Chapter 10: A Masterpiece

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“Look at this kid—he finished half an hour early and still scored full marks.”
“Incredible, he’s got real confidence.”
“Is that for real? Zhang Chu was never that impressive, you couldn’t tell in daily life.”
“If you were even half as capable as him, you wouldn’t be failing to score even fifty.”
“Even if he did well, you shouldn’t hand in your paper early—check it over a few more times. What if you miss something by being careless?”

Jiangcheng Television is really impressive. Even if it can’t compete with Jiangdong Satellite TV or CCTV, it still draws hundreds of thousands, even millions of viewers. They even devoted several minutes to reporting on Zhang Chu, the genius teenager!

The local BBS forums, Jiangcheng Experimental High School’s message boards, and even the city’s newspapers and media outlets shared the news online, quickly turning Zhang Chu into a minor internet celebrity.

“My goodness, the television publicity is amazing!” Zhang Chu was overjoyed. His prestige value on the system page had soared to 10,411. Just from a brief appearance on Jiangcheng Television, he’d accumulated this much prestige. He couldn’t help but wonder how many billions the prestige values of top national or international stars would be if quantified!

“Congratulations, Host. Would you like to level up? Leveling up does not consume points.”

“Level up, of course! Let’s see what rewards come after upgrading.”

There was no imagined physical transformation, no dazzling visual effects.

The system’s cold voice sounded: “Congratulations on passing the novice period. All system functions are now unlocked. The system shop is fully open; you can redeem items with prestige points. Level up reward: one lucky draw.”

Zhang Chu opened the system shop and was delighted to find that not only was the ‘external assistance’ function now available for unlimited redemption, but even the lucky draw was accessible, though the price was steep.

Activating external assistance cost 500 prestige points each time, and then one point was deducted every minute during use! Whether you used it for one minute or for 120, that 500-point fee served as the threshold.

He had just been worrying about how to handle the science composite and English exams tomorrow, and now all his problems were solved!

With over ten thousand prestige points, he could safely get through the college entrance exam, and still have enough left over for other matters.

The system’s lottery was even more of a rip-off, costing 10,000 prestige points per draw, and what you’d win was pure luck.

Fortunately, Zhang Chu had a free lucky draw as a reward for leveling up. He said to the system, “Let’s try the lottery. The last time I won beginner calligraphy and it was amazing.”

The spinning prize wheel reappeared, featuring many familiar rewards and some new ones, such as Beginner Wing Chun, Beginner Antique Appraisal, Beginner Oil Painting Mastery, Introduction to Hypnosis, and Puppet Doll, among others.

“Start the draw!”

The wheel began to spin rapidly, the words on it blurring into one another.

Zhang Chu rubbed his hands together, praying silently.

“Please, let me get something useful,” he murmured. “If only I’d just bought a luck aura, I’d definitely win something good now. I completely forgot about that.”

Mainly because the system had just upgraded and many functions were new, it hadn’t even occurred to him until now.

As the wheel gradually slowed, the pointer landed on Beginner Antique Appraisal!

“Damn, what am I supposed to do with antique appraisal? I can’t eat it, can’t sleep with it—am I supposed to become an antique dealer?”

Zhang Chu was left speechless as the system quickly injected knowledge about antique appraisal into his mind. He was now, effectively, a master appraiser, able to accurately determine the era and characteristics of various objects.

“Well, it’s better than nothing.”

He could only comfort himself with that thought. The Wing Chun he’d wanted most hadn’t come up, and the system shop only sold the entry-level version, not the beginner grade in one go.

…

At the same time, somewhere in Jiangdong, the teachers of the college entrance exam’s Chinese grading group were rapidly clicking their computer mice. Ever since the grading process went digital, staring at a computer screen had become their eight-hour daily routine.

Only seven days were allotted for grading the Chinese exams, forcing the teachers to rush. Even with a dual-review system per paper, some errors were inevitable.

For the essay section, each teacher had to grade 600 essays a day, which meant 70 per hour—less than a minute per essay.

So, to stand out, a student’s essay had to win over the graders in just a few dozen seconds—a daunting feat.

Cui Chungui blinked his tired, dry eyes and gave the essay before him a score of 41. It barely met the topic requirements, but the content was substantial.

To score highly on the essay wasn’t easy—the emotions had to be sincere, the content rich, the structure tight, the language fluent, and the theme profound, not to mention possessing literary flair and creativity!

“Hm? ‘The Death of Red Hare’?”

Cui Chungui looked at the scanned image on his screen in surprise. The student’s handwriting was excellent—bold and free, with strokes like iron hooks and silver lines. This level of skill could never be achieved by merely copying copybooks for a day or two.

“In the twenty-sixth year of Jian’an, 221 AD, Guan Yu fled Maicheng, was defeated and captured, refused to surrender, and was killed by Sun Quan. His mount, the Red Hare, was gifted to Ma Zhong by Sun Quan.

One day, Ma Zhong reported: The Red Hare has fasted for days and is near death. Sun Quan was alarmed and urgently sought out Bo Xi, a renowned scholar of Jiangdong. This man, a descendant of Bole, was said to understand the language of horses…”

It was written in classical vernacular!

Many Chinese literature graduates from university couldn’t compose in classical vernacular, yet here was a candidate writing a short story in it!

Cui Chungui slowed his reading. Such an essay was a pleasure to behold, a work of calligraphic artistry.

The Red Hare, in the stories of the Three Kingdoms, was originally Dong Zhuo’s steed, gifted to Lu Bu to win him over. After the proud Lu Bu was killed by Cao Cao, the horse became Cao Cao’s. But Cao Cao, who greatly admired Guan Yu, gave the Red Hare to him instead. Guan Yu and the Red Hare formed a deep bond, and when Guan Yu was defeated at Maicheng, the Red Hare fell into the hands of Eastern Wu.

This essay, “The Death of Red Hare,” drew on historical accounts and was truly brilliant!

The entire piece used the bold technique of personification—transforming dry historical records into a compelling dialogue between horse and man, giving voice to the theme of loyalty and faithfulness through the mouth of the Red Hare.

This conversation between man and horse broke away from the dull conventions, making Cui Chungui’s eyes light up!

“This student is extraordinary. The diction is concise yet precise—whinny, sigh, weep, wail, stroke its back and lament—could this be the disciple of some great master of classical studies?”

Ordinary candidates could never write something like this. Without hesitation, Cui Chungui gave it a score of 60. To deduct even a single point would be an injustice to both the story and its words!