November 10, 1995, Friday. After cleaning the area assigned to their class, Gao Xinglang and several other students, including Li Peiling, returned to the classroom and saw the monitor, Cheng Xianchu, putting something on the wall next to the blackboard.
"Hey, Your Highness is back so early?" Gao Xinglang teased.
"Oh, you've finished cleaning the assigned area?" After Cheng Xianchu finished the posting, he pointed at the paper on the wall and said, "The midterm exam results and rankings are out. Take a look."
"Monitor, where did you rank this time?" Li Peiling asked with a smile.
Cheng Xianchu didn't answer and walked out of the classroom.
Li Peiling pouted, then walked over to the blackboard again. Pointing at the results list, she jokingly said to Gao Xinglang, "Gao Xinglang, take a look and see where you rank. If you've improved since last semester's final exams, you have to buy us ice cream."
"Alas, what's there to look at? It's always about the same," said Gao Xinglang, tensing his facial muscles for a moment before he spoke with a feigned nonchalance. He cast a sidelong glance at the class ranking list before returning to his seat.
"So let me check for you." Li Peiling looked at it for two seconds and exclaimed, "Wow, Cai Yunfei is first in the class, higher than the monitor."
She looked at it for another two seconds and exclaimed again, "Gao Xinglang, come and see!"
Gao Xinglang's heart skipped a beat, and then he asked with a casual tone, "Why, did I do well?"
Li Peiling smiled slyly, shook her head, and said, "No, I see that your good friend Guan Xuchen ranked four in the class."
She continued to scan the list, and as she did, she suddenly let out a cheer of 'Yeah!"
Li Peiling's dramatic reactions were starting to wear on Gao Xinglang's patience. He stood up and asked a bit anxiously, "So, what is it? Where did I come in?"
"Oh, I only see that I'm 10th in the class," Li Peiling answered apologetically, and then added, "I'll check for you now."
She continued down the ranking list, her finger stopping at a certain position, before she turned to Gao Xinglang, offered a small smile, and returned to her seat in silence.
Seeing this, Gao Xinglang became even more anxious and asked, "Li Peiling, how did I do?"
Li Peiling turned her head and said with a gentle smile, "You may want to see for yourself."
Gao Xinglang hesitated for a moment, before he picked up his cup, approached the blackboard, and scanned down the list. For the top three positions on the ranking list, Gao Xinglang merely glanced at the names and skipped over them. When he reached Guan Xuchen's name, he looked carefully at the grades: Guan Xuchen scored 90 points in Chinese, 85 in mathematics, 100 in English, 92 in politics, 78 in physics and 81 in chemistry. With a total of 526 points in the six subjects, Guan ranked fourth in the class and 13th in the whole grade.
"Soupy did quite well," Gao Xinglang thought happily, and then continued to read on, but he couldn't see his own grades after many names. He felt his heart pounding so hard that it seemed like it was going to jump out of his throat.
Gao Xinglang finally saw his grades and ranking in the middle of the list: 72 points in Chinese, 85 points in mathematics, 80 points in English, 76 points in politics, 90 points in physics, and 82 points in chemistry. With a total of 486 points in the six subjects, he ranked 28th in the class and 194th in the whole grade.
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Love Me in Another Universe
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