Chapter 96: Chapter 96: First in All Subjects

「After the first monthly exam.」

As was customary, every teacher would go over the questions from the exam.

"The test papers will be handed out during activity time. This month’s exam was quite difficult, so don’t be discouraged if you didn’t do well. Just work harder for the midterm exam."

Xue Xiaying offered a word of comfort to the students.

Before leaving, Xue Xiaying smiled at Lin Ruoxi, then shook her head helplessly.

After the teacher left the classroom, Guo Qingqing began handing out the test papers.

"Let me see your math score. I got a 61. What about you?"

Qiu Mengze eagerly leaned his head over Xue Rui’s desk.

Thanks to Xue Rui’s previous words, Qiu Mengze, while still a bit of a slacker when it came to his studies, had shown considerable improvement compared to his previous attitude of not studying at all.

"What? You got a 61?" Xue Rui’s voice held a note of surprise.

He flipped over his own test paper. A 77.

"Huh? You actually scored that much higher than me!" Qiu Mengze looked shocked.

Xue Rui’s habits from his university days hadn’t faded yet, and he subconsciously thought Qiu Mengze had passed...

But in high school, the maximum score for math was 150.

Lin Ruoxi had just come down from the teacher’s platform and was walking past their desks.

"Lin Ruoxi, what did you score?"

Qiu Mengze was on good terms with Lin Ruoxi; he often let her cut in line at lunchtime.

He snatched Lin Ruoxi’s paper, froze for a moment upon seeing the score, and then broke into a wry, helpless expression.

Xue Rui glanced up. Lin Ruoxi, 150 points.

His and Qiu Mengze’s scores combined weren’t as high as Lin Ruoxi’s.

"Didn’t they say it was supposed to be difficult?" Qiu Mengze muttered.

Lin Ruoxi thought for a moment. "No, it was very simple."

The corner of Xue Rui’s eye twitched. ’You can’t just say that!’

Xue Rui leaned in and whispered instructions, "Right now, you’re supposed to say, ’It was so hard! I just got lucky this time. I happened to have seen this type of problem before and even guessed a few multiple-choice questions right.’"

Saying that would comfort the surrounding students who had done poorly.

Even if the students knew the top student was lying, they would still feel a lot better.

After all, if even the top student found the questions difficult, it was only natural that their own scores would be a little lower.

But Lin Ruoxi was too honest; she just said what she felt.

Lin Ruoxi glanced over furtively and replied in a small voice, "Mm... I understand."

"Here..." Qiu Mengze handed the paper back to Lin Ruoxi.

From Qiu Mengze’s expression, Xue Rui could see he looked like he had suffered a massive blow; a bit of the light had gone out of his eyes.

Xue Rui sighed. He had been crushed by Lin Ruoxi before, so he completely understood how his childhood friend was feeling.

"Why is the answer to this question B?"

"I chose B too."

...

The top students at the front of the class were in a foul mood. Their scores this time were far from ideal, and they all looked dejected.

"A few people, come help hand out the test papers."

Guo Qingqing called over a few classmates, and they distributed the papers for the different subjects.

"Holy shit! Sister Xi got a perfect score in English!" a male student holding a stack of papers exclaimed in surprise.

As soon as he said that, the students handing out the tests started searching through their stacks for Lin Ruoxi’s name.

"Same here! Lin Ruoxi, perfect score in Physics."

"Chemistry too!"

...

In the end, aside from losing a few points in Chinese, Lin Ruoxi had achieved a perfect score in every other subject.

Even Xue Rui hadn’t expected this result.

He had originally thought that Lin Ruoxi was probably just exceptionally good at math and had maybe held back a few points on other subjects. He figured that since she had given this exam her all, her total score would most likely surpass Gu Muxue’s.

The difficulty of this monthly exam was said to be the highest it had been in many years.

But, excluding Chinese, Lin Ruoxi had gotten a perfect score in every single subject...

The gazes of the entire class focused on Lin Ruoxi.

They couldn’t believe there was a top student of this caliber in their class.

Lin Ruoxi looked up at her classmates.

’They... seem to be waiting for me to say something?’

"It was so hard, I just got lucky..."

Following Xue Rui’s instructions, Lin Ruoxi repeated the line he had given her.

"Ahem! Ahem!" Xue Rui coughed insistently, trying to signal Lin Ruoxi to stop talking.

But Lin Ruoxi completely misunderstood Xue Rui’s meaning, thinking he wanted her to speak louder.

"It was so hard!" Lin Ruoxi repeated loudly.

"Sister Xi, you..."

Many people suddenly felt an inexplicable discomfort in their hearts.

’Lucky? Just happened to have seen this type of problem?’

’So lucky you got a perfect score in every subject? Who would believe that!’

Especially since, lately, Lin Ruoxi was either sleeping in class or skipping school on Fridays...

Xue Rui covered his face.

Lin Ruoxi hadn’t understood his instructions at all.

What he had meant was, if someone asked how she got such a high score, she should recite the line he gave her.

But no one had asked her, and now she had just repeated what Xue Rui taught her in front of the entire class.

The naive Lin Ruoxi was completely unaware that, with her perfect scores across the board, saying such words was equivalent to a passive-aggressive taunt.

And it was a blow that hit a very wide audience...

However, because Lin Ruoxi didn’t talk much, her classmates knew she had a simple and naive personality.

Plus, she had been bringing them food recently, and she was so pretty. The students just assumed Lin Ruoxi was learning to joke around.

"Lin Ruoxi, let me see how you did the last major question."

"Explain it to me, too."

Many of the top students from the front of the room swarmed to the "leisure area" in the back of the classroom.

Normally, these good students each had subjects they excelled in, and after an exam, they would usually gather to discuss their insights.

But now... they had all come to find Lin Ruoxi.

Suddenly surrounded by so many people, Lin Ruoxi grew very nervous.

No one suspected Lin Ruoxi of cheating, because you couldn’t get a perfect score by cheating.

The corner of Xue Rui’s mouth twitched. ’These students are asking Lin Ruoxi how she solved the problems?’ 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

’Mortals can’t learn a genius’s thought process.’

’Go ahead and ask. You’ll ask, and they’ll end up speechless.’

With time to spare, he decided to go to Class One to find Gu Muxue and have her explain his incorrect answers.

Xue Rui gathered a pile of test papers and left the Class Two classroom.

Lin Ruoxi grew more and more nervous. Finally, she handed her paper to a classmate and hurriedly squeezed out of the crowd.

"I... I’m going home."

...

「Class One Classroom.」

News of Lin Ruoxi’s perfect scores had already spread.

Gu Muxue sat at her desk, staring at her test papers with a somewhat dazed expression.

Curiously, Xue Rui picked up Gu Muxue’s papers, checking her scores one subject at a time.

Aside from a perfect score in English, Gu Muxue had lost many points in all her other subjects.

Xue Rui did a rough calculation. Gu Muxue’s total score was about 50 points lower than Lin Ruoxi’s.

Between top students, every single point was a huge gap. A 50-point difference was an insurmountable peak.

Besides, Lin Ruoxi got a perfect score because the test’s maximum was a perfect score; it didn’t necessarily represent her true ability.

"Muxue? Can you go over these questions with me?"

Xue Rui handed over his disastrously scored papers, hoping to help Gu Muxue change her mood.

Xue Rui suddenly felt a little regretful about letting Lin Ruoxi reveal her full strength.

In all of Hedong City, only a few students got into Qingbei each year, and Gu Muxue was considered a prime candidate.

In his past life, Gu Muxue must have performed exceptionally well, just barely scraping past the Qingbei admission line, though she didn’t end up going in the end...

Xue Rui didn’t want Lin Ruoxi to hide her abilities. Besides, if Lin Ruoxi got first place, it could also serve as a little motivation for Gu Muxue.

But... the pressure now was a bit too much, and he was afraid it would be counterproductive.

"Lin Ruoxi... I think she gave me a pack of tissues once," Gu Muxue murmured.

She remembered the girl who used to always keep her head down.

"Oh, never mind her. Go over my questions first."

Xue Rui changed the subject. He didn’t want to talk about Lin Ruoxi with Gu Muxue.

"You even took her to the nurse’s office last time. Why not have her go over the questions with you?"

Gu Muxue pouted. "She’s the grade’s number one now."

"Her ability to explain problems is less than one ten-thousandth of Teacher Muxue’s," Xue Rui said with a serious face.

"Really?" Gu Muxue stared into Xue Rui’s eyes.

"Really!" Xue Rui nodded emphatically.

Of course, Xue Rui was also telling the truth; he couldn’t understand Lin Ruoxi’s explanations at all.

The corners of Gu Muxue’s lips curled up slightly. She didn’t know why she had to be number one, only that if she was going to do something, she had to do it well.

But now, Xue Rui had come to her just like he always did, completely unbothered by her drop in rank.

She felt that whether she was first or second wasn’t important at all.

"A 70?" Gu Muxue said, deliberately putting on a stern face.

"I only got a 30 last time..."

"The answer to this question should be C. Look here..."

"And this one, even though I got it right, I actually just guessed."

"Mm, Xiaorui has a good attitude."

Gu Muxue quickly forgot her earlier unhappiness.

More than an hour passed as Gu Muxue went over two sets of test papers with Xue Rui.

Both of them were a little tired.

"Give me your phone, I’m going to play a game for a bit."

As if it were second nature, Xue Rui took the phone out of Gu Muxue’s bag.

Gu Muxue didn’t mind; Xue Rui knew her phone’s passcode.

In this era, cell phones weren’t considered particularly private items, so Gu Muxue didn’t think much of it.

But Xue Rui was well-behaved. He didn’t snoop through Gu Muxue’s photo album, just browsed the software store.

’Where’s Happy Elimination?’

After entering middle age, he couldn’t keep up with competitive games anymore. Xue Rui usually killed time by scrolling through short videos or playing stress-relieving mini-games like Happy Elimination.

Xue Rui was a little puzzled. It wasn’t in the app store, and Baidu searches turned up no results.

"It hasn’t been made yet?" Xue Rui was startled.

He had originally planned to make some simple, practical software to release and earn a bit of money.

For example, he could make an iPad version of a calculator first to capture the market.

Due to Apple’s arrogance, they wouldn’t release an iPad calculator for more than a decade to come...

As for games? He had never even considered it.

The development difficulty was too high, and it required a lot of capital—not something he and Lin Ruoxi could accomplish.

Even if they succeeded, it would be a race against time, and they would soon be crushed by similar games released by major companies.

But, Happy Elimination was a special case.

The barrier to entry for development was very low, the controls were simple, and the game had a long lifespan. Even a dozen years later, its monthly active user count would still be very high.

Xue Rui’s graduation project back in the day had been a tile-matching mini-game...

This type of game with a low development barrier relied mainly on operations.

However... in this era, no one had made a touchscreen version of a tile-matching game yet.

At least in the early stages after the game’s release, he wouldn’t have to compete with anyone on operations.

Xue Rui didn’t expect to make a fortune from it. Being able to cash in on the first wave of profits would be a success in itself.