Chapter 3 : She Turns Out to Be a Top Student
The second day.
A group of students was gathering and looking on at Bin City International School’s Senior Year, Experimental Class One.
“Is she the transfer student?”
“I heard it’s the Xue family’s long-lost daughter who’d been missing for 18 years and was eventually found in an orphanage in the countryside.”
“Country bumpkin? Would she be able to understand our classes taught by foreign teachers?”
“Would she be able to cope with our dance classes? Also, we have piano classes, but has she ever touched a piano before?”
Amid the taunting was an exclamation that did not fit in: “But she’s pretty beautiful.”
“…”
Everyone turned to look at the last row of the classroom where the girl was reading a book.
She sat there obediently as she held on to a set of assessment books. Her beautiful dark hair was pulled into a ponytail, exposing her fair and full forehead. Wearing the black and white school uniform, she exuded a scholarly aura, and though she was expressionless, her eyes were silently focused on the assessment books as mist lingered in her eyes.
A few boys could not take their eyes off of her.
Those who were studying in the international school were scions of wealthy families. Even though they were used to seeing beautiful ladies and celebrities, it was rare to find someone as beautiful as Xue Xi.
Seeing the boys’ good-for-nothing reactions, a girl suddenly said in a sharp voice, “Xue Yao, why is your cousin ignoring others? Is she always so arrogant?”
Upon hearing that, Xue Yao shot a glance at a good-looking boy as her eyes fluttered. “Don’t say that, my cousin only reacts slower. Since she’s new here, I hope that everyone can help her in her studies.”
“Reacts slower? I think she’s just dumb.”
“No wonder she looks slow-witted.”
The class monitor was unhappy as well. “If she’s dumb, she shouldn’t come to our experimental class. There’s a pre-test today. What if she pulls down the class’ average score?”
Class One was the entire school’s elite class. Everyone who could get into the class was very arrogant.
“If she’s like this, why did she come to our class?”
Suddenly someone speculated, “Could it be for Fan Han?”
The moment this was said, everyone turned to look at the school hunk, Fan Han.
Everyone in the social circle knew that there was infant matrimony between the Xue family and the Fan family. It was a classic marriage alliance between the rich and powerful. Since the Xue family’s eldest young mistress was lost, the marriage arrangement fell onto Xue Yao.
Now that Xue Xi was back, could she be snatching Fan Han back?
Someone jabbed Fan Han’s shoulder and asked, “Are you really going to marry a dumb girl?”
Fan Han became more irritable as he clenched his jaw. Although he did not point it out, he sarcastically remarked, “How is it possible for me to like a slow-witted vase?”
That person became excited instantly. “Are you going to break off the engagement?”
“Bang!”
All of a sudden, the teacher, Old Liu, entered the classroom and slammed the papers on the desk, interrupting them. The man, who was in his forties, was frowning as he lectured them, “Look how a vacation made you guys so naughty! Are you done speaking? Let’s put this across clearly first, the last ten ranking students for this pre-test will have to clean the classroom for a week! Right now, tidy your desks. Class monitor, give out the papers!”
The shuffling sound of the papers instantly filled the classroom.
The class monitor divided the papers into different stacks and passed down from the first row.
The student who was sitting in front of Xue Xi passed the paper to her. “Hey!”
She only lifted her head two seconds later. She calmly took the paper and answered the questions as though she did not hear everyone’s discussion earlier.
Holding on to the question paper, Fan Han could not read a single word.
He frowned vexedly and turned around.
This was a mathematics paper, and everybody was frivolously writing on the answer paper except for Xue Xi, who stared at the questions. She wrote down an answer every ten seconds and was very disciplined. Within ten minutes, she was already on the third page…
Thirty minutes later, she actually stood up to hand in the paper.
A look of disdain surfaced in Fan Han’s eyes.
Did she write her answers any which way?
Heh.
The Xue family had sent her to the senior year merely to buy a graduate certificate with a high price and send her overseas later on. After making a round, it would appear as though she was really great.
This tactic was usually saved for those good-for-nothing scions.
And he really hated worthless people like this.
At the rostrum, Mr. Liu was invigilating, but his head hurt.
According to hearsay, the Xue family’s eldest young mistress learned the high school syllabus on her own and there was something wrong with her head as well. Why did the school assign a bottom-of-the-barrel student to my class? However, I could neither hit nor scold her, which is really vexing!
Now that she had handed in the paper in thirty minutes, did it mean she gave up completely?
He sighed, and since it was boring to invigilate, he might as well mark the paper. Lowering his head, he found the answer sheet to be very clean, and the answers for the fill-in-the-blank questions had been written on it straight away. He wondered how many correct answers she could get…
She chose “C” for the first question and it was correct.
The answer for the second question was “B” and she was correct again. Could she be so lucky?
The third question… the fourth question…
As Mr. Liu looked on, he went into a daze.
…
…
Xue Xi went downstairs slowly.
She’d had an extraordinarily retentive memory since she was young and was deeply engrossed in learning different kinds of knowledge and skills. Everyone has his shortcomings and merits. Hence, she was slightly slower in social interactions.
However, she was not dumb.
She could sense the hostility coming from her classmates, so she left the classroom after finishing the paper, which was easy in her opinion.
After leaving the school building, she felt the scorching heat outside. She paused in her footsteps and slightly regretted handing in the paper so early.
There was quite a distance between the school and home. The Xue family would send a chauffeur daily to fetch her and Xue Yao to and from school. Since it was a waste of time to go home and come back again in the afternoon, she decided to have lunch in the school canteen.
However, it was only 10:30 AM and the canteen was not open yet…
Looking outside, she decided to walk around the school’s vicinity in order to familiarize herself with the place.
Opposite the school and separated by the road was a row of old houses.
She crossed the road and strolled along the quiet alley.
On both sides of the alley were merchants selling all kinds of stationery and clothes. There were also some eateries, but since it was early, most were closed except for those selling breakfast.
After walking for a while, she felt a little thirsty. Scanning her surroundings, she spotted an open store ahead and walked toward it.
No matter what store it is, it should sell water, right?
Inside the store, a tall man scanned the shelves coldly. His face was terrifyingly dark as he exuded an aura as though he was going to fly into a rage soon.
Lu Chao, who was standing on one side, tried to play up to the man and said, “Boss, you’re the one who told me to set up a store here in order for you to observe closer. I know it’s inconvenient for you to be a store owner, but you can’t get mad at me…”
Xiang Huai shot him a glance.
Lu Chao continued to speak as he tried to seek merit. “I’d even surveyed the area especially. There are many stores selling clothes and food in the vicinity, so after the customers are full and satisfied, they would need to fall in love. That is when we’ll come in!”
The man tried to suppress the urge to kick him out. “So you opened a s*x toy shop?”
Lu Chao nodded. “If our business becomes prosperous, I might even earn some pocket money!”
Xiang Huai replied coldly, “Do you think a high schooler will buy such a thing?”
As he said that, the wind chime at the entrance rang, and Xue Xi, who was in uniform, entered.
“…”