At last, after several hours of work, all the Chinese teachers stopped.
They hadn't found a single sign of plagiarism.
"It seems... this essay isn't a piece of classical literature. It's an original work by a student," one Chinese teacher said, struggling to speak.
She struggled because she was deeply shaken—and thoroughly humbled.
They already knew that Chen Zhao had turned in his paper after just an hour and ten minutes, having finished every question. That pace alone was astonishing, and on top of that, he had written an essay in classical Chinese. The key was that it was exceptionally well-written, with clear logic and profound imagery.
As they read the essay, the Chinese teachers asked themselves:
If I had to write it, could I produce something this good?
After thinking it over, many of them realized they absolutely couldn't!
In other words, this student's command of classical Chinese was better than the teachers'—and not by a little, but by a lot!
The head of academic affairs nodded. "Could you all look for errors in this essay and correct them? I have a friend who works as an editor. Let's polish it up, and once we're sure it's error-free, I'll get in touch with my friend and see if it can be published. First, it could earn the student some royalties. Second, we shouldn't waste such a promising talent—this might even be his entry into the literary world. And third, it would be great publicity for our school to have a student who can write something this good."
The Chinese teachers all agreed. Everyone appreciated talent, and as Chinese teachers, they were all happy to lend a hand to a student with the potential to become a writer.
The essay looked impressive at first glance, but a piece written in such a hurry was bound to have plenty of minor errors. It needed their help.
The Chinese teachers got to work, checking for mistakes from the very first sentence.
"What does this character mean? Could it be used incorrectly?"
"I'm not sure. Let's look it up."
"Oh, it's correct. That's a usage from the pre-Qin period—pretty obscure."
"This sentence uses an allusion. Is that a real one?"
"It is. I wrote about it in my master's thesis. It's amazing that this student knows such an obscure usage!"
"Teacher Wang, could you take a look at this sentence? Something about it feels a little awkward to me."
The teachers worked for another hour, and before they knew it, it was time for dinner.
The head of academic affairs came in carrying a large basket. "Thanks for all your hard work. Let me treat you to lamb soup with bread."
The Chinese teachers cheered. They hadn't expected to get lamb soup, too!
The head of academic affairs opened the basket. Inside were boxes of hot lamb soup and large bags of bread, all of it freshly bought from a lamb restaurant near the school. After all, he was asking the teachers to work overtime, so he had to compensate them somehow. Dinner would have to serve as their overtime pay.
"Eat first. We'll get back to it afterward," the head of academic affairs said with a smile. "One bowl of soup and three pieces of bread each. That should be enough."
The teachers came over to collect their soup and bread, carried them to their desks, and started dipping the bread into the soup.
"We've finished the first round of checking," one teacher said.
"How did it go? Were there many errors? Were they easy to fix?" the head of academic affairs asked.
"We... couldn't find any errors," another teacher said with an awkward smile.
The head of academic affairs froze. "You couldn't find any?"
All the Chinese teachers nodded.
"We checked the material sentence by sentence, even character by character, and went over everything very carefully. But... we really couldn't find any errors," one teacher explained. "We're not completely sure, so we plan to go through it again."
The head of academic affairs took Chen Zhao's answer sheet and read it twice, frowning.
"There's no need to check again. We're all professionals. If none of us can find an error, then maybe there simply aren't any," the head of academic affairs said. "When you think about it, how could an author who can write such a good essay so quickly make basic mistakes?"
"You've all worked hard. I'll grade the paper now. Once I've entered the score, I'll take it with me and send it to my editor friend," the head of academic affairs said.
A teacher nearby handed him a red pen and brought over a copy of the answer key. The head of academic affairs found a chair, sat down, and began grading against the key.
Question one: correct.
Question two: correct.
Question three: correct.
As he kept grading, the head of academic affairs' expression changed.
He had already graded half the questions, and every single one was correct! There wasn't a single mistake!
Getting this kind of score on a Chinese exam wasn't easy. For questions like reading comprehension, even the best students had a hard time getting full marks. Losing one or two points was already considered excellent. But the answers on this paper were flawless. They weren't exactly the same as the standard answers, but they covered every scoring point, so there was no grounds for taking off points.
The farther he got, the more astonished the head of academic affairs looked.
At last, he finished grading all the questions on the front.
Every answer was correct!
He turned the paper over. How many points should he give the essay?
After hesitating for a long time, the head of academic affairs gave it full marks!
Even an excellent essay usually didn't get full marks. It was normal to take off five, six, seven, or even eight points. That was still considered a very good score.
But this essay truly deserved full marks!
"All right, I'm done grading. Take your time eating. I'm going to get in touch with my editor friend," the head of academic affairs said as he stood up. He returned the borrowed red pen and answer key to the teacher beside him. "Full marks. No errors."
With that, the head of academic affairs left the Chinese teachers' office.
The office fell silent.
The Chinese teachers stared at one another, hardly believing their ears.
"What did the head of academic affairs just say? Full marks?"
"I think... yes."
"A perfect score on a Chinese exam... Is that for real?"
"It must be. I glanced at the earlier questions, and I didn't see any mistakes."
This student was incredible! Why hadn't they signed him up for a Chinese competition? He could get in through a special admission program!
Chen Zhao sat with one leg crossed over the other in front of his computer. On the screen, his character wore a Ghillie Suit and held an AWM.
Suddenly, a tiny figure shifted in the distant grass. It was a Level 2 Helmet!
Chen Zhao raised his gun and fired. One shot, one hit!
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!
Little Bamboo Shoot's excited cheers rang through his headset. "You're so amazing, you're so amazing! Yay, yay, yay! We won again!"
Little Bamboo Shoot said "again" because this was already the third time Chen Zhao had helped her win that day. The strategy was more or less the same each time: Little Bamboo Shoot parachuted with Chen Zhao into some cluster of houses, and then he went on a headshot spree as if he were cheating, killing anything that stood in his way. Little Bamboo Shoot followed behind, looting boxes at her leisure, and they strolled into the Final Circle, where they waited to win.
Chen Zhao's livestream chat was once again filled with viewers posting "The streamer is awesome!" and "Streamer, 666!" while rich fans sent gifts.
Just as he was about to start another match, Chen Zhao suddenly heard someone knocking on the door—or, more accurately, pounding on it, bang, bang, bang.
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