Rapid-fire answers

After the fifteen-minute break, Teacher Lu came through the door carrying the test papers.

The students took their seats without needing to be told.

Yang Rui refilled his fountain pen and laid out his scratch paper, ready to give it his all.

He had thought it through. The Yang Family was already a large local clan, and he was the son of a township Party secretary. Although his father held no authority in this town, he was still the uncrowned king next door. As that neighboring king's son, Yang Rui had countless fellow townsmen at Xibao Middle School. Saying he could summon five hundred brave men with a single call would be an exaggeration, but if he really needed people, calling out ten or twenty tough lads would be no trouble at all.

If trouble spilled out onto the streets, even the police officers at the local station, who were natives of the area, would have to help.

I'm already a third-generation township official's descendant with this much clout. What have I got to be afraid of?

I'm not bullying men and women or throwing my weight around in the marketplace. If my grades improve, who's going to arrest me and interrogate me over it?

Even if they wanted to slice me up for research, how many hospitals these days have the energy and money for that? They can't even keep up with studying qigong masters.

In this impoverished, isolated backwater, the county had once taken two days to learn that an armed clash involving a thousand people had already ended. One student's grades really were insignificant.

By comparison, carrying out his own plan was more important.

Yang Rui liked to follow plans, whether he was conducting experiments or working as a tutor. Though he inevitably changed his plans, that only meant replacing one plan with another. He rarely took things one step at a time without knowing what came next.

So when the ink-scented test paper reached his hands, Yang Rui immediately lost himself in answering the questions.

Tutors had to keep doing test papers too. Whenever a famous set came out-Huanggang, Jinggang, Jingyang Ridge... he had to work through every one himself. Otherwise, if a student came asking about some bizarre question and he could not answer it, his reputation as a top tutor would be ruined.

Whenever Yang Rui had time, he worked through science-stream test papers, with mathematics taking top priority. Mathematics and English were the tutoring school's cash cows.

He did not have to teach English, so naturally, he had to know mathematics inside out.

After several years of this, Yang Rui might not have been able to score 151 on a mathematics paper, but he was incredibly fast. One glance told him what most questions were about. Even when he occasionally encountered a trick question, he could solve it completely in the time it took to flex his wrist.

His deskmate, Wang Guohua, was also answering questions at tremendous speed.

He did not care what score he got on the assessment test. What mattered to him was how many points he could earn on the trigonometry questions. So the moment he received the paper, he went straight for them.

He wanted to prove that Yang Rui's method worked. If it did, he would have a chance of passing mathematics.

In 1982, a passing mathematics score was an exceptionally high one.

In the recent college entrance examination, the national average in mathematics had been below thirty, and even the students who were admitted had averaged only forty-something.

In fact, even thirty years later, science-stream candidates would average only around eighty in mathematics, still below the passing mark on a 150-point paper. Humanities-stream candidates, meanwhile, generally averaged between sixty and seventy.

There were five trigonometry questions on the entire paper.

Teacher Lu had deliberately modeled it on the 1982 college entrance examination, putting considerable thought into it. The first section, completing tables, contained two trigonometry questions worth two points in total. There was one fill-in-the-blank question and one short-answer question worth six points combined, followed by a major question worth eight points. Altogether, they accounted for sixteen points, or thirteen percent of the paper's total.

If he could answer them all, reaching the average score would be easy.

Wang Guohua felt inexplicably excited.

Especially after he solved the first two little questions, he actually felt unstoppable.

College entrance examination mathematics emphasized concepts over techniques to begin with, and almost every type of question could be solved using general methods. What Wang Guohua had memorized were the most classic trigonometry question types. With the two combined, he found himself sailing through them.

I've seen this question!

I've done this question!

This one seems to have two solutions!

Wang Guohua used to get a headache at the mere sight of mathematics, but now he wished there were more questions. More trigonometry questions, of course.

Only then did he have time to look at Yang Rui on his left.

That glance gave Wang Guohua quite a shock.

What was going on with that half a paper covered densely in numbers and symbols?

He had already finished half of it?

Even copying could not be that fast, surely.

They were in an exam, after all. After a couple of glances at Yang Rui's paper, Wang Guohua hurriedly looked away.

Yang Rui noticed nothing. His pen kept moving with a soft scratching sound. Without even using scratch paper, he solved each problem step by step directly on the test paper, setting out his equations in great detail.

This was also to reduce suspicion. After all, his score on this paper would certainly exceed everyone's expectations. Having the intermediate steps there would provide a convincing explanation.

In less than thirty minutes, Yang Rui not only finished the entire paper but also had time for a quick check. He did not hand it in, however. There would be nothing to do outside the classroom, and if he ran into another teacher, he would be questioned for no reason.

After some thought, Yang Rui simply covered it with his scratch paper, rested his head on the desk, and closed his eyes to relax.

Liu Shan happened to look up and saw this. For some inexplicable reason, she sighed, then immediately startled herself. What am I worrying about him for? I'm not the one who'll be embarrassed... Besides, he was the one who said he would take the test seriously, and he's also the one sleeping during it. He can't blame me if he doesn't keep his own promise.

Her thoughts wandered. Seeing that Yang Rui seemed genuinely asleep, she stole a few more furtive glances at him. That boy really does have an advantage with those looks. And he's younger than Ken Takakura.

Girls matured earlier than boys to begin with. Liu Shan had skipped two grades and repeated two years, and was already seventeen, right at that age of blossoming youth and budding feelings. She had started noticing boys too.

Although Yang Rui was not much of a student and was rather wooden, that could not conceal his outstanding looks. The girls inevitably paid him more attention.

But in Liu Shan's eyes, Yang Rui's actual performance really was far too unimpressive.

"All glitter on the outside, rotten within, I suppose." Liu Shan unconsciously wrote the first few words on her test paper, then abruptly realized what she was doing and hurriedly scribbled them out with her fountain pen.

"Now Teacher Lu will deduct presentation points. It's all Yang Rui's fault." Liu Shan did not look at him again and concentrated on the questions.

The two consecutive periods flew by. When the bell rang, Teacher Lu said pleasantly, "All right, everyone, check that you've written your name, then turn your paper facedown on your desk. Remind the classmates beside you and keep an eye on each other."

Teacher Lu's family lived in Xizhaizi Township, directly under Secretary Yang's jurisdiction. Every year, whether for irrigation water, buying fertilizer, borrowing farm machinery, paying agricultural taxes and local levies, or other matters, they inevitably had dealings with the township government. Being Yang Rui's homeroom teacher was a useful social connection, so he took particular care of him.

Wang Guohua therefore gave Yang Rui two light pats, "supervising" him awake.

"Class is over? How did you do?" Yang Rui wiped his mouth, looking languid after his nap.

"Brother, you still remembered to ask about me. I answered all the trigonometry questions. Hard to say whether they're right. I just put down whatever for the others. It's time to hand them in." Wang Guohua actually sounded quite confident; his modesty was purely a formality.

"Good. If you could answer them, you've probably got most of them right." Yang Rui knew the strengths and weaknesses of memorizing questions. Trick questions and unusual problems were the biggest concern. Teacher Lu had modeled this paper on the previous college entrance examination, so it was relatively straightforward. If Wang Guohua could answer the questions, there should be no major problem.

Teacher Lu cleared his throat twice at the front. "No talking. Pass the papers forward along each row, starting from the back. No more writing!"

Liu Shan, the class monitor, got up on her own and went to the front to help gather the papers together.

Yang Rui was tall and a newcomer to the repeaters' class, so he sat fairly far back. His paper soon disappeared among everyone else's.

Unable to search through his paper in front of everyone, Liu Shan glanced at him from a distance and mouthed, "We'll see your score tomorrow."