Little Zhibai was knowledgeable and well-read.
She recognized every single one of those tiny characters.
But when strung together and read aloud, why did they make so little sense?
In the midst of a momentary short-circuit in her brain, a few seconds passed before the small temporary office suddenly exploded with raucous cheers!
“How about that? See? I told you Sister’s a genius! Sister’s the smartest in the world! Top fifty in the province—piece of cake, totally expected!”
“This… this… top fifty?! My heavens, Zhibai, my daughter—you… how in the world did you pull this off?!”
The chorus of exclamations gradually brought Ye Zhibai back to an indisputable reality.
It seemed she had stumbled into the realm of the academic gods!
In this exalted domain, scores weren’t even displayed.
It was the ultimate simplicity of the Great Dao, all phenomena converging into oneness!
Pfft! Was this the moment for chuunibyou delusions in her head?
Oh no, Guang Yu.
They’d copied way too much!
Guang Yu stood with her hands on her hips, tail swishing smugly.
“Hmph hmph hmph. See? I told you trusting me was the right call. Look at these scores—we aced right into… uh… how many points was it? Fifty… yeah! Fifty! Top fifty in your whole village!”
“It’s not fifty points… Why not say top fifty in the town while you’re at it? This is the province—the entire province!”
“The whole province… that’s a lot of people, huh?”
Count the hairs on your fox tail; that’s about how many candidates there were.
As the queen of copycats, Ye Zhibai had half a mind to say she had no face left to accept such undeserved glory.
But!
The scores were out. It wasn’t like she could hand them back now, right?!
Scummy human Ye Zhibai convinced herself with a few quick mental arguments.
—Yep, Gaokao. Did pretty well.
Maybe she wasn’t a full-blown genius egg, but she was at least a little smarty-pants.
Ye Zhibai calmly set down her phone.
She pressed her palms downward toward the cheering Yun’er and Old Dad, doing her best to hush the celebratory uproar that left her squirming with embarrassment.
“No need to shout… just a super performance… silence is golden.”
“Sister!” Yun’er seized Ye Zhibai’s hand, her azure eyes brimming with awe. “Sister only reviewed for two or three days and still hit top fifty… that’s beyond genius—you’re basically a goddess! Ahh… I can’t take it. Why is my sister so amazing… and so humble? Yun’er is seriously so proud!”
“Not just two or three days… there were a couple years of dream-study too.”
“That’s still god-tier! We have to throw a celebration feast—no, wait, first things first, there’s something even more important…”
“What?”
“Sister, please sign something for me!”
Give it a rest!
Truth be told, ninety percent of my score came straight off your paper. If anyone’s the goddess here, it’s you!
The little fox Guang Yu blinked in surprise and alarm.
Why were they calling each other goddesses?
Were they plotting a takeover?!
Nah, no one would want that shabby throne anyway.
Ye Qinghe marveled at the unforeseen result, pressing his palms together and offering thanks to the heavens beyond the ceiling.
“Worthily the child of me and Little Qing… truly blessed by the heavens, with such natural talent!
Zhibai, your father is proud!”
“Th-thanks, Dad?”
The thing was, she and her unseen mother shared no blood with him—intelligence wasn’t hereditary or anything!
If she had to point fingers, the real natural talent belonged to Yun’er.
Oh, right.
Yun’er hadn’t checked her score yet?
At Ye Zhibai’s nudge, Yun’er—still mid-praise for her sister—calmly pulled up her own results.
What followed was a wave of double blessings.
Yun’er’s score mirrored the spectacle perfectly: the same breezy “Top fifty—check your SMS notifications in three days.”
Talk about overkill.
Top fifty in the entire province, and their family had claimed fully one twenty-fifth of those spots!
Yet when they turned to Yun’er’s score, Old Dad and Yun’er treated it like the most natural thing in the world!
“Mm, Yun’er, solid work. Normal performance—nice and steady.”
“See? I told you, Dad—you worry too much sometimes. Though my top fifty doesn’t hold a candle to Sister’s. Three years of study versus three days—who needs me to spell out how incredible that is?”
“True enough, but no need to overthink it. You two are both the pride of me and Little Qing—undeniable.”
Hold content, huh.
Speaking of value, the least Ye Zhibai could do for Guang Yu was build her into a glowing statue.
And seriously, quit hyping her up! She might not have much face to lose, but what she had, she wanted to keep!
After the scores and cheers came the inevitable “feedback” round.
Take Ye Qinghe, for instance. Business connections meant a slew of family heads and corporate bigwigs had already pinged him about his precious daughter’s Gaokao results.
It had seemed like a hassle at first, but with this outcome? Time to brag!
Wealth stayed hidden, but a daughter’s brilliance was fair game to broadcast far and wide!
Ye Zhibai’s meager shreds of dignity were history.
Yun’er had her own obligations too. As high school Student Council President with great popularity, teacher group chats and student council threads were all buzzing for her score.
Courtesy demanded a reply.
But Yun’er found it a total drag!
Gotta answer quick—then off to prep that massive celebration cake for Sister!
It was almost comical, but Ye Zhibai now had her own little social circle!
She’d promised screenshots to Sister Liang and the others once scores dropped—they were probably waiting.
Ye Zhibai fired off a message, keeping any bragging out of it. After all, she knew exactly where these marks had come from.
Gratitude-worthy tribute levels, even—Little Zhibai had that much figured.
She snapped a screenshot straight from the results page.
No cropping, straight to Sister Liang and Little Qiu.
Zihan’s could wait. Fellow exam-taker—didn’t know how she’d done. Rubbing it in if she’d bombed would be cruel.
Ye Zhibai ground her teeth… She’d been on the receiving end of that from her class’s top student back in the day! People compared people, and it drove them mad! A little empathy for the world went a long way.
Little Qiu, the die-hard 2D girl, was the phone-glued type—her reply came back at lightspeed. And the content…
Painfully succinct.
“?”
?
Not Ye Zhibai questioning it—Little Qiu’s response was literally just a question mark.
A single mark that managed to convey doubt about her score both subtly and bluntly. Ice-cold, zero warmth.
“Yezi, you grab a random net pic to mess with me? Top fifty? Get real?”
“I figured you wouldn’t buy it—hell, I barely do. But check the header up top; that’s my candidate name. No fakes here.”
“??”
No more question marks! This time it was two!
Sharing her real name with a netizen? Normally idiotic—but Little Qiu was the exception.
They’d meet IRL in days anyway, and with Guang Yu’s stamp of approval, she wasn’t some creep. Ye Zhibai could let her guard down.
All she wanted was to show some human sincerity—no backstabbing schemes, no fake pics.
“Yezi… you’re an actual academic god?! Suddenly this face-to-face feels like Mount Everest pressure. You’re not a normie too, are you?! Damn it—have I been buddying up to a normie all these years?! Explode, normie! Explode, life winner!”
“Easy, Little Qiu. I’m no normie by any stretch—this was pure luck, total fluke.”
“As if I’d believe you! Fluke top fifty? You sneaky Yezi!”
Ah… weirdly soothing.
Back when Ye Zhibai didn’t know Little Qiu was a girl, lines like that would’ve screamed gross otaku dude—major discomfort vibes.
But picturing a cute girl behind the screen, just like her avatar Eromanga Sensei? Suddenly it all sounded adorable.
Sorry—not. Humans were double-standard machines, hardwired in the DNA. No changing it.
By the time she’d bantered with Little Qiu, Sister Liang’s reply pinged in.
Let’s see…
Sister Liang would be different—her response surely packed beauty and heartfelt warmth.
“?”
Sister Liang!!
Not you too with the icy punctuation!
Question marks weren’t all equal.
Little Qiu’s screamed skepticism; Chi Yuliang’s was pure shock!
“Little Bai, this for real? Congrats! How’d you get so brilliant overnight? This beats even my Gaokao score—seriously, outstanding!”
“My brain just… clicked into gear or something.”
“Mm, Little Bai’s come through—big sis congrats! Oh, and pass my thanks to Little Guang Yu too; she worked hard.”
“……”
The fox was back to hands-on-hips smugness—whatever.
The real gem was Sister Liang’s parting line.
Ha… Classic Sister Liang.
One sentence nailed every thank-you, credited everyone due, all wrapped in the gentlest euphemism. Saved what was left of Little Zhibai’s face.
On the high-IQ, high-EQ front…
Sister Liang had her completely under control!
I’m convinced!
While admiring Sister Liang, Ye Zhibai couldn’t forget one lingering worry in her heart.
How had Zihan done on the exam, exactly?
She still hadn’t sent a message by now. Could it be that she hadn’t hit her target score?
If that were the case, it would probably be a massive blow to Lin Zihan’s life.
No, no matter what, she had to at least ask.
Staying silent wasn’t going to solve anything.
Ye Zhibai composed the most euphemistic message she could manage, weighing her words carefully before sending it off.
“Zihan, have the scores been released yet?”
She’d thought a heartbroken person might not reply.
But unexpectedly, the “other person is typing” indicator popped up in the chat almost immediately.
“Yeah, I checked my scores, but… I’m torn about whether to tell Little Bai’er.”
“Did you bomb it?”
“No, I didn’t bomb it… Quite the opposite, actually—I overperformed a bit. I’m just worried that if Little Bai’er didn’t meet her expectations, it might hit her hard. After all, you’ve only been studying and reviewing for a few days! (helpless shrug emoji)”
Talk about a coincidence.
We were actually on the same wavelength!
I hadn’t messaged you either because I was worried you’d bombed it!
No need to overthink it, then.
Ye Zhibai replied decisively.
“No worries, go ahead and send it. I did okay too.”
“Heh, knowing Little Bai’er, this isn’t you just saying you did fine to reassure me, is it? (silly doge emoji)”
If you’re going to say that, then I’m suspecting you’re doing the same to reassure me!
Ye Zhibai quickly came up with a perfect solution for both of them.
“Hold on thirty seconds. Take a screenshot of your score page, and we’ll send them at the same time after that. Problem solved, right?”
“…Fine, okay.”
Consensus reached, Ye Zhibai silently counted down the seconds in her mind and hit send right on time.
At the same moment, Lin Zihan’s score report came through.
Ye Zhibai tapped it open.
Oh ho.
Now this was a proper score report!
Every subject had a score, and every one was sky-high!
The total ranking note showed Provincial 102nd Rank!
Provincial 102nd—that meant she’d absolutely locked in School Top 3 at Qihai No.1 Middle School.
Just like Yun’er, pure real skill!
She was still poring over the score report when a backstage notification popped up from Lin Zihan.
Let’s see what she says.
Actually, no need—I could predict it.
Based on experience, her reply right now was very likely to be that infuriating symbol.
~~~
???
See? She even sent three!
