Chapter 9: That Boy Is a Genius

“Hey, kid! What are you daydreaming about? There’s a guest here and you don’t even bother to greet them.”
Zhang Chu’s head was knocked, and he yelped, finally snapping out of his daze.
“Ah, I was just wondering if I’ll ever get more than 149 on my math exam.”
“Oh, enough already! It’s one thing to brag outside, but at home, at least be honest. I don’t expect you to make it into Tsinghua or Peking University anyway—if you get into Jiangcheng University, that’s already something!”
Zhang Chu muttered, “Dad, Jiangcheng University is a top-tier 985 and 211 school. You make it sound so mediocre.”
“Is that so? And do you think you can get in?” Zhang Bowen asked deliberately. Though he usually didn’t seem to care much about his son’s grades and acted quite easygoing, at parent-teacher conferences, the homeroom teacher, Tao Zhixin, had made it clear: his son would be lucky to get into any decent university.
“I don’t want to go to Jiangcheng University. Just wait—Tsinghua and Peking University will be fighting over me. Believe it or not.”
“It's still broad daylight—wake up, stop dreaming.” Zhang Bowen patted Zhang Chu on the shoulder. “The college entrance exam is almost driving my son crazy. Just do your best; your mother and I don’t have high expectations.”
Zhang Chu rolled his eyes. “Fine. When the results come out and the admission letters arrive, you’ll see.”
Business at the family bookstore wasn’t doing well. Zhang Chu wanted to make some improvements, but with several exams left to worry about, and both his in-exam and out-of-exam lifelines already used up, all he could do was hope his earlier bravado would pay off.
…
At Jiangcheng Television, Kong Hongchang was editing the news to be broadcast that evening. As the provincial capital of Jiangdong, Jiangcheng was a city where countless events took place every day.
But today, the college entrance exam was the main focus—even the national news broadcast would spend significant time on it!
Their station’s reporters had been dispatched to multiple testing sites for interviews, so that later, the most valuable clips could be edited together for broadcast.
“Old Zhou, today’s news is a bit flat—just students losing their admission cards or missing the bus, and then traffic police helping them get to the exam. The usual stuff.”
Kong Hongchang lifted his head from the computer screen. Though their station didn’t have much pressure to hit ratings targets, drifting through the day didn’t feel right either.
Zhou Ming yawned and stretched. “What can I do? That’s the footage we got. What sort of drama do you expect from the college entrance exam?”
…
“Wait! I remember ‘News Express’ aired an interview with that kid—didn’t he rattle off a bunch of math answers? Did anyone check them?”
“No, he probably just said whatever came to mind. We’re all so busy—who has time to check the math problems?” Zhou Ming said meekly. “Besides, he just recited them—I couldn’t really follow.”
Kong Hongchang got up and glanced at the intern playing with his phone nearby, then called him over. “Zheng Yucheng, come here. I have an important task for you.”
Even though Jiangcheng TV was just a city station, and people from other provinces couldn’t even tune in, it was still a decent place to work for newcomers.
Zheng Yucheng quickly put his phone away and hurried over. “Mr. Kong, what do you need me to do?”
Kong Hongchang pointed at Zhou Ming’s computer screen. “Work with Mr. Zhou to verify Zhang Chu’s interview answers from this afternoon. Whether they’re all right or all wrong, it’ll be news. The official answers should be online now. Check every single one.”
“Okay, I’ll start searching right away.” Just hearing the word “math” made Zheng Yucheng’s head ache—his journalism school never required math.
But reading and comparing the answers online was manageable.
After watching Zhang Chu’s interview, Zheng Yucheng exclaimed, “Are students these days all this bold? I’ve never seen anything like it. If all his answers are correct, he’s earned his swagger.”
He searched for the 2018 Jiangdong Province math exam answers on his phone. It had been two hours since the exam ended; both the test and answers were already circulating online.
“All the multiple choice answers seem to be correct.”
Kong Hongchang, who was busy editing other news, looked up in surprise. “So he really did as he claimed—what a genius.”
Zheng Yucheng checked the fill-in-the-blank questions—again, all correct. Even the short-answer questions matched, except for the proof question, where Zhang Chu hadn’t explained the reasoning.
“Mr. Kong, Mr. Zhou, I’ve checked everything—no mistakes at all. Should we have someone else double-check?”
Even if he hadn’t said it aloud, Zheng Yucheng was genuinely impressed and envious of Zhang Chu. Many geniuses marched to their own beat, and turning in the paper early was no big deal.
“Old Zhou, we finally have a highlight for tonight’s news. Let’s hope this student gets a great result in the end.”
…
“Hurry up and wash your hands—it’s time for dinner!”
Zhang Chu immediately got up from the sofa, paused the screen on Jiangcheng TV, and went to wash his hands in the kitchen.
“Let me see the news channel—see if anything important happened today,” Zhang Bowen said, reaching for the remote.
“Dad, just leave it on this channel. Your son’s about to be on TV again.”
Chu Lan looked at Zhang Chu suspiciously. “What did you do this time, instead of focusing on your exams?”
As they spoke, the anchors—one man and one woman—began tonight’s broadcast. The family sat at the table, all turning to watch the screen.
“Two hours for the math exam—I finished in one, and checked it several times. Scoring 149 in math is a matter of ability; the last point comes down to luck.”
On the screen, Zhang Chu was facing the reporter’s questions, calmly reciting his answers, while next to him, the official exam questions and answers scrolled by.
“Comparing Zhang’s oral answers to the official math solutions, we found a perfect match! We look forward to seeing Zhang excel in the remaining exams!”
As soon as the broadcast ended, Chu Lan pinched Zhang Chu’s cheek suspiciously. “Are you really my son? How could you possibly do so well in math?”
“What’s so strange? Obviously, he inherited the excellent genes of our Zhang family. Back in my day, I was great at math, too,” Zhang Bowen boasted, unable to hide his excitement. “You’ve hidden your talents well—nearly gave me a heart attack!”
Chu Lan protested, “What math genes does your Zhang family have? You can’t even balance the books at your shop. Clearly, it’s from my side—our family had two scholars on the imperial exam honor roll!”
“That’s ancient history—who knows how many centuries ago that was.”
“I gave birth to him, so it’s my family’s genes.”
“And without me, you couldn’t have done it alone!”
Zhang Chu chuckled quietly from the sidelines—how could this turn into an argument? He quickly finished his bowl of rice, then retreated to his room, closed the door, and checked his system.