Chapter 545: Chapter 545
Because of the upcoming exam next week, Zhou Yiyi was very nervous, so she didn’t set up her stall this week and didn’t turn on the dorm lights either, choosing instead to study directly in her space, which allowed for longer usable time.
During breaks from studying, she would also do some physical work, like pickling vegetables and making desserts, to sell after the exams were over.
In this life, her space had no ground for planting, so she turned it into her grand cafeteria. The space had an automatic purification function, so she didn’t worry about cooking fumes not being circulated out—it was truly magical.
Although Zhou Yiyi was a top student, even top students felt pressure, especially since they were already in the fourth year and the middle school entrance examination was coming up in June. With only four to five months left to revise, she took out all her textbooks from the first to fourth year and went over them repeatedly. Just reviewing wasn’t enough, so she bought a lot of practice papers to do as well.
Whenever she encountered a difficult problem, she recorded it in her notebook, then went to various bookstores to look for similar questions. Because books were expensive, she used the camera function of her space to take pictures and then copied the information into her notebook, saving the money she would have spent on books.
Time flew by, and the monthly tests arrived; they were completed over two days, Friday and Saturday, covering eight subjects—language, mathematics, English, politics, history, geography, physics, and chemistry, with four subjects each day.
Contrary to what she had expected, they took the exams on the playground, carrying their own stools. You could sit on the ground or bring a small stool.
Where had Zhou Yiyi ever suffered ?
That morning she squatted until her legs went numb, so in the afternoon, she went out and bought a small stool. Although it was a lot more comfortable, the surface of the stool wasn’t as large as a desk, which still made her quite uncomfortable. Get full chapters from novel(ꜰ)ire.net
Especially during the politics exam, which was an open-book exam, but the benefit wasn’t as good as one might expect. With such a small desk surface, she could only place the book on her legs, making it extremely awkward.
After all the subjects were finished, she was utterly exhausted. On Saturday, she returned home and did nothing but go into her space to catch up on sleep.
On Sunday morning, she went to the Market to sell desserts, as there was no homework, so she made several trips back and forth, selling both desserts and pickles, earning over a hundred yuan in just one morning. Given her growing number of regular customers, her business was doing well, which pleased her greatly.
The two thousand yuan she had was not needed for the time being. Keeping it on hand was pointless, and it wouldn’t earn much interest in the bank, so she decided to open an account at a securities company. After all, it was a bull market at the time. Whether she earned more or less didn’t matter much; it was all about the instinctive purchases. Thus, she invested all two thousand yuan into the stock market at once.
Now she had just over 100 yuan left in hand. Although it was only a little over 100 yuan, there were still quite a few raw materials left at home. As long as she wasn’t lazy, she could quickly save up more.
In the afternoon, she went to her teacher’s class as usual, bringing with her homemade pickled scallions, a type of pickle that was rarely seen, so it was a novelty to try.
Last time, she had brought the Sour and Spicy Seaweed Strips she made to the elderly couple; once she entered, the Master’s wife praised her for her skills, saying it was delicious. When she brought out the pickled scallions, the Master’s wife’s eyes brightened, ceaselessly marveling at it.
"You child, how are you so capable? At such a young age, you know so much, better than even someone like me who has been cooking for decades. If it were not for your good handwriting, I would think a future in catering wouldn’t be bad for you, you have the talent for it."
"Go on, here we go again. A cultured person like her, why would she want to enter the service industry? It’s exhausting work for little money. Our calligraphy work is different. A good piece of writing can sell for thousands, less is less! Don’t interrupt her, Yiyi, don’t listen to your teacher’s wife; come in, let me see how well you’ve practiced this week."
Once inside the study, Mr. Zheng happily said to her, "My girl, congratulations, you’ve passed the initial test smoothly. If you can also pass the re-exam, you’ll be able to compete onsite. If you manage to place in the competition, that would be incredible. After all, this competition is national, with participants from all age groups. Maybe this time, you can join the Hua Country Calligrapher Association like me, which is the highest honor. It might even bring you advantages for your college entrance examination!"
"Master, do you really think I can pass the re-exam?"
"Although I don’t know what the level of competition is year, based on your abilities, I’m very confident, you should have some confidence too. Isn’t there the other competition in Shanghai? We haven’t received the results from there yet, hopefully, the two exams don’t conflict. If they do, you’ll only be able to choose one to attend."
"Is the competition in Beijing more prestigious than the one in Shanghai?"
"More or less, but the competition in Beijing involves the Hua Country Calligrapher Association and promises a pass into the association for those who place, which is why, compared to the higher monetary prize in Shanghai, it’s beneficial. Of course, it would be best if we could participate in both. One is about prestige, the other profit. If you can have both fame and wealth, that would be even more wonderful. Work hard, I have high hopes for you. You are a diligent girl, managing to keep up with practicing four large characters every day amid such a busy schedule; that’s quite remarkable!"
With Mr. Zheng’s encouragement, Zhou Yiyi also waited expectantly.
By Tuesday and Wednesday, the grades for all subjects had mostly come out, and everyone was astounded to find that Zhou Yiyi not only had moved up from the slow class but leaped to rank eight in her grade. The original host’s weak points in the sciences had also improved a bit since her arrival.
Originally, the host was better at liberal arts and weaker in sciences. Although she always managed to stay in the top ten, if her sciences were a bit stronger, reaching the top three would have been no problem.
After taking over her body, the sciences improved slightly during her adjustment period, but that was not the end; there was still room for improvement, requiring more effort from her.
With the month ending, there was slightly more than a month left until the middle school exams. She hoped there would be no conflicts with her calligraphy competition; otherwise, it would be troublesome.
Thus, Zhou Yiyi had moved from class six directly like a carp leaping up the Dragon Gate, entering a faster-paced class. This class change only affected four students, and she was the most notable due to a distinctive name and being a transfer student, which instantly drew her classmates’ attention.
Her desk mate, Chang Fei, also had made significant progress, moving up from class six into class four, thanks largely to her help. He was particularly grateful, coming over to thank her and even buying her the latest edition English-Chinese dictionary, showing thoughtfulness.
In class, her presence was actually quite low-key; other than studying, she barely moved apart from using the restroom during the breaks.
She seldom raised her hand during class, only speaking up when the teachers called on her.
As for any class collective activities, she was not particularly interested since she was always in a hurry to go home. Whether her class changed or not did not matter much to her, but the teachers had noticed her and started to see her as a dark horse, keeping a close eye on her.
Soon, the May Day Labor Day arrived, a national holiday giving everyone a day off. It was on this day that she received a call from Mr. Zheng.