The Reincarnated Science Whiz

Chapter 34: Returning Home

The next day, Qin Yuanqing packed the textbooks and notes she found useful into her bag and discarded the rest as scrap paper. Those textbooks and notes contained numerous annotations, case studies, and in-depth analyses of key concepts that Qin Yuanqing had compiled over the past year—they were still quite valuable. Since he no longer needed them, he could give them to his younger cousin when she entered high school; they would surely be helpful to her. The woman who collected scrap paper wore a beaming smile. The end of the college entrance exams meant the start of her busiest time of the year. Just collecting these textbooks, exam papers, and workbooks—every student had at least two large bags full—was big business; a few days’ work could make as much as a whole year’s earnings. Qin Yuanqing sold his items for just over 197 yuan. The lady was a generous soul; she rounded the amount up and handed him two 100-yuan bills. After seeing the lady off, Qin Yuanqing shook his head. These books, exam papers, and workbooks had cost over ten thousand yuan when he bought them, yet now they were being treated as waste paper and fetched only 200 yuan. Much of that cost had been borne by the school; the material costs alone were certainly no less than 20,000 yuan—a depreciation of more than a hundredfold. Nothing could be more severe than this kind of devaluation. If there was, it would be the currency devaluation in Zimbabwe! After cleaning the room once more and mopping the floor, he waited for the landlord to arrive and return his security deposit. Only then did Qin Yuanqing drag his suitcase and a large bag of materials out of the apartment and head to the school gate to wait for a ride. This time, his older brother had driven over personally to pick him up. Last night, when he’d called home, his older brother had asked when he was coming back, then said he’d come to pick him up. This was quite a rare occurrence—his older brother was the laziest person in the family, so he never expected him to actually come pick him up. Qin Yuanqing didn’t refuse; he agreed. Accepting someone’s kindness is a skill in itself! “Bro, over here!” Qin Yuanqing waved at a car. His older brother had bought this car less than a month ago—it was a manual-transmission micro-SUV. Qin Yuanqing could drive, of course, but he wasn’t used to driving an automatic, and besides, he didn’t have a driver’s license yet. He’d already made plans to enroll in a driving school soon to get his license. After all, at this point, as long as you pay the fee—no need to practice driving or take the test—someone will get you a driver’s license. If another year goes by and the regulations get stricter, it’ll be much harder. Qin Yuanqing still remembered that by the time he started his freshman year of college, the cost of getting a driver’s license had doubled, reaching nearly 7,000 yuan. As for trying to buy a license outright, the driving schools would tell you, “It’s too hard—it’s just too hard.” Just as Qin Yuanqing was returning home, in Fuzhou City, at Fujian Normal University, inside a secure compound… A room housed dozens of computers, with one exam grader seated at each one. The college entrance exam grading was taking place here, and there were quite a few such grading rooms. Online grading for the college entrance exam has been in place for several years. Answers to objective questions are filled in with a 2B pencil on answer sheets and automatically evaluated by computers. Subjective questions are uploaded via the Ministry of Education’s internal system to the graders’ computers, where they are manually reviewed and scored by the graders. Generally, each essay question is graded independently by two graders. Before grading begins, a permissible margin of error—such as 1 point or 2 points—is set in the system. If the scores given by the two graders fall within the allowed margin of error, the average score is used. If the scores exceed the allowed margin of error, a third grader acts as an arbitrator, and their score is considered the final result. Markers cannot see the examinee’s name or school, ensuring that the college entrance exam grading process is fair and rigorous. Of course, there are exceptions. For example, if two graders both award a score of 60 to a college entrance exam essay, a third grader must arbitrate the decision, and this grader must be a highly authoritative figure in the field of Chinese language. On this particular day, the first college entrance exam essay, titled “This, Too, Is a Kind of Happiness,” was submitted because the first two graders had both awarded it a perfect score of 60. The head of the Chinese department at Lushi Island Shuangshi High School was selected from among the Chinese department’s graders to serve specifically as the arbitrator. Lushi Island Shuangshi High School is one of the top secondary schools on Lushi Island and a key high school in Fujian Province, consistently ranking among the top five high schools in the province. As the head of the Chinese department at Lushi Island Shuangshi High School, Lin Xiaomei’s expertise in Chinese is unquestionable; she is an authority in this field. Lin Xiaomei was very intrigued. The college entrance exam differs from regular exams in that it is extremely rare for an essay to receive a perfect score. With 100,000 to 200,000 test-takers each year, there are only a handful of perfect-score essays in total. Because every perfect-score essay from the college entrance exam is published as a model for others to admire and emulate, it carries significant social influence. Therefore, every perfect-score essay is a rare masterpiece—not only must the content be well-written, but the handwriting must also be excellent. The entire essay must be free of misspellings and excessive corrections. “The handwriting is beautiful, and the essay is neatly laid out.” Lin Xiaomei looked at the submitted college entrance exam essay and nodded slightly. The essay was neat, the handwriting was beautiful, and there were no corrections—it was a pleasure to look at. Even without reading the content, she could immediately give it a score of 55. This is why Chinese teachers constantly emphasize the importance of practicing handwriting—neat handwriting, just like being handsome or beautiful, gives you a natural advantage. Exam graders have to correct hundreds of test papers a day; they simply can’t read them very carefully. They generally have to finish grading each question in about a minute. Grading an essay like this usually takes just a minute or two. Therefore, neat and beautiful handwriting puts the grader in a good mood, and when they’re in a good mood, they’re naturally more likely to give a high score. “This essay is very distinctive, with a unique theme. ‘This, Too, Is a Kind of Happiness’ highlights the greatness of a mother’s love!” Lin Xiaomei is a mother herself; her son is already ten years old. She used to think her own mother was overly nagging, but after becoming a mother herself, she came to understand a mother’s love. Two years ago, her mother passed away from illness, and now Lin Xiaomei can no longer hear her mother’s nagging. Yes, this, too, is a kind of happiness. Lin Xiaomei’s eyes welled up with tears; the essay struck a chord with her. She thought it was exceptionally well-written: “Such an excellent essay—a perfect score of 60, without a doubt!” With Lin Xiaomei’s decision, the first perfect-score essay of this year’s college entrance exam was officially awarded. Qin Yuanqing returned to his hometown and visited the new house from time to time to supervise the workers on the renovation. Since this was his own home—not a rental or temporary living space—he naturally wanted to put his heart into the renovation. The total budget for this renovation was around 400,000 yuan. Installation of the windows and doors began today, with the doors and windows alone costing 50,000 yuan. The exterior wall tiling also cost over 40,000 yuan; the marble-effect tiles, which look elegant and grand, have already been laid. In his spare time, he writes books. In the past, when he saw top students constantly endorsing products and promoting various exam questions, Qin Yuanqing was quite envious—he’d spent a fair amount of money buying them himself. Now, he’s compiling and summarizing his own experiences—someday, he’ll be able to publish them and make money. A man of culture should earn his living through culture, in a way befitting a man of culture. In this land of Huaxia, what could be more profitable than selling books? Qin Yuanqing has divided the six subjects—Chinese, Math, English, Physics, Biology, and Huaxia Studies—into two volumes each, and he has named the series *The Qin Family Treasury*! Once his college entrance exam scores are released, he won’t have any trouble finding a publisher to partner with him. High school students will likely all want a copy of his *Qin’s Treasure Trove*. He wouldn’t need to hire any other endorsers—he’d simply endorse the book himself. What better way could there be? “Dad, we absolutely have to install drop ceilings in the living room and dining room—they won’t get dirty over time, otherwise cleaning will be a real chore!” Qin Yuanqing was discussing the renovation plans with his father. “The first-floor living room is mainly for guests, so we can’t use European-style sofas. Rosewood furniture is the best choice—it looks grand and upscale, is comfortable to sit on, and will last for decades or even a century. It doesn’t need cleaning and isn’t prone to scratches or dents.” “Also, don’t turn the space under the stairs into a bathroom. Each floor’s master bedroom has its own bathroom, and there’s a guest bathroom outside—that’s more than enough.” This was Qin Yuanqing’s biggest concern. In the countryside, people always try to make use of every bit of space to avoid waste, but that often results in an illogical layout. “Since the house is already a large unit, the layout needs to be spacious and grand; otherwise, it’ll feel awkward.” “Fine, let’s go with your idea. After all, you’re the one footing the bill for the renovation.” His father had no choice but to go along with Qin Yuanqing’s plan. Qin Yuanqing already had his own plans for the house’s renovation, including the third floor. To address insulation issues, he planned to install an insulation layer on the roof to prevent it from getting too hot in the summer. As for the water tower, to prevent low water pressure during outages, he installed booster pumps both in the basement and on the roof, along with three-way control valves to prevent water from the tower from flowing back into the main pipeline. In addition, the size and depth of the septic tank, as well as the flow path for the treated wastewater, all had to be addressed; otherwise, it would cause major problems down the road. Qin Yuanqing also bought the surrounding lychee trees and had them cut down immediately. Although they were century-old trees that produced a bountiful harvest every year, lychees aren’t very valuable. Moreover, the southeastern coast is prone to typhoons, and if a super typhoon were to strike and blow the trees over, the house would be in serious danger. After cutting them down, it would be a good idea to plant some flowers and plants to make the area look neat and beautiful. Qin Yuanqing thought it would be nice to have a garden where he could plant and water flowers from time to time; when the blooms were in full swing, the whole garden would be ablaze with spring colors. The garden he designed primarily features flowers commonly found in Southern Fujian, such as hybrid tea roses, roses, and bougainvillea. Since there were no outstanding payments for labor or materials and plenty of workers on the job, the renovation went very smoothly. In just over half a month, it was already taking shape: the floor tiles inside had been laid, and half of the ceiling work was complete. It would likely take another half month to reach the preliminary completion stage. Meanwhile, Qin Yuanqing’s *Qin’s Treasure Trove* was also nearing completion. Having already fully mastered high school-level knowledge, Qin Yuanqing found it much easier to summarize and synthesize the material across all subjects. The questions he included were mostly classic problem types, and the solution to each problem was analyzed in depth as an extension of the topic. It can be said that the greatest feature of his *Qin’s Treasure Trove* lies in these classic problems and their in-depth analyses. As for the connections and applications of mathematics, physics, chemistry, and biology, these are features not found in other textbooks.