Chapter 30: Releasing Public List of Successful Examinees
To stimulate the third year students, Star City First High School’s Monthly Test’s results were to be posted at the School’s Gate Bulletin Board, which listed the top 500 of the Monthly Test’s results. While the school also gave a generous reward in cash for the first 100 high scorers.
The prize for the top scorer was 10,000 yuan, while the 2nd and 3rd would get 6,000 yuan; 4th to 6th were 3,000 yuan; 7th to 10th were 1,000 yuan; 11th to 50th were 500 yuan, and last the 51st to 100th would get 100 yuan.
It was precisely due to this school’s policy that a strange line scenery was seen at Star City First High School every first Monday at the beginning of the month.
After hearing the class ending bells, all the students didn’t rush toward the canteens but were gathered in front of the school hall’s bulletin board.
The students that gathered in front of the school’s bulletin board were not only limited to third-year students, but also sophomore students who couldn’t help but want to see their seniors’ results. Not only would they be able to be familiar with those bright and dazzling names, but those achievements also became their goal and motivation.
“Wow, this time Monthly Test’s highest score actually reached 712 points, my eyes don’t fail me, right?”
“Yang Jian’s performance has really improved, he’s really worthy to be the school’s top student. If he could have this result in his College Entrance Exam, he could have been allowed to choose the Tsinghua University or Shuimu University right?”
“No, the top scorer is not Yang Jian, but is an unfamiliar name. Speaking about it… who knows who Tang Xiu is? Who the heck is he? I haven’t heard about him. But his mark is actually 79 points higher than Yang Jian’s!”
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The top scorer in the list was the most eye-catching, and also the one that everyone was concerned about the most.
When the Star City First High School’s students found out in the Monthly Test’s result announcement that Yang Jian, who had been the top scorer for a long time, unexpectedly had been replaced by someone else, a commotion happened under the bulletin board, and everyone thought that their eyes were having problems.
A performance improvement was, after all, a course of process, and the name that took the first place suddenly appeared without even entering the top 10 first. This made everyone ask what and how, and also wished that it was not listed there.
“I know that Tang Xiu, he is from our Class 5. He was the top scorer in the whole city when he first entered Star City First High School, and also had stood out in a lot of examinations and competitions outstandingly. He even became the first in all subjects.
“Hey! Tang Xiu is obviously from Class 10. Can’t you see that the following note after his name is Class 10? How can he be related to your Class 5?”
“Wasn’t Tang Xiu’s brain damaged? How could he suddenly emerge this suddenly? Could it be that the rumor is wrong, and Tang Xiu acted just like a pig to eat the tiger in these 2 years and purposefully turned on the water in the test?”
Most students were clueless about Tang Xiu’s circumstances. But some of them, especially Class 5 and Class 10, were the ones that knew the information about Tang Xiu.
When the students from these 2 classes saw that Tang Xiu’s mark actually got 712 points, apart from their astonishment, they were even more shocked with admiration and adoration.
“No, it’s impossible! Tang Xiu couldn’t have such a high score on the test. His performance is absolutely false!” Yang Jian’s eyes were turning red as he stared at Tang Xiu’s name and score and then bellowed hysterically.
“Hey, Yang Jian, just accept your fate, will you? If Eldest Brother was cheating on the Monthly Test, that Old Tiger Hu could have already jumped and make a fuss about it. But heck, I might as well tell you one thing. This morning, Eldest Brother was called to the Grade Section Main Office to have a re-exam. After that re-exam, his results had been recognized by Principal and all teachers, so his marks are true and valid.” When Yang Jian’s voice words were just ended, laughter was bursted near his ears. It was Yuan Chuling, who was standing behind Yang Jian.
Tang Xiu didn’t conceal the matter that he was being summoned to the Grade Section Main Office to have a retest to Yuan Chuling and Cheng Yannan.
Although at that time Yuan Chuling and Cheng Yannan didn’t believe what Tang Xiu had said, and much less that he could get such a high score as 712 points, but they actually had no choice but to accept this fact slowly.
Almost every teacher that taught the four classes in their classroom threw generous praises toward Tang Xiu a few times. Some teachers even directly invited him to stand on the podium to explain this Monthly Test’s exam questions.
Although the results of Class 10’s students were a little worse, it was neither because they didn’t put importance nor didn’t put too much thought to their study, but it was solely caused by their problematic IQ.
If there was only one teacher who expressed his goodwill towards Tang Xiu, it could have been regarded as accidental.
Had there been 2 teachers that expressing their goodwill toward Tang Xiu, it could also be understood as only a coincidence.
But when all teachers were very good towards Tang Xiu, there was only one possibility; Which was—Tang Xiu’s academic performance had made these teachers impressed, causing their appreciation and acknowledgment toward Tang Xiu to truly come from their hearts.
“After Eldest Brother’s sky high performance suffered disastrous decline, did you really think that his true abilities were dropping? You know what? He was only bored with all those exams and competitions, and intentionally goofed off! Deliberately hiding his true abilities by remaining silent on the test. But he didn’t expect that although he had given the 1st position to you, not only did you not know about the words GRATITUDE, but instead insulted him to the extreme. I actually wanted to see Eldest Brother start to be serious just like now though. Who the hell are you to be compared with my Eldest Brother? You are not any good thing whatsoever!”
“Neither you nor that Old Tiger Hu are a good thing. Eldest Brother originally intended to show his true abilities on the College Entrance Exam, the results were that you two absolutely wanted to be that aggressive, huh? Not only did you want to kick Eldest Brother out of Class 5, you even went as far as wanting to kick him out of the school, so Eldest Brother really had no choice but to show a speck of his strength. Letting dogs like you open your eyes and learn to be cautious, that later you mustn’t see others from a narrow slit mind!”
****
Having seen Yang Jian’s stupefied expression, Yuan Chuling’s heart became extremely carefree. He didn’t wait for Yang Jian to reply, and bombarded him like a machine gun, as he shot out everything he had long buried within his heart for a long time.
Facing the insult from Yuan Chuling, Yang Jian extremely wanted to retort back a few words and even wanted to punch and clean him up.
But Yang Jian had long been taught and knew that he could only beat Yuan Chuling’s tongue with only academic achievement. As for the ability to talk about quarreling, he was worlds apart from Yuan Chuling.
And to go as far as punching, he was nowhere near Yuan Chuling’s match.
“The one who got the first place is Tang Xiu, not you. Who the fuck are you showing off your power to, huh?” After having swept around and found that Tang Xiu wasn’t nearby the announcement examinees’ list, Yang Jian bursted out some words in a sour tone before he turned around and left.
“I… Tang Xiu is my Eldest Brother, can’t I be happy on his behalf huh!” Yang Jian’s sentence had made Yuan Chuling choke and was unable to gasp for quite a while. Only after Yang Jian’s figure disappeared in the crowd was he able to roar at the crowd.
Su Xiangfei, who was in the crowd, could clearly hear the dialog between Yuan Chuling with Yang Jian as his face turned extremely unsightly.
Early this morning, when the public list announcement results had yet to be announced, Su Xiangfei had already known about the news that Tang Xiu had attained the top scorer spot on this Monthly Test’s results.
This morning for Su Xiangfei was simply a kind of torture.
Because the people who were usually around Su Xiangfei were drawing a line with him, and all of them were completely gathered at Tang Xiu and Yuan Chuling’s side, as they revolved around them and made Su Xiangfei instantly become a loner that was cut off from others.
The teachers, who usually favored Su Xiangfei ordinarily, seemed to have forgotten his existence as their eyes were completely concentrated on Tang Xiu.
Although Tang Xiu and Yuan Chuling didn’t ridicule or mock Su Xiangfei, but the other students’ eyes made him feel nervous and uneasy. Never once did he ever feel that sitting in class could be so torturous like this.
This day was destined to be the day of Tang Xiu’s rising.
This day was also the very same day that a lot of Star City First High School’s students would be unable to forget.
“Hahaha, as I’ve said, my Eldest Brother is definitely not an ordinary person. You take a look, you take a look at it. Those people who collect information under you are much inferior to the powerful ones that I’ve found.” In the pool vacation resorts to the west, Long Zhenglin was bursting in loud laughter after he received a text message and then handed the cell phone to a young man at his side.
“712 points, and the top scorer for the third year Monthly Test at Star City First High School? But what can this result explain? At best, it could only explain that his academic performance is outstanding. Do you think a nerd like him can help us to stop those rich second-generation people that want to snatch Walled Hill Village?” Long Zhengyu read the SMS on the cell phone and spoke out his disapproval.
“Big Brother, just believe me this once will you? Tang Xiu’s observation and machinating ability are truly very strong. Don’t mention that group of second-generation rich brats who could only look over the Walled Hill Village completely by luck. Could it be that, apart from Tang Xiu, you could also find other gambling masters from casinos in Star City to help you?” Upon seeing that his big brother couldn’t be persuaded with anything, Long Zhenglin was quite anxious.
After having heard what he said, Long Zhengyu was only silent.
The Long Family started their business in making food and beverages. However, after being immersed in this business for 50 years, the food and beverages businesses of the Long Family had dominated the entire Shuangqing Province.
However, in the last 2 years, due to the bad environment, leading to reducing profits for food and beverages’ industries, the Long Family began to seek to reform the market and then aimed to expand and integrate their food and beverages’ business into tourism.
After having a lot of market surveying done, and intensive research and field studies, the Long Family then targeted the place that was 50 kilometers away from the main city that was called Walled Hill Village.
However, the Long Family didn’t have enough time to begin executing their plan on Walled Hill Village as news suddenly came that the Shuangqing Province would integrate all the surrounding urban and rural areas in the overall blueprint master plan. And that also included Walled Hill Village with its 600 years of unique historical culture and rows of natural landscape of famous scenic spots.
After this information spread out, the rich second generation in the Shuangqing Province, who caught the wind of the news, they responded quickly and rushed to the Walled Hill Village, wanting to have a piece of the share in this place.
Those rich second generations originally had no confidence in developing Walled Hill Village. However, after they learned that the Long Family actually eyed this land, their confidence suddenly burst to the brim.
Because the Long Family had invested into this moneymaking project for these past few years, the Long Family felt they had not miscalculated the time. To the extent that the investment development area belonging to the Long Family had become the benchmark to a close circle of people who were investing.
However, due to the influence the Long Family had in the Shuangqing Province, while the Long Family was also the first one to aim at Walled Hill Village, the Shuangqing Province’s rich second generations didn’t dare to forcefully snatch away Walled Hill Village from the Long Family. Therefore, they were collaborating to pressure the Long Family and came up with a stake bet on gambling. Whoever won the gamble, the development and exploitation rights would be turned over to the winner.
Regarding the competition on this Walled Hill Village’s project, it was being used as a trial to foster the successors from the younger generations, since several elders completely didn’t move and let those rich second generations do everything by themselves.
Being aggressive and ambitious as he was, this was also the first time Long Zhengyu was in charge of a project development. Which is why he wasn’t able to anticipate that he would encounter other people who would collaborate to snipe at the project he had just taken over.
Being faced with such a meticulously laid out arranged game of chance by these people, Long Zhengyu unexpectedly found himself forced into a dead end. Under desperation and without having any choices, he could only turn toward his devilish younger brother for help.
For a period of time in the recent past, being near with his devilish brother gave him some knowledge that his brother was clearly clueless and had one of his root muscles wrong. He even recommended him an ordinary high school student, which even made Long Zhengyu’s confidence in obtaining the rights for the Walled Hill Village’s development and exploitation increasingly plummet.