Bottom Student: Watch Me Game My Exam Score to Perfection

At the start-of-term exam in their senior year of high school, Jiang Yubai deliberately flunks and takes a firm hold on tenth place from the bottom. The whole class laughs at him, the teacher scolds him, and his parents dig out his middle school competition certificates and demand an explanation. He calmly replies, “I pushed myself too hard back then. Now I’m taking it easy.” By chance, he gains a golden finger that lets him precisely control every point he gains or loses. He can plan which questions to get wrong, make scores as effortless as breathing, and turn exams into an art form. While others grind through practice questions until they break down, he keeps his rank under control with “strategic mistakes.” He scores 426 on the monthly exam, 428 on the mock exam. Every time he falls just short, but never gives himself away. The homeroom teacher grows suspicious, the top students keep an eye on him, but he still grins as he blends in with the bottom of the class. Only Shen Zhaoyue notices something strange: he casually solved that physics problem on the spot. When the college entrance exam introduces dynamic scoring, he drops the act and writes down a new plan: “108 Ways to Go from 428 to 750.” While everyone else struggles to raise their scores, he makes the scores obey him. He eventually ranks third in the province, with his pick of top universities. When he checks his results, he smiles faintly. “For these three years, I’ve been practicing a unique art: score control.”