True Solution of the Sword Dao
Chapter 157 - 151 Essence 1

Chapter 157: Chapter 151 Essence 1

Day after day of reviewing and doing problems, doing problems and reviewing. The time for exams finally arrived.

June, and it was already summer.

The temperature of summer days could reach from teens to twenties in degrees Celsius, which was considered hot.

In the classrooms of the senior year of high school, there was already an atmosphere of intense preparation for battle.

Standing on the podium, the homeroom teacher was full of impassioned zeal.

"This time our class must score a major victory!! The other classes......we are.... I heard from... just recently....."

Spittle flew as he spoke, his hands banging the lectern with loud thumps.

The students below had an expression of indifference. They remained unmoved. After all, even the worst student in a key class of a key high school could rank far better than those in other classes, at least among the top ten. With such standards, the students’ thinking was naturally extremely mature.

By the time the homeroom teacher finished his impromptu speech, it had been fifteen minutes. A group of students silently watched as the teacher, his face full of satisfaction, left the classroom, striding with confident steps.

Immediately, the classroom filled with the sound of pages turning and papers rubbing together. Some students also started whispering to each other.

Lin Fei sat on the far right, away from the windows. The pen between his fingers spun continuously, like a rotating wheel, never in danger of falling. Taking advantage of the break, he glanced around briefly. In front of him to the left, two top students were discussing a math problem in low voices. Everyone else was quietly reviewing, either solving problems or taking notes. From behind, soft and careful questioning from Chen Yun could be heard. In this situation, no one wanted to waste their time on classmates with whom they weren’t close. And the teachers’ pace was so fast that many classic problems were treated like formulas with ready-made solutions, leading to long and complicated processes that might take many twists and turns. Slack off slightly, and you could easily fail to understand the teacher’s explanation. Moreover, teachers often glossed over questions deemed too simple, and if you asked, you likely wouldn’t understand, so most students had to ask their peers. Fortunately, Chen Yun had decent interpersonal relationships, and even within the circle of those who were better at studying, there were familiar faces willing to help him out.

In front sat Fang Jing, who had always been lively and cheerful. Her figure was still impeccably maintained, which added a glow to her otherwise slightly dimmed complexion. However, at this moment, she seemed to have a look of gloom.

"Hey Lin Fei," Fang Jing turned her head and softly called out to Lin Fei.

"What’s up?" Lin Fei stopped the spinning pen in his hand.

"Why don’t you ever ask others for help with your problems?" Fang Jing asked curiously. She was really stressed out; despite her usually good interpersonal relationships and the readiness of many people to help her, she had always been more interested in playing than studying, which placed her in the lower-middle in terms of academic performance. Now, as exams approached, she couldn’t concentrate and had been overtaken by students who were close behind her. Now, she was at the bottom of the class. Even Lin Fei, who had always been the worst, had surpassed her by several ranks. Although he still hadn’t left the category of poor students, he was doing much better than her. After all, at times like this, everyone is progressing. To stay the same, or to progress slower, is to fall behind in comparison.

Fang Jing, who was always looking for fun, found that even with a little more effort than usual, her ranking had fallen. Suddenly, she lost her motivation.

Seeing Lin Fei, who never asked others for help, didn’t discuss with anyone, and didn’t join any study groups, she wondered how he could still do better than her in studies. Fang Jing felt a sudden sense of deep unfairness. She might not excel in other areas, but she was very good at reading people. Like the boy sitting in front of her, Li Yunfei, he always seemed relaxed and as if he had more free time than others, with an attitude of disinterest in studying. But Fang Jing could see the signs of fatigue around his eyes and the slight dark circles beneath them, which only come from staying up all night. Students like him, who appeared not to work hard but secretly toiled away excessively, weren’t common in their class, but she could identify several. This was also a way to avoid provoking envy and competition among classmates, letting them see he didn’t study much yet still ranked at the top, a tactic to discourage others from following suit. But that wasn’t the key point. The most critical aspect was to lull the classmates around him into thinking, ’If nobody else is in a hurry, why should I be?’ In reality, they had started laying the groundwork much earlier than everyone else. This was the principle of gaining an early advantage.

Fang Jing, despite disliking such people, had to admit that she was initially fooled by their façade, and now that it was crunch time, it was too late for her to catch up. But regarding Lin Fei, her curiosity grew. She had observed Lin Fei and noted that his eyes were never dark, his skin was pretty fair, and there was no sign of fatigue in his eyes, indicating he hadn’t spent extra time "working overtime." Yet even so, Lin Fei had steadily surpassed several classmates, moving from the worst to the lower-middle tier. It might seem like only a small improvement in rank, but outside their elite class, this level of performance was almost at the top tier. With this progress, students can have hopes for universities like Capital City University and other top institutions. Within the elite class environment, moving up even one rank was a significant progress. By their level, the class of over forty students had basically completed their reviews. The only difference lay in their varying levels of mastery.

Fang Jing even knew that Fang Xiao, who ranked forever first, could almost recite the thick Oxford Dictionary from cover to cover. Cheng Dekai, who had come second in the last exam, could recite any line from any page of any subject textbook without looking, without a single error. Chen Huan, the math class representative, could mentally solve in ten seconds a math problem that would take others more than ten minutes to work through with formulas on paper. Such levels, in her view, were already at the legendary tier. Those ahead were considered top-tier masters. Aspired just to maintain her original lower-middle status would have been enough for her. But hopes were just that—hopes.

At the critical moment, the class’s hidden dragons and crouching tigers emerged one after another. They shot up like rockets. Lin Fei behind her was one example.

But whether it was any of the underperforming students who surged ahead, their daily hard work and effort were evident to everyone. Lin Fei was the only exception.

That’s why she was curious enough to turn around and ask Lin Fei, "Why don’t you ask others for help with your problems?" In fact, she had been holding back this question for a long time.

"Why?" Lin Fei was at a loss for words. Should he tell her that he didn’t need to ask anyone else questions? That he could memorize the majority of the textbook content in just an hour, and recite all the knowledge points that needed to be memorized within a day, thoroughly understanding everything? Even if he told Fang Jing directly, it was unlikely that she’d believe him.

"I’m not good with interpersonal relationships, so even if I asked, probably no one would be willing to answer. That’s why I can’t be bothered to join any study groups," Lin Fei gave a casual answer.

When Fang Jing heard this, her expression also darkened. She had encountered similar situations. Friends who had been willing to explain things to her began making excuses and declining. It wasn’t that her friends weren’t considerate; rather, the questions she asked were too basic. It took too much time for them to clarify just one problem for her. After a few such instances, who would want to deal with her? Hence, she too had found herself in the embarrassing position of no one willing to explain problems to her.

"Why don’t you review with Lin Fei? He’s also a poor student, and his level of revision should be low, similar to mine, so we could discuss with each other. It’s better than constantly being looked down upon by others." An idea flashed through Fang Jing’s mind, "And we could also pull in some other students with poorer grades who are willing to join. If we encounter tough problems, we can use our own strengths to help each other. Since those high and mighty geniuses don’t want to help us, we can try hard ourselves!"

The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was a good idea. There were quite a few students stuck in situations like theirs.

Without the help of whiz kids who were good at studying, it would take almost half a day for them to solve a single problem on their own. During this last phase of revision where time equates to points, the more this happened, the more anxious and panicked people became, worried about falling far behind others. And the more this anxious mentality dominated their studies, the more they fell behind. As a result, students like Chen Yun, who begged others in a pleading voice, were not a few. The shame from repeatedly placing poorly on tests and the pressure of the life-changing college entrance exam, coupled with the weight of expectations and pressures from family, friends, and other social relationships, nearly suffocated these key class students.

Seeing Fang Jing lost in her thoughts, Lin Fei just smiled, took out his notebook of knowledge points, and continued to self-study his Cultivation Force while deepening his review of the next point. He had memorized and understood all the knowledge points and content; all that was left was to deepen his application.

Fang Jing was the type of passionate student who acted upon her thoughts immediately and started contacting some of the students with poorer grades. But the results were cruel.

No one wanted to join such so-called groups. In the final sprint period, everyone had their own plans, and no one wanted to waste their precious time on this inefficient group.

Only Lin Fei, who was always solving problems, responded nonchalantly. Sitting behind Fang Jing, he had seen many times how she had humbly asked her former friends to explain problems with her workbook, only to be rejected again and again. The disdainful looks from her classmates, as if to say ’you’re even asking about this kind of problem?’ Those levels of injury to one’s self-esteem made him involuntarily recall his own past life when he first joined this class. The same helplessness, the same burning anxiety. Anyway, he had mostly finished his review by that time, so lending a hand to this fairly decent friend was no trouble at all.

"What about Chen Yun? Will he join?" Lin Fei asked casually.

Fang Jing’s face fell,

"No, he said his family hired a top-level expert to help him sprint during this period." Chen Yun’s family was quite well-off, so such an arrangement was only natural. This was also one of the reasons the other underperforming students in the class had refused to join Fang Jing.

Lin Fei nodded. In his past life, Chen Yun had just barely made it into one of the ordinary 211 project key universities, not outstanding, but not poor either. He himself was quite satisfied, it seemed that the influence Lin Fei now had hadn’t affected that to any significant degree.

"So it’s just the two of us?" he asked.

Fang Jing nodded with a grim expression.

"Then let’s just go with it. If you have any questions, we can discuss them," Lin Fei said, nodding his head.

Fang Jing was taken aback, "You’re not dropping out? It’s just the two of us." She had been waiting for Lin Fei to say he was dropping out as well. Yet the result was contrary to her expectations.

"Could he have fallen for me and wants to be alone with me?" This thought flashed through her mind but was immediately dismissed, "His girlfriend is Xu Ke, someone of that caliber. How could he possibly be interested in me?" Lin Fei and Xu Ke’s relationship had been the talk of the town for a while, and everybody knew about it.

Although Fang Jing was quite satisfied with her figure, comparing herself to Xu Ke was out of the question.

"It’s fine," Lin Fei smiled, bowed his head, and continued reviewing, quickly filling in answers on the paper on his desk. He was writing down answers almost immediately after seeing the questions, with such speed that even Fang Jing beside him was somewhat surprised. Even though it was a language paper, this speed of thought was truly astonishing. (To be continued. If you like this work, please head to Qidian (qidian.com) to give us your recommendation votes and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)