The boy’s name was Hui Jiashu, a student from their class.
Ning Su had realized that Hui Jiashu's seat had originally belonged to Wang Zhiqiu. When Ning Su had mentioned Wang Zhiqiu's name before, not only had his deskmate suddenly stiffened, but Hui Jiashu had also turned around and looked back at him.
Ning Su first noticed something was off when Ling Xiao stood in front of the bulletin board and mentioned that many students in their senior year were like him, struggling with specific subjects—each in a unique way.
Ning Su’s initial reaction was that Ling Xiao was trying to justify his own struggles with certain subjects.
But just before entering the classroom, Ning Su glanced again at the score sheet and noticed something peculiar about the distribution of the scores for students who were struggling in specific subjects.
One of those students from their class with serious subject imbalances was Hui Jiaxu.
Hui Jiaxu’s struggles were a bit different from the typical student with weak subjects.
He ranked in the top 50 for all other subjects, but in Chinese, where the full score was 150, he only managed 91.
Ning Su had been a student for over ten years and had tutored for three or four years, encountering all kinds of students with weak subjects, but this was the first time he’d seen something like this.
Normally, a student with high scores in English and humanities wouldn’t struggle so much in Chinese, barely scraping a passing grade.
That day, when Ning Su overheard Tang Yichen say, “If I had done well in the exams, it might’ve been me losing my memory instead of Wang Zhiqiu,” Ning Su suddenly had a realization.
Wang Zhiqiu was dragged out during the Chinese exam and never got to take the Math, English, or Humanities exams.
Feigning nonchalance, Ning Su called out Wang Zhiqiu’s name again, and when Hui Jiaxu turned his head, Ning Su’s suspicion solidified.
Wang Zhiqiu’s knowledge hadn’t vanished; it had simply disappeared from his own mind and been transferred to Hui Jiaxu’s brain.
The knowledge that Wang Zhiqiu had accumulated through years of hard work had been taken away by someone else just before the college entrance exam.
Ning Su pointed one by one at the scores of several students who were struggling with specific subjects on the score sheet.
“This one only got 85 in Chinese, 131 in Math, 135 in English, and 256 in Humanities.”
“He’s in the same class as Shi He, who was dragged out during the Chinese exam.”
“This one got 95 in Chinese, 87 in English, 133 in Math, and 272 in Humanities.”
“She’s in the same class as Xie Yunzhu, who ranked third in the previous mock exam and was dragged out during the English exam.”
Ning Su had remembered every student who had been dragged out during the exams and had found out their names and classes.
He pointed out each of the suspicious students who struggled with specific subjects.
If it had only been a hypothesis before, the second mock exam’s results almost confirmed it.
Tang Yichen had said, full of guilt, “If I had done well, I might’ve been the one to lose my memory instead of Wang Zhiqiu,” because it was possible that Hui Jiaxu had initially chosen Tang Yichen, not Wang Zhiqiu, as his target.
Tang Yichen performed poorly in the mock exam, while Wang Zhiqiu excelled in the Chinese section from the start. As a result, Tang Yichen was replaced by Wang Zhiqiu.
Wang Zhiqiu's knowledge-based memory was immediately transferred to Hui Jiashu's brain. Although Hui Jiashu had performed just average in the Chinese section, he achieved very good results in the subsequent exams, though not quite in the top ten of the grade.
The examination hall was filled with small, red-glowing surveillance cameras. Behind these monitors, an unknown number of people were observing each student's performance.
Ning Su, seeing the instructors and red-glowing monitors in the first examination hall, warned Shi He not to perform too well.
Clearly, Shi He didn’t listen. As the top student, who had previously been taken to the Reflection Hall, he likely performed exceptionally well from the very beginning.
All of this was seen by the surveillance cameras, and his memory was immediately extracted and transferred to someone else.
Ning Su continued to point out a few students who were struggling in certain subjects and explained the situation one by one.
By the time he got to the second person, all the players understood.
They were both shocked and suddenly enlightened.
Ji Zeming said, "No wonder Shi He’s memory loss is different from the other struggling students. He didn’t gradually forget things but lost all his knowledge-based memory at once! His memory must have been transferred to someone else’s brain!"
Lu Yue added, "This also explains why the school leaders, who constantly stress the importance of the graduation rate, would send top students to the Reflection Hall even though it could cause memory loss, severely affecting the school’s performance in the college entrance exams. It seemed odd before."
The school administration cared most about academic performance, and they surely knew that sending top students to the Reflection Hall would lead to memory loss. This would severely impact the school’s results in the college entrance exams, yet they still sent these students there.
There was a hidden agenda.
It turned out that the "outstanding results" didn’t disappear at all but were transferred to another group of students.
The overall grades didn’t drop but instead improved because the underperforming students turned into top performers, while those who lost their memories would miss the college entrance exams due to treatment.
Compared to using the Reflection Hall as a way to push students to study harder, this was a better solution thought up by the school leaders.
The school's overall results would improve, and they could also reap significant benefits from powerful families.
The weekly mock exams two months before the college entrance exams were not just for assessment. Now it became clear what they were really for.
Mock exams = selecting targets.
The top students who worked hard during the exams were the "fruit" that the people behind the surveillance cameras were picking.
From the very beginning, this school had concealed deep malice. In the class of students from prestigious families, at least two students were there to study on behalf of someone else.
They toiled day and night, either for their dreams or their families, only to have all the knowledge they had gained before the college entrance exams taken from them.
At this moment, many players thought of Xia Mengyu, the outstanding girl who entered Qingyi High School through a scholarship, studied hard, and aimed to win the scholarship in the preliminary exam to treat her grandmother’s illness and send her brother to a school for the deaf and mute.
The girl who lost her memory and ended up committing suicide by jumping off a building.
Her academic success was not only her life but also her family's.
In such a harsh environment, she fought desperately for more than ten years, earning those grades through immense hard work and effort.
But it was effortlessly taken away by the wealthy and powerful, becoming just another decoration to enhance their already privileged lives.
"Other players lost their memory and were taken away by the school for treatment, but Xia Mengyu jumped to her death. Maybe it’s because she realized that after losing her memory, her entire family was doomed, and there was no hope left, which drove her to despair and suicide."
"Or maybe," Lu Yue said painfully, "she discovered something and was silenced by the school."
The bloodstains left by the rebellious players on the path behind the bulletin board had yet to be fully cleaned, and the faint scent of blood lingered in the night air.
Under the dim streetlights, a few players silently stared at the grades on the report card.
Ji Zeming said, "Back in my old school, our high school teacher told us that the college entrance exam was the only fair thing between the rich and the poor, one of the few ways for the poor to rise."
But in this world, it was no longer the case.
In this world, the college entrance exam had become one of the biggest and most terrifying forms of exploitation by the rich against the poor.
That rare path for the poor to rise had, in the end, turned into a brutal and bone-chilling trap laid by the wealthy.
The players remained silent for a long time in the darkness.
They were crushed by the cruelty and malice of this world, unable to speak.
Ji Zeming wiped his face and said, "At least we've found a way to survive."
If the players' knowledge-based memories could be transferred, then those who had lost their memories could still be saved.
Lu Yue smiled bitterly, "Honestly, for ordinary players, it’s practically impossible to score 600 points in just two months, right? The system's design is clearly pushing us to seize others' knowledge and memories to pass the game."
"If that's the case, how are we any different from the school authorities?"
