Chapter 3 — I Set a Trap for a Copywriter

The bright red number eighty-two is in the upper right corner. Her fingers tightened. The edges of the paper were squeezed until they were wrinkled. As I passed by, I glanced at three sentences copied by the system. All correct. Thirteen points, not a single point missing. With forty-two points behind, she only got twenty-four points. The system still operates normally. Only this time, it couldn't help her win first place. The chatter around grew louder and louder.

“Is Trinh Y Hoan not resting enough?”

“Why did she leave so many blank sentences in the last two sentences?”

“This time Co Nam Kieu is quite stable.”

"Why do I remember that Trinh Y Hoan is the best at summarizing sentences?"

“Probably just an occasional mistake, everyone has times when they fail in exams.”

Trinh Y Hoan suddenly raised his head. She looked at me. There was no longer the usual calmness in his eyes.

“Co Nam Kieu.”

This is the first time she proactively called me back. I stopped walking.

“What's going on?”

She stared at me, lowering her voice very low.

“Why did you do the previous questions first today?”

“I just want to change the order.”

“You weren't like that before.”

“People will change.”

She was silent for a few seconds.

“Do you know what happened?”

I looked at her.

“What should I know?”

Trinh Y Hoan's pupils shrank slightly. I won't continue. There are words that don't need to be said too clearly. She has a system. I have no proof. Even though I told the story of copying the answers, everyone just assumed that I was paranoid because I couldn't surpass her for many years. But I don't need to expose her either. As long as she doesn't get my high score sentences, she will fall down on her own. I turned around to leave. Trinh Y Hoan suddenly grabbed my wrist. The force is very strong.

“Co Nam Kieu.”

“Don't do anything wrong.”

I looked down at her hand.

“Let go.”

She didn't move. I raised my eyes.

“Trinh Y Hoan, what are you afraid of?”

She felt burned and immediately let go. I rubbed my wrist, which turned red. There are still quite a few friends in class. She didn't dare continue. I took the exam and returned to my seat. At this point, I was finally sure. The system's rules are as I guessed. In each exam, Trinh Y Hoan could only copy the first three essay sentences I completed. Not the three most difficult questions. Not the three sentences with the highest scores. Only consider the order of completion. She was able to continuously rank first in the past not because the system had no way to solve it. But only because I have a habit that all teachers know. I like to do the difficult questions first. The more difficult the question, the more it helps me concentrate. Every time I receive an exam, I turn to the last page. Solve the three most difficult and point-worthy questions first, then return to deal with the basic parts ahead. This habit helps me save a lot of time. But it also helps Trinh Y Hoan to accurately get the most valuable answers in the whole question every time. No wonder. No wonder her basics are terrifyingly stable, and the difficult question at the end has never been wrong. She basically doesn't need to divide her time between the two parts. Because the hardest part, I finished it for her. Looking at that eighty-two-point exam, the feeling of frustration that had been weighing heavily in my chest for so long finally dissipated a bit. It turns out she could only pass eighty-two. It turns out there is no answer Me, her so-called stability is just that. After class, Khau Mien stood waiting for me in the dormitory. She's in art class, and lately she's been staying very late at the studio every day. Seeing me, she brought over a cup of hot soy milk.

“I heard your class has big news today.”

“What news?”

“Submit Y Hoan Hoa exam with eighty-two.”

She lowered her voice, her expression exaggerated.

“In your experimental class group, someone suspected the teacher had graded it wrong.”

I received a cup of soy milk.

“No mistakes.”

Khau Mien stared at me.

“You're in a good mood.”

“Is it okay?”

“Yes.”

She reached out and touched the corner of my lips.

“Normally, when taking second place, your face is so cold that the dormitory doesn't need to turn on the air conditioning.”

“Today I'm still second place but I'm as happy as finding money.”

I burst out laughing.

“Maybe because I thought something through.”

“What?”

I looked at the cup of soy milk in my hand and didn't answer. I can't talk about the system with her. Not because of lack of trust. But because this story is so wild. Saying it will only bring her in. Khau Mien did not ask further. She's known me for three years, and knowing that I don't want to talk about it, there's no use asking. Walking to the dormitory door, she suddenly said:

"Oh right, next week your class has a time-limited Natural Science general practice lesson, right?"

“Yes.”

“I heard that the time will be shortened?”

My steps stopped.

“Who said?”

“The homeroom teacher of my class.”

Khau Mien frowned.

“I heard it was proposed by Trinh Y Hoan of the experimental class.”

“She thinks that in recent exams, people are too dependent on the full exam time, so they need to get used to the high-pressure environment soon.”

My fingers slowly tightened. The soy milk cup was slightly distorted. Trinh Y Hoan's reaction was faster than I thought. She did not continue to question me. Don't try to intimidate me either. Because she knows those two methods are useless. As long as I persist in doing the low-scoring questions first, she won't get really valuable answers. Therefore, she directly changed the exam rules. Shorten time. Force me to choose. If I continue to use three low-scoring questions to waste the system's copies, I will waste precious time, most likely not finishing the difficult questions behind. If I go back to the old order, she will get the three most valuable answers again. This is a public plan. Moreover, it also wears the guise of "improving the whole class's ability to test". Even if I object, it only makes me look guilty. The next morning, during the first self-study period, the homeroom teacher indeed announced this.

“Starting next week, the time to practice the Natural Science general test will be reduced from one hundred fifty minutes to one hundred thirty minutes.”

In the classroom, screams immediately rang out.

“Twenty minutes? Are you crazy!”

“In normal times I wouldn't be able to finish it.”

“What kind of practice?”

The homeroom teacher tapped on the desk.

“Order.”

“College exams won't suddenly shorten the time, but all kinds of incidents can happen in the exam room.”

“Practicing in advance in a limited state will benefit your ability to allocate time.”