The Sacred Bulletin Board
School!
In the hallway, a sacred bulletin board was located.
In any other day of the year, this wouldn't be a sacred bulletin board. It would be a normal, brown, boring bulletin board.
However, today was a special day.
That was because...
Lan Xiang yawned as he passed by the hallway. However, instead of the scene he usually saw—namely, students in their own cliques hanging out on the sides of the hallway—there was instead a massive cluster of students in a specific spot in the hallway, and that was in front of the bulletin board.
He quietly erased his presence and tried to get through the crowd unnoticed.
The chatter of the students around the bulletin board was, in one word, chaotic.
Lan Xiang heard the ear-piercing noise of the students and was forced to pay attention. Ah, why is everyone so noisy this year...
He glanced at the bulletin board. There were two lists that ranked the students according to the results of the exams and the cultivation test, all across the grade.
Lan Xiang decided to read the cultivation rankings of the 2nd years first. His gaze slowly rose up from the bottom.
10. Shi Jiu (Class A) - Level 4
9. Ba Qi (Class B) - Level 5
8. Liu Wu (Class A) - Level 5
7. Si San (Class A) - Level 5
6. Er Yi (Class A) - Level 6
5. Ling Ling (Class A) - Level 6
4. Lu Xifa (Class D) - Level 8
3. Zhang Ying (Class D) - Level 8
2. Ye Qingle (Class D) - Level 8
1. Lan Xiang (Class D) - Level 10
"Ah, as expected..." Lan Xiang shrugged. It felt kinda cool having his name on top of a ranking.
He turned his attention to the other list, fully expecting his name to be on top as well.
0. Name (Section) - Score/Total // National Rank
1. Lu Xifa (Class D) - 678/700 // 10
2. Ling Ling (Class A) - 612/700 // 40
3. Liu Wu (Class A) - 601/700 // 100
4. Ye Jiu (Class A) - 592/700 // 131
5. Han Xiao (Class A) - 590/700 // 153
6. Ren Weiwei (Class D) - 587/700 // 178
7. Zhi Neng (Class B) - 575/700 // 256
8. Cong Ming (Class B) - 543/700 // 299
9. Lan Xiang (Class D) - 525/700 // 368
10. Chi Xu (Class A) - 501/700 // 405
Lan Xiang widened his eyes and couldn't help but exclaim, "Haah? I'm not number one?"
The sudden loud voice interrupted the chatter of the students. They all turned their heads to whoever shouted.
"It's Trash Xiang..."
"No, look, he's in both lists. He can't be Trash Xiang."
Almost all of the students looked at Lan Xiang with incredulity. How did one of the worst students, if not the worst, find himself on both lists of the best in the school??
Meanwhile, Lan Xiang was shocked. In the other world, he was so used to getting the first place on everything that he thought it was just natural, the way things should be.
How did he get a score as abysmal as 525??
He exited the scene, indignant and in disbelief. The students watched him leave angrily.
"Aah, what do we do? He's angry at us! We're doomed!" "You're the one who couldn't keep your mouth shut!"
.....
Lan Xiang sat on his chair with a frown.
No matter how much he thought about it, it didn't make sense. He should have gotten a perfect score, one or two mistakes at most. How did he make more than a hundred?
Meanwhile, in a remote corner of the room, the bespectacled student lifelessly laid on his chair. He had exhausted himself from the previous three days of exams that he couldn't even bring himself to check out the rankings at the bulletin board. Well, he knew that his name wouldn't be anywhere near there anyways, why bother looking?
"But, well, even if my score will be nowhere near the top 10, it'll still be miles better from Lan Xiang's."
Most of Class D shared his sentiment, due to the impassioned speech he made yesterday. None of them had checked the rankings.
Ignoring the general depressive mood in the classroom, Ren Weiwei approached Lan Xiang.
"So... you won the bet, huh."
Ever since she witnessed Lan Xiang's newfound prowess when they studied together, she predicted this sort of outcome. Still, she felt defeated when she saw his name on the list.
"9th on the rankings, I guess I won't be pestering you about this anymore."
At the same time, Ren Weiwei felt happy for him. After all, she had always wanted him to succeed.
"...Nope." Lan Xiang sighed. "I lost the bet."
"Huh?" Ren Weiwei was caught off-guard. "What do you mean?"
"I said top 10 scorers, right?" Lan Xiang almost teared up recalling the list. "I'm... only 368th."
"!!!"
Ren Weiwei fell silent. "You mean the national rankings?"
"Of course. What did you think I meant, only within the school?"
Yeah, obviously... Ren Weiwei didn't voice her thoughts.
"Aiya, your dreams are too small, Weiwei. You should reach for the stars at all times!" Lan Xiang started to spout bullshit again. "Anyways, I lost the bet. What's my punishment?"
"Punishment..." Honestly, Ren Weiwei forgot about the punishment, thinking that her loss was a done deal. Who knew that Lan Xiang would be so stubborn as to accept it as his loss instead?
"Let me think about it first." As she said that, her voice got quieter. To be honest, she had already thought of a punishment, multiple actually, yet not one of them she deemed appropriate.
After a while, Lu Xifa and the rest arrived. They joined Lan Xiang and Ren Weiwei's group and started talking.
The rest of the class looked at Lan Xiang with absolute jealousy. Four girls, all of whom had top tier appearances, surrounded him from all sides! What was this, a cliché novel?!
If looks could kill, then Lan Xiang would have died a million times over already.
Luo Zi Da arrived, and along with him came students who were carrying stacks of paper. The papers reeked of low scores and of desperate black ink and whiteout.
In other words, those were their test papers.
As the students who helped him exited the classroom, Luo Zi Da looked weirdly at Lan Xiang, before he cleared his throat and started the morning formalities.