Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It could have been such a good excuse. Look at Qiao Nan from their class who always ranked among the top three, she flunked her exams this time. So should it not be acceptable that they did not do well?
But Qiao Nan deprived them the chance of using this excuse with her full marks English test paper.
“Liar, she must have copied the answers!” Zhao Yu shouted, with a look of disbelief, “There has never been a student who gets full marks in secondary three!”
Teacher Yu knitted the eyebrows, what was this?!
“Who does she copy from, you? The student besides Zhao Yu blinked her eyes at her and asked curiously.
The classroom resounded with laughter.
Teacher Yu had said that among the two hundred students, Qiao Nan was the only who had full marks.
If she had copied her answers, who could she have copied from?
Zhao Yu flushed red in an instant. She knew that she was too agitated and had blurted out something silly.
Qiao Nan was the only student in the level who had the highest English results. There was no way she could copy from other classes let alone her class. Qiao Nan had the highest score; it was other students who would copy from her; if she was to copy from others, then she would not be able to get her full marks.
Qiao Nan walked calmly to the platform to get her test papers. Among all the subjects, she was most confident in her English.
In order to earn more money to satisfy her mother and to let Qiao Zijin lead a good life, she would always take up part time jobs.
But after all she was a human not a machine. As time goes by her body could not take it anymore.
Then she found out that there was this job of English-Chinese translation where she could work from home. It paid well and the work was not tough. Qiao Nan worked hard to learn English and attained a level six certificate. She then started to take on translating jobs.
Up till the point where Qiao Nan was knocked down by a car and driven to her grave by Ding Jiayi, there were still a few translation documents at her rented apartment.
“Qiao Nan, I could tell that you did not waste your time in this summer break at all. The grammar was fabulous and way beyond your level!” Teacher Yu looked at Qiao Nan smilingly, and commented on a line in her essay.
Teacher Yu had never taught them this grammar. It was not in the syllabus of junior high school either. It would be only be covered in high school.
A junior high student could use the grammar taught only at high school in her English essay. If this did not warrant full marks, what would?
Qiao Nan’s face stiffened, she paused for a moment before saying, “This… This summer break I met a foreign friend. He taught me all these.”
“Well done.” Teacher Yu was extremely pleased. “As I have said, if you want to muster English, you have to work up your courage. Do not be afraid to speak. This would be a good training to help you to speak the language well. Qiao Nan is a very good example. If you all have the chance, you can do so as well. Foreigners are usually more enthusiastic and friendly. This is an excellent learning opportunity.”
Because of an exam, Teacher Tan and in particularly Teacher Lee were dismayed. Teacher Yu was the only one who was all smiles to the extent that Teacher Yu seemed to be walking on air.
Qiao Nan used to come in the the top five places if not top three places among the whole level. But this time round, she did not even ranked among the first ten places.
Thanks to her English results, Qiao Nan’s overall ranking for the three subjects did not fall very far behind. She was placed 49th in the level and around 10th place in her class.
Qiao Nan let out a sigh of relief after knowing her results.
There was no doubt that her results would suffer, but it was not as bad as she imagined.
Qiao Nan knew that she was lucky this time. Asides from Chinese, she had picked up Mathematics not long ago.
She happened to have just finished revising on the knowledge points tested during the exams.
Otherwise, not to mention 80 points, she might have failed her exams or scored only 40 points.
It was the same for all the six classes, they were all discussing the exam results on the first day.
After Qiao Nan’s essay was pasted on the blackboard at the back of the classroom, most of her classmates took a look and had to say that it was truly well written.
But what was weird was that the students from the remaining five classes all crowded around to look at Qiao Nan’s essay.
Her classmates was proud yet unhappy. “You aren’t from the same class, why do you all keep coming to our class? Get out, get out.”
Qiao Nan’s essay was considered a study resource for Class One. Students from other classes should not be allowed to share the information.
Students at this age were mostly sensitive and thin-skinned. They followed their Chinese teachers’ words and plucked up their courage to go to the other class to look at the essay. But they all went back red with embarrassment when they were told off by Qiao Nan’s classmates.
This soon reached the ears of the six Chinese teachers.
The teachers from the other classes went to speak with Teacher Chen and Teacher Lee, remarking that it was too overbearing of the students. After all they were schoolmates, and everyone should learn from each other.
Teacher Lee was still grouchy over the deduction of that one mark. She refused to give in, with a slight lift of her chin she said, “Oh, what’s there to look at, after all it’s one mark short of full marks. Qiao Nan’s standard is good enough for our class. For other classes, they should learn from the better students.
At her words, all the teachers from the Chinese team knew that Teacher Lee has not gotten over that one mark, so they gave an awkward smile and left.
But for the Chinese teachers who read Qiao Nan’s essay, they all knew that the results this time did not mean everything.
Judging from her exam papers, if Qiao Nan was to memorize all the classroom knowledge, she would definitely emerge as the dark horse of the Chinese subject, and her results would no doubt be astounding.
In that case, no matter how mischievous or lazy Qiao Nan was, Teacher Lee knew that she only had to get her to copy the knowledge points that had to be memorized for one whole semester, if not one whole year, and there was surely no way that she would score zero for the memory component in her middle school exams.
Besides, Qiao Nan had always been a good student. It’s just that she did not perform up to standard this time.
Teacher Lee finally sent off her colleagues. Wearing an excited expression on he face, she said proudly, “Qiao Nan the little girl, she kept on fumbling the ball. Next time I must make sure to supervise her so that she do not commit the same mistakes again. No, I shall make her report to the office everyday and to memorize a lesson a day.”
As a colleague, Teacher Chen could not tell if Teacher Lee said it out of anger or was in fact proud of her student.
Teacher Lee had found a way to help Qiao Nan, but Teacher Chen was still very troubled.
Teacher Lee only had to get Qiao Nan to memorize by hard and she could catch up sooner or later. But what about her Mathematics?
Qiao Nan did not mention and he was unclear as well. Which part of the lessons was Qiao Nan unfamiliar with?
While Teacher Chen and Teacher Lee were trying to think of ways to help Qiao Nan, the English teacher, Teacher Yu was the only one who was sipping tea leisurely, saying that it tasted especially good today!
A day passed by quickly. After getting her results for the three subjects, Qiao Nan went home and realized that everyone had reached home, including Qiao Zijin.
As soon as she stepped into the house, Qiao Zijin wasted no time to ask her, “Nan Nan, I heard your results were out, how did you fare?”
