Study Monster Cultivation System

Chapter 182 - 181 Return to Position

The next morning, in the chemistry hell, chaos reigned once again.

Luckily, before the gates of hell, there was one final buffer—

Breakfast.

This time, Li Zheng’s breakfast was shared with Zhang Xiaoke, while he casually explained some recent problems she had encountered.

However, for the other crew-cut students.

This was an even deeper hell.

In the cafeteria, silent and grim, everyone swallowed their food in quiet resignation.

Mid-swallow, Wei Dongyang couldn’t take it anymore, abruptly stood up, and stormed to the serving table.

He dumped a large bowl full of tofu pudding.

The rest, sensing his momentum, immediately followed suit.

In an instant, regardless of regional preference for sweet or salty, about a dozen crew-cuts gathered around.

United in mutual disdain, each took a spoonful and all sprinkled it into the innocent bowl of white tofu pudding.

In the blink of an eye, they had scooped the sugar jar empty.

A bowl of ultimate revenge sweet tofu pudding was born.

Under Wei Dongyang’s lead, the crew-cuts quickly advanced toward Li Zheng’s table.

Bang.

The bowl slammed down onto the table.

"Yesterday’s competition, the Sweet Team won in the end," Wei Dongyang said, gazing intently at Li Zheng with a grave tone, "Be a man and down it."

"…" Li Zheng was startled and only then remembered there had been a competition.

Indeed, he too was on the Salty Team, and even let down their first attack, so he should rightfully endure the punishment for failure.

But...

This bowl... was it really tofu pudding? Why did it feel like a thick, sticky mass of starch?

Nevertheless, Li Zheng also picked up a spoon and told the crew-cuts with clarity,

"A bet’s a bet."

Having said that, he scooped up a big spoonful and, girding himself, opened his mouth wide, delivering a spoonful of sweet tofu pudding straight to the back of his tongue, not even tasting it before swallowing.

Throughout the process, his expression never changed, steady as a rock.

Then he took another spoonful.

Without so much as a shiver.

Wei Dongyang was profoundly shocked.

Damn it, there was this trick too!

To avoid tasting the sweetness of the tofu pudding,

This guy actually bypassed his tongue completely, sending it right down his esophagus.

This... this was sheer blasphemy toward sweet tofu pudding!

The crew-cuts also burst into curses.

"That’s not how you’re supposed to eat it!"

"Aren’t you afraid of getting diabetes?"

"At least taste it a little."

"Fine, I’ll satisfy you guys," Li Zheng said with a light smile. He dug deep from where he’d previously scooped, extracting a large spoonful of pure tofu pudding, perfectly avoiding the thick syrup on the surface.

Only then did he put it in his mouth to taste.

He even parted his lips slightly, showing his twirling tongue to all the crew-cuts.

Watching his agile tongue,

The crew-cuts crumbled.

"Alright, alright~" Zhang Xiaoke, seeing the mood turning sour, quickly got up to defuse the situation, "There’s not much time left, Li Zheng still needs to go over a few problems with me. Gentlemen, please let Li Zheng be~ I beg your pardon~"

As she spoke, Zhang Xiaoke clasped her hands together and bowed to the crew-cuts.

At this gesture,

The eyes of the crew-cuts collectively began to drift elsewhere.

"Ah... forget it."

"Eating more won’t be good for our health anyway..."

"You guys discuss the problems."

"Let’s stop this and eat, eat, eat."

In a matter of seconds, all had dispersed.

"Haha," Zhang Xiaoke chuckled, "Everyone here is too adorable, except for your roommate."

"You don’t understand, Shi Bao’er is actually the cutest."

Li Zheng picked up a glass of water, took a large gulp, and after tilting his head back to gulp for quite a while, spit it out and then wiped his mouth before continuing to discuss the problems.

Zhang Xiaoke also listened attentively.

When it came to studying, she was serious.

…

Soon, the alarm on the cellphone rang.

In 5 minutes, they would have to take the car to Lu Dong University to attend class.

Li Zheng could only close his notebook with regret, "Send the rest to me through WeChat, I can explain to you by voice message, and video is also fine."

"No worries, I won’t disturb you anymore," Zhang Xiaoke also closed her notebook and sighed in relief, "So Master, will we see your news on TV in a few days?"

"Hard to say," Li Zheng grabbed a large steamed bun and hastily began to devour it, "From the experience of the past few years, the national competition champions didn’t make the national team. There’s going to be a lot of changes in ability during this training period, and the final assessment problems will be quite tricky. Someone stable like me might not make the cut."

"So although you don’t like chemistry, you’re still going to try your best to qualify, right?" Zhang Xiaoke asked, packing her bag.

"Of course," Li Zheng said, wiping his mouth after wolfing down his food, "By the way, aren’t you joining them for the physics competition?"

"Not into that. I’m very practical," Zhang Xiaoke slung her bag over her shoulder and shook her fist, "I’ve even put away my comics recently and stopped going shopping to catch up with Master at full speed."

"Heh, I like your confidence," Li Zheng also shouldered his bag and bumped fists with his disciple, "Well, see you at school then."

"Middle school or university?"

"With my help, you’ll make it to both."

```

"Hehehe~~ Coming to dote on you hasn’t been in vain, Master~~"

"You’re thinking too much, it’s all for Mrs. Zhang’s sake."

"??? This title... why has it become even weirder."

...

It had to be said that Zhang Xiaoke’s arrival had greatly improved Li Zheng’s condition.

With the diversions of physics and comics, and the comfort of home slippers, chemistry didn’t seem so scary anymore.

In the second week of training, he even made some progress, boosting his chemistry to the magical level of 346.

Unexpectedly, within the limited realm of chemistry, there was still some juice to squeeze out.

On December 22nd, Saturday, the training camp reached its final assessment.

Just like the national finals, one day was for theory and one day for practicals.

Although the entire training was extremely monotonous, most of the students were quite relaxed during the exams.

After all, those sitting here had all been pre-admitted.

And most of them didn’t believe they had a chance to go to Prague. They were merely there to keep company.

Of course, a few were still pushing themselves.

Before entering the classroom, Shi Yang had changed from his usual slovenliness to an unprecedented seriousness.

He left Li Zheng with the words, "If you hold back, I will never speak to you again in my life," before stepping into the examination room.

For Li Zheng,

such a threat was, of course, no threat at all.

Truthfully, being pestered by Shi Bao’er every day was the scariest thing.

However, it wasn’t his intention to hold back in the first place.

The exam began as usual.

Being the final selection, they used ICHO-level problems this time, and the difficulty even surpassed last year’s ICHO in Indonesia.

The volume of questions was massive, and there was not a single giveaway question.

Good, this was challenging enough.

What he hadn’t expected was that it was indeed too challenging...

A full five hours.

He...

had not finished the exam.

There was no helping it; the questions covered too broad a range and delved too deep.

Not just him, everyone, when handing in their papers, had expressions that spoke volumes of their despair.

They didn’t even have the energy to look at the answers.

Shi Yang, on the other hand, approached Li Zheng with an energetic demeanor.

"That was tough, this time."

"Yeah... it’s been a long time since I’ve felt this pressed," Li Zheng said, massaging his knuckles. "That’s what makes it interesting... But, I didn’t finish."

"Hey, I didn’t finish either," Shi Yang laughed.

"Then why are you so happy?"

"Because I saw a few people next to me didn’t even finish half, haha."

"..."

...

The next day’s practical exam was also 5 hours long.

There were two major questions that were intimidating just by looking at them—

[Synthesis of N-acetyl-L-prolinyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (Ac-L-Pro-L-Phe-OCH3)]

[Titration of ascorbic acid with potassium iodate]

Not only were these substances terrifying, but the experimentation process was also a far cry from the usual "heat and filtrate" routine, filled with operations like low temperatures, layering, manual shaking, and precise time limits for each step.

In short.

The slightest hesitation would lead to defeat.

Moreover, the five-hour time limit was very tight, and the two experiments had to be carried out simultaneously in order to stand a chance of scoring highly.

The requirements for understanding the experiment and controlling time were also terrifyingly high.

Probably only researchers who spent every day in the lab could be confident of scoring highly on the first try.

Even Li Zheng, facing these new compounds and intermediates, was caught off guard more than once.

The complexity of the experiments was there for all to see. Even with a great deal of forethought, unexpected situations always arose, requiring a stronger ability to respond on the spot, as well as luck.

Ultimately, when time ran out, he had just finished filling out the answer sheet.

It wasn’t a disaster, but it was certainly not going to be a great score.

As the practical exam came to an end, the students should have shouted with relief.

But the experiment was so terrifying that nearly everyone was tortured enough by it.

They had no energy left to chat.

Even Wei Dongyang, who had participated in last year’s training, cursed.

"This is twice as hard as last year, dammit..."

Li Zheng sat there stunned.

Indeed, even for ICHO, the intensity of this was just too much.

As the team leader, Dean Zhou had used problems of such caliber to test them, and there were so many of them.

It seemed he had already decided that next year’s Prague finals, the 50th anniversary of the ICHO, would be the toughest one in history.

The monsters from Eastern Europe would surely defend the dignity of chemistry.

In light of this, Dean Zhou Chenghuan didn’t hesitate to torment them so much, only to filter out the most terrifying problem-solving beasts.

...

After dinner, around nine o’clock, all the participants of the training camp were gathered again in the small conference room for an informal mini closing ceremony.

The conference room was somewhat disordered, with Dean Zhou and three other responsible teachers sitting at the head, still discussing something.

Following Dean Zhou’s call, the students also took their seats casually.

```

After spending so much time together, at the end of this training camp, Zhou Yi didn’t resort to clichés and just asked the crowd with a beaming smile, "Tough, huh?"

"Tough!" the trainees shouted almost in venting.

This time, even Li Zheng joined the shouting.

"Haha~" Zhou Yi chuckled, "It really was a bit tough, you all worked hard."

Everyone laughed along.

Damn, even Zhou Chenghuan said so, it must have been really tough.

"The results are out, let me go over them briefly," Zhou Yi leaned back in his chair and commented relaxedly, "Icho is out of a hundred points, usually it’s 60 for theory and 40 for practical. The difficulty of this test... conservatively speaking, probably around 65 points might get you a gold medal, but if you want to rank in the top three, you need to aim for 90. According to this estimate, among us here, there could be more than ten gold medalists."

"Phew—"

The previously casual atmosphere liven evened up again.

With such tricky questions, over ten people got more than 60 points?

Damn, that’s not what everyone thought right after the exam.

"But," Zhou Yi quickly sat upright again, adjusted his glasses, and said, "Next year’s Prague questions might not be easier than these, and we still need to pick the best of the best. I personally reviewed and approved every single paper, and the other teachers have also signed and acknowledged them. The current scores are the final ones, and I hope everyone understands."

The students nodded firmly, as things had come to this point, there was no need to quarrel over scores anymore. This was it.

After confirming with the other teachers once more, Zhou Yi picked up the score sheets, his smile faded, and his tone of voice became more serious.

"I hope everyone understands that the training exam is different from the national finals one."

"There might be correlations between the two sets of results, but they are not decisive."

"Now, I’ll only announce the top five."

"Those who wish to know their scores can come and check after the meeting."

"If needed, you can also take a copy of the answer key."

"Lastly, let me reiterate, the full score for the theory part of this exam is 60 points and 40 for the practical."

"So, the first place in our training this time..."

Zhou Yi suddenly looked up, radiating a beaming smile, "Who could it be?"

"Hey!"

"Ah!"

"Why are you doing The Singer’s routine."

The students started protesting.

"Hehe, it’s quite fun..." Zhou Yi said with a smile, "Shall I announce the third place first? Wei Dongyang... or is it Zhou Bin?"

The protests grew louder.

"Enough, Teacher Zhou!"

"Please, just talk normally!"

The other teachers couldn’t stand it anymore either.

"Stop messing around, Dean Zhou..."

"Give the kids a break."

"They’re tired enough."

Under everyone’s reproach, Zhou Yi had no choice but to give up disappointedly and cleared his throat to return to seriousness.

"All right, all right... Then I’ll start with the first place," he said.

"First place, Shi Yang."

"Total score of 95.29."

"Theory score of 55.33, ranked 2."

"Practical score of 39.96, ranked 1."

Before he finished speaking, the conference room already erupted.

"Damn, the Cobalt God is back in his spot!"

"Is this guy a monster? Shi Yang, are you a monster?"

"How the hell could anyone score that on a practical?"

"Just give him the gold medal already, Teacher Zhou."

In the midst of congratulations and jeers, Shi Yang became shy, just lowering his head and sneaking glances at Li Zheng sitting to his right.

If the rules don’t change.

This could be the end of Li Zheng’s journey in Chem Competitions.

Li Zheng himself felt light-headed, a rush of relief flooding his mind.

It wasn’t because he could escape the chemistry hell.

It was a sense of release from going all out.

Out of over a billion people nationwide, there’s always someone better.

Losing to Shi Yang was convincingly fair.

No regrets.

Li Zheng didn’t have any excess emotions, just playfully punched Shi Yang and cursed with a smile, "Your mom, that practical was freakishly abnormal, you’re awesome."

"Hahaha..." Shi Yang finally dared to laugh and retorted with a smirk, "Still not up to par, huh? You lost to me, didn’t you?"

Not just Li Zheng but others around also crowded over to thump Shi Yang.

"Did you forget to eat during nationals?"

"Sign something for me in advance, will you?"

"Looks like Ji University’s contract is going to be voided."

The friendly commotion lasted several minutes before Zhou Yi had to step in to quell it.

Soon, everyone returned to their seats, and the conference room quieted down again.

But Zhou Yi didn’t rush to make further announcements.

After a moment of silence, he sighed and spoke.

"Second place..."

"Li Zheng."

"Total score of 90.15"

"Theoretical score: 58.02, rank: 1."

"Experimental score: 32.13, rank: 4."

Different from before.

This time there was no uproar.

The atmosphere was instead somewhat chilly.

Many felt a wave of sadness inside them.

These two bastards, the result really turned out to be this...

This set of problems, theoretical 58.02...

Completely justified to challenge the world number one.

Even if the experimental advantage isn’t that absolute, it’s definitely enough to confidently vie for the top three.

In previous years, this level would have surely led to Icho.

But just our luck...

This year we run into Shi Yang, this monster.

Not only that.

Many present also knew.

During the selection for the Jijing Team, the final experimental exam.

The one who personally gave Shi Yang a boost, was none other than Li Zheng.

For a moment, the conference room was filled with sighs, as everyone was unsure whether to offer congratulations or consolation.

Zhou Yi, seeing that his students were not speaking, had no choice but to speak himself.

"This theoretical score, just like Shi Yang’s experimental score, is equally inconceivable."

"Honestly, for this set of problems, it’s impossible to finish in 5 hours. Even inviting the past three champions, they might not reach 55."

"A theoretical score of 58.02 is the most extreme I have ever seen."

"There’s nothing more to say, very, very, very good."

All this time, Zhou Yi didn’t dare to look at Li Zheng, just continuing to announce the scores.

"Third place, Zhou Bin, total score 81.55..."

"..."

"Fourth place, Wei Dongyang, total score 80.81..."

"..."

"Fifth place, Sun Chenglong, total score 78.29..."

"..."

"Considering the rules that the four members of the national team must come from different regions."

"If nothing unexpected happens..." Zhou Yi put down the list, sighed deeply, and looked at the students in turn, "the national team competing in the 50th Icho next year will be composed of Shi Yang, Zhou Bin, Wei Dongyang, and Sun Chenglong. This list will be officially announced before long."

With that, Zhou Yi stood up and nodded his head to everyone in gratitude.

"Thank you all for your efforts during this time."

"I believe we will meet again in the future."

"I hope everyone won’t slacken off because of the guaranteed admission."

"From now until you enter university, there’s still much to achieve."

"You could prepare for college entrance examinations to solidify your foundations, or you can develop hobbies and interests, start researching topics early."

"If nothing else, attending lectures at nearby universities is excellent too."

"You are also welcome to sit in on my organic chemistry class, haha."

"So, this will be the last meeting."

"Tomorrow morning, there will be a shuttle to take you to the train station."

"Meeting adjourned; camp dismissed."

"Those who want to see their scores can come."

After saying everything in one go, Zhou Yi finally sat back in his chair, took off his glasses, and rubbed his eyes while tilting his head back.

In these past days, he, too, had been frequently commuting between Ji and Lu, aside from lecturing and creating and grading problems, and was quite exhausted.

The students then stood up, offering their wishes.

"Teacher Zhou, you have worked hard too."

"Thank you, Teacher Zhou."

"Haha, I’ll listen to your Cheng Huan lecture when I enroll next year."

Li Zheng also stood up amidst the confusion, rubbing his stiff neck.

Sneakily learning the skills ultimately couldn’t surpass Shi Yang’s decade of immersion and his passion for chemistry.

If it were someone else, he’d definitely be annoyed to some extent.

But losing to Shi Yang.

I simply have no way out, do I~

Actually, now would be the time to thank Zhou Yi and say goodbye.

But Zhou Yi never looked over here from the start.

He must be worrying about the sensitive and complex situation.

Realizing this, Li Zheng just took the opportunity to nod from afar, and after Zhou Yi waved his hand, he left the conference room with Shi Yang.

Walking down the corridor, as the noise behind him faded away.

Li Zheng’s mind was free from any extra concerns.

Shi Yang, on the other hand, followed him closely, talking about vulgar topics the whole way.

Li Zheng knew he was trying to distract him, so he wouldn’t dwell on the Icho matter.

But there really was no need for that.

At this moment, Li Zheng’s heart.

Was already back at school.

The flowers at Lake Ying, I’m afraid they’re already gone by now.

It’s also time to switch to a winter outfit for naps in the library.