I Just Want to Freeload on Your Luck - Chapter 25

When Mrs. Ye Bing entered the Evergreen Class with the exam papers, her lips were pressed tightly together, forming an ugly frown.

The whole of the Evergreen Class could feel how angry she was and how she was about to unleash that anger unto them.

When they heard her first sentence of, “Our overall results this time is not bad, there isn’t much difference from before”, they all let out a sigh of relief.

But in the next second, they all watched as she slammed the exam papers on the podium!

“But you have all done so badly in the Maths paper!”

“None of you scored full marks for it!”

“There are three people who scored full marks, including someone from the upstairs International Class. So why isn’t there anyone from our class who got full marks?!”

“Is it because I’m a worse teacher than the other two Maths teachers?!”

Ye Bing was burning up on the inside. She could forget about the fact that she always lost to the Gold Medal Class’ Mr. Jiang. After all, their class made up the School Representative Team, so it was normal for her to be unable to win against them.

However, this was the first time in a few years that she had been overtaken by the International Class’ Mr. Lu!

When she recalled how back in the office, Lu Wangwei was smiling in absolute delight as he said to her, “all is fair in love and war”, with his look of having obtained advantages yet choosing to put on an innocent farce, the fire in Ye Bing’s heart raged stronger.

“That person from the International Class must have been very lucky,” someone beneath the podium muttered.

That question was so difficult. It was hard for them to even understand it.

Not only was it beyond their syllabus, it was way beyond the scope of the Tournament.

They knew based on how Ye Bing said that only three people from their block managed to answer the question. Not even all six members from the School Representative Team managed to answer it— So how could someone from the International Class who always scored results lower than theirs be able to answer it?

No one took it to heart. It was just one question. In the end, they would still trump over the International Class’ total marks.

Zhao Yuan wasn’t bothered by it either. Although she didn’t complete that question, she was still quite good in her other subjects, so her final ranking will not be too bad.

All in all, it was impossible for the only person from the International Class who scored full marks for the Maths paper to be Zhao Mingxi.

She continued to keep her head lowered, her eyes focused on the book. However, her mind was where the teachers were moving on to the next step of announcing the rankings.

The projector was turned on. Zhao Yuan was getting increasingly nervous. Although she did not seem like it, her hands which were unconsciously clenching the pages of the book were covered in sweat.

Pu Shuang who was sitting beside her whispered, “Don’t be nervous. So long as you’ve performed as you normally did, you will be in the Top 20 amongst the three classes. Zhao Mingxi just transferred here from the Normal Class last month. She probably has yet to catch up with our syllabus, so how could she possibly compete against you?”

“I’m not nervous.” Zhao Yuan shook her head and said, “I am certain that my results will be better than hers. I’m just afraid that—”

She was afraid that the gap between her results and Zhao Mingxi’s will not be big.

Afraid that Zhao Mingxi would have made great improvement in her studies.

Although Zhao Yuan didn’t finish her sentence, Pu Shuang understood what she meant. “True. As Zhao Mingxi started from the bottom, whenever she makes any progress your family will definitely notice it. But as your results have been consistently good, your family members must be used to it already.”

Zhao Mingxi’s transfer from the Normal Class to this building must be accompanied by a huge fall. She has to fall to the bottom of the rankings. Only then will Zhao Yuan’s family notice the difference between them.

“Yeah.”

Zhao Yuan closed her eyes and regained her composure.

When she opened her eyes once more, the results were displayed on the screen.

She held her breath as she searched for her own ranking, looking through the results of each and every subject.

Pu Shuang looked from up to down and found her name first. She said, “Oh my God, Yuanyuan, you’re amazing! Ranked No.5 in class and ranked No.20 among the three classes!”

“You got into the Top 20 again!”

Zhao Yuan immediately let out half a sigh of relief. She smiled at Pu Shuang as she spoke, “I didn’t do my best this time.”

Pu Shuang said, “I think you shouldn’t worry about it so much. There are a total of 150 people among the three classes. Zhao Mingxi will either be in the 149th or 150th place. Her results weren’t that good to begin with with her average being near the bottom of the Normal Classes. Besides, it is practically impossible for someone who had just transferred from the Normal Class to catch up to our syllabus!”

The more Zhao Yuan listened, the more she felt relieved. She said, “I do hope that she doesn’t get such bad results, or else my eldest brother will have to be called here by her homeroom teacher again.”

While the two of them were talking, Ye Bing pressed a button and changed the screen from displaying the results of their class to the results of their whole building. She said with a cold expression, “Don’t think that you ought to be happy just because you scored good results. Look at the results of the School Representative Team and observe the gap between your results and theirs.”

The students from the Evergreen Class began to seek for the results of the people they were familiar with on the list of the whole building’s ranking.

Suddenly.

Someone said, “Oh my God, wait a minute. Am I seeing this right? Is that Zhao Mingxi’s name?”

“What place is she in—? Have I gone blind? Teacher, can you zoom in a little?!”

“Li Haiyang, was she the one who rejected you?”

“What do you mean Li Haiyang*? You should call him Li Jingyu*. That Young Master from the Fu family personally gave him this nickname. Isn’t that exciting?”
*translator’s note: Haiyang = sea. Jingyu = whale.

Li Haiyang said, “Shut up.”

…

What’s going on?

When Zhao Yuan and Pu Shuang heard someone mention Zhao Mingxi, they thought they were imagining it at first.

Usually when Ye Bing displayed the rankings on the screen she would scroll down slowly from top to bottom. She has only shown the rankings of this block for a few minutes, so they should still be looking at the Top 50.

Zhao Mingxi got into the Top 50—?

Zhao Yuan’s heart fell to the pit of her stomach. She quickly raised her head and looked towards the screen.

Then, she saw a sight which she simply could not believe or comprehend.

White background, black boxes. The number in front of Zhao Mingxi’s name was 19.

From left the right, the one which attracted their attention the most was the Maths column.

Full marks.

She scored full marks.

Voices began to appear beside her ears:

“Zhao Mingxi who just transferred from the Normal Class is ranked 19????? She got into the Top 20?”

“What the hell? Oh my God! It is so hard to get into the Top 20. Usually more than 10 students from the Gold Medal Class will take up those spaces and only around five students from our class can get in. No one from the International Class has ever gotten into the Top 20! But why is it that this time— Didn’t Zhao Mingxi say that she was from the Normal Class?”

More and more people were noticing Zhao Mingxi who was in 19th place.

Then, someone took note of the same thing as Zhao Yuan—

“Wait, she’s the one who scored full marks for Maths?!”

The moment someone made this statement, everyone fell into shock.

Then, the whole class went into an uproar which was akin to boiling water.

The person from the International Class who was one of the three who scored full marks for Maths as mentioned by Ye Bing just now was her??

When Ye Bing saw how the whole class started to make noise due to Zhao Mingxi, she pulled a long face. “You still have the courage to talk about others? She had just transferred here for a month and is still trying hard to catch up to our syllabus, yet she could obtain full marks for Maths! I have taught you all for so long but none of you had any idea on how to answer the last question?!”

Zhao Yuan looked at the name which was sitting right on top of hers.

For the next five minutes, she felt as if she was in a dream.

She wondered if she had encountered a demon.

She appeared extremely uncomfortable.

Her whole mind was aloof. In the end, she couldn’t help but to regain her composure. She whispered to Pu Shuang, “…Am I hearing things? Is that Mingxi? 19th place…? In front of me?”

Pu Shuang was still in shock, so much so that she had yet to shut her mouth and return to her senses. “What?”

When the guy in front of Zhao Yuan heard her, he thought that she couldn’t see it properly, so he turned around and told her kindly, “Yes, that is Zhao Mingxi. She actually got full marks for Maths! Who would’ve known? And it was such a tough question too! How did she end up in the Normal Class anyways?”

“Is your elder sister good at one subject— Wait, it can’t be considered as being good at one subject. She’s only bad at Biology, seeing as how she scored quite well for her other subjects.”

“Wait, why do you look so pale? Are you feeling unwell?”

Zhao Yuan, “…”

*

Meanwhile, the International Class was still in an uproar.

Their homeroom teacher Mr. Lu didn’t even use the projector. The moment he ran in excitedly to hug Zhao Mingxi, he told her on the spot that she obtained full marks for Maths this time. She was ranked No.1 in the International Class and ranked No.19 in their whole building.

The whole class looked at Zhao Mingxi in surprise.

“Oh my God, Little— No, Zhao Mingxi, you’re quite good, aren’t you?” Ke Chengwen exclaimed. “If only we knew that your results were this good, Xi ge and I would have copied from you.”

“Copy, copy, copy. You only know how to copy!” Fu Yangxi had a proud smile on his face. He gave Zhao Mingxi a look and emphasized, “I have never cheated on my exams, alright?”

Ke Chengwen said, “Yes, you’re lazy to even answer the paper, so why would you cheat? Are you trying to copy her name into your top left corner?”

Fu Yangxi picked up a dictionary on Zhao Mingxi’s table. “You’re getting brave, aren’t you?”

Ke Chengwen quickly smiled and retreated.

“I’m in 19th place?” Zhao Mingxi had yet to return to her senses. She pointed at her own nose and looked at Fu Yangxi. “Did they mark the papers correctly? Is it true?”

The thing is, she had always gotten 1st place back in Tong City. But ever since she got here, she had never obtained good results. Not only did this cause her to be unable to determine her true results, it also made her think that the Maths standard over here had trumped over Tong City’s by a lot. Thus, it led to her going from the 1st place to nearing the end of the ranks.

Who would’ve known that without the disadvantages, she would immediately come in 19th place?

Why does she look so silly when she’s shocked?

Fu Yangxi’s heart almost melted. He couldn’t help but to ruffle her hair, unable to keep in the smile on his face. “Don’t be crazy, Little Mask. You’ve already gotten 1st place and yet you’re asking me who is probably in the last place if you’ve gotten 1st place? You’re purposely showing off, aren’t you?”

With her hair in a mess, Zhao Mingxi was pulled to sit down by Fu Yangxi.

After sitting down, her heart started to beat at a fast pace. She was trying her best to accept the fact that she really wasn’t that bad.

As she continued to think about it, she couldn’t help but to place her face in her hands in excitement.

However.

—”Are you sure that there was nothing wrong with the marking process? And there’s cameras in the classroom so don’t you think about suspecting that I’ve cheated.”

Mingxi didn’t want her feelings to go up and down like a roller coaster.

“Silly child.” Mr. Lu’s gaze upon her was filled with affection.

He returned to the podium and looked toward Zhao Mingxi with an excited gaze which positively screamed ‘I finally have one promising child from my household’.

“Ahem, everyone settle down. I want to say a few words.”

“This is the happiest day of my teaching career. No one from the International Class has ever gotten first place for Maths. Although this time we are tied with two others from the Gold Medal Class, but we still got No.1! This means that my teaching has been effective. It means that all my hard work did not go to waste…”

What followed after was an endless speech of hurt and pain, spanning all the way to when Mr. Lu had yet to lose the hair on his head and decided to spend the rest of his life educating the young.

Just as a group of people from the International Class was about to throw spoiled chicken eggs at him, what made their hearts go through a roller coaster really appeared.

A Biology teacher appeared at the entrance to their class and called for Mr. Lu. He said that there was a problem with two students’ Biology papers.

They needed to rearrange the final marks again.

“What?” Mr. Lu was shocked. Their class had just gotten someone who squeezed into the Top 20, so please do not let it be Zhao Mingxi’s results. With an anxious heart, he asked, “Which two?”

“Your class’ Zhao Mingxi and the Gold Medal Class’ Dan Qi.”

“…”

Mr. Lu followed the Biology teacher with his emotions on tenterhooks.

The mood in the International Class turned anxious.

Fu Yangxi looked out the window and frowned. “They released the results before checking it properly, and now they’ve got to rearrange it again. What if your results become lower? Then wouldn’t they have made us happy for nothing?”

Mingx sighed. She actually thought of this as the plot going in the right direction— Or else how was it possible for her to get into the Top 20 so easily?

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in Fu Yangxi’s luck. She simply didn’t believe in herself.

Achieving such good results so suddenly after obtaining terrible results for the past two years. Even she thought she was dreaming.

“Relax.” Mingxi was surprisingly calm. She took a sip of the milk from her table and poked a straw into it.

…

The Evergreen Class received the news about the rearrangement as well. They heard that it involved the International Class’ Zhao Mingxi and the Gold Medal Class’ Dan Qi.

The moment they heard this news, Ye Bing left the class to participate in the rearrangement too.

After the strict Ye Bing had left, the discussion in the Evergreen Class increased in volume.

“I was wondering why Zhao Mingxi had gotten such high marks. Turns out there was a miscalculation.”

Li Haiyang couldn’t help but to stand up for Zhao Mingxi. “Didn’t you hear that it was just because one blank space in a Biology question had been asked wrongly? That only amounts to 3 marks. Even if they deduct those 3 marks, she would still have 697 marks, and that itself is impressive.”

“But if that happens, her ranking will drop— She might be,” That person raised his head and said, “She might be ranked below Zhao Yuan at 22nd place.”

The blood in Zhao Yuan’s veins rushed to her head. The buzzing in her mind had finally reduced albeit just a little. She forced herself to calculate the outcome if Zhao Mingxi really lost those 3 marks.

If a deduction is made, then she will be in 19th place while Zhao Mingxi will be in 22nd place.

Pu Shuang made a quick mental calculation as well. She swallowed the lump in her throat and said, “Who would’ve known that Zhao Mingxi would do so well this time? Could it be purely coincidental? Did Shen Liyao point out the important areas for her? But if they are to rearrange the rankings, she will be right below you. Then—”

Pu Shuang wanted to say that ‘it is at least better than having her defeat you’, but when she saw the look on Zhao Yuan’s face, she could not muster up the courage to finish her sentence.

The few minutes of waiting was absolutely torturous for the three classes.

…

Zhao Yuan kept on staring at the screen. Around five minutes later, Ye Bing returned.

Ye Bing refreshed the page.

Due to what happened just now, everyone subconsciously looked for Zhao Mingxi and Dan Qi’s names. They all wanted to see the change in their rankings.

Then, they saw—

Zhao Mingxi actually moved up??? Marks were added instead of deducted?

She moved up to the 17th place?!

As compared to the noise they made just now, the current Evergreen Class fell into pure silence.

…

Ye Bing explained coldly, “There were two answers for a question in the Biology paper, but the other one belongs to the syllabus of a university student. As it was not in the scope of our syllabus, we marked it wrongly at first glance. Now everything has been fixed, and only two students used the other answer. ”

“Let me remind you all once more. Those who plan to join the Tournament, you ought to try your best to expand the range of your knowledge.”

Zhao Yuan’s blood was as if it had been frozen over. She watched as Zhao Mingxi went up to the 17th place due to the addition of those 3 marks.

As for Dan Qi who was ranked behind her, her ranking had also gone up because of those 3 marks.

She suddenly fell to the 21st place!!!?

Due to the fact that this time Zhao Yuan’s ranking had been affected as well, everyone subconsciously took a glance at Zhao Yuan.

Zhao Yuan tried her best to maintain a calm facade, but how was she to truly calm down? Her mind was blank.

Why is this happening?

Zhao Mingxi’s results used to be so bad.

How could she have defeated her in just one month? Did she sign up for tuition classes? But who was teaching her to the point where she would surpass her so quickly?

Zhao Yuan started to pant. She was afraid that others could see her flustered expression, so she had no choice but to lower her head.

E Xiaoxia looked at Zhao Yuan and said in an enigmatic tone, “Looks like Zhao Mingxi isn’t that bad after all.”

*

In contrast to the Evergreen Class’ somberness, the International Class fell into an uproar again.

“I am so happy! 17th place, 17th place, I taught someone in 17th place! What does this mean? This means that the International Class will only be better from this point onwards!”

Mr. Lu walked over in big strides. His face was flushed red in excitement and the rims of his eyes were actually damp. He rushed over and was about to pull Mingxi up.

Fu Yangxi stopped him in time. He chided, “Mr. Lu, please be a good example to your students and calm down.”

The followers in the International Class were all looking at Zhao Mingxi in admiration— Now they knew why Xi ge had rejected this transfer student so many times at the beginning yet as time went by he slowly began to accept her. Maybe it was because he realized that her results were good and he wanted to copy her homework.

However, why did someone who transferred from the Normal Class obtain such good results?

Could it be that she had not bothered to take the exam seriously last time and pretended to be stupid?

All in all, everyone was very surprised.

The face of the long-tongued Wang Han who previously said that Zhao Mingxi’s results were bad had swelled. He shook in fear, unwilling to raise his head.

“17? There won’t be any mistakes this time, right?”

Mingxi asked in shock.

Although she was trying her best to appear calm and collected, she was actually feeling as happy as Mr. Lu, if not more.

Despite the fact that it was just a monthly exam, it still meant that there was a possibility for her fate to be changed completely.

Fu Yangxi didn’t know why he was feeling this odd sense of satisfaction akin to when he got through a dungeon in a game when he saw how happy she was.

When he saw Mingxi stand up abruptly with an excited look, he stood up hurriedly as well.

Mingxi turned to look at Fu Yangxi. Her surprise seemed to have been cut off.

What? Why did he stand up after her?

Fu Yangxi thought that Little Mask must be overwhelmed to tears right now, the look in her eyes was as if she was going to suddenly envelop him in a hug.

He pulled up the zipper of his jacket. Then, with flushed cheeks, red ears and a determined look, he put his chin up and said, “Come!”

Mingxi: ?

Mingxi couldn’t figure out what he was trying to do.

Fu Yangxi would do crazy stuff more than 100 times a day. Since she was already used to it, she quickly sat down.

Ke Chengwen, “…”

Fu Yangxi, “…”

She didn’t want a hug?

Fu Yangxi was both angered and embarrassed. He touched his nose and hurriedly pretended as if nothing happened by turning around and sitting down as well.

Due to such an awkward scene, everyone calmed down, save for Mr. Lu.

At least until next month, whenever he hears Mr. Jiang and Mrs. Ye Bing boast about the good results of the students in their classes, he will no longer have to feel envious and put on a fake smile in order to remain polite!!!

Who was it who advised Zhao Mingxi not to participate in this month’s monthly exams?

It was him!

Mr. Lu was extremely thankful that Zhao Mingxi didn’t listen to him!

*

After obtaining such results, during the afternoon break, the Literature teacher came again to look for Mingxi in order to ask her to be the host. However, Mingxi had just gone to the toilet when she arrived so she missed her. Therefore, she could only get someone to pass the message to Mingxi asking her to appear at her office in the next few days.

After their lunch break, at the end of the third period, Mr. Lu called Mingxi to the teachers’ office. He complimented her before asking about Mingxi’s studies.

He had always been very concerned about Mingxi. When she first transferred into the International Class, he even purposely allowed her to choose her own seat.

Now that he feels that Mingxi is a good seedling which can be cultivated, he paid even more attention to her.

“But I’m curious as to why you have never been able to score such good results back in the Normal Class.” Mr. Lu was flipping through Mingxi’s homework as he asked, “Based on your homework, I wouldn’t think that you were someone who used to rank around 600 to 700 in the Normal Classes.”

Before Mingxi could say anything, the door to the office was pushed open. Mr. Li from Normal Class 6 had entered with a tea cup and he said, “I am curious about this as well.”

“You’re here?” Mr. Lu took a glance at Mr. Li. Then, he said to Mingxi, “Before you transferred here, your ex-homeroom teacher asked me to take good care of you.”

Mingxi quickly said, “Thank you sir!”

“No need to thank me. Lu Wangwei, stop saying all this nonsense, or else she might get scared of you.” When Mr. Li saw how Mingxi was still standing in front of Mr. Lu’s desk, he pulled a chair to her and said, “Have a seat.”

When Mingxi saw Mr. Li, her heart felt warm. He had always treated her very well back when she was in Normal Class 6.

Mr. Li said with a smile, “Our Mingxi has finally made it. A few teachers were discussing about you during lunch. They all said that the student who came from my Normal Class 6 had defeated a majority of students in the three competitive classes and that you were very outstanding. It made me so proud to hear it.”

“It has already reached your ears?” Mingxi was a little shy as she lightly scratched her face.

She simply could not figure out a way to explain the occurrences which had happened to her previously. Just as she was thinking about how to answer this question, she suddenly thought of Professor Gao, so she said, “I found an amazing teacher who provided me with tuition classes. I have done many test papers as well recently so my results may have risen due to these reasons.”

Such situations whereby one’s results suddenly shot up in Year 3 was not something unheard of.

The two teachers weren’t suspicious of this answer at all. They both felt that it was most likely that this child was not into it previously, and her family was an affecting factor too.

Now that she was staying in school, had left such disturbances and joined tuition classes, it was only natural for her results to get better.

“Then you should be a black horse with unstable results. You have to continue working hard in the future. Don’t let your results go down from here.”

Due to his words, Mingxi was suddenly reminded of a problem she was most concerned about. “Mr. Lu, have the participants for the Hundred School Tournament been decided? I don’t know if I can participate in it with my result as No.17.”

“I hope you can join it as well.” However, Mr. Lu’s face turned somber. He sighed and said, “But it’s hard. This is decided by the Gold Medal Class’ Mr. Jiang. He is the student of the infamous gold trainer Professor Gao, and he is the teacher who leads the team every year.”

“The ones who are usually chosen to participate would have the average results above the 18th place out of everyone in this building— Another two spots are for two students from the International Class who specializes in foreign language.”

“Although you are at 17th place this time, your average results are still pulled down too much by your previous scores,” Mr. Lu said. “So it is really quite hard. Nonetheless, I will still mention this to Mr. Jiang.”

As Mr. Lu spoke, he also felt a little distressed.

He wanted to get Zhao Mingxi to join as well. The more chances she gets, the more hope he has for his bonus.

Although Mingxi was slightly disappointed by this, she still nodded.

*

Despite the fact that the monthly exam was a mere brief interlude, it still led to Zhao Mingxi entering the group of people leading the ranks among the three classes. At least she had fired her first cannon and established her place in the three classes.

The people who called her transfer student gradually decreased. There were even some who forgot that she was from the Normal Class.

The announcing of the results in the Gold Medal Class was not as dramatic as it was in the Evergreen Class. Mr. Jiang merely passed a piece of paper with the rankings to everyone in class. Then, he gave a short speech.

Shen Liyao had never paid much attention to that list. Regardless of whether or not he took a glimpse of it, he was still in 1st place.

But this time, he held the paper tightly to the point where his knuckles turned white. His expression was unreadable, his eyes glued to the paper.

It was the same as how he liked to take the longer route to the Normal Class’ building and take a glimpse of the rankings of the Normal Classes after their exams.

Zhao Mingxi in 17th place. It was within his expectations.

The gap between them was getting smaller.

Shen Liyao had a feeling that someday she was going to gradually crawl up to the spot beside him, and everyone would see how bright she shined.

However, he used to be pretty certain that she was doing all this because of him.

But this time, he was completely unsure.

She was still raising her head, but she was no longer looking in his direction.