LWDC Chapter 66

Chapter 66 – Retake

Chapter 66 – Retake

Chapter 66 – Retake

It turned to Monday evening in a blink of an eye.

The school really did produce new test papers, and then randomly selected students to verify the exam with Lin Shengjia.

The magical thing was that the other person drawn from Lin Shengjia’s class to take the test with him was Ji Xingzhe. One could only say that fate’s arrangements are sometimes truly unstoppable.

Because there were only a dozen or so papers in total, they were graded on the very evening the test was completed. Moreover, after cross-grading, all the papers were immediately handed over to Ning Fei for review. After all, Ning Fei wasn’t allowed to be involved in either the test creation or the grading; in Director Ma’s words, they had to give Ning Fei a “chance to oversee” in the end.

Although Ning Fei suspected that he just deliberately wanted him to stay at school until very late.

In short, at eleven o’clock in the evening, all the data finally settled. At that time, the campus was quiet, and only Ning Fei and Director Ma were left in the office. Director Ma didn’t want to leave early, but Ning Fei said, “Director, please wait for me to confirm the data and give it to you on the spot, otherwise if I’m the only one left, what if someone suspects me of cheating?” Director Ma had no choice but to stay until late at night, which could be considered as reaping what he sowed.

“Director Ma, I think Lin Shengjia should have proved his innocence, right?”

Just as Director Ma was getting a little impatient, Ning Fei finally pushed the notebook containing all the data, such as the scores, average scores, and the difference between the two exams, over for him to see: “His score difference is even smaller than the average score difference, so he didn’t drag anyone down.”

Director Ma’s face was unsightly, but he wasn’t too surprised. After all, when Lin Shengjia’s score came out, the grading teacher immediately announced it on the spot. At that time, the entire English group and Director Ma were in the office.

Lin Shengjia scored 59 points.

At first glance, it seemed like he failed, but Ji Xingzhe also scored 90, so the score difference was even greater than Lin Shengjia’s. Moreover, the overall average score of all the students who were drawn to take the test was 6.4 points lower than the previous monthly exam. Therefore, overall, the difficulty of this test paper was slightly higher, and it wasn’t Lin Shengjia’s problem.

Fortunately, Ning Fei suggested that other students take the retest together; otherwise, there would have been even more wrangling.

“After all, he still didn’t pass.” Even though there were only two people, Director Ma still couldn’t save face and had to offer a few words of guidance, “There’s nothing to be proud of, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”

“59 points, should I have an in-depth discussion with the teacher who graded his paper, to discuss whether his essay is worth an extra point?” Ning Fei sneered, “But it’s not fair to only discuss his paper, so why not bring all the papers for evaluation. Talk about why the high scores are high, and why the low scores are low. It’s best to come up with a grading standard system and implement it strictly, so that no one is wronged, right?”

“You… stop making trouble!” Director Ma was most annoyed when he mentioned “fairness,” because it always meant trouble. The English group was already working overtime on the weekends for this matter, and now they were working overtime on Monday night as well. If they had to work overtime again for that one point, let alone what Ning Fei would think, the English group’s complaints would drive Director Ma crazy!

“How am I making trouble? Isn’t Director Ma still quite resentful that Lin didn’t pass? So I’m proposing a solution now.” Ning Fei actually knew that letting him gain the upper hand verbally would make this matter pass. But why should he let him? Anyway, he wasn’t in a hurry to go home, so they could stay together and debate until dawn! It’s just that everyone else always puts up with him, indulging him, he doesn’t have a big position, but he has a big official air.

“I have no complaints, don’t talk nonsense!” Director Ma abruptly cut off the topic, stood up as if to leave, “This matter ends here, it’s already very late, you should also go home quickly, don’t continue to dwell on it.”

After saying that, he turned to leave, and Ning Fei immediately said, “Then at the school meeting next Monday, please help clarify Lin Shengjia’s and my innocence. Do you need me to help write the speech? I’d be happy to do it, but I’ll only write one version.”

“No need!” How could Director Ma not know what Ning Fei meant? This was to remind him to remember to make a public statement next Monday, and not try to avoid it, “It will be said then, don’t keep mentioning it repeatedly, focus on your teaching work!”

As he spoke, he walked out, this time truly not giving Ning Fei a chance to continue arguing.

However, ten minutes later, Director Ma, who was riding his bicycle out of the school gate, was once again “intercepted” by Ning Fei.

To be precise, it was in front of the school gate. Ning Fei was standing in front of a high-end car, talking to a man. When Director Ma rode out, Ning Fei unhesitatingly opened his mouth to him: “Director Ma, are you riding home on your bicycle like this? Did you bring a flashlight?”

Director Ma, who originally wanted to pass by directly, had to stop and put one foot on the ground: “… I brought one. Aren’t you riding your motorcycle home?”

“It’s too late, my friend is here to pick me up.” Ning Fei spread his hands, smiled, “Let me introduce you, this is Duan’s CEO, Duan, who is also Ji Xingzhe’s uncle.”

“Ji’s classmate’s uncle…?” Director Ma was stunned, somewhat incredulous, his gaze sweeping back and forth between Duan Yunhong and the car, “Coming to pick you up so late, are you very close friends?”

“Haha, we originally planned to have dinner, but thanks to Director Ma, it’s turned into a late-night snack.” Ning Fei leaned against the car door, smiled slightly, “Oh, by the way, CEO Duan’s English is also very good, and he occasionally helps me practice English speaking and listening with Lin Shengjia. If Lin Shengjia’s English continues to improve greatly in the future, CEO Duan should also get some credit.”

This was clearly saying, “If you suspect Lin Shengjia of cheating again, you are also suspecting CEO Duan.”

“… CEO Duan is really enthusiastic.” Director Ma’s mind was confused, he replied casually and immediately said goodbye, “Then I won’t disturb you two, I’ll go back first, goodbye.”

“Goodbye.” Ning Fei waved his hand, watched Director Ma pedal away anxiously, and even shouted at his back, “Be careful on the road!”

Director Ma didn’t respond to him at all, his bicycle riding very fast, his figure quickly disappearing on the night road.

Ning Fei scoffed, and then turned to get into the car. Duan Yunhong naturally got in as well. As soon as he closed the car door, he said, “No wonder you insisted on me picking you up, just to use me to scare a grade director?”

“If I asked CEO Duan to make a simple call to the school, but CEO Duan was too ‘busy’ to make the call, then I had to find another way.” Ning Fei scoffed, and replied with a clear conscience, “There’s still a week until the next school meeting, just in case he pulls any other tricks. He’s never been convinced about having to make a statement about this, he thinks it’s too embarrassing. Just now in the office, if I hadn’t reminded him that he still had to make a public statement at the school meeting, he might have just reneged on it directly, and said he forgot afterwards. Even if he didn’t renege, he could have simply resolved the matter with a few words, saying ‘It has been verified that classmate Lin Shengjia did not cheat’ and that’s it. Letting him know that Lin Shengjia and I also have ‘backers’ will at least make him think twice before trying to pull any small tricks.”

“Just how many people have you scared with my name? A grade director, a Ji Xingzhe.” Duan Yunhong narrowed his eyes slightly, “Also, what’s this about me helping you make money?”

“The capable should do more.” Ning Fei didn’t feel guilty at all, he leaned closer to him and whispered, “CEO Duan, as a reward, are we really going to have a ‘late-night snack’? At my place?”

Duan Yunhong glanced at him: “Don’t you have classes tomorrow morning?”

“Hahaha, you even memorized my class schedule?” Ning Fei chuckled, grabbed Duan Yunhong’s hand and squeezed his fingers, “Tomorrow is tomorrow, now is now, just tell me if you’re going or not.”

Duan Yunhong pinched back with a cold face: “… Don’t use ‘it’s too late’ as an excuse later.”

*

On the other side, although Ji Xingzhe never heard what the school’s so-called “investigation method” was, he could definitely figure it out when he took a small-class test with Lin Shengjia, right?

Ji Xingzhe wasn’t originally afraid of exams. But he was very confused at that time, constantly pondering what Duan Yunhong’s message meant. He had already deleted the message, but those words were already engraved in his heart, making it impossible for him to forget. He didn’t dare to reply to Duan Yunhong’s message either, he could only blindly guess what Duan Yunhong knew and what he wanted to do.

Under such mental turmoil, Ji Xingzhe felt that he performed poorly in the retest. Coincidentally, after the retest scores were graded, the papers were quietly handed out by the English teachers of each class. Ning Fei neither distributed the papers nor announced the scores, acting as if nothing had happened. Ji Xingzhe wanted to know the results, wanted to know how he and Lin Shengjia had done on the test, but every time he met Ning Fei’s eyes, Ji Xingzhe couldn’t help but feel a sense of timidity like a mouse seeing a cat.

There was no way around it, who told Ning Fei to be so close to Duan Yunhong, Ji Xingzhe always felt that this English teacher also knew something.

“…Xiao Zhe? Xiao Zhe!”

Zhu Yueting waved her hand in front of Ji Xingzhe several times: “What are you thinking about? Didn’t you hear me talking to you?”

Ji Xingzhe suddenly came back to his senses: “… Sorry, what were you guys saying just now?”

“Asking you, why hasn’t that Lin guy been expelled yet?” Zhu Yueting poked at her spaghetti, dissatisfied, “And Ning Fei, why is he still teaching? It’s so annoying to see him, I don’t want to listen to a single word of his class. If my English grades drop, he’ll be the number one culprit!”

“I’m not too sure…” Ji Xingzhe glanced at her, and replied, “I didn’t bring this matter up, so even if there’s a result, they wouldn’t specially tell me, right?”

“Oh, right, I didn’t receive a reply either.” Zhu Yueting said doubtfully, “What’s going on? Could it be that the school has decided to protect them?”

Qin Ran was also at this lunch gathering, and said, “Perhaps the school just doesn’t want to lose face. After all, they finally recruited a ‘gilded’ international student, it would be too embarrassing to talk about it if something happened.”

The other little friends felt that this made a lot of sense, and nodded one after another. Only Ji Xingzhe didn’t move. In fact, he only needed to say, “Lin Shengjia has already taken a retest, and quite a few students took the test with him, including me,” and everyone would understand that the school was already trying to find a way to confirm it. But for some reason, he just didn’t say these words.

Zhu Yueting had long forgotten about Ji Xingzhe leaving the classroom on Monday night, but she remembered another matter: “By the way, Xiao Zhe, did your uncle really hire Ning Fei as a translator? You see, you recruited someone like that for your family when you were looking for a tutor to go abroad, and even built a bridge for your uncle. If he even screws over your uncle, won’t your uncle blame you? Why don’t you quickly find another tutor, and recommend him to your uncle as well, so that he can abandon Ning Fei!”

Qin Ran also said, “Xiao Zhe, are you really planning to go abroad? Then I can introduce you to a real tutor who specializes in going abroad, their English is also top-notch, and they’re more than qualified to be your uncle’s translator.”

Ji Xingzhe had indeed wanted to go abroad before, but Lin Shengjia’s appearance made his sense of crisis more intense than ever before.

Even if he could safely get through high school, he wouldn’t dare to really fly far away. He was afraid that something uncontrollable would happen while he was not in the country, and he would only be able to feel helpless in the distance. By the time things were a fait accompli, it would be too late to come back and turn the tide.

“I… I don’t really want to go abroad anymore, I feel like this idea isn’t mature enough.” Ji Xingzhe raised his eyes and gave his little friends an apologetic smile.

“As for my uncle’s side, I, as a junior, shouldn’t have to worry about it, let him do as he pleases.”