The Reincarnated Science Whiz

Chapter 31: The College Entrance Exam (1)

The college entrance exam began on June 7 and ended on the afternoon of June 8, lasting a total of two days. These two days would be the most important of many people’s lives; their performance during this time would shape their entire future and determine their fate. June 7, 9:00–11:30 a. m. : Chinese exam! 3:00–5:00 p. m. : Math exam! June 8, 9:00 a. m. –11:30 a. m. : Liberal Arts Comprehensive/Science Comprehensive Exam! 3:00 p. m. –5:00 p. m. : Foreign Language Exam! Qin Yuanqing has been eating light meals these past few days to avoid greasy foods that can cause internal heat. He takes a morning walk and strolls around West Lake in the evening to maintain a positive mindset! Before the college entrance exam, the most important thing is your mindset—not cramming every minute and second to study. That’s just last-minute cramming, which is completely ineffective. Learning relies on daily accumulation over time, not on cramming for a few days before the exam in hopes of getting a high score. Finally, June 7th has arrived! The first day of the college entrance exams! On this day, which captured the nation’s attention, countless families’ concerns and eyes were focused on the exam; the entire society was watching the Gaokao, and all the news headlines were centered on it. June 7 was different from usual—it rained that morning, and it wasn’t until 7:30 a. m. that the dark clouds cleared and the Sun came out. There was no sweltering heat, only a pleasant coolness. Near the school, traffic police had already implemented traffic controls, and construction sites had all halted work to prevent car horns or construction noise from affecting the candidates’ performance. Qin Yuanqing left his dormitory and headed toward Daozhou Middle School. He could sense the solemn and dignified atmosphere in the air. One by one, parents accompanied their children to the exam hall, offering countless words of advice, their faces filled with nervousness and anticipation as they watched their children enter the building. His dad had originally planned to come to the exam site to support him during the college entrance exam, but Qin Yuanqing turned him down. As if—did he really need that? A week earlier, his Chinese score had finally reached Level 10, giving him immense confidence. Now, not only was he in perfect health, but even if he had a high fever of 40° during the exam, Qin Yuanqing was still confident he’d score a perfect mark. Qin Yuanqing entered the exam hall and made his way to the classroom indicated on his admission ticket. They had come here the day before to familiarize themselves with the venue, receive a briefing on exam rules and discipline, and participate in a foreign language listening practice session, so there was absolutely no chance he’d have trouble finding the classroom. After two proctors checked his ID and admission ticket to confirm everything was in order, they asked Qin Yuanqing to sign his name under his photo on the sign-in sheet before allowing him to enter the classroom. Qin Yuanqing walked to the last row in the middle aisle and took his seat. The seats were labeled with the exam room number, seat number, and the candidate’s name—all of which had been prepared by the proctors before the exam to eliminate any opportunity for cheating. At 8:50 a. m. , the public address system once again announced the exam rules and regulations, as well as important reminders for the candidates. At 8:55 a. m. , after instructing the students to check the seals and have them sign to confirm, the proctors opened the sealed envelopes, removed the exam papers, and distributed them to the students. The Chinese exam was worth a total of 150 points and lasted 2. 5 hours. At exactly 9:00 a. m. , as the announcement declared, “The exam officially begins,” the Chinese exam commenced. The first section consisted of ancient poetry and prose reading, followed by a dictation of well-known quotations and classic passages. It included 3 questions with 6 blanks totaling 6 points, with each blank worth 1 point. Qin Yuanqing, as if guided by a higher power, answered the questions one after another. Following the recitation of famous lines and passages came the Classical Chinese reading comprehension section, worth 15 points. This year’s passage was *The Biography of Zhang Zixin*. Qin Yuanqing did not read the text beforehand; since this type of Classical Chinese passage essentially tests foundational skills, he answered directly. As long as one has a solid grasp of Classical Chinese, these 15 points can be easily secured. After the Classical Chinese reading comprehension came the ancient poetry analysis section, worth 6 points. Qin Yuanqing finished the poetry appreciation section in just 5 minutes; since this type of poetry conveys deep emotions, it wasn’t difficult to analyze. The second major section was the reading comprehension of literary masterpieces and cultural classics, worth 16 points. The literary masterpiece section primarily covered the Four Great Classical Novels and selected texts from elective courses. Given Qin Yuanqing’s extensive reading, he spent 10 minutes securing all 16 points. As for the cultural classics section, Qin Yuanqing slowed down his pace, as even a slight lapse in attention could lead to incorrect or incomplete answers and result in lost points. After spending 10 minutes completing it, Qin Yuanqing took the time to double-check his answers. Only after confirming they were correct did he move on to the third section. The third section was modern prose reading. For the passage titled “The Standard,” Qin Yuanqing skimmed it from beginning to end, then read through the questions before skimming the passage again to ensure he could score 100 percent on it. Next came Section 4: Literary and Practical Text Reading, which consisted of two texts, A and B, from which he only needed to choose one to answer. Without much hesitation, Qin Yuanqing chose Feng Zikai’s “A Qing” to answer. The fifth section was on language and text application, worth 10 points—essentially a “gimme.” For example, summarizing the meaning of “psychological counseling” based on the provided material was practically a sure thing. There were also questions requiring students to summarize two passages in a single sentence—testing their ability to synthesize information, as a single sentence requires filtering, extracting, and summarizing key points. As for questions asking for opinions on a given phenomenon, these were open-ended; students could respond affirmatively or negatively—as long as they provided sufficient reasoning, the graders would generally not deduct points. When Qin Yuanqing saw the essay section, he sighed. The essay question was exactly as he remembered it; Qin Yuanqing had spent a very long time preparing for this very essay. Qin Yuanqing wrote the title of his essay: “This, Too, Is a Kind of Happiness He hadn’t written an argumentative essay, but rather a piece of prose or a lyrical essay. His writing flowed with divine grace, his train of thought was exceptionally clear, and not a single typo appeared. Qin Yuanqing didn’t know how many points the college entrance exam Chinese essay grader would award him for this essay, but he chose this one because, in his heart, it was a perfect essay—and the only one into which he could truly pour his emotions. In the past, when taking exams, he could write argumentative essays with clear theses and ample evidence, which would easily guarantee him a score of 55 on the essay section. But he had grown tired of writing that kind of essay. So, Qin Yuanqing followed his heart and chose “This, Too, Is a Kind of Happiness”—an essay brimming with emotion, with love and maternal love running throughout! When Qin Yuanqing finished his essay, he checked the time: only an hour had passed, and there was still an hour and a half left until the end of the exam. “Teacher, I’d like to turn in my paper!” Qin Yuanqing raised his hand to signal he was ready to hand it in. “Qin Yuanqing, once you hand in your paper, you must leave the exam room and may not make any further changes. Are you sure about this?” the proctor said sternly. She recognized Qin Yuanqing; after all, over the past year or so, he had become her favorite student, someone she often held up as an example to other children and students. “Teacher, I’m all done. I’m confident in my answers!” Qin Yuanqing said with a smile. The proctor glanced briefly at Qin Yuanqing’s answer sheet. Seeing that every question had been answered, the handwriting was neat and tidy, and the essay was nearly 1,000 characters long, she nodded slightly, collected Qin Yuanqing’s paper, and allowed him to leave the classroom. Seeing Qin Yuanqing leave, the other students felt a pang of bitterness. They had barely gotten to the modern prose reading section, yet he had already finished and turned in his paper. This was truly a gap—no wonder he was an academic star while they were academic underachievers! The news that Qin Yuanqing had received admission offers from all of the top twenty universities in the country had long since spread throughout First High School; everyone already knew about it. The area outside the exam hall was packed with parents, who waited with bated breath, yet were also incredibly nervous. Although only an hour had passed, they were sweating profusely from the tension—it was as if they, not the students, were the ones taking the college entrance exam. “Huh? Qin Yuanqing, coming out this early?” A woman wearing light makeup jogged over, smiling as she said, “Qin Yuanqing, could I interview you?” Qin Yuanqing recognized her as a reporter from the county television station who also worked part-time for Tencent News; she had interviewed him at school before. Qin Yuanqing nodded and said, “Sure!” The reporter asked, “Qin Yuanqing, it’s been just over an hour since the exam ended. You’re out this early—was the Chinese section of this year’s college entrance exam not that difficult?” “It was okay!” Qin Yuanqing replied. If he hadn’t prepared his essay in advance, he wouldn’t have been able to finish the exam in just one hour. “So, how many points do you estimate you’ll score on the Chinese exam?” the reporter asked. The parents gathered nearby all turned their gaze toward Qin Yuanqing; they had all recognized him, after all—for the past half-year or so, they’d frequently used Qin Yuanqing as an example to discipline their own children. “Um, well…” Qin Yuanqing paused to think. The reporter looked nervous—he felt he hadn’t even been this nervous during his own college entrance exams—before Qin Yuanqing finally smiled and said, “150 points, I guess.” How many? Question marks popped into the reporter’s head. Wait a minute—what’s the total score for the college entrance exam’s Chinese section? 200 points? 300 points? No, isn’t the maximum score for Chinese on the college entrance exam 150? What Qin Yuanqing meant was that he could get a perfect score on the Chinese exam. Watching Qin Yuanqing’s receding figure, the reporter let out a joyful “YES!” —today’s top news story was set. Sure enough, as soon as the reporter published the interview, in less than ten minutes, the story about Qin Yuanqing shot to the top of the national news trends. After all, the nation’s attention is currently focused on the college entrance exam, and news related to it is most likely to go viral. Arrogance or self-confidence? This instantly became a hot topic of discussion among netizens. Many criticized Qin Yuanqing’s approach, arguing that the college entrance exam is a pivotal moment in life that requires the utmost caution and cannot be taken lightly—that Qin Yuanqing was being irresponsible toward himself. Others, however, after digging into Qin Yuanqing’s background—revealing that he is a double gold medalist in the CMO and IMO and an academic star, and sharing his mock exam scores—interpreted his actions as a sign of confidence in his ability to ace the college entrance exam. Academic underachievers, don’t judge top students by your own standards. The world of top students is beyond your understanding. Some netizens openly mocked those who had received special exemptions. As for the online discussions and commentary—including the analyses in the news—Qin Yuanqing knew nothing about them. After returning to his dorm, he first took a shower, then went for a 10-minute walk, during which he still worked up quite a sweat. Then Qin Yuanqing went downstairs, picked up a meal and a bowl of soup to take back to his dorm—otherwise, it wouldn’t be long before students poured out of the exam hall, and the restaurants would be packed and too chaotic.