Chapter 602: Chapter 602

Huo Feng was without his phone, and for the following week, Pu Sangzhi didn’t have to text him every night and could go to bed early with her phone put away, which was a silver lining amidst the misfortune!

However, this week seemed to be an unfortunate one for Huo Feng.

From the moment his phone broke, bad luck seemed to cling to Huo Feng, causing him to encounter misfortunes starting Sunday night...

On Sunday night, the results of the first monthly test of the semester came out, and Huo Feng’s performance was a debacle!

In the second semester of his first year, he had fought hard to climb to the 22nd rank in his grade, securing the top position in his class!

It was shortly after school started when Old Huo discussed with him about switching to Class 1 this semester, and after careful consideration, Huo Feng had chosen to decline...

Because he couldn’t bear to leave his ten "sons."

He figured that even though moving to Class 1 would mean being classmates with Pu Sangzhi, the thought of abandoning his ten "sons" and being under stricter scrutiny from Pu Sangzhi, facing greater academic pressure...

Considering all the pros and cons, Huo Feng turned down Old Huo.

Back then, he had confidently told Old Huo that someone like him, a dragon among men, would perform equally well in any class, promising that he would secure the second rank in the grade this semester to show Old Huo!

This semester’s first monthly test was a complete disaster for Huo Feng!

The final ranking came out: first in his class, 86th in his grade!

In contrast to his previous rank of 22, he had plummeted a full 64 places!

This significant drop was indeed a heavy blow to Huo Feng!

The homeroom teacher, Zheng Qiu, still praised him in class for maintaining the first place, encouraging other students to learn from Huo Feng.

However, this time the praise made Huo Feng feel undeserving!

Huo Feng, who hadn’t felt ashamed scoring in the 600s before, now felt embarrassed receiving praise for ranking 86th in the grade!

He thought to himself, "It’s such a regression, and yet Old Zheng still praises me out loud—absolutely white lies, totally mocking me!"

Thus, his mood was particularly foul during tonight’s self-study session!

After the self-study ended, he even dared not approach Pu Sangzhi, fearing that she would ask about his grades and be disappointed in him!

In truth, the most disappointed person was Huo Feng himself.

He just didn’t realize it...

Since neither Pu Sangzhi nor Huo Feng had participated in the math Olympiad competition in Hangzhou, the school’s math Olympiad class had also officially dropped their names.

After that, Huo Feng’s dream of relying on math competitions to enter Tsinghua had been completely dashed...

From then on, the only path he had to Tsinghua was through examination, needing to be at least in the top 150 in the province...

Last year, Tsinghua University had only offered 80 slots to Zhejiang Province. Without being in the top 150, the chances were slim.

Because the top students in the province might not necessarily want to go to Tsinghua; some might prefer Peking University, going abroad, or other prestigious places like Harvard, Oxford, or Cambridge—as mere examples...

So, Huo Mingshan had analyzed to Huo Feng and Pu Sangzhi before that achieving the top 150 in the province still offered a significant chance, with the top 200 also bearing some possibility.

However, a top 200 rank in the province meant a big opportunity for Sangzhi; as the first in the city, Pu Sangzhi just needed to maintain her scores and local ranking, and Huo Mingshan predicted she could be in the top 50 of the province.

But for Huo Feng, a top 200 rank in the province was still a distant hope...

Given his current performance, Huo Mingshan estimated that at most he could reach the tier-one university cut-off line, and even Zhejiang University and Xiamen University would require effort...

Therefore, when the scores came out this time, Huo Feng had already become acutely aware of the urgency!

Without the path of math Olympiads, he could only rely entirely on his strength...

Thus, on Monday, Huo Feng had restarted the practice of spending an hour at the library with Pu Sangzhi every afternoon for review!

Pu Sangzhi was surprised by his actions of expressly waiting for her at the dormitory entrance to take her to the library for tutoring.

So, once they got to the library and Huo Feng laid out the papers of the exams he had taken in front of Pu Sangzhi, she finally understood...

"How could you get so many wrong?"

Of course, after flipping through his papers casually, Pu Sangzhi was shocked!

"See, ever since you abandoned me, my grades have turned out ."

At that moment, Huo Feng was just trying to save face, inventing excuses while tapping on the paper and blaming her, "Even my grades are blaming you, this is karma! Literal karma!"

Back then, Pu Sangzhi hadn’t expected him to be so shameless, blaming her for his own poor performance?!

"They say a good woman can bring prosperity to a man, I thought I found a good woman and would prosper. But you keep talking about leaving, so fine... Good luck turns to bad luck, and you’ve dragged me down! I was at 22nd place in the rankings, and you caused me to drop to 86th, you’re really ruthless!"

As Huo Feng spoke, there were "tsk tsk" sounds, his tone so exaggerated that even he couldn’t stand it...

Therefore, as he spoke, he slowly bowed his head, hiding his face in his arm while grasping her sleeve, saying, "I was wrong, Sangzhi... I flunked... am I done for..."

Pu Sangzhi, seeing him lose confidence as he spoke, suddenly smiled, raised her hand, and ruffled his short hair, "Alright, what’s done is done, blaming won’t help. Get up and work on the test papers..."

"I can’t, let me be sad for a moment..."

Huo Feng continued to bury his head, quietly moving closer to her, while his other arm took the opportunity to wrap around her waist...

With a clever turn, Huo Feng simply buried his head in her shoulder, his arms around her waist, taking the chance to seek comfort, "I’m going to die, to perform this poorly... I’ve never dropped so many places... never! Even if I was sad last year, it was just because I wasn’t improving fast, but this time to drop in the rankings, losing over 60 places, I’m going to die, Sangzhi... Sangzhi ah..."

"Hey, isn’t that a bit exaggerated?"

Pu Sangzhi looked down at him with a mixture of laughter and tears, patting his shoulder lightly, "Being within the top hundred, the competition is huge, it’s only a difference of a few points. If you improve quickly, you can fall quickly too. Don’t take it too seriously..."

Huo Feng still moaned in her shoulder, "But I’ve never dropped in the rankings before..."

Indeed, since he began studying seriously, Huo Feng’s grades had always soared, he had never dropped before.

From ranking in the 600s to 22nd, it was only a matter of how fast he improved; he truly had never slid down before.

Therefore, his sudden drop in the rankings this time, Pu Sangzhi could understand his disappointment.

She thought for a while, then patted his shoulder and said, "You dropped so many places this time, I’m also responsible. I said I’d tutor you for a month during the summer break, but we only did a little over half a month. We didn’t go to Beijing, and I didn’t continue tutoring you. After school started, there were even fewer tutoring sessions. Moreover, I took a few weeks off school and couldn’t look after you. Sigh..."

Pu Sangzhi sighed, comforting and encouraging him, "It’s okay, it’s okay. Next, I’ll make a new plan for you and teach you again. I just checked, and your arts subjects have fallen behind, probably due to lack of memorization. Put in some effort, and you can definitely catch up. It’s okay..."

Suddenly, as if Huo Feng thought of something, he abruptly looked up, raising one eyebrow and staring at Pu Sangzhi, "You’ve been on a break for so long, how did you do on this test? Did you drop?"

Pu Sangzhi said: "No... "

Huo Feng furrowed his brow, "Still first?"

Pu Sangzhi replied, "Uh..."

Huo Feng felt even worse!

He grabbed Pu Sangzhi’s shoulders, shaking her vigorously, "It’s just me who dropped! Only I dropped! You, this woman, must have been studying in secret! That’s too much!"

Pu Sangzhi, feeling dizzy from his shaking, couldn’t help but laugh, "Hey, stop it..."

After that, Huo Feng wallowed in his misery alone for another 5 minutes.

Five minutes later, he picked himself back up and started studying!

Pu Sangzhi asked him to flip through the book, correcting and redoing wrong questions, while she circled key points in other subjects’ books, preparing to teach him later.

Actually, everyone is forgetful.

When you stop studying for a long time, the brain tends to forget certain knowledge points.

Pu Sangzhi believed that Huo Feng knew these points, but because he had relaxed recently and hadn’t spent time and energy memorizing them, he performed poorly on the test.

As long as he picked up those knowledge points again, his grades would surely improve.

But... Follow current novᴇls on 𝚗𝚘𝚟𝚎𝚕·𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚎·𝚗𝚎𝚝

After reviewing once, she realized, Huo Feng’s essays in Chinese and English were really terrible!

He could be forgiven for not knowing much English, which is why he wrote poorly...

But for the Chinese essay, he really wrote terribly!

"Did this essay go off topic?" she asked.

After she asked, Huo Feng covered the exam paper with his hand and said, "Don’t look!"

Now she understood where his random losses in points were.