“I knew I hadn’t seen anyone like her at school before. So she was a first-year. Isn’t that incredible?”
“Are we going to get trounced by a younger student from now on?”
“Judging by how happy Old Tang looks, her other subjects probably aren’t bad either. Heavens!”
“All I want to know is how she studies. How does she do it?”
Jiang Chan paid no attention to her classmates’ discussion and listened quietly to the lesson. In fact, she had quite a good impression of Class One. Although they looked down on poor students, it was merely a slight sense of academic superiority. In every other respect, they were quite friendly.
The rest of the afternoon became Jiang Chan’s showcase. Almost every subject teacher’s first words upon entering the classroom were to ask who Lian Qiao was. Once they had learned her face, their smiles could not have been kinder.
The students of Class One were almost crushed by the blow to their confidence. Where had this prodigy come from? First in every subject. Was she going to leave anyone else a chance? Had they not seen the resentful expression on the former top student’s face?
Second-year students had evening study sessions. Day students needed to eat dinner in the school cafeteria and attend two evening study periods before they could go home. Naturally, Wu Jin had close friends in her class, and the girls went to the cafeteria arm in arm.
“Have you heard? Someone else has taken first place in the year. I don’t know where this genius came from, but she landed straight in first. I heard she beat second place by more than forty points.”
“Who is it? That good? This test was really hard. How could she open up such a huge gap?”
“Who knows? Where did the principal find such a treasure? I think her name is Lian Qiao. What a strange name. We’re all wondering who she is.”
“Wu Jin, what are you staring at? Hurry up and eat.” One girl reminded her. She had been distracted for a while now, though she had been perfectly fine on the way over. What was wrong?
“Oh, nothing.” Wu Jin came back to herself and realized she was gripping her chopsticks tightly. She bit her lip, her heart giving a jolt. Her name was Lian Qiao too. Could there really be so many people with the same name in this world?
No matter how unwilling Wu Jin was to listen, the conversation kept reaching her ears. “I have firsthand information. Apparently, she never attended her first year. She went straight to the principal and took a grade-skipping examination, and he decided on the spot to let her enter the second year.”
“She skipped a grade? That’s amazing. She’s younger than you and smarter too. Intelligence really does come from your parents. There’s no point being jealous.”
“Looks like another academic genius is on the rise!”
The more Wu Jin heard, the more certain she became. How was this possible? She wanted to find Lian Qiao and get a clear answer, only to remember that she had not seen her once since term began.
After dinner, they had to pass the honor roll on the way to the teaching building. With so much on her mind, Wu Jin had barely eaten a few mouthfuls.
At the sight of the bright red honor roll, Wu Jin’s feet seemed nailed to the ground before it. The two large characters of Lian Qiao’s name, sitting high above the others, were like two needles stabbing painfully at her heart.
“Who is this Lian Qiao? I’ve never heard of her.”
“Neither have I. Come on, let’s go to Class One and have a look.”
There were other students in front of the honor roll too. The top ten were generally the same familiar people, but Jiang Chan’s previously unheard-of name had truly aroused everyone’s curiosity.
Several boys headed toward Class One together. For reasons she could not explain, Wu Jin followed them. She kept telling herself that she was going to Class Two. Wasn’t Class Two right next to Class One?
Jiang Chan had never liked crowds. There were probably not many people eating in the cafeteria by now. She tidied the papers on her desk, put down her pen, and left the classroom.
The moment she stepped out, she ran into the boys who had come to gawk. Jiang Chan looked straight ahead. When she saw Wu Jin trailing behind them, she raised an eyebrow and walked past without expression.
Wu Jin almost cried out when she saw Jiang Chan. Her premonition had truly come to pass. Lian Qiao had actually skipped a grade and entered the same year as her. What was she trying to do?
“Excuse me, could we ask you about someone? Which one is Lian Qiao?” One boy knocked on the window. A girl sitting beside it looked up. “Didn’t you just see her? She just went out.”
“Holy crap! That was the top student in the year? How old is she?”
“Yeah. Her clothes don’t look like much, and she’s really short.”
“That’s enough. She’s a few years younger than us. Of course she’s short. Do you really need to make comments like that? Besides, neither of her parents cares about her. Isn’t it understandable that she’s so thin?”
As she spoke, the girl glanced coolly at Wu Jin standing behind them. “Am I right, Wu Jin?”
Wu Jin stepped back twice, her face deathly pale. She had never expected to become the target.
The girl snorted. “All right, go do whatever you need to do. Why have you come to our Class One? Lian Qiao belongs to our class. What are you all staring at?”
In the minds of these top students, grades alone commanded their admiration, and Jiang Chan had successfully reached the summit. Students’ ability to gossip should not be underestimated. Somehow, Jiang Chan’s conversation with Old Tang in the corridor had reached the other students. Now everyone in Class One knew that she was a pitiful little thing.
To the students of Class One, Jiang Chan was practically a poor little waif without parents, miserable, pitiful, and helpless. So when the girl saw Jiang Chan’s older sister, Wu Jin, she could hardly look at her pleasantly.
The girl was kindhearted, after all, and would not air someone else’s private affairs in public. She could only put them out of sight and out of mind. As the window closed, Wu Jin felt as though a heavy fist had struck her heart.
She returned to her classroom in a daze, feeling as though everything her classmates discussed was directed at her. How was it her fault that Lian Qiao lived like that? She had not stopped Lian Shuguo and Wu Xiuzhen from buying Lian Qiao clothes.
And as for being thin, she was thin too. Had those people not noticed? Why had everything become her fault? The more Wu Jin thought about it, the angrier she grew, until her eyes were red.
During evening study, Wu Jin could not concentrate either. Her mind was in turmoil. One moment, she thought of Jiang Chan’s first place. The next, she remembered that she had actually fallen out of the top hundred in this Placement Test, and she felt even worse.
Now everything she heard sounded like a veiled insult directed at her. So as soon as evening study ended, Wu Jin grabbed her schoolbag and ran out.
When she passed Class One, she inexplicably glanced inside, just in time to see Jiang Chan at the front explaining a problem to her classmates.
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