Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The next day, early morning.
Dragging his “heavy” body, Chen Yu walked out of “Portal” Square and returned to the cigarette store along the same way he came.
Along the way, he saw many private buses.
The people in those buses were all from various middle high schools and were candidates for the college entrance examination.
This aroused a reaction from Chen Yu, as he came to realize that today was the day of the written test portion of the college entrance examination…
The annual college entrance examination was actually divided into two parts.
The written test and the martial arts examination.
The former was mainly to screen the candidates for “seeded players,” as well as to get a feel of the strength of the city’s candidates.
The latter was the main event. It was the true college entrance examination in people’s eyes.
“Don’t I need to participate in the written test?”
As he thought about this, Chen Yu quickened his pace and returned to the cigarette store.
Inside the store, it was quiet.
Sister Qi obviously wasn’t awake yet.
He didn’t think it would be good to disturb her sleep, so he opened the store early for business.
And as he did so, he secretly smoked a few cigarettes.
Around eight o’clock in the morning, Sister Qi came downstairs, yawning, and greeted, “Morning.”
Chen Yu replied, “Good morning.”
“Our operating hours start at nine. There’s no need to open the store so early.”
“I was awake anyway.” Chen Yu secretly hid the cigarette stubs away, then asked, “The written test is today, right? I saw lots of people heading over to the examination grounds. Don’t I need to go?”
“Oh, so you are worried about this.” Realization dawned on Sister Qi. She picked up a bottle of mineral water, took a sip, and, waving her hand, she said, “No need. I’ve already talked with No. 7 Middle High. You’ll just wait till July seventh to participate in the martial arts examination.”
“Understood.” Chen Yu set his mind at ease.
…
After breakfast, Sister Qi went upstairs to start on her binge-watching of some drama.
Chen Yu, on the other hand, continued to watch the store.
With nothing much to do, he took out his phone to watch the written test of the Green City’s college entrance examination happening in real-time.
The written test was divided into two sessions: one in the morning and one in the afternoon.
The test in the morning was purely a written test. It was to test the students for their proficiency level in the arts and sciences.
The test in the afternoon was the physical examination. It was to test the students for the level of destructive gas in their bodies. Then, the students would be ranked accordingly to how high or how low their levels were.
The first twenty would be the “seeded” players of this year’s college entrance examination of Green City.
The top martial arts student would usually only emerge from among these twenty students.
If a candidate who wasn’t shortlisted as one of the twenty “seeded” players eventually emerged as the top martial arts student, he would be called a Dark Horse Scholar.
However, for the past twenty years or so, the entire nation had seldom seen such dark horses appear…
Time passed quickly, and soon it was night.
The results of the Green City’s written examinations were announced on the internet.
This year, No. 1 Middle High and No. 4 Middle High had very strong candidates.
Out of the top twenty candidates, eleven came from these two middle high schools.
As for No. 2 Middle High, the school that Chen Yu had been expelled from, only one of its candidates made the list.
Among the top twenty candidates, the one who emerged as Number One was Wang Baoqiang from No. 1 Middle High, and that won him the title of Civil Scholar (i.e. the first in the physical examination).
It was said that he also had a younger brother with mediocre talent. His name was Wang Baofei…
Wang Baoqiang’s results for the physical examination were really outstanding!
He’d made it to the standard of a Level 1.5 Warrior!
Even Chen Yu couldn’t withhold a burst of profanity at the sight of this score.
Many undergraduates of first-tier universities couldn’t even reach Level 1.5 by the time they graduated…
The vast majority of Green City’s local media had long taken Wang Baoqiang to be both the Civil Scholar and the Martial Arts Scholar…
After all, his strength, which was at Level 1.5, was far higher than second place by 0.3.
Among the twenty seeded players, it was difficult for anyone to pose a threat to him…
Swiping his finger across the phone screen, Chen Yu also looked into the profile of that candidate from No. 2 Middle High who’d made it onto the list of “seeds.”
His last name was Liang, first name Fan.
“So it’s really him…”
Turning off his phone, Chen Yu leaned back into the boss’s chair and recalled what he knew about Liang Fan.
Liang Fan. That was a very popular name in No. 2 Middle School.
All other students followed a standard teaching ratio of a few teachers to a few dozen students.
But he, on the other hand, had a few dozen teachers coaching just him alone!
Even Chen Yu himself had met Liang Fan in person only once, when he was in his first year at high school. Thereafter, Liang Fan had completely isolated himself from the “mortal world,” not establishing any contact at all with the “mere mortals”…
“With good grades, one can really rise up to Heaven.”
Smacking his lips, Chen Yu tossed his phone aside and yawned, no longer bothering himself with the written examination, which was nothing more than a crappy matter anyway.
Be it Liang Fan, or Wang Baoqiang, they were just one more person added to the list of people he’d bash up in the time to come…
“Buzz… Buzz…”
It was barely a few minutes later that his phone began vibrating.
Chen Yu didn’t need to look to know who the caller was.
“Sister?”
“How did you fare on the written examination?” Through the earpiece, Chen Siwen’s voice sounded full of expectation as she asked, “I was afraid that I would be stressing you out and affect your performance, so today, both Mother and I didn’t dare to call you.”
“Ah…” Chen Yu scratched his ear and said, “My results weren’t bad.”
“What counts as ‘not bad’?”
He casually threw a number out: “Level 0.42.”
“0.42?!” Chen Siwen was pleasantly surprised and said, “Doesn’t that mean that you have hope for college?!”
“College or whatever it is. On the day of the college entrance examination, you should come to the examination venue. I’ll give you and mom a surprise.”
“Examination venue… the tickets are very expensive, I suppose.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the entrance fee.”
“That won’t be necessary. After I get fired, I’ll get a sum of money as compensation. It should be enough for two tickets.”
“You haven’t been fired yet? Do you need me to suggest more ideas? When you learn about your boss’s private matters, you make up nonsensical stories about it; when your boss has little secrets…”
“Bye!”
“Beep…”
Chen Yu: “…” (speechless)
Not being able to fully perform his rap of “double rhyming” words was quite suffocating, and he felt quite uncomfortable…
When his shift finally ended, he went upstairs and found that Sister Qi had already made dinner.
Chen Yu was surprised and asked, “What’s the occasion? Why the sumptuous spread?”
Sister Qi opened two bottles of wine and sat at the table. She passed one bottle to Chen Yu and said, “Sit. I have something to tell you.”
“What is it?”
“You sit down first.”
Taking a seat across from Sister Qi, Chen Yu took the bottle from her and poured himself a glass of wine. Then, he quietly waited for the other party to speak.
“After today, it will only be fourteen days left until the college entrance examination.” Sister Qi raised her glass and proposed a toast. “First of all, I wish you all the best for the college entrance exam.”
“Thanks.”
“Clang~”
The two clinked their glasses and drank.
“Then, what I want to say is…” Sister Qi propped her head with one hand and smiled. “Fourteen days, two weeks. Time is tight. You should put more energy into your cultivation. Therefore, after today, you no longer need to come to work.”
“This… is quite awkward.” Chen Yu hurriedly poured himself another glassful and said, “But whatever Sister Qi says, I have to listen. Otherwise, I would make you, Sister Qi, unhappy. In that case, I won’t report to work tomorrow. Actually, I’m quite unwilling to quit working.”
Sister Qi said, “If you can’t bear to leave this place, you can also continue to…”
Chen Yu asked, “Sister Qi, can I interrupt you to say something?”
Sister Qi: “Haven’t you already interrupted?”
Chen Yu: “… Alright then. I have a lot of things that I’d like to say, but I don’t know where to start. Anyway, thank you for going all out to help me so tirelessly, Sister Qi. I, Chen Yu, owe you a personal favor.”
“Let’s stop talking about this. Cheers.”
Chen Yu: “Ah?”
“… I was saying, cheers.”
“Oh, oh, cheers.”
“Cheers!”
“Clang!”
…
