Chapter 6: Is this really all you have to stop me from working at the construction site?

"This?"

Chen Hai stared at the concise and neat answer sheet in disbelief. On the answer card, every step of the problem-solving process appeared perfect.

After a moment of astonishment, Chen Hai whispered to the teacher in the same exam hall, "Teacher Zhao, could you head to the back?"

Zhao Wen’s lips curled upward. He gave old Chen a "I understand" look, tapped Cheng Wu on the shoulder, and walked toward the back. Seeing old Chen like this, he knew his colleague was itching to see the results. After all, he was a math teacher himself.

Proctors were required to monitor the exam hall from both the front and the back, and he had just been at the rear. To get a look at the candidate's test paper, one had to move to the front.

Without further thought, Chen Hai immersed his gaze into Lin Yi’s answer card, test paper, and scratch paper.

Correct! Correct! ... Still correct!

Chen Hai felt numb. The doubts in his heart vanished without a trace, and he thought to himself, "It seems this kid really has genuine talent! I had underestimated him!"

He, Chen Hai, was the head of the mathematics department and had guided over a dozen graduating classes through the college entrance examination. While not a top-tier master in the field of mathematics, he was certainly an authority within his circle. Last year, three of his students achieved perfect scores, and over thirty scored above 140. In the entire Hunan Province, only twenty-one students (in the liberal arts stream) had achieved a perfect score.

With the surveillance camera overhead, he couldn't disturb the candidate's papers and could only see the first page of the test and answer card. He couldn't see the rest. It was maddening!

"Sigh!" Chen Hai sighed. It was agonizing not to be able to see the complete version.

"Should I try to flip it over? Maybe the people watching the monitor won't notice?" Looking at the test paper on the desk, Chen Hai’s eyes burned with curiosity, and his thoughts began to stir. Finally, driven by his impulses, Chen Hai headed toward the "abyss of sin."

***

Lin Yi stepped out of the exam hall, looked up at the scorching sun, and took a deep breath. It felt great!

Although he had been reborn, the feeling of the exam hall remained unchanged. It was like a poor student becoming a father—facing his children's teachers still made his heart pound with nervousness.

"Hello, student."

Just as Lin Yi exited the school gate, a reporter with a microphone rushed up to him.

"Hello." Lin Yi was a bit confused but replied politely.

"What happened to you?" Li Xue asked, looking Lin Yi up and down.

"I was in a car accident."

"A car accident?!" (Shocked)

"Yes."

"When did it happen?"

"This morning."

"This morning?!" (Screaming)

Calming herself down, Li Xue returned to the main topic, "Do you know you are the first person to come out?"

Lin Yi: "Oh," he scratched his head, "I didn't know."

"Then what do you think of the math exam?"

"What do I think?" Lin Yi frowned in deep thought.

*There's a story here!* Li Xue felt a surge of joy.

"I think this year's math problems were too simple." Lin Yi’s eyes lit up. A subtle, cunning smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he looked up and spoke earnestly into the camera.

*Explosive! This is the hook!* Li Xue exclaimed inwardly, almost screaming. A college entrance examinee, a car accident, and such shocking remarks—when combined, wasn't this pure gold? Absolute gold!

Li Xue was ecstatic. After a long moment, she regained her composure. "Could you be more specific?"

"Well, I finished the test in less than an hour, then I just sat there for another half hour before coming out. Sigh, if I could, I would have left at 4 o'clock." Lin Yi spread his left hand helplessly. His right? It was holding a crutch.

"Uh..." A thousand crows flew over Li Xue’s head. *Isn't this bragging a bit too much?*

After grumbling internally, Li Xue asked with a smile, "Then what score do you think you'll get?"

"I'm not sure about a perfect 150, but it should be at least 145."

The cameraman behind the lens twitched his mouth involuntarily. This was too exaggerated! Too pretentious! If he hadn't witnessed it himself, he would have suspected the interview was staged. It was too fake!

"Alright, student, thank you!" Although she was so annoyed she wanted to slap Lin Yi, she had to remain beautiful and polite in front of the camera.

"Hello, student!" Li Xue shifted her focus and jogged over to the second student to come out.

"Hello!"

"What did you think of the exam?"

"A piece of cake!" The boy, wearing thick glasses, adjusted his frames, held his head high, and replied disdainfully, "With just this, they want to stop me from working at a construction site? Let me tell you, no way!"

"Goodbye!"

Li Xue: ...

*What kind of gods are these examinees this year? Each one is more bizarre than the last. This is so hard! I'm having such a hard time!*

***

"Dad." Lin Yi walked up to his father.

"Let's go home." Lin Chen had naturally seen that his son was the first to exit. Although he was curious, he didn't ask. The father and son rode their motorcycle home, facing the setting sun.

The most prominent characteristic of news is timeliness; as for the truth—well...

After editing and drafting the copy, Li Xue immediately uploaded the footage to the internet. Although the new media of 2012 wasn't as developed as it would be in the future, it was in a period of rapid growth, with hundreds of millions of netizens and a massive market. Li Xue hesitated for a long time before deciding to split the afternoon's interview material into two parts:

"Bizarre Examinee: I Wanted to Leave at Four"
"Bizarre Examinee: With Just This, You Want to Stop Me From Working?"

Unexpectedly, these two short videos went viral online. Within two hours, they had over a million views.

"I've never seen anyone so arrogant. That expression seems to say, 'Is this test even worthy of me?'"
"Hahaha! It's as if the paper insulted my hands."
"I'm not sure about a perfect 150, but at least 145! Look at that, is that even human speech?"
"+1."
"With just this? With just this? You want to stop me from working!"
"If you fail the exam, see you at the construction site. If you pass, congratulations—in four years, see you at the construction site again! Kids, remember, the construction site is your final destination."

Li Xue watched the view counts and comments, her mouth agape in shock. Why did she split the interview into two? It was mainly because she had encountered two "legendary" characters at the same time and couldn't choose between them.

"Little Li, well done," the magazine editor-in-chief said, squinting and praising her. "Keep up the good work!"

"I will! Thank you, Editor-in-Chief Lin!" Li Xue was flattered and quickly replied.

At the same time, a firm idea took root in her mind: to use "bizarre" as her signature style and build a series of quirky videos! Every year, many media outlets come to interview during the college entrance exam. How does one stand out among the crowd and win the audience's favor?

You have to have your own unique style!

Thinking of this, Li Xue clenched her fists, her face flushed, and her heart pounded with excitement. Shortly after the editor left, unable to contain her thrill, she immediately called her best friend to share her joy.

"Yanyan, I was praised by the editor-in-chief!"