19 Perfect Score

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Chen Ran scribbled on his scratch paper, and before long, he had completed all the multiple-choice questions. Next came the fill-in-the-blank section, which was a bit more challenging. But for Chen Ran, it didn’t seem too difficult—just that it took a little more time.

The final section had several long-answer questions, and Chen Ran estimated he would need to devote quite some effort to those.

Two hours was more than enough. Putting down his pen, he stretched his hands and legs. The teacher stood at the podium, gazing intently at the students below. From the stage, it was easy to see everything the students were doing.

Chen Ran checked the time again with his pen in hand. There should be about half an hour left, maybe an hour and a half total. As long as he started the big questions now, he should be fine. He couldn’t afford to dawdle or daydream—otherwise, he might run out of time.

His scratch paper was already covered with numerous calculations. After reading the first big question, Chen Ran began working through the problem on the scratch paper. Satisfied, he neatly transcribed his calculations and answers onto the test paper. Although his penmanship was rather poor—having used a computer for so long, he hadn’t practiced writing by hand, so his characters looked messy and rushed—at least this wasn’t a language test. Otherwise, he would have lost points for presentation.

Taking a deep breath, Chen Ran continued calculating. The classroom was silent except for the soft scratching of pen on paper, which pleased the teacher.

Suddenly, the teacher noticed a hand raised. He stepped down from the podium and quickly approached Chen Ran’s desk, softly asking, “What’s the matter?”

“Teacher, I’ve used up both sides of my scratch paper. Can I have more?”

“Hmm.” The teacher nodded gently, turned to the podium, took a fresh sheet of scratch paper, and placed it on Chen Ran’s desk.

Then he returned to the podium.

Chen Ran exhaled in relief. It seemed there was more time left than he had thought. He had finished the entire test except for the final bonus question, which he hadn’t started yet. Looking at the bonus question, it was quite interesting—a geometry problem. Geometry was tough for middle schoolers, especially in the first year when the content was minimal. Many classmates couldn’t even solve solid geometry problems. This question, compared to textbook examples, was quite difficult. If he hadn’t been able to think flexibly, he’d have been completely lost. Fortunately, his mind was sharp; even a standard example would allow him to solve similar problems by thinking through them a few steps further.

Taking another deep breath, Chen Ran began the bonus question.

The teacher, perhaps tired from standing, sat down on a chair at the podium, still watching the students and occasionally glancing at his wristwatch.

“An hour has passed. Those who haven’t started the big questions should get on with them,” the teacher reminded, eyes fixed on the students.

Chen Ran was stunned.

Only an hour? Wasn’t the test supposed to last two hours? He’d already finished the bonus question, and only an hour had gone by? This...?

Well, he might as well double-check. Although the test was simple, it was still a math competition—there might be traps. He flipped through the paper and checked several times.

Raising his hand again, the teacher came over with scratch paper and asked, “Out of scratch paper again?”

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Chen Ran looked up at the teacher’s stern face and timidly asked, “Teacher, I’m done. Can I hand in my paper?”

“Done?” The teacher frowned. “I just checked—you still have the bonus question at the end. The bonus question counts toward your score; the total is 120 points. If you finished the main part, then do the bonus question, but it’s a bit tough, so read it carefully.”

“Teacher,” Chen Ran said timidly, unsure if the teacher was angry—this teacher hardly ever showed emotion. “I already finished the bonus question too…”

“Huh?” The teacher was momentarily surprised. He glanced at his watch. Only an hour and twenty minutes had passed, and the bonus question was done?

“Have you checked it?”

“I checked twice already. I really can’t find any mistakes.”

The teacher scrutinized Chen Ran thoughtfully, wondering why he hadn’t seen a student like this before at school. Finishing a competition paper so quickly—either he was a genuine prodigy or just messing around. Of course, the idea of a prodigy at this school seemed unlikely; maybe he was forced to participate or didn’t know what the math competition was about and just came along for the ride.

The teacher wasn’t angry—there was no reason to be. He simply nodded gently. “If you’ve checked thoroughly, then you may leave.”

“Thank you, teacher.” Chen Ran breathed a sigh of relief, handed over the test paper and scratch paper, packed his things, and left the classroom.

Watching Chen Ran’s retreating figure, the teacher shook his head. The school had little hope of producing students who would truly earn any accolades. Based on past experience, most only reached the semifinals at best, never the finals. Often, they couldn’t even pass the semifinals.

Holding the papers, the teacher returned to the podium. Seeing students beginning to stir, presumably because some were leaving, he announced, “There are forty minutes left. Those who haven’t started the questions may begin.”

Sitting down, the teacher opened Chen Ran’s test paper. The name and class indicated he was an ordinary first-year student. The teacher instantly thought this was just for fun. First year, ordinary class—anyone in that group managing to solve competition problems was unusual.

Yet the test paper was densely filled with answers. Curious, the teacher began examining it. Starting with the multiple-choice section—huh? All correct? No way! Maybe he guessed? The second question correct too... all multiple-choice questions correct? Either lucky guessing or he truly solved them.

The teacher quickly checked the scratch paper and found extensive calculations. So he really got them right? Impossible—an ordinary class student acing all multiple-choice questions?

Moving on to the fill-in-the-blank questions, again, no mistakes.

The teacher rubbed his eyes hard, afraid he was seeing things.

When he reached the long-answer section, he was dumbfounded. The answers differed from the standard ones, which made him suspect the student hadn’t memorized the solutions beforehand. The calculations were more complex but mainly relied on textbook knowledge, cleverly applied through many twists and turns. It was clear the student had never studied math competitions formally but had used just the school curriculum to solve the problems.

The teacher had proctored many math competitions and was familiar with alternative solution methods, but this student clearly hadn’t learned them. Instead, he had brute-forced the solutions with school-level mathematics.

Despite the messy handwriting, the work was impressive.

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The proctor was puzzled. Could an ordinary class student really perform better than even those in advanced classes? As he continued, he found no errors—everything was correct... even the bonus question was flawless. A perfect score? This was a perfect paper? How was that possible? The school had never seen a perfect score in the math competition before. And now it appeared right in his exam room. Could he have cheated? Ridiculous—there was probably no other perfect score in the entire school.

The proctor wasn’t disparaging other students; he knew the school’s teaching level well enough to know that a perfect score was highly unlikely. This year’s preliminary test was slightly harder than previous years. Although the difficulty increase wasn’t dramatic, it was enough to lower students’ scores. Last year, the highest was just over 70 points. Seeing this paper, he thought the school would be lucky if a few students passed at all.

Otherwise, how could they avoid ridicule from other schools? Yet here was a first-year student who had effortlessly aced a more challenging preliminary test.

Watching the confident student leave, the proctor had thought he’d given up. But judging by his expression, it seemed he even found the preliminary test too easy. Was that smirk an indication of disdain for the test’s difficulty? The teacher wasn’t sure.

Taking a deep breath, he put down the paper.

Glancing at the clock, he announced, “Time’s up. Please hand in your papers.”

The school had produced a perfect score—this made the teacher quite satisfied. Chen Ran, an ordinary class student with such extraordinary ability—how had he not been placed in the advanced class? More importantly, why was he even here? With these results, he could easily attend a top-tier middle school. Even at Ningchuan’s best schools, few would achieve a perfect score on this test.

Chen Ran left the classroom and went to the playground, where Wang Weidong was playing basketball with several senior students, sweating on the court.

He called out, “Wang Weidong.”

“Hey!” Wang Weidong turned around, smiling brightly with a youthful, clean face warmed by the winter sun. He jogged over to Chen Ran. “Finished the test?”

Chen Ran noticed Wang Weidong was wearing only a thin long-sleeve shirt with sleeves rolled up and asked, puzzled, “Aren’t you cold?”

“Nope!” Wang Weidong scratched his head. “Are we heading back now?”

“If you want to play more, you can. No rush!” Chen Ran stood by the playground.

“Forget it, let’s go back.” Wang Weidong climbed the steps beside the court, grabbed his clothes, and said to the older students, “I’m heading out!”

“Let’s go.” Wang Weidong pouted. “By the way, how did you do? Was the test hard?”