Chapter 4

I accompanied Mom to the hospital for her medical checkup the day before the exam results were released. I paid the deposit in advance and turned on "Do Not Disturb" mode on her phone.

Mom sat on the hospital bed, peeling an apple and grumbling. "Your results are coming out tomorrow. You should be at home waiting, not running off to the hospital. What are you even doing here?"

I leaned against the window. "I can check my results at the hospital too."

Mom shot me a sharp look. "Oh, that's ridiculous! Who on earth would check their results in a hospital ward?"

I smiled and said nothing.

In my past life, when I checked my results, the small living room was packed with relatives and neighbors—my aunt, uncle, next-door neighbor, and neighbors from upstairs and downstairs. They claimed they were concerned, but they looked as if they were waiting for a jackpot draw.

In the end, my score turned out to be a total joke.

In this life, I refused to let anyone stand in front of Mom and watch the drama unfold.

Winnie suddenly called me at 8:00 pm. She spoke softly, asking, "Where are you, Hazel? I heard you're not at home at the moment."

I'm at the hospital with Mom for a checkup."

"What happened to Mrs. Hunt?" Winnie asked anxiously.

I replied coldly, "It's nothing serious."

Winnie remained silent for a few seconds before asking, "Do you feel nervous about the results that are coming out tomorrow?"

"I'm doing alright."

Winnie chuckled. "I'm so nervous right now. You'd better not laugh at me if I end up doing horribly, Hazel."

I almost laughed out loud. Winnie wasn't worried about bombing the college entrance exam; she was worried that I wouldn't end up miserable enough. I went along with her act, saying, "I won't laugh at you, Winnie. I mean, you've improved a lot lately."

Winnie sounded more relaxed. "I've always envied you, Hazel. You're smart, teachers like you, and Mrs. Hunt takes pride in you. You're nothing like me, always coming up short."

It was such a moving statement. It was just that, since she couldn't beat me, she flat-out stole what I had worked hard for.

"I'm sure good things will happen to you once the results come out, Winnie."

Winnie chuckled. "I'll take your word for it, Hazel."

I opened my cloud drive once I ended the call. I had three things backed up there—the complete good-luck relay video, my estimated scores for every subject, and screenshots of Winnie's messages from the past few days implying that I had bombed the exam.

I knew I needed more than that. I sent Ms. Hall another message. "If my actual score tomorrow is significantly different from my estimate, please help me contact the Municipal Testing Authority as soon as possible to have it reviewed. I'm completely open to having them retrieve my answer sheets."

Ms. Hall replied almost instantly. "You shouldn't overthink it, Hazel. You've always been consistent with your scores, so I'm sure nothing will go wrong."

"I'm just putting it out there in advance, Ms. Hall."

Ms. Hall replied, "I'll keep that in mind, then."

It was 10:00 pm, and Mom had finally fallen asleep. I sat in the visitor's chair provided in the hospital ward, gazing out the window.

In my past life, I had been comforting Winnie around this time, telling her that she would do well on her exam. I had genuinely thought of her as a friend. I thought we were supporting each other. It was only later that I realized she never wanted to be my equal—she wanted to take everything that was mine.

It was already late, but the class group chat was still lively. Winnie said, "No matter what the results look like, nobody should beat themselves up."

Everyone in the group chat started praising her for being so thoughtful.

I read her message and found it ridiculous. She had no reason to beat herself up since she had already planned to use other people's results as proof of her own success.

It was 9:00 am, and there was one hour left before the results portal opened.

It was finally 10:00 am, but the system crashed because too many people tried to access it.

I refreshed three times before the page finally loaded. I had a total score of 156.

I stared at the screen and broke into a smile instead.