Interstellar to 80s: A Scientist's Farming Mission

Are you even human?

Are you some kind of monster?

These two questions perfectly captured what every student in the exam hall was thinking.

Just as they were racking their brains over the first problem, someone turned a page.

The familiar sound, from the familiar direction—there was no doubt it was the same person.

An Ning was vaguely aware of the effect she was having, but she had no idea how difficult the questions were. To her, every problem was simple.

She calmly turned the page and started on the calculation problems that followed.

Just as many of the examinees were guessing she was only glancing through the test, the SWISH SWISH SWISH of a pen gave them a different answer.

’Could she be starting from the back?’

It wasn’t impossible. After all, that first question was brutal.

’Are the later questions easier?’

A curious student, stuck on the first problem, glanced at the later pages.

That one glance was enough to shatter their morale.

The ones in the back looked... even more impossible.

The curious examinee nearly dropped dead on the spot. Only by relying on their three years of high school test-prep experience did they manage to pull through.

’It’s fine, it’s fine. If I can’t solve it, no one else can either!’

’Except for a few monsters, of course.’

The examinee miraculously recovered and resumed their battle with the first problem.

Meanwhile, An Ning had already finished the major problems on the second page.

The proctor behind her happened to be a math teacher, and he finally couldn’t resist walking over to stand behind An Ning.

Once he was in position, he saw that An Ning was already writing out her solution process.

A clear thought process, neat handwriting... It was the kind of penmanship that made you want to give a perfect score at first glance.

The math teacher followed An Ning’s reasoning, solving the problem along with her in his head. When she put down the final stroke of her pen, he had to fight the urge to shout ”Excellent!”

Fortunately, he remembered his duties quite clearly.

”Focus on your own test and don’t disturb others.”

With that single sentence from the head proctor, the math teacher understood and regretfully returned to his post, not daring to walk around casually for fear of distracting the students.

But in his mind, he kept replaying An Ning’s solution to that problem. The satisfaction he felt was like the immense relief of finally having a smooth bowel movement after being constipated for over ten days.

’So satisfying!’

’So perfect!’

’If I were the one grading this paper, I wouldn’t be able to bring myself to deduct a single point.’

The math teacher, still buzzing with excitement, glanced at the student next to her. That one look pulled him right back to reality.

Difficult.

So damn difficult!

So many students were stuck on the multiple-choice questions on the first page, yet the examinee who’d been flipping through the test was already on page three.

At this point, the math teacher was practically dying of curiosity.

He desperately wanted to know if her answers to the earlier questions were all correct.

With that thought, the math teacher stood behind another student, stared at a problem, and began solving it in his head, occasionally tapping his fingers in the air to aid his memory.

He worked on it for a while, and then he stopped.

This problem wasn’t just at a level to stump students.

Even he, a math teacher, was stumped for a moment.

He could solve it, but the time it required and the traps hidden within the problem were truly shocking.

The math teacher sighed internally. With a flash of insight, he understood. ’It’s starting.’

The teachers had more or less anticipated a situation like today’s.

The exams in the past few years had been too easy. The higher-ups needed people, so anyone who could be singled out went to university.

But after a few years, there was a need for a batch of truly elite, high-caliber talent. That’s why this year’s math exam was exceptionally difficult—it was designed specifically to screen for these people.

He would bet that even if someone did poorly in other subjects, if they managed to get a high score on this math exam, they could potentially be admitted unconventionally.

The math teacher’s mind raced with many, many thoughts.

While he was still mentally calculating the problems on the first page, An Ning glanced at her watch, stood up confidently, and turned in her test.

The head proctor was about to advise her against it, but then he saw the test paper An Ning handed in. It was completely filled out.

He didn’t teach math, but he knew it was a subject where if you didn’t know it, you really didn’t know it. It was impossible to just scribble nonsense to fill up the paper.

In that moment, the head proctor understood. He had encountered a genius.

He nodded at An Ning with a slight smile. An Ning returned the smile and walked out.

As for the other examinees, not a single one looked up.

They gripped their pens so tightly and scratched at their draft paper so furiously, it seemed they wished they could create sparks to set the damn math test on fire.

At that moment, the person who wrote the exam questions was probably being cursed by countless students.

If the superstition about sneezing when someone talks about you were true, he’d probably be the first person in history to sneeze himself to death.

Meanwhile, An Ning calmly left after handing in her test. By the time she walked out the main gate, the other parents were almost getting used to her finishing early.

Although for math, she had come out even faster.

”Hey, young lady, how was the test? Was it hard?”

A parent, adhering to the principle of ”don’t ask your own kid, but you can ask someone else’s,” questioned An Ning.

An Ning had a relaxed expression and a cheerful voice.

”It was pretty simple.”

Her simple answer instantly brought smiles to the faces of the waiting parents.

”Simple is good, simple is good.”

”Right, right, that way it won’t affect their mood for this afternoon’s exam.”

”Isn’t that the truth. My kid is terrified of the math exam.”

Because of An Ning’s simple assessment, the group of parents began to chat lightheartedly.

An Ning found Lin Cuihua but wasn’t in a hurry to go back. She had finished so early today that she figured she could wait a while for Jiang Xia.

As for Yin Xuemei and Yang Jianguo, they would probably only come out near the very end.

Thinking of this, An Ning suddenly realized something.

’Maybe... it wasn’t that simple after all.’

But the thought vanished as quickly as it came, because Jiang Xia was walking out.

Jiang Xia, who had also turned in his test early, was now a minor celebrity.

He was affectionately nicknamed by the parents: ”That good-looking one who came out second.”

The parents asked Jiang Xia the same question: was the test hard?

Jiang Xia gave the same answer as An Ning: ”It was pretty simple.”

This second confirmation put the parents’ minds at ease.

’This time, the math test isn’t hard.’

News travels fast. Soon, many of the teachers waiting outside also heard that this year’s math exam wasn’t difficult.

The two instigators, An Ning and Jiang Xia, had already returned to the courtyard to rest and prepare for lunch.

An Ning and Jiang Xia were so confident that the thought of comparing their answers never even crossed their minds.

In their eyes, getting a perfect score was the bare minimum.

As time passed, the bell signaling the end of the exam finally rang.

Inside the exam hall, after handing in their tests, the first thing many students did wasn’t leave, but sit frozen in their chairs, staring blankly.

It was as if they couldn’t believe it—couldn’t believe that they hadn’t even had time to look at the major problems at the end of the test.

”WAAAAH—”

The sound of sobbing broke the silence. A girl, her head buried in her arms on the desk, cried, ”I didn’t even get to see the last questions!”

”It wouldn’t have mattered if you did. The back was even harder than the front.”

”Exactly! I looked at them, but besides being able to read the questions, it was useless. All I wrote was the word ’Solution’.”

The students’ mutual commiserating eased the girl’s anxious heart.

’So it turns out nobody could do it!’