Free Web NovelChapter 43: Chapter 41: We, Sixth Middle School, Will Stand Up for You
The next day, while Li Dong was still anxiously waiting for his 20,000-yuan prize money to be processed, Jiangcheng Second Middle School was a completely different scene.
Unlike Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School’s "free-range" model of two-day weekends, Jiangcheng Second Middle School, as one of the province’s long-established key schools, held regular supplementary classes for its third-year students. They only had a pitiful half-day break on Sunday afternoon.
At that moment, in the principal’s office.
Li Yiming, the Dean of Instruction in charge of publicity, stood smiling before the desk, giving a report to Principal Zhang Cheng.
"Principal Zhang, the reporter from the Jiangcheng Education Channel has arrived at the school."
"They’ll be conducting a brief, exclusive interview with student Zhang Zeyu on the athletic field in a little while."
Zhang Cheng sat in his chair, his fingers tapping lightly on the desktop.
"Old Li, go and have a word with that student, Zhang Zeyu. Tell him that during the interview, he’s not to mention any rankings or scores. He should only talk about his typical study habits, the hard work he’s put in, and how the school and his teachers have nurtured him. That’s all."
Li Yiming nodded in understanding.
"Understood. We’re highlighting the heritage and academic atmosphere of our Second Middle School. I’ll go give him the instructions right away."
With that, Li Yiming left the office.
Zhang Cheng leaned back in his chair, picked up his thermos, and took a sip of tea.
’With the list from this semifinal round, he had played an exceptionally clever word game.’
’Zhao Ziv from Sixth Middle School had bombed the test, which presented a golden opportunity.’
’If Sixth Middle School were to jump out and object, saying the list actually *is* ranked, wouldn’t that be an admission that Second Middle School’s Zhang Zeyu scored higher than their Zhao Ziv?’
’Therefore, Sixth Middle School could only suffer this loss in silence.’
...
At 8:30 in the morning, the Jiangcheng Education Channel’s interview van drove onto the campus of Second Middle School.
Taking advantage of the time for morning exercises between classes, the reporter set up a camera on the athletic field and invited Zhang Zeyu, who was dressed in his Second Middle School uniform, to stand before the lens.
At 10 AM, the Jiangcheng Education Channel broadcast the interview video right on schedule.
In the video, Zhang Zeyu appeared somewhat nervous, his eyes darting away from the camera from time to time.
The female reporter held up a microphone and asked with a beaming smile.
"Student Zhang Zeyu, congratulations on successfully advancing to the national finals of the Huaxuan Cup, outperforming numerous students from across the province."
"Many parents and students watching at home are very curious. How do you normally study? Do you have any secret tips you can share with everyone?"
Zhang Zeyu swallowed hard and said dryly.
"Actually... there’s no special secret, really. It’s mainly about following the pace set by the school’s teachers, paying close attention in class, and completing homework on time."
"The teachers at our Second Middle School are all very responsible. They also sprinkle a lot of extra, enriching knowledge into their lessons, so my general knowledge base is probably just a little bit broader than the average student’s..."
This video was not only broadcast on television but was also played on a loop on the large electronic screen on Second Middle School’s campus.
Around the athletic field, many students from the regular classes who had come out for some fresh air gathered around the large screen, their discussions buzzing.
"Hey, isn’t it true that Zhang Zeyu isn’t usually one of the absolute top students in our year? His physics grades are good, but not to the point of being unbeatable in the whole province. How did he suddenly get first place this time?"
"Who knows? Regardless of how he managed to overperform, our Second Middle School has definitely gained a lot of face this time."
However, just as these regular students were buzzing with discussion, a few students from the science-track honors classes who participated in competitions happened to walk by.
These top students, who knew the real story, glanced up at the slightly guilty-looking Zhang Zeyu on the screen, then looked at each other and all shook their heads.
They didn’t say a word, simply turning and walking away as if lingering a moment longer would be an embarrassment.
...
As a local, traditional media outlet, the Jiangcheng Education Channel didn’t actually have very high viewership ratings in an era where new media and short-form videos were on the rise.
But it did have an extremely loyal viewership base.
Namely, parents whose children were about to advance to the next level of schooling.
These parents might not normally browse their social media feeds or follow local online accounts.
But when they were bored, they had a habit of leaving the TV on the education channel.
This morning, the news story about "Second Middle School Student Dominates Physics Competition" was naturally seen by many of these parents.
"The Huaxuan Cup? What kind of competition is that?" some uninformed parents asked in their residential community’s group chat.
Soon, a more knowledgeable parent looked up information online and posted it in the group.
"Whoa, this is a big deal! The Huaxuan Cup is a major competition held by a domestic semiconductor chip giant! I heard it’s extremely difficult, and high school students who place well even have a chance to be favored directly by that big company. After graduating from college, they can be hired directly as core employees!"
At this, the group chat erupted.
"For real? Then Second Middle School really did something incredible this time! Did they even beat out Sixth Middle School?"
"I don’t know, but Second Middle School has certainly been making a strong push these past couple of years."
"My kid is taking the high school entrance exam next year, and their score is still a little short of the cutoff for Sixth Middle School. I was originally planning to pay the school selection fee to get them into Sixth Middle School, but now I’m hesitating. Should we go for Sixth Middle School or Second Middle School?"
While the parent circles of Jiangcheng were abuzz with discussion.
Liu Limin, the Dean of Instruction at Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, was sitting in front of his computer, holding a cup of tea.
Sixth Middle School’s principal happened to be in the provincial capital for a few days, attending an important national forum for key middle school principals, so he had no idea what was happening in the city.
So, the heavy responsibility of handling this matter naturally fell on Liu Limin’s shoulders.
Watching the education channel’s video and reading the comments favoring Second Middle School, Liu Limin felt not a shred of worry or anger. Instead, he couldn’t help but laugh out loud.
’Second Middle School, oh, Second Middle School, you’ve really lost your minds. How dare you pluck just any peach!’
Liu Limin clicked open a document with his mouse and began to personally draft a press release.
As a seasoned old fox of Jiangcheng’s education world, Liu Limin understood all too well the core logic of what made a key middle school "key."
Abundant educational resources were certainly part of the reason, but the absolute core, always, was the student pool!
Because if you have a good student pool, you can produce good results. When you produce good results, the higher-ups will allocate more educational resources to you. And with top-tier educational resources, you can attract the next cohort of even better students.
It was an unbreakable cycle.
But Second Middle School was currently only seeing this tiny bit of empty fame right in front of them, hoping to use it to one-up Sixth Middle School, but they had forgotten that the one thing the education world cannot tolerate is deception.
Of course, Liu Limin wasn’t drafting this press release simply to stand up for Seventh Middle School.
What he was interested in was the person: Li Dong!
He had seen with his own eyes just how insane the experimental question on the Huaxuan Cup was.
Although he didn’t know what kind of god-tier answer Li Dong had written on his paper, on this list, Qiao Fan—the so-called genius freshman from Rongcheng Seventh Middle School—had been firmly pushed into second place by Li Dong!
One had to understand that the teaching faculty at Rongcheng Seventh Middle School was on a completely different plane from all the high schools in Jiangcheng.
For Li Dong to have won the favor of Huaxuan Technology’s grading team on that final, redacted engineering problem and secure first place, one could only imagine that this kid was anything but simple!
’Your Seventh Middle School produced a god-tier student like this, let him suffer such a huge injustice, and you don’t even dare to make a peep? You won’t even fight for your student’s reputation.’
Liu Limin gave a cunning, calculating smile.
’Since you at Seventh Middle School won’t demand justice for him, then we at Sixth Middle School will!’
With this thought, Liu Limin pressed the button on his desk phone.
"Xiaowang, go to each of the classes and ask if anyone knows this Li Dong from Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School..."
...
Less than an hour after the Jiangcheng Education Channel’s interview video finished broadcasting.
An article was suddenly updated and pinned to the top of Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School’s official website.
As the undisputed "top dog" of Jiangcheng’s education world, Sixth Middle School’s official website had always received a lot of traffic. Countless parents refreshed it daily, trying to find any clues about independent admissions.
The moment this article appeared, it captured the attention of many parents.
The article’s title was very proper.
*Congratulations to Our Student Zhao Ziv on Successfully Advancing to the "Huaxuan Cup" National Finals—Striving for Even Greater Heights.*
The content was even more innocuous. The entire piece was about congratulating their own student for reaching the finals and encouraging him to keep up the good work. Not a single word was mentioned about Jiangcheng Second Middle School.
But at the very bottom of the article, Sixth Middle School had very "thoughtfully" attached a screenshot of the original list of finalists from Huaxuan Technology’s official website.
Now, all the parents who clicked on the article were stunned.
[First Place: Li Dong (Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School)]
[Second Place: Qiao Fan (Rongcheng Seventh Middle School)]
...
[Seventh Place: Zhang Zeyu (Jiangcheng Second Middle School)]
...
[Fourteenth Place: Zhao Ziv (Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School)]
The parents carefully read the fine print below the list that said the rankings were not in any particular order.
"Wait a minute. If the rankings aren’t in order, on what grounds does Second Middle School dare to claim they ’outperformed everyone’?"
And what about the sorting logic of this so-called "no particular order"?
If it were sorted by the first letter of their names, why was Cao Yang from Miancheng Middle School in fourth place, while Li Dong was in first?
If it were sorted by school reputation, how could Rongcheng Seventh Middle School, with its sterling reputation, possibly be ranked below Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School?
"This is clearly a hidden ranking based on scores!"
"Second Middle School is twisting the facts! Not only did they not get first place, they didn’t even come close to the top three in the province!"
And what kind of people were these parents who constantly monitored Sixth Middle School’s official website?
They were all elite parents, extremely anxious about their children’s education, who also possessed a certain level of social resources and cognitive ability.
In their parent group chats, this crowd was made up of "child-bragging maniacs" and "admissions analysts" whose "combat power" was off the charts.
Thus, Second Middle School’s little trick of misrepresentation spread rapidly through this circle of elite parents.
If you had just honestly said,
"Our student, Zhang Zeyu, earned seventh place in the province and successfully advanced to the finals," then everyone would have praised the kid for being amazing and Second Middle School for its excellent teaching.
But when you’re clearly seventh place and insist on using a phrase like "outperformed everyone" to mislead the public into thinking you’re first, treating everyone like idiots...
...then the "melon-eating masses" and gossip-loving parents were wide awake and instantly switched to combat mode!
The first to fall was Jiangcheng Second Middle School’s Baidu Tieba.
A post titled "[Let’s expose a certain school’s ’outperforming everyone.’ Since when does seventh place get to be called first?]" was quickly pushed to the top.
At first, the uninformed regular students from Second Middle School’s first and second years were still arguing vehemently in the thread, defending their alma mater’s honor.
"Stop being so salty, OP. Our Senior Brother Zhang is just that awesome."
"It was on the news. The official media certified that he ’outperformed everyone,’ get it?"
However, when the debunkers directly slapped the ranking screenshot into the thread and circled "[First Place: Li Dong (Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School)]" and "[Seventh Place: Zhang Zeyu]" in red,
the uninformed Second Middle School students collectively went silent.
In the end, only a few die-hard Second Middle School students were left, stubbornly trying to save a last shred of dignity.
"Our school’s press release... never said he was first place to begin with!"
"Exactly! How is ’outperforming everyone’ not ’outperforming everyone’? Senior Brother Zhang ranked seventh, didn’t he beat the hundred-plus people behind him? How is that not ’outperforming everyone’?"
This kind of desperate, delusional justification only earned a single response from the original poster and the countless "melon-eating masses."
"Heh."
"Redefining ’outperforming everyone.’"
"Jiangcheng Second Middle School, their language arts classes must be amazing!"
