Forty-five minutes.
Chen Zhao hadn't stopped.
An hour!
Chen Zhao was still writing!
An hour and a half into the exam, even the proctors were too stunned to speak. They had never seen a student work through math competition problems so quickly for an hour and a half—not even heard of one! Once, a student had spent over an hour writing on and off during a math competition, and all the proctors had talked about it. They brought him up every year. This year, they hadn't expected someone even more astonishing!
"Is he just scribbling nonsense?" one proctor suddenly wondered, murmuring to the colleague beside him.
"You mean... he isn't actually solving the problems? He's just listing every formula he knows on the paper, hoping to get some points for showing his work?" the other proctor asked.
The two proctors exchanged a look. They couldn't resist their curiosity. Students who could work on problems for that long were so rare—rarer than giant pandas.
Suddenly, one proctor had an idea. Chen Zhao looked like he was about to run out of scratch paper, and the rules required the proctors to provide enough for everyone.
If he brought Chen Zhao a fresh sheet, he could sneak a glance at his answer sheet. Then it would be obvious whether Chen Zhao was actually solving the problems or mindlessly listing formulas.
No sooner had the thought occurred than he acted on it. A proctor picked up a blank sheet of scratch paper, stepped down from the platform, and walked over to Chen Zhao's desk. He set it beside Chen Zhao's exam paper.
Chen Zhao looked up at the proctor, not thinking much of it. This exam's got pretty good service.
"Thank you, sir," Chen Zhao said. He pulled the fresh sheet over and went right back to scribbling through his calculations.
The proctor took a quick look at Chen Zhao's answer sheet, then returned to the platform with a horrified expression.
"He really is solving them. He's written out the steps in incredible detail," the proctor who had seen Chen Zhao's paper whispered to his colleague.
Both proctors looked at Chen Zhao with deep admiration. They were teachers, but they knew perfectly well they couldn't do any better on that exam than this student. The student had surpassed the teacher. In ancient times, he would have been ready to set out on his own!
An hour and forty minutes into the exam, Chen Zhao was still writing tirelessly.
More than a dozen students in the exam room had given up completely. They had realized they were bound to get zeroes. Rather than stare anxiously at the problems, they decided to relax. They craned their necks to look around and then... saw Chen Zhao scribbling away.
The students who had given up stared at Chen Zhao, all equally shaken!
What the hell? What kind of genius was this?
How was he writing so fast?!
Could anyone really blaze through such a difficult exam?
Had he gotten the questions in advance?
That was terrifying!
Many students asked themselves the same thing: We're the same age, so why is he answering questions with such intensity while I can't solve a single one? Why am I such an idiot?
At last, after what felt like an eternity, the bell rang.
"Time's up! Stop writing! If you keep going, you'll be marked for cheating!" the proctor shouted. That was the rule: once the bell rang, not a single word could be written. Otherwise, students could be punished for cheating, depending on the severity of the offense. The consequences for cheating on an exam like this were serious.
Chen Zhao put down his pen and sighed.
If you enjoyed the book, remember to add it to your bookshelf so you can find it again next time.
There were still two big problems he hadn't finished!
Chen Zhao felt a little discouraged. He was still too slow. Several problems probably had simpler solutions, but he'd just kept his head down and worked without considering them. As a result, he'd run out of time. The two problems were worth fourteen points in total, and the whole exam was out of 100. That meant even if every other answer was right and he didn't lose a single point, the highest he could get was 86.
The proctors collected the papers, and the students filed out. The proctors locked the classroom door to stop anyone from sneaking in to install cheating devices or leave cheat sheets behind.
A huge crowd of students gathered in the corridor. As they packed up their schoolbags and got ready to leave, they complained nonstop!
"This math exam was ridiculously hard!"
"I didn't solve a single problem, for fuck's sake!"
"Heh, losers. I solved loads!"
"Loads? How many's that?"
"I solved a grand total of two problems."
"Hahahahaha! This exam wasn't meant for humans. Let's go home!"
Most of the students left with their schoolbags, but Chen Zhao stayed. He still had physics next.
Zhao Xiaobai came over to find Chen Zhao. "How did it go?"
"Not great." Chen Zhao shook his head dejectedly.
"I didn't do well either. I might not make it to the next round." Zhao Xiaobai looked crestfallen. "None of the things I prepared came up. The problems were all types I'd never seen before. I only managed to solve four. If they're right, I could get 35. If any are wrong, I might not advance. How many did you solve?"
"Two..." Chen Zhao began, but Zhao Xiaobai cut him off.
"Haha, see? I told you the exam would be hard! Solving two is already pretty good. Signing up for so many subjects was a complete waste of your energy." Zhao Xiaobai was feeling smug. She'd told him before not to enter so many subject competitions because the problems would be incredibly difficult. Chen Zhao didn't seem to have listened at the time, but the painful reality had finally gotten through to him.
"Let me finish," Chen Zhao said helplessly. "I didn't finish two problems. I completed all the others."
Zhao Xiaobai froze for a moment, then smiled brightly. "You're joking, right?"
He had to be joking.
How could anyone have only two problems left unfinished?
But Chen Zhao shook his head. "I'm not joking. Seriously, I only left two unfinished. It wasn't that I couldn't solve them; I ran out of time. I'm a little slow at working through problems."
Zhao Xiaobai's smile disappeared.
Chen Zhao didn't look like he was joking, and he wasn't the sort to lie.
Was he really... that good?!
Zhao Xiaobai had always been proudest of her math. She got a perfect score every few tests, but now Chen Zhao had beaten her at the very thing she was proud of. It left her feeling pretty awful.
But... exams weren't about how much you wrote; they were about how many answers were right. Chen Zhao might have scribbled down a ton, but what if it was all wrong? Wouldn't he still get a low score?
Zhao Xiaobai decided to wait and see the results.
"Bye, I'm heading out. Good luck on the next exam," Zhao Xiaobai said, waving.
"Bye." Chen Zhao waved back.
Another large crowd of students poured in. They chattered noisily in the corridor, reading from their books and problem sheets. Chen Zhao stood in a corner beside the exam room, not looking at any books. He watched the people coming and going, as calm as a stone statue.
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