From Slacking Off To Becoming A Top Student - Chapter 6 - Chapter 6 – The Main Character and the Supporting Character

It’s no wonder the teacher was so stunned. He thought Yan Xiaoxi’s classical Chinese essay was already an exceptional work, but he never expected… there was another expert!

His sudden exclamation immediately caught the attention of his colleagues, who turned to look at him. Their eyes were filled with curiosity and confusion.

“Incredible!”
“This essay… it’s written in classical Chinese too!”

When the teachers in the office heard this, they were immediately shocked, their faces filled with disbelief. They hurried to gather around him, eager to find out the truth. The most anxious was Teacher Zhang, since he was in charge of the Chinese class for Class 2.

Just a few minutes later, these seasoned teachers all had expressions of difficulty. Compared to Yan Xiaoxi’s straightforward classical Chinese essay, this one was full of complex and obscure wording, some of which they didn’t even understand.

“Whew, the literary quality is really high! It’s probably about three or four levels up in difficulty.”
“Oh no… is this my problem, or is it the student’s? I can’t even understand some of it.”
“Who wrote this? How could someone have such a high literary ability?”

For a moment, everyone was filled with curiosity about this student. When the student’s name was revealed, everyone in the office was left stunned, especially Teacher Zhang, whose mind was buzzing with confusion. He even began to question reality.

“Chen Xiaoxin!”
“He wrote this?!”

Teacher Zhang grabbed the paper and examined it closely. It was indeed Chen Xiaoxin’s paper.

“No… it can’t be!”

“Can Chen Xiaoxin really have such literary ability?”

Teacher Zhang was completely bewildered. As the teacher in charge of Class 2’s Chinese class, he knew very well the level of the students in that class. Chen Xiaoxin, although diligent in class and always submitting homework on time, had consistently scored poorly. The key was, he couldn’t really say anything bad about him—Chen Xiaoxin was genuinely working hard, but he was still at the bottom of the class.

Then, suddenly, he wrote an extraordinarily difficult classical Chinese essay, surpassing even Yan Xiaoxi, the top scholar! This was super incomprehensible!

“Chen Xiaoxin”
“I remember he was at the bottom of the year, right? In the last monthly test, he was second to last. He only scored fifty-something in Chinese… How could he suddenly write something like this? Did he… cheat?”

“Cheating requires the ability to cheat, and Chen Xiaoxin would struggle even to find the answers in the textbook. Besides, this is the Chinese exam, the essay section. I don’t think he could have cheated—he definitely didn’t plagiarize.”

“Could he be a literary genius? Maybe he was pretending to be dumb all along, but Yan Xiaoxi’s transfer sparked a passion for literature in him, and now he’s showing his true abilities?”

“No, no, no! His cluelessness… that’s not something you can fake.”

Teacher Zhang hesitated for a moment, then suddenly spoke up.

“Since everyone is suspicious, and some parts of this essay are hard for even us to understand, how about we bring Chen Xiaoxin in and have him explain the annotations for this classical essay?”

As soon as this suggestion was made, all the teachers in the room agreed.

Meanwhile, in the classroom of Class 2 in the senior year, with class still some time away, the atmosphere was a bit lively. Of course, many students took this opportunity to work on practice problems, as every point raised in the college entrance exam could mean beating out hundreds or even thousands of competitors. Now was the time to push themselves!

“Oh my gosh!”
“Yan Xiaoxi—we just found out you’re a super academic goddess!?”

Several of the top-performing girls in the class surrounded Yan Xiaoxi, their eyes full of admiration.

“You’ve been pre-admitted to Tsinghua and Peking University, so why are you still studying here?” the class monitor asked curiously.

Yan Xiaoxi replied with a smile on her face, “I feel like if I haven’t gone through the experience of senior year, life would feel incomplete. So, I turned down the early admissions offers from those top universities and decided to take the college entrance exam.”

“That’s amazing!”

“I bet you’ll definitely be the top scorer in this year’s college entrance exam!” the class monitor said with admiration. “If I could achieve even half of what you’ve done, or even just one-tenth, I think I’d wake up laughing in my dreams.”

In the following days, the group of girls became friends and naturally became Yan Xiaoxi’s future lunch buddies.

“Luoluo.”

“What’s his deal?” Yan Xiaoxi seized the opportunity to ask her class monitor, Gu Luoluo, about Chen Xiaoxin’s secrets. She pointed at her dozing classmate Chen Xiaoxin and quietly asked, “How can he be the class rep? Doesn’t anyone have an issue with that?”

“You mean Chen Xiaoxin?”

Gu Luoluo glanced at Chen Xiaoxin and softly replied, “What’s there to object to? He’s a really good person, and… he’s pretty handsome. The class monitor from Class 3 has been liking him for a while, but Chen Xiaoxin doesn’t seem to care about her. He’s pretty indifferent.”

Handsome?
Does he even have anything to do with being handsome? More like he’s inseparable from shameless!

Yan Xiaoxi pursed her lips but didn’t ask any more questions, not wanting to cause any unnecessary misunderstandings. After all, the easiest gossip among students is about who likes whom.

Once the girls left, Yan Xiaoxi picked up her linear algebra textbook to continue reinforcing her knowledge. But her peripheral vision kept drifting to her sleeping classmate, and she couldn’t help but mutter to herself: How strange!

Why does everyone think he’s so great?
Is it me? Am I the problem?

Before Yan Xiaoxi could figure it out, Teacher Zhang appeared at the classroom door.

“Yan Xiaoxi and Chen Xiaoxin.”

“Both of you, come to the office with me.”

Yan Xiaoxi was momentarily stunned but silently stood up and walked towards the door. As for Chen Xiaoxin, he was woken up by someone and groggily followed her.

“Yan Xiaoxi.”

“That classical Chinese essay of yours… all the teachers in the Chinese department have looked at it and given it high praise.” On the way to the Chinese department office, Teacher Zhang spoke to Yan Xiaoxi. “Let me tell you, your essay scored fifty-eight points. Your total score is one hundred and forty-five.”

Yan Xiaoxi wasn’t surprised—this was just a standard outcome. However, she was curious about why she had been called here. Also, what was the deal with her classmate Chen Xiaoxin?

When they arrived at the Chinese department office, Teacher Zhang told Chen Xiaoxin: “Wait outside the office for now. I’ll call you in when it’s your turn.”

“Oh.”

Chen Xiaoxin mumbled in confusion.

Then, Yan Xiaoxi followed Teacher Zhang into the office.

“Yan Xiaoxi.”

“This is the essay that Chen Xiaoxin wrote. Some of us teachers have a hard time understanding it. Can you take a look and see if you understand it?” Teacher Zhang handed her the paper, speaking seriously.

At the same time, teachers from the department crowded around, their eyes full of anticipation.

Yan Xiaoxi couldn’t help but feel speechless. It turned out he was the main character, and she was just the supporting role.