Volume One: The First Oolong Pot

Chapter 01: Most Afraid of Exams in My Life

Ring... ring... ring...

The urgent ringing echoed throughout the campus of No. 1 High School, heard by all!

The bell shattered the silence in the exam room! The proctor had just called for papers, and the sounds of chairs scraping, exam papers rustling, and students whispering to each other made the classroom, which had been quiet for over two hours, erupt into chaos. The usually composed young men and women no longer cared about their image, rolling up their sleeves and dashing between seats at sprinting speed to copy answers! Asking whoever they could, copying from wherever they could!

The three proctors looked at the group of examinees who didn’t look much like students, exchanging knowing glances and shaking their heads. Their feelings were complicated! This was the county’s township government recruitment exam, and all the candidates were recent or past college graduates. There were only thirteen positions, but over a hundred people had signed up, making the acceptance rate nearly ten to one.

There was no other way. The days when you could get a job in the public sector just by graduating from college and getting a placement certificate were long gone. It was too hard to get a government position, jobs were hard to find, and competition was fierce. Even the small township offices that no one used to want had become hot targets for college graduates!

The proctors were staff sent from the county government office. While shaking their heads, they shouted for everyone to leave the classroom, and had to be quick-eyed and nimble-fingered to collect the exam papers, herding the noisy group of examinees out of the classroom like sheep.

Oh, there was still one left—a sharp-eyed guy in the back corner of the classroom, who had no idea how many answers he’d already copied, still writing furiously! Seeing the proctor walking toward him, he immediately flashed a very humble, fawning smile! A handsome young man in his twenties, with a truly disarming smile.

No matter how strikingly handsome the young man was, no matter how bright his smile, it seemed he’d picked the wrong target. The person collecting the papers was a woman in her early forties, who paid no attention to the flattery in the examinee’s eyes, and knocked on the desk as if issuing a warning to a lawbreaker: “If you don’t hand in your paper now, I’ll have to give you a zero!”

The auntie’s gaze was even more lethal, as if she were glaring at a class enemy.

“Auntie, just a moment... just a moment... I have to at least write my name first!”

The young man, shamelessly grinning in a humble way, hurriedly stuffed his cheat sheets away, let out a long sigh, and neatly wrote his name: James Brooks!

As he handed in his paper, he suddenly snatched it back, unwilling to give up, and changed a questionable answer from “A” directly to “B”.

The last paper was handed to the proctor. The auntie shot James Brooks a glare, as if scolding, “What took you so long!” Noticing that he had just changed an answer, she smiled a little gloatingly and commented, “Why did you change the right answer to the wrong one!?”

Huh!? Let me change it back!... James Brooks immediately regretted it and tried to grab the paper, but the auntie flicked her hand, glared at him, and James Brooks’s hand froze in midair!

“No sense of discipline at all. Are all college students like you these days? With this attitude, how will you ever get a job?” The auntie straightened the papers and scolded him. The other two proctors eyed this examinee suspiciously.

The examinee, surname Brooks, given name James, hung his head in frustration and shuffled out of the classroom...

“Sigh! ...”

James Brooks let out a long, speechless sigh!

He always sighed after exams. Exams were like the gap between ideals and reality: you think you’ll do well, but you never do, and this time the sigh was deeper than ever.

The “three rural issues,” “two exemptions and one subsidy,” “revitalizing agriculture through science and education,” “poverty alleviation and development”... a string of terms that James Brooks still hadn’t fully figured out. His mind was a mess from the township cadre exam questions—new rural construction, agricultural seasons, the county party committee and government’s “three transformations, four modernizations, five improvements.” The last essay question even forced these fresh graduates, who didn’t even know what rural life was like, to come up with golden ideas for building a new socialist countryside!

“Golden ideas? If I had golden ideas, would I still be unemployed at home?... Isn’t rural life just about farming, planting trees, raising sheep, and feeding pigs! It’s not like no one’s ever been to the countryside before, why make it sound so mysterious!?”

James Brooks thought dismissively. Whenever something simple was elevated to the level of theory and exams, he was always at a loss. Exams had always been a blow to his confidence. If he had to take a couple more, James Brooks had no doubt they’d strip away even his confidence in being a person!

Oh right, he’d even paid a fifty-yuan registration fee! Another waste!

Leaving the teaching building, above the police tape, a banner hung reading “Unified Recruitment Exam for Township Personnel in Oolong County.” Under the banner stood a graceful woman, wearing long pants and a short-sleeved shirt in the sweltering heat—a textbook image of a No. 1 High School teacher! Always so serious, holding her bicycle and greeting people coming and going. Many students recognized her—she was the English teacher at No. 1 High, Evelyn Brooks. Many students were still amazed—after all these years, the teacher was still so beautiful!