On the black market, grain prices seemed to have shot up overnight.

Since the second half of the year, newspapers and radios were full of disaster reports from all over. Even in the capital where An Ning lived, the town and city grain supplies were lagging, either delivered late or missing this or that. Legitimate supplies had fallen to less than half of what they used to be.

Yet still, grain prices on the black market remained stubbornly high, making it hard for ordinary people to buy extra.

At the mouth of Huaihua Alley where An Ning’s family lived, you could say every household wore a cloud of worry. Even the group of aunties and uncles who used to sit under the big tree holding their bowls and chatting for half the day were nowhere to be seen now.

Watching the situation worsen day by day, An Ning’s family cut their daily food intake by a third.

Wang Ming De was not stupid. No matter how much savings he had, everyone else looked like paper-thin shells of people, so if he walked around beaming with pride, wouldn’t he be asking for trouble?

Of course, even so, the children at home were absolutely not to be shortchanged.

For one thing, An Ning was already in the second year of high school; next year was the crucial college entrance exam, the family’s first shot at a university student. Wang Yong Hua, that lazy brat, was in the second year of middle school and would have to take the secondary school entrance exam next year. Even An Yun had the elementary-to-middle promotion exam coming up at that time next year.

Whether it was just bad luck or what, the three kids all had to face exams at the same time.

This worried not only Ms. Wei, it left An Ning speechless as well. Fortunately, it was still 1959, and even by the first half of next year it hadn’t yet reached the worst of the crisis.

For example, her high school was still holding normal classes. In this era, those who could attend high school, except for a few, generally came from families with some foundation. In the short term they could keep going and not let studies be hindered.

Even so, Ms. Wei and Old Wang came by the dorm every few days to check on her, and even personally reminded the schoolteachers, afraid the young An Ning might be bullied inside or even have their rations stolen.

They were mostly overthinking. An Ning herself was not someone who could be bullied, and her genius-student image had been firmly established these years. With the college entrance exam approaching, she was one of the school’s legitimate flagship students.

From the school leaders down to the subject teachers, they pinned hopes on her becoming the city exam champion, maybe even the provincial champion one day.

Worried it might affect her studies, the principal had even applied for a meal subsidy for her, and she received one egg every day to keep her strength up.

An Ning didn’t feel guilty about taking that. Compared to other times when she could study with ease, these past years she’d worked hard to maintain the genius persona and avoid being exposed.

Frankly speaking, without pills to keep her going and the occasional roasted fish she could make from space, after a few years she’d have lost at least half her hair.

It was so hard…

Next door, the two gossiping families still clamored like a daily drama, but she didn’t have time to listen.

The one who actually should be crying was poor An Yun.

Does drilling through piles of practice questions work? Of course it does.

An Ning’s ability to set questions and spot key testing points was top-tier. Yet even so, after weeks of intense practice until her head swam, An Yun’s grades could only barely stay in the top ten. The ability to extrapolate from one example to many simply did not exist!

Oh, it’s worth mentioning there were only about forty students in their class, and nearly half of them didn’t like studying and were just coasting.

Maybe because they had a worse comparison group, even Wang Yong Hua started to gain some confidence recently.

“This… this is terrible!”

Even the system gasped, calling it unbelievable that such a naturally terrible student could exist.

But thinking it through, it wasn’t so surprising. Given the host’s capabilities, if this body were of at least upper-middle or even average aptitude, with the spirit’s blessing it could easily rival top geniuses; at the very least it would be a middling genius.

Still…

Every night before sleep and first thing after waking, the host reinforced key knowledge points again and again, and the system couldn’t help but shed a bitter, silent tear.

Some so-called poor students are genuinely not lazy or unmotivated.

Thankfully, the effort paid off.

Not far away at Old Chen’s, the married couple continued their daily show of husband-and-wife battling the thief-aunt-and-nephew combo. At the Huaihua Alley Jiang household, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law still suspected and blamed each other. The unlucky mother-in-law, despite having money, refused to spend it on buying grain, forcing the family to starve.

In 1960, racing the worsening situation, An Ning had, under the whole family’s expectations, officially entered the college entrance exam.

In the examination hall, when she saw the math paper, An Ning blinked.

She had to admit, sometimes her luck was not bad at all.

As expected, after the exam, unlike the refreshed and calm An Ning, outside the exam venue the atmosphere was full of gloom.

No surprise: this year’s papers, especially math, were outrageously difficult. Of course, famine-era bodily conditions and environmental factors had some effect on the test as well.

Outside, seeing her daughter looking as composed and relaxed as ever, Ms. Wei, who had been anxiously waiting, let out a huge sigh of relief.

Having a good brain is truly… a blessing!

Especially thinking of the eldest daughter who had nearly burnt out her hair preparing for the exams.

Although the exam was over and she had confidence, after a satisfying meal An Ning still collapsed into bed and slept for most of a day. She only dragged herself out when it was time to estimate scores and fill in college choices.

At City No.1 High School, when she arrived, the once perpetually gloomy old principal finally perked up. Seeing the estimated scores was like injecting him with a hundred thousand volts of adrenaline; his voice even gained renewed vigor.

Jing University! Jing University was great, close by, and one of the nation’s top schools.

But…

“Economics?” The principal hesitated for a moment, then quickly caught on and smiled:

“Of course, Wang, your math is so good. You’ve ranked at the top in national contests many times, and you always get full marks in politics. You’ll surely achieve great things in economics.”

An Ning nodded silently, tears in her heart.

If she didn’t cling to her old strengths, and among a swarm of geniuses at a top university she dared choose physics, she would be exposed in minutes.

While it wasn’t the principal’s preferred engineering or physics, she had prepared when choosing subjects earlier, so she wasn’t too disappointed. Besides, economics wasn’t bad.

Geniuses, after all, are best at what they love; that was inevitable.

In this era economics centered on political economy. Ms. Wei didn’t fully understand it, but Old Wang, a sharp man, saw her choose it without hesitation. After a simple inquiry, he had a clear idea.

This little girl’s ambitions were not small.

Well, if you are a proper Jing University student with that brain, what can’t you do?

Whether she would actually get in was another matter.

After finishing her application choices, An Ning relaxed. As for the era’s common problem of identity fraud on exams?

To be honest, she didn’t worry.

At eleven or twelve, multiple first prizes in math contests, many city-level firsts—in this area she was, to some extent, a local celebrity.

Such schemes are done in secret; anyone brazen enough to try to impersonate her would have to be out of their mind.

Sure enough, in early August, while An Ning was still holding her breath and tutoring her older sister, sudden urgent knocks came at the door.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep