Chapter Five: A Stinging Reversal

Ma Qianyu was in an exceptionally good mood today. Usually, he wore a perpetually stern expression, earning him the nickname "Cold-faced Slayer" among the students. But today, he couldn’t hide the smile tugging at his lips. For him, there were two things worth celebrating. First, the proposal he had submitted to the school administration during the winter break, suggesting a class shuffle, had been approved and would be implemented as soon as the new term began. Second, the troublemakers he had always looked down upon were about to be weeded out. With ten students who had no hope of getting into any university about to leave, his class’s university admission rate would soar. Coupled with the presence of Su Ruoran, a promising student likely to contend for the top scorer in the city—perhaps even the province—after this year’s college entrance exam, he would have no trouble earning a promotion.

After distributing textbooks to the class, Ma Qianyu squinted at the students he believed would inevitably be expelled from Class Three of the liberal arts stream. His smile grew even broader. But when his gaze landed on Zhang Wenhao, his expression faltered and quickly darkened.

Forcing aside his gloom, Ma Qianyu turned to the blackboard and wrote out the exam schedule: Chinese in the morning and Math in the afternoon tomorrow; English in the morning and Comprehensive Arts in the afternoon the day after. Once finished, he pulled out a printed seating chart. “The seating for this exam has been completely randomized. I’ll post the chart on the blackboard in a moment. Make sure to note your seat and exam room number.”

After going over a few more exam-related reminders, Ma Qianyu dismissed the class. As the students packed up to head home, he called out, “Zhang Wenhao, come with me for a moment.”

Zhang Wenhao put down his bag and told Li Nan, “Go on ahead, Li Nan. I have no idea what Ma Qianyu wants with me.”

Li Nan nodded. “I won’t wait for you, then.”

Leaving the classroom, Zhang Wenhao followed Ma Qianyu, who, without a word, led the way across the campus to the sports field behind the teaching building. Zhang Wenhao’s curiosity grew—what could be so important that he had to be brought out here?

When Ma Qianyu saw that no one else was around, he stopped, turned, and raised an eyebrow at Zhang Wenhao. “Zhang Wenhao, what are your thoughts on tomorrow’s mock exam?”

Zhang Wenhao replied indifferently, “I’ll try my best.”

“Try your best?” Ma Qianyu laughed as if he'd heard the most ridiculous joke. “You hardly study more than five minutes a day, and you still have the face to talk about trying your best? If you can manage not to lose your spot as second to last and let Li Nan overtake you, you should be grateful.”

Irritation flared in Zhang Wenhao’s heart. For a teacher with over twenty years of experience, Ma Qianyu’s words and tone were despicable. Coldly, he retorted, “Thank you for your concern, Teacher. My grades will definitely improve this time.”

“Improve?” Ma Qianyu snorted. “If you can score higher than the bottom three, that alone would be a success! Students like you should recognize your own limitations—getting into college has nothing to do with you. Your parents would have done better to send you to a trade or technical school.”

Then his tone shifted. “I hear your family isn’t well off either. It would be better for you to learn a skill as soon as possible—fixing cars, doing some welding—at least you’d make some money to help out at home. And don’t even think about using your father’s connections this time. I’ve heard he has an old army friend who’s a high-ranking officer in the Nanjiang Military District? Well, for this class shuffle, don’t even dream of staying in Class Three by pulling strings. As long as you’re ranked in the bottom ten, even if the city committee secretary himself comes to plead for you, I won’t let you stay!”

Zhang Wenhao’s anger burned hotter. So that was why Ma Qianyu had called him out—to lay down the law in advance and pressure him into giving up on staying in Class Three. He knew he’d relied on connections to get into Jiangcheng No.1 High, and Ma Qianyu, unable to interfere back then, was now trying to intimidate him into bowing out.

With that, Zhang Wenhao said coldly, “Let me be clear, Ma Qianyu. No matter how well I score, I will not stay in your class. Your ugly attitude disgusts me. Even if you groveled on your knees, I wouldn’t stay in Class Three!”

“How dare you speak to your teacher that way!” Ma Qianyu, livid, barked, “Do you think I won’t march you to the academic office right now and have you expelled from No.1 High?”

Zhang Wenhao sneered, “What kind of teacher are you? You’re nothing but trash! Take me to the office, then. Let’s go. Let’s see who ends up humiliated—me, the student, or you, the teacher!”

“You—!”

Ma Qianyu’s fury boiled over. Zhang Wenhao’s words felt like a slap across his face. But he knew full well that his threats were empty. There was no grounds to expel Zhang Wenhao, and no evidence of his supposed disrespect. If word got out that he’d threatened a student, his own reputation would be ruined.

Suppressing his anger, Ma Qianyu spat, “Once this exam is over, pack your things and get out!” With that, he stormed off.

Zhang Wenhao had long been fed up with Ma Qianyu. Now that he had mastered the skill of photographic memory, studying was no longer a problem. For this last semester, he just needed to brush up on English grammar and listening, and improve his Chinese essay-writing skills. Scoring high on the college entrance exam would be no issue at all. Why should he care about Ma Qianyu’s petty threats?

When Zhang Wenhao biked home, he found his father sitting on the sofa, talking on the phone. Seeing him return, his father quickly ended the call and asked, “Son, I just heard from your uncle that your school is about to reshuffle the classes?”

Zhang Wenhao frowned. News certainly traveled fast. His uncle, it seemed, had already decided he would be relegated to the underachievers’ class and had rushed to call his father, probably eager to watch the spectacle.

He replied calmly, “Dad, you don’t need to worry. You’ve seen how hard I’ve worked these past days. There’s no way I’ll be in the bottom ten after this mock exam.”

At that moment, Song Huafang emerged from the kitchen, scolding Zhang Xingping, “There you go again, worrying for nothing. Haven’t you seen how hard our son’s been working this half month? Every day he locks himself in his room to read and do exercises. I’m sure his grades will improve a lot this time.”

Zhang Xingping scratched his head sheepishly and chuckled, “My fault, my fault. We’ve both seen how hard our boy’s been working. I believe in you, Wenhao.” Turning to Zhang Wenhao, he added, “Son, this time, show everyone who doubted you what it means to turn over a new leaf and never look back!”

And indeed, after mastering the skill of photographic memory, the mock exam proved to be no challenge for Zhang Wenhao.

First came Chinese, which focused on three main areas: rote memorization of textbook content, mastery of standard interpretations and analyses—such as classical texts and reading comprehension—and finally, essay writing skills. With these in hand, achieving a high score in Chinese was well within reach. For the first ninety marks, Zhang Wenhao was confident. As for the essay, a breeze for someone who had read countless novels.

Next was mathematics. Zhang Wenhao had invested the most effort here, mastering every concept from junior high to senior year and applying them with ease. There wasn’t a single question on the test he couldn’t solve. As long as he avoided careless mistakes, a perfect score was within grasp.

English was a bit more challenging. Grammar couldn’t be fully mastered just by reading, and listening skills required practice beyond books. Still, Zhang Wenhao was confident he could pass.

The Comprehensive Arts section relied heavily on memorization—an immense volume of information, where even a single word out of place could cost points. But with his photographic memory, the exam was simpler than an open-book test. Others would need to flip through pages, but Zhang Wenhao only needed to see the question to recall the answer word for word.

In just two short days, all four exams were over. The teachers worked late into the night grading and tallying scores, because the class shuffle based on these results was set for the very next day!