Chapter 4: The Dark Horse That Emerged from the Murder

  Day after day passes by, and the final exam is approaching. This is both good and bad news. As Shi Tiesheng wrote in "My Land", it's a bit hard to bear before the exam, but thinking about the long vacation after the exam makes it not so bad after all. And indeed, after the final exam, we'll have summer break, two whole months! Just thinking about it is wonderful.

  This was not the third class of the afternoon, and Teacher Liu said: "Classmates, this semester's lessons have all been taught. Next Wednesday will be the start of the exams. The exam time and classroom will be written on the blackboard after I finish speaking. Classmates, take out your notebooks and copy down the time and classroom carefully, don't make any mistakes. After you're done, check with each other at your table to see if there are any errors."

  After finishing copying, Wu Hanwen handed his notebook over to me, thinking: elementary school students really treat their teacher's words as sacred decrees, indeed a good student. I also handed my notebook over to him to look at, carefully checking that there were no mistakes. However, I discovered that in just one semester, Wu Hanwen's handwriting had made significant progress, he must have put in a lot of effort to practice. Although my handwriting isn't considered good-looking, it's still better than that of an elementary school student. But relying on my old skills like this, I'll eventually be caught up with, thinking that I should also find time to practice my handwriting.

  It's already Wednesday, with a language test in the morning and math in the afternoon. This morning, my mom asked me to eat an oil strip, a small bun, and an egg, saying that this represents getting 100 points. I confidently said: "Mom, rest assured, I will definitely get you back with double 100 points." My mom smiled and said: "You can get one hundred points, it's not bad, I don't expect double 100 points, don't come back with a duck egg as an appetizer." I know my mom is joking with me, letting me not be too nervous. Since I was young, my problem has been that once the formal exam starts, I can't perform normally, let alone exceed expectations. This is completely opposite to Wang Xiaoxiao, whose parents often stimulated me. After finishing breakfast and saying goodbye to my mom, I left 20 minutes early. When I arrived at school, I found that my classmates had all arrived very early. I was one of the later ones. When I got to the exam room, there was only one empty seat left - it was mine! I walked in from the back door and put down my bag, took out my stationery, and looked around. At this time, I found that I was actually in the same exam room as Wu Hanwen and Hou Jingya. Wu Hanwen was diagonally opposite me, and Hou Jingya was in front of me.

  The little boy had a well-prepared look, and after I watched him for a while, he seemed to feel that someone was watching him. He turned his head and found it was me. I smiled at him, and unusually, he also smiled back at me, but his mouth corners seemed a bit unnatural.

  I didn't think much and walked two or three steps to Hou Jingya's seat, saying: "Ya Ya, I didn't expect that you and I would be in the same examination room..." Hou Jingya smiled and said: "I didn't expect it either, great! I was a bit nervous at first, surrounded by unfamiliar people, but now that I know you're here, I feel a bit better."

  A moment later, the invigilating teacher arrived. The teacher asked us to put our bags on the podium and started distributing the test papers as soon as the bell rang. After receiving the test paper, I first wrote down my school, class, and name, then browsed through the test paper, which was indeed very simple. I quickly wrote down the answers and finished the last item, "Picture Description", in less than 10 minutes. The format was good, requiring only about five sentences to be written, and any unknown characters could be replaced with pinyin. This was still a piece of cake for me, but in order to appear as innocent as possible, I thought for a while before starting to write.

  About fifteen minutes later, I finished everything and looked around. Some students were still writing carefully, stroke by stroke, some had slightly furrowed brows, and even some were biting their pen tips. Looking at Xiaozheng again, he was also scribbling away.

  At this time, the invigilator's voice came into my ears: "The girl in the last row of the second group should not look around randomly. If you can't write, just leave it blank." I'm so wronged! I've finished writing, but no one is even looking at me. Fine, then I'll just put my head on the desk and sleep.

  It felt like a long, long time had passed before the bell finally rang, signaling the end of the exam. The teacher collected the test papers and Hou Jingya walked over, saying: "Xiao Xiao, this test was a bit difficult, there were several characters and words that I wasn't sure about, and some sentences too. And when it came to describing the picture, there were also several characters that I didn't know how to write. Did you have many that you didn't know? How did you get picked by the teacher?"

  I said, "I wrote down everything I could think of and then just took a glance before falling asleep." Hou Jingya looked at me and said, "Alright, you're quite bold to sleep during the exam! You might as well have submitted your paper early!"

  I said: "Alright, let's do it this afternoon."

  Hou Jingya looked at me and said: "You really plan to hand in your paper ahead of time this afternoon, I just casually mentioned it, but who knows whether the test questions this afternoon are easy or difficult."

  This afternoon, I took a math test. The math test paper was moderate, not too easy or too difficult for a first-year student like me. I finished the test quickly and handed it in. The proctor suggested that I should review my answers again, but I made an excuse saying that I didn't need to, telling the teacher that my stomach hurt and I needed to go to the bathroom.

  After the exam, I had three days off. On the third day, Zhang Jiong and I went to Meng Nainai's place to learn piano. I gradually caught up with Zhang Jiong's speed, but Latin dance really doesn't have Zhang Jiong's talent. Even the most basic movement of twisting hips is not done well, and my body is a bit stiff. However, I believe that as long as I practice hard, I will improve.

  Grandma Meng asked me and Zhang Yu: "Xiao Xiao, Yu Yu, what are your plans for the summer vacation?"

  I said with embarrassment: "Aunt Meng, I don't want to have classes on Wednesdays and Saturdays. I'd like to study with you continuously for a month during the summer vacation, then I'll go to my grandma's house."

  Zhang Jing said: "Grandma Meng, during summer vacation, apart from doing homework, I play with the kids nearby, and also learn to play the piano and dance."

  Meng Wuya said, "Oh, so you two are a bit out of sync, but that's okay. Meng Nainai has something to do in half a month, and Xiao Xiao will study with me for a month, every afternoon from 2:30 to 5:30. Xuanxuan changed to four classes a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, also from 2:30 to 5:30."

  The three-day holiday is over soon, and on July 1st, I have to go to school to get my report card. It's always a mix of happiness and worry for several families. After I arrived at the classroom, Teacher Liu hadn't arrived yet, but all I could hear was the class chattering about who would be first in the exams and who would be last.

  I walked to my seat and saw my deskmate calmly watching a video of "The Yang Family Generals". I leaned over and asked, "Why don't you discuss the test results with others?" Wu Hanwen only said one sentence: "We've all taken the exam, and the scores are out. Whether we talk about it or not, it's still the same, so what's the point?"

  A voice of ridicule came from beside her, Lin Lilili's voice: "Others like Wu Hanwen have been the first in their grade since the mid-term exam of the first semester, the final exam, and this semester's mid-term exam. What's there to worry about? Who is like you, just average in our class, and even lower in the grade rankings? How embarrassing, I didn't know how we could be desk mates with Wu Hanwen back then..."

  Uncle can bear it, auntie can't. I turned around and said: "Lin Lili, what does it have to do with you that Wu Hanwen and I are deskmates? If you're capable, you should also have this luck, right? Sour grapes. And yes, yes, yes, my grades were bad before, but that doesn't mean I'll always be bad in the future. This time, let's see how well you do on the exam, maybe you won't even be as good as me, humph."

  Lin Lilili sneered: "You think I, Lin Lilili, would not pass the exam? You all listen up, me, Lin Lilili, not passing Nan Xiao Xiao's exam is really laughable..."

  After a while, Teacher Liu came in with a smile and said: "Classmates, our class did very well this time, ranking first among the six classes. Moreover, there are two students who ranked first in the grade, both of whom are in our class. They scored double hundreds, one is Wu Hanwen and the other is Nan Xiuxiu. Especially Nan Xiuxiu made great progress, everyone should learn from her. Of course, the other students also did well, including Hou Jingya, Zhou Peipei, Zhang Chao, Wang Xiaoxiao, Li Xi, Lin Lili...

  I turned around and glanced at Lin Lilie with a provocative look, Lin Lilie's face was so angry that it was distorted, just as I had hoped.

  "Classmates, the summer homework has also been given to you, everyone must complete it seriously. Next semester you will be in second grade. Because Yeping Primary School is going to merge with our school, all their students will transfer here, and classmates will be reassigned to new classes. Teachers won't be able to teach you again, so today is the last time for teachers to share grades with all of you. Next, let's sing a song together, after singing, everyone can go home on summer break. If you feel happy, clap your hands. Get ready."

  Classmates clapped and stomped their feet with all their might, as if to express that they were really happy. The wonderful summer vacation had finally arrived. When I got home, neither my dad nor mom was at home. I used the key hanging from my neck to open the door, sat down at the table to do my summer homework, and waited for my parents to come back and tell them that I had scored 100 in both subjects, making them happy, although there was a bit of pretence involved - after all, they weren't real elementary school students. But who made them have a loli appearance? I would be a dark horse that would make my parents proud of me.

  By noon, my mom came back first, and soon after, my dad returned too. Before my dad got home, my mom asked me to show her my report card, but I said let's wait for dad to come back and look at it together. My mom thought I was trying to get help from dad, so she told me to study hard, which secretly delighted me. After lunch, I solemnly handed the report card to my parents, and my mom looked a bit disbelieving, saying: "Honey, am I seeing things? Our baby scored double hundreds..."

  Dad said: "We shouldn't be wrong, both of us saw double one hundred with our four eyes. Our baby is so great! Tell Dad what reward you want?"

  I smiled and said, "I'm the first in our grade, and there's another tied for first, Wu Hanwen. Oh, and I also got a Three Good Students award certificate. For now, I haven't thought of what reward I want, so I'll just save it for later."

  Mom said: "Wu Hanwen? Isn't he your deskmate? I knew he was very capable when I attended the parent-teacher conference last time. As expected, learning from good people makes you a better person, and sitting with him, your grades have made significant progress..."

  I thought: where is he so divine, you are my daughter and I am your daughter ten or more years later.