Chapter 29

Yu No. 1 had an unwritten practice: to get the new intake working, the first monthly exam of the first year had its whole-school rankings printed — overall and by subject — and pinned to the noticeboard for anyone to read. Only that one exam, though. After it, rankings were only printed for the end-of-year finals.

The teacher handling it collected the marks from each subject, spent the evening pulling them into one table, sorted by score highest to lowest, and clicked confirm. With the sort done he looked to see who this year's first was. He remembered that the first and second in the fast classes had entrance results half a mark apart, and that both had been holding their breath for this one.

He looked at the name on the top row and blinked. That was—

Early the next morning, before morning study, he came into the staffroom with the printed sheets.

The form teachers, on their way out to check on their classes, saw the rolled paper in his hand, guessed what it was and abandoned the checking, crowding round. "Teacher Zhao, is that the whole-school ranking?"

He nodded. "It is. I was in a hurry printing it and haven't sent you the file yet — if you can't wait, look at the printout, and I'll send the file round shortly."

No teacher can wait for marks, so nobody left. The two fast-class form teachers stood at the front. The Class 1 teacher looked at the Class 2 teacher. "Teacher Wang, I hear your Wang Yu came two marks short of full in maths. Ours might well have taken first."

The Class 2 teacher looked back at him. "Hard to say. Wang Yu was two off in maths but he hardly dropped anything elsewhere. It's genuinely open between them this time."

Watching the pair of them refuse to yield an inch, Teacher Zhao felt a private, mischievous curiosity about their faces in a moment, said nothing by way of warning, and spread the sheets out on the desk, smiling.

Both of them looked immediately, and so did everyone else. People read a ranking from the top down out of habit, and the assembled staff had all assumed first was either Class 1's Wang Yu or Class 2's Liu Kaile — and then an unexpected name arrived in front of them all.

"Li Lan?"

One of them thought about it. "Isn't that one of Teacher Jiao's?"

Jiao Wenfu, beside him, had broken into a delighted grin the instant he saw the name. "She is. She's ours." Looking down the row of 1s beside it, he could hardly contain himself.

The Class 1 and 2 teachers were quiet a moment. Who was Li Lan? The name seemed familiar.

Then one of them frowned, thought, and had it. "Ah — I remember. That's the girl who came first in Shang city. That was the name."

Which was why it had rung a bell for the other two: they'd heard once or twice that Shang city's first place had come to Yu No. 1 and hadn't made a fast class because of the deduction.

Jiao Wenfu nodded and affected modesty. "That's the one. I knew she was good. I confess this exceeded my expectations."

"Her Olympiad result was first as well, wasn't it — no wonder maths and the sciences are full marks," said a teacher who had marked the Olympiad papers.

"Sciences are clearly her strength, but the arts subjects aren't bad either. Full marks in English too," said another, looking down her line.

Only some of the staff paid attention to the Olympiad, so Li Lan's results there weren't widely known — and the Class 1 and 2 form teachers taught Chinese and English respectively, so beyond their own students they knew nothing about it.

Watching Jiao Wenfu, both of them thought privately: look at him, quietly delighted, top of the year in his class and no doubt beside himself, and still putting on that solemn face.

Looking at the marks, though, both took a private interest. Was this a one-off or the real thing? If a one-off, fair enough. If the real thing, they'd need to think about whether Li Lan could be persuaded to change class.

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The first-years knew the school published the first monthly exam's results; they just didn't know when. So when they came back from exercises at the long midday break and Wang Jing saw a crowd round the noticeboard, she guessed and dragged Li Lan towards it.

There were too many people and neither of them got in. Wang Jing's prescription was strong enough that she couldn't read it from outside, so she chivvied Li Lan. "Lanlan, look — is that the first-year ranking?"

Li Lan's eyes were good but not good enough at that distance. The heading was legible, at least. "Yes. It's ours."

Wang Jing hopped about in frustration, unable to get through the crush, and with the bell close she had to go back to the classroom.

Before long the whole year knew the rankings were up, though there had been too little time for many to have seen them. Wang Jing took in almost nothing of the second-to-last period, her mind entirely on getting out to look.

Glancing outside, she saw the students heading off for PE in that period and became envious. She had thought her class lucky to have PE last on a Tuesday, since it meant eating early; now she wished it were happening this minute.

"Li Cheng, shall we go and look at the rankings?" After two laps of the sports ground and the dismissal, Li Cheng's deskmate found her.

"Obviously." Their class had PE this period, so the board would be clear.

They'd been dismissed early and there was hardly anyone else there, so the two of them got to the front easily.

Li Cheng looked up and, like the teachers, read from the first row — and the first thing she saw was a familiar name.

"God, look at first. First in the school in every subject. Full marks in maths, English and the sciences. How? I got barely a hundred in maths."

"Under ten marks dropped in the arts subjects? How? I wrote pages and got a pitiful two."

"Class 3 — not a fast class?"

The students around were murmuring, partly because the marks were dazzling — three subjects at full marks and under twenty dropped across everything else — and partly because first wasn't from Class 1 or 2.

Looking at those marks and the column of 1s, and without having found her own yet, Li Cheng's mouth had already curved up.

Her companion nudged her. "Li Lan? Isn't that your sister's name? Is that her?" She sensibly didn't finish with or a coincidence, because she'd seen Li Cheng's face.

Li Cheng came to and nodded, smiling. "It is. That's my sister."

"Seriously? That's amazing." She didn't know Li Lan, but she'd seen her a few times when she came to find Li Cheng at break, and they looked alike enough that she'd once asked whether they were twins.

In a thoroughly good mood, Li Cheng read on down and found her own name somewhere around two hundredth. She'd known her marks since the papers came back; today was about the ranking. On the marks alone she'd felt she'd done rather well. The school ranking told her how far she had to go.

She pressed her lips together, dissatisfied, and thought of the notes Li Lan had given her over the holiday. She'd go back and work through her mistakes again.

At the bell she meant to return to her own class, and paused at the stairs, and then went to Class 3 instead.

She hadn't intended to. Li Lan, with marks like that, would surely know her ranking already, and it was the last period; everyone would see it after school. Going up meant telling her forty minutes early, which was no different from not going. And yet, somehow, her feet had their own opinion and took her there.

At the door, Zhu Ranran — from Li Lan's room — saw her, knew who she wanted and called inside. "Li Lan, your sister's here."

Li Lan looked up and found her in the doorway, mildly surprised. What did she want at this hour?

Li Cheng got in first. "Li Lan, I've seen the rankings." With an excitement she wasn't aware of.

That explained it; Li Cheng's class did have PE that period. "Right. What place did you get?"

"Me? Shouldn't you be asking about yours?" She hadn't expected that.

Li Lan made a small noise through her nose. "Do I need to ask? First, obviously."

Whatever excitement Li Cheng had arrived with cooled immediately, replaced by a slight itch in her hands. She looked at her sister sideways, expressionless. "Mm. First."

Ignoring the contempt, Li Lan was more interested in her sister's. "And yours?"

"Two hundred-something."

Li Lan did the arithmetic. Excluding the two fast classes, Yu No. 1 had fifteen classes of about fifty, so two hundredth was upper-middle. On the face of it not bad — but Henan is a brutal province for the university exam, and two hundredth in the school would struggle to get out of the province, particularly to anywhere good.

Still, this was the first year and one monthly exam proved nothing; there was plenty of room to improve. She patted her sister's shoulder. "That's a decent result."

Li Cheng, previously expressionless, was thrown by the sudden praise and obscurely pleased. "Er. Is it?"

Li Lan smiled at her. "It is. Keep it up, do plenty of questions, and don't forget the notes I gave you over the holiday."

"Oh." One dry syllable, and then she had nothing. "I'll get back to class, then."

While the two of them were talking outside, word that Li Lan had come top of the year spread through Class 3, and those who heard were mildly surprised and then, on reflection, not surprised at all. Only the maths marks had been read out, but people sitting near her had caught sight of her other papers and the startling figures on them; they'd suspected, and now it was confirmed.

So when Li Lan walked back to her seat she had the impression — possibly imagined — that her classmates were looking at her slightly differently.

The student in front turned round. "Li Lan, congratulations on beating the fast classes to first in the year."

Which confirmed it wasn't imagined. Li Lan rubbed her nose and was noticeably less fluent than she'd been with her sister. "Er. Luck. It was luck."

"Luck nothing. That's ability." Wang Jing leant in to contradict her, and got a kick under the desk.

The student in front was about to say more when the English teacher came in early and cut her off. Li Lan let out a breath and privately thanked her for it.

Her celebrity as first in the year lasted under two days before being swept aside by the weight of homework. First place is only a talking point at the start, and it was one monthly exam; everyone cared more about their own marks.

Class 3 went back to the fast pace of work with no attention to spare for anything else, which suited Li Lan exactly. Being obliged to be warm and sociable with people she half knew is hard going for the partly antisocial.

The lasting effect was that rather more people came to her with questions at break. Explaining problems without socialising she could manage — and so, while Li Lan carried on much as before, either working alone or talking to Wang Jing, over time and with Wang Jing's unprompted explanations everyone came to understand that she only looked unfriendly and was slow to warm up, and that a question would get you an answer. Her standing in the class improved by rather more than a little.