Chapter Five

  Chen Haotian got his parents' consent - actually, he found someone to foot the bill - and bought a batch of gold pens that were not expensive at all as a thank-you gift for the teachers. He generously sent them to the teachers' office.

  Other teachers who saw the gift smiled and didn't say anything sarcastic, and many of them sincerely congratulated her in advance for getting into college. This was a class from Yizhong, with eight students at most in the regular class and three students at least in the international class. The actual average middle school entrance exam scores of the international class were twenty points higher than those of the regular class, so it's easy to imagine that these students were among the best in the city, or at least they were the top students in the junior high stage.

  Not yet out of school, ten classmates who were admitted to the same international class in China, including Zhang Ying, made an appointment and went to the principal's office again.

  Their principal came just three and a half years ago, young but not big, speaking neither fast nor slow but very accurate. Chen Haosheng had heard from his father that this principal was not simple in either background or ability, and indeed he was right. At least in these few years, their originally second-rate junior high school's average score in the middle school entrance examination barely reached first-rate, but the number of students who got into the top school was the second highest in the city! Especially, ten students were admitted to the international class, which is a very rare thing.

  "...The teaching style of Class 1 is very different from other schools that overwork and overexert themselves. It has a high requirement for students' self-study ability, no one will be watching you every day to do this and that, but you must have high demands on yourself! ...Don't forget, your classmates come from all schools in the city, everyone is the best student, so even if the ranking is not ideal, don't worry, because if you go to other schools' ordinary classes, you will also be among the top few..."

  The principal warmly and sincerely warned everyone for five minutes before sending them off. The head of the grade department, with a sense of pride, spoke for another ten minutes, before reluctantly letting everyone leave school.

  。

  This time, it's leaving and doesn't need to come back anymore.

  Chen Haotian stayed at home for two days, either daydreaming or doing chores like laundry and cooking. Then she ran errands to buy a straw hat and wore a polyester long-sleeved white shirt and black skirt every day as she rode her bike to the city library, starting her life of seclusion in the library again. In the afternoons, she went home to buy groceries and cook dinner. Her parents were grateful to have ready-to-eat meals when they came home from work. However, with their daughter managing the household and cooking, their expenses increased by 20%...

  Friends originally wanted to pull Chen Huai-cheng to give other younger siblings and relatives' children free tutoring, but almost every Sunday when they went to her house, she wasn't there. After asking around, it turned out that she was studying in the library preparing for university exams. They could only secretly feel heartache and awkwardly praise her a few times about her diligence in studying.

  "Hua Sheng, you really finished all these questions?! Auntie had always believed that Chen Hua Sheng not only got extra lessons but also got in through the back door with his father's help, so she came running over, determined to get to the bottom of it."

  "Yes! But these are all the ones I've done, with records, you can buy new books for Zhenzhen. Hmm, I still have my own notes here, didn't throw them away, each subject has some." Chen Huaixing happily placed a meter-high stack of reference books, test papers and notes on the table, stunning his uncle into a daze and his cousin's face turned pale.

  "No wonder you were able to get into First Middle School!"

  "Chen Hua Sheng was in junior high school, every time the mid-term and final exams were among the top three in the class, generally the first name, with the highest score, only about 20 students in the whole grade, and also ranked first in the two mock exams before the middle school entrance exam. So I recommended her to take the pre-exam for the international class, where over 200 students took the test, and she was ranked around 30th. Her English score was still tied for first place. Hmm, I can get the test papers from the international class for these two years, but there are no standard answers."

  "Great! Too good!" Auntie had never thought that her own son's grades were only around 20th or 30th in an ordinary class at an ordinary high school. After seeing the mock exam papers, she might be so shocked that she would be left speechless.

  Chen Hua didn't say a word, but just glanced at her father secretly. How could she not know that this thirtieth place and tied for first? And who scored as high as this "big mom" with a strong foundation from the previous generation? That English test was almost as difficult as the college English level three exam, how diligent must this competitor be to reach such heights?!

  Just as Chen Huaisheng was hesitating about whether to spend a lot of time on the 8,000 words - which would require several summers and at least five hours a day, a super-large project, because she didn't remember so much knowledge - her uncle, aunt, and cousin ran away during the intermediate Japanese class.

  Oh, those books and notes were forced on her.

  Each person carried a large bundle downstairs and then filled three bicycles and two canvas bags.

  "Those waste papers can be sold for at most three or four yuan, not even worth giving to my younger cousin! As for whether he uses them or how his exams go next year, it has nothing to do with me." Chen Hui explained.

  Dad and mom laughed for a while before ending this topic.

  Later, whenever anyone asked them how their daughter got into an international class, they would answer in unison: studying for ten hours a day, including Sundays!

  In the end, Chen Haotian still copied vocabulary for a whole summer vacation. But it wasn't just one English subject.

  High school is a 10-minute bike ride from junior high. The bike refers to a bicycle. Chen Huasheng has ridden this route many times, so his parents are also very reassured to let him go by himself. The only trouble is adding dishes at noon, usually one made by mom or dad and one made by herself, with a serving of plain rice from the cafeteria, or maybe some extra vegetables. At most, there's a small bottle of Huanglian Su kept in the desk drawer for emergencies.

  High school, first lesson again is English.

  But this time it was straightforward! Each person stood up and recited a sentence from the lesson, then wrote that sentence on the blackboard without looking at their book.

  Chen Haotian's class is an English-enhanced class, okay, not even giving her a chance to choose, and unfortunately, there isn't a single familiar classmate. However, there is a group of students from the second middle school who are chatting and laughing as soon as they enter the classroom, obviously knowing each other. Also, high school desks are all separate, no such thing as seatmates, and students can swap seats freely, just need to report to the class leader.

  If Chen Huasheng's eyesight wasn't good enough, sitting in the second row from the back would be very inconvenient for listening to lectures. However, this position was also quite advantageous because most of the time when she needed to stand up and answer questions, she wouldn't be the first one called upon.

  That sentence of hers was neither long nor short, neither difficult nor easy, and naturally wouldn't make her the leader or cause her to lose face.

  By the way, these students are obviously experimental guinea pigs. In addition to standard textbooks, they also have their own set of materials that need to be learned! Hmm, the only benefit is that it saves the trouble of spending money on unsuitable or even incorrect reference books.

  And there's math, with textbooks, supplementary books, exercise books and extracurricular homework all sent out at the same time, that's what I call spectacular!

  Chen Huaicheng skillfully tied the books to the rear rack of his bicycle and rode slowly back home, amazingly not a single book fell off.