Chapter 3 The First Exam

I stood at the edges of the crowd, watching them accept the bottles of water one after another as though each one were a ticket to a prestigious university.

In reality, it was nothing more than ordinary bottled water that cost two dollars a pop. Yet, it was enough to wash away the fruits of their 12 years of hard work.

When it was my turn, Bonnie handed me a bottle herself. Then, she looked up at me and asked softly, "Ondine, you'll do it too, won't you?"

Leon stood behind her, his gaze icy. Honestly, it felt as though he was more than willing to drag me into the nearest corner to beat me up the moment I said no.

I lowered my eyes to the sticky note attached to the bottle. "Hope everything goes exactly as planned!"

Eventually, I slowly reached out and accepted it. "I will."

A look of genuine relief washed over Bonnie's face. She smiled, though tears still clung to her eyelashes. "That's good. I really don't want to leave anyone behind."

I nodded. "Yeah. No one is going to get left behind."

I slipped the bottle into the side pocket of my backpack and turned toward the security checkpoint.

Suddenly, Leon reached out and blocked my path. "Sinclair."

I stopped.

He lowered his voice as he growled dangerously, "You'd better not pull anything today. I swear I'll make you pay if you ruin Bonnie's plan because of your little stunt."

I looked at him. After a brief pause, I asked slowly, "How would I ruin it?"

Leon sneered. "Drop the act. Don't you think you're going to feel like an absolute idiot when the results come out, and our whole class gets into the special review pool?"

I nodded blandly. "Yeah. That would be pretty embarrassing."

Leon stared at me, clearly unsatisfied by my lack of reaction. Sure enough, his expression grew darker as he snarled. "Remember what you just said."

Then, he turned around and went back to escort Bonnie into the line.

The instant he walked away, the female voice over the loudspeaker repeated mechanically, "Candidates are reminded to take the examination honestly. Making any marks outside the designated areas of the answer sheet is strictly prohibited."

The timing almost made me laugh.

The announcement was loud enough for everyone to hear, but not a single one of my classmates took it to heart.

…

Before we entered the examination room, Bonnie stood on the opposite side of the line. Everyone could see her through the crowd when she pointed at her water bottle and then at the pouch holding her answer sheet.

Everyone immediately understood what she was getting at.

Leon even turned back to glare at me, mouthing a silent warning. "Watch. It."

The starting bell rang. The proctors unsealed the answer-sheet packets and distributed them one by one.

Mine landed on my desk. It was clean and perfectly dry. There wasn't a single drop of water on it.

I carefully filled in my personal information before looking up. Several rows away, I saw Leon lower his head, quickly unscrew his bottle, pour water into his palm, and flick it onto his answer sheet.

To my glee, he wasn't the only one as I caught several of my classmates assigned to the same examination room doing the exact same thing.

I withdrew my gaze and returned to my paper. The tip of my pen scratched steadily across the page.

In my previous life, I had desperately tried to stop them. Now, I was just a mere observer as I watched them press the delete button on their own futures.

15 minutes into the language exam, the proctor began checking the answer sheets. When she reached Leon's desk, she suddenly stopped short and asked in alarm, "Candidate, why is your answer sheet wet?"

Leon's expression froze.

The entire examination room fell silent.

The proctor stood beside his desk and held up his answer sheet to scrutinize it closely. "The barcode area is damp. I'll need to record this first."

Leon stiffly explained, "My palms were sweaty, ma'am. I accidentally brushed against it."

The proctor glanced at him. "Whether it can still be scanned will depend on the scanning results afterward."

The bell signaling the end of the exam rang. I stood up and walked out of the examination room. The moment I unlocked my phone, the class group chat had already exploded with messages.