SFTD -Chapter 169 Skipping Grades

March 1st was the first day of school. Zhou Hai, looking somewhat worried, personally sent little Loli to Dongnan Experimental High School.

Today Lu Xi was also busy with the start of school, so Zhou Hai had to accompany Lu Xi to handle enrollment. As soon as they entered the campus, they were surrounded by teenagers in school uniforms, all casting curious looks at Zhou Hai and the little Loli.

Zhou Hai pulled the little Loli to his left side so those stares wouldn’t be too direct. The little Loli glanced at him—this kind of thoughtful gesture was still quite touching.

The two of them arrived at the principal’s office and knocked before entering. The principal was very welcoming and asked them to sit down.

The silver-haired principal looked at the little Loli and smiled.

“I’m Liu Tianmin. You must be Zhou Luoluo, right?”

The little Loli looked at Zhou Hai. He gave her an encouraging nod.

“Yes, I’m Zhou Luoluo. My Chinese isn’t very good.”

Principal Liu paused. “That’s too modest. Your pronunciation is very accurate. It seems Professor Lu’s information wasn’t quite correct!”

“In the future, my sister will be under your care. She can understand most spoken Chinese, but she doesn’t recognize many characters yet. Still, I think she’ll be fine. Before returning to the country, she couldn’t even say a single word. She learned all this Chinese in less than forty days.”

Principal Liu became even more interested and leaned forward.

“That’s impressive! Did Professor Lu personally teach her?”

Zhou Hai shook his head. “Lu Xi taught her.”

The principal nodded in understanding. “No wonder.”

“Alright then, Zhou Luoluo, do you want to join the third year of junior high, or go directly into senior high? I still don’t know your level. How about a test?”

Zhou Luoluo shrugged. “High school. If I have to take a test, I can try. Xi Xi already gave me practice exams before. As long as it’s not Chinese or history.”

The principal became even more interested and went off to prepare the papers himself. Zhou Hai looked at the little Loli with worry.

“Are you sure you can handle it? Don’t push yourself.”

The little Loli rolled her eyes.

“Can I handle it? Won’t we know after trying?”

Seeing her confident expression, Zhou Hai felt no reassurance at all. He secretly messaged Lu Xi for advice, but she didn’t reply.

Soon, the principal came back in a hurry, holding several exam papers.

“Let’s begin. Do as much as you can. Don’t worry too much about the results.”

Zhou Hai had no choice but to stay silent. Looking at the math, physics, and chemistry papers, he felt a headache coming on. The Chinese education system was very different from America’s—high school students here were under intense pressure, while university was comparatively relaxed. In the US, it was the opposite. Zhou Hai couldn’t help but worry for the little Loli.

The principal read out all the Chinese questions aloud, then turned to chat with Zhou Hai while she worked. It turned out that the principal was actually a student of Lu Xi’s father—no wonder Lu Xi had said everything would be taken care of.

The principal suddenly became gossipy and leaned closer to Zhou Hai.

“What do you do for a living?”

Zhou Hai paused slightly.

“I’m a forensic doctor at the Dongnan City Forensic Identification Center.”

The principal immediately looked interested, without any hint of discomfort.

“That’s more impressive than an ordinary doctor! I’m a big fan of detective novels. I’ve read almost all related books. Watching forensic experts uncover truth from tiny clues is just amazing!”

Zhou Hai opened his briefcase, took out two English detective novels, and placed them in front of the principal.

“These were sent to me by my teacher. I’ve already finished reading them. I translated some of the difficult vocabulary into Chinese. If you’re interested, you can read them—but only on loan.”

The principal opened one of the books and froze for a moment.

No wonder he said “loan”—this wasn’t just translation of difficult words. The entire book had been translated into Chinese. Even though it wasn’t very thick, the effort behind it must have been enormous. He carefully accepted them.

“Doctor Zhou, don’t worry. I’ll read them carefully and return them as soon as possible.”

Zhou Hai waved his hand and pointed at the still-writing little Loli.

“She can take them home.”

The principal laughed and sat back down, and the two of them chatted more and more happily, occasionally laughing out loud. The little Loli looked up at them with a frown, clearly annoyed at the distraction, but endured it.

After an unknown amount of time, the little Loli packed up her stationery and handed all the papers to the principal.

“Principal, I’m done!”

The principal checked his watch, surprised.

“So fast?”

He casually flipped through the papers and immediately called three teachers over.

“Come, help me estimate her score on these.”

The teachers didn’t think much of it and began reviewing the papers. But the childish handwriting made them doubt their eyesight at first. However, seeing the principal’s serious expression, they exchanged glances and began grading carefully.

Within minutes, they finished grading. Their expressions became extremely serious.

These were high-difficulty exam papers meant for selecting students into advanced classes—roughly equivalent to end-of-term exams for the second year of high school. The teachers knew exactly how difficult they were. Even top students in their final year might not solve them this perfectly.

They said nothing, but their expressions shifted—from disdain, to shock, and finally to a desire to recruit her.

The principal was confused.

“What’s with those faces? Show me the scores.”

The teachers handed over the papers. Looking at the pages full of correct marks, the principal was also stunned. Several problems were marked with wavy lines and stars, indicating that even the teachers found the solutions novel and impressive.

One female teacher finally gathered her courage and stepped forward.

“Principal, is this a student applying for skipping grades? Can we prioritize her for our Class 1 in the second year? Her math ability is unbelievable. If properly trained, she’ll definitely be a top-tier student. There’s a math competition this year, and we don’t really have any strong candidates!”

The other two teachers immediately objected and pulled her back.

“Don’t just focus on math! Look at physics and chemistry too. I think she could also go to Class 2!”

The argument quickly escalated.

Zhou Hai stood there completely confused, listening more and more bewildered.

Wasn’t this supposed to be just grading papers and discussing results?