C10 Evaluation of the College Entrance Exam

Another gust of warm, gentle wind blew past them.

Liu Dong began to hum a soft melody. He had heard it online just a few days ago and had immediately grown fond of it. It was a song about a young person’s longing for his easy childhood, as well as his hopes for the future.

“What is the name of this song?” Sheng Kai asked curiously. “It’s very nice.”

”Right?” Liu Dong said eagerly before nodding with some pride. "I also think it’s great, so I took the initiative to learn how to sing it. This song is called ‘Time Flies’, and it’s currently very popular online."

Liu Dong wasn’t particularly interested in singing, and he had never really been good at it either. However, he was fond of famous golden songs.

“How come I’ve never heard it before?” Sheng Kai said with surprise. It was no wonder that the song was popular, since it really was very good, but then he should have heard of it the moment it blew up. “Who sang it?”

“An online singer called ‘Nian Yuv’. I think this is his first work. It didn’t look like he had a fan base until recently.” Liu Dong turned to Muye then. “How about you, have you heard this song?”

“Of course, and I sing it quite well, too,” Muye joked.

Liu Dong was quick to brush the comment away, telling Muye off for bragging and acting like he owned the song himself.

The boys spent the next few hours swimming around the South River, laughing and playing on the riverbank, and talking about their future plans. When the night grew late, they parted with words of encouragement for tomorrow’s round of exams.

The next day was designated for the Science Comprehensive Test and the English Test. Muye was still as confident in his performance as ever. Out of the four exams, he felt like he did better in these last two. When he walked out of the examination hall at the end of the day, he was finally able to let out a long sigh of relief.

As the procedure went, answers would be compared and discussed among classes on the second day after the exams. For the students, it was just as nerve-wracking a day as the day when the final results were released.

Zhang Muye went to Xiandai Middle School bright and early that day. He sat with his stewing classmates, and he could tell at a glance that very few of them had been able to answer the questions correctly, if at all. Most of them were frowning and looked downcast.

Lee Yong was also in the classroom, and from time to time he would walk around and glance at the student’s papers from over their shoulders. He paid special attention to the more promising ones, whom he had been betting on to bring some honor to the school.

Needless to say, he was very disappointed with what he was seeing. After the first hour, he was glowering at them, and his expression only worsened as time wore on. He had good reason, too. If none of his students managed to qualify for the second-rate universities, not only would he not receive a bonus, his very job could also get compromised. The more he thought of this, the darker his mood became.

Of course, Muye wasn’t affected by his surroundings at all. He took a spot in a corner and pored over the solution set he had been given. Every now and then, he would scribble on the piece of paper.

The entire time, a small, confident smile never left his face.

After a while, Lee Yong trudged back to the podium to drink some water and calm himself. It was then that he caught sight of Muye, who looked to be seriously going over the test papers. For one brief second, the teacher hesitated and considered going over to the boy. He ultimately decided against it, though, and returned to his office.

At the same time, the elderly Chemistry teacher walked through the back door and into the classroom. He did his rounds among the students just as Lee Yong had and finally stopped beside Zhang Muye.

Though the boy was just a transfer student who was about to graduate, the Chemistry teacher still held him in high regard. He had scored 108 points in his Chemistry test, after all, breaking all previous records tallied in the teacher’s roster.

Sure, Muye’s scores did drop to 70 points in the later mock test, but the Chemistry teacher had been around long enough to have developed a keen observation and a discerning eye. What had instantly caught his attention was the fact that Muye botched several of the easy questions, but always answered the difficult ones in a clear and organized manner.

He suspected there and then that Zhang Muye was deliberately hiding his full potential. And if his presumptions were true, then the boy’s intellect and skills were indeed exceedingly outstanding.

With this in mind, the teacher silently walked behind the boy’s chair to look at his answers. They were all correct!

Muye had already sensed when the teacher had sneaked up on him, but he didn’t turn to check. Instead, he continued to focus on his work.

As his pencil moved in smooth strokes over the paper, the Chemistry teacher’s face grew more and more amazed.

At first, he was rather calm, his interest mild and strictly professional. However, as the minutes progressed, he personally witnessed Muye’s brain in action, the teacher’s interest turned to disbelief, then confusion, then finally, awe.

If anyone had been watching him that whole time, they would have thought that the teacher was putting on a mime or something.

Zhang Muye blazed through the test questions for an hour without a single incorrect answer. And the Chemistry teacher never left his side.

By the end of it, Muye finally lifted his pencil and exhaled a long breath. His lips curved into a smile of relief.

Even he was astonished by how well he seemed to have done in the college entrance exams.

“How was your estimation? What is your probable score?”

The Chemistry teacher asked with some apprehension. He already knew that the boy’s answers were mostly correct, of course, but it was so inconceivable that he needed to hear it confirmed out loud.

“I think,” Muye replied calmly, “I got about 650 points.” It was a close enough estimation, but he wasn’t exactly being truthful.

His estimated score for Language was 140, 146 for Mathematics, 285 for the Science Comprehensive Test, and 140 for English.

The grand total of all that would be 711 points.

Vaguely, he wondered which proficiently those scores put him on.

He knew that last year’s top scorer in the provincial science subjects scored 699 points, and that the exams hadn’t been very difficult. If fortune was on his side and not much had changed in the examination standards…

Zhang Muye was probably going to be this year's provincial science scholar.

Not that anyone would believe him all too easily. 700 points was an impossible score, after all, and he really didn’t want any unnecessary attention before the results were out. Hence, his decision to take a more conservative estimated score.

As expected, it was already considered to be a feat. “650 points?” the Chemistry teacher blurted out.

He gaped at the boy, his eyes wide with incredulity. His mouth opened and closed several times as though he was trying to say something else, but nothing more came out of it.

‘I must have misheard,’ he thought to himself. Xiandai Middle School had never heard of a student who had attained this many points before.

Muye took in the teacher’s ridiculous expression and felt a sense of evil satisfaction. Even so, he didn’t want to lie to the man, so he added, “That is, 650 at the very least.”

Then, without waiting for a response, he tidied up his belongings, bowed in goodbye, and walked out of the classroom.

“Teacher Zhung, what happened to you?” Lee Yong called out from the other side of the room. “Why are you in such a daze?”

He had left earlier to get himself another glass of water and returned just as Muye had departed. That was when he caught sight of the Chemistry teacher standing at the back, looking stunned out of his wits.

“Mr. Lee,” Teacher Zhung mumbled. “That—that new student in your class… Did you know about his total estimated score?”

“No, why? How much was it?”

“He just told me that he scored at least 650 points!” Teacher Zhung raised both of his arms as he exclaimed, his eyes bugging out of his sockets.

Lee Yong gritted his teeth and glared at the other man. His hand began to tremble, and he lost his grip on his glass.

“Are you joking with me?” he said in a low and menacing voice.

The Chemistry teacher shook his head fervently, and Lee Yong narrowed his eyes. It didn’t look like the man was trying to pull his leg, nor did he have any reason to lie. Teacher Zhung was about to retire; surely, he didn’t have the time or energy to waste on such nonsense.

The sun was still beating down in all its glory, and the air was thick and heavy with humidity. But Muye walked across the campus with light steps, and his heart was swelling with gratification and fulfillment. He boarded the bus and watched the scenery outside as he rode all the way home. Things were finally looking up for him.

When he arrived in Old Town, he saw three people walking in the distance—Liu Dong, Sheng Kai, and Xia Chuchu. It looked like the three of them had returned home together after reviewing their test answers back in their own school.

Liu Dong ran over to him excitedly. “Muye! How much is your estimated score?”