Chapter 49: Cheating Fails

Friday.

According to the exam schedule, the morning subject was Chinese. Lin Qi, who had been eagerly awaiting this day, was extremely excited. He couldn't wait to see Su Zhiwen defeated and leaving Xiao ChuChu behind in disappointment. After receiving the Chinese exam paper, 

Lin Qi flipped straight to the essay section, knowing that essays couldn't be copied and had to be written independently. 

He figured that by the time he finished his essay, the top students in the class would have almost completed the rest of the paper, and he could just copy their answers. Indeed, Lin Qi's cheating plan went smoothly, and he felt he could score over 120 points in Chinese.

Walking out of the classroom after the Chinese exam, Lin Qi couldn't hide the joy on his face. He thought that if things continued like this, he could shed his reputation as a poor student and leap into the top ten of his class. But would things really go as he expected?

Seeing Lin Qi's smug look, Su Zhiwen sneered, "Lin Qi, oh Lin Qi, you're happy too early. Haven't you heard the saying 'the higher you are held, the harder you fall'?"

Last night, before returning home, Su Zhiwen had gone to see the exam invigilators. Fortunately, one of the teachers invigilating their class was someone he knew, Zheng Yingying's previous suitor, Zhen Dianfeng. 

Under the threat and temptation from Su Zhiwen, Zhen Dianfeng naturally didn't dare to object. Besides, Su Zhiwen's request wasn't difficult; he only had to keep an eye on a student named Lin Qi and prevent him from looking around. 

But why wasn't he supposed to monitor Lin Qi during the first exam? Zhen Dianfeng couldn't figure it out.

However, during the first Chinese exam, Zhen Dianfeng began to understand why Su Zhiwen had asked him to keep an eye on Lin Qi and prevent him from looking around. 

As an invigilator, seeing Lin Qi occasionally glancing here and there, he almost wanted to go up and give him a good scolding. 

It didn't exactly look like cheating, but it wasn't entirely innocent either. If it hadn't been for Su Zhiwen's instruction not to bother Lin Qi during the first exam, Zhen Dianfeng would have been tempted to check what Lin Qi was up to.

At 1 PM, the mathematics exam began. After Lin Qi wrote his name on the math paper, he looked up, ready to peek at the top students' answers. 

But before he could use his x-ray vision, he saw the invigilating teacher walking towards him, staring intently at him. "Focus on the exam, stop looking around. Concentrate on your paper!" 

Lin Qi heard and reluctantly looked down at his paper. After pretending to write and draw on the draft paper for a while, thinking Zhen Dianfeng had walked away, Lin Qi looked up again, ready to cheat. But as soon as he raised his head, he saw Zhen Dianfeng still standing beside him, staring unwaveringly.

"Don't look up and around! I felt something was off about you this morning. Do you have an engine installed in your neck, constantly twisting and turning?" 

Lin Qi shivered inside. Although the invigilating teacher couldn't catch him cheating, he had already become suspicious of his behavior. 'Seems like my copying was too obvious, attracting the teacher's attention,' Lin Qi thought to himself. He decided to lay low, looking down at the paper again.

Thinking his cheating movements were too obvious earlier, Lin Qi planned to be more discreet when the teacher wasn't paying attention. However, Zhen Dianfeng didn't give him the chance. 

He kept a close watch on Lin Qi, and when he got tired of standing, he brought a stool over and sat next to him, continuing his vigilance. Lin Qi was going crazy seeing Zhen Dianfeng's actions, cursing him in his mind from top to bottom, inside and out.

No matter how much Lin Qi cursed internally or even prayed, Zhen Dianfeng just kept staring at him until the end of the exam. Lin Qi felt like crying but had no tears. 

He couldn't understand why the invigilating teacher was targeting him like this. The math exam was a total loss. He couldn't copy a single answer and didn't solve many problems while struggling with Zhen Dianfeng.

At 3:30 PM, after distributing the English exam papers, Zhen Dianfeng brought a stool and sat right next to Lin Qi.

Lin Qi looked at Zhen Dianfeng approaching him with confusion and fear in his eyes. “Don’t come over here!” he thought frantically.

…

At 9 PM, after the comprehensive subject exam, Lin Qi walked out of the exam hall, completely disheartened. He had realized that the invigilator was deliberately targeting him, most likely part of Su Zhiwen’s conspiracy. 

The invigilator must have been bribed! Remembering the bet he had with Su Zhiwen some time ago, Lin Qi directed his suspicions towards Su Zhiwen, who had every reason to sabotage him. This thought intensified his hatred towards Su Zhiwen.

[Ding, the host has secretly interfered to prevent the protagonist Lin Qi from cheating, disrupting the original plot, and is rewarded with 500 villain values.]

The monthly exam results were quickly announced. On Monday morning, Zheng Yingying entered the classroom holding several report cards. She distributed them and let the students pass them around. 

Each row had a report card to look at, passing it from front to back. Some students eagerly stretched their necks to see the results ahead. Various reactions, from exclamations to joy to disappointment, emerged upon seeing the scores. There was a buzz of discussion among the students. The classroom became lively and noisy.

“Holy crap! What did I just see? Su Zhiwen is in first place?” someone exclaimed.

“What? Who’s first?”

“Let me see.”

…

After seeing their own scores, some students wanted to see who was ahead of them. To their astonishment, they found Su Zhiwen at the top of the class ranking, leaving them dumbfounded. Hearing this exclamation, others were also drawn to look at the top of the report card.

However, the person most affected by hearing that Su Zhiwen had secured the first position was Lin Qi. His head buzzed in shock. After his failure in the exams, he had considered many possible outcomes. 

He thought that even if he failed to cheat in the subsequent subjects, he had succeeded in the first one, and compared to his previous performances, he should have improved, showing some progress. 

Su Zhiwen’s past grades were similar to his, and even if he had really worked hard for a few days recently, it wouldn’t amount to a significant improvement, especially if it was just a facade. 

So, Lin Qi was convinced he had a better chance of winning than Su Zhiwen. But he never anticipated this outcome.

“He got first? Impossible, unless he cheated, it must be cheating!”

“Quiet!” Zheng Yingying banged on the desk. She didn’t want the students to continue their noisy discussions. It was unruly and reflected poorly on her authority as a class teacher. 

“About this monthly exam’s results, I hope they reflect your true abilities. I won’t delve into whether you cheated or not, as this is a test of your own capabilities, which is unrelated to me.”

“What I want to say is, there’s still time for improvement. With a bit more effort, progress is possible.”

“You all are aware of Su Zhiwen’s previous performance, but you’ve also seen the progress he has made through his recent efforts.”

“So, don’t be discouraged.”

Zheng Yingying used Su Zhiwen as an example to encourage the other students.