Xia Xiaolan was confident.

But while waiting for news from County No. 1 High School, she continued her business as usual—studying whenever she had spare time.

On her next trip to Shangdu City to deliver eels, Zhu Fang asked curiously:

“Xiaolan, your uncle said you’re going back to school. Does that mean you’ll stop doing this business?”

She quickly explained, “I’m planning to, but I’ll at least finish through November. After that, there won’t be any eels left anyway.”

Zhu Fang felt conflicted.

To him, this was serious. A young girl like Xia Xiaolan supporting her family wasn’t normal. At her age, there were only a few paths: get assigned a job, continue school, or get married.

Marriage clearly wasn’t her choice.

He admired her ambition—but also realized that after November, he might not see her again. The thought alone kept him up at night. So when she came to deliver goods, he couldn’t help asking.

Now that she confirmed it, he felt a quiet disappointment.

Their connection had always been through the eel deliveries to Huanghe Restaurant. Once November passed and the fields no longer had eels, that link would disappear.

Would she still supply goods after that? And if so—what would she even sell?

Zhu Fang returned home in low spirits.

His mother noticed immediately.

Under her questioning, he spilled everything:

“What if we help Xiaolan get a job? She wants to go to college just to settle in the city, right?”

His mother was almost furious.

A rural girl. Junior high education. Selling eels for a living—handling something slimy and smelly that most women wouldn’t even touch. And yet her son was so taken with her that he was offering to arrange her a job?

The only thing she had going for her was her looks.

A pretty teenage village girl coming to the city to make a living—and just happening to catch her son’s attention? It sounded too convenient. His mother couldn’t help suspecting it was all deliberate—a trap, step by step, even down to delivering goods to Huanghe Restaurant.

She was furious—but couldn’t say any of this out loud.

Zhu Fang wouldn’t believe her.

He was in his twenties, with no plans to marry—not because he couldn’t, but because he was picky. And now he had clearly set his sights on Xia Xiaolan.

After some thought, his mother softened her tone:

“She’s pretty? Isn’t your restaurant hiring female servers?”

The waitresses at Huanghe Restaurant were already considered attractive—but none compared to Xia Xiaolan. If she showed up, she’d definitely catch the attention of the leadership.

That, however, made Zhu Fang uneasy.

And besides—being a waitress meant serving others. He didn’t like the idea.

When he kept pressing, his mother held her ground:

“I’ll decide after I meet her.”

But would Xia Xiaolan agree to meet his mother?

Right now, she was only waiting for her results.

Seven exam papers—and yet after two days, County No. 1 High School still hadn’t released the results?

…

The moment Xia Xiaolan handed in her papers, Teacher Sun had been called away.

Originally, she had wanted to review Xia Xiaolan’s exam carefully, but instead hurriedly passed the papers to Teacher Qi from the senior year group.

“Teacher Qi, I’ve left the papers on your desk.”

Teacher Qi was in charge of transfer students, but she had little expectation for Xia Xiaolan. A junior high graduate wanting to jump straight into senior year and take next year’s gaokao? It sounded unrealistic.

County No. 1 High School was the best in Anqing County—not just anyone could enroll.

Still, since the higher-ups had approved the test, she had no choice but to arrange it. She had already handed the task off to the new teacher, Sun.

When the papers were passed back to her, she didn’t take them seriously.

The senior year workload was heavy. Every year, the school hoped to send more students to college. Even so, their results weren’t impressive—this year, only eight students made it into undergraduate programs, including repeaters.

That was the harsh reality of the gaokao.

There was no way a junior high graduate could meet their standards.

So she took the papers home to grade—and promptly forgot about them.

Two days passed.

Chen Qing hovered nearby but didn’t dare ask about the results.

Teacher Qi shared a small desk at home with her husband, who was also a teacher. They took turns using it. On the third day after Xia Xiaolan’s exam, she returned home to find her husband grading papers.

“Did your class have an exam today?”

“No, these were on your desk. I graded them for you. Interesting set of papers—I don’t recall you mentioning this student.”

Only then did Teacher Qi remember.

She had completely forgotten about Xia Xiaolan’s exam.

“Transfer student. Never attended high school, wants to take next year’s gaokao. The school’s getting desperate for talent—letting anyone try. The results must be terrible, right?”

Her husband shook his head.

“Not exactly. The student’s strengths are… uneven.”

That was putting it lightly.

The Chinese paper was weak—basic memorization questions left blank or incorrect. Comprehension was average, but the essay stood out: thoughtful, well-written, beyond what you’d expect from an average high schooler.

Politics was a disaster—almost no correct answers.

But the English paper?

Exceptional.

English had only recently been added to the gaokao, and many students still struggled with the alphabet. Yet this paper wasn’t just accurate—the handwriting was confident and fluid, each word written cleanly, without hesitation.

Teacher Qi’s husband, an English teacher, was impressed.

Meanwhile, Teacher Qi, who taught Chinese, frowned at the weak fundamentals.

The contrast between the two subjects was striking.

By the fourth day, Teacher Qi finally gathered other teachers to finish grading all the papers.

Looking at the final scores, she froze.

Then she called Teacher Sun over:

“Xiao Sun… you were watching that girl closely during the exam, right?”

“She didn’t cheat, did she?!”

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