Standing to the side, Qiao Bixia tilted her head back and gulped down the entire bottle of water.
“Look, the two of them aren’t making that much progress.”
“Right now, the battle really comes down to their attitudes.”
“Logically speaking, Li Zheng is ultimately more experienced.”
“But you guys have to know that Yan Liang’s experience is only useful against an average person.”
“If he truly faced off against Zhao Zilong, he would be stabbed no matter how experienced he is.”
“Then look at this newcomer, Zhang Xiaoke.”
“Have you guys noticed? She’s exuding unexplainable confidence.”
“Either she’s not intelligent enough to complete the questions, or she’s a true genius.”
“Personally, I’m leaning toward the latter.”
Everyone was utterly convinced by Qiao Bixia’s explanation. They even thought there was a slight possibility that Zhang Xiaoke could win.
Jiang Qinghua took advantage of the situation and flipped open his little notepad. He lowered his voice and said, “The great lottery of class 2-4, round two.”
“The rules are the same. The highest you can go up to is ten duties.”
Jiang Qinghua had lost miserably during the lottery regarding the homeroom teacher. He had to recoup his losses.
He had instinctively sensed that Zhang Xiaoke wasn’t simple. Now that Qiao Bixia had voiced her thoughts, it was basically a guaranteed victory.
He could turn a bicycle into a motorcycle if he gambled.
“I’ll bet on Zhang Xiaoke, ten duties.” Jiang Qinghua took the lead and placed a large bet for himself.
The rest of the students followed along. They bet either five or ten duties.
No one could have expected Zhang Xiaoke to be the hot favorite.
Witnessing the situation, Qiao Bixia waved her arms and explained hurriedly, “This has nothing to do with me. I’m just an interpreter. I’m not responsible for anything that happens.”
However, no one paid her any attention.
After most of the other students had finished placing their bets, Lin Yujing shuffled over and whispered, “Li Zheng, ten duties.”
“Oh?” Jiang Qinghua couldn’t help but knit his brows. “You trust him that much?”
Lin Yujing nodded, then sneaked away again.
Jiang Qinghua clenched his teeth and noted her bet.
“Prepare to be disappointed, Lin Yujing,” he thought.
“I’ll let you know what sadness is.”
…
Li Zheng stood up before Jiang Qinghua finished taking down bets.
“I’m submitting my paper,” he said.
Then, the alarm on Jiang Qinghua’s phone rang.
60 minutes was up.
“Wow, he sure lives up to his reputation as a famed general. Li Zheng sure is a tease.” Qiao Bixia slapped her thigh as she explained, “Submitting the paper one minute before time is up is still submitting it early. He sure has planned his moves very carefully.”
Zhang Xiaoke placed her pen down and slumped weakly into her seat.
“It’s finally over,” she thought.
“My… My head hurts.”
“Giddy.”
“It feels as though many puppies are running around me.”
She effortfully propped herself up with the table, then glanced toward Li Zheng and smirked.
“Fortunately, all of this was worth it,” she thought.
“Be prepared to become my puppy, ordinary boy.”
She ran over to Jiang Qinghua before Li Zheng did and stuffed her paper into his hands.
“I was the first to submit,” she said as she turned around and stuck out her tongue at Li Zheng. “Submitting the paper, submitting the paper. You have to submit it to the examiner for it to count, idiot.”
“Is that so?” Li Zheng walked over, late. He slowly placed his paper down.
“That… That’s right, that’s the way it works.” Jiang Qinghua manipulated the rules and nodded despicably. “We’ll count it as Zhang Xiaoke submitting her paper first. If you score the same, then she’ll be crowned the victor.”
“Alright.” Li Zheng fully respected the referee’s authority.
Soon, the paper was delivered to Xu Mengxi.
She compared the scripts to the answer key and took out a red pen. She then carefully graded Zhang Xiaoke’s paper.
Qiao Bixia’s mouth didn’t stop for a moment.
“Let me tell you a piece of inside information. Our class’s Chemistry teacher only comes for half a day every week.”
“Normally, our assignments and test papers are graded by the representative, Mengxi.”
“I’ll say this now. When it comes to grading papers, she’s just as good as any of the other Chemistry teachers.”
Qiao Bixia’s eyes remained fixated on the paper while she spoke.
She subconsciously knitted her brows.
“Aiya, that’s not good…”
“Why are there so many wrong answers…”
“Was my judgment wong?”
“I shouldn’t be too worried.”
“Looking closely, the questions do look a little difficult.”
“If I was doing the paper, I might only score 70 to 80 marks.”
“It’s quite decent for a second-year newcomer to complete the paper to such a degree.”
Five minutes later, Xu Mengxi had finished grading the paper. She carefully wrote the marks down.
“Yes, Sister Xia was right, this paper is quite difficult. There’s a lot of calculations involved,” Xu Mengxi said as she handed the paper back to Zhang Xiaoke. “Don’t be discouraged. Continue to work hard, Xiaoke.”
Zhang Xiaoke grabbed the paper. Her face was a little red.
“How vexing,” she thought.
“If I knew this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have asked for such a difficult paper.”
“This really makes my first time showing off have less of an impact.”
“No one will be shocked by this score.”
“Though, I have to admit that 54 is a little higher than I expected.”
“After all, the paper was obviously difficult.”
Zhang Xiaoke then glanced at Li Zheng.
“Hmph, you might not even score 40,” she thought.
Whoosh!
Li Zheng’s paper was placed neatly on the table.
The paper was completely filled up!
Zhang Xiaoke involuntarily trembled.
“This guy, he sure knows how to smoke his way around,” she thought.
Xu Mengxi started to grade the paper.
As more and more ticks appeared…
Zhang Xiaoke’s expression visibly collapsed.
“Hey, hey, hey, there must be a mistake,” she thought.
“I want to pee.”
Qiao Bixia’s explanation became emptier and emptier.
“Oh, how is that possible?”
“Didn’t you say Li Zheng’s Chemistry grades are very poor? Didn’t you say that he almost failed?”
“Who gave me that piece of information? It has nothing to do with me.”
“This number of correct questions… How do you want me to explain this?”
“Those who placed their bets, don’t pin the blame on me…”
“I won’t say any more. This is so frustrating. I’m going to play basketball, play basketball.”
Qiao Bixia grabbed her basketball and turned to run.
The people who placed their bets wanted to chase after her and reason with her, but they didn’t have the guts to.
Sometime later, Xu Mengxi finished grading the paper.
“89 points…” She handed the paper back to Li Zheng in shock. “You’ll be able to surpass me if you work a little harder.”
Boom!
Zhang Xiaoke’s world.
It collapsed.
She staggered in retreat. She stepped back all the way to the windowsill.
“No,” she thought.
“No…”
“Why did this happen?”
“Isn’t this an ordinary school? Isn’t he an ordinary boy?”
“Where was the promise of him failing?”
“I clearly… should have been better than him.”
“Not bad, Xiaoke. You’re much better than I imagined.” Li Zheng grabbed his paper in his left hand and a pen in his right. He walked over slowly. “If it were yesterday, I might not have scored even 40 points. However, I’ve been studying hard for dozens of hours. The effects were immediate.”
“Don’t… Don’t come closer… Don’t…” Zhang Xiaoke’s butt pressed against the ice-cold windowsill. She had no way out.
“You can do it too if you work doubly hard,” Li Zheng said, nodding. “Work four times as hard if two times isn’t enough, eight times if four times doesn’t work. No matter how many times harder you work, as long as you place all of the time you could have used to study into your studies, you can do it too.”
“Ah…” Zhang Xiaoke curled up in front of the window. There were tears in her eyes.
As she was now, she wasn’t just a puppy.
She was a gambling puppy.
A puppy who had gambled away everything she had.
She trembled as she looked out the window.
“Why not jump down,” she thought.
“I feel that.”
“It would be more comfortable this way.”
The rest of the students couldn’t help but feel regret.
“Sigh… She didn’t listen to the warnings.”
“Her life as a high-schooler might be destroyed.”
“54 points isn’t bad. But, more importantly, Li Zheng put so many Chemistry books around himself these two days. He didn’t just blindly study…”
“Is this an induction ceremony for demonhood?”
“Yes… Xiaoke might be the first disciple of the Li Sect.”
“Disciple? I think that she’ll become a Study Slave.”