The first two classes of the morning were Chinese with Mr. Li, the King of Hell.
Mr. Li arrived in the classroom ten minutes before the bell rang.
After handing a stack of Chinese answer sheets to the class representative to distribute, Mr. Li took out a piece of paper that was tucked inside his textbook.
It was the score report for the entire class on the third mock exam.
In the classroom, pairs of students' eyes immediately lit up, and they looked at Mr. Li on the podium with anticipation.
"The exam results are out. You might not have received your scores for other subjects yet, so I'll just say a few things about Chinese for now."
Mr. Li spoke slowly, his gaze sweeping over the faces in the classroom.
To the astonishment of all the students, a clear smile appeared on the usually stern face of Old Li.
"Overall, everyone in our class has made significant progress in this exam, not just in Chinese, but in all other subjects as well."
As soon as he said this, the classroom became a little noisy, and excitement was evident on everyone's faces.
Then, Mr. Li summarized the situation for the Chinese exam.
There were as many as five people who scored 140 or above.
Class monitor Mu Nan and Xia Nuannuan were among them, along with the Chinese class representative and another male student who excelled in Chinese.
Finally, Mr. Li's gaze shifted towards Qin Tian's direction.
The classmates' gazes also converged on him.
"Qin Tian, 148, ranked first in Chinese in the class this time, and is also one of the three students who tied for first place in the entire school."
Mr. Li announced.
Before everyone could express their shock, they heard Mr. Li's voice again from the podium.
"You really did well, a definite improvement from last time. But you still need to work harder on your essays. For the college entrance examination, I expect you to get a perfect score in Chinese too. Otherwise, as I always say, Qin Tian, if you get perfect scores in all other subjects, but my Chinese score drops, I lose face!"
The entire classroom fell silent, all students staring at Qin Tian with wide eyes, their faces showing expressions as if they had seen a ghost.
Judging by his words, Qin Tian had gotten perfect scores in the other three subjects again?
"That is indeed challenging, but I will do my best."
Qin Tian agreed with a smile.
Mr. Li, uncharacteristically, did not reprimand him further. He nodded and turned to the other students, saying, "Qin Tian is still ranked first in the entire grade with a total score of 748!"
The classroom erupted in an uproar.
Even though they had been mentally prepared, hearing such an exaggerated score again left them utterly astonished.
It was only two points shy of a perfect score across all subjects.
In the entire history of the college entrance examination, there hadn't been anyone who achieved a perfect score without any preparation, had there?
If he actually achieved a perfect score in the college entrance examination a month from now, wouldn't that be making history?
Was this truly a score that a human could achieve?
"Additionally, there is another student who deserves special praise. I believe everyone has seen her recent attitude towards learning, and the results of these two mock exams have proven that her efforts have paid off."
Mr. Li finished speaking and looked towards that direction again.
But this time, he was looking not at Qin Tian, but at Xia Nuannuan beside him.
Xia Nuannuan was startled, and her face immediately became tense and apprehensive.
She was no longer concerned about improvement, as it was something she had anticipated.
Her focus had always been on her rank in the grade and whether she had achieved her goal.
"That's right, it's Xia Nuannuan. The progress she has made this time has also greatly surprised us teachers."
A gentle smile reappeared on Mr. Li's face.
"Teacher Li, what is Xia Nuannuan's ranking in the grade this time?"
Liao Juan, sitting in the front row, could not contain her curiosity and directly asked.
Hearing this, Xia Nuannuan quietly clenched her small hands under the desk, her heart rising to her throat.
Mr. Li on the podium glanced at Liao Juan and asked in return, "Why do you ask?"
"Teacher Li, we were having a study session together during the May Day holiday, and Xia Nuannuan said she wanted to aim for a higher ranking in the grade this time, so..."
"I see!"
Mr. Li nodded as if in sudden realization and looked back at Xia Nuannuan, saying, "Xia Nuannuan, congratulations, you have achieved your goal. This time you are ranked fourth in our class and nineteenth in the entire grade, which is already very high."
The moment his words fell, several gasps could be faintly heard in the classroom.
All the students looked at Xia Nuannuan with expressions of disbelief.
Xia Nuannuan was stunned for a long time, then her pretty face flushed with excitement, and her triumphant gaze immediately fell on Qin Tian beside her.
"Congratulations, you did it."
Qin Tian congratulated her with a smile.
In his mind, the prompt indicating the completion of a system task sounded.
[Congratulations to the host for successfully helping Xia Nuannuan achieve a top twenty ranking in the grade in this mock exam. Mission complete. Reward: one opportunity to exchange for any item in the treasure pavilion, system points +1999!]
The mission reward was undeniably generous.
However, at this moment, Qin Tian felt that helping Xia Nuannuan achieve her goal was more gratifying to him than the system reward.
"Thank you."
Xia Nuannuan's pretty face bloomed into a radiant smile.
This was the first time she had experienced such a sense of pride and joy in terms of her academic performance.
Although she had made great progress in the last exam, it was nowhere near as fulfilling as this time.
After all, this was the first time she had set a seemingly impossible goal for herself and actually achieved it.
"Oh my god, did I hear that right? Nineteenth in the grade?"
"It's unbelievable, Xia Nuannuan's progress is too fast!"
"Fourth in the class. Besides Qin Tian, I guess only the class monitor and someone else ranked higher than her, right?"
"With Old Li saying that, it feels like our class is really strong this time. In the past, fourth in the class would never have been ranked this high in the entire grade."
"Indeed, I think Qin Tian's three revision outlines played a big role."
"I feel the same way. I really want to know my own ranking too, ahhhhh!"
"..."
After a moment of silence, the students began to discuss heatedly, unable to contain themselves.
Mr. Li seemed to be in a good mood today and uncharacteristically did not stop them. After the noisy chatter subsided a bit, he continued to talk about the exam situation.
This time, the second-ranked student in the entire class was the class monitor, Mu Nan, who scored a high 715 due to the low difficulty of the exam!
Next, in third place, was Wu Xin with 709 points!
It was both surprising and expected.
Wu Xin was already one of the top students in the class, and he had been working very hard recently.
In the last row of the classroom, Wu Xin let out a sigh of relief upon hearing his ranking.
He no longer aspired to compete with Qin Tian, as long as he could maintain a top-three ranking in the class.
"Wu Xin has also been performing very well recently, studying diligently. Keep up the good work!"
Mr. Li specifically encouraged him.
Wu Xin felt as if he had been injected with chicken blood, his face flushed with excitement, and a fighting spirit ignited in his eyes.
"You're still 40 points behind, and you're happy about it?"
Xu Ying's disdainful voice from beside him reached his ears, like a basin of ice water being poured over him.