Jiang Chan gazed at the scenery rushing past outside the window, her thoughts gradually wandering. Out of nowhere, Qingyuan gave a cold snort. “Kang Kang has a congenital heart condition. If this were the cultivation world, a single Rejuvenation Pill would cure him completely. Even though this is an age of spiritual decline, there are still plenty of things from the cultivation world worth learning from.”
Jiang Chan’s fingers twitched slightly. She had not expected Qingyuan to suddenly bring up someone else’s problems. After spending so much time with her, Jiang Chan had more or less figured out what kind of person Qingyuan was. She was extremely indifferent by nature.
The thing she cared about most was when Jiang Chan would go on another mission. As for everything else, she hardly cared at all. So the moment Qingyuan said this, Jiang Chan knew exactly what she was doing. She was trying to lure her into taking another mission.
And Jiang Chan had to admit, she had taken the bait. Qingyuan’s methods might have been simple and straightforward, but they were incredibly tempting to Jiang Chan.
When Kang Kang had been taken in for one examination after another, Jiang Chan could only look at the scans, test results, and other reports without understanding any of them. At the time, she had felt deeply helpless.
How wonderful would it be if one day she could understand all of those things herself and even cure Kang Kang?
Qingyuan’s words really were tempting, and Jiang Chan was genuinely interested. After a moment of silence, she said, “Let’s wait a little longer. The winter camp selection is about to start. I’ll take another mission after this competition is over.”
Now that she had Jiang Chan’s promise, Qingyuan stopped talking and went back to focusing on refining her soul. The longer she spent with Jiang Chan, the more she found herself appreciating this girl.
Jiang Chan might have already completed several missions, making her actual age far beyond that of an ordinary young girl, but to Qingyuan, who had lived for thousands of years, those few extra years were hardly worth mentioning.
If they were in the cultivation world, Qingyuan would have done everything she could to take Jiang Chan in as her disciple. She had perseverance, a strong will, and principles, yet she was still kindhearted. She was definitely a promising seedling.
Qingyuan sighed. What a pity this was an age of spiritual decline. The spiritual energy in the air was pitifully thin, and now she even had to rely on this promising seedling she had taken a liking to.
Life really was difficult.
Jiang Chan had her own reasons for putting off the mission until after the competition. Since it was an immortal cultivation world, she would probably spend a long time there.
Even though only an instant would pass in the real world, Jiang Chan was still worried. What if she spent so many years in the immortal cultivation world that she forgot everything she had learned here?
The safest option was to finish the competition first and secure the money for Kang Kang’s medical expenses. That way, she would be prepared either way. After all, what if she went to the cultivation world and ended up learning nothing useful?
An An’s cleft lip surgery was done, Kang Kang’s condition was stable for now, and there was finally some hope of covering his surgery costs. The heavy weight that had been sitting on Jiang Chan’s heart finally lifted a little.
Once she returned to school, Jiang Chan worked even harder.
The big shot was already number one in the grade, yet she was still working through practice problems like crazy. How could everyone else not work even harder?
The students in the competition class were practically trembling. Were first-year students this terrifying these days?
Jiang Chan managed to keep up with both the competitions and her regular school exams. There were scholarships for doing well on school exams, so of course Jiang Chan was not about to let that money slip through her fingers.
A week before the winter camp selection, Jiang Chan took her final exams and once again ranked first. No one was surprised. After all, ever since she started at City High, she had never once fallen from the top spot.
As soon as the final exams were over, Jiang Chan took the scholarship the school had given her and headed to the capital with the supervising teacher and several other students from the competition class. They were going to attend the winter camp.
Even after reaching the winter camp, they would still have to make it through round after round of selection. In the end, there were only six spots on the national team.
City High alone had sent four students, and that was without even counting the students coming from other provinces and cities. It was easy to imagine just how fierce the competition would be.
City High was once again in charge of leading the city’s competition team, with a teacher from Second High accompanying them. As it happened, the teacher was someone Jiang Chan knew. He was the same proctor she had met twice before.
There were quite a few students on the city’s competition team. Including Jiang Chan, there were twenty in total. Six came from City High and Second High, while the rest were from various other schools.
By Jiang Chan’s estimate, at most two or three of these twenty students would make it into the winter camp.
As soon as they got off the plane, a staff member from the competition committee was already there to meet them. Once everyone was on the bus, they headed straight for the winter camp’s training grounds.
The other students stared eagerly out the windows at the sights of the capital. Jiang Chan was the only one who remained completely calm.
She had never been to the capital in the real world, but she had spent decades there in her mission worlds. She was already extremely familiar with the place, so there was not much for her to see. She simply closed her eyes and rested for the entire ride.
She knew there were plenty of tough battles waiting for her. There were far too many smart people in this world, so she could not afford to let her guard down.
The winter camp was jointly organized by Tsinghua and Peking University. Generally speaking, as long as you made it through the winter camp without being eliminated, you would qualify for guaranteed admission to Tsinghua or Peking University. Even if you were eliminated, it was not the end of the world. You would still receive extra points on the college entrance examination.
Just as Jiang Chan expected, there were a lot of students at the winter camp, probably more than two hundred.
That made sense. The country was huge, and if every province sent a few students, a little over two hundred was actually not that many.
Now that the intensive training had begun, the physics teachers who came with the students no longer gave them extra tutoring. They simply stayed with the students throughout the training. At this point, their job was mainly to take care of the students’ daily needs. From here on out, the students would have to rely on themselves.
The teachers giving the lectures were true experts. Almost all of them were professors, and they moved through the material extremely quickly. If you were not quick enough to keep up, you really would be left behind.
The training itself was brutal. There were exams every day, and eliminations took place once a week.
As the youngest student there, Jiang Chan honestly did not attract much attention.
Except from Wang Runhui.
He had also made it into the winter camp, though he was pretty laid-back about the whole thing. He knew exactly where his abilities stood. Winning glory for the country was more than he dared to hope for. Right now, his only goal was to avoid getting eliminated in the first round.
When everyone gathered at the training camp, he spotted Jiang Chan immediately.
It was hard not to. She was shorter than everyone else and darker than everyone else. Even in the middle of such a noisy crowd, she stood out at a glance.
For some reason, Wang Runhui had a feeling that Jiang Chan would make it all the way to the end.
Maybe it was because she was just too different from other people her age.
When the training camp first started, Jiang Chan’s performance was not particularly eye-catching. The training began with easier material before gradually getting harder, and there were simply too many smart people here.
When the professors explained the basic material, everyone understood it right away. During the first two weeks, there was really no way to tell much of a difference between them.
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Thanks for the chapter!