Chapter 60

When the first class was over, Fang Qiu was surprised to see Qiao Mu at the door waiting specifically for him.

As he was informed to take another test, his astonishment deepened.

But he still agreed to go to the Director’s office in the School of Chinese Medicine building after the second class.

Qiao Mu did not tell Fang Qiu the reason, because he did not want a normal student to get involved in the fight between the Director and the vice-Director.

The only thing a student should focus on was study!

Qiao Mu returned to the building of his school and explained that Fang Qiu still had a class to attend.

The Director nodded.

Then, he turned to Zhang Xinming, who just got back after retrieving the test paper.

Smirking, Zhang Xinming took out a test paper and said, “This is the paper for the first round of the Chinese Medicine Knowledge Competition two years ago. Since you claim that this Fang Qiu is so brilliant, why not let him have a try at it?”

“Test questions from the competition two years ago?”

The faces of Qiao Mu and Qi Kaiwen instantly darkened.

They remembered it very well.

The questions from two years ago were said to be the most deadly test over the years!

Those questions were extremely obscure.

In that year, among the 81 participants from nine universities, the highest score was merely 65 points, which merely scraped a pass.

The lowest score was 15 points, which was quite terrible!

By those scores, it was easy to tell how difficult and esoteric this test paper was!

No wonder Zhang Xinming agreed on this plan so briskly. It turned out that he had stored this move for them.

The reason why he did not tell them to use this test paper was the concern that Qiao Mu might tip Fang Qiu off. Now, since he learned Fang Qiu was in class, he finally revealed the test paper!

“How insidious!”

Zhang Xinming was staring at the two, sneering.

He was bragging in his mind.

“Want to fight me?”

“You two are too lousy!”

He did not think this boy called Fang Qiu could be competent to pass this test. He did not think this boy called Fang Qiu could be competent to pass this test. “He’d better pray to the Buddha for even getting 50 points!”

“If he failed the test, he shall be kicked out from this contest completely.”

As for the full marks Fang Qiu obtained in the preliminary selection, he just did not believe Fang Qiu got them by himself.

“Not a single student could achieve that.”

He speculated that this student must have got in by Qi Kaiwen’s connections. He might have a solid knowledge about the basics, but it was still impossible for him to obtain full marks. In light of those scruples as well as Li Qingshi’s urgent persuasion, he was determined to take down Fang Qiu.

“How about it? Pretty good, huh?”

Asked Zhang Xinming, smiling at the other two.

“Vice-Director Zhang, isn’t it a bit demanding?”

Said Qiao Mu with a wry smile.

“If he does have such talent as you described, he won’t be afraid of demanding challenges, will he?”

Replied Zhang Xinming beamingly.

Then, he turned to look at Qi Kaiwen.

“Well then, it’s settled. Just wait for Fang Qiu to come here.”

Said Qi Kaiwen, who looked quite composed.

But actually, his insides were churning.

“In political competition, only the result matters. No one will care how difficult the test questions are.”

“If Fang Qiu is really kicked out from the competition, I, the Director, will lose this round to the vice-Director.”

“I can only pray for Fang Qiu, hoping he is truly as talented as Qiao Mu said.”

At eleven-forty, Fang Qiu finished his class. He left his schoolbag to his roommates and asked them to bring it back to the dormitory. Then, he went for the building of the School of Chinese Medicine on his own.

Arriving at the office of the Director, Fang Qiu knocked three times on the door and paused.

“Come in!”

A voice sounded inside the room.

Fang Qiu pushed the door open to see three men sitting in the office.

He only recognized Qiao Mu.

“Director Qi, vice-Director Zhang, this is student Fang Qiu.”

Qiao Mu hurriedly got to his feet and introduced Fang Qiu. Then, he told Fang Qiu, “This is Director Qi of our School of Chinese Medicine, and this is our vice-Director Zhang.”

“Directors, nice to meet you.”

Fang Qiu gave a bow and greeted them.

But since Fang Qiu stepped through the door, Qi Kaiwen and Zhang Xinming had been measuring this student who they only heard of but never met in person.

From the start to the end.

Even when he did the greetings.

They only saw four words in this student.

“Neither humble nor arrogant!”

“Good!”

Muttered Qi Kaiwen in his mind.

“This is the student who doesn’t get along with my nephew? And he is said to have humiliated Qingshi quite severely?”

But Zhang Xinming was staring at Fang Qiu condescendingly. He thought, “Today I shall see how you can get over with this conundrum!”

“Now that the participant is here, let’s start the test.”

Zhang Xinming drew out the test paper and put it directly onto the end table beside the sofa.

Fang Qiu glanced at Zhang Xinming.

He could feel distinct hostility this vice-Director held towards him.

He was confounded. “I seem not to have offended him, have I?”

After that, he also shot an inquisitive look at Qiao Mu.

Qiao Mu nodded and handed him a pen.

Fang Qiu took the pen and settled himself on the sofa, ready to take the test.

“You have one hour.”

Said Zhang Xinming.

Fang Qiu nodded, and then, started writing rapidly.

He had no idea why he was called here to take a test. But considering the stern looks of the three in this office, he was sure there was something going on that he was ignorant of.

“But it’s just a test. I’ll treat it as a chance to exam how much the knowledge I’ve grasped.”

With the rustling of papers, Fang Qiu kept writing at top speed.

The clock ticked by.

The three men in the office had fixed their eyes on Fang Qiu, who was a little distance away at a corner of the room.

One minute passed.

Two minutes passed.

Five minutes ticked by.

Ten minutes ticked by.

“This student called Fang Qiu has not stopped writing even for a second?”

The three was startled to see this scene.

Especially Zhang Xinming.

He was well aware of the difficulty of this test paper. “How can a person answer the questions so fast, without a stop?”

He wanted to go over and see what he was writing so fast. But since Qi Kaiwen might accuse him of disturbing Fang Qiu on purpose, he could just watch this in confusion.

As Qi Kaiwen was getting more and more astonished at this, his confidence was gathering, too.

“Could this student really be so outstanding that he can easily handle all the difficult questions?”

“If so, our University of Chinese Medicine might have recruited a real talent by chance!”

At first, Qiao Mu was deeply concerned about whether Fang Qiu could overcome this devious test paper.

But at sight of Fang Qiu writing the answers without a pause as if well-practiced, he knew he was doing as well as he did when he took tests in the classroom.

His heart that had jumped to his throat slowly slid back to its original place.

At this time, Fang Qiu flipped the paper over and went on writing.

Just as he turned the page.

The three in the office caught sight of the densely packed answers on the test paper.

The looks in the eyes of Qi Kaiwen and Qiao Mu turned quite excited.

While Zhang Xinming was stilling smiling, his eyes seemed to be getting glum.

Fifteen minutes went by.

Twenty minutes went by.

Thirty minutes went by.

Forty minutes elapsed.

Now, only twenty minutes were left before the one-hour deadline Zhang Xinming set was due.

Fang Qiu had kept writing and writing.

As if he needed no time to brood when answering each of the questions.

He could simply write the answers at the sight of the question.

Once he finished one question, he would move on to the next.

“His hand doesn’t seem to get tired at all!”

Zhang Xinming snorted inwardly.

But an ominous feeling was building up inside him.

Forty-five minutes later.

Fang Qiu put down the pen.

At this, Zhang Xinming’s smile finally reached his eyes.

“You’re finally baffled, right?“

“Seems you’re nothing more than this.”

However, as Fang Qiu suddenly put down his pen, he scooped up the paper, got to his feet, looked at the three and said, “I’ve finished.”

“What?”

The three of them were all thunderstruck.

“Finished?”

“But this is a super difficult test paper!”

“You said you’ve finished?”

“It only took you forty-five minutes to finish it?”

“Back then, no participants managed to complete the paper in one hour, and all of them did not stop writing the answers until the last minute of the contest.”

“But you said you’ve already done it?”

“Fang Qiu, are you sure you’ve finished?”

Asked Qiao Mu, astonished.

Fang Qiu nodded.

“This is impossible!”

Spluttered Zhang Xinming.

“How could it be done?”

“Even a professor might not finish answering all the questions in forty-five minutes, let alone a student who had just attended two classes!”

Qi Kaiwen strode forward, took the test paper from Fang Qiu’s hands and swiftly flipped through it.

He surely found all the questions were answered!

Immediately, he looked up at Fang Qiu with surprised joy.

“He answered all the questions that beat all the intelligent students from the participating universities in about forty minutes?”

And he roughly scanned through the answers.

They were not nonsense. Some of them were even quite accurate.

“We have a real talent in the School of Chinese Medicine?”

“Vice-Director Zhang, would you like to verify the answers now or allow Fang Qiu to recheck them?”

Smiling, Qi Kaiwen passed the paper to Zhang Xinming.

Without demur, Zhang Xinming took the test paper instead of asking Fang Qiu if he needed a chance to recheck the paper.

“Now that he said he had finished, he must know what he is doing. No need for a recheck.”

Zhang Xinming immediately fumbled out the slip of the standard answers from his pocket.

He began to verify the answers one by one.

“The first one, correct.”

“Well, it’s a single choice, relatively simple. It’s easy to guess it right.”

“The second one, correct.”

“Umm, another lucky guess!”

“The third one, correct.”

“He is really in luck!”

“The fourth one, correct.”

“Holy sh*t coincidence!”

“The fifth one, correct.”

…

He looked all the way till the tenth question.

Now, Zhang Xinming was sort of speechless.

“He did ten good guesses for the ten single-choice questions in a row!”

“Seems that he does have some skills. Qi Kaiwen did not recommend an unqualified candidate to fill in.”

“However, these ten questions are the simplest part of the test. Among the eight-one participants two years ago, only one participant got a question wrong in the first ten single-choice questions, and the rest were all right.”

“From that, we can say the first ten questions are just so-so!”

“Though he got all of them correct, it only earned him five points!”

Zhang Xinming went on looking through the paper and checking the answers.

“The answer to the eleventh question.”

“Correct.”

“The answer to the twelfth question.”

“Correct.”

“The answer to the thirteenth question.”

“Correct.”

…

Up to the twentieth question.

“All correct!”

Zhang Xinming looked in disbelief now.

He remembered it clear that two years ago, only half of the participant, that was 40 of them, answered the twenty questions correctly.

“Does this mean Fang Qiu is already above the average of the participants from the competition two years ago?”

He found it hard to accept this thought.

It should be noted that the eighty-one students had prepared for the test for a whole month, reciting books day and night, before achieving it.

“But how long has this kid studied this major?”

“Eight days plus a half!”

“Okay, even if we take the military training period into consideration, it’ll only be a little more than two weeks.”

“But he already reached such a level?”

“Could he have previewed the subjects during the summer holiday?”

Zhang Xinming could not help but wonder.

But soon, he dismissed this thought.

“A student who just got over with the college entrance examination would certainly want to relax as much as he likes. Even if he previews the lessons, he can’t be going into it deeply, so he actually won’t keep much of the knowledge in mind.”

“Sheer luck!”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“He must have guessed all the answers by sheer luck!”

Zhang Xinming told himself with assurance in his mind.

Then, he continued to check the answers.

The next part was multiple-choice questions.

This part was more than two times harder than the single-choice part.

According to his memory, back then, only fifteen of the participants got the twenty multiple-questions right.

“The answer to the first one.”

“Correct.”

“What an overwhelming luck he has!”

“The second one, correct.”

“He must have been hitting the skids for a whole week previously to get such luck now!”

“The answer to the third one.”

“Wrong!”

“Hahahaha…”

“You finally got one wrong!“

“Eventually, you ran out of your luck!”

Zhang Xinming felt rejoiced, and his expression also lit up with pleasure.

Fang Qiu detected the change in Zhang Xinming’s face as well as the question he was staring at.

He was more convinced that there must be some unknown conflict between him and Zhang Xinming.

Otherwise, he would not be so glad to see he got one answer wrong.

It was true that this question was a blind spot for him. Since he did not read anything about it before, it was normal to get the wrong answer.

But Qi Kaiwen and Qiao Mu felt their hearts missed a beat.

They did not see the answers, so they had no idea how well Fang Qiu did.

At the sight of Zhang Xinming’s radiating face, they started to wonder if Fang Qiu really did a poor job on the test.

Zhang Xinming did not pay any attention to the other three but kept on verifying the answers.

“The fourth one.”