Chapter 11: Sheep and cattle travel in herds, while lions and tigers walk alone

Teaching building.

Third floor, teachers' office.

The massive room is divided into individual workstations.

This is the office for the teachers of the senior year liberal arts track.

At this moment, the office is brightly lit, and the Chinese and mathematics teachers are all busily at work.

They are rushing to grade exam papers.

Papers taken during the day must be graded by the end of the day.

All scores and rankings must be released by Monday morning; it is safe to say the task is heavy, the time is tight, and the standards are high.

Therefore, the Chinese and mathematics papers taken this morning are being graded right now.

"It’s infuriating! Not a single person in this stack of papers I have passed!"

Suddenly, a math teacher threw a stack of papers directly onto the desk with a loud *thud*.

It was clear that this math teacher was truly angered.

"Teacher Liu, the stack you're grading must be from the last few exam halls, right?"

"It’s perfectly normal to have these kinds of scores. If a passing grade actually appeared, that would be the strange thing."

A math teacher with a Mediterranean-style haircut (balding on top) chimed in from the side.

"The quality of our school's student body is just like this. Every year, only a handful of people can get into college. Unless you're grading the first few exam halls where the scores are still somewhat decent, the other halls are enough to drive a person mad."

"Exactly. This exam was organized by ranking, so this situation was bound to happen."

This one sentence immediately triggered a wave of complaints from all the math teachers.

"Come to think of it, I’m also puzzled. Is our teaching level really not keeping up with the outside world, or are our students just not good enough, or perhaps our materials are lacking? How can these students just not learn math?"

"Teacher Zhang, that’s not the right way to put it. When people are pushed to the edge, they can do anything—except solve math problems. With the same knowledge, some students can score high, while others only get low marks. This is a student problem, not our problem."

"To be honest, sometimes I want to crack open those students' heads to see if their brains are empty, or just pour the knowledge in. Some of the scores students get are truly unbelievable and incomprehensible."

While the teachers were venting, Luo Zhibin, the math teacher for Class 14, happened to be grading a paper. As soon as he saw it, his face filled with rage.

The handwriting on the paper was shockingly sparse.

Only one multiple-choice question was answered, one fill-in-the-blank question was done, and only the first sub-question of the first long-form problem was answered.

Other than that, there was no other writing on the paper.

With a twitch of his eye, Luo Zhibin quickly graded the paper and wrote a big "15" at the top.

Originally, after grading it, Luo Zhibin would have just flipped past it, but after a moment of thought, he couldn't suppress his curiosity. He pried open the staples and looked at the student's name on the paper.

The result of that one glance made Luo Zhibin’s eyes widen.

The intense anger he felt instantly surged even higher.

"Good! Good! Good!"

Laughing out of extreme anger, Luo Zhibin muttered through gritted teeth.

"Teacher Luo, what’s wrong?"

A math teacher nearby heard Luo Zhibin’s voice and couldn't help but lean over to ask.

"Nothing."

Luo Zhibin quickly flipped the paper over to cover it.

A blurred name had flashed by, and it was...

...

The next day.

The exams continued.

The morning was dedicated to the three subjects of the liberal arts comprehensive exam.

Wang Donglai was also extremely curious about these three subjects.

Just how high a score could he get with Level 4 proficiency in the liberal arts?

He found out the answer as soon as the exam papers were handed out.

The result wasn't exactly a surprise, but it certainly wasn't bad.

For most of the questions, Wang Donglai only needed to think for a moment before the relevant knowledge points appeared in his mind.

Although he didn't arrive at the answers at a single glance, it was a massive improvement compared to before he leveled up.

For two and a half hours straight, Wang Donglai didn't look up at the clock once.

The more he worked on the problems, the more profound his understanding of the liberal arts knowledge became.

Although there were still some areas he felt he hadn't fully grasped or understood, he was already very satisfied with this progress.

After all, he had only leveled up once.

If he could reach Level 6, the effect would be unimaginable, and he would also gain new skills or abilities.

At noon, Wang Donglai was the only one in the dormitory.

After experiencing the morning exam, he had a rough understanding of the changes brought by leveling up.

So, this time, the book he picked up was a math textbook.

Out of the six liberal arts subjects, only Chinese and mathematics could be leveled up to 10.

This meant that Wang Donglai could gain at least six abilities or skills from these two subjects.

At the same time, it proved the importance of these two subjects.

Furthermore, since math was currently his weakest subject, he naturally had to focus his next efforts on it.

Opening the math book felt like a punishment to Wang Donglai.

As he read, a wave of sleepiness washed over him.

He had no choice but to swallow a "Refreshing Pill" to keep reading the math book and gain experience points.

"This won't do. At this rate, the speed is just too slow."

"The system said that listening to lectures by famous teachers or high-quality courses can provide extra experience bonuses. I wonder if detailed explanations from others, or a teacher's lesson plans, or a top student's notes would count?"

Actually, it wasn't impossible to grind experience and level up math solely through his own reading.

However, it would consume a significant amount of time.

Wang Donglai was unwilling to waste his time on that.

The system was just a tool, meant to help him grow and improve himself.

Tools are for human use, not for humans to be slaves to their tools.

Once this thought took root, Wang Donglai kept it in mind, planning to give it a try during self-study tonight.

The afternoon English exam went without any surprises.

He could understand a portion of it, and by guessing and deducing, he finished the paper.

After the exam, Wang Donglai returned to his classroom to set up his desk and chair for the evening self-study session.

As soon as he entered the classroom, students were gathered in twos and threes, comparing answers.

Regardless of their grades, every student had a special concern for their results.

Even the underachievers who usually didn't care about grades were no exception.

Exclamations erupted in the classroom from time to time, either because someone had just discovered a trap in a question or because they were frustrated by getting a simple question wrong.

The class of fifty-six students wasn't small, and it was divided into various small cliques.

Originally, Wang Donglai and the four guys from Dorm 404 were one such clique.

They went online together and went to class together.

However, once Wang Donglai chose to study hard, waking up early and returning late, and stopped going online, this small group silently excluded him.

Therefore, after Wang Donglai entered the classroom, Huang Cheng and the others didn't speak to him, continuing to chat among themselves.

"Cattle and sheep travel in herds; only lions and tigers walk alone!"

Glancing at Huang Cheng and the others, as well as the various small cliques in the class, a cold sneer curled the corner of Wang Donglai's mouth.

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(End of chapter)