"The invigilator will probably ask him to leave the exam hall…" the guy with glasses thought.
However, the teacher glanced around and fixed his eyes on him, who was looking at Cheng Nuo.
The student suddenly felt a chill down his spine.
The invigilator chided him loudly, "No talking!"
That caught the student by surprise. He immediately turned his head away while wondering why the invigilator had scolded him instead of Cheng Nuo. He felt wronged.
But what he didn't know was that the invigilator had already prized Cheng Nuo like a gem. Of course he wouldn't want to scold Cheng Nuo.
The female invigilator, who was sitting on the podium, shot a confused look at her partner. When the male invigilator nodded at her to show that everything was fine, she was relieved and continued to watch her drama on her phone.
The male invigilator decided to stay behind Cheng Nuo. He wanted to know whether this "genius" would give him an even bigger surprise on the last problem.
…
In fact, Cheng Nuo wasn't planning to show off when he shouted that he had seen this problem before, because it was indeed a reused one! Moreover, he had just done the exact same problem on the previous day.
To be more precise, it was actually the last problem on one of the tests that Old Man Tang had given him yesterday.
They hadn't even changed the numbers in the given conditions!
What a surprise! Even Uncle Ge was unable to come up with new problem types!
Nevertheless, that same problem had appeared more than a decade ago. Not many students would go to such an extent to practice so many past tests like Cheng Nuo.
The problem was a piece of cake to Cheng Nuo since he had seen it before.
His brain's ability to memorize numbers had been improved significantly. Hence, he was able to recall every single line of the solution even though it had been one whole day since he had done it.
Just copy, then!
Why would he bother to calculate all over again when he could simply copy the answer from his memory? Cheng Nuo counted himself lucky. However, as the saying goes, luck is part of one's strength too.
The male invigilator was dumbfounded at what he had seen.
He saw that Cheng Nuo's pen was almost flying all over the test. The blank for the last problem had been fully filled in by mathematical symbols within merely two minutes.
"He's frighteningly smart!!"
The invigilator's thought process couldn't even catch up with Cheng Nuo's speed of writing.
After Cheng Nuo had put down his pen, the invigilator checked the time. Only two minutes had passed, yet Cheng Nuo had already completed the last problem! In his knowledge, even the most intelligent students across all schools had to take about 20 minutes to finish that problem!
The invigilator had become numb to the series of surprises Cheng Nuo had given him.
"Phew—"
Cheng Nuo put down his pen and let out a sigh of relief.
He looked up at the clock—it was 3:47 PM, just like he had predicted.
Cheng Nuo glanced around the classroom and realized that most of the students were seizing every second available to complete the problems. One should count themselves lucky if they could finish the entire math test within the time given.
When Cheng Nuo looked back, he was surprised to see the invigilator behind him. But he didn't put much thought into it as the invigilator might have happened to stop there during his patrolling.
Cheng Nuo slowly packed his stationery into his pencil case. Then he stood up and submitted his test to the invigilator, who was staring blankly.
"I've completed my test, Teacher," Cheng Nuo said softly.
"Oh," the invigilator said and accepted Cheng Nuo's test subconsciously.
Cheng Nuo was waiting for the invigilator to say something.
But the latter was still looking into blank space…
Cheng Nuo frowned and called, "Teacher… Teacher?"
"Oh… Oh!" The invigilator finally recovered from his shock. He stared at the test in his hand and asked, "What did you say…?"
"I've completed the test. Can I submit it now, Teacher?" Cheng Nuo repeated himself patiently.
"Do you… not want to check your answers?" the invigilator asked with astonishment.
"It's fine. I'm confident in my answers," Cheng Nuo replied, putting his hands in his pockets.
"May I leave now?"
"Oh, sure. You can go."
Their conversation had caught the attention of many students.
"He's already finished his test? How's that possible!?"
The students were in disbelief, until the invigilator nodded and allowed Cheng Nuo to leave the exam venue. Only then could they be certain that this student had indeed finished the entire test!
He had only taken 50 minutes!
That was very discouraging.
Someone had already finished checking his answers when everybody else hadn't even completed half of the problems.
The students in the classroom were starting to have self-doubts.
The one who was the most astonished was the guy wearing glasses.
His eyeballs were almost popping out due to shock when Cheng Nuo walked out of the classroom after submitting his test.
Before Cheng Nuo handed in his answer sheet, the student could clearly see from across the aisle that Cheng Nuo had indeed filled in all the blanks on the test.
That meant that Cheng Nuo had never tried to show off. He was a true genius.
30 minutes later, the student had yet to recover from his shock. His brain was fully occupied by the image of Cheng Nuo leaving the exam hall confidently.
"When… can I be as smart as him?"
…
After Cheng Nuo had walked out of the classroom, he strolled around the campus and realized that everyone was in their classrooms at the moment.
While students in grades 10 and 11 were having lessons, those in grade 12 were still struggling with the math test.
Bored, Cheng Nuo decided to go home after collecting some revision materials from Old Man Tang's office.
All of the classrooms in their block had been cleared to be used as exam venues. Hence, all revision materials had been shifted to the respective subject teachers' offices beforehand.
Cheng Nuo opened the door of the math office. To his surprise, Old Man Tang was there.
"Mr. Tang, I thought you were an invigilator at the First High School," Cheng Nuo said out of curiosity.
According to the original arrangement, Old Man Tang should be invigilating the math exam at the First High School of Qing Cheng today.
"Cheng Nuo, why are you…?"
Old Man Tang was surprised too when he saw Cheng Nuo.
He looked down at his watch and checked his phone again to be sure about the time.
It was 4:15 PM. The math test hadn't ended yet!
"Did you… skip the exam?" Old Man Tang asked, puzzled.
Cheng Nuo smiled. "What are you thinking, Mr. Tang? Of course I attended the exam! I've already finished my test."
"You've finished your test?" Old Man Tang asked. But he understood what Cheng Nuo meant at once. He had forgotten that one was allowed to hand in their answers before the time was up.
Cheng Nuo nodded and grinned. "Yeah. The problems were very easy, so I came out after I finished the test.
"Oh, Mr. Tang, thank you so much for giving me Uncle Ge's problems yesterday! The last problem on today's test was the exact same problem on one of the past tests. Exactly the same wording!" Cheng Nuo continued.