Chapter 577: Chapter 577

Zhou Mo and Lin Mu brought gifts for Yiyi on their return from out of town, including clothes and food.

Naturally, Yiyi also brought Beijing specialties for both families, such as Jingtai Blue bracelets for the two aunts, and assorted preserved fruits, Poria Cake, and fried dough twists for the two boys. For the uncle and grandparents, there were Jingtai Blue health balls and Beijing roast duck among other things.

It cost Yiyi two thousand yuan to prepare all these local products, including the health balls and food for Mr. Zheng.

On the day after her return to L City, she sent them to Y City and stayed over at her teacher’s place for a night, where she detailed the competition.

The clothes from Guangzhou were particularly cheap. Zhou Mo bought her lots of T-shirts and dresses, more than ten sets in total. She joked that he could start street vending with that amount. Of course, being a straightforward guy, he wouldn’t choose clothes himself; most of the time Aunt Mu would select for her.

Lin Mu brought back a variety of Shanghai specialties, such as moisturizing cream, Clam Oil, White Rabbit candies, and all sorts of packaged desserts—it was a mess sorting out a whole box for her.

After a week of military training, they finally entered the tense examination period on September 2/3/4. Then came Saturday, and they could rest. The school unusually gave them two days off since they had no time to breathe between the military training and the exams, so they received two days of vacation following the tests.

During those two days, Yiyi went nowhere but lay like a corpse in the dorm. Lin Mu asked her to go out on the weekend, but she declined since she had been so drained recently. It was as if she was working nonstop. Seizing the rare opportunity for rest, she wouldn’t miss it. Lying in bed, reading novels, fussing over gourmet food in her space—it felt so good!

Now Yiyi somewhat regretted not buying more Beijing specialties while she was in the capital to store in her space. Wouldn’t it have been great to sell them whenever she had free time?

But regret was no use. She could only wait until the winter vacation to make up for this loss. ɴᴇᴡ ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀʀᴇ ᴘᴜʙʟɪsʜᴇᴅ ᴏɴ Nov3lFɪre.ɴet

The teachers worked overtime for two days to compile the scores for all the subjects. By Sunday afternoon, the results were posted on the school’s announcement board.

Yiyi went to check with her roommates. Among the four girls in their dorm, only Yiyi had chosen science, while the other three had opted for arts.

Thus, she was assigned to Science Class 1, while the other three were in Arts Class 1, and now those three might grow even closer.

Science Class 1 was the experimental class. Yiyi ranked fifth while Lin Mu was thirtieth. As for Zhou Mo, the perennial number one, there was no suspense.

Moreover, his total score ended up surpassing Yiyi’s by fifty points. This guy was out of this world. He seemed to have become even more brilliant over the summer, scoring full marks in every science subject. Was he even human?

Lin Mu was also quite remarkable. No matter how busy he was, he always managed to stay above the average line, which was a skill in itself.

Unlike her fifth place, maintaining her position was not easy.

After the class division, the study regime became much more intense than in their first year, and the teachers assigned heavier homework. It felt like there were endless lessons to learn every day. If not for her space to cheat and rest, she’d be like the other students, seizing every opportunity to rest on the desks. The exhaustion that came over one was genuinely life-threatening.

They were in a key high school, where every kid was focused on grades. After entering the second year, there were weekly tests and monthly exams, and the teachers were fiercely competing for class time. Even the physical education teacher felt particularly pressured, sometimes guarding precious minutes during the longer breaks for discussing problems.

During evening self-study, they formed study groups to tutor in different subjects. Being one of the main forces in her class, Yiyi also took on the responsibility of helping others. Lin Mu, however, was assigned to another group, meaning the trio was split up and no longer together.

But in the second year, after being sorted by grades, they could choose seats mixing boys and girls. Naturally, Zhou Mo took the lead position. When Yiyi, ranked fifth, came in, Zhou Mo even wiped down her desk and chair with a cloth. Although he was expressionless, the gesture was clearly indicative. He took a seat in the second to last row, saving the window seat for her.

Yiyi was both amused and embarrassed because after Zhou Mo finished wiping the desk, he stood up, not giving her the chance to refuse entering.

As the two of them sat down, the queued students outside started making noises, and Lin Mu’s distinctive voice soon followed.

"Hey, students in the front, the last row should be empty, right? Save the seat behind Yiyi for me, and no one else is allowed to fight me for it!"

The commotion grew even louder, and even the teachers’ expressions became intriguing. Yiyi felt her cheeks burning with embarrassment and wished she could bury her head under the desk. From an angle out of her sight, she completely missed Zhou Mo’s lips curving into a slight smile.

Unlike their first year, after they were sorted into arts and science classes, they did not shuffle seats every month as before. This arrangement would last the entire second year. In their third year, they would be sorted again. Therefore, anyone remaining in Experimental Class 1 had to try their best to keep their position; after all, this was where the top fifty in the grade were. The pressure of competition in a science class with fewer girls and more boys was immense—almost suffocating.

Yiyi did not consider herself clever. Think about it; with experience from many past lives, she could only maintain her current standards. Without the help of Crossed World, she doubted she could even get into a key high school, let alone be among the top fifty.

She was the type that worked hard to improve herself, Zhou Mo was a natural-born scholar, and Lin Mu was somewhere in between but could easily outpace them with effort. Having a quick mind gave an advantage. Some people who didn’t seem to spend much time studying would always perform well. You couldn’t compare with such people in terms of time or ability—it was self-torment.

"Yiyi, what are you daydreaming about looking out the window? Come here and write this problem down."

During physics class, she inadvertently drifted off, and when she turned her head to see the complicated problem on the board, she was stumped. Instinctively, she looked to Zhou Mo.

Although Zhou Mo didn’t even glance her way, he casually uttered a string of numbers.

Yiyi had a good memory. She remembered the answer but spent over ten minutes at the podium coming up with it. She thought if not for her correct steps, the teacher, who must have run out of patience, would have sent her back to her seat much earlier.

Especially when the teacher said, "The answer is correct, and so is the way of thinking, but it’s too complicated. In a real exam, you’d waste too much time. Zhou Mo, come here and show us another method."

In less than a minute, Zhou Mo finished writing what took her a full blackboard to explain—he did it in just six steps. At that moment, Yiyi felt so defeated she wanted to tear off his expressionless face. Ah... it’s true what they say, comparison is the thief of joy!