The black ink was still wet, and some of it had smudged, but it looked surprisingly good.
On it, Shen Moyu wrote heavily with his pen.
"Then walk toward the light, take my hand."
Chapter 56 Midterm Exam
Early in the morning, just as the clock struck 6:30, Su Jinning was already ready and standing in the entryway putting on her shoes.
Cui Ping was puzzled. Looking at Su Jinning, who still had bread in her mouth, she asked, "Xiao Ning, it's only 6:30. Is there something urgent that you're going out so early?"
Su Jinning looked up when she heard the voice, and while hurriedly putting on her coat, she said, "No, it's the midterm exam today, and I want to go and study a bit earlier."
Normally, Cui Ping might not have believed it, but considering that Su Jinning had been studying until midnight these past two days, she smiled with relief: "I see, good, good, then Xiao Ning must keep up the good work!"
Su Jinning turned around, slung her backpack over her shoulder, and smiled gently: "Of course."
This seemingly normal midterm exam held immense significance for him.
Therefore, we must be prepared and ready to face the challenge.
When he arrived at the classroom, not only him, but many of his classmates were also there, all intently studying their books. After all, it was Class 8, the best-performing class in the entire grade, and they all took the exam very seriously.
He glanced back and saw Shen Moyu sitting by the window, looking out as if in a daze.
Su Jinning walked over with a light laugh and placed the bread she had brought from home that morning on the table: "Good morning."
Shen Moyu turned around upon hearing the voice and chuckled, "Good morning. That's so kind of you to bring me breakfast."
"Of course, I need to eat well today since I have an exam." Su Jinning shrugged, sat down, pushed the bread onto Shen Moyu's desk, and then opened her book to read.
As Shen Moyu munched on her bread while reading classical poems in the book, she leaned closer to him and asked, "What time did you go to sleep last night?"
Su Jinning clearly reacted for a moment, then scratched her head guiltily, as if trying to cover something up: "Ah... well, it's a little after ten o'clock."
Shen Moyu swallowed the bread in her mouth, stared at his thick dark circles and sighed: "Your dark circles are telling me you're lying."
"Huh?" Su Jinning subconsciously touched her eyes, looked up and met Shen Moyu's somewhat helpless gaze, and chuckled, "Well... then it'll be twelve o'clock, since I have an exam today."
Looking at his somewhat haggard appearance, Shen Moyu couldn't stay angry. He rubbed his temples and said, "I told you to get some rest, but you wouldn't listen."
Su Jinning smiled and scratched his head. Actually, even if he didn't study until 11 or 12 before going to sleep, the thought of the midterm exam today would still keep him awake. He might as well study a little longer and maybe he could guess the questions.
The preparatory bell rang quickly, so quickly that Su Jinning felt like he had only been reading for a few minutes, yet half an hour had already passed.
He hurriedly and nervously packed the stationery he needed to take to the exam hall.
What was supposed to be a normal preparatory bell sounded to him like a death knell.
Seeing that he seemed a little awkward, Shen Moyu thought for a moment and took out a piece of milk candy from her pocket.
He walked over, patted Su Jinning on the shoulder, and smiled slightly: "Here you go."
"What?" Su Jinning was busy putting things into her backpack and just glanced at it casually.
"Candy." Shen Moyu answered as he peeled off the candy wrapper and handed it to Su Jinning. Just as Su Jinning looked up at him, he accurately stuffed it into Su Jinning's mouth.
A milky aroma instantly filled his taste buds, and Su Jinning was stunned for a moment before completely calming down. He savored the milk candy in his mouth, looking at Shen Moyu as well.
He peeled off a piece of the same candy and put it in his mouth, his left cheek puffing out slightly. He blinked and said, "Eating candy will make me feel better. Good luck on your exam."
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"Okay, now check if there are any missing printouts or questions on the exam paper. First, fill in your exam number, class, and name in the upper left corner before you start answering the questions," the invigilator reminded, tidying up the sealed bag of exam papers in his hand.
A boy with a buzz cut in front of Su Jinning passed the remaining test papers over: "Here are your test papers."
"Thank you." Su Jinning recognized him; he was from Class 5, named Sun Lei. They had played basketball together before and often ranked around 900th in the school due to their equally "excellent" grades. They could be considered half-friends.
Sun Lei chewed a piece of gum, blowing bubbles as he looked back at Su Jinning.
He sat upright, his eyes fixed on the exam paper that had just been passed down. Although he was in the last two rows of exam room fourteen, his spirit and energy were surprisingly on par with the academic geniuses in the other exam room.
Sun Lei was taken aback for a moment, then suddenly teased, "Hey bro, striving for success, huh?"
Su Jinning glanced up at him and smiled, "Keep your noise down when you eat, I'll give you a Zhonghua cigarette after class."
Sun Lei was clearly stunned for a moment, and the bubbles he had just blown stopped at the corner of his mouth.
As the bubble popped with a "pop," he quickly turned around and said, "Thanks, bro."
"..."
As soon as the exam papers were handed out, Su Jinning buried himself in a sea of questions, making him a unique sight in Exam Room 13. Because he was the only student in Room 13 constantly answering questions, almost every proctor would approach him like he was a treasure, then return to the podium to whisper something to another teacher. It could be something nice, or it could be something negative. Even more outrageous, several students in the exam room took pictures of him. They might post them on forums, but Su Jinning didn't care much; all he needed to do now was understand the questions on the paper.
The questions on the test paper were indeed as difficult as he had imagined. Even the simple calculation problems he had done before were presented in a convoluted and deliberately misleading way.
Fortunately, Su Jinning had done a lot of practice problems these past two days, and with Shen Moyu and He Qing tutoring him, it wasn't too difficult for him. He worked through the problems a few more times on the draft paper and came up with the solutions.
He answered the questions one by one, thoroughly figuring out his weaknesses and gaining a lot. However, his headache was that he still didn't finish the last two questions, answering only half of each one.
The morning was all science subjects, and the various formulas and calculation methods made him dizzy. He was completely bewildered after finishing the questions. In addition, he had only slept for a little over six hours the day before, and soon after, he developed nerve pain in the afternoon.
However, he is better at humanities than sciences, and although he took the exam while sick, it didn't affect him too much. After answering the questions, he could basically estimate how many points he would get in humanities, which would definitely be better than in sciences.
However, he wasn't really confident about getting into Class A.
The exams finished at 6 PM, an hour later than usual. Su Jinning got up and tidied up her messy stationery on the desk, then left the exam hall with the other students in exam room 12 who had just woken up.
Sure enough, as soon as he stepped out the door, classmates started gossiping behind him, mostly about how he managed to answer the questions in the exam. He wasn't surprised; given the speed at which middle-aged teachers spread rumors, plus those pointless forum posts, it was a miracle he wasn't featured on the school's bulletin board.
Back in the classroom, I saw that the students had already split into several groups to discuss the various bizarre questions from today's exam.
Su Jinning stretched wearily, when he was suddenly punched in the back. He turned around and looked speechlessly at Chen Hang, who was beaming with excitement behind him: "Hey, Ning-ge, how did the exam go?"
Su Jinning shrugged her aching shoulders: "It's alright, I answered all the questions I could."
However, he was telling the truth. He was basically certain that he wouldn't make mistakes on the things he knew, but he was a little disappointed about the things he wasn't so sure about or that he didn't know at all.
Chen Hang seemed to have done very well on the exam, his face practically beaming with pride: "Sigh! I feel like I can just pack my bags and move into Class A right now."