Ye Jia hadn’t expected Ye Shaohua to be so thick-skinned.
She forced a smile. “I hope you get a good score. After all, you’re very smart.”
Ye Shaohua simply raised an eyebrow, glanced sideways at Ye Jia, and flashed a roguish smile. “Isn’t that the truth? Why state the obvious?”
“Holy crap! How can someone be so shameless?!”
“Ye Shaohua is smart? That’s the funniest joke I’ve heard all year!”
“Is she mentally disabled or something…”
The stream of sarcastic comments from those around her continued, but Ye Shaohua’s expression didn’t change at all.
Seeing Ye Shaohua’s brazen attitude, Ye Jia could only smirk.
She truly hadn’t thought there could be someone in the world as shameless as Ye Shaohua.
First place?
More like last place!
“Dad, Mom, guess what’s so funny?” Ye Jia recounted the incident to her parents as a joke after returning home. “She actually said she could get first place in the entire school. Has she lost her mind or something?”
Unlike the gentle demeanor she showed her classmates, Ye Jia’s face was now full of utter contempt.
Upon hearing this, Uncle Ye and his wife exchanged a glance.
They could see the hint of triumph in each other’s eyes.
It seemed that idiot had truly taken the bait.
**
At Yunshui High, a group of teachers were grading exams.
“Director Zhang.” Seeing the Director of the Education Bureau arriving for an inspection, the teachers grading papers immediately stood up and greeted him politely.
Director Zhang smiled. “No need for formalities. The students’ results are what matter most. The higher-ups are paying close attention to the scores from this joint exam.”
The exam papers for this joint test had been created by several universities together.
Since it was related to university recommendations, every school was invested.
Naturally, they wanted to recruit truly capable students.
“How did the students perform this time?” Director Zhang asked the teachers grading the papers. “I heard from the test creators that the questions were quite difficult this year.”
“They were indeed very difficult,” said one teacher, shaking out his sore hand. The grading was almost finished. “I can’t speak for other subjects, but for math, hardly anyone scored above 120. However, our school’s top student got a 149.”
As he spoke, he casually flipped open another exam booklet. “The overall results for this exam hall are average. It’s rare to see scores over one hundred here.”
When he got to the last paper, he looked it over with his usual casual glance.
But then, as he read, he was utterly stunned.
“Wait a minute!” He had memorized the answers to all the questions, practically able to recite them by heart. He looked over this last paper again and again, finally confirming, “A perfect score. We actually have a perfect score. This must be the top student’s paper. I wonder who got that 149 earlier.”
A perfect score on the math exam?
Director Zhang’s eyes also lit up. The test creators had said no one would get a perfect score on this math paper.
Hearing that someone at Yunshui High had achieved a perfect score energized the whole group, who had been feeling drowsy and headachey from grading all afternoon.
“Perfect score! I have a perfect score in English here too! That makes two! With the one earlier, that’s two perfect scores now!” the leader of the English grading group exclaimed excitedly from not far away.
Two perfect scores in English—what did that mean?
It meant she, as the head of the English department, had taught effectively.
Finally, it was discovered that there were also two high scores in Science and Chinese.
“Who has the nerve to write this?” The teacher grading the last question of the Science exam looked at the words written there and laughed scornfully. “What’s this? ‘Could the problem writers please put their hearts into it? Can the questions be more difficult?’ Is this little brat unaware that over half of Yunshui High failed the Science section?”
Director Zhang took a look. On the last comprehensive physics problem, a line of flamboyant handwriting was scrawled—
Problem writers? Are you even trying?
He was speechless.
“I think this must be Ye Jia’s paper. She’s improved remarkably fast,” one teacher remarked as the papers were nearly finished being sorted. The teachers had gathered to separate the exam booklets. “She ranked second last time, but she was dozens of points behind Ning Yunshu—a huge gap. I never expected her to be just one point behind him this time.”
In the office, Ye Jia’s teachers were thrilled.
They hadn’t expected Yunshui High to produce another prodigious genius besides Ning Yunshu.
This year’s cohort at Yunshui High was truly exceptional.
It was likely to go down in history.
Once the teachers finished grading, they began sorting the papers.
Almost instinctively, they first looked for the two papers with perfect scores.
“Huh…” Mr. Li, looking at the 149-point paper in his hand, was surprised. “This 149 paper belongs to Ning Yunshu? Does that mean Ye Jia scored even higher than Ning Yunshu?”
“What?” Director Zhang was also curious.
He had heard of Ning Yunshu’s reputation—the boy had participated in countless competitions.
Director Zhang himself had presented numerous gold awards to Ning Yunshu at various contests.
Hearing that someone had scored better than Ning Yunshu, even if only by one point, was significant.
Mr. Li flipped through the papers and found the name on the last exam booklet—
Ye Shaohua!
Seeing this name, Mr. Li was stunned for a long moment, unable to process it.
At the same time, other teachers also came across Ye Shaohua’s exam papers, their expressions mirroring Mr. Li’s disbelief.
The office fell into silence.
Director Zhang noticed something was wrong. “What’s the matter? Did this student not perform well?”
“It’s not that she didn’t perform well,” Mr. Li said, his expression complex. “It’s that she performed too well. She bought her way into Yunshui High. In the last midterm exams, her total score was only 215.”
No wonder there were rumors yesterday that Ye Shaohua had gone crazy claiming she could get first place. She must have gotten hold of the answer key.
Because the answers Ye Shaohua had written were exactly the standard answers.
Director Zhang’s expression changed dramatically. “What? How could this happen?! Someone cheated on such an important joint exam?”
Ning Yunshu hadn’t even managed a perfect score, yet Ye Shaohua had. This wasn’t ordinary cheating—someone must have given Ye Shaohua the standard answers in advance.
The leak of the joint exam answers involved many universities, making this an extremely serious matter.
Ye Shaohua was unaware that the Education Bureau had already launched an investigation.
She was currently sitting in her classroom. The homeroom teacher was handing back the exams. Everyone had received theirs except her.
Ye Shaohua lazily raised her hand. “Teacher, where’s my paper?”
Hearing this, the homeroom teacher looked very seriously at Ye Shaohua. “Ye Shaohua, the Education Bureau officials and the principal are waiting for you in the office right now. You have some nerve! You actually had your family buy the answers for you?! And not only did you buy them, but you copied them down word for word? How incredibly bold of you!”
