Atmosphere is a huge part of learning.

Some students aren’t dumb, nor do they dislike learning. But when no one around them takes their studies seriously, they get interrupted every time they try. Or, when they can’t solve a problem, there’s no one around who can help. That’s when their motivation to learn starts to wane.

But the opposite is also true.

It’s a case of one plus one being far greater than two.

That was exactly the situation in Class 10. The students’ intelligence levels were all about the same. A few of them even had excellent foundations from middle school, but after being held back by Li Mei, their grades had dropped significantly.

But now, the academic atmosphere in Class 10 was electric. With students like Qin Jiao and Shen Yi—who had made meteoric progress in just six months—as role models, many students were giving it their all and studying with everything they had.

While they might not have been advancing as explosively as Qin Jiao and Shen Yi, they still managed the incredible feat of jumping two or three hundred places in the rankings. That was no easy task!

Sun Guotao recalled the utterly dejected look on the face of Class 2’s head teacher, who was also the head of the history department. He smiled at the students and announced, "That’s right! This time, our class average beat Class 2’s by a full three points!"

Three points might not sound like much, but it’s incredibly difficult to achieve with a class average.

The students immediately erupted in cheers. A bolder one even asked how far they were from Class 1’s average. Sun Guotao didn’t laugh at them. Instead, he said calmly, "We’re twenty-eight points behind Class 1’s average. But we still have six months. Let’s keep working hard!"

"Yes!"

The gap in the averages was still huge. In all likelihood—no, in the entire history of Pingan Middle School—a regular class had never surpassed Experimental Class 1. Beating Experimental Class 2 was already a first.

But Sun Guotao had no intention of dampening their enthusiasm. Striving to catch up to the top students, to emulate them—that was a very good thing.

He let the students celebrate for a moment before speaking again. "We may not be able to catch up to Experimental Class 1’s average in the short term," he said slowly, "but this time, our class has eleven students in the top fifty of the entire grade, and three students in the top ten!"

"Wow!"

The students were stunned by their own results. Everyone’s eyes lit up, their hearts pounding with excitement.

Even though most of them knew they weren’t one of the students in the top ten, it didn’t stop them from feeling thrilled. They were just that happy!

One of the top ten was definitely Qin Jiao—that much was certain. And the other two were from their class as well. The thought alone was enough to fill everyone with a surge of pride.

’Qin Jiao and the others did it. If we keep working hard, maybe we can do it too one day, right?’

Qin Jiao was completely confident that she was one of the top ten. A smile touched her lips as she leaned over and whispered to Shen Yi, "Shen Yi, who do you think the other two are?"

"Me."

Qin Jiao raised an eyebrow.

The seating for the final exam had been based on the last monthly test, so she and Shen Yi were in the same room. However, they were seated far apart. All she knew was that he answered questions incredibly quickly and was always the first to turn in his test for every subject.

That sounded just like Shen Yi.

In fact, Qin Jiao had been studying and working on problems with Shen Yi a lot recently, so she knew he was very smart. If he hadn’t been so stubborn and undisciplined before, with such a severe imbalance in his subjects, his grades would never have been so low.

’He’s smart, and he studies late into the night every day. It would be a cosmic injustice if his grades didn’t improve.’

Qin Jiao was also certain that Shen Yi had to be one of the other two in the top ten.

Just then, Sun Guotao stopped building the suspense and began to read out the final exam results.