I Have Decided to Go Look for My Father

Gu Shao headed over to NTN directly after dropping Gu Xi off at school.

Gu Xi, on the other hand, felt a usual sort of “stirring” inside the classroom the moment that she stepped inside.

It didn’t need a very smart person to figure out the reason behind it.

When everyone found out that the parent-teacher conference was going to be today, they all headed to the all-purpose area in front of the teaching building excitedly early in the morning only to find out that the grades had yet to be posted.

As such, everybody was now dying to find out the outcome.

Gu Xi walked over to her spot and Dong Mingming immediately grabbed her by her arm.

“Gu Xi, are you nervous?”

“A little bit.” Gu Xi nodded.

“I am SO nervous!” said Dong Mingming. She had wagered five 5.3 and one Top Students! With the current 1:3 payout, she would receive the equivalent of 16.5x 5.3 if she lost the bet!

She wasn’t even that nervous when she was taking the examinations herself!

“Gu Xi, tell me the truth. Are you confident in yourself?” asked Dong Mingming as she looked at Gu Xi intensely.

Gu Xi, too, nodded seriously, “Mmhmm, quite.”

Dong Mingming did not look any better after she had heard that. She still looked very nervous –– she would have believed in Gu Xi had she not wagered on Sheng Xiuyan herself.

***

As the two chatted, someone from inside the classroom shouted out, “It’s out!”

“What’s out?” asked another person.

“The monthly ranking! It’s released!”

Half the people from the class jumped up from their seats when they heard that.

“Oh crap! Really? How is it?”

“I don’t know. Nobody has mentioned it online yet.”

“I am not going to wait any longer. I am just going to go find out for myself.”

“Me too!”

***

Many people dashed out of the classroom at the same time.

Dong Mingming, too, tucked at Gu Xi’s hand. “Perhaps we should go take a look too.” Waiting here for others to post the result online was the worse form of mental torture.

Gu Xi took a look at the time. It was still a while before self-study started. She then nodded and left with Dong Mingming.

***

By the time the two arrived at the all-purpose area, there were already a crowd gathered on the plaza.

The 20 or so large display boards were particularly eye-catching.

Gu Xi and Dong Mingming forced their way forward some before they were able to see the student IDs and names.

“Gu Xi, you are over there! You made it onto the royal list!” said Dong Mingming all of a sudden as she tugged at Gu Xi excitedly while pointing to the left-most spot.

At the very front of these display boards were three that stood out among the others. There were only three names on each of them, each of them representing the top three students during this monthly examination. And the three boards belonged to the freshman, sophomore, and junior, respectively.

As soon as she finished saying that, Dong Mingming exclaimed loudly again, “Oh oh oh! Gu Xi, you are E1!”

After hearing what Dong Mingming had said, Gu Xi, too, looked carefully at the “royal list” in the middle. Sure enough, her name was on the very top.

Truth was, if they were to look carefully enough, they would see that she and Sheng Xiuyan scored exactly the same in a very dramatical way. Nevertheless, her name happened to go before his.

At the same time, the others, too, were talking about this.

“Oh mi. Is this for realz? The two had the same total score?!”

“How is that even possible?”

“Haha. Here we were all discussing which one of them would win out. As it turned out, it was a tie. What a surprise.”

That was indeed a surprise. Nevermind that their scores were the same. Both of their scores were also insane. They both scored 899 out of the 900 total possible points. Almost perfect.

Compared to the uniformity between their scores, No. 3 sitting at 831 almost seemed out of place.