Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Hu Jun was a 56-year-old teacher who took part in high school education for more than 30 years. He had a typical square face, wore old-fashioned spectacles, and the same grey shirt that he had worn for over 20 years. The way he walked and taught were scrupulous, giving people the impression that he was old-fashioned, serious, and stern.
Whenever the students he taught saw him, the smiles on their face would instantly vanish. They corrected their postures and bow their heads down. Even their breathing would become lighter. When he entered a classroom, only one second was needed for the whole class to become completely silent. Even the sound of a needle falling onto the ground could be heard. The sound of his footsteps was just like stepping on the hearts of each student. An aura that made students tremble in fear emanated from his body.
Yes. He was Hu Jun, the group leader for the question preparation group for Sutang Province’s College Entrance Examination, Mathematics section. His very existence instilled fear in the pupils in Sutang Province who would be sitting for the College Entrance Examination. There was only one word that could describe the similarity in the mathematics paper he made: difficult. Very difficult.
In the 150-mark paper, those who manage to get 90 marks would be considered as super scholars, 60 marks and above would be considered above average, and a score of 30 to 50 marks would be considered very normal. Even if people got below 30 marks, they wouldn’t be mocked as a lousy scorer. There was even a good portion of people who had gotten zero in the past. The questions he made were indeed crazily difficult.
For some candidates, if they know that Hu Jun was preparing the Mathematics paper for their year, they would definitely mourn in despair.
“Oh my god, Hu Jun again, do they want us dead?”
“I worked so hard for a year and ended up facing the demon lord Hu Jun, I won’t even think of getting an extra mark in Mathematics!”
“Heavens, please purge this demon lord away!”
Among the candidates that would be sitting for the college entrance examinations in Sutang province, he became the dreaded and chilling demon lord. Unfortunately, it was his turn to prepare the mathematics paper for the 20X0 College Entrance Examination. Many of the candidates plunged into despair.
Before handing him the task to prepare the questions, the official from the Ministry of Education in Sutang Province habitually remind him, “Mr. Hu, the past candidates reflected that your questions were too hard, please make it easier this year. Make questions that the students will be able to achieve 90 marks and above on average. Really, please don’t make it too tricky.”
“Got it.” Hu Jun, as usual, faintly responded with two words.
The officer immediately became aware that this year’s average marks for mathematics would not be over 60 marks. Because the papers with above 60 marks on average would never be the ones prepared by Hu Jun! It seemed that the province’s Education Department would get admonished and receive complaints from the mass population of candidates this year… again.
This time, however, Hu Jun really intended to lower the difficulty and come out with a paper that the candidates could score an average of 70 marks and above. The reason was because a candidate wrote a 10-thousand-word letter for him saying that his questions were too hard. He couldn’t enter the university he desired even after repeating for three years. He begged for Mr. Hu’s mercy to let him fulfill his dreams to be admitted into the university he wished for. It may be because his heart had softened as he had gotten older, as Hu Jun used to be completely unshaken by hundreds of letters of similar requests over the past years. And yet, he was touched by the contents of this letter and decided to lower the paper’s difficulty by a little.
But only after a few days, not only did he renege his decision and destroy the paper that he had prepared, he also took out the questions that were in his collection for many years, the questions that accumulated over the years of his teaching experience, revered as the most difficult questions of all time. He planned to use them in Sutang Province’s Mathematics paper this year, giving the candidates a present that would make them unleash their ultimate screech of despair. The other teaches in the question preparation group were shocked.
“Mr. Hu, this is too much, your questions are too hard!”
“It will be considered good if the candidates can even score an average mark of 30.”
“Mr. Hu, even at my level, I can only get at most 50 marks within two hours, not to even mention those students. Mr. Hu, the main purpose of the College Entrance Examination is to filter out the talents. With your questions that are so difficult, not only are you holding off the weaker students, you are also hampering the good students; we are not fulfilling the filtering purpose this way.”
“Mr. Hu, we have been partners for several decades. With these questions, the candidates will not just simply complain, this will cause a major uproar! We will be held responsible for this.”
“Really?” Hu Jun looked at them and nodded. “If even you guys say it is hard, then that’s all the more reason for these questions to appear in the paper.”
“Mr. Hu! If these questions appear in the paper, we will not have the chance to prepare the papers anymore and you must be responsible for this!” another of his partners warned him.
“If the Little Star learning machine got 100 marks for the questions I prepared, do you think that we would have the chance to sit here and make papers in the future?” Hu Jun asked faintly.
Upon hearing him, all of them were stunned. They all nodded their heads as they couldn’t help but agree that what he said made sense. If the Little Star learning machine was powerful enough to answer all the questions including the “question finale,” the meaning behind the questions that they squeezed their brains to prepare was no longer to filter talents, but to prove the prowess of a learning machine.
The “ultimate test questions” of unprecedented difficulty had been passed unanimously.
…
On the 1st of July, at noon, the College Entrance Examination’s Mathematics Section took place in Sutung Province.
After all the tens of thousands of candidates looked at their papers presented before them, they were like a deer caught in the headlights. Their brains tumbled into a blank state. They held their pens in their hands but had completely no idea on how to do the questions.
“I know every word here, but I have completely no idea on how to do these questions.”
“Aside from the few objective questions, I can’t do anything after that!”
“Hmm, how did I walk out from the exam hall? I think it was after I did the two objective questions in front, I got stuck for a very long time at the third question, then I heard the bell ring, asking us to submit our papers.”
“Dad, mom, I have disappointed you once again, I can only get at most 20 marks for math this year!” A candidate cried on the verge of collapsing.
His parents consoled him, “Don’t cry, you are not the only one that said the paper was hard, other students reflected that it was very hard, and many of them even handed in empty papers. It won’t affect you from entering a good university.”
“Really?” A glimpse of hope reappeared in his despair-filled eyes.
Suddenly, a commotion occurred. There was a scream. “The answers are out; the answers from the Little Star learning machine are out!”
All of a sudden, the enthusiasm of everybody present surged.
…
On the television screen, looking at the answers that flashed through the answer bulletin, Hu Jun opened his eyes wide, and on his face, there was an expression of disbelief. “Impossible, how could this be? All these questions were new questions that had yet to appear in the papers. There were no references, and it was impossible to find similar questions on the market! There were a few questions that were uniquely structured and were very innovative as well. Even among the tens of thousands of candidates, it will be considered good even if one of them manage to get the answers right. For the last question, the ‘question finale,’ there were three candidates of all of Sutang Province’s tens of thousands that got the correct answer. All three are worthy to be called a genius in Mathematics and should be admitted to prestigious universities. But… the Little Star leaning machine got all answers correct within 15 minutes. The approach it used to tackle these questions was not ‘super-class,’ it was indeed just high school level methods, not using any knowledge on calculus from the university level. The ‘question finale,’ not only did Little Star learning machine get it right, but it also listed three alternative ways to solve the question. Compared to the two ways that I’ve thought of; it got an additional one. I…I…” Hu Jun experienced a tremor from deep within. He backed off a few steps, unable to keep his calm ever again.
…
150 marks! For the Mathematics paper in this year’s College Entrance Examination in Sutang Province, the Little Star Second Gen learning machine achieved full marks within 15 minutes of examination time.
On the internet that night, the candidates in Sutang Province that should be mourning were cheering blithely!
“Little Star the mighty! Little Star the awesome!”
“Hahahaha, we won, we won, Little Star won it for us!”
“Demon lord Hu Jun, the time for you to wreak havoc has passed, to hell you fall!”
“Hu Jun! You are really great, right? But I will fear you no more, the artifact that I’m about to get is even greater than you!”
“Hu Jun, are you content, have you admitted defeat? Have you seen the might of Little Star?”
“Learn your place Hu Jun, you are no match for Little Star!”
…
Defeated. A clean defeat! The fruits that Hu Jun bore with 30-plus years drilling in the Mathematics field had been vanquished in just a short period of 15 minutes. Listening to those cheering and taunting him on the internet and the voices of censuring from his fellow colleagues, could he simply swallow it down? Of course not!
He immediately threw an application to the Education Department and brought a Little Star Second Gen learning machine back to his premise. He took out a box, which had up to a hundred sets of Mathematics papers in his collection, turned on the scanning function of the Little Star Second Gen, and started scanning the papers one by one.
After a few hours, having experienced shock, agitation, frustration, despair and many other complicated mood swings, he recovered his calm and sat on the floor by his bedside. Many papers were scattered around him. He lowered his head as he felt infinitely lost inside. With his mouth filled with bitterness, he shook his head and mumbled, “I’ve lost, I’ve completely lost.” Looking at the learning machine not far away from him, he said faintly, “Technology nowadays is really getting more and more powerful.”
For unknown reasons, he revealed a smile of relief at the corner of his mouth. Certainly, as the demon lord in the hearts of innumerable candidates, he had fallen. But in the future of education for the Z nation, there was hope.