Chapter 21: The Third Day of the College Entrance Examination

When the English exam paper was handed out, I didn't feel nervous at all; it was just like working on English exercises as usual. Many questions required only a glance before I knew the answer, and I was confident my answers were correct.

Still, I dared not be careless—after all, this was my only chance to raise my total score. Even though I carefully read each question and answered with caution, I still finished quite early. Looking around, I saw that everyone else was still diligently working, and there were about fifty minutes left before we had to turn in our papers.

I bowed my head slightly, closed my eyes, and rested for a moment. Then, I started from the beginning and checked through everything once more. There were a few questions I wasn’t sure about, but I made almost no changes—usually, with the uncertain ones, the first instinct is correct, and changing it might turn a right answer into a wrong one.

By the time I finished checking, it was time to submit the paper. I packed up my things and left the exam hall feeling light and at ease. Yes, the air outside was nice.

At dinner, I ate a bit more than usual. That night, I slept soundly without any dreams and woke up early. Today was the last day of the college entrance examination.

Today’s subject was chemistry, the final exam of the whole process. As my father and I were about to leave, my mother said, “It’s the last subject—do your best. Once you get home, you can play as much as you like!”

“Yes, I’ll finally be able to watch my favorite TV shows!” I nodded.

Entering the exam room, I noticed several seats that remained empty. In previous days, there might have been one or two students who gave up, but today, this exam room had more—five or six people hadn’t shown up.

I thought, unless there are unavoidable circumstances that truly prevent someone from attending, to give up the exam just because the earlier subjects didn’t go well is simply not brave enough. All the previous hard work would go to waste.

It’s true, maybe the results in the earlier subjects weren’t ideal, but to quit now is being irresponsible to oneself; it’s a sign of weakness. Sigh, I suppose I shouldn’t judge—I wasn’t especially brave myself. When I took the math exam two days ago, I almost cried. Heh.

The teacher had already started handing out the papers according to the instructions over the loudspeaker. I glanced through the exam, filled in my name and exam number as directed, and began to answer.

Once again, there were questions requiring the balancing of chemical equations—clearly, this is a must-have on the test. I tried balancing them several times on the scratch paper, but it just wouldn’t work out! Well, I gave up. Knowing my answer was wrong, I still filled in a few numbers.

Fortunately, there was no big question on calculating solution concentrations; instead, there was a multiple-choice question, and I chose the option that looked most likely. This time, the chemistry exam wasn’t too difficult; even I, who isn’t good at chemistry, could answer more than half the questions.

Of course, there were still a few challenging questions—after all, that’s how the scores are spread out.

For the college entrance examination, personal effort accounts for a great deal, but luck also plays a part. Usually, everyone has subjects they’re good at and others they struggle with. If the difficult questions fall in your strong subjects and the easy questions in your weak ones, that’s the best luck.

But for me, it seems I wasn’t so lucky this year. The English exam was very easy, but the math exam was very hard.

Ah, I can’t blame fate for being unfair. Who could I blame but myself for not working hard enough? If I had studied the other subjects with as much dedication and effort as I did English, the outcome might have been different.

But now, it’s pointless to say any of this. No matter what, as the blue broadcast in the classroom sounded—“Please leave the examination room”—it signaled the official end of this year’s college entrance exams.

At last, it was over. Though not perfect, at least I had finished. Following the crowd out of the exam room, I noticed how visibly excited everyone was—there were books and notes thrown all over the floor.

I wasn’t sure whether I should be happy or not. Now that it was all over, I didn’t feel as relaxed as I had imagined. Instead, a feeling of uncertainty loomed over my heart, lingering and refusing to fade…