers."

Who would have thought that just one sentence would bring out so many other night owls who were also up all night?

"+1, I'm also refreshing the webpage like crazy, the score checking system seems to have crashed, I can't get in!"

"Please, please, just let me barely pass the entrance exam for a second-tier university, I'm willing to stay single for four years of college!"

"Amitabha Buddha, this woman wishes to be a vegetarian for life..."

……

Messages kept scrolling up in the group chat, and classmates who were usually lurking all popped up now. You could feel everyone's anxiety and panic even through the screen.

"It's out! It's out! My scores have been updated!"

Zhao Qiang broke the ice by posting a screenshot of his college entrance exam score: 515, followed by a long string of exclamation marks: "My mom's crying right here. Guys, I'm going to go comfort her first, we'll talk later!"

For a student with athletic talent, a college entrance exam score of 515 is enough for him to choose any school in the province.

Then several more people reported their scores, some happy and some sad. Some posted several crying emojis saying they failed the science exam, while others had been lurking all morning before finally popping up, only to say they didn't do well on the exam and then disappearing from the public eye.

As more and more people in the group posted their college entrance examination scores, Xia Kexin's mood was like a roller coaster at an amusement park, fluctuating wildly.

She is happy when someone gets a good grade, and sad when someone does not.

Just as Xia Kexin was constantly refreshing her phone, eagerly awaiting her college entrance exam results, Lin Xiaoran's profile picture suddenly popped up in the group chat.

Without any unnecessary words, she directly posted a screenshot of her college entrance examination scores in the group chat.

Chinese 128, Math 135, English 142, Science 270, Total 675.

The moment the screenshot of the grades was posted, the class group chat exploded, even drawing out many who had been lurking quietly.

"Holy crap! 675 points! Ran-jie is amazing! This score is definitely in the top ten in the whole school!"

"She's definitely going to be a top-tier university. It's just a matter of which school she wants to go to. She's beautiful and her grades are phenomenal; does she even leave any room for ordinary people?"

"Let's soak up some of the good luck! Let's share in the academic high-achiever's good fortune!"

Faced with a screen full of praise and adulation, Lin Xiaoran simply sent a reserved smiley face before disappearing from everyone's sight.

But behind the phone screen, she couldn't suppress the smile on her lips.

She scrolled through the compliments in the group chat, unable to suppress the smile on her face.

This was the script she was familiar with; there was no Xia Kexin, no Li Xiao, only her name, Lin Xiaoran, being repeatedly mentioned on the screen.

She even waited a few minutes to see if Xia Kexin would pop up in the group chat. She wanted to see what score Xia Kexin could get.

But after waiting for several minutes, Xia Kexin still hadn't appeared.

However, Lin Xiaoran was not in a hurry. She did not believe that she could be overtaken in the college entrance examination, which relies purely on hard skills.

In a tenement building in a village in the south of the city, Xia Kexin, whom Lin Xiaoran had been thinking about day and night, was refreshing the score checking page again and again, even though it never loaded.

She also saw Lin Xiaoran's score screenshot: 675 points, a score she never dared to dream of.

The signal in the tenement building was already bad, and today all the people checking their scores were crowding into the same time slot. The white circle on the page had been spinning for almost two minutes, but it was still barely working.

Looking at her phone, which had been refreshed several times but still remained unresponsive, Xia Kexin felt the weight in her heart sink even further. She dared not think about what she would do if she didn't even pass the cutoff score for a public second-tier university.

Just as she was about to despair and give up refreshing and logging back in, the spinning white circle suddenly stopped.

The next second, Xia Kexin's report card appeared right in front of her.

Name: Xia Kexin

Chinese: 110

Mathematics: 97

English: 98

Combined Science: 220

Total score: 525

The moment Xia Kexin saw the number at the bottom, she almost burst into tears of excitement.

It's a sure thing! Based on last year's science score cutoff in Jiangyang Province, the cutoff for public second-tier universities was at most a little over 500 points. That extra 20 points is enough for her to choose a provincial normal college with cheap tuition and even subsidies.

She no longer needs to attend that expensive private third-tier university, nor is she forced to drop out of school to work on an electronics factory assembly line.

Meanwhile, Li Xiao, who had been woken up by Zheng Hao, also checked his grades.