Time Travel: The Queen's Coronation

Time flies, and December is already here. The province-wide joint entrance exam is in mid-December, and teachers and students are frantically preparing for it. After all, many cities have similar economic and educational levels to ours, and the teachers want to use this opportunity to see the gap between us and students from larger cities. I'm excited about this exam because, from memory, I remember it was students from key high schools in the provincial capital who took first place, and the top fifty were all from other cities. Our school's top student was ranked 56th in the province. That time, I ranked outside the top 10,000, but this time, thanks to my hard work, I've become a top student. I'm determined to compete with the top students from other cities and put the fruits of my labor over the past two years to the test.

Before the exam, I was incredibly diligent, meticulously reviewing every gap I missed. I not only had to master the answers, but I also employed a variety of methods to solve them, applying them to other situations. While I'd hoped it would be easier if I could just remember the exam questions, the reality is that my memory is limited and I don't have a photographic memory. I can't even remember the exam questions from ten years ago, otherwise I'd be able to predict the content of next year's Gaokao.

I worked tirelessly, making the most of every minute before and after class. I felt I'd reached the limit of my abilities, but the academic elites in the provincial capital still brought me invisible pressure. I was only dominating my own school, but the students in the provincial capital were only better. I couldn't let up!

The day of the exam arrived. I woke up groggily, feeling heavy and listless. I dragged myself into the exam room. The first subject was Chinese. Looking at the words on the paper, I felt like they were waving at me, running towards me, from left to right, then back again. They were so active and restless that I couldn't even focus on the questions.

Something's wrong! How could the text be moving?! I gradually regained consciousness, and I felt incredibly hot. In this cold December, my body was burning. This wasn't right! I touched my forehead. Oops! I think I have a fever! Thinking back on all the sleepless nights and studying, I think I was overexerting myself, giving the virus a chance to take advantage. But I can't let myself down right now! Oh my God! Please don't mess with me!

I took a deep breath, slowly pacing myself. My dizzy eyes gradually returned to normal, but my entire head ached from the fever. But I had to endure it. I gritted my teeth and wrote the questions faster. Normally, I wrote in regular script on exams, but now I couldn't write slowly, stroke by stroke, so I had to write in a faster cursive script. After an hour and a half, I couldn't take it anymore! The world was spinning faster and faster. I couldn't focus, I couldn't see the questions clearly, and my head felt like it was exploding!

I surrendered! I leaned over the table and raised my hands. The teacher came over to ask what was wrong. I explained the situation, and the teacher took a thermometer and scanned it. It was 40 degrees! This was indeed a high fever! After reporting it to the school leaders and my homeroom teacher, I turned in my half-written exam early. The school doctor led me to the school clinic. After the routine temperature check and questioning, the doctor prescribed some fever-reducing medicine, and I returned to the dormitory to rest.

After my first exam, my homeroom teacher came to my dorm with a bowl of porridge and asked if I was feeling better. After taking some fever-reducing medicine and getting over an hour's sleep, I felt rejuvenated. I confidently said, "No problem," and that I would have no problem taking the afternoon exam.

When I woke up in the afternoon, I was fine. I still felt a little dizzy, but not as heavy as I had been that morning. But after just two multiple-choice questions, the nagging dizziness returned! This time, I gritted my teeth. The math exam didn't require as many or as dense words as the Chinese exam, and the math problem-solving methods didn't require as many words as the Chinese exam did. I finished in a quick hour. My dizziness and headache continued to worsen. I checked the last question of each exam, and once I was sure it was correct, I handed in my paper early, left the exam room, and returned to the dorm to rest.

In the evening, the head teacher came to my dormitory with a bowl of porridge. I said that a classmate had already prepared food for me and I had eaten it. She said it was okay to have it as a midnight snack. I couldn't refuse, so I had to accept it. However, because I had a fever and my appetite was not very good, I gave it to a classmate who wanted to have a midnight snack.

I woke up in the middle of the night, a splitting headache in my head. I feared changing my head position would worsen it, so I stayed in the same position. I was sweating profusely, so I crawled out of bed in the dark, wiped myself with a towel, and then splashed cold water on my face to clear my head. Finally, I crawled back into bed and went back to sleep. I don't know when I fell asleep. But when I woke up, it was already time to get up. My roommate turned on the light, waking me up. I hurriedly got up, washed, and went to morning reading.

I was still late when I got to class. Seeing me, the homeroom teacher didn't scold me for being late. Instead, she asked if I was feeling better. I told her I'd sweated a lot yesterday and felt much better. She also asked if I'd had breakfast. I said I had no appetite and didn't want to eat. She suggested buying some bread after morning reading, saying I'd feel worse if I skipped breakfast. I agreed and returned to the classroom for morning reading. Compared to yesterday, I felt much more relaxed today. Perhaps I felt better from all the sweating I'd done the previous night.

In this morning's science exam, I meticulously studied every question and every word. Perhaps I studied too hard, as I hadn't finished with fifteen minutes left on the broadcast. I still had a few biology questions left, so I sped up and finished before the deadline. Thankfully, my headache didn't flare up today, so it must be over! I secretly congratulated myself on being able to finish the entire exam in the exam room. I also gave my all for the afternoon English exam. Because I didn't have time to finish the Chinese composition, I lost 60 points. I couldn't guarantee full marks for the other questions I wrote, so I lost too many points in Chinese and needed to make up for them later.

After the listening section, I heard a lot of sighs because it was quite difficult. But it wasn't difficult for me, as I'm at a level where I can watch English movies without subtitles, so the listening section wasn't too difficult for me. The reading comprehension section later on was full of traps, but I could spot them and avoid them. Satisfied, I submitted my paper and waited for the results. As long as I ranked high in the other subjects, I wasn't concerned with getting a high overall score. After all, I'd lost so much in Chinese that I couldn't make up much in the following subjects, unless someone else couldn't do it.

A week later, the results came out, and I was the top scorer in the joint entrance exam! Me? Surely I was mistaken! I looked at the report card, carefully examining each subject: Chinese 74, Math 150, English 150, Physics 108, Chemistry 100, Biology 90, Comprehensive Science 298, for a total score of 672.

Even though I didn't pass Chinese, I got full marks or close to full marks in other subjects. Even with such a big loss in Chinese, I could still make up for it! I went to the office to inquire about the situation in other cities. The top scorer in the provincial capital scored 130 in Chinese, 139 in Math, 141 in English, 90 in Physics and Chemistry, 79 in Biology, and 259 in Comprehensive Science, for a total score of 669, two points lower than mine.

"That's amazing!" The head teacher patted me on the shoulder. "Even though you haven't finished the Chinese language test, you can still pull up the points from the back."

I said embarrassedly, "No, it's because this top student did poorly in the science and math exams that I was able to surpass him. I heard that his math score was always around 140, and his science score was always around 280. I think he just didn't perform well this time."

"No, this time is very difficult. The scores for math and comprehensive science are almost disparate. You are first in math, he is second with 139, and third is someone from another city with 130 points. You are first in comprehensive science with 298, he is second with 259, and third is someone else with 247. There is a little gap between the top three scores." The grade director said as he took the water.

"Wei Qing! Your grades are excellent. Being in a key class will bring some pressure to the students in the key class. It will be better for you to come to a small class!" The grade director said and took a sip of water.

"Teacher Xiao, you are poaching our students. And you are doing it in front of their head teacher!" Teacher Qin walked over and put his hand on the grade director's shoulder and said.

"where?"

At this time, the class bell rang, and I quickly left this "place of trouble", otherwise Teacher Xiao would brainwash me and tell me how much better it would be to go to a small class.

This provincial joint exam made me even more of a "Panda" in the eyes of my teachers. Despite the relatively difficult exam, I still managed to get first place. What's even more remarkable is that I achieved first place despite my weaker Chinese score. More importantly, my other subjects were either full marks or close to full marks. If I had done my Chinese well, my total score would have easily surpassed 700. Consequently, both the school and grade leaders paid close attention to me, believing I had the potential to become the provincial champion in science.

At the awards ceremony for the joint entrance exam, there were only two people on the podium for the first place in science subjects. I swept all the first place in science subjects except Chinese. Standing on the podium, I felt incredibly proud and honored!