Viewing Physics Through the Mist

Chapter 51

The 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, the Little New Year in the North.

All morning classes today were self-study sessions. Every teacher was in the office, busy grading exams since the tests finished yesterday.

Since the students would be on holiday in the afternoon, the teachers had to rush to finish grading all the papers in the morning.

The workload was massive, especially for Chinese and English, which required grading essays, so they even roped in the freshman and sophomore teachers to help.

...

A somewhat restless atmosphere filled the classroom, as graded papers were returned from time to time.

Whenever a batch of papers was brought back, a flurry of discussion would ensue.

Everyone was talking about their scores and silently calculating their total grades. Afterward, they would check on how others around them did. This was the same for both the advanced and regular classes.

Gu Ran was an exception. He sat quietly studying because no one was talking to him, and he was more than happy to enjoy the peace.

For some reason, he always felt out of place among the high school boys around him. Whether it was the topics they discussed or the things they cared about, none of it resonated with him.

Even when they talked about pretty girls, it stayed on the superficial level of just a pretty face, completely failing to pique his interest.

Students in the 2010s were just innocently cute.

Is a girl's face really the only thing to look at?

Shouldn't one consider a comprehensive range of factors!

...

Sunlight refracted through the large windows and into the classroom.

After spending so much time with Ye Zhenzhen, his sitting posture had been corrected.

Wearing a neat school uniform, he sat straight in his chair, staring intently at the math problem in front of him.

His brows would furrow slightly from time to time, and he would unconsciously pinch the bridge of his nose.

Holding a pencil, he continuously wrote and scratched on the paper, repeatedly calculating the questions he got wrong.

Holding the few test papers that had just been handed out, he mentally calculated his current total score.

The math papers were graded the fastest and had been handed back early on.

He scored a 94. Although it didn't seem like much, it was the result of his effort starting from scratch.

The comprehensive science paper was also handed back. 184 points, a perfectly average score.

Having started learning from scratch, Gu Ran was quite satisfied with this score, yet also a bit dissatisfied.

Because with his cheat-like memory boost, his biology score was close to perfect, and he got a good grade in chemistry too. But to only get this total score in comprehensive science meant his weakness in physics was too severe.

Staring at his paper, he sighed silently and stopped thinking about other things.

Rubbing his face with his hands, he picked up his pen and buried his head into the embrace of physics.

It was just like the saying: Physics tortures me a thousand times, but I treat Physics like my first love!

But half an hour later, he painfully pinched the bridge of his nose. After wasting so much time, he had summarized a painful lesson.

Looking at physics is like looking through a fog; it's physically impossible to comprehend!!!

Without Ye Zhenzhen explaining it to him, looking at physics problems was like reading a heavenly script.

Anyone could do the simple basic questions, but once the difficulty went up slightly and the calculation questions were slightly altered, he was completely dumbfounded and helpless.

It was a case of the questions knowing him, but him not knowing the questions.

Helplessly, he pulled out the math workbook Ye Zhenzhen had prepared for him and lowered his head to work on it.

Although the difficult questions were a bit strenuous, it wasn't like physics where he was completely at a loss.

As his mind gradually sank into studying, time flew by rapidly.

The chattering voices of his classmates around him gradually blurred in his ears.

He didn't know how long had passed, but a cold breeze blew in from outside the classroom, gently brushing across his forehead and bringing waves of coolness.

He turned his head to check the time and realized school was almost over. On the empty desk beside him, two test papers had already been placed.

They were the English and Chinese answer sheets that had just been delivered. They must have been handed out by the class representatives, though he didn't know when they were placed there.

He reached out, picked up the answer sheets, glanced at the scores on each, and couldn't help but nod in satisfaction.

English was as terrifyingly good as ever. Relying on his past knowledge and abnormal memory, he easily secured a high score of 146.

Chinese was slightly worse, only a little over 100.

He flipped through the Chinese answer sheet, sucking his teeth in confusion.

He couldn't understand how the score could be so low.

Doesn't Chinese rely on reading comprehension ability? He had lived for almost forty years across his two lifetimes; how could he only have this little comprehension ability?!

Frowning as he looked at the reading comprehension questions, he found that all his point deductions were concentrated there.

Scratching his hair, he felt somewhat helpless.

Why were they all marked wrong?

How do you know what the original author was thinking when they wrote this sentence?!

Even Lu Xun said not to make subjective assumptions!

Sure enough, the people who are best at overthinking in this world are Chinese teachers.

He curled his lips and stuffed the answer sheet into his backpack, no longer obsessing over the answers. He planned to listen carefully when the teacher went over them.

He was very curious about how these test makers felt that their answers were exactly what the original author had in mind.

Were they mind-reading tapeworms inside the original author's stomach?

...

The school bell rang. Gu Ran stood up and stretched slightly, feeling his muscles loosen.

Without the slightest bit of nostalgia for the classroom, he grabbed his backpack and walked out, heading straight for the door of Ye Zhenzhen's classroom.

The aloof girl was already standing at the door waiting for him. As soon as she saw him, she naturally handed her backpack over.

"Hehe, so, how is it? All the graded answer sheets should be handed back by now, right?"

Ye Zhenzhen blinked, a teasing look flashing through her usually cold eyes.

"Yeah, they've all been handed back. I found that I got a lot of questions wrong that I shouldn't have."

Gu Ran took her backpack, slung it over his shoulder, sighed, and spoke slowly with a drawn-out tone.

Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen scrunched her nose and chuckled, "Now you know to be humble, right? Studying isn't that simple. Are you still going to boast shamelessly in the future?"

After a brief moment of schadenfreude, Ye Zhenzhen relaxed her brows, but then quickly began to comfort him, afraid of hurting a certain someone's confidence.

"But don't be discouraged. After all, you've only been studying hard for a little over a month. You can't improve your grades that fast. But you're very smart, I believe you can definitely do it..."

The motherly girl had relapsed into her "elder sister acting like a mother" syndrome and began to nag uncontrollably.

The two walked out of the campus. Ye Zhenzhen had her hands behind her back. Her school uniform was clean and neat, emitting bursts of osmanthus fragrance.

Below, she wore straight-legged pants, and at the junction with her little white shoes, the small edges of pure white cotton socks peeked out, making the girl look even more pure and lovely.

As she walked, the high ponytail behind her head swayed along, and a faint smile hung on her delicate and pretty face.

Her cherry-blossom pink lips parted and she began to chatter non-stop. Gu Ran scratched his head, feeling a bit of a headache.

He couldn't quite understand it: where did the untouchable flower on a high peak from when they first met go?

She was supposed to be a cool, stoic older sister, but she turned into a motherly girl???

And a nagging mother at that!

He sighed and said faintly, "It really isn't simple. I was just a little bit short of scoring 600 points."

"Exactly, you were just a little bit short. But let's not get discouraged, keep up the good work, there are still 160 days until the college entrance exam..."

Her words abruptly came to a halt. She suddenly widened her eyes, looking at Gu Ran beside her in shock.

"You... what did you just say you almost scored?"