Chapter 13
Early the next morning, I arrived at school.
Strangely, I no longer felt the nervousness from last night. Instead, I was
extremely calm.
Natalie also came very early. We only exchanged a glance, both seeing the fighting
spirit in each other’s eyes.
She sat in her seat and said to me:
“You have no chance to regret now, Emily. My grades don’t come from trickery.”
“You’ll soon find out that trash will always be trash.”
I didn’t retort, only smiled and asked in return:
“Talking so much, are you scared?”
Natalie’s eyes were full of hatred. I heard her teeth grinding.
After a moment, she snorted coldly and turned away.
The exam bell soon rang.
The test papers were passed out onto my desk.
I looked at the questions and took a slow, deep breath before starting. Question 1 – know it.
Question 2 done it before.
Question 3 – easy.
I didn’t even notice the passage of time myself. When I finished all the questions and looked up, the clock on the wall showed less than 60 minutes had passed.
I didn’t get cocky, but calmed myself and checked it over again and again.
Sure enough, when I checked it a second time, I found a careless error where I had misread the question.
I broke out in a cold sweat and quickly corrected it.
As soon as I fixed it, the bell rang..
Time to turn it in.
The second and third subjects also went very smoothly.
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When I got home that night, I didn’t study anymore. I just went straight to sleep.
At this point, studying more was meaningless. I was better off getting a good night’s sleep to recharge.
When I woke up, I felt refreshed and energized.
Recently, I had only been sleeping around five hours each night.
Now, getting a full eight hours, I felt like a new person!
But Natalie was different.
I looked at her and saw that her dark circles were even worse than before. Her eyes were sunken in with huge bags underneath, squinting as she silently recited something.
She looked like…a demon had sucked out all her energy.
It was clear at a glance that she hadn’t slept at all last night.
She had probably stayed up cramming.
I shook my head. What was the point of last–minute cramming at this stage?
Seeing her like this actually made me calmer. I was even more steady when
answering the questions.
Everything seemed to be going smoothly.
But just as I thought the exam would end without a hitch, the unexpected suddenly happened.
As the last question came into view, my pupils suddenly constricted.
The final problem involved a geometric solid… I wasn’t sure how to draw the auxiliary line!
Due to time constraints, the math exam originally scheduled for the second session had been pushed to the very end.
Math had always been my weak point; my logical thinking skills were not. particularly strong.
But these past few days, I had tackled nearly every suitable practice problem I could find. I believed that diligence could make up for my shortcomings! The previous questions had indeed gone smoothly, with no unsolvable problems.
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encountered.
However, this last question was tricky. At first glance, it seemed simple, just a routine problem following normal patterns.
But upon closer inspection, the pitfalls became apparent!
Beads of cold sweat gradually formed on my forehead and my hands began to tremble slightly.
This question was worth 15 points – not especially high, but not low either.
Yet for Natalie Wilkinson and me, where victory hinged on a single point, getting it wrong would mean plummeting into an abyss!
I couldn’t help but raise my head to glance at Natalie.
Her expression was relaxed. After jotting down a number on the paper, she neatly
set down her pen, stretched her arms, and rested her head on the desk to take a
break.
The corners of her mouth were even curling up into a smile.
My heart sank.
Perhaps Natalie hadn’t read the question carefully. Or perhaps… she actually knew
how to solve it!
My mind was in turmoil. It was a scorching July summer, and the incessant cicada cries from outside the window were maddening.
A drop of sweat rolled off my chin and splashed onto the desk.
For a moment, my mind went blank.
I’m done for, I thought to myself.
I’ve lost.
But just as I was on the verge of breaking down, a face suddenly flashed through my mind.
A fair complexion, half shrouded in the shadows cast by the setting sun.
Daniel Collins stood by the window, calmly looking at me.
He said, “Emily Anderson, why do you study?”
How had I responded at the time?
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I said I wanted to surpass Natalie Wilkinson and get into Harvard University!
“No,” he raised his eyes to gaze out the window, his voice mingling with the night.
and the breeze.
“You study for yourself, to gain the power to choose your own path in life.”
“Emily Anderson, you study for your own sake.”
“For you, and you alone.”
He was right. The power to choose my own path.
It felt as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over my head, instantly clearing my mind.
I had become obsessed.
I had focused all my attention on Natalie Wilkinson, forgetting the true purpose of
learning.
Studying was not just so that I could be chosen by others.
It was to give me the right to make my own choices.
Natalie Wilkinson was just a minor episode in my life, nothing more.
If I continued to fixate solely on her, I would never break free from this narrow.
space.
I exhaled deeply, calming my heart, and stopped looking at Natalie, who had
already set down her pen.
Everything else faded away.
I poured all my focus into this one question.
The clock ticked on. I’m not sure how much time passed, but suddenly, a flash of
insight illuminated my mind!
The math teacher’s words echoed in my ears.
With geometric solids, prioritize thinking about special auxiliary lines!
I understood how to draw the line now!
Not daring to waste a second, I quickly sketched the line and frantically wrote out
the solution steps on the answer sheet.
Just as the tip of my pen marked the final word, the bell rang!
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Time was up!
I shoved my answer sheet away and practically collapsed back into my chair,
utterly drained.
A gust of wind blew in through the window. The back of my shirt was drenched in cold sweat.
After a long while, I finally mustered a bit of strength to look ahead.
Natalie Wilkinson was looking at me too. Our eyes met, sparks clashing in the air between us. Neither of us spoke.
At this point, meaningless chatter held no significance.
Three days from now, whether god or ghost, the truth would be revealed!
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