Last night, Su Yang was deeply disappointed after getting the special item, the [0 Score 2B Pencil], but his mind connected the dots and he finally understood the hidden function of this pencil and why it was known as the item that could ace exams and tests.
It was because no matter how many times the user used it or no matter what kind of question was given, it would purposely avoid the correct answer.
If that was the case, things became easy.
All he needed to do was answer the test with the pencil once and then erase all the answers. He had to repeat the process to eliminate all the wrong answers and the last remaining answer would be the correct one.
Su Yang had tested his theory last night and found it extremely successful, hence his confidence today.
The English test consisted of mostly multiple-choice questions, and according to Chu Xia, there were more questions than usual this time.
Nevertheless, passing the midterms was a piece of cake.
With that in mind, Su Yang went through the test papers.
‘Hmm, I understand nothing.’
The questions felt like they were related to American drama series or movies because he spotted some italic words and even made out several familiar terms. However, none of them mattered. Even if he was answering the TEM-8 (Test for English Majors-band 8) exams, as long as they were multiple-choice questions, they were all the same.
Qu Xiaomeng played the radio for the comprehension part, but Su Yang skipped it altogether.
He took out the special pencil and started to circle answers. He started reading the first question and the pencil automatically chose D. Then, the pencil also chose D for the second question and A for the third.
With the pencil leading his hand, Su Yang circled all the answers swiftly.
He then used the gel pen and darkened all the circled answers, leaving himself with three choices per question.
He switched to the pencil again and started from the top again with the three answers.
C for the first, B for the second and the third, etc.
Su Yang simply rinsed and repeated the process.
For the third round, the pencil chose A for the first, C for the second, D for the third, and so on.
After the third round, Su Yang darkened all the third choices and was eventually left with the correct answers for each question.
When he finally got all the answers, he copied the answers to the answering sheet. He completed all the multiple-choice questions within 10 minutes.
Other than the comprehension and essay portion, Su Yang got all the answers correctly.
After some thoughts and a quick calculation, he could score around 75 points with all the multiple-choice questions, so he changed some answers and lowered his score to 68 points.
Then, he moved on to the comprehension and essay part and used his shallow English knowledge to write whatever he could. Even though what he wrote did not make sense, at least, he tried.
Half an hour later, he completed the paper and started drawing out of boredom. He drew a chicken on the rough paper with his pen and dotted some grains for the chicken to peck on.
As he drew his masterpiece, Su Yang realized that he had something for pens. He had added points to four special items, two of which were pens.
Back in his high school days, Su Yang studied in a boarding school. One of his roommates loved pens and would be transfixed on the spot whenever he saw pens on sale. His drawer back at the dorm was filled with pens and his dream was to open a stationery shop, so he could sell pens every day.
Unfortunately, he did not get into the major he aimed for in university and his family could not afford his tuition fees, so he ended up working earlier than his other friends.
He got a job in a stationery shop as a cashier which indirectly realized his dream.
Sometimes, one’s dream and one’s hobby might not be something grand or superior; it could be the simplest of things.
Su Yang loved the most common thing in human society: money.
His dream was to make a lot of money and he believed that his dream was a common one.
While Su Yang let his thoughts and hand go wild, Qu Xiaomeng stopped the radio after the CD finished playing. She then invigilated the class by walking around.
Even though it was just the midterms, it was the first exam that she was invigilating.
She sized the students up as she walked around, but she realized that most of them were scratching their heads. Maybe it was because they were unfamiliar with the questions.
It was natural for them not to be familiar with the question because Qu Xiaomeng only referred to the textbook for a minimal amount. Most of the questions were about American drama series and Hollywood movies.
University lecturers had the liberty of setting exam questions. Other than the final semester test, the midterms were usually set based on their preferences because the midterm results would only consist of 10% of the student’s coursework.
Su Yang met a few students who had to draw straws to decide their results and the lecturer who had done that was none other than Old Zhou.
If Old Zhou had not prepared three different scores of 30, 29, and 28 in that jar, the students might have reported him to the Ministry of Education for treating his students’ coursework like child’s play.
Therefore, Qu Xiaomeng’s midterms were nothing to that of the students of the Faculty of Arts. Only the students of the faculty knew what kind of hell they were living in.
Soon enough, the test was over and Chu Xia collected the test papers on behalf of Qu Xiaomeng before she stacked the papers up. She then left the lecture hall with Chu Xia, talking and joking as they walked out.
Su Yang saw the ladies go off and had a hunch that there was something strange about them.
He only had one class today which was used for the midterms, so he tidied up and prepared to go home.
Along the way, Su Yang dropped by the supermarket near his campus and bought a piece of cheap chocolate. He had secretly promised Little Hus a chocolate yesterday, and since the bolster did not have a real mouth and could not eat the chocolate for real, he simply bought the cheapest one available.
Su Yang jumped into the virtual space when he stepped into his rented basement. He called Deeny out and gave her the test paper for her to translate.
Deeny was learning online every day and her level of English was already better than Su Yang’s.
After that, Su Yang went searching for Little Hus.
With Deeny’s guidance, he soon located Little Hus in a storage room of the villa.
Little Hus had somehow gotten his hand on a chair and had laid a carpet on it. He was lying down on the carpet, sleeping.
Su Yang quietly walked up to him. He took the piece of chocolate out and waved it in front of the husky picture.
The husky on the bolster sniffed for a moment before his eyes opened wide and he stared at the chocolate in Su Yang’s hand.
Su Yang smiled. “Look what I got you, Little Hus.”
The husky picture was drooling as Little Hus screamed, “COKOLATE!”
‘Why does it sound like he’s scolding me?’
...
At the same time, Qu Xiaomeng returned to her office with the test papers. Even though she did not have to be strict in the midterms, she followed the standard operating procedures and hid the names before she marked the answer papers.
After seven to eight papers, she frowned.
‘The questions are so easy, yet so many of them have gotten them wrong. Not even one of them has passed the test until now...’