Chapter 79

“Of course I’m going to grade it. Why wouldn’t I grade something I spent time doing?” Qiao Xinyi said. “They promised that as long as I passed, I would get my graduation certificate.” She glanced over at Liu Yun and gave her a big eye roll. 

“I thought you were some kind-hearted, good comrade, but turns out you’re scheming against me.” 

“I knew I never had proper schooling, didn’t know what the elementary students were supposed to study or what the graduation exam was like, so I waited here.” 

When Qiao Xinyi saw the exam paper, she muttered to herself, wondering why elementary school math exams were so deep and difficult these days. She thought maybe the school grade systems were different from the future, so the curriculum was arranged differently too. 

Unexpectedly, Liu Yun and Principal Yang had some tricks: first give her a sincere, straightforward Chinese exam to lower her guard, then hit her with a big surprise. Half the paper—50 points—was clearly not elementary math. They were afraid she might really be able to do it, so they mixed in physics questions to confuse her, and the worst was even some math olympiad questions were included. 

If someone with only elementary-level skills had taken this, wouldn’t their future be ruined by this trick? But Liu Yun’s luck was bad—she happened to meet Qiao Xinyi. Back in the 21st century, when Qiao Xinyi was a student, she could support herself well just by winning various competitions. 

Liu Yun’s low tactics were exposed in front of so many leaders, and her face flushed with shame—and anger. Feeling humiliated under the scrutinizing eyes of Minister Zhu and others, Liu Yun quickly found an excuse and hurried out. 

“If there are questions, there must be answers,” Minister Zhu said to Principal Yang. “Where did you copy these questions from? Bring out the answers and let’s compare.” 

With Minister Zhu’s order, Principal Yang had no choice but to sheepishly pull out several books from his drawer. Among them was a recently published Chinese edition of a math olympiad problem collection, released just a month ago. 

Under the watchful eyes of the leaders, Principal Yang matched the exam questions to the book, checking them off one by one. 

“A perfect score!” Director Qiu said, looking at the bright red 100% and getting more excited than if it were his own child’s exam. 

Minister Zhu immediately asked, “Comrade Qiao Xinyi, how well do you know middle school knowledge? If given the chance to take the middle school graduation exam, would you dare to try?” 

Middle school covers more subjects and deeper content, so Minister Zhu wanted to see if Qiao Xinyi dared to take the challenge. 

“If you pass, you’ll get a middle school graduation certificate too!” Minister Zhu said. “If you’re willing, we’ll head straight to the middle school department of Tong’an No. 1 High School now.” 

“Okay!” Qiao Xinyi immediately agreed. “What about my elementary graduation certificate then?” 

“You’ll come with us to No. 1 High School first. After we arrange your middle school certificate here, the teacher will deliver your elementary certificate to you.” Minister Zhu nodded. “Let’s go, comrade!” 

Qiao Xinyi quickly found a more approachable Chinese teacher to help her. She asked him to tell Fu Qingshan to come find her at No. 1 High School. 

Qiao Xinyi followed Minister Zhu and the others to Tong’an No. 1 High School, which wasn’t far from the Canning Factory Elementary School. Along the way, she chatted with Minister Zhu and the others. On the surface, she explained why she came to take the exam today and why Principal Yang set her difficult questions. But really, she was complaining—reporting how Liu Yun used underhanded tactics to compete for her boyfriend. She essentially put Principal Yang and Liu Yun on the spot in front of the leaders. 

Since it was almost noon and they worried Qiao Xinyi might be hungry, Minister Zhu and the others took her to the cafeteria for lunch, which also gave the teachers at No. 1 High School some time to prepare the exam papers. 

Qiao Xinyi quickly finished her meal and went to the specially opened empty classroom to take the exam.

All the exam papers were printed, and one corner of a paper was a bit dirty—seemingly a spare paper from this year’s graduation exam. When Qiao Xinyi received the middle school exam papers, she realized that education in this era really did differ significantly from the future. Compared to the absurdly difficult tests from her time, these exams were truly very easy for her.

By the time Fu Qingshan bought his train ticket and arrived with Qiao Xinyi’s elementary school graduation certificate, she had already finished several subjects. A few teachers were gathered together grading the papers. As soon as he arrived, he heard Minister Zhu call out to Minister Wu, “Go to the high school department and get a copy of this year’s graduation exam papers. Look at these exams—the middle school content is no challenge at all for this young comrade.” 

“Minister Zhu, Qiao Xinyi got a perfect score in physics!” Director Qiu exclaimed. “My own daughter can’t even score that high.” 

“Full marks in math too,” Minister Zhu said, looking at the freshly graded math results. “She finished these few exam papers in less than an hour, right?” 

“She seems to have amazing mental calculation skills. I saw that she didn’t even need scratch paper for the first part of the questions—only for the big problems where she had to show her work did she write anything down,” Director Qiu said with envy. “Everyone has a brain, but how come hers works so well? If my daughter had a brain like hers, I’d be laughing in my sleep.” 

Minister Wu was already running toward the high school department, thinking how exciting today’s scene was. 

Fu Qingshan stood in the hallway without going inside to avoid disturbing anyone or distracting Qiao Xinyi, but hearing the compliments about her, he couldn’t hide the smile on his face. He had always believed Qiao Xinyi was truly smart, but when that belief was confirmed in this way, he felt especially proud. 

As soon as Qiao Xinyi finished all the middle school papers and came out, she heard Minister Zhu ask if she wanted to challenge the high school graduation exam. He promised her that if she passed, she would also receive a high school graduation certificate. 

Qiao Xinyi shook her sore wrist, didn’t even have time to talk to Fu Qingshan who was standing there smiling at her, and turned her head decisively. Since she was already here, she thought, might as well go for it! She nodded, ran off to the restroom, and then came back clutching the high school exam papers and dove right back into them. 

She was busy with the exams until 7:40 pm. After writing the last period, she threw down her pen without even checking her work and dashed straight to the restroom. Everyone watching just laughed. 

Minister Zhu and the others stayed with her until then, urging the Chinese teacher to start grading. 

“Comrade Fu Qingshan, your girlfriend is better at science than humanities,” Minister Zhu said. He had been talking with Fu Qingshan all afternoon, and everyone was getting familiar. “She got full marks in every science subject, but compared to science, humanities are much weaker.” 

“Minister Zhu, Qiao Xinyi is already nineteen years old; she definitely hasn’t touched a textbook for many years. Humanities require rote memorization, and we didn’t give her any time to prepare—getting this score is quite good,” Director Qiu said sympathetically. “If she had the same amount of study time as ordinary students, she would definitely get into university—and a very good one at that.” 

Qiao Xinyi’s middle school graduation certificate was already ready, and all her materials had been organized. Since the certificate was issued by No. 1 High School, her records would be kept in Tong’an County. 

Only the last Chinese exam for high school was still being graded. As Minister Zhu said, she had full marks in all science subjects, but humanities were just barely above passing—around ten points over the passing line in some cases. 

Minister Zhu agreed with Director Qiu’s words. Precisely because he agreed, he felt Qiao Xinyi was truly wasted by the Chen family. She could even solve math olympiad problems—high school math was definitely not her limit. If she went to university, she would have a broader and higher path to pursue. 

The country needs talent, and such a promising young person had been so badly delayed. Minister Zhu felt heartbroken.