016 Writing Tips to Remember

"Li Zheng?" Hu Chunmei stood up and asked, "Why did you bring so many books?"

"Ashamed of my grades, so I'm cramming chemistry." Li Zheng poked his head out from the pile of books and answered without any hesitation.

At the same time, he tried hard to control himself from looking at Lin Yujing.

"Look at this..." Hu Chunmei, rarely showing some comfort, nodded and said, "This is what a good student looks like!"

Though she said this, she couldn't help but feel a bit sympathetic looking at the mountain of books.

"Li Zheng, don't be too upset. There's a reason for your scores this time." She softened her tone, "Teacher Xiao Tang told me that your essay this time had no issues with the writing style, but the topic was a bit risky. If you write like this in the college entrance exam, you would suffer a loss. Teacher Xiao Tang wanted to wake you up, so she only gave you 30 points, docking 20 points intentionally. You can add 20 points yourself and look at your ranking again."

Liu Yue's small eyes twinkled, and she interrupted, "So, that means Li Zheng's real score is higher than Jiang Qinghua's?"

"You're so clever, aren't you!" Hu Chunmei turned her head and scolded, "With Liu Xin covering for you, getting over 300 points is enough to make you float, right?"

On the other side, Jiang Qinghua smiled at Li Zheng, "Li Xueba, I scored 570, ranked 39th. You can roughly calculate your score."

Li Zheng responded with an awkward smile.

He didn't care much about class rankings.

But using Jiang Qinghua as a reference, if Teacher Tao hadn't been so harsh on the essay, his total score would have been higher than 571, putting him in the top 40 at least.

If he could maintain this, he could enter the premium class when classes were reassigned at the end of the term.

Thinking of this, Li Zheng's mood finally improved a bit.

He certainly wouldn't blame Teacher Xiao Tang; on the contrary, he was grateful.

He'd learned his lesson now. When writing argumentative essays, never discuss real-world issues.

Always be abstract.

To write a good essay, read fewer Lu Xuns and more newspapers.

—Zhou Shuren (Lu Xun's real name)

At this moment, Hu Chunmei finally let out a sigh of relief.

"Classmates, I've said everything I needed to say."

"When you go home, take your report cards and have a good talk with your parents."

"I've been teaching for 20 years, and this is as much as I can do."

"Now, please take out your textbooks..."

"By the way, Li Zheng has already mastered this part of the content and can self-study like Lin Yujing."

"Please turn to page 47..."

The formal lesson began.

But Hu Chunmei's look of disappointment still hadn't faded.

Which made the atmosphere of this class very oppressive.

However, Li Zheng had already moved past the gloom.

He unzipped his pencil case.

Taking the bull by the horns.

[Chemistry: 57.]

Quite the challenge.

Burn the bridges, the 120-point theorem would be his.

Sleeping on brushwood and tasting gall; three thousand formulas to crush Lin!

The feeling was there.

He couldn't wait to open the chemistry textbook, starting from the first page.

Shedding his aversion, starting anew,

28 times speed, full steam ahead.

Chemistry, here I come.

...

Once he started studying, time became an external entity.

Li Zheng found himself immersed in the ocean of chemistry.

Composition, decomposition, and replacement reactions swirled around him.

Ions, molecules, electrons created rolling waves.

In the endless deep sea, the five-water copper sulfate glowed with an enchanting blue light.

Li Zheng absorbed them all.

Usually, he couldn't focus this long on chemistry.

After studying for a while, he would daydream and start questioning, "What am I doing?"

There was no other way, everyone's brain processes differently, and they adapt to each subject differently.

Over time, in subjects where you don't feel comfortable, you seldom get positive reinforcement, which leads to frustration, aversion, and an ultimately irreversible, terrifying outcome—

Biased learning.

Li Zheng had always been trying to fight against biased learning, but the results were still minimal.

Not only that, the more he forced himself to study chemistry he had no interest in, the more painful it became.

He couldn't find the joy he felt in math and physics.

There was only the taste of wax and the question, "What am I doing?"

This time, he had no choice but to rely on brute-force memory.

Whatever was in the book, he memorized every chemical formula.

Making his body have a reflex reaction to chemical symbols.

When he saw a chemical formula, he could write out the reaction result without thinking.

Hard work pays off. Bring it on!

...

Ring ring ring...

The bell interrupted Li Zheng's thoughts.

He didn't even know how long he'd been studying.

Looking up at the clock, it was only the end of the first period.

Then he checked his vitality value.

[16.6/27]

He had already put in sixteen hours of effort.

Today's vitality value was nearly depleted.

It was time to check the results.

Li Zheng opened his study interface.

His previous chemistry score was 63. If his intensive study this time could raise it to 80, the single-subject fanatic task would be steady.

Looking at the academic power assessment value, he glanced at it and then stared.

[Chemistry: 65↑]

Sixteen hours of intensive study, and his score had increased by less than two points?

Fourteen times the effort for half the result!

Clearly... he had almost memorized half the book.

Could chemistry really be this challenging?

In a daze, he got up groggily.

He was having a hard time.

At this point, learning by reinforcing knowledge wouldn't be fast enough.

There was only one move left—advance learning.

He was the first to dash out of the classroom and climb to the fourth floor.

This was the territory of the third-year students.

Different from the second year, the entire floor of the third-year students was shrouded in scholastic atmosphere.

Even during recess, the corridors were not very crowded.

Those who were there walked lost in thought.

Some even walked while memorizing vocabulary.

Such an environment was majestic and composed.

Li Zheng couldn't help but feel a sense of admiration.

But he had no time for observation; he quickly found the entrance of Class One of the third year.

Even during recess, the classroom was filled with people, nearly everyone self-studying at their seats.

Looking at this scene akin to monks chanting scriptures.

A scholarly aura washed over him.

Even more stirring was the succinct and clear chalkboard message—

[239 days till the college entrance exam]

Every second truly counted, even their breaths were spent studying.

In his daze, a huge figure suddenly blocked his view.

Completely obscuring the ethereal academic atmosphere inside.

Li Zheng looked up.

It was Qiao Bixia...

She was actually in the premium class of the third year?

Because she could throw the shot put far?

"Hmm?" Qiao Bixia widened her big eyes, "What are you doing here?"

"My apologies..." Li Zheng said nervously, "I'm looking for Xu Mengxi."

"Oh." Qiao Bixia turned her head, "Mengxi, someone's looking for you."

Then, she nodded at Li Zheng, "Don't leave after school, meet me at the playground."

"Wouldn't dare, wouldn't dare..." Li Zheng hurriedly made way to let Qiao Bixia pass.

Watching Qiao Bixia hop away, Li Zheng seemed to feel a tremor in the ground.

You can't judge a book by its cover.

Who would have thought, Qiao Bixia was a scholastic individual too.

"Hold on, hold on." Xu Mengxi walked to the door with a stack of materials, "It's quite a lot. You definitely can't finish it all in one day. Just return it to me tomorrow at lunch."

"No problem. If I can't, I'll photocopy them." Li Zheng took the materials and nodded, "Greatly appreciated."

"Haha, I told you not to joke around." Xu Mengxi waved and laughed, then asked worriedly, "You don't look too good... did Jingjing bully you again?"

"Bully? Her, bully me?" Li Zheng stared, finding it hard to understand.