Chapter 207: Chapter 209: Laid Off

Keeping his head lowered, he started solving the problems. He seemed to have developed a fascination for solving problems recently. Every time he completed a set, a sense of achievement overwhelmed him in an indescribable way. He wondered why he had never found studying so interesting before, or maybe he had been just wasting his time before.

Tang Yuxin too, was diligently doing her homework, when suddenly, she looked up at Chen Lidong, who was engrossed in his work. For some reason, her gaze evoked distant memories. Sometimes, memories could indeed be painful.

Shaking her head, she picked up her pen, focusing all her energy on the homework before her. The most predominant sound at the moment was the rustling of pens on paper.

The mid-term exam came up not long after the English competition. It was a school-wide exam conducted four times a year. It was always a tense, unpleasant, and trying period for students.

“I think I did pretty well,” Chen Lidong said, grinning broadly, revealing his uniform, stunningly white teeth that were somewhat dazzling.

“I think I did okay too.”

Xu Miaomiao was quite confident about her performance as well.

“Chen Lidong, are you sure you did well?”

“Why not?” Chen Lidong raised his voice.

“Aren’t you aware of my capability? Do you want to test me again?”

“I can’t believe you performed well.”

Miaomiao genuinely didn’t believe him.

“Alright then, I’ll show you tonight whether I did well or not,” Chen Lidong said, a mysterious smile playing on his lips.

Tang Yuxin, sitting to the side, was utterly dumbfounded by their conversation.

Was it some sort of secret plot?

After school, at Tang Yuxin’s house, she sat by the window, the wind rustling through her hair.

“Told you I aced it,” Chen Lidong placed a stack of papers on the table, “See, I finished everything in half an hour.”

Miaomiao wiped the sweat off her forehead.

“I told you I did great, didn’t I?” Chen Lidong’s grin was so wide you could practically see all his teeth. His demeanor was just asking for a punch.

Tang Yuxin looked up at the sky, feeling a hint of melancholy.

Boy, why don’t you just go to heaven?

Don’t you know such statements could easily be misconstrued? Especially by mature women like her who have experienced many walks of life. It’s easy for them to misinterpret things. Or maybe her thoughts were not pure. But the other two were still naive children.

She touched her face. She was really getting old.

She couldn’t keep up with the thinking of young people. Or maybe she was just out of touch with their generation.

No matter how hard she tried to act young, in the end, she was stuck being old.

While she was wallowing in self-pity, the two childhood friends were still discussing their performances in the exam.

The mid-term exam results were released about three days later.

The nerd unsurprisingly secured the first position. It seemed winning the first position didn’t excite him a lot anymore, probably because he had gotten used to it. If anything, Chen Lidong felt more empathetic for him. What fun was life if securing the first position didn’t bring a spark of joy to his eyes? Unlike him, he did quite well in the exams, achieving the fifth position in class. His rank went up from twelfth to the top five. This remarkable accomplishment was enough to keep him delighted for half a term. At last, he managed to surpass Miaomiao. It would have been fine if he were behind Tang Yuxin, it’s hard to compete with such a prodigy. However, being outperformed by a girl would have been humiliating.

Wait, no, he was still a boy since he wasn’t of age yet.

Yeah, he was quite satisfied with his performance, occupying the fifth place.

Miaomiao couldn’t help but glare at Chen Lidong.

“Yuxin, do you think Chen Lidong cheated? How could he excel all of a sudden?”

“He is very intelligent,” Tang Yuxin spoke the truth. If not for her previous life’s expertise, she wouldn’t necessarily outperform Chen Lidong.

“I’m not stupid either,” Miaomiao retorted. “Even if we both aren’t high achievers, I’ve always ranked a few positions higher than him since elementary school. He was four ranks behind me last year, but this year he’s ranked ahead of me. It doesn’t make sense.”

“It does make sense.”

Tang Yuxin drew on a piece of paper with a ballpoint pen while explaining, “Boys generally have better cognitive abilities than girls. Chen Lidong isn’t stupid. In fact, he’s quite intelligent. Success isn’t only achieved through rote memorization. He has his own unique studying techniques. At first, I taught him, but later on, he began applying his own strategies and managed his time efficiently. You have to admit, he’s better than you at that.”

Tang Yuxin wasn’t trying to discredit Miaomiao. In fact, Miaomiao had already done pretty well by keeping herself within the top ten ranks of the class. That was a significant accomplishment for her.

As for Chen Lidong, after the gas poisoning incident, he seemed to understand the importance of education more clearly. The best way to make himself stand out was to excel in his studies.

That’s why he was dead set on reaching his daily targets. His efforts seemed to have paid off handsomely. He had improved his grades from being one of the worst performers in the class to being within the top ten.

The thing that made Tang Yuxin the happiest wasn’t Chen Lidong’s fifth rank, but the fact that he’d pushed Wei Jiani, who had always been ranked fifth, down the ranks. Wei Jiani hadn’t fallen to the sixth rank; she had fallen all the way down to the eleventh rank.

With such a score, Jiani would probably pop her eyes out, right?

Going from heaven to hell felt something like this.

This time, Wei Jiani must have felt like she was on a roller coaster of emotions. The more she was affected, the better. It’d be even better if this drama made her eave school.

But, she knew this was just her ideal world.

The world they lived in was anything but ideal. Wei Jiani wouldn’t quit school. If she quit school, then Tang Yuxin couldn’t have been reincarnated.

Tang Yuxin had been reincarnated, and though new obstacles presented themselves, Wei Jiani wouldn’t quit school. Even if she scored last in the class, she’d still continue schooling.

Meanwhile, with the transformation of the state-owned economy, a new concept emerged called “downsizing”. Chen Lidong’s father was amongst the first to be affected. The whole family, who had been revelling in Chen Lidong’s improving grades and awaiting his entry into high school and university, was suddenly struck by the news of the father being laid off. The responsibility of the family’s livelihood now rested solely on the shoulders of Chen Lidong’s mother.