Chen Zhuo didn’t stop.
He walked past Wang Yang, who had stopped.
His hands were still in his pockets.
There was no change in the rhythm of his steps.
He walked about two steps ahead of Wang Yang.
Then he turned around.
He looked at the upperclassmen who were frozen in place.
"Let’s go."
Chen Zhuo said, his voice quiet.
But to Wang Yang and the others, it was perfectly clear.
Wang Yang snapped out of it.
He glanced at Chen Zhuo.
The expression on Chen Zhuo’s face was exactly the same as when he’d been buying a savory crepe on the side of the road earlier.
No excitement, no stage fright.
Wang Yang gritted his teeth.
He pushed his bicycle forward and followed.
Liu Kai puffed out his chest and strode forward.
The others followed as well.
The eight of them.
They fell back into formation.
And continued walking forward.
They were still a hundred meters from the school gate.
Getting closer and closer to the announcement board.
A girl in the crowd was still reading aloud.
"...This is the best group result our school has achieved in a science competition since its founding."
She paused for a moment.
Her voice suddenly rose, laced with unconcealable surprise.
"Special Grand Prize."
"First place in both Math and Physics for the entire province."
"Perfect scores in both subjects, selected for the provincial team’s training camp."
"From Class 1 of the first year, Chen Zhuo."
After she finished reading that last part.
The crowd in front of the announcement board fell abruptly silent.
It was like a radio had been playing, and someone had suddenly yanked the plug from the wall.
The students who had just been chattering about Wang Yang and Zhao Chen.
The second- and third-year students holding steamed buns and pushing their bicycles.
All of them stopped what they were doing.
No one spoke.
There was only the soft RUSTLE of the wind blowing across the red paper.
"Perfect scores in both subjects?"
Someone finally broke the silence. Their voice was strained.
"I’m not seeing things, am I? A perfect score?"
"A first-year? Chen Zhuo?"
"Is that the short kid who tested in when he was nine?"
"Isn’t he only ten?"
The crowd erupted like a pot boiling over.
But after the initial explosion, it quickly settled back into an even more uncanny silence.
It was the speechlessness that comes from facing absolute power.
Wang Yang pushed his bike.
They were now less than ten meters from the side of the announcement board.
He could feel the change in the atmosphere around them.
Some of the students standing on the outskirts of the crowd turned their heads.
A third-year boy turned his head.
His gaze traveled over the shoulders of the crowd.
And landed right on Wang Yang, who was pushing his bicycle.
The boy froze for a second.
He recognized Wang Yang.
The boy’s gaze shifted from Wang Yang.
He saw Liu Kai and Zhao Chen next to him, then Li Hao, Zhang Wei, Nan Xiaoyun, and Lin Xiao.
Six third-year students in their school uniforms.
The names from the red honor roll.
The living, breathing people, standing right behind them.
The boy’s gaze continued to travel downward.
He saw the person walking at the very front.
A boy who only came up to Wang Yang’s shoulder.
A dark blue school uniform.
A black backpack.
Gold-rimmed glasses.
Hands in his pockets.
Walking toward them, his face expressionless.
That boy’s eyes slowly widened.
He subconsciously took half a step back.
The half-eaten fried dough stick in his hand fell to the ground.
His backward step bumped into the person in front of him.
The person in front turned their head.
And followed his line of sight.
They saw them too.
The eight people from the honor roll.
All in a neat line.
Walking right toward them.
The news spread through the crowd like ripples in water.
No one needed to shout.
No one needed to give directions.
The students crowded around the announcement board.
The students about to enter the school gate.
Even the dean of discipline standing just inside the gate.
All eyes.
Were fixed on the path leading to the main gate.
Fixed on these eight people.
And finally, locked onto the short kid walking at the very front.
Chen Zhuo still didn’t break his stride.
He looked straight ahead.
In his line of sight, the yellow words on the large red banner were now clear.
[Warm Congratulations to Our Eight Students on Their Awards in the Provincial Science Olympiad! Special Commendation for Chen Zhuo, Top Scorer with Perfect Scores in Two Subjects!]
The characters were huge.
And very gaudy.
Chen Zhuo reached the edge of the crowd in front of the announcement board.
He didn’t say, "Excuse me."
He just kept walking forward at his original pace.
The two second-year boys blocking his path shot to either side as if electrocuted.
A bicycle’s front wheel scraped against a nearby student, but no one complained.
The crowd split down the middle.
Like an invisible knife, it sliced a wide path through the dense morning crowd.
A path leading straight to the school gate.
No one spoke.
Over two hundred people stood on either side of the path.
Watching the group walk past.
Watching the ten-year-old boy walk past.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
The only sound was the CLICK-CLACK of the chain on the old-fashioned 28-inch bicycle Wang Yang was pushing.
The only other sound was the synchronized footsteps of the eight of them.
Wang Yang walked just behind and to the side of Chen Zhuo.
He felt his legs trembling.
It wasn’t from fear.
It was the shudder that comes when hundreds of pairs of eyes are fixed on you, a thrill that sends blood rushing to your head.
He saw the class sports representative, who usually looked down on him, now standing by the side of the path with his mouth agape, his eyes filled with nothing but awe.
Wang Yang unconsciously straightened his back.
He gripped the handlebars of his bicycle tightly.
Liu Kai held his head high.
The collar of his new shirt was stark white in the sunlight.
Watching the students part to make way for them, he suddenly felt that the last three days of ’chicken soup’ hadn’t been for nothing.
Li Hao and Zhang Wei walked with a steady gait.
Nan Xiaoyun held tightly to Lin Xiao’s arm. Both girls’ faces were flushed beet-red, but their eyes were frighteningly bright.
Chen Zhuo walked at the very front.
He walked on the concrete path.
Past the announcement board.
Past the giant red honor roll bearing his name.
He didn’t even turn his head.
He reached the school gate.
The dean of discipline was standing by the iron gate.
The dean, who was usually the loudest and most fond of finding fault, now stood with his mouth shut.
He looked at the approaching Chen Zhuo, then at the seven third-year students behind him.
The dean of discipline took half a step to the side.
Ceding the very center of the gateway.
Chen Zhuo stepped over the iron threshold of the school gate.
And entered the campus.
Wang Yang followed, pushing his bike.
Then came Zhao Chen, Li Hao, Zhang Wei, Nan Xiaoyun, and Lin Xiao.
The eight of them.
Under the gazes of hundreds of pairs of eyes from across the school, and in an extremely uncanny silence, they walked into City No.1 Middle School.
Not until their backs had disappeared around the corner of the academic building...
...and vanished from sight...
...did the path at the school gate slowly close up.
The silence was shattered.
Like a drop of water falling into a wok of boiling oil.
A buzzing clamor of discussion erupted in an instant.
"Did you see him? The one walking at the front."
"I saw... He’s so small."
"Duh, how big can a ten-year-old be?"
"He didn’t even glance at us."
"Why would he look at you? The guy got perfect scores. In two subjects."
A third-year boy picked up the half-eaten fried dough stick that had fallen on the ground and tossed it in the trash can.
He glanced at the red honor roll and sighed.
"Let’s go, back to class. Compared to him, we’re just seat-fillers."
The warning bell for morning reading rang just then.
The piercing sound of the electric bell cut through the morning air.
Students pushed their bikes, quickening their pace as they flooded through the school gate.
The sun climbed higher and higher.
It shone on the red paper of the announcement board.
It shone on the large red banner above the gate.
Making them glitter brilliantly.

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