TCFSRMR |Chapter 33

Chapter 33

After glancing at his watch, the time was about right too. Liu Qingfeng also stopped talking nonsense with Zhou Dazhi, and hurriedly ran to the side of Shi Ying and Shi Heng, giving the two of them all kinds of exam-prep reminders:

“When you’re taking the Chinese exam, the paper presentation has a huge impact, so you must write neatly. Make sure you remember not to scribble all over it…”

“When doing math problems, you have to be bold and careful, and don’t get stuck dead on one problem. First browse through the paper from beginning to end, then start writing. After you’ve finished the problems you know, go back and look at the difficult ones…”

He was able to remind them this way because Liu Qingfeng had experience. Last time he brought students to take part in the competition, they had kept circling around the difficult questions in the front, which caused the questions behind them, whether easy or hard, to not be written at all.

Of course, this time Liu Qingfeng was still quite confident in Shi Heng and Shi Ying. Especially with Shi Heng, Liu Qingfeng was seeing such a good seedling for mathematics for the first time, and he always felt that there probably wouldn’t be any problems that could stump him. Anyway, among the problem types he usually taught, there wasn’t a single knowledge point that could defeat this child.

Very soon, the exam bell rang.

Zhou Dazhi came over and called Liu Qingfeng to go wander around with him:

“The exam just started, there definitely won’t be anything happening. Otherwise, let’s go stroll around…”

But Liu Qingfeng, although he had spoken lightly before, after watching the kids enter the exam room one after another, his heart suddenly rose up. How could he have any mood to be leisurely?

He directly took away the hand Zhou Dazhi had put on his shoulder:

“Stroll what stroll? What if the child has some sudden situation and can’t find anyone? If you want to go, you go. I have to stay here and watch.”

“Look at you, is it really necessary!” Zhou Dazhi was also both amused and helpless. “Who was it just now talking so confidently, saying this was good and that was great, and then in just this short while, you’ve completely shown your true form?”

“What true form? Our two students are doing very well.” Liu Qingfeng immediately didn’t like hearing that. “You don’t know anything, so don’t talk nonsense.”

After saying that, he couldn’t help showing off to Zhou Dazhi again:

“I’m telling you, the two kids only started studying this year…”

“Only started studying this year? Then aren’t they only first-graders?” Zhou Dazhi was greatly surprised. “If you don’t want to compete, just withdraw. Why drag two first-graders here to make up the numbers?”

After all, he had just been thinking about how the children nowadays were growing so well. Now that he thought about it, could it be that Old Liu had been losing repeatedly for several years, and so thought that if he brought two pretty kids over to prop up the place, that would be enough?

“They were supposed to be in first grade, but who made the two kids too amazing? After the entrance exam, they directly skipped to third grade.” Liu Qingfeng grew even more pleased.

“Go on bragging.” Zhou Dazhi clearly didn’t believe it.

These days, although there were also people who skipped grades, at most they could skip one grade, and the required standard was not low at all.

After all, right now many families were just hoping that their kids could get a primary school diploma or a junior high school diploma and that would be enough. If skipping grades were easy, probably every parent would be willing to do it.

A child could genuinely save several years of tuition, after all, right? If they graduated earlier, they could help the family work earlier too.

How could it be that Liu Qingfeng’s students, just after entering first grade, could skip three grades in a row? Wasn’t that treating people like fools?

When Zhou Dazhi said this, Liu Qingfeng also sensed something was off.

Come to think of it, there really had never been such a precedent in the county. And thinking back again, Shi Ying and Shi Heng’s skipping grades had gone smoothly to an unbelievable degree.

They had basically submitted a report to the education committee in the morning, and it was approved in the afternoon. That scene made it seem as if the people at the education committee knew the two kids’ abilities better than he, the principal, did.

Fortunately, Liu Qingfeng was someone with a big heart. When he couldn’t figure it out, he soon stopped trying to figure it out, and instead became even more smug:

“What’s there to brag about? The facts are the facts. My two students really did skip grades. See, aren’t the people from the education committee right over there? If you don’t believe it, just go over and ask, and it’ll be clear…”

He did say one true thing:

“But the reason the two kids’ grades are so good is also related to their mother. Their mother is an educated youth who went down to the countryside, and she’s also a teacher at our school. It’s said that when they were at home, she had already taught the two kids to read a lot of books.”

“You make it sound so real!” Zhou Dazhi’s expression was still doubtful, but he had believed it somewhat. However, he still didn’t take seriously at all Liu Qingfeng’s constant insistence that the two kids would definitely win an award.

Just because they skipped grades, they could win awards? That was a joke.

When the two were talking, their voices weren’t low. Added to that, Zhou Dazhi, as the vice principal of the Second Experimental Primary School, had quite a bit of influence in the education circle, so there were quite a lot of people who pricked up their ears to listen to their conversation.

Very quickly, the matter of “a rural school principal bringing two children who had just entered first grade and skipped to third grade to take part in the competition” spread.

But everyone’s reaction was the same as Zhou Dazhi’s: they didn’t believe it at all. Some even thought that the rural school must not have seen much of the world, and if there was even a slightly decent student, they would treat them like a treasure. There were even people who told others about it as a joke.

It was only when Liu Qingfeng went to the bathroom that he found out his words had almost reached the level of being “known by everyone,” and even teachers from familiar sister schools joked with him:

“Old Liu, I heard you got two top students. When the competition results come out, you won’t have to celebrate properly?”

Liu Qingfeng was not the kind of person who would get timid just because someone said something. Hearing this, he straightened his chest:

“The two kids from our school really are impressive, but let’s skip the celebration. With that belly of yours, I don’t have the money to fill it in…”

Although he did not lose at all in words when speaking to others, he was still somewhat nervous inside. By the time the exam was about to end, he became even more anxious.

After all, it was the first time participating in this kind of exam. What if the two kids got stage fright and suddenly couldn’t write anymore?

Besides, with Heng’s personality, it would be best if no accident happened.

Just as he was thinking, he saw several education committee staff members who were supervising the exam come out of the classroom. As they passed by Liu Qingfeng and Zhou Dazhi, one of the staff members even said softly:

“The last time I came over, that child was sitting there in a daze. When I came over this time, why is he still in a daze? These rural schools really are a bit unreliable, everything is just muddled through, and for competitions they don’t even choose good seedlings…”

Liu Qingfeng’s heart suddenly gave a hard jolt. His instinct told him that the child in a daze should be Shi Heng. Instantly, sweat covered his forehead.

“What’s wrong with you?” Zhou Dazhi had been beside him the whole time. Seeing him like that, he was startled. Then, seeing him keep staring at the speaking man, he suddenly understood something. “Could the child who was in a daze be from your school?”

“I don’t know either,” Liu Qingfeng wiped his face with his hand. “But Heng’s kid does sometimes like to zone out.”

No matter when you looked at him, he was always in a kind of spirit-wandering state. Yet somehow his math was just ridiculously good.

Thinking of this, he began comforting himself again. Maybe the math problems were too easy, and Heng’s kid had finished them early and had nothing to do, so of course he was spacing out?

Seeing him like this, Zhou Dazhi became a little worried.

The two were classmates and good friends, so of course he knew how hard Liu Qingfeng worked, and to say that his school was his home would not be an exaggeration at all. He had truly poured his whole heart into his students. Unfortunately, for so many years, it had also been strangely bad, and he still had never produced results.

This time, coming here in person, he was undoubtedly carrying great hopes. If the student who was spacing out really was one he had brought, then the blow would probably not be small.

At once, he hurried to comfort him:

“It’s just one exam, what’s such a big deal? If they do well, we’ll be happy. If they don’t do well, it’s not some terrible thing…”

Unfortunately, Liu Qingfeng simply couldn’t listen, and kept staring at the door of the classroom where Shi Ying and Shi Heng were taking the competition.

Very soon, the bell for the end of the exam rang, and the invigilator’s voice of “everyone stand up, stop answering” followed right after.

Liu Qingfeng immediately abandoned Zhou Dazhi without the slightest loyalty and ran toward the classroom door.

Zhou Dazhi quickly followed him too. Just as the two stood at the classroom door, students started coming out. It happened to be students from the Second Experimental Primary School, and when they saw Zhou Dazhi waiting at the door, they actually started sobbing and crying directly.

“What’s going on?” Zhou Dazhi was startled. He didn’t even have time to care about Liu Qingfeng anymore, and hurried over.

When asked by Liu Qingfeng like this, the child was undoubtedly even sadder, and directly burst into tears with a loud “wa” sound:

“Math, math was too hard…”

He had been counting on math to pull his score up, but in the end there were a full three big problems he couldn’t do.

Zhou Dazhi was also dumbfounded after hearing this. This child was the best at math in their school. To put it bluntly, Zhou Dazhi even felt that the child’s math results should be better than those of the children at the Experimental Primary School. And yet he had been stumped like this?

After this child, several more children came out crying. Even the ones who didn’t cry were downcast and miserable.

At once, no one teased Liu Qingfeng anymore. Everyone hurried to comfort the students from their own schools.

Listening from the side, Liu Qingfeng only felt even more like countless claws were scratching at his heart. Yet for some reason, Shi Ying and Shi Heng still hadn’t come out.

Just as Liu Qingfeng was almost unable to control himself and wanted to push through the crowd and go into the classroom to look, Shi Heng and Shi Ying finally came out of the classroom one after the other.

The heart that Liu Qingfeng had been holding finally relaxed. He hurriedly went up to them, but he didn’t dare ask about the scores:

“Are you hungry? Let’s go eat something first.”

At this time, there were not many buses at all. No matter where everyone went, they either walked or rode bicycles.

Knowing that it wasn’t easy for everyone to make this trip, the education committee’s competitions usually finished in the morning, then experienced teachers would be organized immediately to start grading, and the results would be announced in the afternoon, along with the award ceremony.

“I’m not hungry.” Shi Ying shook her head. “But my brother should be hungry.”

Shi Heng was now at the age where he was growing, and he had gotten up early today too, so by now he was definitely wanting to eat something.

Seeing the expressions of the two, and that they were no different from usual, and that Shi Heng even wanted to eat, the heart Liu Qingfeng had been holding also relaxed a little.

The two kids’ looks probably weren’t bad enough that they had performed terribly, right?

After holding it in for a long time, he finally couldn’t resist making some roundabout inquiries about the exam situation.

“I finished Chinese, and for math there was one question I didn’t do…” Shi Ying said, and even she felt a little ashamed.

A proper university student from her previous life, yet she had been stumped by a primary school math competition problem. Saying it out loud was really a little embarrassing.

“But I just asked my brother, and he finished all of his.” Although Shi Heng still did not speak, Shi Ying had a special way of communicating with Shi Heng.

“Oh my, Heng finished all of it?” Liu Qingfeng was instantly pleasantly surprised.

He was the one teaching Shi Heng math. He knew Shi Heng’s trait very well, which was that as long as he wrote it out, he had never made a mistake.

This math competition was very difficult. Several teachers had just sighed too, saying that this time, even being able to pass might still earn an award.

And yet Heng had actually finished it?

Before he could make any further comment, he heard a muffled laugh of “chi”. It was Zhou Dazhi, who, worried that he had been stimulated in some way, had comforted the students and then turned back again. He hadn’t expected to hear this conversation between teacher and students.

Although it was not said explicitly, the meaning was very clear.

As expected of Liu Qingfeng’s students, just like their principal, they really could brag.

However, Zhou Dazhi didn’t dislike it, and even quite admired the two kids.

After all, children should be a little confident and a little cheerful. There was nothing wrong with that.

This time, however, Liu Qingfeng didn’t feel aggrieved at being looked down on. Instead, in a very good mood, he looped an arm around Zhou Dazhi’s shoulder:

“What are you laughing at? Just wait and see us receive our award.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll wait.” Zhou Dazhi didn’t argue with him either, and said with a smile, “Let’s go, we’ll all go eat in the cafeteria together. I’ll treat…”

“What treat are you treating? I’ll treat.” Liu Qingfeng’s happiness was completely impossible to hide. “It also counts as comforting your wounded heart in advance as a loser.”

“You’re just bragging!”

When they got to the cafeteria, besides ordering a plate of fragrant fresh meat dumplings for each of Shi Heng and Shi Ying, Liu Qingfeng also ordered a bowl of egg drop soup for each of them. On top of that, he ordered four dishes and, for the first time ever, even ordered some alcohol.

Zhou Dazhi was even more amused and helpless, and in the end came to one conclusion: Zhou Dazhi had actually been hugely stimulated, and was really forcing a smile while drowning his sorrows in alcohol.

After finishing a sumptuous lunch, the few of them hurried to the Experimental Primary School’s large auditorium. The moment they went in, they felt that something was off, because several teachers were whispering among themselves:

“Did you hear? No wonder the math in this competition was so hard…”

“They said they directly used the provincial competition questions…”

The annual competition was tied to the education committee’s evaluation of each school, and even the issued quotas and such would be referenced. Naturally, everyone attached great importance to it. Even the county attached a very high level of importance.

Competition questions and so on would all be prepared with great care. It just so happened that some time ago, a county education committee leader went to the province for a meeting, and then ran to the provincial Experimental Primary School to obtain their competition questions. After bringing them back, he felt they were quite high-level, so why not use them directly without changing a single question?

And as a result, he had stumped quite a lot of students into crying.

Based on the students’ retelling, a group of experienced math teachers found that the difficulty of these questions really was big enough. There were many traps set in them too. Even if they were the ones doing them, they might have to tire out several brain cells.

After hearing this, Liu Qingfeng once again started to feel uncertain. But by now, the results were already out, so he might as well leave everything to fate.

Seeing that the time was about right, he brought Shi Heng and Shi Ying to choose a corner and sit down.

By now, he had already started regretting his careless pride this morning. After all, now it wasn’t just him, but Shi Ying and Shi Heng too, who had become the focus of everyone’s attention because of his “bragging.”

Didn’t he see the way everyone’s gazes turned toward them the moment they came in?

As the saying goes, it’s not the one-in-ten-thousand chance you fear, it’s the chance that one-in-ten-thousand thing really happens. If the two kids really did well, then that was fine. If they didn’t do well, he wouldn’t be afraid, but the two kids might not be able to take it…

Just as he was muttering to himself, he saw the education committee people hurry in. The person walking in front of them he recognized, and wasn’t that just Director Qin Bin of the education committee? It was just that the female comrade following Qin Bin, with her hair cut in a short style that reached her ears, looked very unfamiliar.

“That’s from the city newspaper office,” Zhou Dazhi was sitting next to him, and seeing his bewildered look, he explained softly, “Didn’t you forget what I told you? I said that whoever’s essay was especially good this time might have a chance to get in the newspaper…”

Hearing this, Liu Qingfeng subconsciously looked at Shi Ying.

If anyone really had this honor, nine times out of ten it would be their Yingying.

Zhou Dazhi naturally took in this movement completely, and for a moment he was a little speechless. He thought to himself that his old classmate’s bragging had really reached a certain realm. This look made it clear that he had even blown himself up dizzy, and fully believed his own words.

But very soon there was time to think about other things, because the education committee leaders and that female comrade from the city newspaper had already sat down on the platform. What they were holding in their hands was obviously the list of award winners.

“Why do I feel like the leaders are quite happy?” Zhou Dazhi slightly tilted his head and said softly to Liu Qingfeng.

“Because everyone did well this time?” Liu Qingfeng unexpectedly came out with that.

Zhou Dazhi instantly no longer wanted to say another word to this person.

If they did well, would so many children have been made to cry?

The others undoubtedly also heard Liu Qingfeng’s irritating remark, and all gave him a large eye roll as a gift.

“Ahem,” a cough came from the loudspeaker.

At this point, even Zhou Dazhi didn’t dare speak anymore, and sat up properly, looking at the platform above.

“…It is the golden autumn season, when the breeze brings coolness, and our county has once again welcomed the annual knowledge competition… Today’s conference attendees include the education committee leaders… as well as Director Sun Lingshuang from the City Daily newspaper office…”

Hearing the introductions of the leaders one by one, Zhou Dazhi kept clicking his tongue. He had to say, the scale of this competition really was not low. The main education committee leaders had all come, and so had Sun Lingshuang from the City Daily.

He had thought that at most the city newspaper would send a reporter over, but it turned out to be Director Sun Lingshuang. This Director Sun could be considered a famous person in their city, and had even published quite a lot of articles in national-level newspapers and journals.

Just as he was momentarily dazed, he heard the person on the platform continue:

“For this competition, all the questions we used were the same as the province’s…”

As soon as that sentence came out, everyone showed expressions of relief. No wonder it was so difficult.

Some people also had objections. After all, how could the children here compare with the children in the provincial capital? Their educational resources were better than theirs, and they were also more widely read and knowledgeable. Even buying books was much more convenient.

To actually use the province’s competition questions without changing a single word, wasn’t that making things difficult for people? No wonder so many children were at a loss.

Clearly hearing the discussion below, that leader gave a “hehe” laugh:

“Everyone must not underestimate yourselves. Our children are all also extremely outstanding… Everyone probably doesn’t know, but in this competition, some of our children performed quite exceptionally, and their scores actually even surpassed the children from the province…”

As soon as this sentence came out, it immediately stirred up a huge wave. Zhou Dazhi instantly sat up, and subconsciously looked around.

The others also did the same as him.

Some people had already started looking around while quietly congratulating Zhou Dazhi:

“Principal Zhou, this time, is it your school that took first place again?”

There was also an experimental primary school principal in the same situation as Zhou Dazhi. The people around him were also constantly offering congratulations.

No need to think about it. The ones who could achieve outstanding results were definitely one of the county’s two Experimental Primary Schools.

Or maybe both schools had outstanding students.

One must know that in these years, every competition ended up like this anyway, so there was nothing surprising about it.

Of course, the fact that they had actually surpassed the children from the province still inspired awe toward the two schools in everyone. After all, they were just a small county town, yet they could surpass the province. That was truly remarkable.

Even Zhou Dazhi was starting to murmur doubts. He lowered his head and asked the student beside him:

“Kid, tell me your answers again…”

That student was also stunned. He really hadn’t finished it, after all. Could it be that the other classmates had actually done even worse?

Fortunately, the education committee leader had no intention of letting everyone “guess, guess, guess,” and soon opened the award list:

“Now, I announce the recipients of each award…”

“Third prize, Zhu Shaofen, Liu Zhen…”

“Go, go, there’s your name…” The child whose name was called stood up in a daze, and amid the envious gazes of the people around him, walked up to the platform.

Because the number of participants was related to the number of students in each school, the Experimental Primary School and the Second Experimental Primary School had undoubtedly sent the most people, and the number of award winners was also the highest.

In the third prize category, the two schools together took up fully half.

After the third prize came the second prize.

Two more students beside Zhou Dazhi went up to the award podium.

By now, Zhou Dazhi had completely relaxed. The Second Experimental Primary School’s opponents had always been the Experimental Primary School. As for the other sister schools, they weren’t yet qualified to compare with them.

Up to this point, the Second Experimental Primary School had one fewer third prize than the Experimental Primary School, but one more second prize. Their school could be considered to have gained a slight advantage.

He suddenly realized something, and quickly restrained the smile on his face a little.

Up to now, the old classmate beside him, Liu Qingfeng’s Shilibu School, still had nothing at all.

Not even a third prize, and there was even less chance of anything later on.

Yet his old classmate still seemed to be holding infinite hope…

Thinking this, he actually became a little afraid to look at Liu Qingfeng’s expression.

Very soon, the education committee announced the two students who won first prize. As Zhou Dazhi had expected, they were split equally between the Second Experimental Primary School and the Experimental Primary School.

He should have been happy, but thinking of having to take care of his old classmate’s feelings, Zhou Dazhi didn’t dare show even a bit of a smile, and his expression even became more serious.

Just as he was thinking about how to comfort him, he heard the leader on the platform announce another award:

“The special prize winner of this competition…”

That sentence almost made Zhou Dazhi jump up.

What’s going on? There had never been any special prize before!

He subconsciously looked at the students beside him, and then locked his gaze onto those few who had not yet gone up to the platform.

Could the special prize be among these students?

The reaction on the Experimental Primary School’s side was the same. Even the Experimental Primary School’s principal had already failed to restrain himself and was asking his students:

“Did you few remember wrong…”

These children had cried the most just now, saying they hadn’t done well. But the issue was that besides their Experimental Primary School and the Second Experimental Primary School, the other schools also couldn’t possibly get involved.

Just thinking that they still had a chance to turn things around, that principal immediately became somewhat excited.

Fortunately, they did not have to wait long before the leader read out the names of the winners:

“The special prize winners, Shi Heng and Shi Ying. These two students, please come up to receive your awards…”

“Shi Heng, Shi Ying?” Zhou Dazhi’s first thought was, why did these two names sound so familiar?

The Experimental Primary School’s principal had already directly asked his students:

“Who is Shi Ying, who is Shi Heng? Hurry up and go onstage to receive your award.”

He was still wondering, why did these two names seem a bit unfamiliar? Did their school really have these two names participating in the competition?

Just as he was muttering to himself, a burst of “haha” laughter suddenly rang out.

Zhou Dazhi was startled and turned his head, only to see that it was his old classmate Liu Qingfeng, grinning so hard he couldn’t close his mouth. He thought to himself that this really had been too much stimulation. Just as he was about to remind him, he heard Liu Qingfeng urging them hurriedly:

“Yingbao, Hengbao, what are you standing there for? Hurry and go!”

Following Zhou Dazhi’s words, Shi Ying and Shi Heng stood up and walked toward the platform one after the other.

“Hey, what are you two doing, come back…” Zhou Dazhi immediately grew anxious and subconsciously wanted to grab the two kids.

But Liu Qingfeng, with quick eyes and hands, slapped his hand away:

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean what am I doing? Didn’t you hear? They said the special prize winners should go up…”

“You know they’re the special prize winners too!” Liu Qingfeng was so full of pride that he pointed at Shi Ying walking in front:

“See that? Our Yingbao, that’s Shi Ying…”

Then he pointed at Shi Heng behind her:

“That’s our Hengbao, Shi Heng… Didn’t you forget? I told you, the two grade-skipping kids from our school!”