The placement exam at Mingli High School only tested three subjects: Chinese, Math, and English. While the number of questions wasn't large, they were extremely difficult. Besides testing students' ability to solve challenging problems, it also assessed their time management skills.
The questions for all three subjects were compiled into one test paper, with a four-hour time limit. After the final rankings were released, the top forty students would be selected for the experimental class.
Wen Shuangmu quickly flipped through the test paper, estimating its overall difficulty.
She wasn't worried about English. In college, she had a habit of taking exams to boost her scores. In her last CET-6 (College English Test Band 6) exam, she had scored nearly perfect with 700 points. Before her rebirth, she had been preparing for the graduate school entrance exam, so her vocabulary and grammar were still fresh in her mind...
The examination hall was quiet, with only the sound of pens scratching on paper.
Mingli High School had admitted 600 students this year, but the exam hall only had 560 desks and chairs set up.
The experimental class was also known as the experimental control class. Above them was an even more elite group - the Spring Class.
As the name suggests, these students were admitted during the spring early admissions, selected by the school through multiple rounds of screening.
These forty students had already entered school in March, getting a head start on learning competition knowledge. Teachers jokingly called them the "Gold Medal Class," specifically meant to bring competition honors to the school.
Wen Shuangmu had originally been determined to get into the spring admissions, but during that time, an influenza virus was rampant in the country. She unfortunately caught it, missing the opportunity due to a severe cold and fever.
Later, she performed well in the high school entrance exam, but Mingli didn't place much importance on those scores.
For this placement exam, Wen Shuangmu had her family enroll her in an expensive advanced class offered by a tutoring institution specifically for Mingli's placement exam during the first month of the holiday. Regrettably, in her previous life, she hadn't been able to use that knowledge due to a car accident, and in this life, she had just been reborn and had completely forgotten it all.
Wu Xiaoqi observed its host staring at the math section with a constipated expression, as if trying to bore a hole through the test paper: "Host, you graduated from high school years ago. Don't tell me you've forgotten all the formulas and theorems?"
Wen Shuangmu, her thoughts exposed: "...Shut up, can't you see I'm trying to remember?"
Wu Xiaoqi gloated, but fearing it might seem too cruel to watch its host struggle, it helped by searching for answers in its database. It then put itself on mute mode.
Wen Shuangmu's mindset, tempered by those extra seven years in her previous life, quickly pushed aside distracting thoughts. She stopped trying to estimate the difficulty of the questions and directly flipped to the English section to start writing.
Lu Jing tried hard to look at the questions for a while, but his pen-holding posture didn't last two minutes before the pen slipped to the base of his thumb, idly twirling between his fingertips.
Looking around, he saw that most students in the front rows were either staring intently at one problem, scratching their heads in confusion, or hunched over, repeatedly calculating and double-checking.
The injured person next to him, however, was flipping through the test paper quickly. It wasn't clear if they really knew how to solve everything or if it was a tactical move to create noise and disturb other test-takers' concentration.
Occasionally, when nearby students became annoyed by the frequent page-turning sounds, they would deliberately click their tongues and look back, hoping to make the inconsiderate person more aware.
It seemed the collective disapproval had an effect. The "injured comrade" changed their previous solving speed and began to ponder deeply over one question, chewing on their pen.
Strands of hair fell across their forehead, vaguely revealing the tip of a delicate, upturned nose.
Lu Jing nodded, thinking this was more reasonable. One might be able to guess wildly for Chinese and English, but not for math.
However, within seconds, the person picked up their pen, wrote down four or five lines of solution steps in the answer area, and quickly turned to the next page.
Lu Jing: "..."
They had all graduated from proper junior high schools, but with that quick glance, he realized his level might really be inadequate. He couldn't understand anything he saw.
He even thought he saw a strange symbol that had never appeared in textbooks before, though he wasn't sure if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
Although his intelligence couldn't comprehend it, he knew these top-level difficult math problems couldn't be dismissed with just a few steps.
So this must be the partial credit for steps that teachers always emphasized before the high school entrance exam, right?
Even if you can't solve it, you should at least write down a formula for some points, right?
Lu Jing admired this, then changed his position and lay down on the desk, resting his head on his arm.
His friend had dragged him into playing games until the early hours of the morning, and although he had gulped down two cups of coffee when he woke up, it didn't seem to help much. He was still incredibly sleepy.
The exam lasted four hours.
Lu Jing slept on and off, estimating that it was nearly lunchtime. Worried that if everyone left the exam room together, it would be hard to find a seat in the cafeteria due to the crowd, he decided to hand in his test paper early and leave the classroom.
Wen Shuangmu was extremely cautious with the Chinese language questions. After checking the language basics section one last time to ensure there were no multiple-choice answers that needed correcting, she returned the pencil to the neighboring desk, only to find the person had already left.
Wen Shuangmu was a bit surprised. At first, she admired the idea of hidden talents among ordinary people, but then remembered that neither the Spring Class nor the Experimental Class had such a character. She finally realized that it must have been someone who gave up midway and left early.
It was only at this moment that she recalled the person's appearance, belatedly marveling at the fact that she wouldn't have the chance to run into this handsome classmate in Class 1 or Class 2 in the future.
She looked down and saw that the pencil was still quite new, though the tip was a bit flattened from all the shading. After a moment's thought, she decided to put the pencil into her pencil case.
As the exam-ending bell rang, Zhou Quan emphasized that everyone should put down their pens before collecting the answer sheets desk by desk according to exam numbers.
When he reached Wen Shuangmu's desk, Zhou Quan said, "The school nurse is in the reading room next door. You should go there after this and let her bandage you up."
Wen Shuangmu didn't quite react at first, "Oh, okay."
By the time she realized she had forgotten to say thank you, Zhou Quan had already moved on to the row behind.
At the end of each floor in Mingli's teaching building, there was a small library. Although not very spacious, it had floor-to-ceiling windows facing the morning sun, making it very bright and transparent.
The school nurse was playing on her phone when she saw a girl in a white T-shirt covered in dried blood enter. Without much thought, she guessed this was the student the security guard had asked her to look after.
The nurse handed Wen Shuangmu the note left by the security guard and opened her medical kit to treat the wound simply: "It's said to be the contact information left by the car owner. You can call anytime. You'd better go to the hospital for a tetanus shot for this injury, just in case."
When the saline solution was poured on the wound, Wen Shuangmu winced in pain.
As the nurse was wrapping the bandage around Wen Shuangmu's wound, Zhou Quan, who had just returned the test papers to the office, came by to check on the situation.
"If the cut was any bigger, we'd have to send her to the hospital for stitches right away," the nurse said. "Mr. Zhou, you didn't make this little girl take the exam while injured, did you?"
Zhou Quan exclaimed, "Of course not! I was shocked when I saw it too."
Wen Shuangmu explained, "It was my own fault."
Zhou Quan had noted Wen Shuangmu's name from her answer sheet when collecting the papers. He patted her shoulder and said, "You're quite determined, young lady. How do you feel about the exam?"
He paused, then quickly added, "It's okay if it didn't go well. There are placement exams every academic year. With your spirit, you'll definitely make it."
Wen Shuangmu couldn't very well say that she suspected all her math problem answers might be correct, but probably didn't hit a single scoring point in the solution steps. So she avoided the topic: "Thank you, teacher."
On exam days, the school nurse only worked half a day, so once the students left, her work for the day was essentially over.
Zhou Quan, on the other hand, had to stay at school in the afternoon to grade papers. He went downstairs with Wen Shuangmu and, worried that she might not be familiar with the area, offered to show her to the restaurant across from the school since he was going to eat as well.
The afternoon sun was scorching, but the air conditioning inside blew a comfortable cool breeze, creating two drastically different environments indoors and outdoors.
Lu Jing and Ms. Xia Yun were sitting by the window, having lunch.
Xia Yun noticed her son's gaze suddenly drift towards the revolving door and casually asked, "What are you looking at?"
The "injured comrade" and the morning's exam proctor walked side by side to the ordering counter. This did seem somewhat characteristic of top students, able to quickly build good relationships with teachers, Lu Jing thought indifferently as he looked away. "Nothing, just a girl."
Xia Yun's curiosity was instantly piqued: "What? What?"
Lu Jing bit into a french fry, unimpressed: "Someone I encountered during the morning exam. Very determined. Don't know what happened, but she arrived at the classroom covered in blood."
"Wow." Xia Yun also noticed a bandaged female student in the queue. "How did she do on the exam?"
"No idea." He had glanced at her paper when handing in his own and saw pitifully few solution steps, so he gave a fair assessment, "Her spirit is admirable."
Xia Yun mused, "Studying alongside such students must create a great learning atmosphere. You should get along well with them. Mom will help you find out which class that student got into later, so you two can be together. She might be able to help you improve."
Lu Jing suddenly found it hard to chew: "... Let's not."
Wen Shuangmu ordered a sandwich and received a text message from the driver, Uncle Chen: "Shuangshuang, is the exam not over yet? It's too congested at the school gate, I'm parked near the green belt."
When Uncle Chen dropped her off at school in the morning, the car broke down halfway. She took a shortcut to run to school, and with the distraction of her rebirth, she completely forgot that Uncle Chen had called out to her as she ran off, saying he'd come pick her up at noon.
Wen Shuangmu put away her phone and explained to Zhou Quan that her family was here to pick her up, asking the staff to change the sandwich order to takeout.
Zhou Quan reminded her, "Remember to have your parents take you to the hospital for another check-up."
"Mm, okay," Wen Shuangmu replied, picking up the takeout bag. She added, "Thank you, teacher."
"Take care," he said.
Wen Shuangmu weaved through the tables and pushed open the door.
She looked left and right, seeing the street lined with private cars, unsure which green belt Uncle Chen was referring to.
She chose a direction at random, looped the plastic bag with the sandwich over her wrist, and called Uncle Chen.
Three to five children ran out of the neighboring convenience store, each holding a bubble machine, running towards her as if playing a shooting game.
Wen Shuangmu didn't notice at first, only barely stepping aside to make room when the kids got close.
When she came to her senses, her gaze fell directly on the transparent floor-to-ceiling window of the restaurant—
The handsome classmate who sat next to her during the exam was sitting there. He seemed a bit startled by her sudden collision with the glass, a french fry dangling from his mouth, his eyes fixed on her without blinking.
"Ah, you."
Wen Shuangmu thought of the 2B pencil lying in her pencil case and was about to say something else when a shout came from the distance—
"Shuangshuang, over here!"
Wen Shuangmu didn't have time to think further. She turned around to see Uncle Chen waving at her from under the blazing sun and quickly jogged over.
Outside the window, children ran by, trailing bubbles through the air.
Xia Yun looked outside, then at her son, "Was that girl trying to talk to you just now?"
Lu Jing looked away and lowered his head to continue pressing buttons on his phone, "No."
Wen Shuangmu met up with Uncle Chen. As she sat in the back seat enjoying the cool air and munching on her sandwich, Uncle Chen was still fretting:
"It's all my fault. Even though the car broke down, I should have made sure you got to school safely. Such a big incident happened, I don't know how worried your parents must be..."
Wen Shuangmu wasn't too concerned about facing Mr. Wen and Ms. Han's nagging too soon. The two had an important meeting today, and Uncle Chen had already tried calling twice, but their private numbers were turned off.
"Uncle, I'm really fine," Wen Shuangmu said. "We'll just go to the hospital for some simple medication, and I'll be better in a couple of days."
Uncle Chen continued muttering and rambling until the car finally left the congested school area and headed towards the hospital. Then he gradually fell silent.
With nothing else to do, Wen Shuangmu thought she might have left Wu Xiaoqi hanging for too long and called out, but received no response.
Instead, Uncle Chen in the front seat turned his head, not having heard clearly, and asked, "What?"
Wen Shuangmu realized she had called the name out loud and replied, "Nothing." She switched to goading in her mind: "Not talking? I thought letting me be reborn would require an equivalent task in return. Fine, I got a freebie, which suits me just fine."
After a few seconds, a fancy entrance music played in Wen Shuangmu's head: "Ding dong! Life is so peaceful, where can we find excitement? Welcome to the 'Raise That Villain' system. As a textbook-level villain, Host, you only need to choose and raise a troublemaker in the book's world to break free from the original plot and return to 2022!"
Wen Shuangmu was speechless that Wu Xiaoqi had been silent for so long just to find special effect music. As she listened, her brow furrowed, and she interrupted, "I can go back?"
Wu Xiaoqi said, "After all, that body only became a vegetative state, not completely dead. This system provides the Host with one chance to revive and return. Host should make good use of this opportunity."
Wen Shuangmu nodded, "You just said I need to raise a villain. Who should I raise?"
Wu Xiaoqi: "The target can be chosen freely by the Host. Once bound by the system, it cannot be changed. The villain value will be calculated on a 0-100 progress bar, with 100 considered task completion. The task duration is limited to three years, otherwise the Host in this world will die and disappear in another form. If the Host wishes to achieve her goal early, it's recommended to choose a potential villain with a tendency for corruption to reduce task difficulty."
Wen Shuangmu listened absent-mindedly, clearly having other questions she wanted to ask but not knowing where to start. She fiddled with the plastic bag in her hand for a long while before finally asking, "Was he forced?"
Wu Xiaoqi: "Who?"
"Su Qiyan," Wen Shuangmu said. "Was he forced to fall in love with Xia Zhili?"
Wu Xiaoqi hadn't expected the Host to dwell on such a trivial question for so long: "...What do you think?"
Who would force the main characters in a campus novel to be together?
Wen Shuangmu fell silent, stuffing the remaining bit of sandwich back into the bag and turning to look out the window.
The city scenes flew by like a slideshow.
City First Hospital wasn't far from Mingli High School. As it was lunchtime and the outpatient doctors were still on break, Uncle Chen took Wen Shuangmu directly to the emergency room.
After getting a tetanus shot, the doctor also prescribed some ointment to apply on her waist and abdomen to help with the bruising.
Uncle Chen paid the bill and took Wen Shuangmu home.
He had other matters to attend to in the afternoon, so he dropped her off at the entrance of the residential complex. Worried, he repeated the doctor's instructions to her once more before leaving.
Wen Shuangmu walked into the elevator lobby next to the main hall. At two in the afternoon, not many residents were using the elevators, so one came up quickly.
The doors opened on both sides, and Wen Shuangmu, who was about to step in, hesitated and pulled her foot back.
"Not coming in?"
Su Qiyan noticed the movement and raised his eyelids slightly, glancing at her.
He was carrying a package, clearly having just come up from the self-service lockers on the second basement level.
"I am."
Wen Shuangmu's lips curved slightly as she walked in and stood beside him, using her door access card to select her floor.
Su Qiyan asked, "What happened to your hand?"
Wen Shuangmu looked at the bandage on her left arm, then lowered her head to tug at the darkened bloodstains on her white T-shirt, briefly explaining, "I accidentally bumped into something this morning."
Su Qiyan nodded, not asking how such a simple bump could cause such a serious injury. "How was the exam?"
He had already been admitted to Mingli with the highest comprehensive score during the spring recruitment.
"Not too bad."
"Mm."
Their brief exchange of pleasantries was interrupted by a notification sound from Su Qiyan's phone, and the conversation didn't continue.
The elevator fell into silence.
Su Qiyan tucked the package into the crook of his arm and lowered his head to reply to the message.
Wen Shuangmu stared at their reflections in the metal wall for a while.
Su Qiyan's eyes and brows always had a distant and cold look, quite similar to how Wu Xiaoqi had described him in the script – noble and cold, proud and arrogant.
She used to think it was just his personality, that he was like this with everyone, and that being closest to him was good enough, but...
It turns out he wasn't like this with Xia Zhili.
North Shore Residence was a hotel-style apartment complex with two households per floor.
The Su family lived on the 15th floor, the Wen family on the 17th.
The numbers in the upper right corner of the elevator quickly jumped to 15, and Su Qiyan put away his phone and walked out.
Wen Shuangmu, for some reason, suddenly called out to him.
"Su Qiyan."
"Hm?"
The young man turned back, and they silently gazed at each other, one inside and one outside.
Seeing that she didn't speak, Su Qiyan used his foot to hold the elevator door that was about to close.
"Do you need something?"
"Will you date in high school?"
Su Qiyan was taken aback: "No."
Liar.
Wen Shuangmu barely held back from saying these two words out loud.
The elevator door automatically closed as the shoe tip retreated, and the rectangular patch of skylight in the corridor gradually narrowed into a thin line before disappearing completely.
As the elevator smoothly ascended, Wen Shuangmu suddenly recalled the first time she met Su Qiyan.
Five years ago, when the Wen family had just moved into this complex, her mother took her downstairs to meet a middle school classmate and close friend.
She sat on the edge of the sofa, nibbling on the popsicle Aunt Su had given her, when Su Qiyan came out of the music room after finishing his piano practice to see off his tutor.
Why did she blush then? Why did she stubbornly refuse to call him "big brother" despite the adults' urging?
If she hadn't blushed, if she had called him "big brother," would everything have turned out a little differently?
