Cruel Reality

Even Chen Tong fell silent, standing quietly by the wall.

But at this moment, Minke gritted his teeth and said to Tang Yan.

"Teacher, I don't want to give up. I think we can take a chance."

"Forget it. Even if you have confidence, I don't."

"No, Teacher, I have a lot of confidence in you. Regardless, you graduated from the Outer Academy of Imperial Court Academy, so you can definitely lead us to get in."

"Uh, I graduated from the Outer Academy of Imperial Court Academy, but how should I put it?"

Tang Yan was a bit embarrassed for a moment. He was too ashamed to admit that he was at the bottom of the barrel at the Imperial Court Outer Academy. Moreover, the main reason he got in back then was because he was from the Three Cities, and only later, due to his family's decline, did he end up in the Thirteenth District.

Su Ming also looked at Tang Yan with some surprise. He hadn't expected his teacher to be a graduate of the Outer Academy of Imperial Court Academy.

"Teacher, you can definitely do it!"

Minke said confidently.

"That's right!"

Zhao Ran and the others chimed in.

Tang Yan sighed and didn't say anything more. He simply got up and walked into the room, then took out a stack of test papers from inside.

He slapped the papers on the table and said calmly.

"This is last year's comprehensive City Exam paper. You all should do it."

Minke and the others were stunned, then they all got up, took a test paper, and quietly found a corner to start working.

Su Ming also took a paper and found a spot to sit on the floor. He first skimmed through the paper. Compared to normal exams, this paper was much larger, with twenty pages filled with various types of questions.

He looked at the total score, which was a full 300 points.

Su Ming felt a bit eager to try. He also wanted to see how many points he could score, so he began to write diligently on the paper.

Tang Yan sat on the sofa, quietly watching the students work.

Five hours passed in the blink of an eye. Su Ming had reached the last page. However, he was struggling immensely because the knowledge in his mind was truly limited. Many questions left him completely clueless, unable to even guess!

For example, the third question from the end: What challenges did the eleventh system architecture reorganization of the Old Federation face, how did it ultimately fail, and if it were you, how would you avoid it?

For this question, Su Ming only remembered the year and month the event occurred and the general information about the initiator. He had no idea about the specific details. How could he answer?

The most infuriating part was that these types of questions varied every year. The Old Federation had such a long history, with too many major events. Many of these events were only briefly mentioned in historical records, and understanding them required dedicated research.

Therefore, this placed a very high demand on students' knowledge reserves. If Su Ming had enough time, these things wouldn't be a problem, but he was currently most lacking in time.

Tang Yan glanced at the time displayed on his phone, patiently waited another half an hour, and then said.

"Hand in your papers!"

Su Ming and the others stopped writing and handed their papers to Tang Yan.

Tang Yan immediately began grading, and everyone gathered around, curious about their scores.

First, he graded Chen Tong's paper. Tang Yan continuously marked checks and crosses, quickly giving him a score of 129.

Chen Tong looked at the score with a very displeased expression.

Tang Yan continued grading, and soon the scores came out one by one: Zhao Ran 103, Cheng Ran 72, Minke 141.

"Wow, Class monitor, your score is so high!"

Zhao Ran and the others exclaimed.

"Not good enough."

Minke was very dissatisfied with this.

At this moment, Tang Yan picked up Su Ming's paper and began grading. Su Ming's heart skipped a beat, very curious about his score. However, seeing the crosses appear one after another, his heart sank halfway.

The final score came out: Su Ming scored 92 points!

"Not bad, Su Ming. You've improved quite a bit."

Tang Yan looked at the final score and then looked up to praise Su Ming. He reminded them that this was a comprehensive City Exam paper. Based on Su Ming's previous performance, scoring sixty to seventy would have been good.

"Yeah, keep up the good work!"

Minke and the others praised him.

Su Ming let out a wry smile. This was nothing yet. However, improving by twenty points in just a few days was indeed quite good.

At this moment, Tang Yan coughed to signal everyone to be quiet, and they immediately fell silent.

Then, Tang Yan said with a serious expression.

"You've all seen your scores. Now, I'll explain the situation in detail. First, why I don't recommend you apply to Imperial Court Academy is because the comprehensive score for the Inner Academy of Imperial Court Academy is 300 points, and the admission line requires 290 points. For auxiliary subjects, it's 100 points, requiring above 90! Although the Outer Academy is a bit more lenient, the comprehensive score still requires above 250 points, and auxiliary subjects need 60 points. Compare your scores yourselves."

As soon as he said this, even Minke, who had the best score, fell silent. As for the others, they were even more despairing.

"No way, how can anyone get such high scores? Who can get in?"

Cheng Ran complained unhappily.

"People from the Three Cities can. Their Inner Academy only requires 280 points and 80 points, and the Outer Academy requires 200 points and 50 points."

Tang Yan explained to everyone.

Upon hearing this, Su Ming looked at Tang Yan with a very expressive look. Could Teacher Tang have been from the Three Cities before?

"No way, that's not fair! Why are they getting so many points deducted? Their resources were already better than ours to begin with," Cheng Ran couldn't help but complain.

Tang Yan sighed and said to everyone, "As you all know, the various regions of the Old Federation have a high degree of autonomy. Naturally, they prioritize their own people. There's nothing to be said about that. In short, you need to face reality now and set your sights on ordinary senior academies. Not only are the admission scores lower, but the requirements for elective subjects are also not high. Don't look down on ordinary senior academies. As long as you get into one, you can extend your life by four years and avoid the Red-Black Lottery. Moreover, after graduation, you can try applying for civil service positions, key federal enterprises, or develop in other industries. Your future is still promising!"

"Mhm, mhm."

Zhao Ran and the others' dejected expressions brightened after hearing Tang Yan's words.

At this moment, Chen Tong interjected, "Teacher, what you said is correct, but I'm afraid of not even being able to get into an ordinary senior academy. If I remember correctly, the minimum score requirement for an ordinary senior academy is 150 points."

"Ah, that high? Then we're still far off, aren't we?" Zhao Ran and the others looked glum.

"Don't be discouraged. Just don't apply to schools in the Three Cities. If you apply to a higher education institution in our Thirteenth District, you only need 120 points. With 120 points, if you work hard, most of you can achieve it," Tang Yan explained to everyone.

"Teacher, do residents of the Three Cities also need 120 points to apply to their ordinary higher education institutions?" Cheng Ran asked hesitantly.

"That's right," Tang Yan nodded and replied.

"Sigh, I'm so envious. You can get into a terrestrial academy with just 120 points," Wang Chi and the others said enviously.

"What's there to be envious about? If they wanted to apply to our Thirteenth District's higher education institutions, they would also need 150 points," Tang Yan coughed and comforted them.