I'm Really a Superstar

It was too low!

It was way too low!

Every year's college entrance examination, whether it be the provincial or the nationwide version of the exam, had always had different difficulty levels. Sometimes, a certain province might have it easier and sometimes more difficult. It was impossible to maintain the same difficulty level across the entire country, therefore there would be a difference in the scores between each province's or municipality's zone. However, the scores usually did not differ by much and only came down to a difference of perhaps one or two points!

For this year's Beijing exams, however?

The Chinese Literature examination's average score was lower than the national average by nearly 30 points?

It was even more shocking for the Mathematics exam where it was lower than the national average by a total of 40 points!

When all the scores were combined, the total scores that the Beijing examinees got was lower than the national average by more than 70 points??

These figures had truly shocked a lot of the netizens who saw it!

Another group of people who were similarly shocked by this were the people from the Beijing Higher Education Entrance Examination Board and their question setters!

……

At the Board's office.

"What the hell!"

"This…"

"There was nothing wrong with the tabulation of scores, right?"

"Why don't we tabulate the data again?"

Many of the staff working at the Higher Education Entrance Examination Board were sucking in gasps of cold air due to the low scores. The data had been available to them earlier, and they were even the ones who were in responsible for tabulating the data. But from the time they received the data until now, every one of the staff couldn't help but draw in a breath of cold air every time they saw these figures!

It was terrible!

It was really, really appalling to look at!

If the media and industry insiders had analyzed this year's Beijing Mathematics test to be the hardest in the history of the Beijing college entrance exam, then after seeing these statistics, they would have to modify their stance to place it as the most difficult in the history of the national college entrance exam!

The Mathematics exam had an average score of 59 points?

The average of all the examinees was only 59 points?

There had never before been an occurrence of such a low average for the Mathematics test of the college entrance exam!

This was an eye-opener for many of the veteran staff at the Board's office. Such low scores were previously unheard of or seen before!

Zhang Ye and dozens of other question setters had also arrived at the Board's office today to join a meeting and discussion on some issues, but he was somehow caught in such a scenario.

Su Na looked at Zhang Ye.

Suddenly, everyone's focus turned to Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye gave an awkward cough, probably feeling a little embarrassed. "Ahem, about that, in any case, the cutoff score will be adjusted lower, so there isn't really a difference and shouldn't affect the admissions." When he gave this excuse, even he was not totally convinced of it. To be honest, Zhang Ye himself did not expect the examinees to score this low either.

There was silence.

No one spoke as they let this awkward scene play out. Then Zhang Ye immediately said to Dean Pan, "I'd already said that I didn't want to take this job at the beginning, yet you insisted that I do it! Hai!"

All of the Higher Education Entrance Examination Board office staff: "…"

Dean Pan nearly fainted at that. "You rascal, pushing the blame onto me again, are you?"

A leader of the Board didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He quickly mediated, "It's already turned out like this, so even if the scores are low, so be it. At most we will suffer a little loss of face, but it's really nothing much."

Zhang Ye immediately said, "That's right, that's right. It's not even a big matter at all! We can definitely get through this!"

That leader of the Higher Education Entrance Examination Board nearly fainted at this response. He was just trying to mediate the situation so that everyone could take a step back, but it seemed like Zhang Ye was really good at latching onto the topic!

But it was really as he said it. What's done was done, so what else could they do about it? All they needed to do was to just stick to the procedures and move on from there!

"Luckily, there was someone who got a perfect score on the Math test," a Board supervisor consoled.

Zhang Ye's curiosity perked when he heard that. "Someone got a perfect score?"

That person nodded. "Just one. A girl."

Zhang Ye was very curious about who it was. "What's her name?"

That person said, "Huang Lingling."

Huang Lingling?

It's her??

Zhang Ye smiled, looking very pleased.

He knew who this girl was. At the previous International Math Olympiad held at Summer Palace, Huang Lingling was a representative of the youth team for China, together with her brother, Huang Leilei. Zhang Ye got to know them both on that occasion and had spoken to them quite a bit. Huang Lingling had even mentioned that if she managed to qualify for Peking University, she would want to be a student of Zhang Ye's so that he could personally teach her more about math. He didn't think at that time that she would be taking her college entrance exam this year.

……

Soon after.

The Beijing college entrance exam admission cutoff scores were released.

Arts Subjects Tier 1 Grade cutoff score: 467.

Science Subjects Tier 1 Grade cutoff score: 464.

Arts Subjects Tier 2 Grade cutoff score: 425.

Science Subjects Tier 2 Grade cutoff score: 421.

The cutoff scores for the entire admissions exercise had dropped drastically! It was so low that the scores were totally unheard of by many people!

Immediately, the Beijing college entrance exams were once again the focal point of discussion in society. This time, not only Beijing Television and the other provincial satellite stations were reporting about it on their news programs, even Central TV Department 1's News Simulcast reported about it that very night!

Although Zhang Ye was also working at Central TV Department 1, but with the corporate structure rather bloated and the staff divided into many different departments, those who were involved in the variety shows had nothing in common with those program teams involved in the news. Even Zhang Ye who had been working at Central TV Department 1 for so many days now did not know which floor the News Simulcast program team was situated at. That was why Central TV Department 1's news program reporting on the Beijing college entrance exam was not done so for Zhang Ye, nor was it out of respect for The Voice's program team. It was purely because of the big commotion that the Beijing college entrance exams had caused!

The Beijing exams' exposure in the media skyrocketed even further!

Zhang Ye's exposure rate also soared along with it!

Overall, even though he had been scolded a lot, it was still not a bad thing for Zhang Ye as his reputation continued to rise every day!

……

On Weibo.

When the Beijing admissions cutoff scores were published, the condemning comments from the examinees also gradually lessened.

"I was scared to death, but luckily I managed to get a tier 1 score!"

"I qualified for the tier 2s. Your sister! I initially thought that my low score of 430 in the Science subjects would only have qualified me for a vocational college, but I never expected to manage to qualify for tier 2 instead!"

"Everyone's scores are low, therefore the admissions cutoff grades were also adjusted accordingly!"

"I was very lucky too. Somehow I got a tier 1 score!"

"Good, good. From the results, it looks like I did pretty well this year. Usually, I only get tier 2 scores, but because of those wondrous questions this year, it somehow went my way instead, allowing me to realize my potential and getting myself a tier 1 score!"

"Still, I feared for my future."

"Yeah, I would never want to come across questions like this again in the future!"

"Reject drugs, stay away from Zhang Ye!"

"Please send Teacher Zhang as far away as possible! Don't let him come near us in case we get ruined again!"

"I'm in eleventh grade this year and will be taking my college entrance exam next year. To the Beijing Higher Education Entrance Examination Board, may I thank you first for getting rid of someone like Zhang Ye in advance?! That guy is such a bastard!"

"Please get rid of Zhang Ye!

"Seconded!"

Suddenly, a lot of eleventh grade students from the other provinces started gloating at the Beijing students who were due to take their college entrance exam next year.

"Hehe."

"The Beijing college entrance exams had always been so easy all these years, so it's high time that you guys have it hard now. That kind of difficulty level shouldn't be too bad, right? Haha!"

"Yeah, the wheel of fortune is always turning. It's finally your turn!"

"Good luck to the Beijing examinees! Have a good one!"

"Ha, I'll suggest to the Beijing Higher Education Entrance Examination Board to get Zhang Ye to set the questions every year. Since the schools in Beijing have so many resources and places for students, they should have to go through a tougher process!"

"I'd be delighted to see that!"

"Zhang Ye, beautifully done!"

"There's still room to raise the difficulty of the questions!"

"Teacher Zhang, work harder next year. Make it so difficult that they want to kill themselves!"

"Right, please do that. I will be taking the national college entrance exams anyway, so there's nothing for me to be afraid of!"

Quite a lot of people were adding fuel to the fire.

The Beijing examinees gnashed their teeth with hatred!

But right at this moment, a piece of news was suddenly published online. It was a conversation between a reporter and the supervisor of the national college entrance examination question setting team.

The conversation was as follows:

Reporter: "Professor Niu, the college entrance exam results are finally out."

Professor Niu: "Yes."

Reporter: "The Beijing exams this year have attracted all the attention. I've just received the latest update that says that the Beijing examinees only scored an average of around 50 on the Math test while the scores for the Chinese Literature test were not much better either."

Professor Niu: "I saw it too."

Reporter: "What are your views on this? There's an uproar of condemnation online about whether the Beijing exams were too harsh on the examinees."

Professor Niu: "I've seen those comments online as well. Actually, my opinion is different from most of you. I think that the questions used in this year's Beijing exams were very good. It was something new and had a good level of difficulty. On top of that, it also achieved its basic function of evaluating the examinees and assigning them to their tiers. My comment on this is—the standard of the Beijing exams is very high, the question setter is also of a very high standard, and in terms of the reform steps needed to be taken for our exam standards, Beijing is leading at the forefront of this revolution. We have also discussed this before and would like to make some reforms on our side as well, so if it's at all possible, we would like for Teacher Zhang to join us for next year's question setting task in the national college entrance exam."

……

When they saw this news article, those eleventh grade students who were just making fun of the Beijing students earlier also turned green in the face!

Suddenly, an explosion of reactions followed!

"The National Higher Education Entrance Examination Board also wants to invite Zhang Ye to join them?"

"Goddammit, goddammit to your fifth great grandma!"

"Don't, please don't!"

"Oh brother, please don't joke like this, I have a weak heart!"

"How did it turn out like this!"

"Go f**k your grandpa! Are they planning to send us all to our graves!?"

"Beijing was already a warning with the immediate damage it caused among the examinees, could it really happen to us next year? Your sister! I protest! I will be the first one to protest against this!"

"That's too inhumane!"

"Professor Niu, don't mess around like this!"

"Our Old Comrade Niu, if you dare invite Zhang Ye to join the National Higher Education Entrance Examination Board next year, do you think I won’t head to your house to smash your windows with rocks!? What kind of a grudge do you bear against those of us who are taking the national college entrance exams?!"

"Please get rid of Zhang Ye! Get rid of him!"

"Wu wu wu. I don't want to see him either!"

"It's over, we're definitely done for next year!"

Those who had been mocking the Beijing examinees sometime earlier were dumbfounded at this moment!

If the Beijing college entrance exams had implicated just a small percentage of the examinees, then the national college entrance exams which covered a lot more of the provinces and examinees would affect a great deal of people. This was something that countless eleventh grade students who would be next year's examinees from the various provinces and municipalities would not agree to at all! When such a massive group of people came together online and exploded into protesting "voices," earth-shattering wails and howls could be "heard"!

"Don't, please don't!"

"Teacher, I want to die!"

"I suddenly feel like I'm screwed!"

In contrast, the Beijing examinees doubled over laughing at the turn of the tide!

"Hahahaha!"

"Serves them right!"

"They deserved it for taking us as a joke!"

"Aiyo, how hilarious! I'm dying from the joy!"

"This is what they mean by 'pride goes before the fall'!"

"You'll all have a chance to try out Zhang Ye's exams next year! Let's see if you all can still laugh when the time comes!"

"Take care!"

"The jinx has gone to look for you guys. You're on your own! Good luck!"

Yet another commotion was beginning on the Internet!

Some people were crying, some were angrily scolding, some just joined in to observe the fun as it all devolved into chaos!