Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 29 A Divine Composition

There wasn’t much to say about the exam process.

Qiao Yu just quietly worked on the questions, and after finishing, he quietly lay there catching up on sleep. Submitting the paper early to stand out? Not a thing.

Today, it was another rainy day, and since one couldn’t stay in the exam hall after submitting the paper, there was nowhere else to go, might as well sleep in the classroom.

Besides, Qiao Yu didn’t like to show off in such ways; why would classmates hurt classmates?

Moreover, if they thought having good grades was a cool thing, these classmates probably wouldn’t have ended up mingling in Class Thirteen.

In short, the first day of exams passed by without any surprises for Qiao Yu.

But for the teachers, it was another story.

...

The full-scale mock exam strictly followed the standardized exam rules, including the exam time, with the official start also at nine in the morning, and both the Chinese and Mathematics exam durations of 120 minutes. At five minutes past eleven, Yuan Yuan got the class’s papers.

Immediately, the homeroom teacher picked out Qiao Yu’s paper from the stack and set the others aside.

The school-level mock exam grading wasn’t that strict. Although it involved collective grading, it was harmless to look at the paper first. Soon, Yuan Yuan immersed herself in reviewing Qiao Yu’s answers.

Very good, accumulation and application questions, all correct; but that was normal.

These were just multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, and to get high scores, these questions had to be all correct. The main part of the Chinese exam was always reading comprehension and writing.

Not to mention the fifty points for the major essay, even the small essay expression occupied a full 16 points, and the most basic accumulation questions totalled only 18 points. Similarly, reading comprehension also carried a score of 46 points.

Without even seeing the major essay, Qiao Yu’s reading comprehension performance already surprised Yuan Yuan, with a nearly perfect accuracy, especially considering many of the articles were selected from extracurricular reading materials, which made it even more commendable.

Of course, it wasn’t that Qiao Yu’s answers completely matched the reference answers. In fact, for this kind of formal exam reading comprehension, not only was there a reference answer, but there was also a detailed scoring guideline.

For instance, if a particular point was mentioned, a corresponding score was given. If none of the points from the scoring guideline was mentioned, naturally it would be zero.

But generally speaking, reading comprehension is such that it’s very hard to get a full score. After all, students can’t fully grasp the intention expressed in the article, and it’s easy to make mistakes. But to get no points at all is also hard unless one doesn’t write anything.

This is also the reason why it’s nearly impossible to achieve a full score in Chinese but also quite difficult to fail.

Not to mention the highly subjective powerhouse that is the essay.

Alright, the essay...

Yuan Yuan suppressed her excitement and turned to Qiao Yu’s essay, the small essay was standard.

This time, the major essay in the mock exam was in the form of a choice between two topics. The first topic was "A Different Kind of True Feelings," and the second was to read a piece of material and write an essay as required.

It was obvious that the former had more freedom and also required slightly higher writing ability from the students.

Qiao Yu chose the former, and the essay began like this:

"Last month’s Tomb-Sweeping Festival in Star City had a slight drizzle, making it unsuitable for outings. But at my strong request, my mom agreed to take me to XX Cemetery to pay respects to my father.

There were many people on the mountain, but fortunately, the culture of civilized memorials had taken root, compared to past years, the sounds of firecrackers and incense aroma filling the cemetery were noticeably less, and more people chose to express their grief with a simple bouquet of flowers.

This is a good trend, but I do not like it. In fact, I have always been more willing to use traditional ways of worship. When the burning paper casts shadows on the grave, I always feel that those paper notes carrying blessings and remembrance could indeed cross the boundary of life and death to reach the world of the departed..."

The essay continued with various descriptions of the cemetery and the encounters with people and events during the ritual, all linking back to the remembrance of the father. It vividly portrays a young boy’s longing for paternal love and strong feelings toward his father, lacking paternal companionship.

This made the language teacher involuntarily think of Qiao Yu, a child from a single-parent family, with a mist starting to form in her eyes.

Also, the essay matched the topic requirements very well. For middle schoolers writing about true feelings, maternal love, paternal love, or even friendship among classmates could all work; of course, in the context of a big middle school exam, it’s best not to touch upon romantic love.

Not to mention, the essay was fluently written, with genuine emotions, and if one could overlook the slightly unsightly handwriting, Yuan Yuan felt there was no problem in awarding it high marks.

But the most breathtaking part wasn’t the essay itself; it was the last paragraph of the essay, a stroke of genius!

"Ah, suddenly I remembered, my mom once told me that my dad dashed off abroad with the family before I was even born, and since then, there was no news of him. So actually, I never had a dad, never did. But no one can deny that this is a different kind of true feelings, isn’t it?"

What the... this is also a different kind of true feelings...

It wrung out her tears, and then suddenly, with a shocking twist at the end? You don’t know where your dad is, so you ran to some cemetery on Tomb-Sweeping Festival to pay respects to him?! No wonder the essay just used XX in place of the cemetery’s name...

Honestly, with the last sentence, it elevated the essay to a point that she didn’t know how to evaluate it anymore, with a somewhat comical flavor.

From the perspective of traditional Huaxia cultural emotions, the article clearly deviates from the norm.

But if she were to actually grade it, full marks, it must be full marks!

Even though the handwriting was a bit messy and unsightly, just based on this narrative structure and relevance to the topic, not giving it full marks would be letting down her conscience!

After finishing reading the essay, Yuan Yuan picked up the paper and walked out of the office, went straight upstairs to another Chinese teachers’ office in the ninth grade, and knocked on the door and entered.

"Mr. Xing, are you busy? If not, would you like to take a look at this essay?"

The Mr. Xing Yuan Yuan referred to, named Xing Yuandi, was a senior teacher with nearly thirty years of teaching experience, the lead of the ninth-grade Chinese teaching research group, currently only teaching Chinese for the graduating Class One and Class Two school-wide.

Very hardworking, but the treatment was excellent as well.

There was no choice, over these years, excellent teachers from regular middle schools were being targeted by many well-funded private schools, and poor treatment could indeed result in talent loss.

"That Qiao Yu from your class?" Xing Yuandi asked.

It was evident that these days, Qiao Yu’s name was quite popular in Railway First Middle School, even teachers instructing the advanced classes had heard of it.

"Yes." Yuan Yuan nodded.

Xing Yuandi put down what he was doing and took the paper Yuan Yuan handed over, with the essay page on top.

"This handwriting could really use some improvement; otherwise, it loses marks." Old Xing muttered at a glance at the essay.

Yuan Yuan embarrassedly smiled.

Her class had two students who wrote well, but unfortunately, Qiao Yu wasn’t one of them.

Xing Yuandi didn’t say more, as he knew very well what state Class Thirteen was in, but soon he overlooked these minor details.

Considering a child from Class Thirteen could write such an essay, it was indeed quite impressive, until he saw the last section...

Xing Yuandi blankly lifted his head to look at Yuan Yuan.

"Is it true?"

"Yes, single-parent family, no dad, it must be true. But whether he went abroad, I don’t know, just feels too on-topic, doesn’t it?"