The monthly exam was in two days. Once the results were out, it would be impossible for anyone to talk her into dropping out.
The two days passed quickly. For every monthly exam, the students were shuffled and assigned to new exam rooms. The assignments were mainly based on the rankings from the previous test. For example, the top thirty students in the grade would be in one room, and so on.
The exam room Tan You was now in was for the bottom thirty students of the grade. Sitting down in Han Tingting's assigned seat, Tan You stared at the room for a long time.
'I won't always be in an exam room like this! Next time, I'll definitely work hard to get into the top exam room!'
Tan You wasn't blindly confident. Her grades in the second year of middle school had been quite good. While she wasn't in the top ten of her grade, she had consistently been in the top five of her class.
Besides, the school Han Tingting attended was just an ordinary town middle school. Its teaching quality and faculty were similar to Tan You's previous school, which was why she had this much confidence.
As for the future, Tan You didn't dare to think too far ahead. At the end of the day, she was just an ordinary small-town girl. Her perspective wasn't very broad; you could even say she was a bit of a country bumpkin.
But that was okay. The Tan You of now didn't understand, but she would slowly grow and mature in the future.
The first subject of the monthly exam was Chinese. As it was her strong suit, Tan You was naturally confident. After looking over the entire test paper, her confidence grew even stronger.
By the time she finished the essay, only one class period had passed. But when Tan You noticed that the other students in her exam room had already stopped writing long ago, she couldn't help but be surprised. 'Have they all finished?'
When her sharp eyes caught sight of a classmate's test paper, which was completely blank, Tan You understood. It turned out they didn't know how to do the problems, so they just left them empty.
In an exam room for students at the bottom of the class, the teachers rarely paid much attention. The teachers knew they were the lowest-ranked students in the grade. Even if they cheated, what could they possibly accomplish? They couldn't cheat their way to first place, could they?
Tan You glanced over and thought nothing of it. She had always been fast at taking tests. Especially when taking Chinese and English exams in the past, she could always finish early, sometimes with a whole hour to spare.
That was why Tan You couldn't quite understand why everyone else took so long on their tests. She especially couldn't fathom how students in her previous exam rooms were still writing when the teacher came to collect the papers.
In Tan You's opinion, the allotted time for the exam was more than enough.
The second-year monthly exams covered Chinese, math, English, and physics. Subjects like history, geography, and biology were only tested during midterms and finals. Furthermore, the scores from those subjects didn't count toward the total grade, so students usually didn't place much importance on them.
After the Chinese exam ended, students who needed to use the restroom did so. The math test was next. This was the norm at the school—one exam after another, with very little time for a break.
Tan You didn't move. She just rested her head on her desk, seizing the time to look over her math book. She had the least confidence in math, so she naturally used this moment for some last-minute cramming.
No one spoke to Tan You while she was reading. After all, they weren't from the same class and didn't know each other. They just sneered inwardly, 'You're already at the bottom. What's the point of pretending to be a good student now?'
Tan You didn't understand the thoughts of the students around her, nor did she want to. Although she had spent a lot of effort on math these past two days, Tan You knew her own level. She figured her math score on this monthly exam was probably a lost cause.
Sure enough, when the math test was handed out, Tan You's vision went dark. She had a good habit of looking over the entire test paper as soon as she got it, aiming to get a clear picture of what to expect.
After just one look at the paper, two words echoed in her mind: 'It's over.' There were so many problems she couldn't solve. As someone who struggled with science and math, she couldn't even tell how difficult the questions were; she only knew she couldn't do most of them.
She stumbled her way through the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions. For the longer problems at the end, Tan You tried her best, writing down any formulas she could remember, even if she didn't know how to solve them.
Some were even formulas and theorems from the third year of middle school. But with her head spinning from the difficult problems, how could Tan You have thought of that? She was just focusing intently on the test, more seriously than she ever had for her own high school entrance exams.
Back then, Tan You hadn't understood the importance of those exams for herself. But now, Tan You knew how important this test was for Han Tingting. It would determine whether Han Tingting could continue her studies at school and whether she could have a different kind of future.
The monthly exams took all day, finishing at six in the evening. Today was Saturday, and there was no evening self-study session. The students had a day off and only needed to return to school for evening self-study on Sunday.
After the exams, Tan You also returned to her dorm. By that time, her roommates had all left, leaving Tan You to pack her things alone in the room. She was late because she had stayed behind in the classroom to organize her workbooks.
For the past two days, Tan You had been frantically catching up on Han Tingting's workbooks. After getting a decent grasp on Chinese and English, Tan You started battling it out with math and physics.
She had a stubborn streak. Even if she was bad at science, she refused to believe she couldn't improve if she just put in the time and did the problems. She wasn't aiming for first place in the grade; she would be content as long as her science scores reached the passing line.
Since she was only going home for a day, Tan You didn't pack many books. She just brought her math textbook and one workbook. She would be satisfied if she could get through ten pages of exercises.
Han Tingting's family lived in a small village on the edge of town. It was about a forty-minute bike ride from school. The whole way was a winding path of small roads. Riding on this path, so completely different from the one back home, Tan You felt a little excited.
Because of her poor eyesight, she always had to hurry home after school on Saturdays, afraid that she wouldn't be able to see the road clearly after dark. She also had to be careful not to bump into anyone. Her parents used to constantly remind her of these things.
In this strange world, unable to see her parents, Tan You was surprised to find that she didn't miss them very much. 'Perhaps it's because they were rarely a part of my life to begin with.'
Thanks to Han Tingting's good eyesight, Tan You rode her bike quickly and arrived at Han Tingting's home in less than half an hour. When she got there, she saw an old man cooking. Seeing Tan You return, he instinctively moved to sit behind the stove.
Tan You didn't say anything. She just put down her schoolbag and went into the kitchen. Soon, a fragrant aroma filled the air.
Grandpa Han sniffed the air. "Does your school teach you how to cook?"
Tan You's hands paused, and a flicker of panic crossed her eyes. "I... I learned from the auntie who cooks."
Tan You didn't have many hobbies. Besides reading novels, she liked watching others cook. Coincidentally, the landlady of the house where she boarded was a pretty good cook, and Tan You had watched her a few times.