This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 255 Monthly Exam (One long chapter)
The cold rain continued to drizzle all morning, adding to the chill of the exam day.

As the legendary figure born from the teaching building exam room last time, Chen Shi'an has finally returned to the 'exam room that students of Class 5 should have' and is taking the exam with his classmates in the laboratory building.

As with the previous arrangements, the first subject was Chinese, which lasted from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

At 8:20, the classrooms began to bustle with activity as many students started packing their things to head to the exam hall.

"Class monitor, are we taking the exam in classroom 302?" Chen Shi'an asked Lin Mengqiu, who was tidying up, with a smile.

"……Um."

"Let's take the exam together this time."

"..."

"Does the class monitor sit behind me?"

"..."

The class monitor ignored him.

Show off, you stinky Taoist priest! Watch me beat you this time!
"Shall we go together now?"

Chen Shi'an extended the invitation, and Lin Mengqiu finally responded with a soft "Mm..."

The two packed their things and got up from their seats, each putting their backpacks on. Lin Mengqiu also temporarily put the hand warmer back into her backpack.

She just went to the office to charge and heat up the hand warmer; it should keep her warm until the exam is over. It's really cold today; my hands are stiff from writing.

In the past, Lin Mengqiu always went to the examination hall alone, but today Chen Shi'an accompanied her.

It feels strange to have company.

Ha, to use the annoying cicada's words, is this considered an exam partner?
The rain that had been falling all morning was still drizzling down, but fortunately there were covered bridges connecting the various teaching buildings and laboratory buildings, so we didn't have to walk through the rain outdoors.

Strangely enough, Lin Mengqiu hadn't felt any wind while studying outside, but as soon as she got up, she felt gusts of biting cold wind mixed with dampness hitting her face. She couldn't help but shrink her neck and quietly moved to the other side of Chen Shi'an, getting closer to him...

Braving the biting cold and damp air, the two walked along the corridor bridge connecting the various teaching buildings. Starting from their classroom, they passed through the senior high school building and the administration building, then crossed the corridor bridge to the second-floor corridor of the laboratory building, and finally went up one more flight of stairs to the 302 lecture hall in the laboratory building.

The exam rooms in the experimental building are different from those in the teaching building. The exam rooms for science and humanities are fixed for each grade. For example, lecture hall 302 is the exclusive exam room for the top 100 science students in the second year of high school, and lecture hall 205 is the exam room for the top 100 humanities students in the second year of high school.

The only change was probably in the exam seats for different students, which were arranged according to their scores in the previous exam.

In the past, the first place was always reserved for Lin Mengqiu; no matter how others changed seats, she remained steadfast.

But this time it's different.

Lin Mengqiu sat down at the second table and chair.

Chen Shi'an's strong rise to the top even caused other students whose rankings were originally relatively stable to be forced to drop one place...

Coming from the teaching building's exam hall, and single-handedly surpassing everyone in the entire grade—besides Dao Ye, who else could do that?!

"Welcome back to your hometown, Daoist Master!"

"It seems I'll have the honor of witnessing how Master Dao solves problems today!"

"Master Daoist! Please take a seat!"

The students in Class 5 were all taking the exam in exam room 302. As the new king and the old king walked in together, they started shouting in abstract language, which made Chen Shi'an laugh.

And you know what? This kind of exam seating arrangement based on scores is really like a power ladder, where it's clear who's moving up and who's moving down, making you unconsciously want to climb higher.

"This lecture hall is quite large."

This was Chen Shi'an's first time in a lecture hall. Not only was the structure different from a regular classroom, but the desks and chairs were also different. The desks were arranged in a row, and the chairs were the kind that needed to be pushed down to sit on, like those in an auditorium.

Chen Shi'an glanced around and saw that the classroom had about two hundred seats, just enough to accommodate one hundred candidates taking the exam, with an empty seat on either side.

Because the exam room was quite large, there were two invigilators, one sitting in front and one in the back, and the cameras were all on with red lights flashing. In fact, the invigilation in the exam room in the experimental building was even stricter than in the exam room in the teaching building.

The school had already arranged for cleaning staff to clean the premises before the exam, and the desks and chairs were clean and dust-free.

Lin Mengqiu looked at the first chair she had sat in for so long with a touch of nostalgia...

Waaah... You've had to keep that stinky Taoist priest company for two days!
I'll take you back next time!

With a firm resolve to win, the class monitor didn't linger any longer and sat down on the second chair.

The moment she sat down, the other students in the exam room felt an epic sense of change. It was truly... who would have dared to imagine that Lin Mengqiu would sit in any other seat before!

"hehe."

Chen Shi'an couldn't help but smile, reached out and touched the table, then sat down in the first chair with satisfaction, leaving only his back to the girl behind him.

"Squad leader, your chair is quite comfortable."

"XXX!"

Lin Mengqiu ignored him and took the time to review her notes again.

Chen Shi'an, on the other hand, seemed quite relaxed, curiously fiddling with the chairs in the lecture hall, observing the tables, or turning his head to look at the students behind him.

Finally, he simply turned to the side, put his arm on Lin Mengqiu's desk, and watched with a smile as the girl looked down at her book.

Lin Mengqiu wore a hoodie and her head was lowered, making it impossible for others to see her expression, but it just so happened that her face was exposed to Chen Shi'an.

The girl looked up and met his gaze.

"..."

"..."

"what."

"Watching the class monitor review."

"boring……"

Lin Mengqiu muttered something under her breath, then lowered her head and tugged at the review materials that were being pressed down by his arm.

Chen Shi'an wisely withdrew his hand and turned around to sit up straight.

Lin Mengqiu quietly raised her eyes and looked at his back, which was so close to hers.

She was so close she could see the fine hair on the back of his neck, and she even had the urge to tuck her cold little hands into his collar...

The girl gripped the pen and gently poked his back.

Chen Shi'an turned his head.

"what."

"...Nothing else is allowed on the tabletop or under the table."

"Where should we put it?"

"...It can be placed in the empty seat next to it."

"it is good."

Chen Shi'an did as instructed, keeping only his exam stationery and putting the rest of his belongings into his schoolbag, which he then stuffed into the desk next to him.

I had just sat up straight when I felt a gentle poking on my back.

"what."

"...The restroom is at the end of the corridor. You can go there if you want."

"Is the class monitor going?"

"..."

"Let's go together. The exam is about to start."

"……it is good."

Lin Mengqiu didn't really want to go, but since Chen Shi'an had invited her, she got up and went with him.

The two went to the corridor together and walked side by side to the restroom. Chen Shi'an went into the men's room on the left, and she went into the women's room on the right.

When she came out, Chen Shi'an was already waiting for her outside.

The two then walked back to the examination room together.

They all returned to their seats.

The girl's hands, which she had just washed, were icy cold. She stopped reading and writing, and instead put her cold hands into a hand warmer to warm them while watching Chen Shi'an's back, quietly waiting for the exam to begin.

Soon, at 8:50, the exam bell rang.

Two proctors walked into the lecture hall with the exam papers in their hands.

The proctor's opening remarks were no different from those of the top 100 students present; he routinely began by saying:
"Anyone who needs to go to the restroom, please go now."

"No personal items other than exam supplies may be left on your seat. Cell phones, study materials... will be treated as cheating if caught."

The huge lecture hall was quieter than ever before. Even though sixty of the hundred students were from their own class, everyone stopped joking and playing around and became serious.

At 8:55, the two proctors distributed the exam papers, answer sheets, and drafts for this monthly exam.

Chen Shi'an casually took the top paper from a stack of papers and then passed the rest of the papers to Lin Mengqiu.

For a moment, the examination room was filled with the rustling sound of papers being passed around.

At exactly nine o'clock, the exam bell rang, and almost the instant we could start writing, the only sounds in the exam room were the scribbling of writing and the turning of papers.

Chen Shi'an didn't turn around to look, but he could clearly hear the sound of the girl behind him writing.

He wasn't in a hurry to do the questions; as always, he first read through the questions and passages on the test paper with great interest.

This essay topic was quite interesting. I don't know which teacher set it, but they used a sentence from the school's bulletin board as the topic:
[A slogan is permanently displayed on the bulletin board of Yunqi No. 1 Middle School: "The answer to youth lies in the balance between 'daring' and 'safeguarding'." Some say that youth is about "daring"—daring to venture into the unknown, daring to pursue pure dreams, and daring to say no to injustice; others say that youth is about "safeguarding"—safeguarding one's inner bottom line, upholding promises to others, and guarding the initial aspiration to strive. In your youth, have you ever reflected on or practiced the concepts of "daring" and "safeguarding"?...]
This type of essay question is a favorite among teachers, focusing on assessing students' critical thinking and expression skills. The main challenge lies in the in-depth deconstruction of dialectical relationships and their practical application in real-world situations.

For Chen Shi'an, who has been engaged in philosophical and dialectical thinking for many years, this type of essay question is a piece of cake.

Having already figured out his writing direction and ideas, Chen Shi'an decided to start by writing the essay.

He picked up his pen and began to write, readily drawing upon examples from ancient and modern times, his arguments progressing layer by layer, resulting in another 800-word classical Chinese essay...

……

When Lin Mengqiu was doing her homework, she didn't have time to look at Chen Shi'an.

However, during the breaks between questions, she would occasionally glance up to see where Chen Shi'an was...

Because his back was blocking the view, the specific questions couldn't be seen, but the essay was different, since it involved a large area for answering questions.

When Lin Mengqiu saw that Chen Shi'an had actually started writing an essay, she was really startled and quickly looked up to check the time.

call,

Thankfully, only twenty minutes had passed. I thought I was so engrossed in doing the problem that I had forgotten the time.

Why did you write the essay first?!
I've never seen you write the essay first for weekly tests. Be careful you don't run out of time!
Lin Mengqiu was convinced. She had also glanced at the essay topic, a habit many students had. They would look at the essay topic first, then have a general idea of ​​what to expect, and work on other questions while simultaneously working on their essay.

Few students will write the essay first, since the essay is not very controllable. If you accidentally spend too much time on it, you won't have enough time for the other questions, which can easily disrupt your rhythm.

Just as Lin Mengqiu was about to move on to the next question, Chen Shi'an in front of her started to move.

He seemed to have finished his essay and turned the answer sheet over.

Lin Mengqiu: "..."

The girl glanced at the time again, somewhat uncertainly.

Twenty-two minutes. No!

You wrote the essay first, and finished it in twenty-two minutes?!
The class monitor didn't have time to think about how well his essay was written; he quickly focused on his own questions.

During this period, she deliberately strengthened her practice in Chinese and English. Her English was okay, but honestly, it would be very difficult to improve her Chinese score at this level.

Whether it was because her intensive training had worked or because the Chinese exam was easier this time, Lin Mengqiu felt that it was easier than the last time.

When she finally finished all the questions and was about to start writing her essay, Chen Shi'an, who was sitting in front of her, also put down his pen.

Lin Mengqiu: "..."

The girl looked up at the time again.

There were still more than fifty minutes left before the exam ended.

Aaaaaah...!
Are you kidding me?! Do you think doing it so fast will earn you extra points?!

Having finished answering the questions, Chen Shi'an leisurely checked his answers, took a sip of milk, and then a sip of soy milk.

He didn't turn his head to look, but he heard the girl scribbling as she wrote.

I glanced around and saw that almost everyone was still busy doing their homework.

The rain outside the window is still drizzling, and I don't know when it will stop.

Occasionally, a breeze would blow in, opening the slightly ajar door of the lecture hall, letting the cold, damp air slip into the warm examination room.

The wind blew Chen Shi'an's exam paper and also stirred the hair of the girl behind him.

Before the proctor could get up and close the door, Chen Shi'an gently waved his hand on the table, and the door, which had just been blown open by the wind, was gently closed again by the wind.

[Click.]
The proctor sat down again.

The girl's hair, which had just been fluttering, fell quietly down again.

Chen Shi'an put down the exam paper he had finished checking, propped his face up with one hand, closed his eyes slightly, and dozed off amidst the sounds of writing all around him...

……

[bell--]
The bell rang, signaling the end of the exam, and a chorus of soft sighs or sighs of relief filled the air.

Chen Shi'an slowly opened his eyes. He had just taken a short nap and was now full of energy. He stretched.

The first thing I did was look out the window. The rain was still falling, but it had obviously lessened considerably, and was now just a few fine drizzles.

The proctor's voice came from the podium:
"The exam is over. Please stop writing. Could the first student in each group please collect the papers?"

Seeing that the other students in the first row had gotten up to help collect the papers, Chen Shi'an also stood up to help collect the papers.

Lin Mengqiu had finished the test paper fifteen minutes ago, and now she stopped writing and sat quietly in her seat waiting for Chen Shi'an to collect the papers.

Chen Shi'an glanced at her paper and smiled, "How do you think it is, class monitor?"

"...Hurry up and collect the papers."

"Good good."

Chen Shi'an stacked his own paper on top of hers, collected her paper, and then continued walking.

The exam hall only became lively after all the papers were collected and handed over to the invigilator.

"Master Dao, this Chinese exam was so hard, damn it! How did you do?"

"...similar to last time."

"Right, I told you this would be difficult too."

"Wait a minute... even the Daoist Master scored 140 on the last test, which was quite difficult!"

"Don't be fooled by the Taoist priest! I just saw him sleep for almost an hour!"

Chen Shi'an: "..."

Having just received some comfort, the crowd began to criticize Chen Shi'an again.

Return to your seat.

Lin Mengqiu had already packed her things, but she didn't leave first.

Chen Shi'an picked up his backpack and casually invited, "Squad leader, do you want to go eat together, or should I get you some food?"

"...I won't be taking a lunch break in the classroom today."

"Yeah, that's true. It's cold outside in the corridor. Class monitor, you should go back to the dorm and sleep."

"Would you like to... come to my dorm for a nap?"

"Sleeping with the class monitor?"

“There is a sofa.”

"No need for that. I've already taken a nap. I'll just go back to the classroom and borrow a desk from another student to read."

"Then I'll go eat with you."

"Great, I thought the class monitor was going to pack it up and take it back to the dorm to eat."

Chen Shi'an smiled and said, "Then let's go down to the second floor. Xiao Zhi and I agreed to wait for me on the second floor after the exam. It's still raining outside, so let's cross the corridor bridge."

"……it is good."

"How did the class monitor do on the test?"

"...Time to eat."

The girl seemed unwilling to reveal anything beforehand, so Chen Shi'an didn't press her further. He had glanced at her paper when he collected the papers earlier, and at least the multiple-choice questions seemed to have the same answers as his own.

The two of them went downstairs together.

Wen Zhixia was taking the exam in exam room 205, and she had arrived at the stairwell early to wait for Chen Shi'an.

The weather was chilly, and Wen Zhixia was still wearing Chen Shi'an's scarf around her neck.

Lin Mengqiu immediately noticed the light gray scarf around Annoying Chan's neck.

If I hadn't known before that this was the stinky Taoist priest's scarf, it would have been fine. But now, looking at Annoying Chan's light gray scarf and then at Chen Shi'an's off-white scarf, it just feels more and more irritating.

Noticing the Ice Cube Spirit's expression, Wen Zhixia became even more smug. She deliberately buried her face in her scarf and took a deep breath, looking quite pleased with herself.

“×××××!”

Smell it again!

Shrimp heads!!
Lin Mengqiu's small hands were clenched tightly in her pockets.

As Chen Shi'an approached, Wen Zhixia automatically ignored the ice-cold person next to him, grabbed her backpack strap, and leaned forward to ask him:
"Taoist priest, how did you do on the exam?"

"It's about the same as last time."

"┗|｀O′|┛ Oh~~ So you got over 140 points on the test?!"

"...How did Xiao Zhi do on the exam?"

When the question was asked, Lin Mengqiu also perked up her ears.

Wen Zhixia glanced at the ice spirit beside her. If she weren't there, the ice spirit would definitely start complaining.

"Hmm...not bad~!"

"That's amazing, can you get back to 140 this time?"

"Um...it should be fine!"

After Wen Zhixia finished speaking, she took the initiative to ask Lin Mengqiu, "Lin Mengqiu, how did you do on the exam?"

"……good."

Chen Shi'an looked at Lin Mengqiu in surprise. She wouldn't say anything no matter how he asked her, but now Xiao Zhi asked her casually and she told him. So, the new deskmate is not as good as the old deskmate, right? Hmm?

However, the two girls only exchanged this one sentence, and then it was Chen Shi'an and Wen Zhixia who did the talking.

The three of them walked back to the teaching building from the covered bridge. It was still raining outside when they went downstairs.

The rain wasn't heavy, but the cafeteria was still some distance away, so students without umbrellas ran all the way there. Occasionally, they would step on puddles on the road, splashing water onto other female students and drawing complaints.

Chen Shi'an and the other two all had umbrellas, so there was no need to run in the rain.

Chen Shi'an untied the straps of the large black umbrella and opened it with a whoosh.

Lin Mengqiu also turned her backpack around to take out the folding umbrella that was tucked next to it;

Wen Zhixia's folding umbrella was also stuffed next to her backpack, but she didn't take it at all. She just openly squeezed under Chen Shi'an's big black umbrella.

"Little cicada, aren't you going to use an umbrella?"

"Taoist priest, you can hold it. Your umbrella is so big. If mine gets wet, I'll be too lazy to clean it. I'll use yours!"

"OK then."

“×××××!”

As expected, those annoying cicadas are capable of anything!
This is still in school! There are so many people here! How could you just squeeze under that stinky Taoist priest's umbrella like that?
Seeing that even the annoying cicada was like this, Lin Mengqiu was not to be outdone. She stopped what she was about to do and, blushing, squeezed to the other side of Chen Shi'an, just like Wen Zhixia.

Wen Zhixia: "???"

That's a clever student! If it's your trick, just use it!
Chen Shi'an was also somewhat surprised. Having just finished speaking with Wen Zhixia, he turned to Lin Mengqiu and asked:

"Isn't the class monitor using an umbrella?"

"...The rain isn't heavy, just hang in there."

"alright."

Chen Shi'an was speechless. Fortunately, the rain wasn't too heavy, so he simply moved the umbrella to the center and used it to shield the two girls on either side as they walked together.

It was lunchtime, and the school path was bustling with people coming and going.

Lin Mengqiu pulled up the hood of her sweatshirt to cover her rosy cheeks, and pressed her petite body close to Chen Shi'an.

After putting on the hat, she couldn't see anyone else. If she lowered her head even further, she believed no one else would see her either. She just stared at the road, watching her own shoes and Chen Shi'an's shoes alternate as they walked...

On the side she couldn't see, Wen Zhixia had already taken Chen Shi'an's arm, squeezing her entire delicate body closer.

She also wore a hoodie like Lin Mengqiu, but when she linked arms with Chen Shi'an, she also buried her face in Chen Shi'an's arm.

"Hey, Taoist priest, move the umbrella a little closer to me, it's leaking here!"

"...Is the wind on my side?"

Lin Mengqiu didn't look at her, but simply said, "The rain is blowing right here."

Chen Shi'an: "?"

Has my magic stopped working? Where did this wind and rain come from?!

Principal Lin, who rarely eats in the cafeteria today, just came out after having a free meal there.

Seeing Shi'an holding an umbrella, surrounded by two girls, Lin Xiao was stunned for a moment...

Are you hallucinating from the cold?
The girl on the left looks so much like my Mengqiu!
(End of this chapter)