Chapter 223: 083 Tremor, Lianlian’s Ranking (Second Update)_2

The people from the affiliated high school hadn’t slept well for two days, checking all the problems one by one.

Be a person.

Thank you.

Jiang Fulai put away his phone after replying and glanced at Bai Lian, “Shall we take a look next door?”

Next door was the closed Xingyi Martial Arts School.

It was exactly what Bai Lian wanted.

When the two reached the door next door, a dark-skinned middle-aged man was shooing away two men in suits, “Scram, I’m not selling!”

It was nearing November, and the weather had turned cool.

Most people were wearing coats.

The middle-aged man was still in a T-shirt, and when he lifted his arm, the well-defined muscles were visible, his eyes were sharp, and at a glance, one could tell he was a powerful martial artist.

He glanced at Bai Lian and Jiang Fulai, “Are you here to buy the property too? I’m not selling.”

“No, Hall Master Jin,” Bai Lian just smiled, “We just want to see what the old martial arts school looked like.”

Today was Saturday, and Bai Lian was wearing a light brown pleated skirt with a loose jacket of the same color series, lazy and relaxed, only embroidered with delicate white auspicious cloud patterns at the cuffs and neckline.

Her long hair was still casually tied up behind her head.

Her appearance was always deceptive, polite and modest, winning the affection of elders.

Even Hall Master Jin was no exception.

“I haven’t been the Hall Master for a long time,” Hall Master Jin opened the door, letting them in, “Feel free to look around.”

The Xingyi Martial Arts School was much larger than the Calligraphy Association.

Upon entering the school, there was a huge practice ground.

To the right of the practice ground were eight rows of wooden posts, ten in each row, spaced one meter apart, with three stone tables behind them and stone stools stacked next to them.

A large space was left open.

In the middle was a one-meter-wide flagstone path, with grass growing in the cracks between the stones.

To the left was a practice ground enclosed by stone bricks, with two rows of weapon racks near the surrounding wall where weapons used to be placed—but now they were empty.

Following the flagstone path straight ahead, one could see a porch, and walking through it revealed many rooms on both sides.

There were changing rooms, meditation rooms, sandbag rooms…

Passing this long corridor, one could see the accommodations in the back, with a well. Hall Master Jin lived in the corner and was drawing water, with huge dormitories on both sides.

This indicated how prosperous the martial arts school once was.

After looking around, Bai Lian and Jiang Fulai politely said their goodbyes.

“What do you think?” Jiang Fulai opened the gate, slightly bowed his head and asked.

Bai Lian shook her head, stretching out her hand to shade the sunlight in front of her eyes, and spoke softly, “I’ll ask around some more.”

She still didn’t know how the martial arts school had gone under.

Monday.

All the high schools in Beicheng were tallying student scores.

Xiangcheng High School was no exception.

The principal had arrived at the school early and convened a meeting with the homeroom teachers.

“Teacher Lu,” as soon as Lu Lingxi arrived, the principal and head of education urged her, “Quick, see how many points Ning Xiao from your class got.”

Lu Lingxi knew they were anxious. Sitting in front of the computer, she logged in with her homeroom teacher ID, retrieved the class student scores, and directly searched for “Ning Xiao” in the search bar.

The page kept spinning.

Today, all the high schools in Beicheng were pulling up scores, and the Beicheng education network was clearly overwhelmed.

It took nearly a minute to display:

Name: Ning Xiao

Subject, Score, Ranking

Chinese, 122, 74

Math, 121, 5

English, 131, 109

Science Comprehensive, 248, 25

Total score: 632, Rank: 31

“31?!” The principal was startled by the ranking and couldn’t help exclaiming.

This ranking showed the overall ranking for the entire Beicheng.

Last time during the joint exams, Ning Xiao was still ranked outside the top 100, and now he suddenly soared to 31?!

“Could this match up with that international class of Beicheng?” The director of studies also couldn’t help but speak up.

They all knew about the international class of Beicheng High School, with a total of forty students, the most competitive school in Beicheng, with several students getting into Jiangjing University each year.

Hearing this, other teachers looked over.

“How did his grades improve so quickly? Chen Zhu is only ranked 80, right?”

There had never been a student from Xiangcheng in the top fifty, and today was the first time. A bunch of teachers were extremely excited, “Look at his math, top five! And the natural sciences comprehensive, also in the top thirty!”

“121 points,” said the head of the math department while adjusting his glasses, “I heard that Song Min got 130 in math, Ning Xiao isn’t much behind him.”

“Right, top five. Not many from the international class of Beicheng High School can match Ning Xiao,” the director of studies said, looking at the principal with excitement, “You ask Director Pan, is this score decent enough? In the next joint exams, will Beicheng still provide us with resources?”

Never had there been a student in Xiangcheng who ranked in the top ten in any subject.

Ning Xiao was the first!

Top five in math, what did that mean!

Even in Beicheng High School, this was one in ten thousand!

The principal knew this, of course, as he stared at the page and called Director Pan, feeling that this time, they might truly have a chance!

Lu Lingxi was also startled by Ning Xiao’s results.

People were congratulating Lu Lingxi.

With looks of particular envy.

Being able to mentor a student who ranked in the top 31 of the whole Beicheng, it wasn’t just an honor for the school but also for Xiangcheng.

Only the homeroom teacher of Class 8, looking at Lu Lingxi, suddenly spoke up, “Search for student Bai Lian.”

“Oh.” Lu Lingxi snapped back to her senses and started to search for Bai Lian’s name.

She pressed the enter key.

The webpage was still loading.

The other teachers were much more relaxed than before, “Student Bai, her chemistry is a bit weak, not sure how she did in math. Last time she scored five points more than Ning Xiao in math, Ning Xiao missed a multiple-choice question.”

“Could she also be in the top ten in math?” one teacher boldly speculated.

Most teachers didn’t know much about Bai Lian, but they knew she was a girl, “I doubt that. I feel Bai is good at Chinese, and this time math was so hard, she can’t have scored higher than Ning Xiao.”

Everyone was guessing casually when Lu Lingxi chuckled. She knew Bai Lian very well, “Don’t underestimate girls, okay? Just watch, student Bai Lian might even have a score of 120 in math.”

After all, it was rumored that Song Min only had 130. Lu Lingxi knew her students well but didn’t think about competing with someone like Song Min.

As they spoke.

“Swoosh”

Bai Lian’s results came up.

Name: Bai Lian

Subject, Score, Rank

Chinese, 150, 1

Math, 150, 1

English, 126, 137

Natural Sciences Comprehensive, 182, 966

Total score: 608, Rank: 97

Beneath the computer screen, these few lines of scores were so clear. The several teachers who were still joking, including Lu Lingxi, were motionless.

They just silently looked at the first two lines—

[Chinese, 150, 1

Math, 150, 1]

The principal, who was on the phone with Director Pan, naturally saw it too and went silent in an instant.

The whole classroom was as quiet as could be.

For about a minute.

The usually refined homeroom teacher of Class 8 quietly uttered a word: “Damn.”