Xie Qian was going to view riverside properties tomorrow.
Because the three words “riverside apartment” were Wen Ying’s constant obsession, something she always whined about, Xie Qian couldn’t shake the faint sense that he was secretly stealing something from the little hamster.
It was just a feeling, and he had no intention of correcting it, just as he knew he shouldn’t tease the hamster yet could never resist doing it anyway. Poor Wen Ying, blissfully unaware, returned to her room, opened QQ, and finally prepared to estimate her scores.
The day after the gaokao ended, the official model answers for every subject had already been released. Their homeroom teacher, Lin Lin, had uploaded them to the class group for everyone to download and self-score.
By now, in Class 16, the only ones who probably hadn’t estimated yet were Wen Ying and Li Mengjiao.
Li Mengjiao had passed the arts entrance exam, and her cultural score was basically guaranteed. She had zero motivation to estimate.
As long as she crossed the Tier-1 line, what was the point?
Wen Ying, on the other hand, had been genuinely busy and also lacked the urgency.
She hadn’t been deliberately trying to worry Old Wen when she said she did well. That was how she felt the moment she left the exam hall, and the feeling hadn’t changed since.
Now, comparing against the model answers, Wen Ying began scoring bit by bit.
Only a few days had passed, so she still remembered her answers clearly. For science comprehensive and maths, there was almost no room for dispute. She could even score down to individual solution steps.
Which steps earned marks and how many were all laid out in the marking scheme. It wasn’t subject to the whims of students or graders.
Of course, there were one or two multiple-choice questions she wasn’t completely sure about.
The model answer was B. Wen Ying remembered choosing B at first, but right before handing in her paper, had she stupidly changed it to C?
What a sin.
The gaokao was a hugely important exam. Not enough time and you panic; too much time and you start second-guessing. Wen Ying couldn’t help sighing.
The hardest subject to score, actually, was Chinese.
So what if she was a bestselling author? How many marks her essay got wasn’t up to her.
“…660?”
Wen Ying was a little shocked. She went back and re-scored everything from the beginning.
In the QQ group, classmates were posting their estimates. Everyone agreed this year’s papers had been tough.
At first glance, Wen Ying’s 660 looked lower than Wen Kai’s 668 after he repeated a year. Did that mean she had done worse than Wen Kai?
Of course not!
When Wen Kai took the exam the second time, the Sichuan Province Tier-1 cutoff for science had been 598. He had been 70 points above it.
Wen Ying might not remember the 2007 questions, but she would never forget that year’s Tier-1 science cutoff: 533.
If her rebirth hadn’t altered history, and the cutoff stayed at 533, then 660 was a full 107 points above the line. Wen Ying didn’t think she was powerful enough to shift the entire province’s admission lines. At most she could influence the fates of those close to her.
660 was a score that gave her enormous confidence.
Of course, self-estimation was never the final result. To keep herself from getting overconfident, Wen Ying had given herself the lowest possible marks on anything uncertain. If nothing went wrong, her actual score would be higher than 660!
Realising this, Wen Ying rushed into the bathroom and splashed cold water on her face.
“Calm down. Don’t get too excited yet. Stay steady!”
She muttered about staying calm, but her dripping face was nothing but smiles.
Seeing Wen Ying’s QQ status turn green, Teacher Lin Lin, who had been waiting to pounce, immediately bombarded her:
“Have you estimated yet?”
“I uploaded the model answers ages ago. The whole class has moved except you and Li Mengjiao! Well, Xie Qian hasn’t reported his either, but I can’t control him. He’s only borrowing a spot in Class 16. You two, however, I can still manage!”
“You two busy celebrities, could you spare a moment to reply? Look around. Which homeroom teacher is as humble as me—”
Poor humble Teacher Lin Lin rambled on like Xianglin’s wife from Lu Xun’s story.
What had reduced a young teacher like Lin Lin to this state?
It was the anxiety of being the homeroom teacher for a provincial key experimental class for the very first time.
Whether by misfortune or luck, her first class contained three prodigies: one who debuted through a talent show and became a celebrity, one who wrote books and became a bestselling author, and one super-academic genius’s cousin.
How on earth was she supposed to manage them?
It wasn’t easy!
The provincial key school kept pushing quality education and respecting students’ individual natures and hobbies.
Sigh.
For three years, balancing academic results with respecting their talents had cost Lin Lin countless brain cells.
Now she had only one wish: to safely guide Class 16 through filling out their university preferences and put a perfect full stop on her first year as homeroom teacher.
After Lin Lin vented a torrent of messages, Wen Ying, feeling rather embarrassed, finally interrupted:
“Teacher Lin, I’ve finished estimating. 660.”
“Oh, you actually did it? 660 is pretty good… wait, what? You estimated 660?!”
Lin Lin typed that, then a few seconds later rang Wen Ying directly.
“You didn’t overestimate, did you? Really 660?”
“I didn’t. A few points are uncertain, but the final score will only be higher, not lower.”
Getting confirmation from Wen Ying herself, Lin Lin repeated “Great!” several times. All the complaints she had bottled up for days vanished instantly. Her tone became delighted. “That’s an excellent score. Getting into Tsinghua or Peking University won’t be a problem. Of course, if you want to choose any department freely at either, it’s still a tiny bit short… but it’s really outstanding! Your year-group ranking will probably be higher than usual!”
While students estimated their own scores, the teachers at the provincial key school were estimating this year’s cutoff lines.
The difficulty of this year’s science papers meant there wouldn’t be many ultra-high scores.
According to the teachers’ predictions, the Tier-1 science cutoff would be around 530. Even the provincial top scorer would struggle to break 700. That was why Lin Lin had praised Wen Ying’s 660 as excellent!
Wen Ying could only marvel at how amazing the provincial key teachers were.
Their prediction for the cutoff was only three points off.
And they were spot-on about the top score too. Wen Ying remembered that in 2007, Sichuan’s science provincial champion really hadn’t reached 700.
Thinking about it that way made her even happier.
“I feel I performed better than usual too.”
The more important the exam, the more it came down to mindset.
Good regular grades meant nothing if you panicked in the exam hall.
Xie Qian had tutored her for three years. Wen Ying had been certain she would do better than in her previous life. Even though she no longer remembered the questions, that didn’t stop her from relying on real ability to ace it again.
With that mindset, plus the solid foundation built drop by drop over three years, it would have been harder for Wen Ying to do badly.
Lin Lin couldn’t help laughing. “Your mum has called me five times wanting your estimate. I could only say ‘I don’t know’. Can I tell her now?”
Manager Chen had called five times?
Wen Ying was surprised.
This time, Chen Ru really hadn’t put any pressure on her at all.
She was about to say yes when Lin Lin added, “Your mum called five times, and your dad called fifteen. I suspect they were both hiding it from you and from each other.”
Wen Ying: …!!!
