Chapter 60 Choosing B for All

"You're back? Go wash your hands and get ready to eat! We just steamed some fresh purslane today, made with newly milled flour—it's delicious!"

Seeing her youngest son return, Wang Zhaodi hurriedly greeted him and told him to wash up.

"Coming!"

Hearing his mother's words, Yang Xingwu walked over to the enamel basin, washed his hands, and headed into the main room.

Purslane, also commonly known by its folk names, is scientifically known as *Portulaca oleracea*. It is a weed that grows abundantly in fields and paths, as well as a traditional herbal medicine that covers the ground everywhere once summer arrives.

This wild vegetable has the property of clearing heat and detoxifying, and it works wonders for acne. In the summer, it becomes a delicacy on the villagers' dining tables. However, pregnant women should consume it with caution as it can easily lead to miscarriage. There are easily dozens of versions of local stories in their village about wicked mothers-in-law harming their daughters-in-law using this very plant!

Upon entering the main room, Yang Xingwu saw his older brother pounding garlic. He stood up, went to the kitchen to fetch the sesame oil bottle, and poured a couple of drops into the basin after his brother dumped the mashed garlic into the steamed vegetables.

The sesame oil was pure sesame pressing from a local family of oilmakers with at least a hundred years of heritage!

At a time when regular soybean oil generally cost eighty cents a catty, sesame oil could fetch two yuan a catty. This stuff was basically the ultimate luxury item in the countryside!

It was an essential ingredient for dressed salads, and a single drop was enough to fill the entire room with fragrance.

Though expensive, the villagers all grew a little sesame to trade for sesame oil. They would add just a drop when seasoning various dishes, and two taels of oil could last a very long time.

Because of the high price of sesame oil, many unscrupulous merchants adulterated it with cottonseed oil. Therefore, most people bought their sesame oil from acquaintances to avoid being swindled.

After pouring the oil, Yang Xingwu picked up his chopsticks and tossed the mixture. Instantly, the whole main room was filled with a rich aroma!

Wang Zhaodi and her eldest daughter carried bowls into the main room, followed by her youngest daughter holding a wicker basket piled high with steamed buns.

With the vegetables tossed and the bowls set, the family sat down at the eight-immortal table to eat.

"Xiaowu, hurry and try this. The flour was milled from this year's newly harvested wheat. Everything today is made from new wheat. Here, let me give you a big steamed bun. Taste it and see if it's good! The sourdough starter fermented all afternoon!"

Yang Xingwu quickly took the large steamed bun handed to him by his mother, took a bite, and chewed twice. He noticed a slight bitter taste; it seemed the alkaline soda had not been kneaded evenly.

At that time, villagers made steamed buns using sourdough starter for leavening.

The starter contained plenty of yeast along with some lactic acid bacteria.

In the summer, these two strains of bacteria were quite active, and the dough could rise in just a single afternoon. When that happened, they would pinch off a piece the size of a child's fist and store it in the flour vat—this was what they called the sourdough starter!

Because it contained lactic acid bacteria, dough that rose directly would turn sour when steamed. When kneading the dough, people would add a little alkaline soda to neutralize the acidity. If kneaded evenly, the sour taste would be balanced out, but most of the time people added too much or failed to knead it thoroughly, resulting in steamed buns that turned yellowish, bitter, or slightly sour.

"Mom, the buns are so soft. You all should eat too!"

Yang Xingwu took a large bite of the bun, picked up his chopsticks, and dug into the vegetables.

"That's good. If you like it, eat as much as you want!"

The villagers were long accustomed to this slightly bitter and sour style of steamed bun.

They usually cared more about whether the buns were soft or not.

Today's meal was made from newly milled wheat flour, so the family ate to their heart's content. Before long, the basket of steamed buns was empty, and the steamed vegetables and soup were completely finished.

Looking at his younger sister's slightly rounded belly, Yang Xingwu teased:

"Look at how stuffed you are! Be careful your belly doesn't burst!"

"No way, I only had two. You guys all ate four or five!"

Ignoring her second brother's teasing, Yang Xiaohong finished her meal and ran outside to show off to the other kids in the village.

Wang Zhaodi went to wash the wok, while Yang Xiaolan picked up a handful of wheat bran to feed the chickens.

Yang Xingwu stayed in the courtyard, chatting with his older brother and father.

"You spent quite a while over at Uncle Liuzhi's place. Is something wrong?"

"Nothing much. Teacher just told me to stay home quietly and not run around."

"That's fine then. People's hearts are unpredictable, so just stay put! The farm work at home is almost finished anyway."

"Yeah, I know. I'll just wait quietly at home for the test scores to come out."

Over the next few days, Yang Xingwu busied himself with farm work at home, acting once again like a true farmer, returning to his old routine of rising at sunrise and resting at sunset.

...

Beijing, Mathematics Grading Group Meeting Room.

"What is going on? It's been three days! Not a single math score above 90?"

"Team Leader, you can't blame us for this! The questions this year are genuinely brilliant! Every single problem requires holistic consideration. The teachers grading the multiple-choice section spent twenty minutes just solving those five multiple-choice questions themselves! Let alone the students!"

"That's right, Team Leader! Those fill-in-the-blank questions are extremely difficult too!"

"Indeed, Team Leader! The analytical problems are even harder!"

Hearing everyone's complaints, Han Yueming was left speechless.

"Then think of a solution! It's been three days, and we've only graded twelve thousand papers. With such a slow pace, can't you dig out even a single high score? Out of fewer than twenty-four thousand papers in all of Beijing, we're past the halfway mark and still haven't seen a high score?

With such a slow speed and no output, what use do I have for all of you?

Look at Jizhou, Ludong, and Zhongyuan. They have anywhere from seventy or eighty thousand to over a hundred thousand papers, and they all finish within half a month. They have to grade at least ten thousand papers a day.

What about us? Less than four thousand papers a day? And not even a single high score? When the results are released, will Beijing have any face left?"

"Team Leader, should we loosen the grading standards a bit? Give credit where we can?"

"Are you out of your mind? This is mathematics; how are we supposed to water down the grading? Multiple-choice questions have only one option, and fill-in-the-blanks have a single answer! I'm asking you, how do you show leniency there?"

"Just award some partial credit for the steps in the analytical questions, then! What else can we do? If you ask me, the people who wrote this test are out of their minds. Why make questions this difficult? Is this supposed to be selecting students? It's hard enough even for selecting teachers!"

"Who's to say otherwise? And look at the grading criteria. Just look at the first multiple-choice question: getting it wrong, leaving it blank, or selecting multiple answers all result in a minus one point penalty. Listen to that, is that something a human would say?"

"Speaking of which, that gets my blood boiling. The Chinese language group has point deductions too, but at least their penalty resets to zero. Not this one—it goes straight into negative points! You get one right and four wrong, and boom, minus one point right in your hand?

I thought getting a big fat zero was humiliating enough, but apparently, you can go into negative points? What is this supposed to prove—that high schoolers nowadays are even more advanced?"

"Ain't that the truth! If someone chooses wrongly, they look at their math score and see—well, minus five points! Not only did they fail to gain points, but their total score actually dropped by five points!"

Listening to the chaotic noise in the office, Han Yueming felt a wave of irritation.

"Alright, forget about talking down the standards—that would be unfair to the students whose papers have already been graded. Just be a bit more meticulous when grading!"

"Team Leader, I have an exceptional student over here. They only got one multiple-choice question wrong and ended up with eleven points!"

Hearing this, all eyes in the office turned toward the speaker.

"What's the story? Tell us about it!"

"This person got the first two multiple-choice questions right, and then chose B for the remaining three. Because of that, they only got one multiple-choice question wrong, lost one point for the penalty, and ended up with a total of 11 points. That's the highest score among the several hundred papers I've graded!"

"Hey, I have papers like that too. They all picked C, got two right, and scored three points!"

"I have them too. They all picked A and got minus one point!"

"There are even ones who picked D for everything and got minus five points!"

Hearing this, Han Yueming flew into a rage, slamming his hand onto the desk so hard it rattled!

"This is utter nonsense! The college entrance examination is meant to select talent, not encourage guesswork and opportunism! The people who wrote this test are completely out of line!"