Chapter Seven: The Preliminary Exam

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As Qin Anyi pondered, his pen never paused for a moment. No matter how challenging the questions were, they now meant nothing to him. With the Kirin's capabilities—even if only about five percent of it was currently intact—these advanced problems posed no obstacle.

Yet, while working through the questions, Qin Anyi noticed that the Kirin’s analytical and problem-solving abilities were clearly restricted by the knowledge he presently possessed. For every question, the Kirin could only analyze and solve using what was already stored in Qin Anyi’s mind. Even for certain formulas, since he had no impression of them, the Kirin was forced to deduce them independently. Of course, this deduction was guided by Qin Anyi’s own consciousness. After the fusion of their mental domains, the Kirin had gained autonomous thought, but the entire mind was still firmly centered around Qin Anyi.

After Wang Yiran finished distributing the test papers, she followed her usual routine, walking around the classroom. For this kind of "diagnostic" test, the homeroom teacher, Zhao Guoping, would typically sit behind the lectern, preparing lesson plans or attending to other work. The task of patrolling during exams always fell to Wang Yiran.

The students of Qingjiang No.1 High School represented the highest academic standards in the city. Instances of cheating during exams were extremely rare, rendering the patrol somewhat ceremonial.

Chapter 008: Diagnostic Exam

Wang Yiran walked the aisle, her mind preoccupied with other matters. She had known well in advance that this diagnostic exam would be particularly difficult. It was intended as a preliminary selection for a provincial-level, nationally recognized academic competition among top high schools. The school hoped to use this opening exam of the senior year to pick a few top students to represent Qingjiang No.1.

The multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank questions, while more challenging than usual, were still within the students’ grasp. After a cursory glance and some quick mental calculations, Wang Yiran was certain that Qin Anyi’s answers were correct.

But the later, long-form problems requiring detailed solutions were truly peculiar. The problem-solving methods Qin Anyi wrote on his paper were remarkably inventive—entirely beyond the realm of conventional thinking. Yet, undeniably, his approaches were absolutely correct! Even if Wang Yiran herself tackled these problems, she couldn’t hope to come up with a better method than Qin Anyi’s. In fact, she realized that she would never have conceived of solving the problems the way he did.

From complexity to simplicity—this was the mark of someone so thoroughly versed in their subject that they could manipulate knowledge at will, reaching a state of effortless mastery.

With just one glance, Wang Yiran was convinced that Qin Anyi’s approach was not only correct but also the most straightforward of all possible solutions.

Yet what truly unsettled her was that, despite the flawless logic, the final answers Qin Anyi arrived at were wrong!

That’s right. Wang Yiran was certain she hadn’t made a mistake in her calculations. Following Qin Anyi’s method, reaching the answer should have been elementary, not requiring any painstaking computation. And yet, inexplicably, Qin Anyi’s answers were incorrect. How could this be? Unless… he was doing it on purpose?

Standing behind Qin Anyi for a full half hour, Wang Yiran was forced to reach an unbelievable conclusion. She had encountered countless students desperately trying to boost their scores—but never before someone deliberately lowering theirs. What was going on in this boy’s mind?

Naturally, Wang Yiran’s curiosity about Qin Anyi grew intense. Could it be that the reason he had always hovered near the top of the class for the past two years was all an act? But why had she never detected anything unusual during past exams?

Pressing her lips together, Wang Yiran subtly placed her hand on Qin Anyi’s test paper. Picking up a spare pen from the desk, she quietly wrote a few words on the scrap paper provided for calculations...