Qin Jiao responded graciously, "It’s all thanks to Mr. Sun’s excellent guidance."

"You silly girl, don’t give me that empty flattery. I haven’t done much these past six months—I just gave you a sky where you could spread your wings and soar."

Qin Jiao said, "That in itself is incredibly rare."

’Indeed. How many children’s lives were ruined because of a teacher’s influence?’

’The outcome Qin Jiao faced in her past life had a great deal to do with her former homeroom teacher, Li Mei.’

Sun Guotao was deeply gratified. He felt a student like Qin Jiao was destined for great things. She wasn’t arrogant in victory or discouraged in defeat, she understood the ways of the world, and she was far more mature and sensible than her peers. It was an incredibly rare combination!

If Qin Jiao knew what Sun Guotao was thinking, she would surely feel a bit sheepish.

’The other parts were fine, but as for being mature and sensible, that was entirely thanks to my rebirth.’

’If I’m still this clueless after living a second time, I might as well be scrapped and remade.’

Meanwhile, Sun Guotao continued to read out the rankings.

"Second place is Chen Feng, 28th in the grade. Third, Shen Yi, 38th. Fourth, Meng Lanlan, 39th. Fifth, Li Ling, 51st... and seventh is Lin Nian, 81st."

Lin Nian froze in place. ’How could my score have dropped so much?’

Her mouth opened and closed, but no words came out for a long moment. Next to her, Meng Lanlan’s results were quite stable. Although she had placed fourth in the class this time, no longer the ’perennial second-placer,’ her average score had still improved slightly.

Meng Lanlan comforted her deskmate, "Xiao Nian, don’t feel too bad. Maybe this test just had questions you weren’t good at. Didn’t you see Chen Feng? He didn’t do well on the third exam, but he’s bounced back this time."

In reality, with the third year of high school already half over, everyone had pretty much mastered the same fundamentals. All that was left was to fill in the gaps and to endlessly review and reinforce what they had learned.

Hearing her words, Lin Nian turned to look at Chen Feng in the distance.

’Logically, Chen Feng’s score this time was on par with his usual performance. But he still hadn’t reclaimed first place—Qin Jiao had snatched it again. And on top of that, Shen Yi was about to overtake him!’

On the platform, Sun Guotao was praising Shen Yi. He smiled kindly and said, "We have several students in our class whose scores improve by a huge margin every time. I want to give special praise to Shen Yi here. When the semester started, his grades were very poor, but he has worked hard and consistently improved. He has also proven what his classmate Qin Jiao just said: as long as you start, it’s never too late!"

With Qin Jiao and Shen Yi as examples, the other students were fired up with motivation.

"Don’t worry, Mr. Sun! Our class will definitely crush Class Two in the next exam!" the kids declared fiercely.

Sun Guotao beamed, feeling a deep sense of gratification.

Qin Jiao glanced back and saw the utterly awful expressions on Lin Nian’s and Chen Feng’s faces. The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. She said to Shen Yi, "I’ll get you a Christmas present. If you can surpass Chen Feng in the final exams, I’ll give you a New Year’s gift, too!"

Shen Yi was actually a little unhappy, as his score still hadn’t caught up to Chen Feng’s.

Hearing Qin Jiao’s words, he nodded solemnly.

"Alright."

He didn’t say anything more. That single word was enough to show his determination.

What did surprise Qin Jiao, however, was that when school let out, Chen Feng walked up to her and said in a serious tone, "Qin Jiao, you’re brilliant."

"I know I’m brilliant."

"But I told you I would definitely take first place back from you!"

"Alright, then. I’ll be waiting to see it."