The class president came over, waving his phone. “Yun Qing, congratulations! Your essay is the only one in the city to get a perfect score!”
From my phone, the principal’s voice rang out: “Yun Qing, you’re our city’s top liberal arts scorer. I’m so proud of you!”
“No way! How is this possible?”
“How did she do it…”
Xu Yiran used all her strength to stand up, looking desperately at Lin Chen.
But Lin Chen’s eyes were empty, lost.
“What do you mean ‘impossible’? Yun Qing’s essay is trending! Look!” someone shouted.
Everyone pulled out their phones.
Right at the top of the trending list was my essay, “Chasing Dreams.”
“I never expected a high school student to have such vision. This perfect-score essay is truly impressive,” commented a professor from Capital Huaxing University.
“The writing is fluent, the knowledge is deep, and the structure is clear,” read another.
“And the logic is impeccable! I heard this student scored 719—looks like the top two universities are about to fight over her again,” said a netizen.
Everyone online was praising my essay to the skies.
“Hey, Xu Yiran, what did you score? How about your essay?” someone asked.
Xu Yiran’s face was ashen, her eyes darting to Lin Chen for help.
“What’s so great about a perfect essay? Our Yiran is still—” Liu Yu began, but she snatched Xu Yiran’s phone and stared at it, clutching her chest in disbelief.
A classmate picked up the phone that had fallen to the ground and read the score aloud:
201.
A wave of gasps swept through the group. For a moment, no one knew how to comfort her.
But within seconds, everyone turned to congratulate me, offering their best wishes.
After all, who wants to dwell on someone else’s failure or shoulder their emotional burden?
Xu Yiran yanked me aside, her voice low and vicious so only the two of us could hear.
“It was you, wasn’t it? You switched my pen!”
“What pen? I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I replied, feigning innocence.
“If you have questions, you can ask Lin Chen. He’s the one who helped you prepare everything, right?” I added, glancing in Lin Chen’s direction—only to see that he had already disappeared.
Lin Chen had vanished without a trace.
I stared into Xu Yiran’s furious, tear-filled eyes.
Word by word, I said clearly, “Lin Chen also gave me an essay to memorize. Take a look—do you think it’s better than yours?”
I held my large-screen phone right up to her face.
It was nothing like her essay.
Mine had been upgraded and refined—
More concise.
Sharper expression.
Deeper meaning.
Xu Yiran stared at my screen, tears slowly spilling down her cheeks.
“Why? Why did he give you that?”
“He said the earlier version was too long—at best, it could get a high score, but this one had a real chance at perfection.”
Of course, it was me who had revised it, but once again, I’d let Lin Chen take the credit.
Oh well. In both lives, Lin Chen always managed to steal someone else’s achievements.
So be it. I was honestly looking forward to seeing the two of them turn on each other.
Chapter 12
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