CTF 0030

Professor An was relieved to finally have found the problem with his electric bicycle. 

This indicated that the blueprint was indeed effective, and it was their initial misunderstanding—they hadn’t considered the compatibility of materials, which caused their failure. 

They were now eager to return and experiment with other modes of transportation. If they could all convert solar energy into electricity and then into kinetic energy, would the country still need to worry about the whims of major oil-exporting nations?

“Thank you, Xu Yin. Your thinking and practical skills are impressive. Have you decided on a major for your college entrance exam?”

Xu Yin mentioned that she was considering applying for a fashion design major.

“???”

The professor and his students couldn’t help but exchange puzzled glances. 

They questioned, “Your academic performance…?”

Was she not a great student? 

It shouldn’t be the case, as she could understand such advanced design drawings. A student with such skills in science and engineering should have strong academic abilities. 

However, before they could delve further into this topic, the door of the Xu family’s courtyard was knocked on once again.

“Is this Xu Yin’s house?”

Xu Yin opened the door to find the neighbouring class’ maths teacher.

“Mrs Yang, what brings you here?”

“Haha! Xu Yin, you’ve brought honour to our school! In the recent joint exams of the top ten schools, can you guess what place you achieved?”

“…”

Before Xu Yin could respond, Mrs Yang eagerly announced, “Sixth place!”

Sixth place in the overall ranking among the top ten schools! 

This was the most outstanding and remarkable achievement that any student in their school had ever achieved.

In the past, the highest rank that her school achieved had never gone above the nineteenth place in the overall ranking. That student, who ranked nineteenth, had received an academic scholarship due to their family’s financial difficulties and was as such both a hard worker and an extremely intelligent person.

For the past couple of years, even the best-ranked student in her grade usually ranked outside the top fifty.

The school had expected to achieve similar results this year, considering that there weren’t any exceptionally outstanding students in this cohort. However, it turned out that Xu Yin was a dark horse.

She achieved full marks in mathematics, physics, and English. The highest score that one could get in mathematics was 120, which was the highest among all the subjects tested. In comparison, the full score for Chinese was only 100.

Also, this year’s mathematics test was exceptionally difficult. Only three students from the ten schools got perfect scores: one was Xu Yin, while the other two were top students in the advanced class of the city’s key schools.

Meanwhile, the other students all stumbled over the challenging questions in the test. Students who usually scored above 90 points struggled to even touch the 80-point threshold this time. Those who typically passed without much concern found themselves in uncharted territory, with low scores.

These students were from the city’s top schools. 

Meanwhile, the results of the students from the rural town schools were even worse. The top students from the rural town schools relied heavily on excelling in humanities subjects to make up for their lower scores in science and mathematics.

When the Academic Affairs Office received the transcript, they thought there was a mistake and did not dare to inform Xu Yin. 

The school principal went out of his way to verify the score and make sure it was correct. He then asked Mrs Yang to stop by to tell the good news when she came to visit her relatives who lived in Xu Yin’s village.

Although he didn’t teach Xu Yin directly, he still considered this a great honour for the school, and himself as the principal.

When Professor An heard about Xu Yin’s remarkable academic performance, he couldn’t help but be excited. Since she’d received perfect scores in mathematics and physics, she had a talent in science and engineering. 

He quickly advised her, “You shouldn’t study fashion engineering. Come to Tsinghua and study physics! With your thinking and hands-on skills, it would be a waste not to study physics! In this case, I will go back and apply for a scholarship on your behalf right away. I’ll try to get you a spot with my recommendation.”

After saying that, he motioned to his apprentice to carry the successfully modified bicycle and left in a hurry.

He was concerned that Xu Yin might refuse his offer if he kept lingering.

Xu Yin: “…”

Mrs Yang, who’d come to announce the good news, nearly dropped her jaw. “Xu Yin, Xu Yin, that is…”

“His name is Professor An. He’s here to do some research work,” Xu Yin truthfully said. 

She didn’t know anything more about him.

“Then, what he just said about Tsinghua University… He said he’ll get you a place there… Is that true?” Mrs Yang looked eagerly and expectant.

“Well…”

That might be true, but she hadn’t decided whether to study physics yet.

Physics felt like a world away from her initial choice of major. The gap seemed insurmountable.

Mrs Yang, however, was growing more and more excited as she considered the possibilities. She couldn’t contain her elation, saying, “It’s possible! It must be possible! Otherwise, why would he say that? Haha! Our school will finally have a student who’s been granted direct entry to a prestigious university like Tsinghua. This is amazing!”

Xu Yin tried to temper Mrs Yang’s excitement, saying, “Mrs Yang, please calm down!”

The corner of Xu Yin’s lips twitched. She was worried that Mrs Yang would yell the entire way back to her home. 

She said, “Just because Professor An has this idea doesn’t guarantee that Tsinghua will offer me this opportunity. Maybe we should wait a little longer. We don’t want to get our hopes up for no reason.”

Mrs Yang’s enthusiasm was infectious, and Xu Yin understood her excitement, but she was also trying to be realistic. She was unsure if she wanted to pursue physics, given the considerable gap between her current field of interest and this unexpected offer.

Mrs Yang found what Xu Yin said made sense. She rubbed her hands and excitedly said, “That’s right. I will report it to the principal first; I won’t talk to others about it for the time being.”

Xu Yin: “…”

How many people did she originally plan to tell?

After sending Mrs Yang away, the yard finally became quiet.

Xu Yin turned around and saw her parents and sister-in-law, all wearing the same stunned expression, under the eaves.

“Yinyin, did you hear that right? That little old man just now has such a powerful background?”

Mother Xu couldn’t believe it. She thought that he was just a bicycle repairman, and had wondered why he was asking Xu Yin about bicycle repairs. As it turned out, he was a professor from a research institution!

Xu Yin’s mother pinched her husband’s waist and asked, “Does it hurt?”

Father Xu gasped. “What do you think?”

“I’m asking you if it hurts.”

“Of course it hurts!’

“Great!”

“…”

The pain meant that this was real!

Mother Xu happily smiled and stopped caring about the old man. She clapped and laughed, saying, “My Yinyin is very successful! She got sixth place in the whole city! What an auspicious number! She’ll have good fortune!”

Xu Yin sighed. “Mom, not all students in the city participated. It’s a joint examination of ten high schools in the city, and some schools weren’t included.”

“Well, that’s still remarkable! Didn’t your teachers say that previously, even the top student in your school barely made it within the top fifty? And here you are, in sixth place. Oh, by the way, that old man, I mean, Professor An, right? He mentioned something about a guaranteed admission to Tsinghua University. What does that mean?”

“It means he hopes I’ll study physics at Tsinghua University and he’ll apply for a guaranteed admission on my behalf, which means I won’t need to take the college entrance exam.”

“Oh my goodness! My daughter is truly exceptional! I’ll go tell your grand-uncles and uncles right away. You’re not just bringing honour to your school, but also to our old Xu family…”

“But, Mom, the guaranteed admission hasn’t been confirmed yet!”

“I know, I know, I won’t speak out of turn.”

True to her word, Mother Xu didn’t even eat her lunch; she immediately set off to spread the news in the village. She didn’t just inform her granduncles and uncles, but also every household from one end of the village to the other.

By the tenth day of the lunar year in the Xu family’s village, anyone who was at home knew about the Xu family’s daughter, who had ranked sixth in the city. Furthermore, a professor from Tsinghua University had invited her to study physics there. What was physics? It was a profound, mysterious, and incredibly prestigious subject that most ordinary people couldn’t pass or comprehend.

Everyone: “…”

Xu Yin, in the following days, didn’t dare step outside the house. She was overwhelmed with embarrassment!

Her mother was practically a PR expert. In a different era, she could have been a master MLM marketer.

The school hadn’t even started yet, but the whole school, including teachers and students, knew about her achievements. Those who lived nearby even came to see her, curious like people observing a rare animal in a zoo.

“Xu Yin, did you really rank sixth among ten schools?”

“Xu Yin, how did you manage to do that? You’re amazing!”

Xu Yin: “…”

She decided to go to her grandmother’s house to hide for a while.

“Oh yes! I almost forgot to tell your uncle’s family the good news!” Mother Xu clapped her thigh. “You are so thoughtful.”

Xu Yin stumbled and nearly fell to the ground.