chapter 12

Lu Xiuqi started looking at me frequently and kept trying to chat with me.

“Liu Qingqing, why do you seem like a completely different person?”

“You don’t daydream in class anymore. The way you’re studying so seriously, it’s like you’re aiming for Tsinghua or Peking University. It’s scary.”

My response was a big eye roll.

There were only two months left until the final exams. As the best private high school in the city, Jiangnan High School was extremely generous with scholarships in order to compete with public schools for university admission rates.

The school had a Best Improvement Award. Every final exam, the student who made the greatest progress in the whole school would not only get a full waiver of tuition and fees for the next year, but also receive a 20,000 yuan cash prize.

The cash prize was secondary; I was mainly aiming for the tuition waiver.

My cousin, who was the same age as Liu Qingqing, got into the best public middle school in the city. She felt she couldn’t lose and made a huge fuss at home, insisting she had to get into Jiangnan High School.

It was a stroke of luck-one of Liu Qingqing’s father’s friends happened to work in the academic affairs office at Jiangnan High School and owed her father a favor, so Liu Qingqing got the chance to attend this school.

But the tuition at Jiangnan High School was expensive; a year’s fees nearly emptied the Liu family’s entire annual income.

Liu Qingqing’s father and mother scrimped and saved, spending all their money on Liu Qingqing alone.

I’m not Liu Qingqing, so I can’t enjoy their sacrifices with such peace of mind.

“Take out the test paper from yesterday. If you forgot to bring it, as usual, pick up your chair and stand at the back of the classroom.”

The math teacher walked into the classroom, pushed up his glasses, and stared at us coldly, interrupting Lu Xiuqi’s questions.

Because of his strict teaching style and dark face, we all called him “Black-Faced Yama.”

Yesterday’s test paper was especially difficult; I worked on it until almost midnight.

For this, Liu Qingqing’s Mother even heated up some milk for me, watching me do my homework while wiping away tears in concern.

I rummaged through my backpack once, but couldn’t find it.

I calmly searched again, but still nothing.

Hmm?

Seeing my serious expression, Lu Xiuqi raised his eyebrows, “Pinfeng Sanlang, don’t tell me you didn’t do the test paper?”

I gave him a bitter smile, “I did it, but I forgot to bring it.”