Study Monster Cultivation System

Chapter 171: Peak of life interacting with the opposite sex

The final theoretical exam for the Chem Competitions students in 2018 officially began.

Apart from the rustling sound of flipping through pages, no other sound could be heard.

Although Li Zheng had long reached a state of zen, for most people, this was their last charge towards prestigious universities.

As for Li Zheng himself, he was merely looking forward to a fulfilling and intense final battle.

A battle with chemistry, with Shi Yang.

Such a battle, of course, would never be rushed.

As always, he first skimmed through the entire exam paper.

For an exam lasting four hours, just skimming through the paper took two minutes.

The further he read, the deeper his frown became.

After scanning the entire paper,

he could only clutch his chest, feeling stifled.

He, who had been in and out of examination halls for years,

was experiencing such frustration for the first time—

Damn it.

How could it be so simple???

This is the national finals, for goodness’ sake.

Isn’t it embarrassing to give out questions meant for average undergraduates?

I’ve slaved away, plowing through the field of chemistry, and now in my ultimate showdown with the great Chemistry demon, it feels so damn unsatisfactory.

And I’ve painstakingly studied that official calculator for the past two days.

There’s just no place to apply it.

What is it for? A mascot on the desk?

In the back, a young female proctor had been watching Li Zheng for a while. After noticing his odd behavior, she approached with a chuckle and asked in an overly sweet voice, "Student, are you feeling unwell?"

"No... no problem..." Li Zheng didn’t dare to look up, forcing himself to flip back to the first page of the exam.

The female teacher was still not reassured and asked softly, "Tell the teacher if there’s an issue; I will help you."

"Can I really tell you?" Li Zheng still looked somewhat ferocious.

"Uh-huh, trust me," the female teacher said with vibrant assurance.

"Well..." Li Zheng chose to trust her and confessed, "This question... is just too simple... so simple that it’s caused me physical discomfort..."

"..."

In the end, the female teacher glared at Li Zheng and then slowly backed away, glancing back at him from time to time as if she were looking at someone insane.

Although Li Zheng never looked at her from the beginning to the end, he realized something.

Even though she was a trustworthy teacher,

before that, she was a woman.

When a woman says she hopes you will share your true thoughts,

Remember, it’s definitely a trap.

Well, without realizing it, my emotional intelligence has improved a bit.

I guess this exam wasn’t a complete waste of time after all.

Li Zheng gradually got his emotions in order, focused his attention, and began to answer the first question that gave away free points, an inorganic structure question.

To put it simply, you’re given the properties of three iridium compounds and asked to draw the structure diagrams.

It’s like making sentences in elementary Chinese class; you could do it with your eyes closed.

The second question was also a giveaway, but it was physically taxing, requiring the drawing of a bunch of exceedingly complex structural diagrams.

Just like memorizing long passages in elementary Chinese.

The third question was still a giveaway, but it was Li Zheng’s favorite kind of deductive freebie question where you’re given substances A through E, told what reactions they undergo with each other, and you have to guess what A through E are, similar to the Mendeleev Memorial questions from the preliminary rounds.

It’s like a short essay in elementary Chinese class, I suppose.

The fourth question was a clever organic freebie.

What’s clever about it is that no matter how you look at the question, between the lines, it was filled with two words—

Ring formation.

Those who’d been playing in the Chem Competitions for so long had developed a kind of reflexive sense for questions set by Zhou Chenghuan. Facing these kinds of questions, the best strategy was to form as many rings as possible.

But halfway through, Li Zheng suddenly sniffled.

Something wasn’t right.

This wasn’t a giveaway question.

It was a trap.

```

This question was very likely set by Zhou Chenghuan.

But based on the reaction conditions...

The expected ring formation does not occur on the surface.

Instead, it’s where you least expect it that a ring is formed.

Well played, Zhou Chenghuan, using everyone’s fixed impression of "ring formation" associated with your name to pull off a counter move and snatch our points?

Fine, this question is acceptable.

Question five, we’re back to the rhythm of giving away points.

Question six, giving away...

While the candidates were answering the questions, the teachers from each province and the bigwigs from the organizing committee were also busy.

They gathered in the large conference room on the second floor to read the standard answers for the theory questions.

Given the urgency of time, they planned to have lunch early and spend the entire afternoon and evening cross-checking papers, needing to grade the theory portion before midnight.

Sun Leyang, Yu Zhiqiang, and Yu Hong naturally grouped together, quickly perused the answer sheet for the questions, and started an internal discussion.

"Hmm... the difficulty is moderate..." Sun Leyang said, supporting his chin, "It’s quite suitable for our team’s level. We should be able to make a breakthrough in the number of gold medals."

Yu Hong nodded and said, "Last year we only got one gold medal, this year we should definitely be able to break through that."

Sun Leyang sighed, "Alas... Last year we indeed bet on the wrong questions. In the end, only one student from our Ren Da Fu was barely able to grab a gold medal. Bad luck, just bad luck."

"Don’t worry, Teacher Sun, we’ve got Shi Yang this year. We’ve been leading Chem Competitions for so many years, we know Shi Yang’s level," Yu Zhiqiang said with a pursed mouth, "but... this year’s difficulty... it’s not really suited to him. It does not allow for a large spread in scores, and a little carelessness can cause a lot of trouble."

"That’s a secondary issue," Yu Hong said, rubbing his forehead, "The main thing is that these past two days, he and Li Zheng have been too ostentatious, running around, pulling people into QQ groups, and ending up with this result... It’s also my fault. When Li Zheng brought this up, we should have paid attention and started working on their mindset earlier."

"Don’t just focus on those two," Sun Leyang chuckled, "Our school’s Ou Xingzhuo and Wu Shu are really stable, and there’s also Zhang Yiran from No. 18 Middle School. Although his experiments are average, his theory is solid. Coupled with Li Zheng and Shi Yang, my prediction is that we can get 5 golds. Although it’s not the best result, it’s still quite good, at least it’s a recovery from last year’s failure."

Sun Leyang’s prediction was indeed reasonable.

The distribution of medals in the national finals always follows the 343 rule.

That is, the top 30% of participants win gold medals, the middle 40% silver, and the bottom 30% bronze.

This year, a total of 340 competitors participated, so the number of gold medals should be around 100.

Meanwhile, the weight of theory and experimental scores in the finals is 70% to 30%.

The final score = Theory Score * 0.7 + Experimental Score * 0.3.

Therefore, even if the experiments were a bit weak, strong theory could still hope to push for gold.

In addition, on the difficulty of the questions, there was a minor contradiction.

The easier the questions, the more it benefits most people.

The harder the questions, the more it benefits the absolute strong players.

This contradiction is even more apparent in the ICHO international competition.

When countries in Southeast Asia host, the questions tend to be simpler, which prevents strong Chem Competition nations like China and Russia from widening the score gap. A slight mistake in the experiment could lead to disaster.

The last final held in Thailand Buddhism reflected this.

But this shouldn’t be the case this time, as the ICHO is returning to its birthplace, Prague, and those Eastern European chemistry monsters will undoubtedly offer the most terrifying ultimate questions as a blood sacrifice.

At this point, the focus of the teachers’ discussion shifted from the number of gold medals to whether Li Zheng and Shi Yang could make it to the national training team.

As teachers from Jijing, their expectations were actually not that high.

Being listed in the training roster for the national team, which includes about forty or fifty people, is equivalent to a guaranteed spot in Jingbei.

That would be everything coming up roses.

Therefore, they turned a blind eye and stayed out of the disagreement between Shi Yang and Li Zheng, not wanting to meddle.

Even though they were well aware of Li Zheng and Shi Yang’s capabilities, with a gathering of strong competitors from across the country, they dared not assume that Li Zheng and Shi Yang could rank in the top four nationwide, let alone believe in the possibility of two of them doing so.

In short, making it onto the national team was too unrealistic a goal and it also exceeded their usual expectations. They hardly dared to even think about it.

All they hoped for was as many gold medals as possible and making it to the training team.

...

Inside the auditorium turned examination hall.

After 3 hours and 15 minutes, Li Zheng completed the test.

At this moment, not a single person had left yet.

The individuals who made it here were not ones to gamble hastily, and even if they truly could not answer a question, they would wrack their brains to pile as much onto the paper as possible—maybe just an extra 0.5 points could seal the deal.

If this were a school’s final exam, Li Zheng would have certainly submitted his paper and left by now.

Especially such a basic undergraduate-level paper, it was simply not worth expending mental energy to check it over again...

But after all, this was the national finals...

Oh well, might as well give Zhou Chenghuan some face.

Thirty minutes later, the check was done, with no alterations made.

Li Zheng covertly looked around, and still, no one had turned in their paper.

Handing in the paper early at this point could come off as showboating.

```

A lot had happened before, and he didn’t want to become the center of attention again.

There was no other way, so he just had to tough it out for another 15 minutes.

So, he started drawing on the back of the scratch paper.

He drew a scene he was familiar with—

Someone napping on their desk.

Just like Da Vinci would draw an egg.

Li Zheng liked to draw desk-naps.

Embarrassedly said, despite drawing for so long, he had actually been drawing this same scene every time.

He must have redrawn it two or three hundred times already.

But Li Zheng was getting happier the more he drew, without a hint of tiredness.

Unlike basketball, which was a superficial form of relaxation.

When it came to drawing, he just couldn’t bring himself to put in any Game Coins.

All he asked for was the little joy of delving into research and improvement.

From head to toe, he imbued every detail with soul.

Until he created the most rhythmic, impeccable "Perfect Desk-Nap."

Finally.

The chief examiner announced loudly that the exam was over.

Everyone stopped writing collectively; not stopping would lead to a penalty.

The teachers began to collect the papers in groups.

The teacher who had been offended received Li Zheng’s paper and was taken aback once more.

"All filled out... didn’t brag for nothing..."

"Hmm, I hope the experiment is a bit harder..." Li Zheng finally pulled away from his drawing and looked up at the teacher.

Big glasses, chubby cheeks, kind-hearted and plump yet beautiful.

If not a senior, then who?

"When did you get here?" Li Zheng exclaimed happily, "Hey, you’ve gotten fatter again!"

"Get lost, dammit!" Shen Yiyun’s first reaction was to curse, and after cursing, she panicked. She stiffened her face again amidst the astonished gazes of those around her, "Short-handed, came over to help."

Afterward, she picked up the scratch paper.

"This... this..." Shen Yiyun examined the drawing of the person napping on the desk, "has quite a feeling to it..."

"Really?" Li Zheng’s eyes widened, instantly excited, "This is the first time someone has critiqued my artwork."

Shen Yiyun pushed up her glasses, offering a serious critique, "Although it’s clear that you lack structural technique and that the limbs are a bit deformed, the overall spirit is very much there. I don’t believe you imagined this on the spot, there must be... such a classmate in your class, right?"

"Ah," Li Zheng admired, "awesome... senior, you’re awesome..."

"Hey, what girl doesn’t dream of being good at art~" Shen Yiyun chuckled and packed away the scratch paper, then moved on to the next student, "I’ll be coming to the training camp too, if you make it in, I’ll teach you to draw~"

"!"

Really now, he was originally too lazy to go to the national team training...

The senior was teasing me again.

Speaking of which, she hasn’t been eating less lately, probably under a lot of stress.

After collecting all the papers, even though the chief examiner urged everyone to go to the dining hall immediately, the room was still filled with cries and howls.

"So hard..."

"I’m so done..."

"How many rings did you get for the fourth question?"

"I got four."

"Wasn’t it five?"

"I have three."

"Damn, is this Zhou Chenghuan’s trick question or what?"

Li Zheng listened to these comments.

Wondering if it’s that people’s pessimism is uniquely theirs,

Or if they were just putting on an act.

Was it really that difficult?

But he’d learned his lesson from Lin Yujing.

At times like these, it’s best not to blab, you might offend people.

Li Zheng kept to himself, silently packing up his stationery, ready to leave, when Shi Yang came barreling over.

"Crap..." Shi Yang was scratching his head furiously, "The answers the guy next to me had... why are they different from mine... Let’s compare ours."

"Does this question even need to be checked?" Li Zheng frowned.

"I thought it didn’t need checking, either, but I just accidentally heard it," Shi Yang immediately gestured as he spoke, "Is the rate constant for the fifth question 2.8 multiplied by 10 squared?"

"It’s 2.9."

"That’s not right, isn’t it the average of three experiments? With 2.8, 2.8, 2.9—the final choice should be 2.8."

"It’s 2.9, 2.8, 2.9."

"I made a mistake?" Shi Yang rubbed his head and began to scribble on the table, "Then for question seven, is the structure that you drew like this? There’s a double bond here... this part has a CHO group, and below is a CO2H..."

"Pretty much, but the CHO should be here..."

"Eh?..." Shi Yang pondered for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead, "Shit, a helical structure, such a small conjugated system, how could I forget that."

"No big deal, just small points," Li Zheng consoled him, "Forget about this and just focus on the experiments."

"Mhm, mhm, mhm..." Shi Yang pounded his head, "Damn it, my mind really has been a mess these past two days... After you went to sleep last night, I secretly looked up Pleasure God’s photo... she was just exceptionally cute... I couldn’t help but send Pleasure God a bunch of apology messages on Weibo, and kept glancing at it now and then, but she didn’t reply to me until the morning."

"Dean Zhou will regret telling you that story."

...

During mealtime in the cafeteria, everyone was still comparing answers, discussing while eating.

The first to have finished checking the entire set was, without a doubt, the Xiangnan Team.

Feeling that he had wronged Shi Yang and Li Zheng, Wei Dongyang immediately took his answers and pulled up a chair to sit between Li Zheng and Shi Yang.

"Come on, the difference won’t exceed 5 points."

"Badass, bro," Shi Yang was about to take it.

"Don’t," Li Zheng immediately intervened, "You’re not in the right state to estimate your score beforehand. Steady yourself first, then deal with this after the experiments tomorrow."

"Ah, that..." Shi Yang muttered to himself for a moment but eventually declined, "Brother Dongyang, I’m a bit of an idiot right now, my mind is foggy, I’ll listen to Li Zheng..."

"What’s wrong, didn’t do well?" Wei Dongyang quickly closed his answer sheet and asked with a twisted face, "Or is it because of the joint letter incident? Shit... I really shouldn’t have, I could’ve just gone with you guys to share the hate."

"It’s another matter..." Shi Yang moved his teasing eyebrows, probing, "About Pleasure God."

Without a second thought, Wei Dongyang said, "Jian Yue? The one from our school who went to ICHO last year?"

"Mhm..."

"What does she have to do with you?"

"I criticized her online... and now I really regret it."

"Hey, shit, who hasn’t made a mistake." Wei Dongyang immediately took out his phone, "If you can’t get over it, record a voice message to apologize to her."

"You have her as a friend?" Shi Yang immediately rubbed his hands together, energized.

He had once forgotten something when he criticized Pleasure God online.

Pleasure God was a charming girl who loved chemistry.

A one in a million find, you wouldn’t encounter a charming chemistry lover again in a lifetime.

Having been coached by Li Zheng, the Shi Yang of today would definitely not criticize anymore.

The prospect of being able to apologize through a voice message, to possibly make amends, was undeniably exciting.

Wei Dongyang apparently hadn’t caught onto this and after briefly explaining the situation in a text message, he naively handed his phone to Shi Yang, "She is really nice, go ahead and speak."

After much contemplation, Shi Yang finally squeezed out an apology lasting 30 seconds.

Unexpectedly, a reply came from the other side in under two minutes. The voice was crisp clear, brimming with the maturity of a college big sister—

"It’s been fine for a while now, I don’t even know who you are."

"Do well on the exam, and bring back the team championship with Wei Dongyang."

"Good luck, Shi Yang!"

Upon hearing this, Shi Yang was blown away.

This may... no, this was definitely the peak of his interactions with the opposite sex.

"Let’s eat, let’s eat!" Shi Yang slapped the table, began eating his noodles more quickly, and while munching, he muttered, "Experiments, experiments, don’t talk to me about anything else from now on, I’ll just focus on the experiments."

Wei Dongyang and Li Zheng exchanged a smile, finally feeling reassured about this guy.

Li Zheng then casually asked, "By the way, are you that close with Pleasure God?"

"Ah, I’ve heard quite a few rumors too. Our generation from Xiangnan that went for the training camp all claimed they were the fodder paving the way for Pleasure God’s rise to power," Wei Dongyang stood up and sighed, "Of course, I wasn’t happy about it, but you can’t blame Jian Yue for turning out this way, right... So, when you guys brought up the joint letter, I supported it without hesitation... Pity though, it didn’t work out."

"It’ll be fine next time, if not then the time after," Li Zheng patted Wei Dongyang, "Focus on the exams, let’s not think about this anymore."

"Yeah." Wei Dongyang also pointed at Shi Yang, "You keep an eye on Zhu Zaizai, alright? Losing a few points in theory is no big deal, do well in the experiments, making it to the national training camp would be enough."

Li Zheng laughed, "A full 24-hour surveillance, no contact with any spicy or cold foods."

With a look of admiration, Wei Dongyang said, "Impressive, you’re both the dad and the mom here, impressive..."

"I just hope he’ll understand someday."

Looking at Shi Yang who was fully focused on slurping his noodles, Li Zheng finally showed a satisfied smile.