Study Monster Cultivation System

Chapter 170: Settled 169

"You might think that the one with the highest score should go, right?"

"But let me tell you, just within the Xiangnan Team, the scoring of the experimental exams has a lot of gray areas."

"In theory, their leader can basically decide who goes."

"This is the competition within the competition."

"The road to the Chem Competitions for Xiangnan candidates can be said to be quite brutal."

"Therefore, as the dean responsible for admissions, I pay extra attention to the candidates from Xiangnan."

"I take a closer look at every first- and even second-place provincial finisher from Xiangnan."

"Just last year at the national finals, I met their so-called Pleasure God."

"She is a very serious girl from Xiangnan, also an absolutely top student from the best high school in Xiangnan, and the competition ace, with extremely lively thought and very strong mathematics."

"Her preliminary scores were first in Xiangnan and also first in the nation."

"Plus, she is a girl, so she had a huge reputation, everyone called her Pleasure God."

"Up to this point, her story is pretty much the same as yours, Shi Yang."

"But she had a problem—"

"Her experimental performance was very unstable, often catastrophic."

"She knew this herself."

"Because of this, she actually doubted her own talent in chemistry."

"But others, they wouldn’t think about this."

"Whether it is her school’s administration, the Xiangnan leader, or the Chemical Society, everyone really hoped that a female contestant could win a world gold medal."

"So, starting from the provincial team selection, all her experimental assessments were green-lighted all the way."

"Even when her experiments clearly exploded, they were still scored favorably."

"This kind of all-the-way protection eventually extended to the national finals."

"That year, in the top ten, Xiangnan had four representatives."

"She also fittingly captured the national first place."

"And with nine other teammates, she was selected for the national team training camp."

"The night after the theoretical exam in the training camp ended, she found me."

"She said her teacher had talked to her and just hoped she would be as conservative as possible in the experimental process; as long as nothing clearly disastrous happened, she could definitely make it onto the national team."

"She asked me what that meant."

"I told her not to overthink it, just perform normally."

"Then she said she had a junior, although he was always a few points behind her in theory, his experimental skills were far stronger than hers, and if it just came down to avoiding mishaps, he would win."

"I didn’t continue to discuss this matter specifically, soon I changed the subject, had a heart-to-heart conversation with her, and sent her away."

"In truth, how could I not know her troubles?"

"How could I not know she had already been predetermined?"

"Her coming to me... was just hoping to be treated fairly, to have her experimental scores evaluated realistically..."

"In the subsequent experimental assessments, she was not conservative, and the results were average."

"However, her final total score was still first in the training camp."

"She was angry, just like you are, Shi Yang. She started to protest, wanted to withdraw and give the opportunity to someone else."

"Because of this, from her teachers to the school administration, to the competition committee, so many teachers lectured her."

"I was among them, said a lot of high-sounding, overall interest-oriented words."

"In the end, she said, ’I know I was wrong, Dean Zhou... I won’t make a fuss anymore, not anymore.’

"A few months later, which was actually earlier this year, I took the team to Thailand for the final competition, and she didn’t say anything more to me."

"Until the last experiment."

"She... sigh... had an explosion again."

"Afterward, she rushed to me, hugged me and cried."

"She said she was sorry for her junior, sorry for the school, sorry for the country, sorry to everyone."

"She should have let that junior compete."

"In the end."

"Her, who carried the weight of being the nation’s first, ultimately only won the international silver medal, ranking 46th."

"Our team’s consecutive two-time championship title was also snatched away."

"The Chem Competitions community is small, everyone started criticizing her."

"Her school’s teachers blamed her for not being competitive enough."

"Her chem comp peers accused her of using connections."

"Even someone like Shi Yang, who completely misunderstood the situation, would curse her for the loss of the team championship."

"In the end, she didn’t choose chemistry and left the circle forever."

"This is the story of Pleasure God, from external competition to internal competition, and then to the competition within the competition," Zhou Yi said, his eyes also moist by now.

"In this matter, we all bear responsibility, except for her herself, who is innocent."

"Not being able to stand by her side is probably the greatest regret of my educational career."

"So now, I have to make things clear to the two of you."

"Rules are for the adults, you just need to perform your best."

"Calm your minds, study hard, and don’t leave any regrets."

After hearing all this, Li Zheng and Shi Yang were equally moved.

Compared to past Xiangnan candidates.

Their own little scheming, this cheap justice.

Seems so petty in comparison.

"By the way," Zhou Yi rubbed his eyes and suddenly smiled again, "Her junior came this year too, Wei Dongyang, you should be quite familiar with him, right?"

"??!!"

"!!??"

Li Zheng and Shi Yang were instantly confused.

They thought about the trash talk in the bathroom as if by telepathy.

——I just missed out last year, lost to one of our own, this time I must be heading for Prague.

——I can’t speak for Icho, but I swear I’ll only lose to one of ours, definitely not to those two jerks.

This... was it not just trash talk?

Wei Dongyang, a man of steel and blood?

"Alright, story time is over," Zhou Yi said as he put on his glasses, returning to his usual smiley baby-faced expression.

"The complexity of things is definitely far beyond what you two kids can imagine."

"Joint petitions like this will only stir up the sensitive nerves of the organizing committee and lead to you losing your qualification to compete, serving no other purpose."

"To put your minds at ease, I promise you, after the finals in Prague, I will immediately take action to push for the cancellation of the rigid rule of one person per province."

"Of course, if we can bring back 4 golds in addition to the first place in the team category, I can speak with a bit more authority, haha."

"Okay, that’s all I have to say," Zhou Yi concluded.

"You two, will you trust me, Zhou Yi, Zhou Chenghuan, for now? O or not OK?"

"OK!" Shi Yang stood up and nodded vigorously, "No more making trouble, not in this lifetime. I’m just a noisy idiot... I’ll go apologize to Pleasure God right away..."

Zhou Yi laughed and ruffled Shi Yang’s head: "I have to say, Li Zheng’s behavior is a lot more mature than yours."

"Yeah... he kept telling me not to make a fuss," Li Zheng admitted.

"Mmhm," Zhou Yi turned to look at Li Zheng, "Keep an eye on Shi Yang, don’t let him get diarrhea again."

"Don’t worry, Teacher Zhou, he’s only allowed to eat noodles tonight," Li Zheng said with a smile. "Thank you for your concern, Teacher Zhou. We’ll proceed as usual today, and just hope for progress next year."

"It might not be next year, maybe the year after. Bio competitions have already changed, and chemistry will have to change sooner or later," Zhou Yi said, waving his hand and walking toward the door. Just as he reached it, he suddenly stopped, turned his stern face back, and said, "After adding so much chaos, I don’t think asking for a top five finish is asking too much, is it?"

"Not at all, not at all," Shi Yang said with a chuckle.

"Don’t be too happy too soon. I can’t do much about Li Zheng, but can’t I handle you?" Zhou Yi pointed at Shi Yang and jokingly scolded, "I’ve noted your disciplinary issue in my book. I’m setting a higher standard for your recommendation: top three in the country, or else go to Jinghua."

"Hey, come on, Dean Zhou!"

Clang.

The door closed.

Shi Yang became anxious again.

...

The next day, the third day of camp, was the day of the theoretical exam.

The atmosphere at breakfast was no longer as lively as the first two days but instead quite oppressive.

On one hand, there was the anxiety before a major test.

On the other hand, the leaders of the provincial teams had all verbally criticized the joint letter, and Shi Yang’s failure with Zhu Zaizai was now widely known, with many of the signatories also getting scolded.

On the Jijing side, Shi Yang’s teacher, Yu Zhiqiang, gave a harsh criticism. Fortunately, Yu Hong intervened in time, preventing him from going on too long, lest it affect the next day’s exam.

The only consolation was that Zhou Yi had taken the physical letter of the joint petition early on, and it was now in Li Zheng’s hands.

As a result, who exactly had signed the letter among the teams was still a mystery, so it was unlikely for individuals to be singled out for criticism.

But some people were still very noticeable.

"Brothers... I brought a bowl of soy milk as an apology," Wei Dongyang said, heavy-hearted as he sat down between Li Zheng and Shi Yang, "I really had diarrhea yesterday... my apologies."

At this moment, as Li Zheng and Shi Yang looked once more at his wild and unkempt hair, while considering the harsh experiences of the Xiangnan contestants and Pleasure God’s past joys and sorrows, they indeed felt a bit of empathy.

"It’s alright, you’ve had it tough too, brother," Shi Yang bumped his bowl with Wei Dongyang’s, "There’s nothing left to say. We can’t change the rules this time; everyone depends on their skill. Go Xiangnan, go!"

"Go for it," Li Zheng also raised his bowl, "Seriously, Xiangnan, go for it."

"You two are really... sigh! I was in the wrong yesterday, go Jijing, here’s to you!" Wei Dongyang gave up on words, tilted his head back, and downed the whole bowl.

But after taking just one sip, his face contorted, turned bright red, and tears uncontrollably streamed down.

Having swallowed the entire bowl, his eyes were brimming with tears.

"Why are you crying? Nobody’s blaming you," Shi Yang hurried to console him.

"Exactly," Li Zheng chimed in, "it’s not a big deal. Don’t think about it anymore and focus on the exam."

A few seconds later, Wei Dongyang opened his mouth fiercely, "Your mother’s... can people from Lu Dong even drink this bean juice??"

...

At 8 a.m. sharp, in the grand hall of the South Suburb Hotel, the theoretical exam officially began.

Seats were randomly assigned, calculators and scratch paper provided by the officials.

During the 4-hour exam, not only skill was tested but stamina as well.

As the exam papers were distributed, Li Zheng, as usual, closed his eyes to rest his mind.

Of course, this wasn’t really resting his mind, but a final review.

[Chemistry: 327]

If it had been in the past, he would have never believed that one person could master chemistry to such a perverse extent.

But step by step, he had done it.

Inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, biochemistry, polymer chemistry, experimentation, retrosynthesis...

Unnoticed, he had flattened every area within his sight.

Now, finding public educational materials that could further his learning had become quite difficult.

Further advancement would mean diving into papers on specialized fields.

Or entering a prestigious Chemical Institute to study under a renowned teacher in a particular field.

Continuing to delve deeper in a high school setting was no longer very meaningful.

"The exam begins!" the proctor announced.

Li Zheng immediately opened his eyes, ready with his pen.

Chemistry.

It’s time for a conclusion.