NOVPUBThe coach bus was speeding on Ji Guang Highway. Concerned about safety, the previously open window was left with just a small crack.
The strong convection winds made the window glass rattle loudly, causing Xu Qingfan’s head, which rested against the window, to bounce off and fall back repeatedly.
The noisy wind did not affect his sleep; in fact, Xu Qingfan liked this cacophonous noise even more.
Xia Xiaoxiao, at some point, had also rested her little head on his shoulder and sweetly entered dreamland.
"Everyone wake up, we are almost there!" After a long while, the leading teacher, banging a gong, woke everyone up.
Xu Qingfan opened his eyes. The coach had left the highway at some unknown point and was now passing by Shi Pai Village.
Suddenly seeing Hong Kong from twenty years ago, Xu Qingfan truly felt as though he was in a completely different era.
The future skyscrapers that would eventually rise abruptly were now just bare ground.
Many old flat houses, not yet renovated, had a large demolition character painted in red oil paint, starkly contrasting with the skyscrapers just a street away.
"Where is this?" Xia Xiaoxiao leaned in, curiously asking as she looked out the window.
"This is Shi Pai Village, one of the best universities in Hong Kong is around here," Xu Qingfan said somewhat nostalgically.
Xia Xiaoxiao nodded, "This place looks so rundown, not as pretty as Li City!"
"Urban villages are like this, our Qiujie Village is the same," Xu Qingfan explained with a smile.
"We’re almost at our destination. Everyone, gather your belongings, and those who didn’t have breakfast, come and report to me!" the leading teacher stood up and loudly reminded.
"Did you have breakfast?" Xu Qingfan tapped on Wu Lingyu’s head.
"I ate eggs at home!" The little girl nodded earnestly.
"Hmm, good luck with your exam. If there’s any issue, let me know," Xu Qingfan added, concerned that Wu Lingyu might be too shy to seek help from the teacher.
"Hmm... Brother Fan... thank you."
"No big deal~"
The bus smoothly entered Hong Kong Normal University and stopped in front of a teaching building.
"Make sure you have everything and prepare your admission tickets. After getting off, the second and third years should line up separately!" the team leader continued reminding.
"Let’s go!" Only he, Xia Xiaoxiao, and Wu Lingyu participated in the second-grade group, and they quickly lined up after getting off.
"I’ve been here before, my sister studied psychology here!"
"What is psychology?"
"Psychology is awesome; it can hypnotize you!"
"Nonsense!"
"Next time, I’ll get my sister to teach me, then hypnotize you!"
"..."
Many students were visiting a university for the first time and chattered excitedly after disembarking.
"Everyone quiet down. Do not wander around after the tests; return here to regroup immediately, understood!" The leading teacher, ready with a megaphone, spoke.
"Understood!" The students, looking around, answered the teacher in a scattered manner.
Many university students who had just finished their early morning classes and were ready to head back to their dorms for a nap curiously looked over at them, each group regarding the other as a spectacle.
"Is this school prestigious?" Xia Xiaoxiao, curious, asked Xu Qingfan while on their way to the exam room.
"Quite prestigious, it’s a second-tier 211 university in the country."
"What does 211 university mean?"
"It means it’s impressive."
"Oh, then I want to attend a 211 university in the future too!" Xia Xiaoxiao said seriously.
Xu Qingfan glanced at her, thinking: [By the time of your college entrance exam, scoring just one subject less will get you into a 211 university.]
In her past life, Xia Xiaoxiao’s scores in the provincial college entrance exam ranked 11th, and who knows what she was thinking, she wastefully spent over fifty more points to study at Hong Kong University.
Xu Qingfan, in his first college entrance exam, only scored just over four hundred eighty points, ranking eleventh in the entire province among science students.
He often heard teachers in his past life insist on checking carefully, claiming a difference of one point could change your rank by over a thousand, but compared with Xia Xiaoxiao’s scores, he realized the teachers were clearly exaggerating; at most, a one-point difference would change by only about five hundred places.
Recalling his past life, Xu Qingfan shook his head in resignation again.
[Is there any way to keep Xia Xiaoxiao from studying abroad?] he wondered to himself.
The team leader brought them into a huge classroom that could accommodate hundreds of people, where the three handed their admission tickets to the invigilator and smoothly took their seats.
"Let’s do this," Xu Qingfan held out the back of his hand.
Xia Xiaoxiao looked at him and placed her palm on top of his.
"Your turn," Xu Qingfan said, nodding at Wu Lingyu.
"Oh, right..." the little girl hurriedly placed her hand on top of theirs.
"Three, two, one,"
"Let’s do this!" Xu Qingfan counted down, and the three of them shouted together.
The students sitting in the classroom all turned their gazes towards them, and Xu Qingfan shrugged, then walked to his seat under the guidance of the invigilator.
The exam started at nine-thirty and lasted two hours, ending at eleven-thirty.
There were a few minutes left before the papers were distributed. Xu Qingfan gazed into the distance outside the window, suppressing his nervous urge to use the bathroom.
It seemed he had always had this bad habit; he felt the urge to go to the bathroom whenever something big was happening.
The clock chimed, and the invigilator began distributing the papers.
After receiving his paper, Xu Qingfan flipped directly to the last page, and after looking at the final question, he thought disdainfully, "Is this supposed to test the cadres?"
The final question: A monkey eats 3 peaches and has one leftover, another monkey eats 4 and is short 2, how many monkeys and how many peaches are there?
Math competitions don’t require you to stick to elementary school knowledge. Xu Qingfan didn’t even bother thinking; he directly set the number of monkeys as x and peaches as y, solved the system of equations without explanation, and instantly nailed the problem.
Y=3x+1
Y=4x-2
Result: x=3, y=10.
Almost all the major problems could be solved with equations. Xu Qingfan reduced the dimensions and defeated one major problem after another in less than a minute. In just over ten minutes, he had completed twenty big problems.
He deliberately made a loud noise while flipping the papers and muttered under his breath, "Why is this so easy!" adding pressure to the max.
The problems on the front involving choosing and matching were just as simple, asking questions like moving a matchstick to make a math equation correct or how many pieces can you get if you cut a pancake with five cuts?
Since all the numbers involved were ten or under, Xu Qingfan used the exhaustion method on scratch paper. Just thirty minutes into the exam, he had completed a math competition paper that stumped countless elementary students.
All that was left was continuous checking. Xu Qingfan, worried about affecting Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu’s exam mindset, hesitated to hand in his paper early.
"Damn it~" the students sitting around Xu Qingfan whispered curses as they heard the rustling of his paper flipping.
"There are five minutes left in the exam, everyone please check if you have filled in your school, admission ticket number, and name!"
"Damn!"
Xu Qingfan’s eyes widened, realizing he hadn’t written them since he started working as soon as the paper was handed out.
Showing off really does get you struck by lightning; he hurriedly flipped to the first page and filled in his name and admission ticket number.
"Ding Ding Ding—"
"The exam is over. Please stop writing, and place your papers and scratch papers at the top right corner of your desk!"
Xu Qingfan packed up his stationery, and both Xia Xiaoxiao and Wu Lingyu turned to look at him, he waved at them with a big smile.
"How did it go?" Xu Qingfan asked as he led them out of the exam room.
"Xu Qingfan, are there really only five ways to fold that square?" Xia Xiaoxiao asked.
Wu Lingyu also looked nervous, her gaze fixed on him.
The question Xia Xiaoxiao referred to was the last one on the fill-in-the-blanks, showing an unfolded cube with eight faces and asking how many ways it could be folded back into a cube.
"Yes, five ways," Xu Qingfan nodded.
"That’s good!" both sighed in relief.
"Dumbasses, haven’t I taught you to just make one with scratch paper if you can’t figure it out?" Xu Qingfan knocked on their heads, half annoyed.
"You’re the dumbass! The invigilator said not to damage the scratch paper or it would be considered cheating!" Xia Xiaoxiao pouted, glaring at him.
"Yikes! Haha~ really? Well, good thing I didn’t tear it, I was about to!" Xu Qingfan gasped in relief, almost disqualified for cheating.
"Hmph, you’re such a dunce!" Xia Xiaoxiao smacked him on the head.
Watching the playful banter between the two, Wu Lingyu felt a pang of envy.
