Chapter 147 Fall of the Demon Lord (1/2)

Hu Jun was a 56-year-old teacher who took part in high school education for more than 30 years. He had a typical square face, wore old-fashioned spectacles, and the same grey shirt that he had worn for over 20 years. The way he walked and taught were scrupulous, giving people the impression that he was old-fashioned, serious, and stern.

Whenever the students he taught saw him, the smiles on their face would instantly vanish. They corrected their postures and bow their heads down. Even their breathing would become lighter. When he entered a classroom, only one second was needed for the whole class to become completely silent. Even the sound of a needle falling onto the ground could be heard. The sound of his footsteps was just like stepping on the hearts of each student. An aura that made students tremble in fear emanated from his body.

Yes. He was Hu Jun, the group leader for the question preparation group for Sutang Province's College Entrance Examination, Mathematics section. His very existence instilled fear in the pupils in Sutang Province who would be sitting for the College Entrance Examination. There was only one word that could describe the similarity in the mathematics paper he made: difficult. Very difficult.

In the 150-mark paper, those who manage to get 90 marks would be considered as super scholars, 60 marks and above would be considered above average, and a score of 30 to 50 marks would be considered very normal. Even if people got below 30 marks, they wouldn't be mocked as a lousy scorer. There was even a good portion of people who had gotten zero in the past. The questions he made were indeed crazily difficult.

For some candidates, if they know that Hu Jun was preparing the Mathematics paper for their year, they would definitely mourn in despair.

”Oh my god, Hu Jun again, do they want us dead?”

”I worked so hard for a year and ended up facing the demon lord Hu Jun, I won't even think of getting an extra mark in Mathematics!”

”Heavens, please purge this demon lord away!”

Among the candidates that would be sitting for the college entrance examinations in Sutang province, he became the dreaded and chilling demon lord. Unfortunately, it was his turn to prepare the mathematics paper for the 20X0 College Entrance Examination. Many of the candidates plunged into despair.

Before handing him the task to prepare the questions, the official from the Ministry of Education in Sutang Province habitually remind him, ”Mr. Hu, the past candidates reflected that your questions were too hard, please make it easier this year. Make questions that the students will be able to achieve 90 marks and above on average. Really, please don't make it too tricky.”

”Got it.” Hu Jun, as usual, faintly responded with two words.

The officer immediately became aware that this year's average marks for mathematics would not be over 60 marks. Because the papers with above 60 marks on average would never be the ones prepared by Hu Jun! It seemed that the province's Education Department would get admonished and receive complaints from the mass population of candidates this year... again.

This time, however, Hu Jun really intended to lower the difficulty and come out with a paper that the candidates could score an average of 70 marks and above. The reason was because a candidate wrote a 10-thousand-word letter for him saying that his questions were too hard. He couldn't enter the university he desired even after repeating for three years. He begged for Mr. Hu's mercy to let him fulfill his dreams to be admitted into the university he wished for. It may be because his heart had softened as he had gotten older, as Hu Jun used to be completely unshaken by hundreds of letters of similar requests over the past years. And yet, he was touched by the contents of this letter and decided to lower the paper's difficulty by a little.

But only after a few days, not only did he renege his decision and destroy the paper that he had prepared, he also took out the questions that were in his collection for many years, the questions that accumulated over the years of his teaching experience, revered as the most difficult questions of all time. He planned to use them in Sutang Province's Mathematics paper this year, giving the candidates a present that would make them unleash their ultimate screech of despair. The other teaches in the question preparation group were shocked.

”Mr. Hu, this is too much, your questions are too hard!”

”It will be considered good if the candidates can even score an average mark of 30.”

”Mr. Hu, even at my level, I can only get at most 50 marks within two hours, not to even mention those students. Mr. Hu, the main purpose of the College Entrance Examination is to filter out the talents. With your questions that are so difficult, not only are you holding off the weaker students, you are also hampering the good students; we are not fulfilling the filtering purpose this way.”

”Mr. Hu, we have been partners for several decades. With these questions, the candidates will not just simply complain, this will cause a major uproar! We will be held responsible for this.”

”Really?” Hu Jun looked at them and nodded. ”If even you guys say it is hard, then that's all the more reason for these questions to appear in the paper.”

”Mr. Hu! If these questions appear in the paper, we will not have the chance to prepare the papers anymore and you must be responsible for this!” another of his partners warned him.

”If the Little Star learning machine got 100 marks for the questions I prepared, do you think that we would have the chance to sit here and make papers in the future?” Hu Jun asked faintly.

Upon hearing him, all of them were stunned. They all nodded their heads as they couldn't help but agree that what he said made sense. If the Little Star learning machine was powerful enough to answer all the questions including the ”question finale,” the meaning behind the questions that they squeezed their brains to prepare was no longer to filter talents, but to prove the prowess of a learning machine.

The ”ultimate test questions” of unprecedented difficulty had been passed unanimously.

...

On the 1st of July, at noon, the College Entrance Examination's Mathematics Section took place in Sutung Province.