Chapter 56: Four School Joint Exam
Grade 12's first large-scale mock exam had officially begun. However, this was just the beginning. Right after that, the mock exams for the area, city, and national levels would proceed too.
If the students weren't able to perform well - those who scored below 400 points in this exam, they would need to put in a lot more effort or else, they wouldn't even be able to enter a junior college.
This exam was completely based on the National Higher Education Entrance Examination. Everyone's desk was turned backward. Moreover, all the items related to the exam would need to be placed in front on the stage.
The present situation got Yang Ming pretty excited. If Yang Ming was able to successfully cheat on this exam, then he would be pretty relaxed during his National Education Entrance Examination too!
The first section was a language exam. Things that required creativity were pretty limited. Yang Ming's bag on the stage contained a new Chinese dictionary and a book discussing the key points in the language examination. Both of the books together covered all the knowledge that was required in the whole senior high school!
Yang Ming was able to easily find the answers for the exam from his books! However, regarding the reading comprehension parts, Yang Ming referenced the answers from most of the individuals here in the examination hall and came up with a balanced answer. Because he wasn't familiar with most of the people in the examination hall, Yang Ming didn't really know what their standards were like so he decided to draw from all their answers.
In terms of the essay, Yang Ming couldn't copy from the others. The topic this time was "A Magical Day". Miracles that had happened to Yang Ming were countless, but he couldn't write about any of these without having the examiners who graded his paper think that he was a crazy person writing nonsense. Without a choice, all he could do was create a story which had a positive value in it. Making up stories was one of Yang Ming's strengths.
The second subject was the math exam. For this subject, Yang Ming didn't prepare any books in his backpack that allowed him to cheat. Moreover, if he were to copy from others he would have really wasted all of Zhao Ying's effort!
When he got the exam paper, Yang Ming was astounded! Wasn't the person who came up with the questions a bit too lazy? This exam paper was almost identical to the one from last year that Yang Ming had answered yesterday. Nothing much had changed in the fill-in-the-blanks part, and the next few word problems only had a few numbers that were modified!
This was initially Yang Ming's strength. Now that things were simple, Yang Ming was able to answer these easily and therefore, finished it pretty quickly. However, in terms of the multiple part questions, Yang Ming had purposely left out a few steps because if he were to score full marks that would be a bit too exaggerating!
The third subject was English and even though Yang Ming had learned quite a lot in this period of time, it wasn't as strong as his mathematics. Therefore, Yang Ming used his cheating skills. The textbook and English dictionary were all in his bag plus there was a "Grammar Book 101" that Yang Ming could use as a reference anytime he wanted.
He didn't have to copy from the others for English because he could find most of the answers to the exam questions in the dictionary and textbook. Any questions about grammar were found quickly in "Grammar Book 101". He only referred to others' answers for the listening skill part. However, he didn't believe just anyone and once again used his gathering method and referenced about twenty people's answers. If the majority of them picked A, he picked A. If the majority picked B, he would pick B. However, even if this was the wrong answer, he had no choice but to accept it.
On the second day, physics, chemistry, biology were all combined into one exam paper. This was the typical x in the "3+x" which was not similar to the language subjects. There were higher order problems which required some thinking. For questions regarding concepts, Yang Ming just copied from the textbook but for the remaining questions, he would have to calculate them.
Yang Ming first answered all the questions that he could do, then afterward he continued with his gathering method. If you can't copy from one person, you copied from a group of people. Yang Ming first looked at their final answer in the subject questions, then he gathered those people with similar answers and picked one person who had the neatest procedures written down.
Of course, Yang Ming also made some reasonable changes in the answer format, or else it would be hard to explain when graders found the exact same answers.
Once he handed in the exam paper, Yang Ming felt relieved. It was pretty easy! He thought there would be some challenges but it was quite a simple task.
Yang Ming shook his head and walked out of the classroom. It seemed that obtaining a good result won't much of a problem.
When he was walking down the stairs, he could see Chan Mengyan walking toward him from the second-floor lobby quite far ahead of him. Then he greeted her and asked, "Mengyan, how was your exam?"
"Oh, Yang Ming, you scared me!" Chen Mengyan raised her head. "Why are you shouting so loud? It looks like you're in a pretty good mood so it seems like you did pretty well?"
"I guess it's still fine. You know me too. If it was before, I would avoid any examinations but this time, I put in a lot of hard work. Moreover, I had you beside me and guiding me most of the time. Instead, I am actually quite excited on what kind of score would I obtain this time around!" Yang Ming's sentence was both half-lie and half-truth. "How about you?"
"Me? I am still the same as last time. You also know it. It is hard to advance by one or two ranks!" Chen Mengyan shook her head.
Yang Ming also knew that if a student in last place was to put in a bit of effort then he could easily progress by ten or even twenty ranks. But for the students in the top ten places, it would be hard to have any kind of breakthrough because every top student was working really hard. None of them would be relaxing.
Chen Mengyan was now the number one in class, but out of the entire school, she was around number ten. It had almost been the same result for most of her big examinations.
"Hehe, actually you don't have to worry that much. Even if you were the number one in the school, it wouldn't make that much of a difference. With your results right now, you could enter any university!" Yang Ming was stating the truth. For the past few years, all the top thirty students were sought after by the most famous universities.
"You were quite right. I am a girl, studying a science subject could be pretty hard compared to you guys who have a clear sense of logic! You are a good example. I spent about three years, but all you took was about a month and your Math result has exceeded mine!" Chen Mengyan said, "I am actually very jealous!"
"Ah? I do not have any prejudice towards your gender. Moreover, even if I got better in my studies, most of the credit goes to you!" Yang Ming sweated.
"Hehe, I am just teasing you!" Chen Mengyan grimaced and then smiled at Yang Ming. "If I were really jealous, how could I still push you to study more?"
"Ha, I knew you are good to me!" Yang Ming said proudly.
"What? You want to die, right? What are you saying? What "I am good to you"? I am just a responsible study commissary! Don't you be learning from a peacock!" Chen Mengyan lectured.
"Peacock? Why would I be learning from a peacock?" asked Yang Ming puzzled. Do I really look like a bird?
"A peacock would spread its tail, and feel proud of itself!" Chen Mengyan smiled. [1]
"Ah? Then I must be a male peacock, and you would be a female peacock!"
"Why?"
"I spread my tails to attract a female peacock!"
"Go die!"
Chapter 57: Date With the Campus Belle After the Exam
"Oh yeah, Mengyan, which university are you going for? Yang Ming asked tentatively. This is about my lifelong happiness. I have to fulfill it as soon as possible!
"I… does it have anything to do with you? Could you be having some bad intention?" Chen Mengyan looked at Yang Ming cautiously.
"How can I? Besides, I'm your number one pursuer. Don't you I think I have the right to know which university are you going to?" Yang Ming spoke his original dirty reason in a pretentious way.
"You don't call this as having a bad intention?" Chen Mengyan rolled her eyes at Yang Ming, but she didn't look unhappy.
"How could you call this a bad intention? This is called motivation!" Yang Ming said shamelessly, "There is motivation only when there's a target!"
"Okay, for the sake of your studies, I'll tell you!" Chen Mengyan told him her dream while smiling tenderly, "My parents want me to go Beijing, but I don't want to stay too far away from home. I think Song Gong University is quite good!"
"Song Jiang City Industry University?" [1] Yang Ming blurted out! Song Jiang City Industry University was a famous university that was not worse than Tsinghua University. It was one of the nine main construction universities of the country! If it was before, Yang Ming wouldn't even dream about Song Gong University. But now, Yang Ming would not be exaggerating when he said, I'm going in for sure!
"En, what about you? What is your dream?" Although Chen Mengyan knew Yang Ming had improved a lot lately, she never thought Yang Ming would have the "capability" to get into Song Gong University too!
"Me? I will go wherever you go!" Yang Ming and Chen Mengyan were really familiar with each other. At ambiguous jokes, Chen Mengyan would only roll her eyes. She wouldn't really get angry. Yang Ming used to only see this situation in his dreams.
However, this time, Chen Mengyan surprisingly didn't refute him. She was quiet after she heard it. Yang Ming became nervous. Could she be possibly angry?
"Yang Ming, although your results have improved a lot, Song Gong University's minimum passing score is high. Don't push yourself when you fill out the application form..." When Chen Mengyan spoke this, she saw Yang Ming's face become dark. She was scared that her words hurt his pride. She quickly explained, "Yang Ming, don't be like this. I didn't mean to look down on you and I'm not doubting your ability… I mean you don't have to force yourself too hard... Even if we aren't in the same university, we can still meet each other if we are in the same city..."
Yang Ming's face looked bad because he thought he made Chen Mengyan angry! Yang Ming wasn't stupid. He knew Chen Mengyan considered his best interest from her words! However, he wasn't sure if Chen Mengyan wanted to renege on her promise for letting him pursue her during university. But Chen Mengyan's last sentence undoubtedly boosted Yang Ming's confidence!
We can still meet each other if we are in the same city! Chen Mengyan didn't explain clearly, but Yang Ming understood its hidden meaning!
"Don't worry, Mengyan, I will put in the effort to qualify for Song Gong University! If not I would not have the face to see you! Even if you agree to be my girlfriend, I will still feel sorry!" Yang Ming thought, Cheating can be considered an ability too!
"You're kidding! When did I promise you?" Chen Mengyan didn't say any more. Sometimes a strong confidence isn't a bad thing too!
"Hehe, I said so!" Yang Ming laughed dryly. "Oh yeah, are you busy later?"
Chen Mengyan asked, "Later? Of course, I'm going home. What do you want to do?"
"Today, school ends earlier than usual. Why don't we walk around before going home?" Yang Ming pretended like he said it nonchalantly. Actually, he was looking at Chen Mengyan's reaction with split vision. The exam was at 7:30 a.m. It was now only around 10 a.m.
Chen Mengyan didn't show any special expression. "It's not a good idea, right? You don't have to go home for review?"
"Didn't we just finish an exam today? We have to relax. I was getting tutored lately and now I'm all worked out!" Yang Ming noticed that Chen Mengyan said, "You don't have to go home for review?" but she didn't mention anything about herself! Yang Ming was happy. This meant that if he didn't have any problem, Chen Mengyan didn't have any problem as well!
Chen Mengyan thought for a second. Yang Ming is right. Sometimes taking a break is good for studying too. There must be a balance between work and play to achieve effective learning. But if I go out with Yang Ming, isn't that bad? After all, we are at the age where it is sensitive to have an intimate relationship. What if someone saw us?
While Chen Mengyan was still undecided, Yang Ming looked at her quiet face. He thought she was embarrassed to go with him because she was still a reserved girl. But he saw this on the internet, right? If the girl keeps silent, it means she agrees with it!
So Yang Ming cast all caution to the winds, he stepped forward and took the lead. "Let's go Mengyan. We'll just hang out around here!"
Chen Mengyan saw that Yang Ming was really interested so she had no choice but to follow him.
Luckily, the students had almost all left while they were still talking. Even if there were students, they wouldn't recognize Yang Ming. Because this joint examination of four schools was mixed between two local schools, half of the students were from Song Jiang Yu Cai High School in No. 4 High School's building.
In senior high school, puppy love was still a sensitive topic especially in No. 4 High School which was a highly focused high school in the province. If it was a vocational high school or private high school, it wouldn't raise much concern. Students falling in love were common over there.
Chen Mengyan didn't want to be misunderstood and have fingers pointing at her back.
They went to snack street near the school. It was the place that Yang Ming and Zhao Ying went before. Since it was still daytime, the shops around here usually weren't open yet. They opened around 4 or 5 p.m. and then they stayed open overnight. The snack street in the morning only had a few stalls selling items.
The two of them walked without purpose. Yang Ming's intention wasn't the walk but to stay a little longer with Chen Mengyan. The two of them were close and Yang Ming sometimes would tell jokes he saw online to Chen Mengyan. It made her smiled contentedly and there weren't any awkward moments.
Yang Ming was satisfied with current situation. When the two of them were together, their identities weren't important but the topic between them was! If not, their relationship would have ended long ago.
"Yang Ming, wait for me a bit." Chen Mengyan's eyes were shining as stopped at a street vendor selling accessories by the roadside.