This Teacher Gu had absolutely no idea that simply answering an exam would land him on the news headlines and even spark a trend.
After all, the headline "Current Senior High School Chinese Teacher Hospitalized with Cerebral Thrombosis Due to Overly Difficult Exam Questions" was truly novel and easily piqued readers' interest.
On the other hand, it also ignited a craze for exam answering. Thanks to the early development of the internet, many prominent figures on Facebook had by then largely mastered the art of riding on trending topics.
When one influential figure posted their own exam paper, which they had spent four hours completing, it triggered over a million discussions and shares. Naturally, other prominent figures quickly adopted this tactic and posted their own exam papers.
The peak was particularly reached when a certain famous author also posted their household exam paper. This author was a renowned bestseller, hailed as a leading figure of a new generation of literature, though their reputation was mixed. Those who liked them called them an unparalleled genius, unique on earth and unmatched in the heavens.
However, most people considered them a short, despicable bug, and the exam paper they ultimately submitted was highly controversial. Some of the questions were so poorly answered that even readers with only a junior high school education found them eye-watering.
Most remarkably, this person proactively tagged Huang He's account, expressing a desire for Jiangnan Group to grade their paper.
Initially, this was just a move to gain attention. However, a day later, Huang He actually responded: 61 points.
Indeed, it appeared to be a score just above the passing line. But in reality, it was a paper with a total score of 200 points, so the moment this score was released, it immediately triggered nationwide mockery.
Naturally, the great author was unwilling to accept such a conclusion and directly lashed out on Facebook. Of course, being a cultured individual, they cursed without using any vulgar language, and did so in a rather elegant manner.
Just as the author was expecting Boss Huang to engage in a verbal spat with them, thereby continuing to hype up the trend and promote their new book, their account was directly suspended for three months.
The reason given was also very fair: suspicion of insulting the personality and personal attacks on other users.
This famous author was thoroughly turned into a laughingstock, but it also triggered a wave of imitation across the country. More people began posting their own exam papers. Of course, apart from that famous author, no one else had the fortune of receiving a personal grading from Boss Huang.
However, no one truly hoped for a score to be given, as they all knew that they would likely not achieve a high score. As long as they posted their exam papers, generated controversy, and garnered some traffic and attention, that was enough.
In this way, the热度 (popularity/trend) did not die down for a full week or two, but the popularity of Jiangnan University itself gradually faded. Only the students who had taken the exam cared about their results.
Fan Rui had initially thought that the exam results would be similar to the Gaokao, requiring half a month to a month to be finalized.
In fact, after only about a week, Jiangnan University announced the completion of all exam paper grading and that score inquiries would be opened online on May 15th.
Concurrently, Jiangnan University would also call all students who passed the threshold, notifying them that they could directly report to Jiangnan University in September.
This incredibly fast grading speed greatly surprised Fan Rui and others. After all, this exam had very clear standard answers, and many results were quite subjective. They had expected the results to take at least over a month.
It was estimated that a teacher could only grade one exam paper per hour.
Well, they naturally did not know that all employees of the entire Jiangnan Group had been mobilized to grade exam papers.
However, they were not directly grading the papers but rather grading scanned images on computers. The Jiangnan Group had by then essentially formed a fully computerized office system, allowing for direct grading with just a few mouse clicks.
Moreover, since this was Jiangnan University's independent recruitment, the grading process was far less rigorous and secretive than the Gaokao, and the speed would also be faster.
As for the questions without standard answers, they were all gathered at the research and development center. These questions were handled by a professional team personally organized by Zuo Sicheng. Since Zuo Sicheng himself had created these questions, only he knew what the answers were.
Another important reason was that although a total of 390,000 people participated in the exam, as many as 100,000 people did not show up for the exam. These individuals had come solely to take advantage of the free transportation and accommodation benefits. They had no intention of taking the exam and had instead rushed to travel in the provincial capital.
In addition to this, 100,000 exam papers were directly discarded because they contained a large number of blank answers. According to the rules written on the exam papers, if more than one-third of the paper was blank, it would be treated as a zero score.
Therefore, only 190,000 exam papers needed to be graded, which was more than enough within a little over a week.
On May 15th, Fan Rui and Zhao Yao appeared at an internet café.
What was a point of pride for the two of them was that they were going to the internet café "by imperial decree," meaning they had their parents' permission, and had even received ten yuan for internet fees from their parents.
This was because on May 15th, Jiangnan University opened its score inquiry website. To find out their scores as soon as possible, one could only use the website; phone inquiries would only be available on the third day.
At precisely 10 AM, as the page refreshed, the search button, which had been grayed out, finally turned blue. Fan Rui clicked the button at the fastest possible speed.
However, due to the likely overwhelming number of people inquiring, the spinning circle on the page turned for nearly a full minute before the personal information input page finally popped up.
Fan Rui entered his name, examination admission ticket number, and the last four digits of his ID card as the query password, and finally found his exam score.
"322 points!" Seeing his score, Fan Rui sighed slightly, but his face did not show too much sadness.
In fact, this score was within his expectations, as he knew he had answered several questions incorrectly upon later reflection, and he had not answered some questions at all. Fan Rui felt fortunate to score over 300 points, so scoring 322 points now exceeded his imagination.
"With such a low score, I probably won't make it into the top 1000, right?" Fan Rui muttered, then clicked the query ranking button. Fan Rui then showed an expression of immense surprise.
"999th place? I actually passed!" Fan Rui exclaimed in his mind. Since this independent recruitment only admitted the top 1000 students, the name "999th place," while somewhat absurd, definitely meant he had passed the admission line.
This filled Fan Rui with a surge of joy. "Yes! I got in!"
However, Fan Rui soon felt a sense of confusion, as he had not yet made up his mind whether he should attend Jiangnan University. This hesitant individual had still not made a decision.
"It's over!" At this moment, Fan Rui heard Zhao Yao's voice. The voice was filled with despair, which startled Fan Rui. He then turned his head and looked at Zhao Yao.
Recently, his relationship with Zhao Yao had become incredibly close, and they had practically become the best of buddies. Therefore, his understanding of Zhao Yao had rapidly increased. He knew that Zhao Yao was an absolute optimist and had never shown an expression of despair or pain up until now.
But now, Fan Rui was witnessing it. He glanced at Zhao Yao's computer screen, which read "319 points, ranking 1178th!"
Although Zhao Yao and Fan Rui were only three points apart, these three points directly accounted for a difference of nearly 200 places in the rankings. This illustrated just how lucky Fan Rui was. It was estimated that a score of 320 points was the gap between a genius and an ordinary diligent person.
This meant that even the most diligent ordinary person could at most score around 320 points. Only diligent geniuses, or true super geniuses, could break the 320-point barrier and continue upwards.
Fan Rui felt very fortunate. He might possess some cleverness, but he was by no means a genius.
As for Zhao Yao, Fan Rui actually felt that Zhao Yao was a bit smarter than himself, but unfortunately, he was not diligent enough, falling behind by one step. This was how fate played its hand in the world.
Zhao Yao was wholeheartedly set on entering Jiangnan University but did not get in, while Fan Rui, who had been accepted, was still hesitating.
"It's okay, it's easy for me to get into a key university next month!" Zhao Yao said with a smile upon seeing Fan Rui's worried expression.
"Actually, you shouldn't despair! You still have a chance!" Fan Rui scrolled down the webpage, revealing a line of text at the bottom of the page. "It says here that the current scores and rankings are not the final ones."
"We can directly check our exam paper grading and corrections online, as well as some publicly released answers for reference only. If you believe there is an error in the grading of your paper, you can file an appeal within three days. Jiangnan University will assign three teachers to review it, and the relevant problem papers will also be published online to accept social supervision."
"The final scores and rankings will be determined before June 1st. You still have a chance!"
"It's useless! I've looked over my paper. I got all the questions with correct answers wrong. As for those without correct answers, they were somewhat ambiguous but indeed did not meet the requirements. It's okay for them to fear that I would make mistakes. This is my real score, and I have no one to blame!" Zhao Yao said.
"That's okay too. Look, there's this line too!" Fan Rui pointed to the last remark. "It says here that before May 20th, teachers from Jiangnan University will call students ranked in the top 1000 to ask if they are willing to enroll in Jiangnan University. If they are willing, dedicated staff will come to sign contracts before May 25th, transfer our student files, and then we will be unable to participate in the Gaokao and can directly enroll in the university."
"But if we refuse, the offer will be extended downwards until the 1000 slots are filled!"
"I think there will definitely be students ranked higher than me who are unwilling to enroll, so the offer will be extended. You still have a chance!" Fan Rui said.
"That's still very difficult. There are as many as 177 people ahead of me!" Zhao Yao said.
"Who knows? Maybe there will be a miracle, or maybe there will be so many fools," Fan Rui said.