14 Shock

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“Chen Ran, Chen Ran!”

They had only just finished eating when Wang Weidong’s voice rose from downstairs. Chen Ran opened the window and leaned out to look at Wang Weidong standing in the courtyard. The boy was grinning foolishly up at him.

“Wait a moment. I’ll be right down.” After closing the window, Chen Ran turned to Luo Mingxiu and said, “Mom, I’m heading to school first. A classmate is calling me!”

“Go on.” Luo Mingxiu tidied things away. “Don’t get into arguments with your classmates. Get along with them.”

“I know.”

Chen Ran grabbed his schoolbag and hurried to the entrance, taking the last few steps two at a time. He opened the door and left the apartment, then shut it with a bang. He jogged all the way downstairs. Wang Weidong stood in the courtyard, watching Chen Ran arrive breathless, his delicate features flushed from the exertion. A frown creased his otherwise impassive face.

“You didn’t have to hurry.”

Chen Ran smiled at him. “I couldn’t keep you waiting too long. By the way, why are you going to school?”

“To sleep!”

What a sleeping god! Chen Ran thought to himself.

Wang Weidong shrugged indifferently. “There’s no one at home anyway. Sleeping at school is no different from sleeping at home.”

Chen Ran merely said softly, “Let’s go.”

The two of them left the courtyard and walked toward school. Cars occasionally sped past them, sending clouds of dust swirling into the air.

There were few people on the city’s dilapidated roads. When they reached the school gates, Chen Ran and Wang Weidong put on their student badges and entered. In the classroom, Chen Ran took a fountain pen from his pencil case.

“Wang Weidong, I’m going to the teachers’ office first.”

Wang Weidong lay facedown on his desk and closed his eyes. His handsome face remained completely expressionless.

“Go ahead.”

Chen Ran slipped out of the classroom and knocked on the office door.

“Come in.”

Teacher Liu was marking assignments. When he saw Chen Ran enter, he beamed.

“Chen Ran, you’re here!”

“Good afternoon, Teacher Liu.”

“Sit down.” Teacher Liu handed him a test paper. “I thought you’d come a little earlier. It isn’t even one o’clock yet, so go ahead and do it now. If you don’t have enough time, come back and finish it in the office after class.”

“Thank you, Teacher Liu.”

Holding the test paper, Chen Ran first read through the questions carefully. None of them was particularly difficult. They could be considered challenging, but not especially so. Many required knowledge that went beyond the standard material, yet Chen Ran’s ability to apply what he had learned was astonishing. After thinking for a moment, he knew how to solve each problem.

Only the final major question was somewhat difficult. It was a geometry problem. But after reading it, Chen Ran considered it for only a moment before numerous ideas sprang into his mind.

“May I start now?”

Chen Ran sat across from Teacher Liu. Even the teacher’s desk looked worn and ancient; no one knew how many years it had been in use.

Chen Ran placed the test paper on the desk, picked up his fountain pen, and began working earnestly. Teacher Liu watched him for a while. Chen Ran’s expression was not particularly tense, and his eyes remained fixed on the paper. With a sheet of scratch paper beside him, he calculated without pause.

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Teacher Liu smiled and lowered his head to continue marking assignments. He trusted Chen Ran. The boy would never cheat. Someone who blushed whenever he lied would find it extremely difficult to cheat.

The office was filled only with the rustle of pen nibs against paper. Before long, Chen Ran had finished the first page of the test. After stretching, he continued with the second.

“Teacher Liu.”

Chen Ran called softly to the math teacher. Teacher Liu looked up at him with a smile.

“What is it, Chen Ran?”

“I’m finished.”

“Finished?”

Teacher Liu was clearly stunned. He instinctively raised his wrist and glanced at his watch. It was exactly two o’clock. Chen Ran had finished the entire test in about an hour?

“Have you checked your answers?”

“I have!” Chen Ran replied firmly. “Teacher Liu, why don’t you take a look?”

“All right. Let me see it.”

Teacher Liu took the test paper. Just then, the English teacher pushed open the door and saw Chen Ran standing beside Teacher Liu’s desk.

“Teacher Liu, are you giving Chen Ran some special tutoring?”

“Haha.” Teacher Liu laughed but did not answer.

He picked up his fountain pen, dipped it in red ink, and began marking. Chen Ran had answered every fill-in-the-blank question correctly, and there were no mistakes in the multiple-choice section either. At this rate, passing should not be difficult.

Next came the major questions. Dense calculations covered the page before Teacher Liu, making him frown. Everything else was acceptable, but Chen Ran’s handwriting was truly terrible—so ugly that even his teacher could barely stand to look at it.

“Chen Ran, you really need to practice your handwriting.”

Chen Ran scratched his head awkwardly and smiled. “Um, Teacher Liu, I’ll practice seriously.”

Teacher Liu nodded lightly and continued examining what Chen Ran had written on the paper. Aside from the ugly handwriting, there was not a single problem with his solutions.

Teacher Liu was completely stunned.

He had imagined many possibilities, but never once had he thought that Chen Ran could actually answer the entire test correctly. It was not that he looked down on Chen Ran. It was simply that, in Teacher Liu’s view, only a little over ten students from last year’s advanced class had managed to pass this test.

What was more, Chen Ran was enrolled in an ordinary class. Before entering the school, all the students had taken an entrance examination. Since Chen Ran was now studying in an ordinary class, it proved that he had been considerably weaker than the students in the advanced class at the time.

Besides, Chen Ran had already taken several monthly examinations. His grades in the ordinary class had been merely above average. One could say that he had a good chance of getting into high school, but there was no guarantee.

And now he had suddenly become this capable…

Teacher Liu could not make sense of it. Perhaps the boy had simply had an epiphany?

A perfect score. It was truly a perfect score.

There was not a single mistake on the entire paper. Teacher Liu was so shocked that he could not speak.

“Teacher Liu?” Chen Ran called softly. “Have you finished marking the test?”

“Y-yes… I have.”

Teacher Liu took a deep breath. He did not believe Chen Ran was the sort of student who would cheat. Besides, he had been sitting directly across from him. If Chen Ran had made even the slightest suspicious move, Teacher Liu would have noticed at once.

Clearly, Chen Ran had done nothing of the sort.

“Have you done this test before?”

Although he knew he should not doubt a student like this, Teacher Liu could not help asking. The result was simply too astonishing. Chen Ran was only an ordinary-class student, and his grades had never been particularly good. None of his many monthly examinations had revealed any exceptional talent.

Yet he had just scored perfectly on a test that even many students in the advanced class could not complete. It was highly unusual.

Still, Teacher Liu’s reaction was understandable. Hearing the question, Chen Ran knew that anyone in his position would have asked the same thing. The test was genuinely difficult. He could not speak for everyone, but there were probably only a handful of students in the advanced class capable of getting a perfect score.

“No.” Chen Ran shook his head honestly. “Teacher Liu, this is the first time I’ve seen this test.”

“The first time…”

Teacher Liu took up the paper and began studying it carefully once more. Several teachers entered the office and started working. Teacher Liu’s brows drew tightly together, and Chen Ran did not dare say another word.

He felt no guilt whatsoever—he had not cheated in the slightest—but his palms still began to sweat. He was worried that Teacher Liu might become angry or assume he had seen the test before.

At last, Teacher Liu set the paper down again, and his brows slowly relaxed.

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“Chen Ran, this semester, you may read whatever books you like during my math classes.” Teacher Liu turned to look at him. “But your teacher still has one condition: you must not disturb the other students.”

“You have quite a talent for mathematics. Looking at several of your solutions to the major questions, I can see that you didn’t use the standard methods given in the answer key. They seem to be methods from eighth-grade mathematics. You must have worked them out by applying what you learned from the textbook.”

Teacher Liu laughed. “Well, I’ll be! When I heard you were reading eighth-grade math books, I thought you had only learned a little. I never expected you to put it into practice so soon.”

Chen Ran smiled awkwardly beside him, unsure how to respond.

He thought that it was probably because of the Learning System that he had become so capable. He could hardly call it talent. He knew very well that he had no particular gift for studying. Without the Learning System, even if he had worked hard, he probably would not have improved much compared with before.

Since the Learning System had appeared, he had to study diligently and seize this opportunity.

“Judging from your score and your talent, I don’t think there would be any problem with you transferring to the advanced class.” Teacher Liu continued, “But Chen Ran, you must not become conceited. You’re only in seventh grade. The coursework will increase in eighth and ninth grade, so you’ll have to keep working hard.”

“Thank you, Teacher Liu.”

Chen Ran bowed, indicating that he understood.

“All right. You may go now.”

Teacher Gao entered the office just as Chen Ran was leaving Teacher Liu’s desk.

“Good afternoon, Teacher Gao!”

Chen Ran greeted him and dashed out of the office.

Watching him leave, Teacher Gao sat down and asked, “Teacher Liu, did Chen Ran get into trouble?”

“No.” Teacher Liu replied cheerfully, “I’ve discovered that Chen Ran actually has quite a talent for learning. Didn’t I mention that he’s been reading eighth-grade textbooks during math class lately?”

“Yes, I heard about that.” Teacher Gao opened his lesson plan and prepared to write. “Did you call him here to discuss that?”

“I gave him last year’s final exam from the seventh-grade advanced class.” Teacher Liu was brimming with excitement. “Teacher Gao, do you know how many points Chen Ran scored?”

“Judging by your expression…” Teacher Gao thought for a moment. “Did he pass? I heard you recently gave last year’s paper to the advanced-class students, and hardly any of them managed to pass.”

“Let me put it this way.” Teacher Liu shook his head. “Chen Ran is the only student in our entire seventh grade to get a perfect score.”

“A perfect score?” Teacher Gao stared at him in astonishment. “Teacher Liu, are you sure you didn’t mark it incorrectly? None of the advanced-class students got full marks, yet Chen Ran did?”

“A perfect score!” Teacher Liu shook his head emphatically. “I’ve been a teacher for all these years. Even if it were anyone else’s paper, I might make a mistake—but Chen Ran’s? There’s no way I marked it incorrectly.”

“But…” Teacher Gao remained utterly stunned.