The Bankroller Little Sister (1)

The slightly younger Teacher Xiao-Zhu scratched his head. “I like this essay. I’ll give at least 55 or higher if it’s up to me.”

Another slightly older teacher hesitated. “Mm. It’s unconventional but up-to-date, full of literary phrases. It’s no problem for me to give it 54 points.”

<<One Step For One’s Life>>

The essay topic this time was a conventional essay with a few variations.

The most common way to write a high-scoring essay was to use a proverb like “If the Ones in front Make a Misstep, Then All the Ones Following will Likewise Make a Misstep” or “A Single Slip May Cause Lasting Sorrow.” Usually, these essays talked about how you should analyze the choices and decisions on the road of life so that you don’t make a wrong decision. If you make a mistake, the most important thing is to get back on the right path, and so on.

However, the main theme in Ruan Qingmu’s essay was: “Walk wherever the heart wants to go and the world is wide.”

It was very well-written.

The essay used elegant words and a confident style, with prose-like style writing in the meat of the essay that was approachable and easy to read.

The writing was not at all casual and sloppy. When you looked at the text alone, it was not wordy or superfluous, flowing smoothly from line to line.

Old Yang had a proud look and glanced sideways at Teacher Huai. “How is it? Is this everyone’s opinion?”

Teacher Xiao-Zhu also nodded. “In my opinion, this child’s classical knowledge is good, but the script surprisingly has a Jin and Wei Dynasties style, clear and lively. I like it very much.”

The older teacher suddenly frowned. “This time, we used the previous college entrance examination topic. It couldn’t be…”

The teachers understood what he meant and Old Jian’s heart thumped.

Teacher Xiao-Zhu immediately opened the computer and typed up several phrases in this essay, searching it up.

After looking, he typed several phrases again. A moment later, he looked back in astonishment. “There are no similar phrases in the search. The essay isn’t plagiarized at all!”

This time, the several teachers all had shocked looks on their faces. “Old Jian, when did you have a student who’s so good in the Classical studies?”

Old Jian was a little at a loss. “Yes, ah. It’s very good, but…”

He remembered that when he analyzed everyone’s weaknesses in every subject matter a while back, he discovered that Ruan Qingmu scored super high on the literary questions. But it was clear to him what level Ruan Qingmu’s language skills were last semester and it was definitely  not at this level!

He suddenly thought of something and looked at Teacher Huai. “Did you correct the English papers for our class?”

Teacher Huai was stunned and hurriedly found the papers. She opened the sealed names and searched for Ruan Qingmu’s exam paper, evaluating it on the spot.

Soon, she finished correcting the objective questions and looked at the score. After being stunned for a while, she began to look at the English essay.

After hesitating, she gave fair essay points and added them to the final overall scores.

Old Jian stared at the freshly done corrections and was stunned again.

“Teacher Huai, Student Ruan Qingmu…” He laughed, feeling slightly shocked and excited. “His Chinese and English scores should have gotten into the top one-hundredth of the grade.”

Teacher Huai was stunned before grinning awkwardly after a long time. “Isn’t there a seat exchange between our class and your Class 9 – Our Qin Yuan sat beside him during the exam?”

Old Jian silently looked at her.

Teacher Huai seemed to mumble to herself and added, “Hehe. Their relationship is quite good.”

Suddenly, Old Jian stood up straight, his chubby body swaying. “Teacher Huai, I don’t agree with what you just said!”

Old Jian always maintained a friendly demeanor and tried not to offend anyone. When he suddenly flipped out like that, Teacher Huai felt slightly on the spot. “What did I say? What’s wrong if I say their relationship is good?”

Old Jian flushed with anger and a rarely seen agitation flashed across his face. “Teacher Huai, we need to trust the children as teachers! You understand clearly in your heart what you just said. With you making such an insinuation, not only are you groundlessly doubting the student in our class, but also –”

He held it back for a while before finally shouting, “You’re also shaming Student Qin Yuan from your class. I don’t believe he will help people to cheat, do you? You’re his class teacher!”

***

The midterm exam’s marks had already come out.

All classes were notified in advance, the last half hour of the night self-study was vacated, and the class teachers of each class arrived to announce scores and rankings.

Old Jian carried the just printed out scores and names list, entering the noisy Class 9’s classroom.

Several boys muttered in whispers. “I think our class must’ve done well this time. Look at Old Jian’s red face.”

“But maybe it’s because he’s angry?”

“Fuck off!”

Bai Jing tilted his head and made a heart hand at Ruan Qingmu. “Ruan-ge, I’ll treat you to eating a great meal tomorrow!”

When school started, Ruan-ge had given out a bold word, saying that he wanted to get into the top one hundred for two major subjects. After obtaining his permission, he had opened a vague betting post in the forum.

The bet whether Ruan Qingmu would be knocked out by Class 1 Boss or killed by Liu Jun had long been abandoned. Approaching the midterm exam, the most heated one was this betting post now.

There was a last wave of bets on the last night before the score announcement, betting that Ruan Qingmu could get into the top one hundred, or that he couldn’t.

The final ratio was as high as 20:1.

More than eighty people placed bets in total and only four betted on Ruan Qingmu actually making it.