Study Monster Cultivation System - Chapter 18
Chapter 18: Scratching the Surface
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Yu Hong’s praise for Lin Yujing did not stop even though she had made Lin Yujing uncomfortable.
“Lin Yujing, you need not be embarrassed. I am not exaggerating.
“This time, we’ll change the way we explain the monthly exams.
“Let us have Lin Yujing, the student who got full marks, come up to explain the test.
“I hope that you will all listen to her.
“Especially the students who blindly work hard but did not achieve good results. See if you can have any epiphanies.”
Yu Hong moved to the side as she spoke, then raised her hand to invite Lin Yujing up the stage.
“Lin Yujing is going to conduct the lesson?” the students thought.
The class erupted with commotion.
However, Lin Yujing buried and shook her head even harder.
Jiang Qinghua applauded when he witnessed the situation. “Come, Yujing, even the teacher wants you to go up on the stage.”
The students also started clapping their hands as if they were participating in a riot.
“Please teach us, Study God.”
“A future professor of the Department of Chemistry at Thistle University has come!”
Even Liu Xin started to clap manically.
“It’s good enough that the show is entertaining. Who cares about what she’s going to talk about?” Liu Xin thought.
Li Zheng snickered when he saw Lin Yujing squirming at her seat.
He understood Lin Yujing.
“Impossible,” he thought.
“A person like her would never share her thought process.”
As expected, Lin Yujing raised her hand while covering half her face. “Mrs. Yu… My throat is not feeling well…”
“Ah, is that so…” Yu Hong stepped onto the stage again, a little disappointed. “Next time, then.”
The students were also very disappointed.
They had to listen to the repeater again.
Only Jiang Qinghua had a glimmer in his eyes. He lowered his head and riskily whipped out his phone.
Yu Hong started explaining the questions.
Li Zheng also flipped open his test and started listening to the explanations.
After consecutively studying for over 20 hours, the paper before him seemed like it was no longer worth a mention.
He even blushed in shame when he saw his mistakes. He felt as though he was looking at the test of a dumb person.
While the teacher was explaining the questions, Li Zheng did the questions he got wrong again. He wrote the answer that he got from his current understanding of the questions at the side so that he could test the results of his studying.
Li Zheng could immediately correct most of the questions he had gotten wrong. He did not spend more than a few minutes correcting all of his mistakes even at his normal study speed.
He felt an unprecedented sense of comforting fluidity.
It was not the clarity of the thought process he had when he studied Physics and Mathematics, instead it was the fluidity of Language and English.
It was difficult to describe such fluidity with words.
“So what I did just now was accumulation,” Li Zheng thought.
“I’ve only managed to scrape the surface of Chemistry at this point.”
Even though that was the case, Li Zheng could not fully understand Question 7 of the multiple-choice questions.
Coincidentally, Yu Hong was explaining the question.
“Now we’ll look at Question 7. This is the only question Liu Xin guessed correctly. It is a simple question that everyone should know.
“The options that have mistakes below are…
“A: sucrose, fructose, and maltose are disaccharides.
“We’ve learned this at the beginning of this semester. Fructose is a monosaccharide, so there’s a mistake with A. A is the answer.
“As only one option can be the answer, you need not have to look at B, C, and D during the exams to save time.
“However, I do have to explain since we are here.
“B: an enzyme is a protein that has catalytic properties.
“This description is correct. I do not have to explain this further. You can find this in the textbook.
“C: different crops have a different pH range that is suitable for their growth.
“Even if you do not look at the textbook, common sense should tell you that this is correct.
“D: there are different pH requirements for electroplate liquids used by industrial electroplating equipment.
“I was afraid that you would not even answer this simple question correctly and intentionally gave option D that everyone knows is correct.
“A certain student at least lived up to my expectations.
“In summary, B, C, and D are all correct. A is obviously wrong, so choose A.”
Liu Xin scratched his head again amid the laughter.
“Why am I being targeted even after I got a question correct with so much effort?” he thought.
“But!” Yu Hong suddenly changed the thread of discourse and looked toward Li Zheng. “A student in class who has always been hardworking gave a ridiculous answer. Li Zheng, tell us yourself, what was your answer?”
“A and B,” Li Zheng replied.
“You sure are smart. You’ve done a year’s worth of tests now. Do you not know what a single-selection question is?
“With your answer, I really do not know what you spent all your effort on.”
A burst of sparse laughter rang out in the classroom.
Liu Yue stretched her neck to witness the amusing scene.
“Teacher, Li Zheng memorized the entire book.”
The class broke into a discussion at that moment.
Some of the students revealed an expression that seemed as though they thought that they had the superior intellect.
“You can’t just blindly study.”
“Li Zheng must have studied himself silly. He even made multiple selections…”
“I got this question correct even though I didn’t study for this, haha.”
The entire class looked at Li Zheng.
Li Zheng did not feel bad.
He just didn’t want Lin Yujing to…
He could not help but glance at her through the corner of his eyes.
“That’s weird, Lin Yujing is not mocking me even though this is such a good opportunity,” Li Zheng thought.
On the contrary, Lin Yujing was ignoring Li Zheng and flipping through a book nervously.
On the stage, Yu Hong sighed repeatedly.
“Sigh… Did I ask you to memorize the book?
“Understanding, what’s more important is your understanding.
“Li Zheng, ask Lin Yujing if she memorized the book?
“Though tell me, where does it say in the Chemistry textbook that an enzyme is not a protein?”
“It doesn’t say that.” Li Zheng nodded as he said, “The description on page 81 of the textbook says that ‘An enzyme is a kind of special protein. They are an important catalyst in the bodies of living things.’”
“See, even though your eyesight is not good, your memory is great.” Yu Hong looked up as she said, “If even the book wrote that, why did you choose B?”
“Because there is a conflict between the description in the Chemistry textbook and the description in the first-year Biology textbook,” Li Zheng explained. “The Chemistry textbook says that an enzyme is a type of protein, but the Biology textbook says that most enzymes are proteins, while a minority of them are RNA.
“Thus, I spent a great deal of effort to get on Wikipedia.
“After investigation, I found that the description on Wikipedia is congruent to that of the Biology textbook.
“I was afraid that I left things out and thus confirmed it by searching more terms.
“Cech discovered ribozymes in 1981 and received a Nobel Prize for that in 1989.
“Furthermore, the mainstream articles on Zhihu and CNKI also indicated that an enzyme could be RNA.
“The newer editions of teaching materials also adopted that explanation.
“Thus, I basically confirmed that the edition of the Chemistry teaching material used by the school has a mistake in their description.
“Then, I sent an email to the publishing house of the teaching material.
“I hoped that the other students did not have to waste their time because of this matter.
“So, option B, which states that enzymes are proteins, is an erroneous description. The correct description should be ‘Most enzymes are proteins’.
“Thus, I chose A and B.”
Li Zheng finished his explanation.
The atmosphere in class gradually became strange.
Silent.
Cold.
And there was an utterance of the word “hm.”
Lin Yujing held onto the textbook and stared at Li Zheng with her mouth slightly open.
She was not mocking him this time.
It was a look of respect.
“Look at her sincere expression,” Li Zheng thought.
Li Zheng nodded in her direction as a gesture of goodwill.
He thought, “Even though we have conflicts in many areas.
“Our beliefs are the same when it comes to knowledge.”
Lin Yujing did not accept Li Zheng’s goodwill.
Instead, she clenched her teeth and turned to look at her test.
She looked nervous.
She looked so nervous that she was about to explode.
Li Zheng could not help but shake his head.
“I already gave you a way out. I was going to forgive you,” Li Zheng thought.
“But you are still like this.
“I won’t look at you again.”
