Make a Fortune and Become Well-off [90] - Chapter 152

After Director Wang and the others left, Principal Sun grew increasingly unhappy in his office. It was one thing for him to want to use the examination to train his students’ mental resilience, but it was another for others to use his school as a stepping stone to stimulate their students.

He angrily went to the dean of the Academic Affairs Office and told him everything. When he talked to the dean, he became less formal and complained, “Old Wang really doesn’t take our No. 1 High School seriously at all. They’re stepping on our reputation to boost Wuzhong’s fame. If they succeed this time, we won’t be able to attract good students next year.”

He instructed the dean, “Tell the class teachers to pay more attention to their students’ studies, one by one, so we can beat Wuzhong in this joint examination.”

He couldn’t help but add angrily, “Tell them we have to get more students in the top ten and top hundred in Wucheng than Wuzhong High School.”

Although the top scorer in the high school entrance exam was from Wuzhong, No. 1 High School also had a few students in the top ten. So he wasn’t worried about the top ranks, but he feared that if they had far fewer students than Wuzhong in the top 100 or top 200, it would be humiliating.

With that said, the class teachers were suddenly informed about the joint examination.

In regular exams, teachers set the questions and test the students, so the difficulty fell on the students. But once the joint exam came up, the pressure shifted to the teachers, and they became nervous.

If they lost to Wuzhong in the joint exam, they would be embarrassed when facing Wuzhong’s teachers in the future. So they cheered up and motivated their students. “The time has come for you to be truly tested. If you don’t perform well in this exam, I won’t say anything. But if you lose to Wuzhong, just think about how embarrassing that would be. Everyone says Wuzhong and No. 1 High School are the two best high schools. The doors of both schools are open to each other, but Wuzhong always acts like they’re a head above us. Do you think they’re a head above you?”

These words fired up the students, who had just finished their monthly exams and had relaxed again. They shouted, “No!”

“Wuzhong beats us in competitive exams every year, but that’s because we gave up. We defeated them in the college entrance exam. The joint examination isn’t a competitive exam, it’s a test of what you’ve learned in class. Do you have the confidence to beat them?”

The students shouted “Yes!” again, their faces red with determination.

If it had been a competitive exam, No. 1 High School might not have compared well to Wuzhong, which had invested significant energy and resources, including professional teachers, into such contests. But if it was a test of their regular performance, many of them had been among the top scorers in their county’s high school entrance exams. They had been top students in their respective middle schools—how could they fear Wuzhong?

The teachers continued to encourage them. Jiang Ning did not expect that, after just finishing the monthly exams, the joint exam would be announced.

However, the teachers didn’t tell them when the joint exam would be. They only knew it was coming. Telling them in advance was meant to prepare them mentally and urge them to study harder so they wouldn’t perform poorly in the exam and embarrass themselves.

Originally, the first-year high school students had two days off during the weekend. But after news of the joint exam came out, they, like the second and third years, were only given one day off on Sunday.

This was a bit inconvenient for Jiang Ning. She had originally planned to write her manuscript on Saturday morning and review the test papers handed out by the teachers in the afternoon. With only Sunday off, she now had to write a manuscript that normally took two days to complete in just one day. It was a lot of pressure for her.

Writing too many manuscripts too intensively was exhausting, even for Jiang Ning. She could only divide her writing into two sessions, writing for two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. One session produced 12,000 words.

That was already her limit. Even with her emotional stability, she still felt tired from such intense writing.

Fortunately, she had always been good at adjusting. During other moments, she would seize every opportunity to jot down the upcoming plot, outline, and detailed notes.

With an outline and detailed plan, writing according to it meant less thinking, and naturally, she wouldn’t feel as tired.

However, even if she tried to find every opportunity, the teachers weren’t leaving her any gaps.

In the past, there was at least some break time, but lately, the teachers liked to extend the class.

When the bell rang, signaling the end of a class, the teachers continued as if they hadn’t heard it, leaving the students only a short window to go to the bathroom.

There was always a queue at the toilet, and everyone had to rush back. If they were late, the teachers wouldn’t say anything; they would just wave them in and continue the lesson.

If there were two consecutive classes, such as when the third and fourth periods were both math, the math teacher wouldn’t stop teaching, only asking if anyone needed the restroom after the bell rang.

If a student needed to go, they could leave on their own, while the rest stayed in class. It wasn’t just one teacher either—all of them were like this. As for physical education classes?

Ha, there were no physical education classes in high school anymore, only Chinese, mathematics, and English.

The English class was okay—Teacher Wang didn’t like taking up extra class time—but the Chinese and mathematics teachers always extended their classes. All the non-essential courses not part of the college entrance exam were taken over by these main subjects.

In fact, the teachers were exhausted too. They were human, after all. Who would willingly work overtime? But they had no choice; for them, students’ grades were the top priority.

The principal of No. 1 High School was pleased when he saw how hard both the students and teachers were working.

While the principal was satisfied, Jiang Ning was on the verge of tears.

Studying took up all of their time, and even the time for dormitory lectures at noon was gone. Everyone stayed in the classroom to study.

Jiang Ning used that time to write down the outline and details in her notebook.

Others might not have known what she was doing, but seeing her write so seriously, non-stop for fifteen minutes, made it look like she had a whip behind her, urging her to keep going.

This wasn’t the first time Wuzhong had arranged a joint exam with several schools. They were all familiar with the process. After negotiating with the Education Bureau and communicating with the principals and directors of the other schools, the date was confirmed to be in ten days.

Jiang Ning sighed in relief after learning the specific date of the joint exam.

It was okay to push herself like this for a short time, but if she had to do it every day, she wouldn’t be able to bear it. It was only the first year of high school, and the next two years would bring even more exams. In such a competitive atmosphere, the joint exam finally arrived.