Stop Chasing the School Belle, My Shy Deskmate is Sweet and Soft - Chapter 44

“Tenth place: Xia Tian, Chinese: 109, Math: 149, English: 150, Science: 138, Total score: 546, Grade rank: 100th!”

After Wang Qingshan read out Xia Tian’s complete results, the entire classroom fell into an eerie silence.

Quiet.

A deathly silence.

Yet the silence was deafening in its intensity.

Everyone was certain they hadn’t misheard—Wang Qingshan had indeed just announced Xia Tian’s name with those scores.

“What the hell! Xia Tian is in tenth place? And he got a perfect score in English?!”

Boom!

The voice of Ma Dongguai, the “Left Protector,” rang out like a bomb, exploding through the classroom.

“Impossible! Xia Tian actually got a perfect score in English?”

“Holy crap, and his math was only one point short of perfect too!”

“Forget the English and math scores—that’s not even the craziest part! The crazy part is that his total score is 546, and his science score was only 138! He managed to score over 500 with such a low science score? What the hell!”

“This isn’t scientific! Since the start of senior year, Xia Tian has never left the bottom five in class rankings. How could this have happened…?”

The entire class was stunned, all turning to look at Xia Tian, who was sitting calmly with his arms crossed, looking back at them with an air of indifference.

Of course…

Xia Tian was actually grinning like a Nike swoosh on the inside—his smile harder to suppress than an AK-47’s recoil.

But opposite him, Ma Dongguai’s face was twisted in disbelief.

He had always been grouped with Xia Tian in the bottom rankings, and now Xia Tian had scored this high?

Jealousy twisted his features.

Jealousy turned him into a crawling creature lurking in the shadows!

Jealousy made his very atoms split!

“Bang!”

Ma Dongguai slammed his desk in outrage, standing up. “This is impossible! It can’t be true! Xu Yuan was sitting right in front of Xia Tian during the exams, so he must have cheated!”

“Everyone in the class knows that Xia Tian is always cozying up to Xu Yuan. He must have copied from her during the exams! Otherwise, how could he have scored so high?”

Hearing this, the rest of the class finally understood.

Xu Yuan had been sitting in front of Xia Tian during the tests.

Now everything made sense.

“Tch, so he copied from Xu Yuan. I knew there was no way Xia Tian could score that high on his own.”

“Haha, I almost thought Xia Tian had pulled off some kind of genius comeback, but turns out he’s just a fraud—so funny!”

“What a relief! I really thought we had a rags-to-riches story on our hands, but nope, back to reality! Next!”

“Xu Yuan, come on, tell us the truth—did Xia Tian copy your answers?”

Upon hearing her classmates’ gossip, Xu Yuan’s face had already turned pale when she first heard Xia Tian’s scores.

Now, after hearing their comments, her face grew even paler, almost ghostly.

No one knew better than she did where Xia Tian’s scores came from.

Not only had Xia Tian not copied her answers, but in every test, he had finished in half the time and spent the rest napping on his desk.

She had even begged him to copy her answers, but he had ignored her.

Xia Tian’s performance had absolutely nothing to do with her!

“I…”

Xu Yuan stammered, unable to form a response.

She didn’t want to admit that Xia Tian had achieved those scores on his own, but she couldn’t very well lie and claim he had copied from her either. If Xia Tian refuted her, she would be utterly humiliated.

At that moment, Wang Qingshan coughed twice from the podium.

“Everyone, quiet down!”

“In my opinion, while it’s true that Xia Tian sat behind Xu Yuan during the exams, there’s absolutely no way he could have cheated off her. I’ve already read out the scores—Xu Yuan scored 123 in Chinese, 130 in math, 134 in English, and 207 in science. Xia Tian, on the other hand, scored higher than her in both math and English.”

“If he copied Xu Yuan’s answers, how could he have outperformed her?”

As soon as Wang Qingshan made this statement, the class suddenly realized the truth.

The reason Xia Tian’s rank was so high was because of his outstanding math and English scores!

And both of those scores were higher than Xu Yuan’s!

Just as Wang Qingshan said, if Xia Tian had copied from Xu Yuan, there was no way he could have scored higher than her in those subjects.

The classroom grew even more unsettled.

“Holy crap, I forgot about that! Xia Tian’s highest scores are both higher than Xu Yuan’s!”

“So that means… Xia Tian didn’t copy Xu Yuan at all?”

“I don’t believe it! No way Xia Tian could have scored that high on his own. I must still be half-asleep! Let me go back to bed and wake up again!”

The entire class stared at Xia Tian with a mix of shock and jealousy.

They were starting to understand.

If Xia Tian had copied Xu Yuan’s answers, there was no way he could have scored higher than her.

After all, Xu Yuan herself hadn’t even managed to get 149 in math or a perfect 150 in English.

The only person in the entire grade who might have achieved that was likely Ye Ningyu.

“Cough, cough. Don’t look so surprised. It’s no big deal, really…” Xia Tian said, his face full of smug satisfaction.

“I’ve always been capable of this; I just didn’t feel like trying before. And what did it get me? Your scorn and mockery… Well, now I’m done pretending! It’s time to come clean!”

Xia Tian wore a grin of pure triumph.

Though arrogant, no one dared contradict him.

“Alright, alright, settle down,” Wang Qingshan said, shaking his head with a smile. “You’ve made the top ten once, and you’re already acting so high and mighty. You’ve got such a bright mind, but you’ve been wasting it all this time… Keep up the good work and try to improve your science scores too. Your skewed performance in certain subjects is a bit too extreme.”

Wang Qingshan adjusted his glasses and gave a few encouraging words.

He wasn’t surprised that Xia Tian had aced math.

He had long known that Xia Tian had a natural talent for math. In previous exams, Xia Tian would only write the final answers without showing the steps, which led to him failing because there was no work shown.

However, Wang Qingshan was genuinely surprised by Xia Tian’s perfect English score.

“I had no idea this kid was hiding his talent in English too… If he can bring up his science scores, we could really have another top-tier student from our class,” Wang Qingshan thought to himself as he continued reading the rest of the students’ scores.

Having seen Xia Tian unexpectedly make the top ten, the rest of the class couldn’t help but hope that the math and English portions of the exam must have been easier this time. After all, if Xia Tian could do that well, maybe they could too.

But by the time Wang Qingshan finished reading all the scores, no one else had come close to matching Xia Tian’s 149 in math or 150 in English.

Little by little, the entire class had to accept the truth.

Xia Tian turned to look at Ye Ningyu, a small smile playing on his lips.

“So, Little Ye, didn’t I tell you I could make it into the top 20? Turns out, I accidentally made it into the top 10, haha!”

“Yes… Xia Tian, you’re really amazing! Top 10!” Little Ye replied, shyly ducking her head.

“And remember our deal? You said if I got into the top 20, you’d agree to one thing for me.”

Ye Ningyu nodded slowly, her voice barely a whisper. “Y-Yes, I remember… W-What is it?”

Xia Tian looked into her eyes and leaned in close, lowering his voice as he whispered in her ear:

“From now on, except when we’re at school, you’re not allowed to hide your face behind your collar anymore.”