TPH Chapter 40.1

The Protagonist’s Halo [Arc 3] Chapter 40.1: I Have the Halo of a Top Student (6)

The next day at school, Xiao Han gave her reply.

Only children make choices. Xiao Han said she wanted it all—no, she wanted to participate in both competitions.

While it’s not uncommon for people to participate in competitions in two or even three subjects simultaneously, such cases are extremely rare.

Surprisingly, neither the math teacher nor Mr. Wu had much of an objection, because in their view, Cheng Yin’s current level was sufficient to pass the preliminary round, and there were still several months until the competition. Perhaps after these few months, Cheng Yin would feel too much pressure and become too stressed with studying, and would naturally give up one subject and focus all her attention on another.

The important thing now is how to get Cheng Yin to favor their school during this training period and know what is best for her.

On the contrary, the homeroom teacher, Ms. Song, was a little worried. She had only heard from two other teachers that Cheng Yin had done very well on the competition questions, but she didn’t know her exact level. Preparing for just one competition was tiring enough, let alone Cheng Yin participating in two. Ms. Song was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to handle it and that it would easily interfere with her regular studies and cause her to fall behind in other subjects.

“The final exams are next month, I hope it won’t interfere with your studies.”

Xiao Han shook her head and said confidently, “I’ll be fine for the final exams.”

Ms. Song didn’t say anything more. She supported her students participating in the competition, and only hoped that it wouldn’t affect their final exams too much. She hoped that even if they didn’t get first place, they could at least stay in the top five.

After Xiao Han decided to participate in the two subject competitions, Teacher Wu called her to the office first and gave her a copy of “National Middle School Physics Competition Experiment Guidebook.” With her current level, passing the preliminary round shouldn’t be a problem, but the semi-finals consisted of both theoretical and experimental parts.

The theoretical part had standardized questions from the National Competition Committee, with a total score of 160 points; the experimental part had questions set by the competition committees of each province, autonomous region, and municipality, with a total score of 40 points. The experimental questions came from this fixed textbook, which contained about thirty experiments, from which students could choose to be tested.

Although we haven’t considered entering the semi-finals yet, it’s good to get in touch first.

“You should finish your self-study of high school physics first, and then I will train you for the competition.” Teacher Wu then mentioned the weekly class time in the classroom he arranged. “You’re not the only one participating in the preliminary round. There are about six other students from the second year of high school, and a few from the first and third years, but they won’t be attending classes with you.”

He paused, then added, “However, you did better than them on those seven sets of papers.”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have gone to Cheng Yin’s home before the math teacher to make a home visit so that she could participate in the physics competition. He had a feeling that Cheng Yin could definitely shine in the competition.

“You can ask Xu Jun from the next class about the physics competition. I also signed him up for the competition. He has been preparing for it for more than a year.”

When Xu Jun was also called over to get the new physics test paper, Teacher Wu said the same thing to him.

Upon learning that Cheng Yin was also participating in the physics competition, Xu Jun looked up at her in surprise, then quickly looked away. Aside from giving Xiao Han a few documents, he said nothing else, clearly not wanting to have much interaction with Xiao Han.

The novel describes the male protagonist as extremely aloof. He had never been in a relationship before meeting Cheng Yang, and he was indifferent to everything around him. He didn’t care about anyone except the female protagonist, Cheng Yang. Therefore, Xu Jun was only good at completing the tasks assigned by his teacher and was too lazy to do anything else.

Xiao Han wasn’t without other options. She turned to her homeroom teacher, Ms. Song, and said that she didn’t know much about physics competitions.

“Teacher Wu said I could ask Xu Jun from Class 6, but he seems to be quite busy and doesn’t have much time,” Xiao Han said frankly.

Teacher Song didn’t say anything, but directly found her a senior in high school who had won first prize in a provincial competition and qualified for admission to Shanghai University. Apparently, he had been having a lot of fun at home for the past six months. Teacher Song didn’t want to stop him from having fun, and only said that he would tutor the junior for two days.

After the senior high school student arrived, he first looked at the several sets of test papers that Xiao Han had done.

“Damn, are all the freshmen this good? Last time I tutored a junior named Xu Jun, he left everyone else behind in the competition. I wasn’t as good as him when I was a freshman. But he was too cold-hearted, always had a sour face. He’s not as pleasing to the eye as the freshmen you see.”

Although the senior student spoke in a somewhat joking manner, he was very patient and meticulous in explaining the competition process and rules based on his own experience. He told her about some potential pitfalls and details that needed attention, which also helped Xiao Han gain a general understanding of the physics competition.

The path of competitions is actually very cruel. You may not be able to reap the rewards even if you put in the effort, and you may even lose your normal learning progress. Therefore, schools generally only encourage the best students to spend time on competitions. Those who can participate in competitions are undoubtedly top students whose level of knowledge in learning far surpasses that of their peers, so that they can do both competitions and the high school and college entrance examinations without any problems.

“In competitions, there are only two outcomes: success or failure. If you can’t become a master who crushes others, then you’ll only be able to crush them. If you don’t have the determination to persevere, you’d better give up early,” the senior student said sincerely.

Xiao Han seemed to be deep in thought.

The senior student smiled again, “However, you will never regret participating in the competition, not only because it is a rare experience in life, but also because it allows you to see a bigger world. Some people may be eliminated in the preliminary rounds, but some can enter the provincial team, get independent enrollment or bonus points, and sign contracts with prestigious universities. Some outstanding students even go all the way from the preliminary rounds to win gold medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad. What you can see in the competition is far more than what you can see in Donghua High School or in a city or province. Even if you only make it to the semi-finals, you can compete with the top students in the province. This is the arena of physics, a scene without gunpowder, where heroes compete for supremacy, and who will win and who will lose.”

The senior student, who had just been serious, suddenly became passionate again, as if reminiscing about his competitive years.

Xiao Han nodded. “I understand.”

Xiao Han also visited the math teacher, but the person in charge of her special training was not her math teacher, but a teacher surnamed Xu from the school who was in charge of the math competition group.

The math teacher was well aware of his own abilities; competition problems were generally far more difficult than regular exams, and he wasn’t particularly skilled in competition training. Since he had recommended Cheng Yin to participate in the math competition, he wouldn’t hinder her progress. It wasn’t just about saving face for himself; his main hope was that his student could achieve good results in the competition and have a brighter future.

Although Cheng Yin’s past grades were not outstanding, her math and physics teachers believed that she had found her own path or gradually mastered a set of effective self-study and time management methods that suited her, which led to her rapid improvement in grades.

Now, many unnecessary courses, or courses that Xiao Han could have finished in advance, were clearly divided up by the competition training in the two subjects, and his weekends were also full.

When she first attended Mr. Wu’s competition training class, he simply introduced me, saying, “This is Cheng Yin. She will also participate in the preliminary round of the physics competition and will be taking physics competition training classes with you in the future.”

The school had specially allocated a classroom for the competition, but only two rows were occupied, making a total of seven people including Xiao Han. Most of these students didn’t know her personally, but they knew the name Cheng Yin. Compared to them, Cheng Yin had joined the competition later, but her top score in the entire grade in the last monthly exam had already proven her ability, especially with a rare perfect score in physics.

However, they didn’t really believe that Cheng Yin could perform well here. After all, it was a first-year high school monthly exam, which mainly covered basic knowledge and was quite different from the competition. They had worked hard for a year to prepare for the competition, and it was impossible for Cheng Yin to catch up with them all at once.

Xu Jun was also among them, but he only glanced at Cheng Yin indifferently and didn’t pay her any more attention.

After Mr. Wu finished his introduction, he immediately started the class. The content of the lecture was obviously much more advanced than the usual high school physics courses.

After attending several classes, Xiao Han felt that there was still more to learn.

Most of the teachers in charge of competition training followed the pace of the competition, acting decisively and efficiently. Teacher Wu went straight into class, leading Xiao Han into the world of competitions that were more profound and difficult than high school physics. Teacher Xu, who was in charge of math competition training, started with an exam. There was no need for an introduction; he just came in, sat down, and started working on the test papers, getting straight to the point and using the test papers to test his level.

When the test papers were handed out, a bespectacled boy sitting next to Xiao Han whispered to her in a friendly tone, “Don’t worry, Mr. Xu isn’t trying to intimidate you. This is his routine. He always starts each class with a test paper.”

It’s said that Teacher Xu used to have a receding hairline, so he shaved it all off, which, combined with her sharp and intimidating gaze, made her quite intimidating. After the class ended, the boy who had initially spoken to Xiao Han was named Jiang Yunhao, from Class 2 of the second year of high school.

“Teacher Xu is very strict. There was a girl from Class 12 who participated in the competition training before. She cried because Teacher Xu scolded her too harshly when she was doing the problems here. Later, she withdrew and stopped participating. Teacher Xu rarely smiles at Xu Jun because he rarely comes.”

The male protagonist, Xu Jun, also participated in the math competition. The novel doesn’t really describe his academic performance, only that he ranked first in his grade in every exam throughout his three years of high school.

It was only after Jiang Yunhao’s introduction that Xiao Han learned that besides her, another person in the second year of high school who had signed up for the physics and mathematics competitions was Xu Jun.

“You academic superstars are really amazing. I can’t even handle math alone,” Jiang Yunhao said, shaking his head.

“Xu Jun is different. Not only does he do well on math tests, but he also has time to date. He doesn’t need to come to competition training classes every day.”

Jiang Yunhao looked on with envy, clearly a single dog.

No wonder she didn’t see Xu Jun in the training class.