Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Actually for most students, the Chinese language examination was way easier. No matter good or bad results, they would not be too obsessed with it. After all, objective questions and other questions that needed to be memorized by students, rarely appeared in the language exam. Comprehensive questions contribute to a majority of the exam marks, and their answers are highly subjective, which depends if your frequency could match that of the teachers who set the question topics. Matching the frequency of the authors will be all in vain. Perhaps, they would also be stunned while facing the comprehensive questions of their own works.

Classical Chinese turned out to be the easier section to gain marks. For students who have established a solid foundation of Classical Chinese through its classes, most probably they were able to answer the exam questions, which may seem pretty foreign at first sight, but in fact akin to what was being taught in the Classical Chinese class. After all, Classical Chinese rarely had those brain-storming questions in their comprehensive readings.

In any case, the students were literally Chinese. No matter how terrible their daily studies would turn out, they would not score too badly in their Chinese language exam. If only they put enough efforts on their hard work, they would never score anything like those Mathematics exams where 20 or 30 marks appeared.

Breezing through the entire language exam paper, Zhao Youyue not only had completed the memory-demanding questions, but was equally confident in her objective questions too. With her answer paper as neat as always, she had attempted the comprehensive questions by applying the strategies imparted by Mr. Qiu. The idea was to maintain smooth transitions between paragraphs, and to start off with a main point then elaborate on it into a full answer. Even the appreciation of poetry part could not take her down this time. Overall, she was pretty much satisfied with her performance. In “Xu Jing’s possession” mode, she was naturally granted an elite scholar’s confidence.

After the language exam, she did not break free from “Xu Jing’s possession’ mode. Instead, she seized every minute and second to revise Mathematics, of which the exam will take place in the evening. Due to the lack of basics, Mathematics had always been her weakness. Whenever difficult questions were encountered, she would look up for answers online with her phone, but a phone was not allowed during examinations.

At this moment, Zhao Youyue deeply regretted for not spending additional efforts in her usual days. Anyway, she was deeply in love with studies, wasn’t she? Of course, it was solely because she had activated “Xu Jing’s possession’ mode. Had she deactivated it, she might not feel this regretful and would not develop her passion towards studying.

Time passed by in the blink of an eye especially during exam periods. The evening Mathematics exam was on the horizon, yet this time the questions were by no means easy. To a student like Zhao Youyue, who could easily tackle simple questions but became powerless when facing difficult ones, it was a downright nightmare. Having activated “Xu Jing’s possession” mode, however, it was still impossible for Youyue to escalate her Mathematics skills in a split second. Without this special mode, she must had already fallen apart in the exam hall, and would fail this exam badly.

Fortunately, being one with “Xu Jing”, she had remained calm throughout the exam. She first resolved the simple questions, then moved on to the more difficult questions after validating her answers. Step by step, Youyue was finally done with the whole paper except the final question due to running out of time. She was fully aware that, “Xu Jing” had helped her to unleash her full potential. Nothing could be blamed other than herself, for playing too much.

Suffering disappointment once again, Zhao Youyue could not wait to do several Mathematics exercises every day after the winter holiday… Wow, it was because she still remained in “Xu Jing’s possession” mode, thus she could turn out to be so passionate and aspirant.

Just as the Mathematics exam was over, mournful wails could be heard from every corner. Some students had even hurled a stream of invective —

“F*ck! There was a rumor telling that the Mathematics exam paper this semester end was set by our headmaster, Ge Jun. But I didn’t believe. It’s too late now, what a sickening truth!”

“Well play headmaster Mr. Ge. In the previous years, you’ve been notorious for screwing countless students in their college entrance examination, to think that you would do the same to us freshmen in senior high! Have you lost your mind? And yet I had just finished ‘Pure Romance’ before the exam, with all the bloody knife scenes in my mind, how was I supposed to calm down and confront such horrific questions…”

“It couldn’t be helped. Ge Jun had declared that he wouldn’t participate in setting anymore questions of the college entrance examination. That being said, he must be so craving to boast about his talent afterwards, fearing that it would be forgotten, thus he had return to curse the students of our school.”

“Darn it, son of the b*tch, I’m gonna have a bad time at home!”

…

After the Mathematics exam, Zhao Youyue turned off “Xu Jing’s possession” mode right away. She felt that it was not essentially good to keep utilizing the iconic character card of “Xu Jing”. After all, she was Zhao Youyue, not Xu Jing. She must be faithful to herself sometimes, or else she would be completely subjugated by “Xu Jing”.

In fact, Zhao Youyue preferred to remain calm and relaxed, instead of overloading herself with stress. That kind of life was too tiring, wasn’t it?

However, just as she let go of “Xu Jing’s possession’ mode, her mood instantly went down in the dumps. Gosh! She did not finish the final big question of her Mathematics paper. She was supposed to finally prove her might this time. How could the Mathematics exam be so difficult? At this moment, she pretty much regretted turning off “Xu Jing’s possession” mode. As for a rich missy like her, how would she possess the unwavering spirit of a poor-family girl like Xu Jing?

Nevertheless, Zhao Youyue did not run away from her real self and cowardly give in to “Xu Jing’s possession” mode again. She was resolved to being herself now.

With her head lowered, Zhao Youyue walked down from the second floor. She then bumped into her Mathematics class representative Chen Haoran who just came out from the next examination hall. He seemed to be at ease, as if the Mathematics exam was not difficult at all. Indeed, he was a student prodigy of science stream who had participated in the Physics competition.

Upon seeing Zhao Youyue, Chen Haoran’s eyes were blazing. He dashed towards her and started flirting with her like he usually did. He had always seized the opportunity to talk to Zhao Youyue while collecting her homeworks every morning. That could make him feel energetic for the rest of the day.

“Zhao Youyue, how was your exam?” Chen Haoran was concerned.

“I didn’t manage to do the last big question.” Zhao Youyue responded in sorrow.

Chen Haoran felt that he must comfort Zhao Youyue in a nicer way, thus he said, “It’s alright. For a simple question like this, it’ll be an insult to your wisdom even if you have completed it!”

Raising her head, Zhao Youyue looked at the earnest face of Chen Haoran. Her innocent and lovely eyes were brimming with tears. Covering her mouth, she ran into the restroom.

Chen Haoran was left giggling on the spot. Han Leng came to him, “What did you say to Youyue?”

“Obviously, I was comforting her! She said she didn’t complete the last question, so I told her even completing that will be an insult to one’s IQ, as it could be easily done with this formula…”

“What the heck! Such a baffling way to comfort someone, are you an animal or what?” Han Leng roared at him, “I didn’t finish the last question as well!”

Chen Haoran explained himself with an innocent look, “I thought I’ve done a good job in consoling her, she was so touched by my words, and cried… She was such an innocent girl. Sigh, how good if love could be as simple as the last question.”

On hearing such an explanation from him, Han Leng was dumbfounded. He stared at Chen Haoran with contempt, feeling that this nerdy guy could no longer be rescued.