I Reached the Pinnacle of Life After Being Switched at Birth [Rebirth] - Chapter 44, part 2
After you’ve done your best, it’s time to listen to fate.
The exams ended on June 8th, and classes were required to resume for high school sophomores on June 9th. However, the school gave Ruan Bei and other high school sophomores who took the college entrance examination two days off to let them recover.
The college entrance examination results wouldn’t be released until late June, but the questions and standard answers would be released the day after the test.
Ruan Xi went back early in the morning to buy several newspapers that had the test questions and answers. After Ruan Bei and Qin Gu lazily woke up and had brunch, they sat together and recalled their answers to calculate their scores.
It was difficult to calculate Chinese, since it had a large number of subjective questions. Other than checking if their essay was off-topic, they could only get a general idea of what they’d score.
They mainly counted their scores on the other subjects.
After spending most of the morning calculating scores, Ruan Bei fell silent.
“What’s wrong?” Qin Gu asked cautiously, “You didn’t do well in the exam?”
Ruan Bei shook his head blankly and showed him the score he calculated. “No, it’s just… This score is a bit too high.”
Excluding Chinese, just by combining the other three subjects, his total score actually exceeded 570!
No matter how badly he did on the Chinese language test, there was no way he’d get below 100 points. That meant his total score would be above 670… With this score, he would definitely get into a key university.
“What about you?” Ruan Bei was very confused now. He felt that he’d done well after the test, but this result was indeed a bit too unbelievable. It was especially jarring because whenever he couldn’t remember what he had answered on a question, he automatically counted it as wrong.
Qin Gu pushed the draft paper in front of him. Ruan Bei looked at it and smiled. “Why is it the same as mine?”
“It’s different.” Qin Gu smiled and said, “The individual subject grades are different.”
He struggled to score more than 120 in English. After spending more than a month memorizing words and grammar, and giving himself headaches with heart cleansing talismans every day, his English score finally gave him some face.
However, his grades in mathematics and the comprehensive sciences were higher than Ruan Bei’s, so their scores evened out.
“Oh my god, perfect score in math?” Ruan Bei was stunned.
Qin Gu spread his hands. “At the very least I got all the answers right. I just don’t know if I’ll lose points for the steps.”
“No, no, definitely not.” Ruan Bei muttered to himself, “I asked Senior Wang about your previous paper, and he said that those solutions were enough to avoid point deductions.”
“Then what should we do now?” Ruan Bei was excited and confused. Unless he was careless enough to make mistakes when filling in the answer sheet, this score would be enough for him to get into the college of his choice.
He never thought about going to the top two colleges. Jincheng University was also a key university, and one of the top five in the country.
And most importantly, it was close to home. He loved his family and didn’t want to go somewhere else for college.
Ruan Bei had been targeting several local universities from the start. His most ideal pick was, of course, Jincheng University. But if something happened, there were still two or three major colleges he’d consider. If he failed to qualify for any of them, he planned to continue studying with his class for another year and try again next year.
Although the dust hadn’t settled yet, as long as nothing unexpected happened, he could basically say goodbye to high school life and become a happy high school senior in summer break.
Qin Gu couldn’t stop smiling from the moment he saw Ruan Bei’s calculated score. Of course he knew Ruan Bei’s goal. This score was enough for him and Xiao Bei to go to college together.
“How about I take you to Master now?” Qin Gu proposed. The summer vacation for high school seniors lasted for three months, which was the envy of all other students.
Ruan Bei was very excited, but he thought about it carefully and finally shook his head in refusal with regret. “Forget it, let’s wait until the results come out. Otherwise I won’t be able to feel at ease even if I go.”
Without the final result, he felt really uneasy.
“Okay, but are you still going to go to school?” Qin Gu asked.
There were still more than ten days until the results of the college entrance examination would be released, but the second year of high school was still in class every day.
Ruan Bei suddenly lay down on the table and sighed with a sullen face. “I don’t want to go.”
Ever since he came back from rebirth, he has been running around. Except for those bizarre ghost incidents, he had been studying at all times, and he could hardly relax for a moment.
He hadn’t gone out to play, he hadn’t gone to watch a movie, and even just chatting with Kunkun for a while was considered his break. It was really tiring.
Now that he would most likely pass the exam directly, his motivation was suddenly gone.
“Then don’t go.” Qin Gu wished he wouldn’t go. He had already graduated from high school, so if Ruan Bei kept going to school, he’d be left alone again.
“No.” Ruan Bei suddenly sat up straight. “I haven’t thanked Senior Wang yet.”
“I figured out what to do!” Ruan Bei jumped up. “Let’s buy college textbooks and academic books and burn them for him. I really need to thank him this time.”
He had asked Wang Bufan before. The ghost was stunned by his proposal for a moment, but although he seemed to be interested, he was embarrassed to let him spend money.
But Wang Bufan really helped him a lot this time, and he’d feel bad if he didn’t thank him properly.
Since a sacrifice was going to be burned for Wang Bufan, then…
“Niuniu! It’s about time for the little girl to change clothes. Let’s go to the paper shop and buy her some skirts. Oh, and Uncle Ran! Let’s give him some paper money and let him buy whatever he wants.”
Ruan Bei knew these ghosts, he kept them all in mind, and made arrangements for each one.
Qin Gu: “…”
What could Qin Gu say? Of course he would accompany him.
But they were on holiday now, so there was no need to rush. They avoided the sun at noon and waited until it was a little less hot before going out.
Ruan Bei now habitually carried his big black umbrella, but it was bulky and absorbed too much light. Qin Gu looked up and gave him an idea, “I’ll make an umbrella-like magic weapon for you to carry in the future.”
Ruan Bei remembered that among the four heavenly kings there seemed to be one who used an umbrella, but he didn’t look very handsome.
He thought so and told Qin Gu, “Even all of them together couldn’t beat Erlang Shen.”
Qin Gu couldn’t stop laughing. “It’s not that the umbrella isn’t handsome, it’s that the person using the umbrella isn’t handsome. Our Xiao Bei is handsome enough to look good with any magical weapon.”
Ruan Bei’s face turned slightly red, but he felt that Kunkun was making sense.
They went to buy a lot of offerings to be burned. After buying the books, which were especially heavy, they went to the joss paper shop. Paper money was simple and the types used by each family were pretty much the same, so they could simply buy as much as possible.
It wasn’t easy to buy small skirts. They had to consider Niuniu’s age, body shape, and whether they looked good or not.
Ruan Bei picked around and finally selected two sets that he was quite satisfied with. He secretly complained to Qin Gu, “It’s not as good-looking as the ones I made.”
He had previously made little flowers for Niu Niu out of paper, as well as some small boats, rabbits and frogs. After burning them, they became toys that Niuniu could play with.
Qin Gu’s main job was to hype Ruan Bei up. “I also think you can do better, Xiao Bei.”
“Right?” Ruan Bei was proud for a moment, and his eyes lit up. “What do you think about me learning paper-making? Could Master teach me?”
He thought it was a great idea. Considering he’d have to deal with ghosts from now on, if he could learn paper-making, he could save money by not having to buy things all the time.
Qin Gu: “…I think Master may not know how to do it.”
“That’s too bad.” Ruan Bei lowered his eyes regretfully. “Then I’ll study it by myself first.”
By now, they had already become regular customers at the joss paper store. After buying everything, they went to the place where they burned offerings before and burned everything.
They went to see Niuniu the next day, and also gave Zhou Linlin an eye-opening talisman so she could see her daughter.
On the 11th, Ruan Bei went to school. The teacher asked him about his grade assessment. After Ruan Bei told the truth, the class teacher was surprised and happy.
If Ruan Bei had calculated correctly, he might even be able to compete for the top spot in the province. Ruan Bei had always been good at Chinese.
After hearing what the teacher said, Ruan Bei quickly waved his hand. “You think too highly of me. I think the overall difficulty of this test paper was relatively low, so there are probably a lot of high scores. If you think about it, Qin Gu, who’s a senior in high school, got scores that were about the same as mine, and his Chinese is better than mine.”
That was also very strange. The head teacher had heard something about it, but the results hadn’t come out yet. Even if he had some thoughts in his mind, he could only let it go for now.
However, after this incident, it became easier for Ruan Bei to take leave. The class teacher no longer required him to come to class every day until the results of the college entrance examination came out.
Ruan Bei said goodbye to his class teacher and did not return to the classroom. While the students in the school were still in class, he secretly went to find Wang Bufan.
After finding him, he reported the good news first. The current results he achieved were all thanks to this kind-hearted senior student who helped him with tutoring.
Wang Bufan still looked as shy and youthful as when they first met. After listening to Ruan Bei’s words, he smiled and congratulated him, wishing him a bright future in his ideal university.
“Senior, have you received the books I burned for you? Are they useful? If they’re not good, I can exchange it for you.”
Wang Bufan said quickly, “It’s very useful and very interesting. Learning new knowledge is very fun for me.”
He said it so sincerely that Ruan Bei felt a little embarrassed. He should have burned these books for him earlier.
“Senior, I’ll come to see you during the holidays. If you have any books you want, just tell me and I’ll burn them for you.”
After getting along for more than a month, although Wang Bufan still didn’t know how to deal with people, he had become a little more familiar with Ruan Bei. He immediately said, “I want to get more books on mathematics and physics. I like to learn math. Communicating with numbers is really fun.”
He used the word “communicating”. This was truly a man who loved mathematics.
The curiosity that Ruan Bei once suppressed in his heart overflowed again. What possible reason could force someone like Wang Bufan to choose to commit suicide by jumping off a building?
Storyteller Cupsidate's Words
trigger warning for the next chapter, as it will deal with heavy subjects such as suicide and child abuse. stay safe, my dear readers!
kittervoids
Ooooo I hope the next mystery is figuring out what happened to Senior Wang! He seems like such a nice kid ヽ(°〇°)ﾉ thank you thank you for the new chapter!