After evening study hall, Chen Zhu and Huang Bohan headed home together as usual. Sensing his best friend looking at him every so often, Chen Zhu finally couldn't help asking, "What, is there something on my face?"
"Don't interrupt. I'm thinking!"
Huang Bohan rubbed his forehead. "Why have you changed so much lately?"
Not only had he dared to strike up a conversation with Yu Xian, he had even found the courage to stand up for Song Shiwei!
Chen Zhu grinned. This was nothing yet. Maybe an even bigger surprise was still to come.
But Huang Bohan would never figure out something like rebirth, no matter how hard he racked his brain. In the end, he could only say in frustration, "If I didn't already know you had a crush on Yu Xian, I'd think you liked Song Shiwei. That would explain why you were willing to help her."
"Uh..."
The corner of Chen Zhu's mouth twitched. Actually, there were three things he really wanted to set straight:
First, did standing up for a girl in his class necessarily mean he liked her?
Second, I don't have a crush on Yu Xian anymore!
Third, Even if I still had a crush on Yu Xian, that wouldn't stop me from liking Song Shiwei. There's no law against having a crush on two girls at once.
But this was only 2007, and people's ideas about romance were still several versions behind. Chen Zhu felt that saying all this would leave Huang Bohan stunned for the next ten thousand years, so he changed the subject:
"You're overthinking it, kid. You must have sensitive skin! If you've got that much energy, go solve a couple more problems. Are you ready for tomorrow's first mock exam?"
Once the exam came up, the pressure finally drove those idle questions out of Huang Bohan's head. He said anxiously, "I got two geometry problems wrong during evening study hall. All of a sudden, I've lost my confidence..."
They talked about the exam the whole way, then went their separate ways after reaching their stop. His mother, Mao Xiaoqin, had warm milk and bread ready as always, but there was still no sign of his father, Chen Peisong.
Apparently, the subdistrict office where he worked had been hosting visitors lately. Between entertaining them and working overtime on paperwork, his schedule no longer overlapped at all with Chen Zhu's high school routine.
While Chen Zhu drank his milk, Mao Xiaoqin kept him company and chatted for a while, then urged him to shower and get to bed early.
Mao Xiaoqin knew the first mock exam was tomorrow. Every parent of a final-year high school student in Yuedong Province knew how important tomorrow was.
A decisive battle!
The next day was Saturday. Chen Zhu had breakfast at the little restaurant run by Huang Bohan's family, and the two went to their classroom together.
The instant he stepped inside, Chen Zhu felt the sound of students reading aloud falter. Everyone seemed to glance at him at the same time.
It might have lasted only a hundredth of a second, but the pause was unmistakable.
Before he could dwell on the change, their homeroom teacher, Yin Yanqiu, hurried into the classroom. "Pack up your things and get ready to head to your exam rooms!"
Monthly high school exams were strictly invigilated to ensure the scores reflected students' actual abilities, let alone a standardized, province-wide exam like this.
Each candidate had a desk to themselves, so these exams were generally held on weekends, allowing the school to free up classrooms used by other grades.
"Do your best, bro!"
Huang Bohan patted Chen Zhu on the shoulder in encouragement. They were assigned to different rooms, so he took his pencil case and went to find classmates who shared his room.
Exam rooms were assigned according to the results of the previous monthly exam. The top twenty students in the grade went to room one, those ranked twenty-first through fortieth went to room two, those ranked forty-first through sixtieth went to room three, and so on.
Chen Zhu was in room two, and Huang Bohan was in room three.
Generally speaking, room one was a battlefield for all-knowing, all-powerful academic gods. Finding a few students capable of getting into Tsinghua or Peking University there was nothing unusual.
Room two had plenty of warriors with lopsided strengths, like Chen Zhu.
Room three was for students like Huang Bohan, who were balanced across subjects without being top-tier in any of them. Their level put them somewhere between Project 985 universities and the best Project 211 universities.
Chen Zhu followed the crowd to room two. Most of the students there were from his own class or the other advanced class, with only two or three from the regular classes.
Chen Zhu sat quietly for a moment, settling himself. Then the bell rang, and the invigilator began handing out the papers.
The first mock exam followed the same subject order as the college entrance exam: Chinese, mathematics, physics, English, and chemistry. It took a day and a half in total.
Chen Zhu took the Chinese paper, which smelled of printing ink. As he rubbed his fingers over its smooth surface and skimmed through it, he gradually relaxed.
His current store of knowledge easily covered the analysis of classical poetry and prose. Even the eight-hundred-character essay that once had him scratching his head in frustration now took only a glance at the prompt for a draft to form in his mind.
After all, even as a junior government staffer, Chen Zhu had drafted plenty of province-wide industry regulations. Those official documents routinely ran to tens of thousands of characters.
An eight-hundred-character high school essay was a breeze. After finishing, he even felt he could have kept going.
Two and a half hours later, the bell signaled the end of the exam. Everyone handed in their papers and left the room, exchanging smiles with the classmates they knew.
It wasn't that everyone had done well. There simply wasn't much to discuss about Chinese. Whatever happened, they could all bullshit their way through a full answer sheet.
That might also have been why Chinese came first: it let candidates gradually settle into the rhythm of the exams.
The afternoon's math exam was where some people truly ended up miserable and others delighted.
After the two-hour math exam ended, everyone looked rather grim except the all-round academic gods in room one and the twenty sleeping champions in the very last room.
Some students' faces were flushed, as though they had just stepped out of a sauna. The questions had been too difficult, or they hadn't had enough time, and sheer panic had sent their blood racing.
In short, the first thing most candidates said upon leaving was, "I'm screwed! I'll be lucky to scrape a passing ninety in math this time!"
Then came a chorus of people comparing answers.
"Was the answer to the second multiple-choice question C?"
"Did you work out the last fill-in-the-blank question?"
"Fuck! There was another big geometry problem on the back? I didn't even see it!"
Chen Zhu was the sort of student who scored 140 in math. Many classmates came over specifically to check their answers with him. If their results matched, their faces lit up.
If their results differed, some instantly looked crestfallen, while others refused to give up and went to check with another academic ace.
"Chen Zhu! Chen Zhu!"
Suddenly, he heard someone calling his name.
Chen Zhu turned around. A skinny but energetic boy, built like a bamboo pole, ran over and immediately asked in a rush, "Chen Zhu, did you get zero or minus one for the last geometry problem?"
Chen Zhu remembered him. His name was Wang Changhua, and they had been classmates in middle school. After entering high school, they had ended up in different classes and lost touch somewhat.
His name was actually meant to use the character for "splendor," but when his family went to the police station to register him, their accent caused it to be recorded with the character for "flower." That feminine-sounding name had followed him ever since.
Still, after every math, physics, or chemistry exam, he liked coming over to check his answers with Chen Zhu.
"I got minus one for the last question."
Chen Zhu gave him the answer.
"Yes! Yes! Yes!"
Hearing that answer, Wang Changhua pumped his fist excitedly. "I've got this! I've really got it this time! I think I can break 130 in math."
A nearby classmate who knew Wang Changhua said with a hint of mockery, "You're bullshitting again, Changhua. Last time you said you'd get 130 in math too, and you only got ninety-something."
Wang Changhua wasn't annoyed by the jab. He retorted with perfect conviction, "How can you call it bullshitting when it's a scholar talking? It's called believing in yourself. Chen Zhu, did you pick D for the last multiple-choice question?"
Chen Zhu thought back, then shook his head. "I picked B."
"Shit!"
Wang Changhua's face instantly filled with regret. "I picked B at first, then changed it to D right before handing in my paper. I should've stuck to my guns..."
Chen Zhu smiled. After every exam, students at different levels always reacted differently.
The top students in rooms one and two rarely took the initiative to compare answers afterward. If someone asked how they had done, they would always wave a hand dejectedly. "Not great. I just wrote whatever."
Then the papers came back: 130-plus.
The middle-ranking students in rooms five through twelve were the ones who loved comparing answers most.
These students genuinely wanted good scores and usually worked fairly hard. But because of their study methods or aptitude, their efforts didn't produce the results they hoped for.
Wang Changhua belonged to that group.
As for the legends in room eighteen and beyond, they only answered-or guessed-the fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice questions in math.
For the longer problems, they breezily wrote "Solution:" and waited to hand in their papers.
(Another chapter around eight tonight. Please keep reading and support me with whatever votes you have.)
(End of chapter)
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