Cruel Reality

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

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

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

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

"No, Teacher, I have complete confidence in you. No matter what, you graduated from the Outer Academy of Imperial Court Academy. You can definitely lead us to pass."

"Uh, I did graduate from the Outer Academy of Imperial Court Academy, but how should I put this...?"

Tang Yan felt somewhat awkward for a moment. He was too embarrassed to say that he had been one of the bottom-ranking students at the Outer Academy. Besides, a major reason he had been admitted back then was that he was from the Three Cities. It was only after his family fell into decline that he ended up in the Thirteenth District.

Su Ming looked at Tang Yan in surprise. He had not expected their teacher to have graduated from Imperial Court Academy's Outer Academy.

"Teacher, you can definitely do it!"

Minke declared confidently.

"That's right!"

Zhao Ran and the others echoed him.

Tang Yan sighed and said nothing more. He simply got up and walked inside. A moment later, he brought out a stack of papers.

He slapped the papers onto the table and said calmly,

"These are last year's City Exam Comprehensive Exams. You can all give them a try."

Minke and the others froze, then got up one after another, took a paper, and silently found corners where they could work.

Su Ming also took a paper and found a spot to sit on the floor. He first skimmed through the entire exam. Compared with ordinary exams, this one was far larger, a full twenty pages, covered with questions of all kinds.

He glanced at the total score. It was a full 300 points.

Su Ming felt eager to give it a try. He also wanted to see how many points he could get, so he began writing carefully.

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

Five hours passed in the blink of an eye, and Su Ming had reached the final page. However, he was struggling terribly because the knowledge in his mind was simply too limited. Many questions left him completely bewildered, and he could not even guess at the answers!

For example, the third-to-last question asked: What challenges did the Old Federation face during the eleventh restructuring of its system architecture, and how did it ultimately fail? If you had been in charge, how would you have prevented it?

Su Ming only remembered the date of the event and some general information about its initiator. He knew nothing about the details. How was he supposed to answer?

The most infuriating part was that questions like this changed every year. The Old Federation had such a long history, with far too many major events. Many incidents were recorded in only a few brief lines in the history books, and anyone who wanted to understand them had to specifically research the relevant documents.

This placed extremely high demands on a student's knowledge base. If Su Ming had enough time, that would not have been a problem. Unfortunately, time was precisely what he lacked most right now.

Tang Yan checked the time displayed on his phone. After patiently waiting another half hour, he said,

"Hand in your papers!"

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

Tang Yan immediately began grading them. Everyone gathered around, all curious to see how many points they would get.

Chen Tong's paper was graded first. Tang Yan kept marking answers with checks and crosses, soon giving him a score of 129.

Chen Tong looked at the score, his expression extremely unpleasant.

Tang Yan continued grading. One score after another came out: Zhao Ran, 103; Cheng Ran, 72; Minke, 141.

"Wow, Class Monitor, that's really high!"

Zhao Ran and the others exclaimed in amazement.

"No good."

Minke was extremely dissatisfied.

At that moment, Tang Yan picked up Su Ming's paper and began grading it. Su Ming's heart lifted slightly as he grew intensely curious about how many points he would get. However, as he watched one answer after another receive a cross, his heart instantly sank halfway.

The final score came out. Su Ming had scored 92 points!

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

Looking at the final score, Tang Yan raised his head and praised Su Ming. After all, this was a City Exam Comprehensive Exam. Judging by Su Ming's previous results, getting sixty or seventy points would already have been good.

"That's right. Keep working hard!"

Minke and the others praised him one after another.

Su Ming could only smile bitterly. This was nowhere near enough. Still, improving by twenty points in just a few days was indeed pretty good.

At that moment, Tang Yan coughed to signal for everyone to quiet down, and the group immediately fell silent.

Tang Yan then spoke with a serious expression.

"You've all seen the scores, right? Now I'll explain the situation in detail. First, the reason I don't recommend that you apply to Imperial Court Academy is that the Inner Academy's Comprehensive Exam is worth 300 points, and the admission score requires at least 290. The minor subjects are worth 100 points, and you need at least 90. The Outer Academy is a little more lenient, but you still need at least 250 points on the Comprehensive Exam and 60 points in the minor subjects. Compare that with your own scores."

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 is anyone supposed to get such a high score? Who could possibly pass?"

Cheng Ran complained unhappily.

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

Tang Yan explained this to everyone.

Su Ming looked at Tang Yan with an extremely curious expression. Could Teacher Tang have been from the Three Cities?

"No way. That's not fair! Why do they get so many points deducted from the requirements? Their resources are already better than ours."

Cheng Ran could not help complaining.

Tang Yan sighed and said to everyone,

"You all know that the various regions of the Old Federation have a high degree of autonomy. Naturally, they prioritize taking care of their own people. There's nothing more to say about that. In any case, you need to face reality now and set your sights on ordinary advanced academies. Not only are their admission scores lower, but their minor-subject requirements aren't as high either. Don't look down on ordinary advanced academies. As long as you get into an ordinary advanced school, you can extend your lives by four years and avoid drawing the Red-Black Lottery. After graduation, you can try applying for government positions or key Federation enterprises, or develop a career in another industry. You'll still have a promising future!"

"Mhm, mhm."

After hearing Tang Yan's words, the dim expressions of Zhao Ran and the others brightened one after another.

At that moment, Chen Tong suddenly spoke up.

"Teacher, you're right. But what I'm afraid of is that we won't even get into an ordinary advanced academy. If I remember correctly, ordinary advanced academies require at least 150 points."

"Ah, that high? Doesn't that mean we're far short?"

Zhao Ran and the others wore bitter expressions.

"Don't lose heart. Just don't apply to schools in the Three Cities. If you apply to higher academies in our Thirteenth District, you only need 120 points. If you work hard, most of you should still be able to reach 120."

Tang Yan explained this to everyone.

"Teacher, do residents of the Three Cities also need 120 points to apply to their ordinary higher schools?"

Cheng Ran hesitated before asking.

"That's right."

Tang Yan nodded in reply.

"Sigh, I'm really envious. With 120 points, they can attend a surface academy."

Wang Chi and the others spoke enviously.

"What's there to envy? If they want to attend a higher school in our Thirteenth District, they need 150 points too."

Tang Yan coughed and comforted everyone.