Chapter 45: Midterm Results

The next day, Sunday evening.

When Lu You returned to the classroom and just sat down, Meng Yi dashed over from behind and took the seat in front of him.

"Brother Lu, I heard the midterm exam results are out."

Lu You took out the test papers and exercises he needed to work on tonight, and said nonchalantly, "Yeah."

"Wait, aren't you nervous?"

"What's there to be nervous about? The results are already set in stone, just accept them."

Meng Yi scratched his head in anxiety and asked, "Aren't you afraid of doing poorly?"

"Not really. My grades are going to be what they're going to be anyway."

Lu You flipped open an exercise book and said, "Anything else? If not, I want to do my homework."

"Do, do, do! You'll work yourself to death sooner or later!" Meng Yi cursed in frustration and walked back to the rear of the classroom.

Yuan Wenliang glanced at Meng Yi's retreating figure and remarked, "Nothing we can do. This exam was genuinely difficult. Look at how restless the class atmosphere is."

Lu You looked left and right. Most people were discussing the midterm exam, almost all of them venting their frustrations about math, physics, and English.

"Those math problems are not meant for human beings! The bell rang and I still had two blank essay questions left!"

"That English cloze test was absolutely insane! Not to mention being split across two pages, I couldn't even understand half the vocabulary!"

"The physics force analysis was disgusting too. A few wooden planks placed like that—my brain is completely fried."

...

"It does seem to have presented a certain level of difficulty," Lu You commented.

"A certain level? This is way beyond just a certain level!"

At that moment, their head teacher, Mr. Zeng, walked onto the podium holding a stack of answer sheets.

"Alright, everyone, quiet down."

The previously noisy classroom quickly quieted down, and the students returned to their respective seats.

Mr. Zeng scanned the room, and seeing that no seats were empty, he began, "Since everyone is here, let's distribute the math answer sheets first, and then we'll discuss the midterm exam results.

Come on, the math class representative and the two monitors, come up and hand out the papers."

Soon, everyone received their math answer sheets. There were no grading marks on them; since it was scanned and graded online by computers, naturally, there were no handwritten corrections.

Yuan Wenliang quietly asked, "Lu You, can I borrow your answer sheet to take a look?"

"Help yourself." With that, Lu You placed his answer sheet on top of the books beside him.

Yuan Wenliang took his answer sheet and compared it with his own answers one by one.

Mr. Zeng continued, "As you all probably know, the results are out. After evening self-study later, I'll have the monitors post a grade sheet at the front and back of the classroom, showing each of you your scores and rankings in every subject. You can check the specific details yourselves.

Let me talk about our class average first. We ranked around tenth in the entire grade. This score belongs to the upper-middle tier of the grade. Because everyone's general standard is quite good, there are no exceptionally poor results.

Next, let's talk about math. The test did have a certain level of difficulty, and the grade-wide averages were quite unsatisfactory. However, in our class, the math average ranked third in the entire grade, second only to the two elite classes."

Applause broke out across the classroom.

"As the head teacher and math teacher of Class 3, I am very gratified. Your achievement of these scores fully demonstrates that you have all been studying earnestly these past few days.

In particular, there is one student whose individual score alone pulled up the entire class's math average by two points."

"Teacher, who is that person? What did they score to be this impressive?" asked a usually outgoing male student.

Mr. Zeng smiled and replied, "I won't say who it is just yet, let's just talk about his score. Our class's second place in math scored 128 points. As for first place, it was 150."

The entire class gasped in astonishment, and Meng Yi blurted out, "Holy crap! What the hell!"

Yuan Wenliang quietly shot Lu You a look and whispered, "Does this answer sheet of mine count as an answer key?"

Lu You continued writing his exercises and replied, "I suppose so. Though the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions might not be as detailed as the official key."

"How can you be so confident that you got a perfect score?"

Lu You chuckled softly and said, "Four words: None other than me."

Meanwhile, over in Class 2.

Ms. Liang stood on the podium and said gently, "The answer sheets have all been distributed. Tonight, the teachers for each subject will go over a few of the most commonly missed questions with you.

This exam was quite difficult, and everyone's scores are relatively low, so don't dwell on it too much.

The class first place this time is Tang Wan, with a total score of 981, which is also first in the grade. Second place is Li Yu, total score 970, fourth in the grade. Third place is Zhou Zhifeng, total score 969, fifth in the grade.

I'll only mention the top three in the class. As for the rest of the rankings, I'll have the monitor post the score sheet at the front and back of the classroom later, and you can check them yourselves.

As for the grade-wide total score rankings, Class 1 and us split the top ten evenly, five each, and our totals and subject averages are virtually identical, so there's not much to say about that. Alright, that's pretty much it, you may continue with your self-study."

At that moment, a hand went up.

"Yu Tianyou, do you have any questions?"

Yu Tianyou, the former monitor of Class 2 and the legendary overachiever of local rumor, stood up and said, "Teacher, you haven't mentioned the single-subject rankings yet."

"You should sit down first." Ms. Liang paused to collect her thoughts before saying, "I didn't mention the single-subject rankings because there's nothing to say. Not a single first place in any individual subject belongs to either of our two classes."

The students of Class 2 were shaken. As elite classes, neither of them had a single-subject first place? How was that possible?

"Since you want to know, I'll tell you. The single-subject first places this time all belong to Class 3." Ms. Liang's words fell like a massive boulder into a calm lake, stirring up wave after wave of ripples.

Ms. Liang continued, "The first place in math, English, physics, chemistry, and biology is a male student named Lu You. Among them, math, English, and physics were all perfect scores."

Upon hearing the name "Lu You," Tang Wan widened her eyes in absolute disbelief. Li Yu froze in her seat, countless thoughts of "impossible" flashing through her mind.

"And as for Chinese, politics, history, and geography, the first place belongs to another male student named Yuan Wenliang. Tomorrow, the school will also post the rankings for the top one hundred overall, as well as the separated arts and science top one hundred lists. You can go downstairs to check them out then."

Yu Tianyou clenched his fists tightly beneath his desk.

...

When evening self-study ended.

The two grade sheets at the front and back of Class 3 were already surrounded by dense crowds of students. Exclamations like "Holy crap," "Insane," and "Freak of nature" drifted out from time to time.

However, none of this concerned Lu and Yuan. They were currently standing in the teachers' office, waiting for their head teacher to speak.

Mr. Zeng pulled two rather unusual grade sheets from his drawer, placed them before the two boys, and said, "As for the two of you, I honestly don't even know what to say. If I say you're competent, one of you completely bombed the comprehensive arts while the other barely scraped past a hundred. If I say you're incompetent, one of you is first in the grade for sciences, and the other is first in the grade for arts."

Lu You didn't reply, looking down at the science grade sheet instead. He found Tang Wan's name in third place and checked her scores subject by subject.

Yuan Wenliang responded, "Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses; severe bias like this is completely normal."

"Is there anyone biased to the extent you two are?" Mr. Zeng scolded with a smile.

Yuan Wenliang fell silent out of embarrassment; their subject bias was indeed absurdly extreme.

"Alright, anyway, your bias is only between arts and sciences, which will be sorted out when you choose your tracks next semester. Calling you here today is mainly to talk about the grade assembly tomorrow afternoon. Both of you will need to go on stage to speak, primarily to share some study insights and methods. Remember to prepare tonight."

Yuan Wenliang nodded with a smile and said, "Understood, Teacher."

With that, he nudged Lu You with his shoulder.

Lu You snapped out of his trance looking at the grade sheet and said, "Then we'll head back to the classroom first."

"Oh right, during the first self-study period later, can you explain the math test paper to everyone? Any issues with that?"

"No problem. Should I go over all the questions?"

"Yeah, go through all of them, but spend a bit more time on the difficult ones."

...

Back at their seats, Lu You resumed his exercises.

Meng Yi approached his desk once again. Before he could speak, Lu You preemptively said, "What, when are those eggs and vegetables getting delivered?"

"What the hell! You still have the nerve to bring that up?" Meng Yi was exasperated to the point of laughter.

"Why wouldn't I? Didn't I still score just over seven hundred points? No problem there."

"Pure science track score of over seven hundred, huh?"

"Is there a problem with that? It's still over seven hundred anyway."

Meng Yi took a deep breath, struggling to calm his racing emotions.

"Fine. I'll have the eggs and vegetables expressed to you."

"Not bad, at least you're a man of your word," Lu You said with satisfaction.

"Seriously though, how on earth did you manage to get a perfect score on a paper like that? And across three subjects, no less."

"Lots of studying, lots of reading, and lots of practice. There are no shortcuts."

"I've been studying really hard too," Meng Yi protested, feeling aggrieved. He had indeed studied diligently during this period, but his grades remained stubbornly trapped in the lower-middle tier.

Lu You raised his head, looked at him, and said, "Studying hard doesn't mean you're studying effectively. Think about what your study attitude is usually like. If you expect to fully digest half a semester's worth of accumulated knowledge in the last few days before an exam, aren't you being a bit arrogant?"

Meng Yi fell silent, completely speechless.

"If you genuinely want to get good grades, then listen carefully in class, stop copying answers for your homework, and study in a down-to-earth manner."

The bell for class rang.

"Go back to your seat. I'll be going over the math test paper shortly, make sure you listen up."

With that, Lu You ignored him further, picked up his math test paper and answer sheet, and walked up to the podium.

He projected his own answer sheet onto the screen, tapped the blackboard twice, and announced, "For this self-study period, I'll be going over the midterm math test paper. First, check your answers for the multiple-choice section."

Teaching students was second nature to Lu You. After all, in his past life, he had even attained the professional title of professor; failing to teach a class was simply out of the question.

...

At ten past ten, Lu You stood on the podium and asked, "Does anyone have any further questions about the force analysis in this problem?"

After waiting a moment, silence met him from below.

"Alright then, that concludes the physics test paper. If you have any other questions, you can ask the teachers after class."

Lu You then gathered his papers and answer sheets and walked back to his seat.

As soon as he sat down, he began gulping down water.

"Hard work, lecturing on test papers the entire evening." Yuan Wenliang looked at Lu You with a sympathetic gaze.

"Hah—" Lu You finished an entire bottle of mineral water in one go and rasped, "I don't want to speak anymore."

Lu You never imagined he would spend three consecutive self-study periods lecturing on test papers. After finishing the math class, the other subject teachers saw that he explained things rather well and simply had him cover English and physics all in one go.

Five minutes later, the bell for the end of school rang.

Lu You shouldered his backpack and left the classroom.