Chapter Thirteen: The Monthly Exam

In the blink of an eye, a month slipped by unnoticed.

The February monthly exam, which was also the last test before winter break—in other words, the midterm—was upon them.

February 3rd, 9:00 a.m.

Seated in the examination hall for the first subject, Chinese, Lin Nan took a moment to steady his emotions.

Lin Lang had once taught him that, no matter the circumstances, one should always maintain inner calm; only in a state of complete serenity could one perform at their best.

Characters, vocabulary, classical poetry, literary Chinese, reading comprehension... Guided by the memories in his mind, Lin Nan quickly made his way to the final question—the essay.

This was the good thing about the Chinese exam: whether you knew the answer or not, whether it was right or wrong, you could always keep writing, filling every inch of the paper. It looked pleasing to the eye, unlike other subjects where, confronted with tough questions, your pen could go still, and even random guesses led nowhere, leaving swathes of blank space...

Glancing at the clock on the wall, Lin Nan saw that there was still over an hour left—ample time. He put down his pen and quietly contemplated the essay prompt.

"What is a dream? Is it a lighthouse in the darkness, guiding your way forward? Or is it an oasis in the desert, giving you the strength to go on..."

Write an essay of no less than 800 words on the topic "Dream." Any genre is acceptable, except poetry.

Staring at the prompt, Lin Nan immediately thought of the things Lin Lang had said to him over the past month. After pondering for a moment, he began to write.

Title: A Dream is Like a Target

First paragraph: Life is like archery, and a dream is like the target. If you can’t even find the target, what’s the point of drawing your bow each day?

Xiao Ming was a middle school student. Each day, like his classmates, he went to school, ate, and slept. Yet his grades were not very good, and he had no particular hobbies. As a result, he always felt that his days lacked joy.

That was until one day, when his father introduced him to basketball. The fervor of the court and the wild cheers of the crowd quickly made him fall in love with the sport.

From then on, every day Xiao Ming would train at basketball under his father’s guidance. Whether it was windy or rainy, bitterly cold or scorching hot, he would unfailingly appear on the court each morning.

Because this was his dream, and dreams require perseverance.

Gradually, Xiao Ming’s basketball skills grew ever stronger; almost no one around him could beat him. Each time he stood on the court, his confidence soared.

The same held true for his studies. He believed that if he could achieve success through persistence in basketball, he could do the same in academics.

...

In the end, Xiao Ming became an excellent basketball player. He found the target of his own life and persisted in pursuing it.

...

Without pausing once, Lin Nan finished his 800-word essay in just over twenty minutes. Though the story was simple, he believed his narrative was quite well written.

After all, this was his own real story from the past month, and everything he wrote was heartfelt and sincere.

Lin Nan estimated that his Chinese score this time would be a few points higher than last time—he had written so smoothly.

But was his own dream really the same as Xiao Ming’s?

To become a basketball player?

No one could say for sure. At the very least, right now Lin Nan truly loved basketball and had already stuck with it for a month.

After lunch, the afternoon math exam began quickly.

Lin Nan had always been especially good at math, as he had enjoyed the subject from a young age. When he first learned the multiplication tables, he was the quickest in the class to memorize them.

That time, the teacher rewarded him with a big red flower and told the class to learn from him.

The sense of pride and being praised for intelligence made Lin Nan take math seriously from the very start of his schooling.

Though Lin Nan always thought he could score full marks, every time he would miss out due to careless mistakes.

But this time was different. In just over an hour, he completed every question on the paper, and as he solved each one, he felt a familiar clarity.

It was reminiscent of that feeling in first grade when he solved 1+1=2—his mind was crystal clear.

For every question, after reading it once, he knew exactly which concepts were being tested and how to solve it.

This time, he was absolutely confident—he was sure to get a perfect score.

He even felt there was no need to check his work.

Still, to secure a spot in the top two hundred, Lin Nan carefully checked through his answers—not once, but twice.

The next morning’s physics and chemistry exams also left Lin Nan feeling confident about his improvement, though not as strongly as he did after math.

But then came the final subject of the afternoon: English.

It was, as always, a disaster.

The listening section was a jumble of unintelligible sounds; Lin Nan had no idea what was being said, so he simply chose whichever option looked most correct.

As for fill-in-the-blanks, reading comprehension, and sentence translation—he barely recognized any of the words, or rather, any of the vocabulary.

Sometimes he didn’t even know what the essay topic was. Many times, during monthly exams, he would glance at the essay prompt as soon as the paper was handed out, just to see if he recognized any of the words. If not, he’d quickly ask a classmate nearby what the topic was, so he wouldn’t be stuck unable to write.

This time, though, Lin Nan understood, because he saw the words “NBA” and “basketball.”

After answering all the multiple-choice questions he knew, there were still a dozen or so he was unsure about.

In the past, he would write the essay first and then “analyze” the remaining questions, but his analysis never helped; he always hovered at the passing mark.

This time, Lin Nan decided to select C for all the uncertain questions. With mathematical logic, he figured the odds would be better.

When he finished, Lin Nan glanced at the clock. To his surprise, he had more than half an hour left—more time than after the Chinese or math exams.

He passed the time by doodling on the paper, daydreaming, pretending to be reading while actually napping... Lin Nan used various tactics to get through it.

Returning home cheerfully, Lin Nan flashed a confident smile at Lin Lang. Beside him, Ye Xinlan, seeing the smile on her son’s face, almost believed he might make it into the top two hundred.

But even if he didn’t, it didn’t matter—the smile on Lin Nan’s face was enough to warm a mother’s heart.

The next day, like his classmates, Lin Nan sat up straight, quietly listening to Old Mei announce the exam results.

Mei Xiabing, full of energy, entered the classroom carrying a tall stack of notebooks and placed them on the podium.

This was a tradition in Class 6: after every monthly exam, Old Mei would buy dozens of notebooks out of her own pocket, worth two or three yuan each, to reward students who had improved by more than fifty places, those who ranked in the top hundred for the grade, or anyone who scored first in a subject. Each would receive a notebook.

Once, a top student in the class scored first place in four subjects, earning five notebooks in total.

When she strode up to the podium in that moment of glory, every classmate felt a twinge of envy, even those who didn’t like studying.

After arranging the notebooks, Old Mei picked up the results sheet and began to read.

First place: Zhang Yuxin, Chinese 107, Math 116, Physics 68, Chemistry 47, English 116. Total: 523, ranked second in the year, down one place, one notebook awarded.

Second place: Li Zhe, Chinese 99, Math 118, Physics 69, Chemistry 45, English 110. Total: 511, ranked eleventh in the year, up two places, one notebook awarded.

Third place:

Fourth place:

...

As Old Mei’s solemn voice continued, the students whose names were called strode up to the podium, basking in their moment.

She read out more than a dozen names, but Lin Nan’s had not yet appeared.

Lin Nan, however, showed no sign of worry. Class 6 was the top-performing class in the year, and more than twenty students from his class usually ranked in the top two hundred.

When the first-year classes were initially formed, the principal had assigned many excellent students to Class 3, as was the tradition at Experimental Secondary School.

Unexpectedly, under Mei Xiabing’s leadership, Class 6 had surpassed Class 3. Lin Nan remembered that the class’s best showing saw three students in the top ten for the entire year.

Considering there were twelve classes in the entire third year, this spoke volumes about Old Mei’s teaching prowess.

This was one reason Lin Nan did so well in math—Old Mei happened to teach the subject. Her humorous and lively style made Lin Nan, who already loved math, pay even closer attention in class.

After several more names, Lin Nan kept his eyes on Old Mei’s expression.

Suddenly, a faint smile broke her otherwise composed face.

Lin Nan thought, Is it finally my turn?

At long last, the long-awaited name was read out.

Twenty-first place: Lin Nan.

At the moment his name was spoken, many in the class wore expressions of surprise. In their minds, Lin Nan was usually ranked in the forties; such a dramatic improvement was unexpected.

But the next words left them utterly astonished.

Chinese 113, Math 120, Physics 64, Chemistry 42, English 68. Total: 477, ranked 189th in the year, up 223 places, three notebooks awarded, and first in the year for both Chinese and Math.

Old Mei paused, then added, “But this English score is really something else.”

As Lin Nan walked step by step to the podium, every classmate stared at him in disbelief.

What in the world? First place in two subjects, yet ranked 189th?

Then they remembered his English score.

Sixty-eight...

Maybe that really could land him in 189th place.

Still, everyone was amazed, including Zhang Yuxin, the top student.

On the other side, Li Zhe felt a twinge of discomfort seeing Zhang Yuxin watch Lin Nan. What kind of dumb luck was this? First in two subjects, yet that dreadful English score—what a waste.

Like a flower stuck in a cow pie!

Seeing Old Mei’s inexplicable smile, Lin Nan grinned sheepishly and accepted the three notebooks, symbols of honor.

As soon as he returned to his seat, Ye Dongyang snatched the notebooks from him, glancing through them. Clearly, he was the least surprised in the class by Lin Nan’s achievement.

Hard work brings reward—an unchanging truth.

But Lin Nan’s results were odd indeed.

A perfect score in math—Ye Dongyang could accept that.

But 112 in Chinese! First in the year!

That was hard to believe; he hadn’t even seen Lin Nan study Chinese.

Could it be that researching famous people’s life stories really improved his Chinese?

Ye Dongyang couldn’t figure it out.

On the podium, Old Mei read through every student’s results, giving particular praise at the end to Lin Nan’s remarkable progress.

The class turned to look at him again, including Zhang Yuxin, making Li Zhe feel another stab of annoyance.

But Old Mei’s final words drew the attention of every student in the room.

“This Friday, we will hold the final parent-teacher meeting before the break. Please be sure to inform your parents and ask them to make time to attend!”

A collective groan immediately swept the classroom...