Class Twenty.
Rong Yu was explaining a math problem to the class monitor and the academic committee member when Pei Yaru suddenly called her name, asking her to go to the office.
Upon entering, the principal greeted her with a smile. "Rong Yu, our school's Olympiad team is short one member. I was thinking of having you fill the spot. What do you say?"
"If only you had asked me a day earlier," Rong Yu replied with a helpless expression. "My mentor, Academician Yun Xiaoyuan, is involved in grading the national Olympiad exams every year. Since he’s too busy, he delegated the task to his senior disciple, Lin Rang. But these past few days, Lin Rang’s leg condition flared up, so he asked me to step in."
An academician of Yun Xiaoyuan’s caliber didn’t need to personally grade papers—he only stepped in when there were disputes over certain questions. For the first couple of years, Yun Xiaoyuan took it seriously, but after so many repetitions, he grew tired of it and passed the responsibility to his top disciple, Lin Rang.
Lin Rang, who had limited mobility, had been grading online all these years. Sitting for entire days was exhausting.
Now that he finally had a junior sister, who else could he push the task onto?
Thus, Rong Yu became the unlucky laborer.
In academic circles, many mentors assigned simple yet formative tasks to their students—it wasn’t considered improper.
The principal’s eyes widened in shock.
Had he heard correctly? A high school student like Rong Yu was actually participating in grading the national Olympiad finals?
But then again, Rong Yu was one of only two direct disciples under Academician Yun. The projects she’d work on in the future would undoubtedly be ten, even a hundred times more significant than this grading task… so this was nothing.
After a moment of stunned silence, the principal suppressed his astonishment and quietly selected another male student from the honors class to fill the vacancy.
When Song Huai saw that Teacher Yang had returned with a classmate instead of Rong Yu, he thought silently: So Rong Yu’s math skills weren’t recognized by the school after all.
Even geniuses had their weaknesses.
The team flew to the capital for the Olympiad, and the results were announced the next day.
They secured second place in the team category.
Song Huai and Zhang Haoyu both won individual gold medals.
With the Olympiad gold, Zhang Haoyu also earned a guaranteed admission to Tsinghua or Peking University.
Upon their return, the school welcomed them with great enthusiasm.
Students buzzed with chatter.
"Song Huai is just too incredible—gold medals in both physics and math. How is anyone supposed to compete with that?"
"Zhang Haoyu isn’t far behind either. He’s basically secured a spot at Tsinghua or Peking U."
"It’s such a shame about Rong Ruoyao. If she hadn’t fallen ill, she could’ve at least gotten a team award for college admission bonuses."
"Come on, Rong Ruoyao has been the top humanities student for years. Even without the bonus, she’d have no problem getting into Peking University."
"..."
Just as the crowd at the school gate was lively, a courier arrived in a van. "The admission letters for Haicheng No. 1 High School are here!"
The announcement instantly silenced everyone.
Though they’d known Song Huai and the others had secured spots at top universities, nothing was official until the letters arrived.
"Song Huai!"
The courier checked the name and called out loudly.
A rare smile appeared on Song Huai’s usually restrained face as he stepped forward. "Thank you."
He opened the envelope—sure enough, it was Tsinghua University’s physics department. He had been admitted early.
"Zhang Haoyu."
Zhang Haoyu took his envelope but froze when he noticed the courier had no more left.
"Shouldn’t there be one more?" he asked.
"Nope," the courier said. "Haicheng No. 1 only had two. The other two letters are for Experimental High School."
Zhang Haoyu was even more shocked. "That can’t be right. There must be another one. Rong Yu won gold in the physics competition—there’s no way she wasn’t admitted. You must’ve lost it!"
Song Huai frowned. "Yeah, could you double-check?"
"I’d lose my own job before losing an admission letter," the courier snapped. "I told you, there aren’t any more. If you have doubts, call and ask the university yourselves."
With that, he drove off.
Song Huai’s frown deepened.
Zhang Haoyu was equally bewildered.
"Maybe… the committee revoked her admission?" Rong Ruoyao’s soft voice chimed in. "She only switched to the science track two months ago, yet she won a national gold medal. I always thought that seemed a little too good to be true..."
"That’s impossible!" Zhang Haoyu retorted. "I competed alongside Rong Yu in the finals. I saw her skills firsthand. Right, Song Huai?"
Song Huai stayed silent.
He had known Rong Yu longer than Zhang Haoyu—back when she had just arrived from the countryside, her grades were poor, her thinking rigid… Could someone really change so drastically in such a short time?
Was it possible the committee had discovered she cheated?
After a long pause, he finally spoke. "This isn’t something we can worry about. Let’s get to class."
Meanwhile, Rong Yu was in the classroom, reading.
When she finally looked up from her book, she noticed many of her classmates staring at her with concern. The moment they realized she’d noticed, they quickly pretended nothing was wrong.
She turned to Ji Zhouye. "What happened?"
Ji Zhouye jerked his chin toward the door. "Song Huai and Zhang Haoyu just got their Tsinghua admission letters. Everyone’s worried you might be upset."
His "great-grandma" had seen it all—this little hiccup wasn’t worth getting upset over.
"Here, Sis Yu, have some milk tea." Chen Nian handed her a cup of taro boba. "I know you’ll get into Tsinghua or Peking U on your own merit."
The class monitor chimed in, "Yeah, becoming the top scorer in the college entrance exams would be way more impressive than an early admission."
The class secretary nodded. "With your skills, you’ll definitely be the top scorer."
The academic committee member held up a test paper. "Yu, can you explain this problem to us?"
Rong Yu didn’t give the matter a second thought.
Soon, it was time for the monthly exams—held on a Friday, with all subjects crammed into a single day.
While writing her Chinese essay, Rong Yu silently prayed for her senior brother to rescue her soon… But Lin Rang didn’t hear her plea, and she ended up muddling through the essay.
The math, English, and science sections, however, went smoothly.
By the time the exams ended, it was already 9 p.m.
Ji Zhouye bounded over, grinning. "Great-grandma, the test wasn’t that hard! A bunch of the questions were types you’d gone over with me. I think I’ll move up twenty spots this time, hehe."
"Don’t get too confident," Rong Yu said, glancing at him. "While you’re improving, so is everyone else—unless you’re putting in more effort than they are."
Ji Zhouye deflated instantly.
He had been working harder lately, but compared to Chen Nian, he still felt like a slacker…
As they packed up and left the classroom, they ran into Song Huai at the stairwell.
Rong Yu pretended not to see him.
"Wait." Song Huai caught up to her. He glanced at Ji Zhouye. "I need to talk to Rong Yu alone. Could you go ahead?"
Ji Zhouye’s expression darkened immediately. He slung an arm around Rong Yu’s shoulders. "Rong Yu and I are inseparable. Whatever you have to say, I can hear it too."
Rong Yu: "..."
She said calmly, "Song Huai, if you have something to say, just say it directly."
Song Huai paused, then pulled out a stack of documents from his backpack. "After winning the dual gold medals in physics and mathematics, my mentor, Professor Liu, invited me to join a confidential research project. I’d like to invite you to participate as well. If you perform well, Professor Liu might agree to take you on as his student."
