Chapter 265: Sir Zhao
In the second week after New Year’s Day, the school also ushered in the last monthly exam of this semester, which is also the final exam.
The exam will be held from January 8th to 11th. After the exam, we will take a three-day break and come back on the 14th to get the transcript and the results of subject placement for the next semester.
It seems that as we grow older, we have to face more and more separations in our lives.
We have only been together for one semester, and the classmates seem to have just begun to integrate into the group, but in the blink of an eye, we are about to say goodbye.
I don’t know how other classes are doing this semester, but for the vast majority of students in Class 1, they still like the atmosphere in their class.
But there was no way around the class division, so following Zhao Yueting's suggestion, everyone decided to organize a group photo before the division.
"It's good to keep it in the family! Brother Wei has a camera! We don't have to go out and find someone to take the photos. Brother Wei can take the photos for us, and then we can pool our money together to have the photos developed. How about that?"
"Sure! What do you think, squad leader?"
"No problem, then pick a time."
The time for taking the group photo was finally set on the afternoon after school the day before the exam.
We were just taking a group photo, not going on any group outing, so there was no need to report this to the school. However, the class still told Teacher Liang and invited him to take the group photo together.
"Teacher Liang! It's five dollars to develop the photos! Remember to pay the class fee when the time comes!"
"Ah? You're looking for me to share the money, right?"
Teacher Liang was both annoying and funny. In fact, after getting to know him for a long time, everyone discovered that Teacher Liang was extremely strict only in class. When we got to know him after class, he was still quite kind.
"I'm just kidding, Mr. Liang! Your share is free!"
"Where are you going to take the photos? Did you hire someone to take the photos?"
"The monitor has a camera!"
The photo location is on the large steps on the side of the administrative building. The stairs here are very wide, and you can get a very good angle to include most of the campus background behind you. Every year, high school graduates take graduation photos on the steps here.
It was like an early experience of taking graduation photos. After class, everyone didn’t go to eat or wash up first, but came to the steps of the administrative building together in school uniforms.
In an age when mobile phone cameras are not popular, people are very keen on taking photos and take it very seriously. They all adjust their clothes and hairstyles in front of the mirror.
Today’s photographer is not Fang Wei, but Liu Zhiyi.
"How, how do you shoot..."
"You can take pictures, right? The pictures you took of me on the court were all pretty good."
"I'm talking about how you want to shoot it...!"
The girl became nervous at the thought of taking pictures of so many people in Fang Wei's class with a camera.
"Um... just stand in front, find a good angle, and include everyone in the photo. Don't give me too many close-ups!"
"Shame on you... who would only take pictures of you?"
"Oh, it's so slow! Hurry up and take the photos!" Cai Ling was extremely anxious as she was carrying a bag and preparing to go to the training base. She was anxious to go to training, but also wanted to see them finish taking the photos.
"Alright, alright! Everybody find your seats and stand!"
Fang Wei clapped his hands, and under his command, the students in the class quickly stood up.
They stood in a row on a flight of stairs, with the short girls in the front and the tall boys in the back. Everyone was laughing and joking, and the atmosphere was very lively.
Many students and teachers passing by also looked at them curiously. When they saw that they were about to take a group photo, they took the initiative to avoid them as they passed by.
"Mr. Zhao, why are you standing so far back? Are you tall?"
"I can stand on tiptoe!"
"…Hurry up and stand in the second row."
"Teacher Liang! Please stand in front!"
"Then I stand here?"
"can!"
Teacher Liang walked to the first row and didn't stand in the middle. He just stood on the far left with his hands behind his back.
After everyone's seats were arranged, Fang Wei also ran to the last row.
"Brother Wei! Stand here! I've saved a seat for you!"
“I’m standing in the middle?”
"Suitable for you!"
Fang Wei smiled and did not refuse, standing in the middle of the last row.
As he made an OK gesture, Liu Zhiyi, holding the camera, began to find the angle. Cai Ling, who was standing by, also watched with great interest, and then shouted for the shy Zhiyi:
"Everyone smile! Look at the camera! Three, two, one...!"
[Click——]
……
The final exam has begun.
After returning from New Year's Day, everyone had already chosen their intended subjects, and started to review for this exam in a more targeted manner. In other words, students who chose liberal arts basically don't care about science, and students who chose science basically don't care about liberal arts.
Although the ranking for this exam is still based on the scores of all subjects, the classes are divided according to the scores of the elective subjects. Lian Fang, for his part, also placed most of his review focus on science subjects.
Like the usual monthly exams, the final exams will also be conducted in different examination rooms with seats shuffled.
It’s a pity that except for the first monthly exam when Fang Wei and Cai Ling Zhiyi were in the same examination room, they were never assigned to the same room again.
However, Zhao Yueting was assigned to the same classroom as Fang Wei for this final exam.
"Hahaha! I want to see how you usually take exams!"
After seeing the specific seating arrangement, Zhao Yueting was even more satisfied. Although they were not sitting next to each other, Fang Wei sat in front of her. While she was doing her exam questions, she could easily see the entire process of his exam.
"Are you curious about such things?" Fang Wei was speechless.
"Isn't it worthwhile to see how the person who always tops the grade actually takes the exams?"
Among so many people she knows, Fang Wei is the one Zhao Yueting is most curious about. He is obviously the same age as her, so why is he so calm and steady, and why is he so academically excellent and all-round.
She couldn't help but be curious about his previous life and inner world, as if she had seen the result of a math problem, but she couldn't help but want to deduce the process of getting this result, and was eager to know some answer, but the more curious she was, the less she could see through it.
Zhao Yueting told her best friend about Fang Wei and her curiosity. The bespectacled best friend who was in the same class with Zhiyi just pushed her glasses and said earnestly:
"Be careful not to fall in love with him! He clearly doesn't have you in his eyes, otherwise how could you see him so many times but he didn't see you!"
"What the hell! I'm just curious! Like it or not, it has nothing to do with that!"
"The book says that liking someone often starts with curiosity."
"What kind of book is this, talking about all this nonsense?"
"Nan Feng's Chasing Summer is great, go watch it."
"I won't read it. The author himself may have never been in love, but you are reading it with great interest!"
"How is that possible? Nan Feng must be a master of love, and I guess she must have a childhood sweetheart, the male protagonist Zhou Min in the movie. He looks very similar to Fang Wei in your class, an exceptional person!"
"How can you compare the things in the novel with reality?"
"Then you spend all day trying to use things from detective novels to deduce reality."
"It's different! That's a kind of thinking, you know."
“Love is also a kind of thinking.”
"Have you talked about it?"
"……No."
"Then you still said that, making me think you know a lot!"
Zhao Yueting didn't take the glasses girl's best friend's words to heart.
But when the night was quiet, she couldn't help but think of these words. The sentence "Be careful or you'll fall in love with him" inexplicably kept lingering in her ears, making her toss and turn in annoyance.
She wanted to refute it, but she didn’t know how to refute it. If her friend with glasses said "You like him", then she felt that she could refute it directly!
But the key point of this sentence is [be careful]
This immediately made Zhao Yueting feel like she had power but nowhere to use it, and she was depressed but had no one to talk to.
Why do you think she would like him? She was just curious about his peculiarity... Besides, why should she be [careful]? Is this a bad thing, just because he doesn't have eyes for her?
There are so many people he doesn't care about!
Zhao Yueting has noticed it. Not only do there are girls from other classes who secretly like him, there are also several in her own class, including the one in her dormitory. She has been teased by her roommates late at night, but everyone tacitly agrees not to say anything about it in class.
Anyone with a discerning eye knows that Liu Zhiyi from Class 5 and Xu Cailing from Class 6 are the girls Fang Wei is closest to and he never shy away from their close relationship. If anyone is to be determined as to who Fang Wei has his eyes on, Zhao Yueting feels that it must be one of them, or... both of them.
Well, it seemed that he had subconsciously admitted that Fang Wei didn't have her in his eyes.
It is obviously an obvious fact, but why do I feel inexplicably irritated and depressed when I realize it?
Zhao Yueting has always thought that she is a girl dominated by rational thinking. This is the first time in her life that she has encountered a situation in adolescence where her rationality and emotion are torn apart, which makes her feel as depressed as if she had her period.
Perhaps because they were about to part, even though there was an exam tomorrow, in the lights-off girls' dormitory 205, people were still whispering.
"...I say Yuerong, why don't you just go and confess your feelings to him? What are you afraid of? If you don't tell him now, it will be too late when you are separated into different classes!"
"Don't make a fuss... I just have a crush on you, not those... Besides, the monitor obviously has someone he likes..."
"You said those two who were always with him, which one do you think it was?"
"……I have no idea."
"If even you can't tell the difference, then it might be neither of them!"
"Then, what if it's both of them?"
"How is that possible! Hahahaha... I'm serious. Why don't you just give it a try? It won't hurt anyway. Who knows, maybe the monitor likes Yuerong who is your age?"
"Oh, you guys are getting more and more outrageous!"
If it were usual, Zhao Yueting would have chatted with them enthusiastically, but she was particularly depressed tonight. She lay in bed without saying a word, listening quietly to them talking about their girlish thoughts.
Even though they seem to be chatting happily in the dormitory, in fact, once they leave the dormitory and go to the class, they are all as timid as quails. The girls will never bring what they say in the dormitory to the class. If anything is leaked, it will basically be an irreconcilable conflict in the girls' dormitory.
"Yueting~Yueting~"
"Well?"
"I thought you were asleep. You sit closest to the monitor and you know him best. Do you think Yuerong has a chance if she confesses her feelings?"
After this question was asked, the person involved and the instigator started to playfully and playfully throw pillows back and forth across the aisle.
Zhao Yueting thought for a moment and said, "It's not very accurate to say that. I don't really know him..." "Then you know him best among us, right? Yueting, do you think Yuerong has a chance?"
"..."
In the past, Zhao Yueting would probably laugh and say: [Definitely have a chance]
It’s no big deal to watch the fun!
But at this moment, she inexplicably felt that Li Yuerong was someone who shared the same suffering as her... Bah, what do you mean by sharing the same suffering as her!
Well, Zhao Yueting did not admit that she and Yuerong shared the same suffering, but she seemed to be able to understand Yuerong's mood.
"What I said may not be right... Well, to be more precise, I think, I think!"
After Zhao Yueting stacked up her armor for a while, she said, "...I guess the chances are slim."
The dormitory fell silent.
Reason once again took the upper hand, and the messy fantasies of adolescence were ruthlessly smashed to pieces.
Although everyone was unwilling, they all knew that what Zhao Yueting said was the truth.
"I, I told you it was impossible, and you guys think too much. I didn't have those ideas anyway." Li Yuerong said with a forced smile.
As to whether she thinks so, probably only Li Yuerong herself knows.
Her roommates stopped teasing her. As girls, they naturally knew Fang Wei's excellence and charm. There was more than one person who liked him, but one of them just happened to be in dormitory 205... There might be more than one Li Yuerong in dormitory 205. It could only be said that the others might have hidden it too well.
"It seems that Yue Ting and Wan Lin are the only two people in our dormitory who chose science, right?"
"Yeah, you all chose liberal arts."
"Hahaha, there won't be only a few girls in the science class by then."
"That shouldn't be the case. I heard from them in 206 that there are four students who chose science, but there are fewer in our dormitory..."
"Hey, Yueting, do you know what school Fang Wei will be applying to in the future, Peking University or Tsinghua University?"
"Fudan, probably. Maybe I can study mathematics or finance or something like that."
"So are you still going to apply to the Public Security University in the future?"
"Ah."
Zhao Yueting answered without hesitation: "Public Security University."
Inexplicably, when the girl spoke out her dream, her chaotic mind suddenly became clear.
"Oh, forget it. If we can't get into the same school in the future, we'll have to separate sooner or later. We might as well cherish these three years."
"Damn it, Yueting, why did you suddenly say something so philosophical!"
"Just tell me whether I am strict or not."
"rigorous!"
"Go to sleep! Do well on the exam tomorrow!"
……
If we were both older, we probably wouldn't be so bored and lose sleep all night long because of all the random thoughts about whether we like someone or whether that person likes us.
In the short time of our lives, there are not only endless papers to do and exams to take, but also unrealistic dreams and unspeakable love, joy and regret intertwined. The body is in the present, but the heart is always fantasizing about tomorrow. Maybe this is youth.
He clearly didn't do anything wrong, but he disturbed everyone in dormitory 205 because he was still awake late at night. Fang Wei should not take the blame for this.
The next day, the final exam officially began. Zhao Yueting got her wish and was in the same examination classroom with him. She could finally see how this guy usually got high scores.
The first subject was Chinese. Chinese was a subject that gave Zhao Yueting a headache, because no matter how you look at it, it was definitely a liberal arts subject! But even if she studied science in the future, she had to learn Chinese.
Zhao Yueting was a little indignant about this, and complained to Fang Wei more than once, asking, why is mathematics for liberal arts subjects easier, while Chinese for science subjects has to be on the same test paper as liberal arts subjects?
She had agreed to monitor Fang Wei, but during the Chinese language test, she didn't have much time to observe him. She only knew that Fang Wei had finished the test paper 20 minutes early, while she had to finish her composition hastily just before the deadline...
When doing math, she was much faster than Fang. It was a rare occasion that they took an exam in the same classroom, and on a subject that they were both good at, Zhao Yueting secretly competed with him to see who could finish the questions faster.
Obviously, Zhao Yueting won.
When she finished the math test quickly and looked up to the right, Fang Wei had just started working on the second to last question.
She often suffered from carelessness when doing math papers. Even though she often said "be rigorous", it was difficult for a 16 or 17-year-old girl to calm down due to her impetuous nature. As a result, in every math test, her final score was always one or two points lower than Fang Wei's.
Zhao Yueting learned her lesson. After confirming that she could finish the questions faster than him, she checked the answers again.
It was hard to say whether this was an "inspection" or an "appreciation of the results". After checking all the way, she just felt "Right! That's it! I'm sure I'll get full marks this time!"
Examining myself three times a day is a kind of learning, and finding the mistakes in the papers I have done is also a kind of learning.
When Fang Wei finished the test paper and looked back, Zhao Sir was already dozing off with his hands propped up and his head tilted...
The three days of exams passed quickly.
The last English exam also marks the end of this semester.
Fang Wei and Zhao Yueting left the examination room together, picked up their schoolbags from the table outside the corridor, and walked downstairs to classroom one.
"How did you do in the exam, Mr. Zhao?"
Fang Wei was probably the first person in the class to call her 'Zhao Sir'. As he started calling Zhao Yueting this nickname, many classmates in the class, especially boys, started calling Zhao Yueting 'Zhao Sir'. The girl seemed to like this title very much and would respond when people called her Zhao Sir.
"Perfect! If you don't count Chinese, English, politics, history, and geography, my score is definitely higher than yours!"
"...No, who taught you to calculate points like this?"
"Science is supposed to exclude these things."
"Why don't you stop being a policeman and try to get into the Ministry of Education. I think you can launch a dramatic reform."
"roll."
In short, the exam is over, and the boring liberal arts course will have to say goodbye to her high school career. Zhao Yueting feels that she will never pick up the liberal arts textbook again.
Just like liberal arts, probably most of the students in the class will also say goodbye. Zhao Yueting still feels a little regretful about this.
"With a 1 in 50 chance, do you think we'll be in the same class next semester?"
Zhao Yueting turned to ask Fang Wei, after the division of subjects, there were two top science classes, and there was no doubt that she and Fang Wei were both in the top classes.
"One hundred percent." Fang Wei said.
"Haha, you know how to do arithmetic, can this be 100% certain?"
"Then I am not making you happy by saying this."
"Tsk, who wants to be in the same class with you?"
Of course, no matter what, as far as friendship is concerned, Zhao Yueting naturally still hopes to be in the same class with him.
There are few interesting and special people in the world, and there are even fewer interesting and special people who can become friends.
"By the way, it's winter vacation after the exams. How are you going to spend your winter vacation?"
"Reading, doing housework, and waiting for the New Year."
"Can we have something more interesting?"
"Isn't that the case during holidays? Well, maybe I'll go to Shanghai to play for a while."
"Looking for your teacher?"
"Yes, I still have to learn to paint."
"Go with Xu Cailing and Liu Zhiyi?"
"correct."
"Oh, that's it."
Zhao Yueting nodded, but she didn't have any special reaction. After all, if she had known that, she would have known that the three of them would have played together during the holidays.
"So how are you spending your winter break?"
"I'll go to a competition class outside to learn, and then maybe go back to my grandparents' house early to wait for the New Year."
"Where are your grandparents from?"
"Have you been to Shawan Town?"
"I haven't been there. It's much farther from your county town than our Baitan Town."
There are many islands around, and Fang Wei has not been to all of them. Although Shawan Town and Baitan Town are both under the jurisdiction of Qingxi County, compared with the main island of Qingxi County, these two towns are at opposite ends of the island.
"By the way, have you developed all the photos?"
"Not yet. I don't have time to get it done these days. I'll go find a photo studio to get it done tomorrow."
"Remember! Seventy-two portions! I've given you all the money, don't miss any!"
"Isn't it seventy-three?"
"Eh?"
"Be more rigorous, please! Teacher Liang's share doesn't count?"
"Haha, I forgot your share!" Zhao Yueting laughed.
Fang Wei: “…”
Back in the classroom, without any organization, everyone had already started to move tables and chairs busily, and arranged the layout of the examination room back to its original appearance for class.
For fear that everyone would forget to study during the winter vacation due to playing, the teachers of each subject called the representatives of each subject to the office to bring piles of winter vacation homework as soon as the exams were over. Unlike the winter and summer vacation homework in junior high school, which was done in one book, the winter vacation homework now was mainly test papers, and there were related exercise books, all for the three main subjects, and only two test papers were given for the liberal arts and science subjects as a token of their consideration.
Maybe starting from next semester, there will be no such winter and summer vacation homework, because even the winter and summer vacations themselves are almost non-existent, and we will have to make up classes during the holidays.
It is unrealistic to expect students to learn independently. The only way is to assign homework.
"Don't think that you don't have to hand in these papers and homework when the classes are divided next semester. When the classes start to register, you will have to bring your homework with you!"
“┗|｀O′|┛Ouch~~”
Everyone who had just finished their exam and were relaxing, cried out in pain when they looked at the huge piles of papers.
"Okay, if you have nothing else to do, go back and have a good rest for three days. Remember to come back at nine o'clock on the 14th to get your transcript and class placement!"
(End of this chapter)
