Chapter 31: Proving There Was No Cheating
In a quiet and elegant teahouse, Yang Yijun, her face covered with a thin black veil, only removed it after entering a private room.
Across the sour jujube wood tea table sat a man in a suit and leather shoes.
“Hello, Ms. Yang. I’m Yue Jing from the Hongshan Law Firm,” the man said, standing up and politely extending his hand.
Yang Yijun shook his hand and sat down. She glanced at the door to make sure it was closed, and that no one passing by could hear their conversation, then handed over the documents she had brought.
“Mr. Yue, regarding what I consulted you about before, if my daughter divorces my son-in-law, how many assets can she get? Also, the company only started to do well after they got married. Our family provided the initial funds and connections. It can be said that the company’s current development is inseparable from our family’s support back then.”
Yue Jing stood up to pour tea, then opened the documents and quickly glanced through them. He looked up and said matter-of-factly, “Ms. Yang, according to the information you have provided, the husband has already repaid the initial funds. Even if they divorce, if they can’t agree on the division of the company, it will be divided fairly and reasonably according to the law. And there is no such thing as being left with nothing in the scope of the law. In most cases, one party compromises and is willing to give up the assets after negotiation.”
“Then they should at least get half of the company, right?” Yang Yijun was trying to plan ahead for Yun Lan behind her back. Changfeng Electrical Appliance Co., Ltd. was now thriving under Zhou Zhiru’s management. She had heard that he was planning to turn the company into a joint-stock company within three years.
Yang Yijun admitted that Zhou Zhiru was very capable, but this son-in-law was also very scheming. If he hid or transferred assets during the marriage, that fool Yun Lan would never find out.
Even if she was just being paranoid, she had to plan ahead.
Zhou Zhiru was cunning and calculating, and the younger Zhou Wanfeng was also full of tricks. Jingya and Chengbin were kind and simple, and were no match for her.
When she came out of the teahouse, Yang Yijun’s expression was not good. She was not satisfied with the results of the consultation. When she had had Chengbin take the Yun surname, it had been a private agreement between her and Zhou Zhiru. The plan was for Chengbin to take over Yuxiang Pavilion.
Now that Yuxiang Pavilion’s business was not doing well, Zhou Zhiru hadn’t even asked about it, which made her a little worried.
She had a feeling that Zhou Zhiru was secretly observing. If Yuxiang Pavilion continued to lose money and had no inheritance value, there would probably be no need for Chengbin to continue to have the Yun surname.
But for now, only if Yuxiang Pavilion continued to lose money and Yun Lusheng and his son couldn’t hold on, could she step in to intervene.
After some thought, Yang Yijun found that this was a very good opportunity to test Zhou Zhiru. If Yuxiang Pavilion was losing money, would he be willing to pay?
At Shuangshu Model Middle School, during the Chinese class of First Grade, Class Nine, Li Jianbang was explaining the Chinese test paper for this monthly exam. The old teacher’s mentality was really stable. After getting the test papers, he casually flipped through them. The 800-word compositions at the end were basically all blank. Even if someone had written something, it was only two or three hundred words.
Putting aside the question of whether they could write or not, not even writing the composition was basically an attitude problem.
Li Jianbang sat in his chair. He was sure that the average Chinese score for the entire grade would be at the bottom for Class Nine.
Zhou Wanfeng had scored 108 in Chinese, out of a full score of 120. She had basically made no mistakes on the basic knowledge questions at the beginning, and her reading comprehension was also decent. But she had lost nine points on the composition at the end.
When it came to the composition, Li Jianbang directly called on Zhou Wanfeng to stand up and read hers, and even commented on it in class.
“How many points did you lose on this composition?”
“Nine points.”
Li Jianbang took a sip of water and said unhurriedly, “If I were to grade this composition, I would have deducted at least 10 points. Read it again yourself. Did you address the topic? It wouldn’t be wrong to say you went off-topic. Look at the ending. If you had just echoed the beginning, you could have lost at least one less point.”
Zhou Wanfeng read her composition again. To be honest, she did find some problems. It was fragmented. Before she started writing, she had carefully examined the topic. The composition was about describing family, expressing family affection, the eternal bond, and so on.
The composition was a patchwork. She had nothing in her head, not even a phantom to write about.
Zhou Wanfeng let Li Jianbang criticize her at length. When the bell for the end of class rang, Li Jianbang pointed at Zhou Wanfeng. “Rewrite this composition and hand it to me.”
As soon as he left, Zhou Wanfeng’s test paper was snatched up by Tang Yuqing.
“My god, you got 108 in Chinese? And Old Li still said that about you?” Tang Yuqing flipped through it. There were basically no wrong answers on the paper, except for the composition, where she had lost nine points.
The surrounding classmates were all curious and took the test paper to look at it. It was true, 108 out of 120. That was definitely not a low score.
The next class was math. Song Zhang came out of the Class Eight classroom with the monthly exam papers, preparing to explain them in the next class.
Suddenly, a student from another class peeked in at the front of the classroom and shouted at Zhou Wanfeng in the third row, “Zhou Wanfeng, your homeroom teacher wants to see you now. She said she has something to talk to you about.”
After speaking, the boy met Zhou Wanfeng’s eyes and ran away in fear. It was just that Zhou Wanfeng’s expression was cold, and her gaze had a coldness to it. She just sat there quietly, and when she looked up, she had an indescribable presence about her that set her apart from the other students.
Zhou Wanfeng stood up to find Sun Mulan. Song Zhang came in and handed the test papers to a student to distribute. The students scrambled for them, mainly to see how others had scored, and shouted them out loud.
“Li Hui, 38 points.”
“Damn it, who told you to read it out loud? I want to see how you scored.”
The class was scrambling to see the scores. Suddenly, someone held up a test paper and looked at Jiang Yi in the back, his eyes wide. “Damn, Jiang Yi, you got a perfect score in math?”
“Really? Let me see.”
A few classmates gathered around to look. It was a solid 120 out of 120.
“Damn it, I should have copied a few of his problems. Maybe I would have passed.”
The class was in an uproar. “The class president got 113 in math!” the person distributing the papers shouted, slapping the test paper on Zhou Wanfeng’s desk.
Tang Yuqing glanced at it and ran outside the classroom, shouting at Zhou Wanfeng, who was not far away, “Class president,
you got 113 in math!” Jiang Yi had gotten a perfect score in math. He was amazing. But the whole class also knew that he only studied math all day, and was always doing all sorts of math workbooks.
Zhou Wanfeng turned and made a “got it” gesture. She had a good idea of her score after finishing the math exam. She had been unsure of a few answers and had checked them with Jiang Yi after the exam. The ones that were different from Jiang Yi’s answers, she was basically sure she had gotten wrong. It was about the same as her estimated score.
When she arrived at the first-grade homeroom teachers’ office, before she could even call out “reporting,” Wang Chenggang pointed at the conference room next door. “Teacher Sun is in the conference room.”
Zhou Wanfeng pushed open the conference room door and went in.
Apart from Sun Mulan, there were three other people sitting there.
One of them looked familiar. She had seen him at school before. He was probably some kind of teacher. The other two she didn’t know. One was wearing a leather jacket and a baseball cap; the other was wearing a sports jacket. Both of them looked like they had been sunburnt in the summer. The color of their faces, necks, and hands were all different. Their figures…
Guo Lin turned and saw a female student come in. The most striking thing about her was her pair of clear black and white eyes, which were very sharp and calm, completely different from her age.
Zhou Wanfeng sized them up with a blank expression, then looked at Sun Mulan. “Teacher?”
Sun Mulan stood up and pointed at Coach Guo. “Zhou Wanfeng, this is Coach Guo from the Municipal Sports Bureau’s track and field team. After watching your race at the sports center, he thinks you have very good stamina and a great talent for being a track and field athlete.”
Guo Lin looked at the calm-faced junior high school student and stood up to explain, “If possible, we would like to give you a few simple tests. We’ll borrow the school’s playground to test your data for the 100m, 400m, and long jump.” He then took out a stopwatch and a record sheet from his pocket.
The man in the blue tracksuit behind Guo Lin added, “If your data is excellent, it means you have good stamina and the talent to be a track and field athlete. If possible, we would like to train you and invite you to join the municipal professional track and field team.”
Usually, when they found an outstanding sports seedling, they would have a happy expression on their face and their eyes would sparkle when they heard these words.
But now, after they had finished speaking, the girl’s eyes were still as calm as before, without a single extra expression.
Guo Lin and his colleague looked at each other. They both felt that the girl before them had a very strong mentality. She was a good seedling.
Sun Mulan had never expected that participating in a sports meet would lead to such an opportunity.
She said to Zhou Wanfeng happily, “Let’s go to the playground now and give it a try. I just heard Coach Guo say that he has coached many students. The outstanding ones have become professional athletes, joined the provincial team, and won awards at the National Games. There are also some who have gotten into university through their sports specialty. Wanfeng, this might be your opportunity.”
A coach from the municipal sports bureau had come to the school specifically. It showed that he was very optimistic about Zhou Wanfeng.
Guo Lin looked at Zhou Wanfeng. “Then let’s go to the playground and test it now?”
The teacher from the school also stood up and looked at Zhou Wanfeng with a serious expression. “Go and test it with Coach Guo. Do your best and get a good result.”
Zhou Wanfeng looked at Sun Mulan, then at the school teacher, and finally at the coach. “I don’t think I need to. I have no intention of becoming an athlete. You should find someone else.” After refusing, Zhou Wanfeng said to Sun Mulan, “It’s time for class. I’m going back to the classroom.”
Coach Guo hadn’t expected her to refuse without even being willing to test. He quickly took a step forward. “Student, I’ve seen your 800m race. Your results are very good. I think you have the talent of a track and field athlete. Just give it a try.”
Zhou Wanfeng shook her head, her tone very firm. “No.”
The school teacher frowned and looked at Sun Mulan, telling her to go and persuade her. After all, people had come from the city. They couldn’t just let them go back empty-handed.
Sun Mulan had a difficult expression on her face.
But the other coach spoke first. “Then can we contact your family? There are many paths in life, classmate. Winning a championship is one of them. Isn’t the purpose of studying, taking the high school entrance exam, and going to university to find a good job in the future? You can also achieve that through sports. Become an athlete, join the provincial team, and participate in the National Games. If you have the opportunity, you can even be promoted to the national team and represent the country in international competitions. That’s an honor that ordinary people will never have the chance to experience in their lifetime. You may not understand, but we can talk to your family. They will understand. And if you really have talent, wouldn’t it be a pity to bury it?”
Zhou Wanfeng still refused with a blank expression, especially when she heard that they wanted to contact her family. “Don’t contact my family. I don’t have that kind of talent. I just want to study hard. I won’t think about anything else.”
With that, she went straight back to the classroom for class, leaving the few people in the conference room looking at each other.
Sun Mulan explained with a forced smile, “Classmate Zhou Wanfeng has her own ideas. If she refuses, then she probably doesn’t want to.”
“Are her grades very good?” Guo Lin asked curiously.
Sun Mulan was taken aback. The monthly exam results had not yet been tallied. She looked at the grade director. “She studies very seriously and never slacks off.”
The coach in the tracksuit had never encountered such a stubborn student before. He said with some dissatisfaction, “This is the first time I’ve seen someone who is not even willing to test.”
Guo Lin thought of the 800m race he had recorded at the sports meet and was still unwilling to give up. He looked at Sun Mulan. “Can you give us her family’s contact information? We want to talk to her family first and have them do some ideological work on her. To be honest, I’ve been a coach for so long, and I can basically tell if someone is a good seedling or not. Classmate Zhou Wanfeng’s physical fitness is very good. After seeing her 800m race record, I dare say that she is definitely suitable for the path of an athlete.”
Meanwhile, Zhou Wanfeng had returned to the classroom. Class had already started. The 113 on her math test paper on her desk was very eye-catching.
Song Zhang’s feelings were complicated. Class Nine’s grades were so bad that the average score was at the bottom of the entire grade. There was no other class with such a score in the whole school.
But the only perfect score in math in the entire grade was in his class. Jiang Yi’s perfect score was extremely valuable.
During the English class in the morning, Sun Mulan had praised Zhou Wanfeng fiercely. She had scored 109 in English. She had not made a single mistake on the basic questions, and her foundation was very solid.
Before the end of class, Sun Mulan handed Zhou Wanfeng two statistical tables to tally the scores of the whole class for each subject and the total score ranking.
In the afternoon, the results for history, geography, biology, and politics came out.
Zhou Wanfeng had scored 94 in history, 96 in politics, 93 in geography, and 94 in biology. Adding her scores for Chinese, math, and English, her total score was 707.
She had her classmates fill in the statistical tables for each subject. Class Nine was very slow, and it wasn’t until the evening self-study that it was done.
Zhou Wanfeng handed the total score sheet to Sun Mulan during the last period.
Sun Mulan had seen several of the subject teachers during the day, the Chinese teacher, Teacher Li, and the math teacher, Teacher Song. The only student’s grades she could ask about were the class president, Zhou Wanfeng’s.
Teacher Song had praised her for doing very well.
Teacher Li, on the other hand, had just said, “The composition was a complete mess,” and had left with his book, leaving Sun Mulan in a state of anxiety. She had done well in English, and well in math. Had she failed Chinese?
It wasn’t until she received the total score sheet from Zhou Wanfeng that she saw the top-ranking total score of 707 and was overjoyed.
After Zhou Wanfeng left, the homeroom teacher of Class Eight, Wang Chenggang, saw Teacher Sun holding the class’s total score sheet and smiling like a flower.
“What’s wrong? Why are you smiling like that?”
“Teacher Wang, what’s the top score in your class?”
“687. What about Class Nine?”
Sun Mulan glanced at the other homeroom teachers in the room, deliberately shushed him, and handed him the score sheet.
Wang Chenggang thought to himself, How bad must the scores be that she doesn’t even dare to say it?
The first thing he saw was the top score of 707. The second place was in the four or five hundreds. The difference was not just a little.
The first place in the class was Zhou Wanfeng, with her scores for each subject and her total score.
Wang Chenggang returned the score sheet to Teacher Sun and couldn’t help but say, “This Zhou Wanfeng… is amazing.” The coach from the municipal sports bureau had come this morning, clearly wanting to recruit her.
He had heard that Zhou Wanfeng hadn’t even been willing to test and had directly refused. Now, seeing these scores, what was the point of practicing sports? She just wanted to study and get into a good school.
The next day, during the students’ morning self-study, all the first-grade homeroom teachers were in a conference room for a meeting to summarize the monthly exam results.
At the same time, the grade-level rankings were also out.
The first place in the entire grade had a score of 715, the second place 712, and the third place 709. Of the top three, the first and third places were from First Grade, Class One, and the second place was from First Grade, Class Two.
When the grade director mentioned the fourth place, his tone paused. “Fourth place, Zhou Wanfeng from First Grade, Class Nine, with a total score of 707.”
Wang Chenggang had already known yesterday.
But the other homeroom teachers didn’t know, and they were all surprised and astonished.
“Zhou Wanfeng? She got over 700?”
“Her grades are that good?”
“Could the scores have been filled in randomly?”
“Fourth in the entire grade. That’s a very good score.”
After announcing Zhou Wanfeng’s score, the grade director looked at the homeroom teacher of Class Nine. “Teacher Sun, later, please collect classmate Zhou Wanfeng’s test papers for this monthly exam. All of them, for every subject.”
Sun Mulan’s joyful mood instantly plummeted. “Director, why do you want to collect Zhou Wanfeng’s test papers separately? Is there a problem with her score? This is her real score. All the subject teachers can testify that she studies very seriously. What’s wrong with her having such a score?”
“Teacher Sun, please don’t get emotional. This is just a spot check.”
But Sun Mulan didn’t think so. She felt a chill run through her. She seemed to understand how Zhou Wanfeng had felt before.
The grade director asked, “By the way, who were the proctors for Class Nine during the exam?”
Wang Chenggang raised his hand. “I was in charge of proctoring with Director Du from the political and educational affairs office.”
After the meeting, as they were about to disperse, the grade director said to Sun Mulan, “It’s just a spot check. Don’t worry too much about it.”
“All the subject teachers have registered the scores after getting the test papers. If you think there’s a problem with Zhou Wanfeng’s score, you can check with the subject teachers. It’s impossible for Zhou Wanfeng to have changed her own score.”
Seeing that the other homeroom teachers had all left, the grade director said to Sun Mulan, “Teacher Sun, Class Nine has always been a special class, with poor grades and poor discipline. If Zhou Wanfeng’s scores are proven to be real, and there was no cheating, the school will consider transferring her to a key class for special training. It’s impossible to let her stay in Class Nine. Do you understand what I mean?”