The next morning, Chen Hao woke up bright and early.

On his way to the administration building to check the results, a thought crossed his mind.

’Old Jiang turned in his paper after only forty minutes yesterday,’ he thought. ’His score is definitely going to be a disaster. He might even be dead last.’

’Seeing a score like that first thing in the morning would make anyone’s stomach sink.’

"I’d better buy some good food."

He ducked into the cafeteria and got two steamers of xiaolongbao, one steamer of steamed dumplings, four tea eggs, and four cups of soy milk.

Normally, he’d just grab whatever for breakfast. Today’s meal was practically a feast.

Chen Hao’s logic was simple. Since the score was already garbage, at least his stomach should be full, right?

A good meal could serve as a consolation prize.

Carrying the breakfast, Chen Hao hurried toward the bulletin board outside the administration building.

Even though it was only seven in the morning, a sizable crowd had already gathered in front of the board.

A large list, with black characters on red paper, was posted inside the glass display case of the bulletin board.

The crowd in front of the list was buzzing with discussion.

"Holy shit, for real?"

"Is that a score a human can even get?"

"They must’ve made a mistake, right? How could anyone get that score on such a psycho test?"

Chen Hao squeezed through the crowd and sighed to himself.

This year’s questions were indeed difficult; everyone was complaining about the low scores.

Just then, two girls nearby said:

"Hey, a genius appeared this time!"

"Yeah, it’s insane. Even the people in the academic affairs office are talking about it."

Chen Hao pursed his lips, not taking it to heart.

’There are geniuses every year,’ he thought. ’It’s not like it has anything to do with our Dorm 402 anyway.’

He pushed to the very front and directed his gaze to the bottom-right corner of the list.

His eyes quickly scanned a few names. No Jiang He.

Chen Hao breathed a sigh of relief, a small spark of pleasant surprise even igniting in his heart.

’Not bad, Old Jiang! You actually didn’t hit rock bottom? Looks like you guessed a lot of multiple-choice questions correctly yesterday. Good for you!’

His gaze started moving up, toward the lower-middle section.

Still not there.

Chen Hao frowned, a faint feeling that something was wrong stirring within him.

He looked further to the left, to the upper-middle section.

He saw Li Wei, but still no Jiang He!

’Oh no...’ Chen Hao’s brow furrowed. ’Don’t tell me... because he turned it in too early, the teacher didn’t collect his paper? Or maybe his score was just disqualified?’ 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

Now he was truly starting to panic.

If his name wasn’t even on the list, the blow would be far too great.

Chen Hao swallowed hard, his gaze reluctantly shifting to the far-left, topmost column.

That was the zone of the gods, the territory of the fifth-year senior interns.

And with that one glance.

Chen Hao froze on the spot.

The first row, the first name, bolded and enlarged.

[First Place: Jiang He (Clinical Medicine, Class of ’06). Score: 100.]

Chen Hao: "?"

In that instant.

He finally understood what it felt like to find silence in the middle of a bustling city.

It was as if his surroundings had gone silent. His head was buzzing, nothing felt real, and he could barely stay on his feet.

He stared at the name, closed his eyes, rubbed them hard, and then opened them again.

Nothing had changed. It was still Jiang He.

"I... holy..."

Chen Hao grabbed a guy with glasses standing next to him. "H-Hey, man, can you help me look? Who’s that in first place?"

The guy looked at him like he was an idiot. "Jiang He, duh. Perfect score. He’s the god-tier student our school produced this time. You don’t know?"

Chen Hao finally understood.

’Son of a bitch, so the genius everyone’s talking about is my roommate!’

"My... to hell with this consolation prize!"

Once he snapped out of it, Chen Hao, still clutching the breakfast, took off running toward the dorms like a madman.

BANG!

The dorm room door was kicked open.

The loud noise made everyone in the room jump.

Li Zijian was so startled by the sound he literally bounced in his bed. After seeing who it was, he cursed, "Brother Hao, are you nuts? Is this a demolition site first thing in the morning?"

Wang Bo also groggily poked his head out. "What’s wrong? You being chased by a dog or something?"

Chen Hao stood in the doorway, chest heaving violently, his face flushed red.

He threw the breakfast in his hands onto the floor and roared:

"Stop fucking sleeping! Everybody get the hell up!!!"

Jiang He rolled over and pulled the blanket over his head. "...Keep it down."

"Keep it down, my ass!"

Chen Hao rushed to Jiang He’s bedside in a few steps, grabbed the bed frame, and shook it violently. "Old Jiang! Stop sleeping! You got first place!!"

The dorm room fell silent for a second.

Li Zijian blinked, his brain still booting up, and asked dumbly, "Huh? First in what? First from the bottom?"

Chen Hao took a deep breath and practically roared out his reply:

"First from the top! Number one in the entire university!!"

Li Zijian was dumbfounded, muttering, "Well, I’ll be damned..."

Wang Bo shot up in his bed. "What did you say? Old Jiang? First in the preliminaries?"

"It’s absolutely true! I saw it with my own eyes!" Chen Hao said excitedly. "He’s number one! He even beat all the fifth-year seniors!"

The commotion was so loud it attracted people from the dorm room next door.

The guys next door were also from the second clinical class. One of them pushed the door open and poked his head in, looking curious. "What’s going on? What’s with all the racket so early in the morning?"

Wang Bo said, "Jiang He got first place."

The student at the door froze. "The hell?"

Chen Hao couldn’t be bothered to explain anymore. He pulled his phone out of his pocket.

"I’m telling everyone right now! The whole class has to know about this!"

In less than a minute.

The QQ group for the Clinical Medicine ’06, Class 2, exploded.

Chen Hao: [Image.jpg] (A blurry photo of the red list, taken with a shaky hand)

Chen Hao: [EVERYONE COME AND WORSHIP! THE PRELIMINARY RESULTS ARE OUT! JIANG HE GOT A PERFECT SCORE, NUMBER ONE!!]

Important things must be said three times, so Chen Hao sent the message three times in a row.

The group chat was instantly flooded with messages.

[HOLY SHIT?!]

[HOLY SHIT!!!]

[For real? A perfect score?! You can get a perfect score on yesterday’s kind of test?!]

[I was just worrying about what to do if Old Jiang did poorly. I shouldn’t have wasted my energy worrying about a god. *Facepalm*]

[FUCKING AWESOME!]

The messages came one after another, so fast it was dizzying.

Just then, the class president, Zhou Yang, surfaced.

Zhou Yang: [No, no, no need to be all ’wow.’ I knew Jiang He could do it. I could tell when we were collecting class fees the other day. He’s a hidden master, just as I expected!]

Lin Yue: [True.]

Someone in the group got excited: [Hey, I just checked the BBS. This isn’t just first place! I heard this is the first perfect score since our Medical University started holding the Critical Thinking Competition! It’s a new record!]

At that, the group chat completely erupted.

The news also spread like a virus, rapidly making its way through various class groups, hometown groups, and club groups.

"Jiang He, perfect score, number one!"

"Jiang He, first place."

"Third-year, Clinical Medicine ’06, Jiang He, perfect score, number one!"

"First in the Critical Thinking Competition, Jiang He!"

Jiang He’s phone also began to vibrate nonstop.

He sighed and reached out from under his blanket to grab his phone.

The first message was a text from his advisor, Sun Jianguo.

Sun Jianguo: [Attaboy! You really brought honor to us! The dean just called to praise me! Say no more, from now on if you want to take a day off or use the lab, just tell me anytime. You’ve got the green light for everything!]

Sun Jianguo: [Oh, right. With such great news, I’ve already notified your parents. Let them share in the joy!]