Tan You chose a seat by the teacher’s podium, surprising everyone. Cao Haixia was the quickest to react. Taking advantage of her small stature, she chose the seat closest to Tan You, the one right below the podium.
Gu Qiuxia and Yin Xiu exchanged a look. Yin Xiu whispered, "You get to choose before me. Save a seat for me later, and we can sit together."
Gu Qiuxia replied, "Don’t worry. I’ll try my best to pick a seat near Tan You."
Yin Xiu glanced at Cao Haiyan, who was talking with Tan You, and couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. "Haiyan is closest to Tan You."
"Seats change every two weeks. She’ll only be happy for two weeks." Gu Qiuxia narrowed her eyes. "Anyway, we’re all in the same class. We can still walk part of the way together after evening self-study. That’s already pretty good."
Yin Xiu was immediately distracted. "Tan You hasn’t been to our off-campus dorm yet. We should invite her over sometime."
Gu Qiuxia said, "We should go see Tan You’s dorm too. Let’s wait until after the placement test. The test is tomorrow, and I’m already a little nervous. Do you think Tan You is nervous?"
Yin Xiu let out a laugh. "How could she possibly be nervous? Everyone else could be nervous, but she wouldn’t be."
Yin Xiu was a model student. It was her poor mentality that had caused her to underperform on the high school entrance exam. After spending seven days with Tan You during military training, Yin Xiu had long since realized how terrifyingly capable Tan You was.
She couldn’t even understand the math competition problems Tan You was doing, yet Tan You could solve them. What did that prove? It proved that Tan You’s academic performance was excellent. Tan You could easily answer any question she asked.
After the seats were rearranged, everyone got busy getting to know their new classmates and desk mates.
Li Fugui cleared his throat. "As you all know, the placement test starts tomorrow and will last for two days, so be prepared. It’s also time to settle down after running wild all summer. High school is much more tiring than junior high."
"You’ve all crossed the narrow log bridge that is the high school entrance exam. The college entrance exam is when an entire army tries to cross that same bridge. You need to start working hard now. Build a solid foundation, starting today..."
Listening to Li Fugui’s pep talk, Tan You couldn’t help but smile. With her Intelligence Value up, Tan You found she could seemingly multitask. She could ponder a math competition problem in her head without missing a single word Li Fugui was saying.
’The effect of the Intelligence Value is terrifyingly powerful!’ Now, when she got these problems, Tan You could basically figure out an approach in a few minutes. It wasn’t like before, when it would take her days just to get a clue.
「The next day was the placement test.」
Tan You wasn’t nervous at all. She even had the leisure to make herself stir-fried chicken that morning, along with steamed rice and egg pancakes. When she left, she was even carrying a large water bottle.
Li Fugui was squatting outside brushing his teeth, his hair a bird’s nest. Seeing Tan You walk by, he spat out a mouthful of foam. "Do you even sleep? I smelled braised chicken first thing in the morning."
The fragrant smell had forcefully woken him from his sleep.
Tan You glanced at Teacher Li’s bird’s nest hair and casually handed him an egg pancake. "Don’t be mad. Here’s some breakfast. I’m heading to the classroom now."
Li Fugui didn’t know whether to be angry or amused. He just stood there dumbfounded, holding the egg pancake and watching Tan You walk away. Not until his son came out. "Dad, what’s that you’re holding? It smells so good."
"Smells good, but none for you." Li Fugui snapped back to his senses. "Did you share a single bite of that red bean bread you had yesterday, you little rascal?"
Guoguo wheedled, clinging to him. "Daaaad..."
In the end, Li Fugui couldn’t stay stern. He thrust the egg pancake into his son’s hands. "Share it with your mom. I’m going to the cafeteria to get food."
Teacher Lin poked her head out. "No need. I made porridge. I’ll just fry a few eggs, and we’ll be set. Tan You is up this early? I smelled it this morning too, but my nose isn’t as sharp as yours."
When the fragrant aroma had wafted over from next door that morning, Li Fugui had been tossing and turning in bed. He’d checked the time—it wasn’t even 5:30 a.m. ’Just how early does this student, Tan You, wake up?’
Carrying a few deluxe egg pancakes, she arrived at the classroom. At that time, Cao Haiyan, Gu Qiuxia, and Yin Xiu hadn’t arrived yet. Tan You wasn’t in a hurry. Only after she had reviewed her Chinese textbook did the three of them finally show up late.
Tan You pushed the egg pancakes toward them. "Have some to fill your stomachs. The tests these next two days won’t be easy."
Yin Xiu was so moved she was on the verge of tears. "Did you make these yourself? You can actually cook where you’re staying?"
Tan You replied, "If you wake up a little earlier, you’ll naturally have the time."
Yin Xiu waved her hands. "Never mind then. I’d rather get more sleep."
The three girls held the egg pancakes and wolfed them down. They had only had plain porridge with some side dishes for breakfast. This was especially true for Gu Qiuxia; any pancakes that Yin Xiu and Cao Haiyan couldn’t finish ended up in her stomach.
The two consecutive days of placement tests left all the students listless and exhausted. It was especially tough when you were taking a test below while the proctor sat at the podium grading papers right in front of you. Students with a weaker mentality could easily lose their composure.
By the time the placement test was completely over on Tuesday, the scores for the main subject exams from the previous day were already being released. At this point, a stir was gradually starting to build among the first-year high school students.
"It looks like a dark horse has appeared in our grade. She actually got a perfect score in math!" The math teacher for Class 1 said, looking especially pleased as he graded the papers.
"Speaking of perfect scores, I’ve got a perfect score in chemistry over here." The chemistry teacher, Teacher Li, looked at Tan You’s paper and thought, ’It can’t be the same person, can it?’ Tan You’s grades had been good before, but in his memory, they were just "good." He’d never heard of her getting a perfect score.
"Look at the handwriting. I feel like I’ve seen this handwriting before..." A physics teacher mused, "I came across a physics paper where I tried my hardest to deduct two points, and it seems to have the same handwriting."
"A student this good at the sciences? Which class is she in?" a teacher asked curiously. "What about her Chinese and English scores?"
Huang Ruixiang quietly spoke up. "Her Chinese is very good. Over 145."
He had already seen Tan You’s paper. How could he not recognize her handwriting? He had been rereading Tan You’s essay every so often these past few days, so he recognized her paper the moment he got it.
A teacher asked curiously, "Mr. Huang, you know this student?"
Huang Ruixiang replied, "Yes, a girl from Class 3. I’ve met her before."
The English teacher from the neighboring class came over and glanced at the paper Huang Ruixiang had pulled out. "That’s the handwriting. Her English score is also exceptionally good. Many of the sentence structures and grammar points are things they don’t learn until their second or third year of high school."
"By that calculation, her score for these five subjects is almost over 680? How did a student like this end up in Class 3? What did she get on her high school entrance exam?"
Li Fugui was perfectly calm and composed. "528. Didn’t I tell you all before?"
’He felt absolutely fantastic right now. See? Tan You was making him proud! When it came to the placement test, she wasn’t scared at all. She even had the free time every morning to whip up something to eat. Those steamed flower rolls this morning were really good.’
Thinking of this, Li Fugui smacked his lips, savoring the memory.
The dean of students asked curiously, "Is this the student you gave me a heads-up about wanting?"
"That’s right," Li Fugui said, half-joking and half-serious. "Even I didn’t expect her to do this well."