CH 37

Chapter 37 Math and Science together, ignite the passion

“What’s Tie Zhuang calling Li Xue for?”

“Probably because she ranked last in this monthly exam.”

“But wait… when Jiang Fuyue ranked last before, why didn’t Tie Zhuang call her to the office?”

“Could it be because… Li Xue is a newcomer?”

“…” D*mn, why do they make it sound like such an honorable title.

Li Xue was absent for the entire class and returned with red eyes. She stopped by Jiang Fuyue and gave her a fierce glare, saying, “Just you wait!”

Wan Xiutong was furious, “How can someone be like this? Clearly, she spread rumors, yet she still has the nerve to act tough?”

Jiang Fuyue calmly turned to the next page and filled in the answers while saying, “Ignore her.”

She’s just a clown, so it’s fine.

The next day during the big break, Li Xue stood on the stage with a microphone and read her apology word by word in front of the whole school.

The last sentence was, “I apologize to Jiang Fuyue and admit that I shouldn’t have spread rumors to slander her.”

Hearing her tone of indignation mixed with resentment, but having to endure and swallow her pride, made Jiang Fuyue feel refreshed and satisfied.

“Jiang Jiang, look at her enduring like that. How does that look like an apology?”

“Then what does it look like?”

“…suffering in silence after being wronged.”

Jiang Fuyue nodded. “Very good.” 

“What’s so good about it?” 

They can’t stand me, but they can’t get rid of me either, so they can only hold it in. 

What’s not good about it?

…

From getting full marks in all subjects, to being accused of cheating, and finally clearing her name while exposing the mastermind behind it all, Jiang Fuyue became a legend with one battle.

To prove the authenticity of her full marks, Xu Jing and Yu Wenzhou successively announced her scores in math and physics mini-tests, which were also full marks!

What everyone thought was just “being lucky,” was actually the inevitable result of “accumulating slowly and breaking out suddenly.”

That noon, a post titled “We Agreed to be Bad Students Together, but You Secretly Took the First Place in the Exam” appeared on the school forum.

The poster recounted, with tears and blood, the true feelings of a bad student upon seeing Jiang Fuyue’s sudden rise to the top:

“I’m a bad student, and she’s also a bad student. I’m better than her because she always comes in last place, and I can always count on her to cushion my score.

And then – she took first place.

And then – I died.

With this pitiful yet funny paragraph, it seemed to have struck a chord with the collective consciousness of bad students in their school. In just two hours, the post’s popularity skyrocketed.

1st comment: We sprouted from the same root, how come we’re fighting each other so fiercely?

2nd comment: “When she was still here, the teacher said I was holding back the class, now that she’s gone, I might as well strip the class of its pants.”

3rd comment: “We fell down together and agreed to rest lying down, but you quietly flew to the front, and since then, we’ve been separated by a galaxy.”

…

74th comment: “Sister Yue, you can fly slowly, we don’t want to catch up.”

75th comment: “Can’t catch up even if we tried.”

…

101st comment: “According to an insider, JFY joined both the Olympiad math class and physics class at the same time. Emphasis: at the same time!”

102nd comment: “What the f***! Treading on two boats, not afraid of capsizing?”

103rd comment: “I remember LX also participated in these two classes at the time, but eventually chose one, right?”

104th comment: “Our school’s physics competition has been declining in recent years, crushed by Second High School, could it be that we’re hoping for Jiang Fuyue to restore our honor?”

105th comment: “Monthly exams and competitions are two different things, OK? Full marks in monthly exams do not mean success in competitions, especially the hardest ones like math and physics.”

…

Nth comment: “Is the school raising people too high?”

“Did you really join the Physics Competition class?” Liu Bowen put down his phone and turned suddenly.

Jiang Fuyue raised her eyelids, “Yeah.”

“Didn’t you already join the Math Olympiad class?” 

Wan Xiutong said, “Can’t you attend both classes?”

“Of course not!”

“What do you mean?” Wan Xiutong pouted, looking displeased.

Who are you looking down on?

Liu Bowen knew she misunderstood, “I didn’t mean that. What I meant was that both the Math Olympiad class and the Physics Competition class are on Thursday afternoons. How can Jiang Fuyue attend both?”

Split in half?

Wan Xiutong was stunned, then turned to look at Jiang Fuyue.

The latter also showed a moment of surprise.

……

At the same time, a final showdown between math and physics was unfolding in the grade office.

Xu Jing said, “Who told you to go after Jiang Fuyue?!”

Meng Zhijian replied, “What do you mean I’m going after her? I sent the invitation, and Student Jiang accepted. What’s the problem with that?”

Xu Jing said, “You clearly knew she had already joined the Math Olympiad class, yet you still came to poach her. Old Meng, you’re really something. We’ve been colleagues for over ten years, and I never thought you’d be this kind of person!”

Meng Zhijian retorted, “Since when did your Math Olympiad class become like a mythical beast? Only allowed to enter, not allowed to leave? Anyway, she has already agreed to join the Physics Competition class now.”

Xu Jing said, “You shameless person!”

Meng Zhijian said, “You’re overbearing and unreasonable!”

Xu Jing said, “Let me tell you, if you try to poach someone from me, don’t even think about it!”

“Well, I already did. What are you going to do about it?”

Originally, Meng Zhijian didn’t really consider that Jiang Fuyue was still in the math Olympiad class, no wonder he always felt like he had forgotten something important. When he realized this and wanted to discuss with Xu Jing on how to coordinate and solve the problem, this guy came up and started scolding him.

He didn’t want to lose face, did he?

The two of them quarreled with each other.

In the end, Zhao Tiejun arrived and stopped them: “What are you doing? You’ve been teachers for decades, aren’t you ashamed?”

“You arrived just in time. Meng Zhijian wants to poach people from my math Olympiad class. Let’s see what you can do! Anyway, I won’t let go of Jiang Fuyue.”

Xu Jing was confident and Meng Zhijian wasn’t afraid either: “I believe the school should fully respect students’ choices in order to find the most suitable path for their development.”

“The IMO is the most suitable path for Jiang Fuyue!”

“Bullsh*t – obviously, it’s the IPhO!”

Zhao Tiejun was at a loss.

In the end, he couldn’t deal with these two guys and immediately made a phone call to the principal to explain the situation: “…So, do you want Jiang Fuyue to continue in the math Olympiad class or transfer to the physics competition class?”

Xu and Meng both perked up their ears.

The entire office became quiet.

“Well, why don’t she attend both classes! As for the scheduling conflict, it’s not difficult to solve. We’ll move the physics competition class to Wednesday afternoon.”

“Yeah! How come they didn’t think of changing the time?”

Thus, a new legend emerged about Jiang Fuyue: the physics class that had been scheduled on Thursday afternoons since its inception had its time changed for her.

…

Jiang Fuyue’s impressive achievement of achieving a perfect score in all subjects brought her school-wide fame and also brought business to Jiang’s pancake stand.

“What are we having for dinner tonight?”

“Pancakes.”

“From Jiang’s?”

“Hehe, my bro gets me. Let’s go together?”

“Let’s go!”

Even if they couldn’t be first place, at least they could try the same pancakes as the first place winner!

“You know what, these pancakes are pretty good.”

“Yeah, the sauce is so tasty!”

“I had a runny egg in my pancake for the first time here, and it was like a taste of heaven.”

“I think this might be the closest I’ve ever been to achieving a perfect score and being first place in my life.”

…

As night fell and the street gradually quieted down, Jiang Da and his wife finally stopped working.

“Wife, have some water.”

Han Yunru took the water and drank it, then handed it back to him. “Have some too.”

Jiang Dafu took a few sips and asked, “Why was business so good today?”

From after school until ten minutes ago, there has been a queue all along. Especially right after school, it almost reached outside the alley.

“It should be the effect of the flyers that Yueyue distributed.” Otherwise, how come all the customers are students from No. 1 High School?

But…

It’s been almost a week, isn’t the effect lasting a bit too long?

Han Yunru took out her phone to check today’s sales, counted the cash, and then reported a pleasantly surprising number.

Jiang Da smiled along with her when he saw her happy.

“Shall we close early today?”

Jiang Da naturally agreed, “You take a break, I’ll start packing up.”

The couple had no idea that their daughter had come in first place, until Jiang Fuyue calmly pulled out her report card…