Ch 17: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

A clear, precise, and well-balanced “I” plunged the entire Class Ten into an eerie silence.

Take what?
What did you take?

“Ruan Cha, let’s be honest, did your tongue slip?!”

Amid the stunned crowd, only Huang Jiajia’s eyes sparkled like stars. She had made up her mind—Ruan Cha was now her unshakable No. 1 goddess! Not even the school heartthrob, Fu Chen, could compare!

Xie Chang’an, a beat slow as always, scratched the back of his head and murmured with a dumbfounded yet deeply respectful tone, “Ruan Cha truly lives up to her reputation. She can ride a panda for sport and ace math for academics.”

The mention of pandas made everyone glance instinctively toward the back of the room. Unfortunately, Xu Shen wasn’t there. They missed the chance to witness the expression of someone once rejected by a panda.

It could be said that, of the dozen or so students present, aside from Song Mengyu, who already knew the inside story, everyone else was utterly dumbfounded by Ruan Cha’s casual claim of scoring perfect marks in math.

A dazed classmate muttered, “I was wrong. I shouldn’t have said you were just ‘keeping the balance.’ Perfect marks in math, ten points in each of the other four subjects—who wouldn’t you look down on? We’re all science students here; who’s really better than who?”

“…”

Ruan Cha had no way to explain. She couldn’t very well say she was just too lazy to study, could she?

As the entire class looked at her with admiration, Song Mengyu bit her lip in frustration. She had assumed Ruan Cha wouldn’t have the gall to claim a perfect score in public. Wouldn’t it be embarrassing if she performed poorly in the monthly exam?

But Song Mengyu was bound to be disappointed. Ruan Cha had never developed even the slightest sense of shame. After all—

As a self-proclaimed “lazy fish,” not making any effort at all was already the most embarrassing thing one could do.

Because of Ruan Cha’s casual revelation about her perfect scores in high school math, Class Ten students found themselves for the first time eagerly awaiting the results. Over the next two days, students frequently darted to the teachers’ office during breaks, desperate to see whether Ruan Cha could truly secure another perfect score.

“Newsflash! Ren Qingqing from Class Two scored 148 points, making her the second-highest math scorer in the whole grade!”

The chubby math class representative came running back, puffing and panting, his face flushed like a sticky rice dumpling due to the exertion.

He had helped carry the math tests to the math department and overheard a group of teachers tallying scores, accidentally catching Ren Qingqing’s result.

Hearing this, the tip of Ruan Cha’s pen paused as she worked on her physics paper. Once again, she keenly realized how her own changes had altered the plot.

In the original storyline, Ren Qingqing had only scored 130 in math after acquiring “Ruan Cha’s” three points of intelligence. But now, relying on her natural intellect, she not only finished the paper in twenty minutes but also achieved a high score of 148.

Ruan Cha lowered her eyelashes, deep in thought. Given more time, she was confident she could perform even better on the exam. But if she truly lost the monthly test, her intelligence and beauty stats would be at risk.

There was one thing Ruan Cha couldn’t overlook: the original plot never explained her mother’s cause of death. While her father’s descent into madness could be partially explained—losing both his wife and daughter—it still left questions unanswered.

Was Ren Qingqing her only future opponent? But her parents had never seen Ren Qingqing’s system panel in the original plot. Where did the entanglement among the three of them stem from?

“Who’s Ren Qingqing? The name rings a bell.”

“The lightning spiritual root girl who got struck by lightning in the classroom. By the way, Brother Shen ignored his private car yesterday and the day before, opting to squeeze onto the school bus with Ren Qingqing.”

“Brother Shen must be serious about her.”

Since Ruan Cha had consistently expressed that there was no possibility between her and Xu Shen, and had joined in gossiping with them yesterday, some classmates felt at ease gossiping openly, unbothered about making her uncomfortable.

“Only 148 for second place in the grade? I remember last semester there were six or seven students in our grade who scored a full 150,” said a ponytailed girl. She then turned to the class math representative. “Who’s first? Did you hear Ruan Cha’s score?”

The class had even started a betting pool on whether Ruan Cha would score full marks. Those betting on a perfect score were at 1:100 odds, with six participants—Ruan Cha herself included. Those betting against it were at 1:2 odds, with twelve participants.

The math representative scratched his curly hair. “Who else could it be? Fu Chen, of course. Full marks. I didn’t catch Ruan Cha’s score; maybe it hasn’t been recorded yet.”

“Tch, the teachers already said this time’s math test had several out-of-syllabus questions and was overall harder. The fact that we have one perfect scorer, Fu Chen, already left them thrilled.”

It could be said that in this monthly exam, only the difficulty of the math section increased; the other subjects were actually easier.

“You said Fu Chen got 150?” Ruan Cha looked up, frowning slightly. After a pause, she asked again for confirmation, “I didn’t mishear?”

Before the math representative could reply, Song Mengyu interjected with dissatisfaction, “Cha Cha, Fu Chen’s math has always been excellent, consistently perfect scores. You can’t just question his score because you didn’t get full marks yourself.”

After speaking, Song Mengyu’s cheeks turned red as she thought about her mother’s plan mentioned last night. Her mother was right—Fu Chen had no connection with the Liang family anymore. She could completely use her status as his former cousin to get ahead of others and secure the position of the Fu family’s young mistress.

“Are you insane?”

Song Mengyu: “???”

From Song Mengyu’s perspective, despite Ruan Cha’s earlier scolding of Lin Ling, she had never taken it seriously, believing Ruan Cha was just pretending to be a well-behaved girl in the Liang family and wouldn’t dare to openly confront her.

But now Ruan Cha had outright called her insane in public?!

“Cha Cha, you need to be mindful of your words in public!” Song Mengyu adopted an elder-sisterly demeanor, her face showing helplessness. “As your elder sister, I won’t hold it against you, but what about others?”

Ruan Cha, already frustrated about her scores, had no patience for Song Mengyu’s performative sisterly act. “Shut up. Do we even have a relationship? You should know better.”

Lazy people generally dislike conflict because it’s exhausting and a waste of time. However, disliking conflict doesn’t mean they fear it.

After speaking, Ruan Cha didn’t spare Song Mengyu another glance. She turned to the math representative instead. “Wasn’t there a 10-point bonus question at the end of our sophomore math test this time? Did Fu Chen not do it?”

With Ruan Cha’s reminder, the class suddenly remembered that there really was a bonus question at the end of the math test. None of them had done it; some had even spent time doodling in the blank space on the answer sheet instead.

The math representative froze, also puzzled. “That’s right. For Fu Chen to get 150 points, even if he didn’t get the bonus question completely right, he should have gotten at least half. So why is it still only 150?”

Of course, no one in Class Ten could answer his question.

Not just the students in Class Ten—the math teachers were equally incredulous. The teacher responsible for grading Fu Chen’s paper repeatedly flipped through the answer sheets, confident that the bonus question wasn’t answered on Fu Chen’s paper.

“Old Ye, did you ask Fu Chen if he forgot to do the bonus question?”

Ye Qingfeng had just returned from Class One. Hearing his colleague’s question, he slumped his shoulders, his face even darker. After sitting down, he replied gruffly, “I asked. He didn’t forget! He said scoring 150 has a sense of ceremony. Scoring 160 would feel off!”

“Off, my foot! If he’s so capable, why doesn’t he convince the Chinese teacher to grade his Chinese paper for 150 points?!” Ye Qingfeng grew angrier as he spoke, almost wishing he could crack open Fu Chen’s head to see how it worked.

Sitting in the farthest seat, Liu Shu, Class Two’s homeroom teacher and math instructor, let out a sneer. “You’re kidding, right? All this talk about ‘ceremony’? Let’s be real, the third part of the bonus question required senior-year knowledge to solve. Fu Chen clearly didn’t know how to do it and was afraid his ‘math prodigy’ reputation would fall apart. So, he simply skipped it to save face.”

Hearing someone insult his student, Ye Qingfeng wasn’t having it. He slammed the table and glared at Liu Shu. “Liu Shu, what’s that supposed to mean? If Fu Chen isn’t a true math prodigy, then who do you think deserves the title?”

Ye Qingfeng and Liu Shu had never gotten along. Originally, both Class One and Class Two, the key classes, were supposed to be assigned to Ye Qingfeng, a provincial gold medal teacher. He’d prepared for it, only for Liu Shu to use his connections to snatch Class Two.

Liu Shu, dissatisfied that his class couldn’t outperform Class One, let the tension between them escalate over time.

“Ren Qingqing from Class Two,” Liu Shu said, slapping Ren Qingqing’s math test onto the desk with obvious pride.

The math scores from his class had always been overshadowed by Class One, whether in terms of top scorers or the average score. Even the so-called math genius, Fu Chen, was in Class One.

Liu Shu had little respect for these rich kids. Weren’t they just relying on private tutors funded by their families? But this time, Ren Qingqing had managed to score 8 points on the bonus question, giving him a sense of pride.

Ye Qingfeng glanced at Ren Qingqing’s test paper and scoffed. “Ren Qingqing’s 148 can’t compare to Fu Chen’s 150.”

He remembered Ren Qingqing—wasn’t she the student who handed in her paper after only 20 minutes? When he reviewed her answer sheet back then, he noticed a mistake in the multiple-choice section. He even suggested she go back and check her work, thinking she might catch it. Instead, she ignored him and handed in her paper after sitting idly for 10 minutes.

Wait a minute.

Thinking of Ren Qingqing suddenly reminded Ye Qingfeng of another girl who had handed in her paper early. What was her name again? He tapped his head in frustration, trying to recall, but the name eluded him for the moment.

“But Ren Qingqing got 8 points on the bonus question!” Liu Shu continued, crossing his legs and smirking with pride on his gaunt face. “If she hadn’t simplified her process too much and missed a formula, she would’ve scored full marks on it.

“And those 10 points she lost earlier? They were just careless mistakes. The multiple-choice question was one we’d done before, but we shuffled the options for the monthly test. She just answered by habit. And the blank-fill question? She missed a decimal point. It shows that Ren Qingqing understands everything! If she had been more careful, she’d easily get 160.”

Honestly, he was surprised too. Usually, Ren Qingqing’s math performance hovered below average in his class. Who could’ve expected her to perform so well in the monthly test and jump to second place in the grade?

“It’s a shame she only placed second because of her carelessness.”

Ye Qingfeng was flipping through the test papers from Exam Hall 23. The test papers were graded separately, and Ye Qingfeng was responsible for two major problems and the bonus question. When he graded a perfect bonus section earlier, he realized it belonged to the second girl who had handed in her paper early.

Because every answer was correct.

He found it!

Relaxing slightly, Ye Qingfeng quickly pulled out the paper to confirm the score. After recalculating it, he felt reassured. Everything checked out. He glanced at Liu Shu, who was still brimming with pride, and said with a faint smirk, “Looks like Ren Qingqing can’t keep her second-place title. She’ll have to settle for third.”

“What do you mean? Someone else scored 150 or 149? Your Class One’s Zhang Yi or our Class Two’s Hou Jiawen?” Liu Shu asked. The two names he mentioned were students who had previously tied with Fu Chen for perfect scores.

A teacher sitting nearby shook his head. “Zhang Yi scored 145, Hou Jiawen 147. I tallied the scores myself.”

“Are you satisfied with just 150?” Ye Qingfeng let out a low chuckle, dripping with mockery aimed at the Class Two homeroom teacher’s earlier arrogance. He waved the test paper in his hand. “Ruan Cha, full marks—160!”

Liu Shu’s hand trembled, and the cup he was holding slipped and shattered on the ground with a loud clink. His face was full of disbelief. “Impossible!”

“Ruan Cha? Never heard of her. Is she from Class One or Class Two?” The other teachers in the teaching group, who taught parallel classes, exchanged puzzled looks, clearly unfamiliar with the name.

Although Ruan Cha had briefly become famous due to a school broadcast, most who remembered her name were English teachers. The math teachers often treated the broadcasts as background noise while working on lesson plans.

“Ruan Cha?” Liao Lan’s voice rose in surprise, and she jumped up, rushing to Ye Qingfeng. Snatching the test paper from his hand, she checked it eagerly. “Our class’s Ruan Cha??”

When Liao Lan saw the name and student ID on the paper, her face lit up with a broad smile. “I knew it! Ruan Cha is always so quiet, diligent, attentive in class, and hardworking after school. She’s actually achieved full marks again, even solving the bonus questions perfectly.”

The teachers passed the paper around, their eyes filled with astonishment as they reviewed it.

“Lan-jie, what do you mean by ‘again’?”

Liao Lan smiled mysteriously. “Back in her previous high school, Ruan Cha also scored full marks in math for her first-year final exams! Since transferring to our school, she hasn’t just adapted—she’s performing even better!”

Liu Shu’s frustration grew as the teachers praised Ruan Cha. “Who knows how she got full marks? If she truly had the ability, why wouldn’t the Liang family have placed her in Class Two instead of specifically sending her to Class 23? Maybe someone’s trying to curry favor with the Liang family and leaked the answers to her in secret.”

“Liu Shu! Who are you accusing with that veiled insult?” As one of the proctors for Exam Hall 23, Ye Qingfeng was furious, his chest rising and falling with anger. “You think just because you pulled strings to get into this school, everyone else must be doing the same? You shameless old codger!”

“Who are you calling an old codger?!”

“You’re the oldest in the teaching group. If you’re not old, who is?”

“Ye Qingfeng!!!”

Another teacher, seeing the two about to bicker further, quickly intervened. “Enough! Stop arguing!”

Ye Qingfeng and Liu Shu, caught up in their heated exchange, turned away from each other with heavy breathing, their anger barely suppressed.

The mediating teacher pointed at Ruan Cha’s test paper and, half-exasperated, half-critical, addressed Liu Shu. “The bonus question required senior-year formulas, but look at the formulas Ruan Cha used. She derived everything step by step using only sophomore-level knowledge. Even we as teachers wouldn’t have thought of her methods. So, who do you think handed her the answers?”

Liu Shu stared at the bonus question on the test paper, opened his mouth to speak, but no words came out. He slumped in defeat, looking like a rooster that had lost a fight.

---

In Class Two, Ren Qingqing also heard her math score announced:

[Congratulations, Host. Math: 148 (highest in Second High), Chinese: 131, English: 147 (highest in Second High), Science: 241. Total: 667 (highest in Second High).]

Ren Qingqing frowned in dissatisfaction. “My science score is too low. Did the teacher make a mistake?”

To her, while her chemistry was a weak point, her science scores in various practice tests had consistently been over 260. A score of 241 seemed impossible.

Math and English had been easily conquered thanks to system simulations, allowing her to achieve her best-ever scores. If her science score had matched her usual 260+, her total score would have surpassed 680, potentially pushing her into the grade’s top ten.

[Upon verification, no scoring error was found. Friendly reminder: during the two weeks of exam preparation, the host focused exclusively on math and English, neglecting science subjects.]

Ren Qingqing felt a little displeased. However, looking at her highest total score since entering high school, a trace of joy emerged. “What did Ruan Cha score?”

With her own 667 already secured, the second main task was as good as done. As for Ruan Cha, with her last-minute cramming and the emotional distraction caused by her and Xu Shen, she’d be lucky to score over 600.

[Apologies, this system cannot verify the associated target’s score before the leaderboard is published—zzzrrrt.]

Before the system could finish, a burst of static interrupted it. Startled, Ren Qingqing was about to inquire further, fearing the system might malfunction and harm her. Suddenly, a cold, emotionless electronic voice boomed in her ear, chilling her to the core.

---

“Cha Cha, the results are out! Let’s go check the bulletin board!” Huang Jiajia excitedly grabbed Ruan Cha’s hand and dragged her towards the large bulletin board on the first floor. The other usually indifferent Class Ten students, driven by their bets and curiosity, also rushed downstairs.

Their uncharacteristic enthusiasm made students from other classes rub their eyes in disbelief, wondering if they were seeing things.

When Ruan Cha arrived downstairs, she was taken aback by the sea of people. Was her old high school this crowded during leaderboard announcements?

Whether it was or not, she couldn’t remember. Back in high school, her approach mirrored Class Ten’s current attitude: exams ended as soon as she left the room. Her total score of 340 was unshakable, and teachers would eventually review the results in class anyway, so there was no point in looking at the leaderboard herself.

But this time was different. Ruan Cha hadn’t heard from the system and had to see the rankings for herself, especially her and Ren Qingqing’s positions.

The first floor of Building B had five bulletin boards, each standing 1.5 meters tall. The red paper on the boards listed the top 40 students’ scores, showcasing the top 150 science students and the top 50 arts students.

Normally, Class Ten students never paid attention to the bulletin boards. After all, only Lin Ling occasionally made it on the list, and sometimes Song Mengyu.

But now, they all had flushed faces, eagerly crowding around the first bulletin board.

Ji Feiyang, who was about to check the results, stumbled when Xie Chang’an shoved past him. Adjusting his glasses, Ji Feiyang recognized him and couldn’t help laughing. “Xie the Dog, what are you doing? Sleepwalking to the first bulletin board?”

“Pfft, I don’t have time to chat with you,” Xie Chang’an snapped back, his eyes scanning the board like a radar. The moment he spotted Ruan Cha’s name, his eyes widened in shock. After a long moment of silence, all he could manage was:

“Holy crap!!!”

“Ruan Cha, you scored 160 in math! Ahhhh! My bet on you getting full marks was absolutely correct!”

His exclamation silenced the noisy hall for a moment. Everyone turned their attention to the boards and saw it—on all five boards, Ruan Cha’s 160 in math stood unmatched. Fu Chen’s 150 was a distant second.

“Who is Ruan Cha? That’s insane!”

“She’s the one with the flawless accent on the school broadcast!”

“Oh my god, how much did she score in English then?!”

When Ruan Cha heard about her 160 in math, she wasn’t surprised—it was exactly what she expected. Just as she was about to ask about her other scores and ranking, Xie Chang’an enthusiastically shouted in sync with her thoughts.

“Holy crap!! Ruan Cha! Your English and Physics are full marks too! A total of 704 points! Sixth in the entire grade!!! Three perfect scores—you’re insanely amazing!!!”

Xie Chang’an screamed with wild excitement, though even he wasn’t sure why he was so thrilled. Among the top ten, there were others with perfect scores in science or English, but to him, Ruan Cha stood out as the most impressive.

A genius had blossomed in the barren soil of Class Ten!

The perfect score in Physics was indeed unexpected for Ruan Cha. As for Chemistry, Biology, and Chinese, her limited review time had left her less prepared for those subjects, so a lower score was normal.

Although Class Ten had a reputation for being unreliable, Second High School was regarded as a powerhouse of academic excellence. In citywide mock exams and the annual college entrance exams, it consistently claimed six or seven of the top ten spots. This was why Ruan Cha’s 704 points only secured her sixth place in the grade.

Almost instantly upon learning her ranking, Ruan Cha heard the long-awaited electronic system voice declaring judgment on Ren Qingqing.

[Ding! Congratulations, Host. Grade rank: 22. Main Task Two completed. Reward: 3 points.]

[Ding! Associated target ranked higher than the host. Main Task One failed. 5 points deducted. Warning!!! Since the associated target ranks more than 10 places higher than the host, penalty calculation in progress—penalty calculation in progress.]

The mention of a penalty made Ruan Cha’s expression freeze. She instinctively looked up at the sky—blue skies and white clouds, no sign of a storm. Then, her gaze darted around, searching for Ren Qingqing, worried that if Ren Qingqing were struck by lightning in the crowd, others might get caught in the chaos.

The next moment, the penalty calculation ended, and the electronic voice spoke again. Ruan Cha’s face went blank.

[Penalty calculation complete. Host is required to run 30 laps around the track. Immediate enforcement within 5 minutes!!!]

Ruan Cha: “…”

If she didn’t record this on her phone, she’d feel guilty for not properly documenting Ren Qingqing’s scheming!