Admission

Ding—ring-ring. As the alarm went off, it woke Mu Tianchen from his deep sleep.

Mu Tianchen opened his bleary eyes, picked up the alarm clock beside his bed, and checked the time. Five o'clock in the morning!

This was the first time he'd gotten up so early since graduating from junior high. He had an important task today: going to Advanced Nurturing High School to take its entrance exam.

Advanced Nurturing High School was located in the Island Nation and was one of the country's top schools, run directly by the local government.

It was said to have an astonishing 100 percent employment rate. All expenses were covered while students attended, and under certain conditions, they could even be recommended to prestigious universities or choose any job they wanted!

He'd learned all this from his father. Mu Tianchen clearly remembered how they'd had a huge argument about it over the phone a while back.

He didn't have to guess why his mother was against it. She probably didn't want him going somewhere far away by himself. Besides, once he entered that school, he wouldn't be able to contact the outside world for three years. She was very worried, and thought he might as well just go to school here.

His father, on the other hand, seemed to have had everything planned from the start... As soon as Mu Tianchen graduated, he told him he could go to this school. He'd even arranged for him to study the language and some basic introductory courses beforehand. And when he argued with Mu Tianchen's mother, he'd made it clear that there was no room for refusal.

After a while of "discussion," his father ultimately won. After all, his father was the head of the household, and besides, that school did have obvious advantages over the ones back home.

Why hadn't anyone asked Mu Tianchen what he thought?

He couldn't quite say. Maybe his parents were too controlling, or maybe he'd just gotten used to it. It had always been this way, ever since he was little...

But he honestly didn't mind. To him, it made no difference where he went. It was just a change of scenery...

Still, he didn't really understand why his father had done this. Before, his father had always forced him to study all kinds of things, but now he'd suddenly let him go? It was strange!

He knew the route to the Island Nation very well. He'd often gone there with his mother to visit his father, and sometimes he'd gone by himself during long school breaks.

After several hours of traveling, he finally arrived at the place the school had arranged for the entrance exams.

Apparently, the school was on an artificial island, and getting there to take the exam wasn't very convenient. So they'd set up the exam venue somewhere with better transportation access.

When he arrived, Mu Tianchen found that plenty of people had come to take the exam. The crowd stretched as far as the eye could see. The school seemed to be admitting only 160 new students. Was this going to turn into a mad scramble?

Then again, it made sense. Some exams back home were about the same, or even more ridiculous. They'd have thousands of people apply for a single spot! Anyone who got in was practically a genius. Mu Tianchen didn't think he had what it took...

The exam itself wasn't too difficult. At least, Mu Tianchen was sure he could get every question he knew right.

As for the ones he didn't know, he'd just have to leave it to fate. He'd filled in every answer, anyway. Back home, as long as they weren't objective science questions with a "right answer" set in stone, he could still earn a few sympathy points...

After the written exam, the interview began.

There was an interview too? Mu Tianchen was a little surprised, but it wasn't a big deal. This school really was different from other high schools.

"How did you hear about our school?" The interviewer glanced at Mu Tianchen's application form and got right to the question.

"I saw it on an online list of popular schools. Your school is really famous." Mu Tianchen thought of the many people who'd come to take the exam and figured that sounded reasonable.

"I have a question, but I'm not sure if I should ask."

"Go ahead. It's just the two of us here."

"You weren't sent to our school as a spy, were you?"

"..."

"What? I'm a perfectly law-abiding citizen, sir!"

"But our school has a pretty unusual admissions process. We'd never take part in one of those... what's it called? Rankings."

"..."

"Then why are there so many people taking the entrance exam?"

"I can't disclose that!"

"..."

The interviewer's tone was rather stern. A strange thought suddenly occurred to Mu Tianchen. Was the selection criteria not based solely on exam results?

Had the school already chosen the candidates it wanted, with all those other people just brought in as "extras" to make up the numbers?

Was the exam just for show? This school seemed to be hiding some unknown secret.

Then the rule about not contacting the outside world for three years started to make sense, too...

"Go home and wait for our notice." The interviewer glanced at Mu Tianchen, who had lowered his head and fallen silent for a moment. He nervously darted a glance at the camera in the corner before giving him his answer. The whole thing had taken only a few seconds.

Unfortunately, Mu Tianchen had still caught the detail. He'd long since gotten into the habit of keeping an eye on his surroundings even while thinking.

"Okay." Lost in thought, Mu Tianchen left the interview room.

Now he was certain his earlier suspicions were right.

What had changed about this society? Wasn't it still just like the animal kingdom, where the strong preyed on the weak and survival went to the fittest? Only those at the top of the food chain, whether human or animal, had the right to control others. All that talk about equality was just a nice-sounding way to reduce conflict. The only real path was to make yourself stronger...

It was already late at night when he returned to his father's apartment. Mu Tianchen saw that the lights were off. He knocked, but heard no answer from inside. Had his father gone out again?

Fortunately, Mu Tianchen had a key. He opened the door and flicked on the light, but sure enough, his father wasn't there.

Mu Tianchen had been on the go all day. After washing up, he lay down on the bed and started playing on his phone. His father still hadn't come back by nearly midnight, and he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He slowly closed them...

When he woke up the next day, it was already nine in the morning. He picked up his phone and was surprised to find a new message.

The message read:

Dear Mu Tianchen, congratulations on passing the independent admissions exam for Advanced Nurturing High School. Please report to our school promptly at 2 p.m. Advanced Nurturing High School welcomes you!

To be honest, Mu Tianchen hadn't expected much. The news that he'd been accepted came as a bit of a surprise.

But after thinking it over, it seemed reasonable after all. Had his father done something behind the scenes?

After thinking for a while, Mu Tianchen decided to check out the school. Its somewhat "unconventional" ways had certainly made him curious.

After eating, he left a note for his father saying he was going out, then headed off.

Advanced Nurturing High School, huh? Hopefully, the next three years of high school would be interesting... probably...