On the first day of school, Niannian had a brief chat with the four classmates sitting beside her.
Rather than being curious about the newly transferred student, they were more intrigued by why this little dumpling wasn't wearing the school uniform but a Taoist robe instead.
Niannian told them that she was a Taoist priest.
The four little ones beside her all wore blank and disbelieving expressions.
The little dumpling shook her head and sighed silently in her heart.
Sure enough, being invincible is such a lonely thing.
Niannian never expected that the first challenge she'd face on her first day of school would be an exam.
This school held a placement test at the start of every semester, even for first - graders who had just enrolled.
Chinese was no problem.
She could understand math too.
But when it came to English...
Looking at the multiple - choice questions on the test paper, Niannian, who was always competitive, took out a tortoise shell and three copper coins.
Right in front of the teacher, she started chanting incantations and making hand gestures.
Every time she divined a hexagram, she'd write down the answer on the paper.
One hexagram, one answer.
Thankfully, almost all the English questions were multiple - choice. But when she saw the long series of application questions at the end, the little dumpling decided to give up on the rest of the exam.
The teacher stared at her throughout with an expression of utter disbelief.
But the little dumpling didn't care about that look at all and just carried on with her own business.
After the placement test was over, since there were only five students in the class, there was no need to take the papers away for marking. The teacher started grading the papers right on the podium. When it came to Niannian's English paper, the teacher's expression finally cracked.
It wasn't because the little dumpling's English paper was particularly bad.
It was because her answers were a strange mix of good and bad, with an element of the unbelievable.
The teacher began to doubt his own life.
Which kid only answers the multiple - choice questions on an English test?
Well, there are kids who do that because they don't know the answers and have to guess. But which kid can get all the guessed multiple - choice questions right?
Niannian was just such a kid.
All of her multiple - choice answers were correct, including the listening questions.
The problem was that there was no listening part in this placement test, and all the other students left those questions blank. Only the little dumpling had answers.
Even more incredibly, the teacher had just witnessed with his own eyes how this student took out the tortoise shell, did all those mysterious things, and then got a perfect score on the multiple - choice questions.
Between taking the test seriously and giving up, the little dumpling chose divination.
The teacher looked at Niannian, wanting to say something but holding back for a long time.
In the end, he swallowed back all his questions.
Maybe it was just good luck this time?
Or should he give them another test in the afternoon?
The teacher dug out another set of test papers in the afternoon on Monday and made them take another test.
The other students were confused.
They'd never heard of a placement test being conducted twice on the first day of school.
But since Teacher Ke said so, they just did as they were told.
When it came to the English test.
Niannian took out her unique little tortoise shell and little copper coins again.
The result was the same. All the multiple - choice questions were correct, including the listening ones.
The teacher still wasn't convinced. Before school ended, he gave them another placement test. This time, though, he had a trick up his sleeve. He took out junior - high - level English questions.
If Niannian got zero, it would prove that there was nothing fishy about this kid.
If she still got a perfect score, he'd have to call her parents!
In the end, Niannian was the only one in the class who scored in this English test.
It was terrifying. The teacher was almost in tears.
Especially when he saw the little dumpling in her Taoist robe, he felt as if his whole world view was being challenged.
Finally, with a look of utter despair, the teacher dialed the parents' phone number.
Yu Shanhe was completely stunned when he received the call.
What's it like to be called to school by the teacher on the first day of school?
Thanks for asking.
He really didn't want to know.
He'd just finished a meeting at the company and was then called to school by the teacher.
The father - daughter pair, one big and one small, stood in the office. The teacher looked at them, hesitated for a long time, and then finally asked, "Mr. Yu, I'm seriously asking. What's the meaning of Niannian's Taoist robe?"
"Our family's child has been in the Taoist sect since a young age due to the inheritance of the master. She's proficient in some small skills."
When it came to this, Yu Shanhe perked up.
He couldn't wait to show off his little daughter.
It was this sentence that made the teacher's face turn completely dark.
It didn't matter whether he was a firm materialist or not.
What mattered was that he now knew that the little dumpling was a real Taoist priest.
She wasn't just a naughty kid cosplaying because she was obsessed with something.
Because as Yu Shanhe was talking, he actually took out Niannian's Taoist priest certificate!
Licensed to practice?!!
A kid this young with a Taoist priest certificate?!!
The teacher felt that the world was truly a magical place. But then he thought about the little dumpling's actions during the exam, and it didn't seem so magical anymore.
He just felt a fire rising and falling in his chest.
"Do you know how your child took the exam?"
The teacher asked with a forced smile.
Yu Shanhe shook his head. What did this have to do with his child's exam?
Oh right, his child had taken an exam!
"Hey, baby, how did you do on the exam?"
"I don't know. I didn't know any of the English questions. I probably did really badly."
Yu Shanhe looked at the honest little dumpling and didn't think it was a big deal that his child was bad at English. After all, she'd never been exposed to it before. He believed that as long as his little treasure had the chance to learn, she'd surely do her best.
"It's okay. If you don't know, you don't know."
Yu Shanhe smiled at his daughter and then turned to the teacher and said, "Teacher, our child has been living on the mountain with her master, so she hasn't learned English. If her English is really bad, please forgive her."
The doting father thought that the teacher had called him to the office because his daughter had gotten a zero on the English exam.
In fact, that wasn't the case at all.
When the teacher heard the little dumpling admit that she didn't know any of the English questions, his face turned even darker.
So she was confessing right in front of him, huh?!
Not even bothering to pretend anymore, huh!
"Tell me yourself how you took the exam today."
The teacher could tell that the little dumpling was an honest kid, so he managed to suppress some of his anger.
"I used divination to figure out the answers and then wrote them all on the paper. Dad, am I amazing?!"
"My daughter is the most amazing!"
The father - daughter pair echoed each other and didn't even notice the teacher's increasingly dark face.
Finally, unable to hold it in any longer, the teacher slammed his hand on the desk.
"Divination! That's cheating! Mr. Yu, how can you just laugh along with her and praise her like that!"
Oh right, this was cheating.
Only then did Yu Shanhe realize that something was off.