Zhang Wanbang deliberately cultivated an oppressive atmosphere. In the real college entrance exam, there would definitely be more than one teacher proctoring, and there would be cameras hanging in the exam room. Every year, some students with poor mental fortitude underperformed.
Not many students could appreciate Teacher Zhang's good intentions. They thought the farther Zhang Wanbang stayed away from them, the safer they were.
Zhang Wanbang came up behind Li Bo and leaned over to inspect his progress on the test.
Li Bo trembled so much he could barely hold his ballpoint pen steady.
Zhang Wanbang shook his head and walked away. Li Bo's math scores were average, and he hadn't made any progress.
Zhang Wanbang came up behind Chen Xiaoting and leaned over to inspect her progress on the test.
Chen Xiaoting trembled so much she almost shook her sanitary pad loose.
Zhang Wanbang shook his head and walked away. Chen Xiaoting's math scores were below average, and she hadn't made any progress.
Zhang Wanbang came up behind Xu Rui and leaned over to inspect his progress on the test.
Xu Rui was as steady as a rock and didn't tremble at all. His nerves were made of steel. He'd chosen C for every multiple-choice question. He couldn't solve them anyway, so he might as well guess.
Zhang Wanbang's face darkened, and he was about to blow up, but he held it in. One of his students was blindly choosing C right under his nose. The average person couldn't begin to understand how he felt.
After making a few rounds, Zhang Wanbang finally found a student who gave him some comfort: Huang Zikun, the math class representative.
As the math class representative, Huang Zikun was quick to answer the questions, and a quick glance suggested that his accuracy was high. Zhang Wanbang admired Huang Zikun, but there was one age-old question he couldn't solve: They'd been taught by the same teacher, so why was there such a huge difference between students? Was it the teacher's fault or the students'?
During this in-class test, Zhang Wanbang observed quite a few students. He deliberately stood behind them to put pressure on them and toughen their nerves.
There weren't any surprises, really. The students who were good at math remained strong, while the students who were bad at it did even worse. The divide between the two groups was becoming more pronounced. This wasn't the outcome Zhang Wanbang wanted.
Of course Zhang Wanbang hoped to see a scene where flowers bloomed everywhere and his students flourished, but he knew it would be difficult.
An hour passed, and the math test in Class 2 of Grade 11 was still underway.
Including two periods of class time and the break between them, the in-class test lasted two hours, the same as the college entrance exam.
As he walked around, Zhang Wanbang passed Shen Qi. He hadn't been paying attention to him, but one of Shen Qi's actions made him stop.
Everyone else was bent over their papers, working tensely. Shen Qi was the only one who wasn't.
Shen Qi had spread out his test paper like someone reading a newspaper. He was checking his work, completely at ease.
Zhang Wanbang stood behind Shen Qi and began observing him.
"ABBCB...CDACA..." Zhang Wanbang quickly scanned Shen Qi's paper. The answers to the multiple-choice questions were arranged in a neat pattern, cycling through A, B, C, and D.
Zhang Wanbang had written this test himself. He knew it better than anyone.
To his astonishment, it seemed that Shen Qi had gotten every multiple-choice question right!
Shen Qi turned to the next page and continued checking. It was covered in short-answer and proof questions, densely packed with mathematical symbols.
Zhang Wanbang thought he was seeing things. Statistically, the chance of guessing every multiple-choice answer correctly was 25% multiplied by 25% multiplied by 25%... all the way through the tenth 25%. It was an extremely small probability.
The odds of guessing ten multiple-choice questions correctly in a row were small, but mathematically, it was possible. But getting five short-answer and proof questions right in a row was practically impossible.
The impossible had happened to Shen Qi.
With one glance, Zhang Wanbang could tell that Shen Qi had gotten all five short-answer and proof questions right!
Only an hour had passed, and even Huang Zikun, the math class representative, hadn't finished all the questions. Yet Shen Qi had completed the entire test, with an unbelievably high accuracy rate.
Zhang Wanbang had written the test himself, and it was quite difficult.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible. Unless he cheated, there was no way Shen Qi could have finished the test in such a short time, let alone turned in a perfect paper. Zhang Wanbang's mind was full of questions. He'd hoped one of his students would amaze him, but Shen Qi's sudden breakthrough had come too abruptly. It was beyond what Zhang Wanbang could accept as reasonable. It was true that Shen Qi had seemed to work harder lately and paid close attention in class, but a week or two couldn't work miracles. Even if he'd improved, there should have been a gradual process.
"Okay, I'm done checking. I'm turning it in." Shen Qi had noticed Zhang Wanbang secretly observing him from behind. He spread his paper out on the desk, stood up, and left the classroom, effectively turning it in.
Zhang Wanbang picked up Shen Qi's test and returned to the podium to examine it carefully, grading it on the spot.
"Every multiple-choice question is right!"
"Every fill-in-the-blank question is right!"
"Every short-answer question is right!"
"Every proof is right!"
"150. Full marks!"
Zhang Wanbang finished grading Shen Qi's test, and the result stunned him: Shen Qi had scored full marks!
Shen Qi, whose average math score was 67.5, had earned a perfect 150 on an in-class math test in April.
Something was fishy.
Had Shen Qi cheated?
That didn't seem possible either.
He'd been answering questions right under my nose. Who could he have copied from?
Besides, none of the other students had finished their tests. If anyone was copying, they would have had to copy from Shen Qi.
Had he gotten the answers in advance?
That was even less likely. I had all the answers in my head, and I hadn't even printed them out.
Zhang Wanbang fell into deep thought. All the objective evidence suggested Shen Qi hadn't cheated. He'd earned full marks in just an hour—quick, accurate, and decisive.
This isn't scientific! Zhang Wanbang couldn't explain this abnormal phenomenon, so all he could do was accept the facts. Could it be that I'm such a good teacher I turned a dud into a prodigy?
That night, Zhang Wanbang finished grading all the tests from Class 2 of Grade 11. Only five students had scored above 120. The test really had been difficult.
Shen Qi ranked first, with 150.
He was a full 20 points ahead of the runner-up, Huang Zikun, who had scored 130.
The next morning, there was still some time before class began in the classroom of Class 2 of Grade 11.
"Hey, Shen Qi, you turned in your math test really early yesterday afternoon." Xu Rui stood beside Shen Qi's desk and chatted with him.
Shen Qi nodded. "Yeah."
"Yeah, my ass. I'm asking if you did the same thing I did: guessed C for every multiple-choice question and left the rest blank."
"No. I chose ABBCB, CDACA for the multiple-choice questions, and I filled in all the other sections."
"You filled them all in, Shen Qi? What'd you write, the multiplication table?" Xu Rui had done that once. During a math test, he hadn't known how to start the short-answer questions, so he'd written out the multiplication table in the answer space. He'd figured that if he filled the paper, he'd at least get a few points for effort. In the end, Zhang Wanbang had given him zero and made him write a serious self-criticism to read aloud in class. From then on, Xu Rui had kept his feet on the ground. If he didn't know an answer, he left it blank; he absolutely refused to write out the multiplication table.
"Xu Rui, do you think I'm as much of a goofball as you?" Shen Qi remembered Xu Rui's goofy antics and laughed. It really was hilarious.
After laughing, Shen Qi said, "The cosine of the angle between A-P and B is negative square root of three divided by three, and the estimate of delta is 0.09. According to Vieta's formulas, you can prove that the line p1p2 passes through the fixed point o. Also, the range of a is from negative one to one, and the equation of C is x squared plus y divided by two equals one."
"What the hell are you talking about?" Xu Rui looked completely baffled, but he had a vague sense that something was up—that Shen Qi was up to something.
"Shen Qi just gave the correct answers to the five short-answer and proof questions," someone cut in. It was the math class representative, Huang Zikun.
"What? Huang Zikun, you're kidding, right?" Xu Rui looked from Huang Zikun to Shen Qi, unable to believe it. "So Shen Qi got everything right and turned in his test an hour early?"
"The first three short-answer questions and the proof question were exactly the same as mine. The last two questions were too hard, and I wasn't sure about them, but I think Shen Qi's answers are right." Huang Zikun was just as curious about Shen Qi. He asked him, "Have you been practicing some kind of secret technique or ultimate guide? How'd you suddenly take off?"
"I've been working really hard at my studies lately. I pay attention in class and do lots of practice problems at home. I believe hard work pays off," Shen Qi said to Huang Zikun. That was true. I wasn't lying. As for the system and stuff, you wouldn't believe me even if I told you.
"Shen Qi, you're not human! We agreed we'd become losers together, but you secretly got ahead!" Xu Rui felt a deep sense of loss. His good buddy Shen Qi, who'd once sworn that they'd both end up as losers, had changed completely and started studying hard. Xu Rui had lost his way. He thought Shen Qi had betrayed him.
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