When Qing Ye heard that Fang Lei planned to apply to Xiamen University, she was quite surprised. After all, in the time she’d known her, Fang Lei had been like most of the students at An Zhong who just coasted through school – casual about attendance, never doing homework without copying, and with total scores in the 300s. To raise that to around 600 in just a few months seemed impossible to Qing Ye, honestly.
But Fang Lei just looked at her that way, the bright moonlight reflecting in her determined pupils. Qing Ye couldn’t avoid it, nor could she directly tell her to give up.
She tentatively said, “It’ll be very difficult.”
But Fang Lei burst forth with unprecedented conviction: “I know.”
“It will be tough.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“You’ll have to sacrifice sleep, phone time, going out, even eating and bathroom breaks. You might go crazy.”
Fang Lei suddenly raised her hand and slapped it heavily on Qing Ye’s shoulder, saying stubbornly: “If I never see Wei Dong again, that would drive me crazy. Qing Ye, tell me what to do, I definitely won’t back down.”
Qing Ye glanced at her sideways and suddenly smiled as if infected by her midnight burst of passion. She looked up at the night sky and sighed deeply: “Let me think about it.”
It seemed only after Qing Ye agreed to help her did Fang Lei find her life direction again. Her utterly dejected mood finally transformed into motivation, and only then did the two return to sleep in the tent.
Before falling asleep, Qing Ye saw Fang Lei’s eyes wide open like brass bells, full of fighting spirit.
The next morning, after everyone finished breakfast, they were organized by the school teachers to go to the competition venue – the Jin Zhong athletic field that had been temporarily converted, where the David Cup was held almost every year.
Only upon arriving did Qing Ye learn that the David Cup had two trials. The first trial was 45 minutes, with questions as difficult as the anchor problems in their daily test papers, worth 100 points total. Anyone scoring below 90 would be eliminated; those scoring above 90 would enter the second trial. The second trial was an hour and a half, all extremely difficult questions that generally required Olympiad math thinking to stand out.
After finding her assigned seat, Qing Ye observed her surroundings. The hundred-some seats were all spread apart, competition discipline was very strict, with one proctor for every few students and cameras recording everything – cheating was basically impossible.
Xing Wu was far from her, sitting near the edge in the back. She turned to glance at him; he was looking down, idly spinning his pen. Seeming to sense Qing Ye’s gaze, he looked up and glanced at her. Fat Hu, not far from him, immediately waved and smiled at Qing Ye. She curled her lips and withdrew her gaze, taking a deep breath to adjust her state of mind.
The first round was casual for her, at most one or two questions more convoluted than the usual difficult problems, but none were an issue for her. Moreover, she knew that for the sake of competition fairness, Xing Wu had tampered beforehand – if she didn’t show some real skill now, wouldn’t that waste his risk in hacking their server?
So Qing Ye was especially focused today, carefully checking each question after finishing, resulting in her advancing to the second trial with a perfect score.
Four others also got perfect scores besides her. Apart from Ye Jing Jian, the other three were all from Jin Zhong, including one Qing Ye knew – Wei Dong, Fang Lei’s crush, who indeed showed some real ability.
What surprised Qing Ye was that Wang Yang, who had been beaten up by Xing Wu, also got a perfect score – truly can’t judge a book by its cover.
From An Zhong, only Qing Ye got a perfect score. Including her, just six people made it to the second trial, with the other five barely squeezing in with 90 points.
Among the students attending the winter camp, academic levels varied greatly, so there was an elimination round, which knocked out a large number of people.
Fat Hu excitedly signaled “82” to Qing Ye from far away, meaning he got 82 points. Though he couldn’t advance to the second trial, this score was a huge leap forward for Fat Hu. Qing Ye gave him a thumbs-up, which delighted him immensely.
Xing Wu walked to the edge of the platform to collect his backpack. As he walked out, he adjusted the strap. Qing Ye knew there was a laptop in the backpack, though she didn’t know why Xing Wu brought it. Soon these people gradually left the competition venue.
The huge venue suddenly had only twenty-nine people left. Besides An Zhong’s six people, the other twenty-three were all from Jin Zhong. The atmosphere suddenly became extremely strange, especially among the five people who got perfect scores in the first round, who couldn’t help but size each other up.
Qing Ye was wearing Jin Zhong’s school uniform – An Zhong’s only seed player wearing the enemy’s battle gear. Anyone who didn’t know better might think she’d defected, which was quite absurd.
Ye Jing Jian turned back to look at Qing Ye, mouthing “Good luck.” Qing Ye smiled confidently and returned: “Tank’s full.”
Turning to see Tian Wei also looking back, Qing Ye hadn’t noticed her this morning, not expecting her to make it to the second trial. Her cheeks were still red now – Qing Ye thought back, wondering if she’d hit too hard last night. She shamelessly gave Tian Wei a sickeningly sweet smile, angering Tian Wei so much that she gripped her pen tightly, trembling all over.
The second round began. As soon as Qing Ye got the questions, her fine brows furrowed. Indeed, compared to this, the first round could only be considered a warm-up.
Also worth 100 points total, the first major question was fill-in-the-blank, just writing answers directly. Qing Ye thought if she were Xing Wu, she’d tamper with the first question, because without showing work, even if predetermined candidates found the question wrong, they couldn’t plug answers into formulas without formulas to use, so the first question’s answers would likely be chosen for rote memorization.
However, she obviously couldn’t worry about that much now. She’d made assumptions before coming – even if predetermined candidates got perfect scores, as long as she also got a perfect score, An Zhong wouldn’t just be making up numbers.
But the more she worked through the questions, the less confident she felt about getting a perfect score.
No one turned in their paper early before the hour and a half ended. The entire venue was silent. When the competition ended, all participants remained seated while designated teachers collected the papers. Education Department staff sealed the name strips on site, then invited waiting students to enter.
Teachers from An Zhong and Jin Zhong graded according to the answers, with Education Department staff supervising. The entire grading process was projected onto the big screen. After all twenty-nine papers were graded, Education Department staff would unseal the name strips and announce the David Cup winners.
The whole process was quite exciting – if there hadn’t been leaked questions, the competition system seemed quite rigorous and fair. Even Qing Ye was eager to try. The entering students sat in their original positions.
This time, Jin Zhong Director Sun Guang Quan and An Zhong’s Teacher Zhu Fen were cooperatively grading based on the answer key unsealed on site, with Teacher Hu and another Jin Zhong math teacher doing review work.
Qing Ye saw Old Zhu holding an answer key, frequently gesturing at Director Sun. Something happened – they had intense arguments just grading the first paper, full of gunpowder.
Not just the students below, but even the surrounding teachers were dumbfounded. Old Zhu directly pointed at the answers saying, “This question is wrong, calculate it if you don’t believe me.”
Teacher Hu and several nearby teachers crowded over. A group of teachers were having a heated discussion, while below was also in an uproar. Qing Ye instantly understood what happened!
She suddenly turned back to look for Xing Wu, but saw his seat empty – he’d gone somewhere and hadn’t returned.
Qing Ye nervously looked back at the stage. Indeed, Xing Wu had thought the same as her – he must have tampered with the first major question, so Jin Zhong’s prepared answers didn’t match the current questions. Logically for such fill-in questions, teachers would usually grade directly from the answer key. Old Zhu discovered the questions and answers didn’t match on the first paper, not completely relying on the answer key – impressive!
This was the first time Qing Ye saw this irritable old man in a new light. Now she could only wait for the final decision from the teachers on stage.
She particularly noticed Director Sun’s expression – he kept arguing with a stern face, of course. Finally, after several math teachers’ calculations, the provided answers were indeed wrong.
Old Zhu directly crossed out the answers on the paper, wrote the correct answers beside them, and urged Director Sun to stop arguing and continue grading, not to waste time.
Thus the grading continued, but unexpectedly, probably because Old Zhu was suspicious, he redid every question himself. As a result, he discovered three more questions with wrong answers on the answer key. Old Zhu instantly became angry, slapping the answer key on the spot and demanding to know what was going on from Sun Guang Quan.
Qing Ye guessed that Director Sun must have discovered something wrong with the questions by now, but given the current situation, he could only grit his teeth and continue grading, his face alternating between red and black.
With all the students sitting below, Old Zhu couldn’t explode. If there weren’t so many people, he definitely would have cursed: “Garbage! As teachers can’t even get answers right, misleading students!”
In the end, Old Zhu angrily corrected the answers himself, with several math teachers gathering around to review. No one dared use that answer key anymore.
The second trial questions were difficult, so the group of teachers also discussed for a long time to determine standard answers, thus taking some extra time. However, the later papers were graded much faster.
Twenty-some papers down, mostly scoring seventies or eighties, without even one paper above 85 points. Qing Ye’s eyes were firmly fixed ahead, still not seeing her paper.
Around the thirteenth paper, suddenly an 88 appeared. The venue instantly erupted. Fat Hu almost stood up from his seat to call Qing Ye. Qing Ye didn’t hear – only when An Zhong people called her together did she turn back, with many people excitedly asking: “Is it yours? Is it yours?”
Qing Ye shook her head, and people disappointedly sat back down to continue waiting.
When she withdrew her gaze, she happened to meet Ye Jing Jian’s proud face. She immediately understood – this 88-point paper was his. Not bad.
More than half the papers were done, but Qing Ye still hadn’t seen hers. An Zhong people became increasingly anxious, asking Qing Ye with almost every paper: “Is this yours?”
However, Qing Ye herself sat steadily in her seat. Based on the teachers’ grading, she had already calculated her score, so wasn’t worried at all.
Just then, she suddenly received Old Zhu’s gaze. He looked at Qing Ye with a pen in his mouth like a cigarette, giving her an ambiguous smile. Though many students sat below, Qing Ye was almost certain the next paper would be hers – Old Zhu recognized her handwriting.
Sure enough, as the paper was turned, her neat and graceful handwriting appeared on the screen. Qing Ye’s lips curled as she nodded to the An Zhong students behind her.
Everyone stood up roaring as if injected with chicken blood. Even the teachers grading papers in front raised their heads, not understanding why these students were shouting.
Throughout the entire grading process, Qing Ye didn’t move a muscle while others wrung their hands, much more nervous than her.
When the last question was graded, Old Zhu showed a gratified smile – 96 points, the same as Qing Ye had calculated, with two small mistakes.
Not just An Zhong people, even Jin Zhong people exploded seeing this score. Ye Jing Jian was so jealous his eyes nearly popped out, looking completely unwilling to accept it. But facts proved that in such a high-difficulty competition, Qing Ye could still lead him by eight points – the gap between them was not small.
What no one expected was that right after Qing Ye’s paper, another high-scoring paper of 92 points appeared. The venue erupted in discussion again, everyone guessing who it could be. All papers were graded with no more high scores appearing.
The outcome was decided. An Zhong instantly began celebrating. Even Old Zhu stood up, leisurely capping his pen, patting Sun Guang Quan’s shoulder, just waiting for Education Department staff to unseal names.
However, at this moment, the test paper content being projected on the big screen suddenly went black.
No one paid attention, thinking some teacher had turned it off, but soon the blackened screen lit up again, and everyone’s gaze instantly turned back.