Chapter 31
Chapter 31: What Kind of Test-Taking Ability Is This?
River City No. 1 High School’s physics papers were infamous for being brutal.
After the exam reform into the “3+1+2” model, the difficulty had leapt to a whole new level. Aside from a few terrifying geniuses, most students suffered through it.
This monthly exam was no exception. Even Lin Wen Li—steady in the grade’s top ten—couldn’t solve the final big question.
No. 1 High School’s papers weren’t circulated outside the school. He’d gone through a ridiculous amount of trouble just to get a second copy… and Ye Wan Lan was about to waste his effort again, just like she always did.
For four years, every time a spark of hope flared, she doused it with cold water.
Lin Wen Li’s irritation simmered as he checked the first multiple-choice question—and then his expression stilled.
Correct.
A lucky guess?
He checked the second.
Also correct.
Third. Fourth.
He went all the way to the last multiple-choice question.
All correct.
Lin Wen Li’s pupils tightened. He snapped his head up. “You—”
Ye Wan Lan rested her chin on her hand, smiling faintly. “I didn’t scribble, brother.”
For the first time, Lin Wen Li realized he couldn’t stay calm.
Ye Wan Lan had finished the entire set in an hour and a half. How much time could she have spared for physics?
By the time he finished grading the experimental section, his thoughts were a tangled mess.
He exhaled slowly and turned to the final big problem.
Her handwriting wasn’t particularly pretty, but she’d filled the answer space from top to bottom. Lin Wen Li straightened as he read.
By the fourth step, he murmured, “So that’s how it is…”
You could solve it like that?
He stared, his mind going blank.
“Wen Li, tomorrow morning I have to leave early. Buy yourself a bun on the way and—”
Lin Huai Jin pushed the door open and stopped dead.
In front of him, Ye Wan Lan was waving her hand in front of Lin Wen Li’s eyes, while Lin Wen Li sat rigid at his desk, gaze hollow, like he’d been struck blind.
“What’s going on in here?” Lin Huai Jin strode in. “Lin Wen Li! Did you do something bad?”
“Dad?” Lin Wen Li snapped out of it. “Not me. It’s her.”
He lifted the papers slightly, as if they weighed too much to be real. “She got every question right on No. 1 High School’s physics mock monthly exam.”
“What?!” Lin Huai Jin almost bit his tongue.
He stared at Ye Wan Lan. She met his gaze calmly.
Lin Huai Jin went blank. “Did you give her the answers?”
Lin Wen Li shook his head. “The answer key only came out in class today. And for the last problem, her solution is even cleaner and more direct than the official one.”
Lin Huai Jin fell silent.
Could it be…
This was that legendary, indescribable talent for physics?
And it definitely wasn’t inherited from his side. His own brother had been so hopeless at physics he used to copy Lin Huai Jin’s homework.
“Uncle.” Ye Wan Lan waved her hand in front of Lin Huai Jin’s face too. “I want to go back to school. Is that okay?”
Lin Huai Jin finally found his voice. “O-of course. Which school do you want?”
“You dropped out of No. 1 High School before,” Lin Wen Li said. “It’s the best school in River City. If you want the best university, you choose No. 1 High School.”
“Then No. 1 High School it is,” Lin Huai Jin decided at once. “You won’t make this year’s college entrance exam, but that’s fine. You can join Wen Li’s class. At least you’ll have someone watching out for you.”
For once, Lin Wen Li didn’t object. He just stared at the papers as if he couldn’t look away.
Ye Wan Lan, however, shook her head. “Uncle, I don’t want to study physics. I want to study history.”
“History?” Lin Huai Jin blinked. “But your future employment—”
“Uncle.” Ye Wan Lan only looked at him.
Lin Huai Jin swallowed the rest of his sentence. “…Fine. We’ll study history.”
He didn’t want to give in so easily, but she’d called him Uncle.
“I’ll prepare the paperwork,” Lin Huai Jin said, forcing cheer into his voice. “Tomorrow at noon I’ll go to No. 1 High School and handle your enrollment.”
He looked relieved—almost too relieved. “I believe you. I believe you really want to change.”
His eyes stung. A choke caught in his throat.
Ye Wan Lan’s chest tightened. “Uncle, I…”
“I’m getting emotional.” Lin Huai Jin waved his hand. “You siblings talk.”
He left and closed the door behind him.
But he didn’t walk away right away. After two seconds of stillness, tears slid down his face anyway.
“Brother… I don’t know where you are now,” Lin Huai Jin whispered, voice rough, “but I hope you’re still protecting A Lan.”
“She’ll be fine,” he told the empty hallway. “She will.”
Back at the desk, Lin Wen Li stared at Ye Wan Lan. “Why don’t you want physics?”
His tone was flat, but his eyes were sharp. “I read your answers. Your scientific thinking is strong. Don’t look for excuses.”
“No challenge,” Ye Wan Lan said simply.
Lin Wen Li fell quiet.
Coming from her, it sounded absurdly believable.
“Physics has no end,” he said coldly. “Modern physics has come this far and scientists are still exploring. How could it not be challenging?”
Ye Wan Lan smiled. “And how do you know the time I’ve studied is shorter than the time modern physics has existed?”
Lin Wen Li’s jaw tightened. He refused to take the bait. “If you don’t want physics, fine.”
“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Ye Wan Lan said—and then she went quiet.
Her fingers curled, tighter and tighter. The killing intent that had never truly left her surged like a tide. On sleepless nights, it made breathing difficult.
She had read history a hundred times over, and still she couldn’t learn who had invaded Shen Zhou three hundred years ago.
Her family. Her friends. Her soldiers. Her people.
All of them had died in the Wan Jun Zhi War.
A nation’s grief couldn’t be forgotten—not until death.
But when revenge had nowhere to land, how could hatred not rot into something poisonous?
“Then what is it?” Lin Wen Li pressed.
Ye Wan Lan’s gaze steadied. “History matters more.”
Shen Zhou mattered more than her own life.
As a ruler, if you couldn’t protect your land and your people, you were never qualified.
“Enough. It’s late.” Ye Wan Lan softened her voice with a practiced smile. “If you run into questions while studying, ask me.”
Lin Wen Li stayed silent for a long moment before giving a low, reluctant, “Mm.”
That night, he decided he would stay up and study physics properly.
—
The next day at noon.
No. 1 High School’s Academic Affairs Office.
“Hello, Director. I made an appointment with you this morning.” Lin Huai Jin handed over a folder. “This is my niece’s information. Could you transfer her into a history-chemistry-biology class?”
“Wen Li’s cousin?” The Academic Affairs Director looked surprised. “Wen Li said the thing about Princess Yong Ning disguising herself as the Prince of Yan for three months—he said his cousin told him.”
“Yes, yes.” Lin Huai Jin smiled, trying to sound confident. “This girl has loved history since she was little. There isn’t a thing about the Ning Dynasty she doesn’t know.”
He was bragging, but it should be fine… right?
“We welcome students like that,” the director said warmly as he opened the file. “Your niece is—”
His eyes landed on the name.
Ye Wan Lan.
His expression changed instantly.
“Director?” Lin Huai Jin’s smile stiffened.
“So it’s her.” The director pushed the folder back across the desk. “Dropped out for three years. No learning, no discipline. Poor character. No self-respect, no self-regard. A student like that—No. 1 High School will not accept her.”
River City No. 1 High School was not a garbage dump.