Those whose names had been called earlier looked at Ye Ci.
61 points. She had passed the test, but it also meant that she ranked 11th in the mini-test. It was decent, considering the overall results of the class.
A lot of the other students were jealous of her, but Ye Ci did not feel the same way. She was shocked. She thought that she could have at least scored 75 marks, but she only managed to not fail, which was a huge deviation from her expectations.
As for being 11th in the class, she might have been better than the rest, but there were still ten more students who did better than her.
She went out and took her paper before Zhou Fei continued calling out more names.
Ye Ci had a careful look at her paper. Other than the questions that she had left blank, the questions that she answered and had been quite confident that she had gotten right turned out wrong as well.
Soon, Zhou Fei was down to the last two papers.
Up until this point, only Ning Li’s and Pei Song’s names had not been called.
“I wonder how high the two of them scored.”
“The highest score now is 81. I think Pei Song and Ning Li can get at least 90!”
“You can’t say for sure. The paper was terribly difficult! I’m more curious which one of them did better.”
Zhou Fei said loudly, “Pei Song: 94.”
The class fell into silence.
94! Pei Song had scored 13 points higher than the third place!
More importantly, Ning Li still had not gotten her paper. She must have gotten a higher score than Pei Song.
Zhou Fei looked around. He intentionally paused for a moment and dramatically announced, “Ning Li: 100.”
The class stilled once again. Everyone looked at her in dismay.
“Holy sh*t! Is she even human?!”
“If she has a brain, what do we have in our heads?”
“100? 100 again? Isn’t it irritating?! 100?!”
“I know it’s not irritating to her, but, man, I’m jealous!”
Zhou Fei tapped on the writing board.
“Now that you’ve learned your scores, go home and think about the competition. I want an answer tomorrow. The preliminaries are coming and you still can drop out if you want.”
It was not the first time he tried persuading those who could not keep up to drop out of the competitive class. It was not that he did not want his students to participate in the competition, but he knew that the competition demanded talent rather than hard work.
He really hoped that those who lacked talent would walk away instead of wasting their time on this. If they had the time to work hard, it would be better for them to work on something else rather than waste their time on this competition.
“Okay. Let’s get on with the lecture today.”
Zhou Fei then continued where he left off in his lecture yesterday.
Ye Ci sat in her place and stared at the scarlet red 61 on her paper. When she thought of Ning Li’s perfect score, she felt bitter and aggrieved. She had always been excellent since she was young, but ever since Ning Li arrived, she realized that her glorious achievements were nothing.
At first, she did not take Ning Li seriously. After all, her background, her results, her manners, and every single aspect outshone Ning Li by a mile.
“Ye Ci, are you going to continue the competition? You passed the test and got 11th in the class,” the boy beside her asked softly.
Ye Ci did not know how to answer the question. Others might not have known it, but she knew that she only passed the test because she spent the entire weekend revising.
Her hard work paid off, but it was also time-consuming to the extent that she did not have the time to do other things.
She forgot to memorize the passage for English, and she had yet to finish her Mathematics homework. She did not even start revising her Biology.
The few guys behind her were talking about Ning Li.
“I think Ning Li and Pei Song are aiming for the first prize. Sigh, we really cannot compete with them.”
Ye Ci tightened her lips and forced a smile. “I think I’ll continue. It’s interesting.”
Ning Li had a quick glance at Ye Ci. Then, she softly grinned after she looked away. She anticipated Ye Ci’s choice because she knew that her stepsister would never want to lose willingly, which was exactly what she was hoping for.
…
At night, Ye Ci talked to Su Yuan about the competition.
Ye Ci insisted on continuing. Su Yuan was unfamiliar with the competitive class situation, so since Ye Ci insisted, she agreed to let her daughter continue.
Wednesday arrived in the blink of an eye.
It was Su Yuan’s birthday, and the best VIP room in Jinshen Hotel was reserved for her birthday dinner.
After the last class in the afternoon ended, Ye Ci packed her things and wanted to leave for Jinshen Hotel. She had a quick glance at Ning Li while she was tidying up.
Ning Li was still sitting in her seat and showed no intention of leaving.
“Sister Ning Li, we should be going by now.” Ye Ci walked over. “Uncle Zhou is waiting for us outside the school.
It was inappropriate for them to be late.
When Ning Li looked at her coldly, Ye Ci reminded her, “Today is mom’s birthday. Did you…forget?”
Ning Li grinned. “How could I forget?”
They had no class in the evening, so they just had to tell the teacher that they were leaving school.
Ning Li then grabbed her bag and said, “Let’s go.”
…
In the banquet hall on the 16th floor of Jinshen Hotel, when Ning Li and Ye Ci arrived, most of the guests were already there.
They could hear laughter and chatter from outside the door.
Ye Ci opened the door.
“Dad, Mom, we are here!”
The lively hall quieted down upon her arrival.
Ning Li had a quick scan of the hall.
Ye Ming and Su Yuan were there, and Ye Cheng was sitting in between them. Beside the couple were a woman in her 30s and a boy around 15 to 16 years of age.
The woman was Ye Ming’s sister, Ye Ting, while the boy beside her was her son, Su Pei.
She had gotten married at a young age and gave birth to a son, which solidified her status within the family. Therefore, she used to look down on Su Yuan in the early years.
She only came to the dinner because of her brother, Ye Ming.
“Oh! Lil Ci, you are back! Here, have a seat!” Ye Ting smiled and waved at Ye Ci but turned a blind eye to Ning Li as if she was invisible.
