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墨書 Inktalez
"Classmates, quiet down. No whispering. Please check your materials and prepare for the exam."
The proctor walked up to the podium holding a sealed exam paper, and Song Pearl quickly turned around to sit properly.
Two proctors opened the brown paper wrapping the exam papers and began distributing them.
Once the papers were handed out, Song Pearl glanced over the questions. Only after hearing the teacher start explaining how to answer did she write down her exam number and name. After confirming her identity, she approached everything methodically and in accordance with the rules.
The proctor standing at the podium was in his forties, tall and thin, wearing silver-rimmed glasses. His deep, clear eyes scanned the room before he sat down at the teacher's desk.
The other proctor, slightly plump with a beard, walked around before heading to the back row.
The entire exam room was very quiet, with only the sound of writing and occasional rustling of papers. Although she hadn’t reviewed much, Song Pearl had encountered all the questions on this exam before. She felt secretly pleased; this should be her most perfect answer sheet in years.
"Pearl, flip it over," came a faint voice as Wang Ziyan kicked her chair from behind. Song Pearl understood Wang Ziyan's meaning. She gently looked up; the bearded proctor had stepped out, while the teacher at the desk was focused on something and didn’t notice them.
As Song Pearl glanced at the proctor’s position, she noticed a strand of hair falling over his forehead, resting on his silver-gray glasses. She paused for a moment; this person looked somewhat familiar.
When Wang Ziyan kicked her chair again, she pretended to check her exam paper and shifted slightly to reveal one side of it. She knew Wang Ziyan had excellent eyesight; as long as there were no obstructions in front of her, she could see clearly.
Half of the exam paper hung over the edge of her desk, making Song Pearl feel nervous as she sat still, praying not to be discovered. Generally speaking, graduation exams weren’t too strict; even if someone cheated a little, the proctor would pretend not to see. However, she remembered that after each exam, there would be reports on students caught cheating posted on the bulletin board...
As Song Pearl lowered her head to look at her paper and thought about the consequences of cheating, she suddenly felt a shadow overhead—the familiar proctor had already stood beside her and picked up her exam paper. "What do you think you're doing? Cheating like this? Do you think you can fool my eyes?"
Song Pearl felt her eyelids twitch rapidly; cheating was indeed not something someone like her could pull off successfully. None of her classmates looked up; the classroom remained silent as her exam paper was taken away by the teacher.
Getting caught cheating right before graduation meant that soon her name would appear on the bulletin board. She had always been inconspicuous since entering school, but now she would become notorious for cheating.
Was this going to be a glorious mark on her life path? Would she receive a disciplinary record or be denied her diploma? This would surely embarrass her father, Song Shiting!
Perhaps the research institute where she just passed an interview would refuse to accept her because of this! Song Pearl realized that her mind suddenly became clear as she thought of all these consequences in an instant.
It was truly embarrassing; she felt heat rising in her face and lowered her head. For some reason, tears began to flow down one by one onto the desk.
She sniffed to try to stop crying. It was strange—although she felt embarrassed, she wasn’t really sad about it; why were tears still falling?
When the bell for collecting papers rang, she didn’t wait for Wang Ziyan but followed other students out of the classroom with her head down. Some classmates turned their heads to look at her and noticed that her eyes were swollen from crying and her nose was red as she continued walking forward with her head lowered.
Wang Ziyan waited until all the classmates had exited before following the Proctor out of the Exam Room. Song Pearl estimated that she was looking for the Proctor. Wang Ziyan had a poor singing voice but was very articulate and braver than Song Pearl when facing reality.
Song Pearl wandered aimlessly in the hallway when Wang Ziyan ran up beside her, pulling her close and saying, "Don't cry anymore; it's all my fault. I've already told the teacher to only report me, to hold me accountable alone, it has nothing to do with you..."
"It's fine; I actually didn't want to cry. I don't know why the tears just came out," Song Pearl said, wiping her face with her sleeve and forcing a smile that looked worse than crying at Wang Ziyan. "I don't blame you; this is what I chose."
She sniffed again and sobbed softly, "I feel like this Proctor looks familiar, like I've seen him somewhere."
"Familiar? Since he's a teacher from our school, it's normal to feel that way. If I had seen this teacher before, I would remember him, but unfortunately, I've never met him. I was kicked out after just one sentence earlier," Wang Ziyan sighed.
Song Pearl shook her head. "I can't remember who it is; I can only rely on luck."
She had moderate face blindness and sometimes mistook familiar people for others. If it was a stranger, she needed to see them many times before she could remember their appearance, which often led to classmates passing by without her recognizing them. This was also a reason why she had few friends.
After a brief twenty minutes, the bell for the next exam rang.
Having been caught cheating and having her exam paper confiscated, once they exited the Exam Room, as long as no one posted a report, everyone in the same Exam Room would tacitly understand; no one would be foolish enough to discuss it openly.
Whether Song Pearl felt ashamed or indifferent did not affect her performance in the next exam; after leaving the Exam Room, she estimated that passing would not be a problem.
As she passed by the Bulletin Board, her eyes unconsciously glanced at it. A crowd had gathered around the Bulletin Board; she wondered if the results of the previous exam had been announced.
When she heard someone shout that a certain student from a specific class had been disqualified for cheating and placed on probation, Pearl's heart felt a bit uneasy.
She stood nonchalantly under the teaching building, staring blankly at a bare sycamore tree in front of her. Wang Ziyan squeezed out from among a group of tall boys and ran to her side, suddenly hugging her and saying, "It's okay; our names aren't on there!"
"We should thank the Proctor for being lenient," Wang Ziyan said with a cheerful smile. "But I didn't even have time to copy; it hardly counts as cheating!"
Song Pearl did not laugh; she felt this was not something to be proud of and thought to herself that she would never do such things again. She simply did not have the ability to cheat and could only live honestly in the future without trying to take shortcuts. This was also considered the last lesson taught by the school.
"Come on, I'll treat you to lunch at the cafeteria to calm your nerves." Wang Ziyan stuffed her pencil case into her backpack and pulled Song Pearl toward the cafeteria.
"Okay, I'll treat you at noon; how can I change my mind?" Song Pearl smiled softly and pushed her pencil case into Wang Ziyan's backpack.
The cafeteria hired a Second Chef to cook meals that were exquisite and delicious but significantly more expensive than those at the school restaurant. Therefore, during their three years at school, they had only eaten at the cafeteria a handful of times.
Song Pearl and Wang Ziyan walked along the path beside the Flower Bed. A heavy snowfall had just occurred, and piles of snow were melting along the roadside while snow still blanketed the Holly and Pine Trees in the Flower Bed.
Wang Ziyan walked alongside Song Pearl with a relaxed and cheerful stride, her beige down jacket light and airy. In contrast, Song Pearl's pink down jacket, worn for three years, looked somewhat shabby.
Groups of classmates along the way were walking leisurely to the restaurant, just like the two of them.
A bicycle brushed past Song Pearl's arm, causing her to lean toward Wang Ziyan. Not paying attention, she stepped on Wang Ziyan's newly bought leather shoes.
The shoes were padded, so Wang Ziyan didn't feel any pain, but she felt a bit sorry for her shoes. Annoyed, she shouted at the cyclist, "Hey, stop! Is this a place for riding bicycles? Can't you see you bumped into someone?"
The boy on the bike, who had already ridden several yards ahead of them, stopped with one foot on the ground. He turned to look at Wang Ziyan and Song Pearl, his black coat hood slipping down to his shoulders, revealing somewhat messy black hair and an innocent expression.
His face was flushed, still carrying some baby fat, and his striking black-and-white eyes sparkled with a hint of laughter as they briefly met Wang Ziyan's before locking onto Song Pearl's.
When their eyes met, Song Pearl froze. This handsome boy seemed familiar; she felt a sense of recognition.
She didn't know many people and was even less familiar with boys. She was sure she didn't know him.
The boy who had turned back also showed surprise in his eyes. After a brief pause, he suddenly dropped his bike and ran in front of Song Pearl. He looked down at her intently, his voice trembling and incoherent as he said, "I'm not dreaming; it's all real... Sister Fish, so you came here too!"
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