Chapter 2: Taking The Entrance Examination
After Chen Chuan stepped in through the gate, he saw a long covered parking lot, so he went over to park his bicycle. When he walked back, he saw a number of students who were about the same age as him walking in through the gate.
Most of them looked anxious but also excited; they had to have come to take the entrance examination for Martial Valor University.
Chen Chuan could understand how they felt. The government of the Great Shun Republic had been established a little over ninety years ago, and society was clearly divided into different classes. There were only a few ways for commoners to climb up the social ladder. One of them was through studying, while another was by becoming a martial artist.
In the country and even in the whole world, skilled martial artists usually had a higher social status. The path of a martial artist was difficult, but plenty of people still scrambled for a way to get into Martial Valor University every year.
Martial Valor University was a legitimate institute that trained talented martial artists. Over the last decade, the university had expanded its enrollment criteria. As long as a person was younger than eighteen, had received elementary and secondary education, had no criminal record, and was a citizen of the country, they could apply to it. This attracted plenty of young people who could not afford tertiary education.
However, the requirements for joining the university were high, so only a handful of people were admitted each year.
Chen Chuan walked over and blended into the crowd. Each of the students around him was sturdier than the last. Their footsteps were light and quick too. Whether they were boys or girls, he could see the faint outline of muscles under their clothes.
Since they were taking the entrance examination for a martial arts university, the applicants had to have, first and foremost, a body that fit the standards. It was best if they had a martial arts foundation as well. Chen Chuan could tell that practically everyone had it.
While he was above average in terms of physical fitness and was quite tall, he had never received any professional martial arts training. Compared to the other students, he was a blank piece of paper. In the past, he would have never even thought about taking the entrance examination to a martial arts university, but now...
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, more people came to take the entrance examination. Chen Chuan was swept forward along with the crowd. About five minutes later, he arrived before the hall in front of the main gate. The sides of the square between the gate and the hall were packed full of cars. With Chen Chuan’s limited knowledge of cars, he could only recognize the domestically famous Fluon and the foreign Kaitee. As for the others, he did not know them, but he could tell based on their appearances alone that they were just as high-class.
A number of teenagers came out of the cars. A large chunk of them, accompanied by adult men and women, quickly formed a group. The teenagers all shared one similarity: their clothes were made of expensive material and fitted their bodies snugly. They also looked full of energy and confidence as they strode forward with their heads held high. They were in stark contrast with Chen Chuan and the rest.
When the group reached the stairs, a middle-aged couple brought out what looked to be a silver invitation card. They showed it to one of the guides, and the guide immediately bowed to them. Soon, someone who looked like a senior executive member of the university came forward to welcome and warmly greet the group.
Chen Chuan took a few looks at the invitation card and fell into a contemplative silence.
“What’s that?” a student asked curiously.
“Is this your first time here?” one of the older examinees asked while walking. He looked envious. “That’s a recommendation letter. You know what that means? With that, you can enroll into the university without taking the entrance examination.”
Aside from taking the entrance examination, the other way to get into Martial Valor University was through a recommendation. But this was not a path commoners could take, since the referrers could only be notable members of the elite, government officials, and nobles.
In truth, most of the ordinary students had not even known about recommendation letters until that moment.
Chen Chuan and the other examinees stood on the sidewalk and watched as the high-spirited teenagers walked up the wide flight of stairs while talking and laughing amongst themselves.
This motivated the group. As long as they got into Martial Valor University, they could change their lives and become the same as the ones walking up the stairs.
Everyone walked a little faster to the designated examination site.
After a little over two hundred meters and multiple twists and turns, they arrived in front of an old four-story building. Upperclassmen had temporarily placed a row of desks in the empty space in front of the building and were sitting behind them. One of them stood up to speak to the crowd of newcomers. “Register over here with your documents.”
The examinees immediately spread out and headed toward the desks.
“Slow down! Why are you in such a hurry?!” the upperclassman snapped at them. “Come forward one by one. There are fifteen days allocated for the entrance examination. Every single one of you will get their chance to take it, but those who break the rules and cause trouble will have their examination rights revoked!”
The examinees calmed down right away and started to queue up.
Chen Chuan stood closer to the front, so, before long, he arrived at one of the desks. A friendly-looking female upperclassman sat behind it. She had short hair with bangs, light makeup, and a sweet smile. Her eyes lit up when Chen Chuan sat down before her, and she handed him a form. “Fill it out based on the instructions on the paper. You have to make sure to not cross out or rewrite anything...”
In a show of great consideration, she pointed out each area Chen Chuan needed to fill in. Her movements were full of energy, and each pointing of the finger made her forearm muscles ripple. She was clearly no fragile flower.
Once Chen Chuan finished filling out his basic information and verified his personal details, he handed over one hundred dev to pay the exam fee.
That was almost the amount Nian Fuli earned in a month. An ordinary family could live two months in comfort with that amount of money.
“Do you have a foundation in martial arts?” the female upperclassman asked.
Chen Chuan shook his head.
“I thought so.”
Anyone could tell at a glance just who was a martial arts practitioner and who was not. Their muscle distribution and movements were different from those of normal people. Anyone who knew martial arts could tell right away.
The upperclassman gave him a serious warning. “I don’t know where you got your confidence to come here, Chen Chuan, but you have to be careful. You’re going to have to fight against an upperclassman later, and lecturers will be evaluating your performance. They’ll be mainly looking at your ability to adapt rather than if you can win or not, so don’t feel pressured. Just be yourself.”
Chen Chuan smiled and said, “Thanks.”
The upperclassman liked his bright and lively smile, so she smiled back at him.
A few young men walked over from the other side of the old building. One of the tall ones saw the short-haired girl smiling at Chen Chuan and felt miffed. He turned to an upperclassman. “Liu, you’re in charge of setting up the fights for the entrance examination, right?” He gestured at Chen Chuan with his chin. “I want to fight that guy.”
“What are you planning?” Liu Cai asked warily.
The tall man did not hide his plan. “Zhen Ping is always serious and has never smiled at me, but she just smiled at that brat! I want to teach him a lesson for annoying me!”
“Shan Xiong, don’t be stupid,” Liu Cai warned him.
But Shan Xiong was a rude and unreasonable person. He glared at Liu Cai. “Are you going to let me fight him or not?”
Liu Cai hesitated for a bit. Shan Xiong had ties with quite a number of people in power and some shady dealings with gang members outside the university. Meanwhile, the people who came to take the entrance examination had no background. Liu Cai did not want to get on Shan Xiong’s bad side because of such a small matter, so he nodded.
Shan Xiong clapped him on the shoulder. “I owe you one.”
Liu Cai did not feel at ease. “Be careful. Don’t cause any trouble and mess things up for me.”
Shan Xiong did not even look at him. His eyes were fixed on Chen Chuan as he gave a perfunctory answer. “I know what I’m doing.”
Once the examinees finished registering, the upperclassmen brought them into the old building in batches. They were given numbers and told to wait in front of the martial arts training ground, which was going to serve as the exam hall.
The door soon opened and numbers were called out. While the examinees were mentally prepared for it, they still felt really nervous and tentatively entered the exam hall.
Chen Chuan took a peek inside before the door closed. The room was huge, and its floor was covered in smooth wooden floorboards. A thick curtain covered the side facing the corridor where Chen Chuan was, but it seemed like there were upperclassmen walking around and taking notes behind it.
In almost no time, the door opened again. Four upperclassmen carried out one of the examinees on a stretcher. His face was covered in blood.
The examinees standing at the door cried out in surprise.
“Why the shouting?!” one of the upperclassmen yelled at them. “What do you think Martial Valor University is? Why are you making a fuss because of a small injury like this? If you can’t handle it, go home!”
The examinees fell silent.
More numbers were called out, and more people went in. When they came out after the exam, they did not look as badly beaten up as the examinee from before, but most of them had bruised faces and other injuries. Some even came out with broken bones.
The people who had yet to take the exam felt uneasy, since they did not know whether the ones who went in had passed, despite suffering such grievous wounds.
But no one backed out of the exam, because this could be their one and only chance to change their fate. Since they were already standing here, they had to try.
Still, waiting was torturous. Discomfort was written on almost every face in the waiting area. Some of the examinees were even so nervous that they went to the washroom several times.
Around half an hour passed before an upperclassman called out another round of numbers. “Twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, come in.”
Chen Chuan sucked in a deep breath. He was number twenty-one. It was finally his turn.
He adjusted his cap and went into the exam hall with a tall boy and a petite girl while the other examinees watched. The breathing of the other two was rather hurried.
Once inside, Chen Chuan saw three long tables covered in dark-blue tablecloth ahead of him. A couple of people who looked like lecturers sat behind them. Some medical staff wearing masks and a dozen upperclassmen stood near them. The air stank of disinfectant, and the floor was slippery after just being mopped.
The three went to a long table based on their number; Chen Chuan’s was the one in the middle. As he walked along the empty space, he felt many piercing gazes on him, and his heartbeat quickened as well.
When he arrived at the line drawn on the floor in front of the table, an upperclassman motioned for him to stop, so he did. Chen Chuan bowed to the people in front of him. “Hello, sirs.”
The moment he walked over, the lecturers and teaching assistants shook their heads. They could tell that Chen Chuan was not a martial artist and had only come to try his luck. There was nothing of interest about him.
One of them pointed at the table nearby and said, “Put your belongings over there. You can use strikes as well as takedowns, chokeholds, and other techniques during the exam, but no weapons. If you break the rules, you will be disqualified, understood?”
Chen Chuan nodded. “Got it.”
“Alright. Let’s get this over with quickly.”
Chen Chuan removed his cap and bag to put them away, then calmed his breathing.
Liu Cai glanced over him. Nothing caught his attention until his gaze landed on Chen Chuan’s bag. He was stunned. A closer inspection of it instantly soured his mood.
Earlier, Chen Chuan had been sitting with the desk blocking him, so Liu Cai had not seen the bag, which was the Constabulary’s standard-issue bag. There was even a number on it, which meant that Chen Chuan not only had someone working in the Constabulary, but the person was no ordinary constable.
Aside from Black Orchid Co.’s security guards, the Constabulary was Yangzhi City’s second strongest combat force. Its members were also really united. If anything happened to Chen Chuan, it was highly likely that someone would come and make Liu Cai’s life hell.
He cursed under his breath and went to Shan Xiong. “Just forget about fighting that guy. Do it for me, okay?” he whispered.
Shan Xiong turned to him, eyes dark and threatening. “Are you kidding me?”
Liu Cai leaned back subconsciously and tried to explain himself. “No, listen—”
Just then, someone shouted, “Upperclassmen in charge of fighting the examinees, where are you?! Hurry up! What’s with the delay?!”
It was too late to make any changes, so Liu Cai could only close his mouth. Shan Xiong gave him a warning poke before he rolled his shoulders and neck, then went over in a lazy stride.
Liu Cai resigned himself to what was to come. He could only hope that Shan Xiong would not be too rough on Chen Chuan.
Shan Xiong put on boxing gloves, slammed his fists together for a test, and went to the middle of the testing area. A malicious grin spread across his face when he stood before Chen Chuan.
He had initially just wanted to teach this kid a lesson to vent his frustrations, but Liu Cai had pissed him off, so his new goal was to make Chen Chuan suffer.
Chen Chuan could sense the blatant malice in Shan Xiong’s eyes and raised his guard. Just like he had read in textbooks, he took up a stance.
Shan Xiong’s grin widened. He did not even use his fists. Instead, he raised his knee, turned his hips, and delivered a high roundhouse kick!
Liu Cai’s heart sank at the sight of it.
Oh no!