Chapter 188: Don’t Suspect Anyone Easily
The results had still not been released by the time Yun Xiangxiang arrived on campus on Monday.
When she took the breakfast to the dorms, the trio had already woken up, which was a rare sight.
As Tao Manni helped Yun Xiangxiang set up breakfast, she called her dejectedly, “Xiangxiang.”
“En?”
“You’re second in the competition,” Feng Xiaolu seemed to be down too.
“Second, a pretty nice rank. At least I have the thousand yuan cash prize.”
In this on-campus competition, the top three would receive cash prizes. First place would receive two thousand yuan, second place would receive a thousand yuan, and third place would receive five hundred yuan. They would also receive a certificate of honor.
“Aren’t you curious as to who was in the first place?” Tao Manni was panicking as she looked at Yun Xiangxiang who didn’t act as they had thought.
Yun Xiangxiang didn’t have her breakfast yet. She took it here to have it with them. Wang Yong prepared it early in the morning.
She picked up a water chestnut cake, “With that kind of skill, you’re trying to trap me? Don’t forget about the job I am in.”
They wanted to see her getting nervous and ask whether Du Jing was in the first place. However, the trio’s acting skills were not up to scratch.
“Boring,” Feng Xiaolu sat down to have her breakfast. “Xiangxiang is not cooperating with us.”
“I am not being uncooperative. It’s that your attitude told me the results. Also, even if Du Jing is in the first place, I won’t be scared either.”
“You’re not afraid she would surpass you?” That would be a slap in the face. Tao Manni was puzzled toward Yun Xiangxiang’s fearlessness.
“I went for the math competition because I wanted to prove the legitimacy of my results to those who question it.”
Yun Xiangxiang looked at the trio annoyedly, “If she’s in the first place, and I am in second, that only proves she’s better than me. But it does not prove that I am bad.”
She was no saint. When Du Jing was doubting her, she wanted to win against Du Jing of course.
However, she still remembered her original purpose for this. If she and Du Jing took the last places, even if she won against Du Jing by being second to last, she didn’t prove that she was good enough.
The same thing applied in reverse. If she and Du Jing took the top places, even if Du Jing scored better than her, Yun Xiangxiang had accomplished her goal anyway.
“So when you say that Xiangxiang was in second place, she couldn’t care less about Du Jing’s rank already.” Ma Linlin chuckled. “No point pulling her leg now.”
“I just didn’t expect Xiangxiang to not be even a bit competitive,” Tao Manni was frustrated.
“Who says I am not competitive? I want to win against her too,” Yun Xiangxiang did not hide her intentions.
“Congratulations, you won. She’s number four, again. Hahahaha…,” Feng Xiaolu had a case of schadenfreude.
“What are the odds? I got second place, and she got fourth place,” Yun Xiangxiang laughed along. “It’s fate that I will be in front of her.”
They happened to have a math class today. As their competition’s assessment paper was distributed, the math lecturer gave the other students a copy and asked them to do it after class to test their math skills.
Yun Xiangxiang noticed she got a 146 out of 150. Four marks were docked from the last question. Her formula and thought process were without problem, but her final calculations were incorrect.
First place was won by the student who got second place in last semester’s finals. The student gained full marks for the paper. Yun Xiangxiang took that loss in stride.
The lecturer left the hall after class. When Yun Xiangxiang and the others were planning to leave, Du Jing fumingly dashed over to them before they could leave. When she saw the paper Yun Xiangxiang put aside, she picked it up without even saying a word and started looking through it.
“How can you be so rude?” Tao Manni had disliked Du Jing for a long time.
As Yun Xiangxiang looked at Du Jing whose emotions were crashing, she stopped Tao Manni. When she finished looking through Yun Xiangxiang’s paper from the first question to the last, she mumbled as she spaced out, “Impossible…”
Since she wasn’t in the same hall as Yun Xiangxiang during the finals, she couldn’t see how Yun Xiangxiang answered the papers. During the competition, Yun Xiangxiang was right beside her. She saw everything clearly.
“Nothing is impossible,” Yun Xiangxiang took back her paper. “I have never thought you could beat me from the very start.”
Even without Song Mian, Yun Xiangxiang would learn about it herself. The only difference would be the time and effort put into it.
“Are you looking down on me?” Du Jing glowered at Yun Xiangxiang.
Yun Xiangxiang sneered, “Do you give me any reason not to?”
“Yun Xiangxiang, how can you insult her?” The students who came with Du Jing scolded Yun Xiangxiang.
“I might not have the right if it’s anyone else, but I can look down on her,” Yun Xiangxiang did not care about the crowd that gathered around them.
“You said you worked hard, waking up early and sleeping late to study. When you lost to me in the exam, you doubted me. Will you only be satisfied if I studied hard under your supervision? Do you think everyone else is taking a nap while you are working hard?”
“You obviously took three months leave to film! What right do you have to claim you worked hard?” Du Jing retorted loudly.
“Hmph!” Yun Xiangxiang’s lips twitched in mockery. “Stop assuming I was filming 24/7. Are you really sure that I didn’t catch up on studies during my downtime from filming? Just because you cannot see it doesn’t mean it cannot happen.”
“I didn’t really care about you before because I know you worked very hard. But if it comes to hard work, I think I won’t lose out to anyone.”
Yun Xiangxiang was not a genius. She had to rely on her work ethic to succeed. That was why she feared no one when it came to working hard.
Looking at the teary-eyed Du Jing, Yun Xiangxiang took out a USB drive. She walked up to the lectern and plugged it into the computer to play it.
“Take a look at the hard work of others,” Yun Xiangxiang said to Du Jing as she walked down the lectern.
On the big screen showed the chilly moon during a snowy winter. Within the temporary tent that was buffeted by the cold gale in the lands of snow, Yun Xiangxiang curled up as she did the papers. Her fingers were visibly swollen like little carrots. Even her writing was slow.
The scenes were played intermittently. When Yun Xiangxiang was filming “University Dream,” she toiled over the sets of question papers. She grasped every second to revise, and Han Jing filmed her in secret.
Han Jing wanted to use it as marketing after “University Dream” was aired. However, when Yun Xiangxiang’s entrance exam’s results themselves had already garnered publicity for “University Dream,” Han Jing did not post it online after asking Yun Xiangxiang’s opinion.
She gave it to Yun Xiangxiang as a memento, and Yun Xiangxiang kept it with her as she thought it was a special memory. But she brought it with her today.
It was not just in winter. There was also summer period too. Yun Xiangxiang wore different attire and concentrated on revising in different places.
Han Jing also filmed some of the food the crew had at that time. Since they were restricted by their environment, many people probably didn’t even see some of those things.
They bought it all from the locals. They would run out of it during winter, and they couldn’t keep them for too long during summer. They couldn’t ask the helicopter to send their meals every day for them.
Even when Yun Xiangxiang was injured during filming, she did not stop studying. Even when her leg was in a cast, even when her head was bandaged…
Many students’ jaws dropped as they watched it. Tao Manni and the others were on the verge of tears.
“This was before my college entrance exam. No one filmed me secretly last semester,” Yun Xiangxiang stopped playing the footage. “I played it for you to tell you that if anyone is better than you, they are either smarter than you, or they work harder than you do in places you cannot see.”
So don’t invalidate and doubt anyone easily.