Chapter 12

On July 6th, the day before the college entrance exam, Bian Xuedao didn't even flip through a single page of his books.

It wasn't that he felt absolutely confident and saw no need to review; rather, the pressure was so immense that he simply couldn't concentrate.

Though he had already taken the same test once and knew many of the major questions, and despite having Zhou Hang as a backup, the pressure was still overwhelming!

Bian Xuedao's way of relieving stress was to sing. For the entire morning, he sang songs he was good at in his room—Chinese, English, songs that had already been released, and even those that hadn't been created yet.

As he sang, Bian Xuedao realized that these songs might be valuable, so he used his portable cassette player to record himself while singing.

After lunch, Bian Xuedao rode his bike out, saying he would be back soon.

He first went to the No. 5 examination room at the Fourth Middle School to check the location, then wandered around the city, riding for a while and resting for a while. Finally, he rode to Dong Xue's building and looked up at the window on the fourth floor.

After a few minutes, not seeing Dong Xue, he pedaled hard and sped back home.

On July 7th, Bian Xuedao woke up early.

He carefully reviewed the outline for his essay on integrity, which he had been thinking about for days, then sat in the courtyard with his portable cassette player to listen to music.

During the meal, seeing his parents' lack of appetite, Bian Xuedao smiled and reassured them, "Don't worry, I'll definitely get you a bachelor's degree. I'll go by myself, you two don't need to see me off or pick me up; you coming would make me nervous."

Before leaving, his mother carefully checked his items and told him, "Be sure to be thorough."

The first subject was Chinese.

This was the subject Bian Xuedao had studied the least, apart from math, but it was also the subject he was most confident in.

After sitting in the examination room for a while, Zhou Hang arrived.

The two, like other candidates who didn't know each other, didn't exchange any words. Zhou Hang didn't even look at Bian Xuedao and quietly sat in his seat.

About 20 minutes before the exam, Dong Xue arrived at the examination room.

The first bell rang.

One invigilator read out the examination rules, while another checked the candidates' admission cards, comparing the photos on the cards with the candidates' faces.

A mobile invigilator entered the classroom and spoke a few words to the invigilator at the podium, who then began to open the envelope containing the test papers.

Then, the answer sheets were distributed.

Five minutes before the exam, the test papers were distributed, and the invigilator loudly reminded the candidates to write their names and candidate numbers in the designated areas on the test papers, and not to start answering until the bell rang.

Bian Xuedao quickly scanned the Chinese test paper.

Pronunciation, identifying misspelled words, word usage, idiom usage, finding grammatical errors... The classical Chinese passage was about Tian Dan, the reading comprehension questions were about "The Naming of the Bronze Galloping Horse" and "Opening and Closing Doors," and the essay topic, as expected, was about integrity.

The bell rang!

The invigilator announced, "The exam has begun!"

Bian Xuedao took a few deep breaths and started answering the questions.

Answering the questions went very smoothly. Apart from a few questions closely tied to the textbook, which he wasn't entirely sure about, the rest were too simple for a professional proofreader at a provincial newspaper.

Identifying misspelled words, incorrect word and idiom usage, incorrect punctuation, incorrect sentence structure, and grammatical errors, and determining the correct word order, analyzing articles to extract the main theme, and checking if the content matched the title and conveyed the intended meaning—these tasks were not just beyond the capabilities of the high school students taking the exam, but even if all the teachers in Chunshan City were combined, none would be as professional as Bian Xuedao.

He answered the questions smoothly until he reached the essay.

The essay requirements were: self-determined theme, self-selected genre, and self-proposed title.

This was very suitable for Bian Xuedao to showcase his skills.

In his previous life, Bian Xuedao had seen some model essays for the college entrance exam, but he hadn't seen the 2001 model essays. Most of the model essays he had seen were limited by the students' identities and perspectives, focusing on expressing emotions and organizing feelings.

But Bian Xuedao was different. He had worked at a newspaper for nearly 10 years, dealing with policies, editorials, phenomena, and in-depth analysis every day. He couldn't write emotional essays, but he could handle short argumentative essays without any problem.

In the opening, Bian Xuedao cited examples of German farmers selling pumpkins with "no cashier" and German drivers paying for "self-service" gas, then defined integrity as the foundation for the efficient operation of society.

After discussing the value of integrity, he posed a hypothetical question: What would happen if a society widely lacked integrity? He provided many negative examples of the consequences of a lack of integrity 10 years later.

Then, Bian Xuedao pointed out the subjects that needed to be honest: integrity in the economic sector, integrity in political life, and integrity in personal interactions. However, relying solely on individual morals and conscience to sustain the entire society was impossible.

What should be done?

Bian Xuedao continued: To maintain integrity, one must first abide by the law. The government must lead by example to encourage the people to be honest. Integrity construction should start with the government. At the same time, integrity is a social civilization, and civilization can only grow from a complete system. Therefore, a credit system must be introduced, and an effective and complete mechanism for punishing dishonest behavior must be established.

Finally, through publicity and education, the concept of integrity should be deeply rooted in people's hearts, forming a social trend where "honesty and integrity are honored, and profit-seeking at the expense of morality is shameful," making the whole society consciously regard integrity as the basic rule for interpersonal interactions, business operations, and government administration.

Bian Xuedao finished answering all the questions in an hour and a half. He didn't submit his paper early but went through the entire test again, writing the answers to the multiple-choice questions on his transparent handbag with a pencil. Then he sat quietly in the examination room, resting until the bell rang for submission.

He went home and took a nap at noon. In the afternoon, Bian Xuedao sat calmly in the examination room, waiting for the math test papers to be distributed.

It was a boring and stressful afternoon.

Although Bian Xuedao had memorized some formulas, formulas were one thing, and the questions were another.

When Bian Xuedao saw the math test paper, his mind went blank.

From the first question to the last, intervals, inverse functions, ranges, eccentricities, periodic functions... The questions recognized him, but he didn't recognize the questions; he didn't know any of them.

The 2001 version of Bian Xuedao might have known a little, but the 2014 version of Bian Xuedao knew nothing.

The maturity of an adult's mind showed its value. Many liberal arts students struggled with math, and there were many math dunces, but few were as composed as Bian Xuedao. He calmly laid out his scratch paper and wrote and drew on it with a serious demeanor. He looked at the questions for a while, then wrote a few lines on the scratch paper, not raising his head to look at the invigilators for over an hour, controlling his answering pace with great seriousness.

From his performance during the exam, no one could tell that Bian Xuedao didn't know any of the questions.

As Bian Xuedao wrote various formulas on the scratch paper that even aliens couldn't understand, the two invigilators' eyes covered the entire classroom. After observing, a few candidates who turned pale and started sweating 30 minutes into the exam, sitting there for a long time without writing anything, were listed as key observation targets.

Bian Xuedao and Zhou Hang were not among them.

That afternoon, Bian Xuedao didn't solve a single question, but he felt more exhausted than if he had taken three Chinese exams. With 40 minutes left before submission, Zhou Hang was still working on the problems.

Bian Xuedao continued to pretend to answer questions.

With 30 minutes left before submission, an invigilator reminded a candidate in the examination room to follow the rules.

With 20 minutes left, Zhou Hang lightly kicked the chair leg twice.

Bian Xuedao's spirit was refreshed.

It looked like Zhou Hang was still calculating something on the paper, and no one paid special attention to the 2B pencil he was slowly spinning in his left hand. He spun it very slowly, far less impressively than the other candidates who spun their pencils with flair. No one noticed that the tip of Zhou Hang's pencil pointed in different directions each time.

Bian Xuedao wrote 12 Arabic numerals on the scratch paper, the largest being 4 and the smallest being 1.

He wrote the 12 numbers on his transparent handbag again and started waiting for the bell to ring for submission.

He knew he couldn't submit his paper early under any circumstances.

If one of the invigilators taught math and glanced at his paper, they would see that his answers to the major questions were all random, while his multiple-choice answers were highly accurate, which would be a clear insult to the invigilators.

Bian Xuedao felt Zhou Hang kick the chair leg again. Then he saw Zhou Hang adjust his scratch paper, pressing a small piece under his left elbow.

Bian Xuedao saw a few numbers written in pencil on it...

Page AD starts

Page AD ends