This person really knows how to be reborn!

Chapter 21: The Beginning and End of the College Entrance Examination

The next day, Zeng Cheng got up very early, accompanied by his elderly father and mother, and the three of them went to the No. 2 Middle School to familiarize themselves with the examination venue.

The specific steps involved walking back and forth along the route from the examination hall gate to the examination room several times.

In fact, this process is absolutely necessary.

After all, every year during the college entrance examination, some students get lost in the examination hall, or even miss the time and are unable to enter the examination room.

In the afternoon, Zeng Cheng stayed at home and did two sets of practice tests to keep his skills sharp.

I didn't touch any books that night; I just lay in bed listening to music for two hours with my earphones in.

After listening to the song and before going to bed, Zeng Cheng called Li Xingzhi to ask if he had memorized the model essay.

Didn't he remember this year's college entrance exam essay topic? So he simply found a model essay several times and forced [the author] to memorize it.

One of them is highly similar to this year's college entrance examination essay.

Two brothers in one lifetime.

In his previous life, when Zeng Cheng was facing the most difficult period in starting his business, Li Xingzhi did everything he could to support him, even tricking him out of his grandfather's pension to give him some money.

Now Zeng Cheng only needs to force this kid to memorize a few model essays, and he can get ten or more points on the college entrance exam. Who knows, he might be able to go from an ordinary non-985/211 university to a 211 university. Why not?

"Cheng-ge, I've memorized it, but it feels like a waste of time. With our luck, we've never even won a twenty-yuan consolation prize in the lottery. How could we possibly guess the question correctly?"

"Hey, you can't say that. Maybe we've been accumulating good karma all along, just waiting for this to happen."

"Fine, you're the older brother, so you call the shots..."

"I'm not going to argue with you anymore. Get some rest and do your best on the exam tomorrow!"

After the two brothers ended their call, Zeng Cheng opened his QQ app and saw that Yu Baiwei's profile picture was lit up. He was about to send her a message when her message arrived first.

[From Up on Poppy Hill: Zeng Cheng, do your best on tomorrow's exam! (Three consecutive smiling emojis)]

Zeng Laoshi: Absolutely! Although I don't plan to go to Tsinghua or Peking University, I plan to be the kind of man even Tsinghua and Peking University can't have!

I really can't help but tease you, you're so shameless!

【Okay, I've received your compliments, but what about the insults?】

【…】

After completely relaxing, Zeng Cheng fell asleep as soon as he lay down on the bed and slept soundly through the night without any dreams.

It must have been because he was in a good state of mind. When he woke up the next day, Zeng Cheng felt that his mind was very clear.

Enter the examination room at 8:30.

At 8:55, the proctors began distributing the Chinese language exam papers.

You can't start writing yet; you have to wait for the 9 o'clock bell. These five minutes are for the test takers to look at the questions.

Zeng Cheng immediately flipped to the essay topic and breathed a sigh of relief when he found that it was exactly the same as what he remembered.

The butterfly effect did not occur.

In other words, his Chinese language score will be about 20 points higher than in his previous life, making up for the last weakness.

If I perform well in other subjects as well, I might actually reach the admission cut-off scores for Tsinghua and Peking Universities and become the man that even Tsinghua and Peking Universities can't have!

As soon as the bell rang, Zeng Cheng quickly got into the zone, picked up his pen, and started working on the problems.

First came the multiple-choice questions, then the poetry fill-in-the-blank and classical Chinese reading comprehension, followed by prose comprehension, and finally the essay...

After he finished writing his 800-word essay, there were less than five minutes left before the end of the exam.

There's not much to check.

Zeng Cheng handed in his paper directly to avoid getting stuck at the school gate later—in 2009, early submission of papers was still allowed in Sichuan Province.

When he left the exam room, he discovered that he was the only one in the entire exam room who dared to hand in his paper early.

Upon arriving at the examination hall entrance, they were logically surrounded by newspaper reporters.

"classmate--"

A beautiful female reporter in professional attire called out to Zeng Cheng and quickly held the microphone to his mouth, indicating that he should say a few words.

Zeng Cheng was a little confused: "Uh, what did you say?"

The beautiful reporter patiently guided him: "Student, you can rate the difficulty of the exam paper."

Zeng Cheng nodded and started talking: "Well, overall, the Chinese exam was a bit too easy. I hope the test-setting team can make it a bit harder next year."

The beautiful reporter's eyes widened: "Uh, why?"

Logically speaking, what test taker would want the exam to be as difficult as possible?

Zeng Cheng looked at the camera and said cheekily, "I'm not taking the exam again next year, so the harder the better!"

The beautiful reporter: "..."

Dude, can't you be a decent human being? Aren't you afraid the freshmen from the class of 10 will stab you in the back?

Showing off will get you struck by lightning.

Zeng Cheng was unable to hand in his math paper early in the afternoon.

It's really tough.

The rest of the time went smoothly until I got to the last big question, when I had a full forty minutes left.

Then it got stuck.

Of the 20 points, I only managed to answer the first sub-question smoothly; I was completely stumped by the last two.

After spending twenty minutes and trying three different approaches without success, Zeng Cheng couldn't help but feel anxious.

The last two questions were worth a full sixteen points. If he couldn't figure them out, he would never be able to exceed the admission cut-off score for Tsinghua and Peking Universities, and the 100,000 yuan bonus would be gone.

Although with the eccentric ideas in his head, he could have made his first fortune through other means—such as betting on sports.

There is no World Cup this year, but the NBA Finals are held every year. He clearly remembers that in a few days the Lakers will defeat the Celtics after a tough Game 7 to win their 15th championship in franchise history.

However, betting on football is too speculative and profiteering. Zeng Cheng would not use this method to make money unless absolutely necessary.

The future CEO Zeng will be on the "slaughter list," and may even become the richest man at Dongda University.

He had to make his rise to wealth seem plausible, avoiding anything that couldn't stand up to scrutiny.

Okay, then don't force me to break the rules.

With only twenty minutes left in the exam, Zeng Cheng realized he couldn't solve the problem using high school math, so he decided to use brute force with advanced mathematics.

Open Luoyang directly!

Although the syllabus clearly stipulates that advanced mathematics cannot be used to solve college entrance examination mathematics problems, rules are rigid but people are flexible.

He can first use brute force with advanced mathematics to get the correct answer, and then work backward from the result to deduce the process—this is called the "same rule".

This approach to solving the problem is definitely not rigorous and may result in a deduction of a few points.

But it's better than getting nothing at all.

Just do it.

Zeng Cheng managed to get the last two questions right before the bell rang.

"call."

He breathed a huge sigh of relief.

I'm unlikely to get a perfect score on the math test this time; I'll probably score somewhere between 145 and 147.

It's a bit of a regret, but it's just a bit of a regret.

Life isn't always perfect; a few minor regrets are the norm.

The next day, Zeng Cheng took the science exam in the morning and the English exam in the afternoon. He could clearly feel that the exam was particularly difficult, but he still performed to the best of his ability.

After finishing my English essay, there were still about ten minutes left before the exam ended.

Zeng Cheng did not turn back to check.

There's nothing to check.

In English, he is relatively poor at test-taking skills and mainly relies on his sense of language, so his first impression is definitely the best.

"call--"

The exam finally ended, and Zeng Cheng let out a heavy sigh of relief.

The main task of the college entrance examination has finally come to an end.

His second life has only just begun.

After leaving the examination hall and returning home, Zeng Cheng found his parents sitting on the sofa.

Judging from the couple's expressions, they seemed even more relieved than he was.

Zeng Cheng felt a pang of emotion—he had worked hard, and his parents hadn't had an easy time either.

His mother, Sun Feng, was even more nervous than he was, to the point of being somewhat neurotic.

Let me give you an example—

In the days leading up to the college entrance examination, Ms. Sun basically didn't let her eldest son do anything.

Then one morning, Zeng Cheng was washing his hair when Sun Feng said that, as was her habit.

[Son, who told you to wash your own hair? Go back to your room and study. Leave your hair there and I'll wash it for you!]