Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

"Wang Liang, why are you bringing this up now?!" Liu Yiting reacted faster than anyone else.

The boy named Wang Liang wore glasses and looked like a classic introverted, studious boy. He seemed harmless, just with low emotional intelligence, but it was often this kind of person who was most capable of engaging in underhanded tactics.

Intelligent people are rarely actually lacking in emotional intelligence.

Those who are so intelligent that they are geniuses and transcend ordinary people, resulting in low emotional intelligence, are always a minority.

"I just told Li Zhao that my friend works at the Experimental Primary School, and he told me about it."

"The exam is coming up soon, and you're saying this will affect Li Zhao." Liu Yiting stood up.

"How did I have any impact? Li Zhao's exam paper wasn't written by someone else, so what is he afraid of?"

"Then why do you even ask?"

"Can't I even ask? Who do you think you are to Li Zhao, why are you being so eager?"

"Alright!" Team leader Chen called out, and the car immediately became very quiet. "The exam is about to start, so everyone just focus on yourselves and don't say anything unnecessary."

Team Leader Chen turned to Li Zhao, "Li Zhao, we don't know the situation at the other schools..."

"Have any students from the Experimental Elementary School achieved top marks in national college entrance exams in previous years?"

Li Zhao asked a question that no one had expected.

"No... I don't think so. It's not easy to get a first prize in the national competition. Only a handful of people in the entire Linjiang area can get it, and only one primary school and one central primary school in our area can."

"That's alright then, the dog is barking."

The train journey was quiet from then on until it reached its destination.

After getting off the bus, when the teachers were organizing the class, the children standing next to Li Zhao were all very cautious.

Coincidentally, the line next door was from the Experimental Primary School.

To take an exam, everyone was dressed in dark red suits and tuxedos—that's pretty ostentatious.

The teacher looked proud, and the students all felt like they were the chosen ones, confident, arrogant, and looking down on everyone else.

This school is among the top tier, but not quite the best; it's a newly rich school that's been built by throwing money at it.

It conforms to stereotypes.

Li Zhao could sense the restless intent of the teacher leading the team from the Experimental Primary School and the girl standing at the front; they hesitated several times before speaking to Huang Keyun.

Just a second before the most stereotypical plot was about to unfold, the passing of a group of people drew all the attention of the teachers and students of the Experimental Elementary School.

The math competition team from New Taipei First Senior High School is a group of spirited young people.

A deep purple collar, a white shirt, and deep purple trousers with white triangular stitching—this uniform from New Taipei First Senior High School is the dream of many elementary school students.

As for whether school uniforms are good-looking or not, it often depends on the school's reputation. Even if the uniforms of New Taipei First Senior High School are red and green, they can still be praised to the skies.

So everyone's attention began to turn to the campus of New Taipei No. 1 High School in front of them.

This is Li Zhao's first time here, including his previous life.

After he was admitted to New Taipei Experimental School, he wouldn't come even if New Taipei First High School had an open day.

I can't quite describe the emotion, but it's definitely a kind of escapism.

I never imagined that my first time here would be to participate in a competition.

"New Taipei No. 6 Elementary School, follow me!" the exam staff shouted, holding up a flag.

So the eight-person team collected their stationery and entered the school gate one by one.

New Taipei First Senior High School is a long-established prestigious school, so its campus facilities are generally average, actually not as good as New Taipei Experimental High School, which was built later with a lot of money.

The buildings are quite old, the playground is small, and the passageways are relatively narrow.

However, the environment is indeed very nice.

The landscaping was arranged with great care; it's clear it was designed by a landscape architect.

My occupational hazard has flared up again.

"You'll be spending the next three years here," Team Leader Chen said. "For now, focus on the national competition and give it your all! The teachers will be waiting for you in the lounge and will also be there to greet you at the door. Good luck!"

To Li Zhao's surprise, the examination venue was not set up in separate classrooms, but was instead arranged in a large multimedia classroom.

Multimedia classrooms... Back in 08, this concept was equivalent to "a classroom where open classes can be held".

Aside from having more seats and more speakers, that's about it.

Hmm... This multimedia classroom at New Taipei First Senior High School is really big; it feels like it can hold at least four hundred people.

After checking his admission ticket at the podium, Li Zhao walked all the way to a seat at the back of the classroom, and he was exhausted from walking.

Who would have thought to put such a low step in the middle!

It's wide and flat, walking one level at a time is fragmented and tiring, and walking two levels at a time is easy to tear your balls.

There are 16 students in a row, 8 on the left and 8 on the right, seated with intervals between them.

Each row was assigned a proctor who was responsible for distributing the exam papers and answering questions.

The top-performing elementary school students in Qingqiao District gathered together, and everyone looked very nervous.

Except for Li Zhao.

He was even comparing New Taipei First Senior High School and New Taipei Experimental High School, wondering if, given the conditions and teaching staff of the two schools, if student resources were evenly distributed, would Experimental High School really be unable to beat New Taipei First Senior High School?

Not necessarily.

Just as I was thinking about it, I tried curling my hair.

Li Zhao perked up after just one glance.

Unlike previous years, this year's exam paper is 16 pages long!

The exam time is still two and a half minutes, more time without adding extra minutes, you deserve it.

You could tell from the sighs and complaints that the sudden increase in the number of questions was making the elementary school students a little anxious.

Except for Li Zhao.

The harder the better! Not only will it be more interesting and challenging for him to write, but it will also help him stand out from others.

It would be best to announce a specific ranking this year. He not only wants to win first place in the national competition, but also to directly take first place nationwide.

"Number one in the country"—those four words sound really impressive.

The bell rang, and the competition began.

Part One: Listening.

Li Zhao finally understood why it was arranged in the multimedia classroom... the sound system was indeed powerful.

It has good clarity from all directions and the volume is sufficient.

For a primary school competition in 08, I couldn't expect to tolerate wearing headphones.

The listening section was significantly more difficult than the regular exam, mainly because the reading style of the listening materials was closer to normal spoken communication, with some connected speech, making it very fluent.

This would be more difficult for other children, but it was perfect for Li Zhao.

To him, the topic was essentially equivalent to simultaneous interpreting:

Male voice: "Yesterday I went fishing with my dad at the lake. He didn't catch anything all afternoon, but I caught two fish, oh right, and a hat. I don't know who accidentally threw it into the lake."

Female voice: "Oh my god, I was playing by the lake the day before yesterday and I just lost a hat! Was it red and white striped? There were six stripes in total."

Male voice: "Oh no, I counted, there are four."

Question: "How many fish did the man catch?"

The person who set the question really went to great lengths.

After the listening test, Li Zhao continued his sprint without stopping. In order to leave himself enough time to write the essay, he went all out and answered questions very quickly.

When Li Zhao turned to the last page and saw the essay topic, he almost burst out laughing.

My Career Plan

Giving this question to elementary school students is a bit beyond their syllabus, both in terms of content and difficulty.

Kids these days don't know anything about career planning.

Anyone who can provide an answer other than "scientist," "writer," "painter," "celebrity," or "astronaut" deserves praise.

Li Zhao first wrote a draft on a piece of paper, then polished it, picked out the words that he felt were not elegant or precise enough, gave a few as backups, then revised it again, polished it once more, and after confirming that there were no errors, copied it.

It's finished.

He let out a long breath and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.

There are one hour and forty-three minutes left until the end of the exam.

……