Chapter 144: Ask If You Don’t Understand
She continued down the list and finally saw her name in 45th place.
Ye Ci. 125, 121, 140, 266, a total of 652. Class 23rd, year 40th.
She looked at the column in disbelief. She thought she had seen it wrongly.
She had always been top 5 in class and top 10 in year since her first and second year.
She had thought that she had simply missed the mark the last time and done poorly but this time, her results had surprised her even more. She had fallen out of the top 20 and done even worse than the monthly exam.
She did not even have to look at the city placement.
All the others who scored 700 and above were only a few points apart from each other. Her score was in the 600 range and the competition was fiercer than the 700 range.
A lot of them might have the same score or a difference of only 1 point.
This must be the worst attempt in her entire life.
The shock came suddenly and hit Ye Ci hard. She felt chills run down her spine.
Cheng Xiangxiang noticed Ye Ci was frozen to her spot, from being stunned. She even noticed the fear and shock on the girl’s face.
She asked curiously, “Lil Ci, what’s wrong?”
Ye Ci recovered from her shock. She wanted to smile and say she was fine but her lips froze and she could not smile.
A strange feeling came over Cheng Xiangxiang and Ye Ci’s reaction scared her.
“What’s wrong? Is it because of my result?”
She moved closer and started to look for her name on the list.
She started from the bottom, hence she was able to find her name quickly.
She got 43rd place in class. She got the last place in class, similar to the previous monthly exam but fortunately, she had passed Mathematics.
Cheng Xiangxiang breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank god. The paper was so hard, I think the teacher will spare me this time. Lil Ci, how about you?”
When she saw Ye Ci’s name on the list, she too was shocked.
She finally understood why Ye Ci was stunned.
Ye Ci’s placement was probably her worst attempt in any exams.
Cheng Xiangxiang did not know what to say. She wanted to console her friend but could not find the appropriate words.
It was then that someone else came over to have a look.
“Ye Ci, can I have the paper?”
Ye Ci gave the paper away and sat back down in silence.
Cheng Xiangxiang did not know how to react as well.
She carefully glanced at Ye Ci and said softly, “Lil Ci, are you okay? Do you think there’s a problem with your score? Why don’t we go to the teacher’s office and check it out?”
Ye Ci did not move at all. She had actually had a bad feeling during the exam. She had failed to answer many of the questions and had not been sure of the answers that she wrote.
She had known that she would not score too high but she had hoped to be lucky.
Never had she thought that she would get such a poor score.
“It’s okay,” she said without looking.
It would only embarrass her more.
Cheng Xiangxiang was at a loss for words.
She herself was not an excellent student to begin with. Whenever she did badly in her exams, other than being scolded by the teacher and her parents, she barely cared about her scores.
Ye Ci was different. She had been under-performing since the monthly exam and she had done even worse this time. She must be devastated.
“Lil Ci, don’t dwell on it. It’s just the way it is, there will always be times where you will miss the mark.”
Ye Ci stared at her book but her eyes were out of focus.
Even if she missed the mark, she should not have missed it this far. She knew something was wrong with her studies.
The competitive Physics class was pressuring her and it had distracted her a lot.
If this continued…
However, when Zhou Fei had asked her to think about it carefully, she insisted on staying.
If she dropped out now, it would not look good on her.
How high had Ning Li scored?
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89 points higher than herself.
Her arms and legs were cold but her face was red as if she had been slapped on the face.
The others in the class had noticed Ye Ci’s poor performance this time and the ridiculous fall in placement. There was already small talk among the students.
“I saw that Ye Ci got only 23rd in class. What’s wrong? She’s not performing as usual.”
“Really? She used to be the top scorer, what caused the drop?”
“This isn’t the first time. She did poorly the last time as well but this time… On the contrary, Ning Li is really stable with her performance.”
Lin Zhouyang kicked the chair of the boy who had said that.
The boy glanced at him for a moment and kept quiet.
Ye Ci tightened her lips.
…
The results for the other subjects came back one after another.
During the afternoon’s self-learning class, Geng Haifan called Ye Ci to the teacher’s office.
“Ye Ci, your results are less than ideal this time,” Geng Haifan said.
More precisely, Ye Ci was the only one in class who had shown a drastic fall in her results.
Not only Geng Haifan, but the other teachers were also shocked at her performance as well.
Therefore, Geng Haifan became the first teacher to call her to the teacher’s office.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
Ye Ci was considered a bright student, even by first class standards. The drastic fall of her results worried Geng Haifan because he was in charge of the first class.
Ye Ci looked down slightly. “I’m sorry, Mr. Geng, I… I’m not performing well recently.”
Geng Haifan asked, “Are there any difficulties with your family?”
Ye Ci shook her head.
If it was not her family and she had been performing decently in class, what had caused the fall?
Ye Ci had always been stable with her scores but she had done poorly in both the monthly test and midterms. If this continued, she would only plunge deeper into the abyss.
Geng Haifan sighed. He knew the result had shocked Ye Ci as well.
“I know you are busy with the competitive Physics class. It’s a lot of pressure. If you cannot handle it, go home and talk to your family and see what suits you best.”
He was being euphemistic but Ye Ci knew what he was trying to say. He wanted her to drop out of the competitive Physics class.
She felt discouraged. Everyone seemed to look down on her. No one believed that she could maintain both her studies and the competition. Even her teacher wanted her to drop out.
Why had no one told Ning Li to drop out? Why her alone?
Could it be that Ning Li was better than her?
If it was true, she would never drop out of the competitive Physics class.
“Thank you, Mr. Geng, I know what to do.”
Geng Haifan said, “I remember that you are also trying to go to Xijing University right?”
Ye Ci was slightly surprised. “Also?”
“Yeah, Ning Li is also aiming to go to Xijing University,” Geng Haifan said with a smile.
Ye Ci reacted bitterly.
“Actually, given your previous performance, there’s a high chance that you will get accepted. You have a solid foundation as well. You need to summarize what you are good at and adjust your condition. You can still catch up, it’s not too late.”
Given her current score, she would never get into Xijing University.
Ye Ci nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Geng, I understand.”
Knock, knock.
The sound of knocking came from the door.
Geng Haifan looked at the entrance and smiled brightly.
“Oh, Ning Li. Come in. I have something to talk to you about.”
Ning Li came in and stood beside Ye Ci.
Geng Haifan looked at the two of them before he said, “Ye Ci’s result fell drastically this time. I’m thinking that since the two of you are living together, if Ye Ci is facing some problems in her studies, maybe you can help her a bit. What do you think about that?”