Chapter 26: The True Value of Being Top of the Grade [Please Continue Reading on Tuesday]

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When Qian Hong heard the score, he was even happier than if he himself had gotten a perfect mark. He hurriedly turned and nudged Xu Ming’s arm.

“Brother, hurry up and get your paper. The whole class has already heard.”

His thoughts interrupted, Xu Ming pulled his mind away from advanced mathematics. Seeing that everyone in the classroom was looking at him, he understood what had happened and calmly rose to walk toward the lectern.

It was not that he had deliberately pretended not to hear and made the homeroom teacher call his name twice.

The result had been obvious to him from the beginning, so it simply failed to stir much emotion.

Wang Qingtao watched Xu Ming approach, his face practically blooming with delight, his eyes filled with pride and satisfaction.

While Xu Ming came forward, he continued speaking.

“Xu Ming’s mathematics score is once again the only perfect score in the entire school.”

As soon as he said this, a murmur swept through the classroom. Everyone immediately thought of how Xu Ming had rejected Zhou Junhao’s answer during lunch.

“Did you hear that? Xu Ming was the only one who got full marks in mathematics. That answer sheet from this afternoon really did have a mistake.”

“Who was it that refused to believe him?”

“Looks like the students in the top class aren’t all that impressive after all.”

“That’s incredible. It’s practically a score no ordinary human could achieve.”

…

With a homeroom teacher like Wang Qingtao, the students in the class rarely lacked a sense of collective pride. In the past, although Chen Lu had ranked first in their class, she had still been unable to surpass Zhou Junhao from the top class.

But now Xu Ming had taken first place in the entire school for a single subject. Naturally, things were different.

They would of course stand with one of their own.

As for Zhou Junhao—

Who was he?

They were not familiar with him at all.

Yang Huijuan was equally excited. She turned to Chen Lu, her deskmate, and shared her feelings.

“You were right, Chen Lu. Xu Ming really was the one who had the correct answer.”

Chen Lu rarely smiled in class, but at those words, a faint smile appeared on her face. She did not respond, however.

After Xu Ming had left, she had deliberately redone the relevant calculations. As expected, she had discovered a flaw in Zhou Junhao’s proof. So, considering that Xu Ming had been able to spot the error in the answer at a glance, his perfect score in mathematics was only to be expected.

Unlike everyone else, Li Wenhui stared at Xu Ming’s retreating figure with an expression of bewilderment.

He still could not believe it.

“How could he possibly have gotten full marks in mathematics? When he handed in his paper, he was still working on the proof for the final problem.”

While he was struggling with this confusion, Xu Ming had already reached the lectern.

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“You did very well this time, especially on the proof questions. Your approach was excellent, and you didn’t use any university-level formulas again.” Wang Qingtao handed the paper to Xu Ming, lavish with his praise.

Xu Ming, however, looked slightly embarrassed.

“Um… after I finished the paper, I wrote out the solution using university-level formulas in my rough-work notebook.”

Wang Qingtao’s expression froze.

But he quickly recovered and accepted Xu Ming’s behavior as perfectly normal.

After all, anyone who was genuinely passionate about mathematics and possessed real talent would never remain trapped within their comfort zone.

They would continue exploring mathematics without end.

Those students who competed in municipal mathematics contests had encountered university-level material even earlier.

Xu Ming did not linger at the lectern. After taking back his paper, he went straight toward his seat.

He failed to notice that Li Wenhui seemed to be in a rather poor state.

“So he was trying to solve the problem by another method…”

Muttering to himself, Li Wenhui had finally resolved the doubt in his heart, yet the corners of his mouth tightened with bitterness.

The sight of the score on his own paper stung even more.

He had thought that an improvement in his mathematics score compared with the previous test was something worth celebrating. Instead, Xu Ming had dealt him a crushing blow. What was worse, Li Wenhui suddenly remembered how he had lectured Xu Ming in the dormitory that afternoon.

He had made a complete fool of himself.

But the homeroom teacher’s next words rekindled his pride and determination not to lose.

“The total scores and grade rankings for this test have also been released.”

“That’s right. I still have several other subjects. My total score will definitely be higher than Xu Ming’s.” Li Wenhui secretly encouraged himself.

The moment Xu Ming returned to his seat, Qian Hong snatched up his paper and examined it so closely that his eyes nearly pressed against the page.

“It really is a perfect score. How did you manage that? The test was clearly even harder than the last one.”

“I didn’t feel that it was particularly difficult,” Xu Ming replied with complete seriousness.

Qian Hong immediately clenched his fists and forced the rest of his words back down. He regretted asking the question in the first place.

At the lectern, the delight on Wang Qingtao’s face had still not faded. In fact, it was even more pronounced than before. He picked up the score sheet and began announcing what everyone was most eager to hear.

“Our class average has risen, and two students have made it into the top ten in the entire grade.”

The top class gathered the school’s best students. Those who ranked among the top ten in their grade—students who had already taken one step toward entering a prestigious university—were usually firmly controlled by the top class.

It was only because Class Three had Chen Lu that they had managed to seize one of those places from the elite students.

Hearing that there were two students this time, everyone’s attention immediately became animated as they searched for the likely candidates.

One was naturally Chen Lu. There was no suspense there.

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As for the other, quite a few people eventually turned their eyes toward Li Wenhui.

Even Li Wenhui himself could not help feeling expectant. Countless thoughts flashed rapidly through his mind.

“Could it be that I performed exceptionally well in my other subjects and managed to squeeze into the top ten by sheer luck?”

A trace of delight surfaced on his face.

By contrast, hardly anyone paid attention to Xu Ming, who had just received a perfect score in mathematics.

There was nothing to be done about it.

Everyone still viewed Xu Ming through the lens of the final examinations. His improvement in mathematics had been rapid, but that alone did not represent his total score.

Qian Hong merely asked casually, “How did you do in your other subjects?”

“Not too bad,” Xu Ming answered calmly.

Qian Hong nodded without giving it much thought. Then the first name announced by the homeroom teacher instantly made his eyes widen.

“First place: Xu Ming, with a score of 708.”

If everyone had not been overly surprised by Xu Ming’s mathematics score, what happened now could only be described as an explosion.

Even Chen Lu instinctively turned to look at Xu Ming.

At this point, Wang Qingtao did not continue reading out the names. Instead, he dropped another bombshell.

“And furthermore…”

“Xu Ming is also first in the entire grade.”

“This proves that even if you begin working hard now, it still isn’t too late. From this point on, I hope all of you will learn from Xu Ming.”

“I’m not asking everyone to improve by more than a hundred points. Any progress is a good thing.”

That afternoon, after hearing from the physics teacher, Guo Qihua, that Xu Ming’s combined science score was far higher than expected, Wang Qingtao had immediately gone to the Academic Affairs Office and waited for the total scores and rankings from the mock examination to be printed.

When he saw that the student at the very top was Xu Ming from his own class, he stood there stunned for more than ten seconds.

He could hardly believe that such a tremendous surprise had appeared before him.

Although he had noticed how hard Xu Ming had been working during this period, such rapid progress was truly rare. It showed that Xu Ming possessed considerable talent in his other subjects as well—not merely in mathematics.

He simply had not previously devoted his full attention to his studies.

And when Wang Qingtao imagined that his class had gained another potential candidate for Tsinghua or Peking University, he had been radiant with delight that entire afternoon. More than anything, he wanted to seek out the other teachers and school leaders for a long conversation.