Chapter 77: Respective Achievements, Then It Is Settled

“Brother Fan, Brother Zhou, how did you feel about the exam? What kind of questions were on it?”

“How can we say? If we spoke of it, wouldn’t it be unfair to those taking the exam today?”

“But since the exams are held separately, the questions can’t possibly be the same. We are just asking about the question types. When different questions come out later, everyone will still rely on their own ability.”

“This… that is true… well… Brother Fan, Brother Zhou… could you reveal just a little?”

“Even if you ask, you wouldn’t understand,” Zhou Shen shook his head. “What we were tested on today wasn’t the Four Books and Five Classics¹ we are good at. It was new knowledge covering a very broad range of topics. Many things were completely unheard of. How well you do on the exam depends entirely on how well you learned during today’s lessons.”

“What was it? Tell us about it; perhaps we can understand.”

“It’s Physics, Chemistry, and Biology,” Zhou Shen gave a rough summary of the lecture content. Looking at the increasingly dazed expressions of the students, he smiled and asked, “Well? Do you understand?”

“How could they test such content? It is unheard of.”

“Who knows? Anyway, I only understood about ten or twenty percent of it,” Zhou Shen spread his hands. “How the exam went is up to fate. Brother Fan, on the other hand, understood much more than I did.”

At those words, everyone turned their gaze toward Brother Fan.

Right then, Brother Fan suddenly stood up, his eyes shining with pleasant surprise: “I get it! I’ve figured it out! So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is!”

“What do you mean ‘that’s how it is’?” Zhou Shen asked instinctively.

Brother Fan looked at him excitedly: “Do you remember the last big question? The one about the positive divalent and trivalent states of the element iron? I get it now! I know how to do it! What a pity, what a pity I didn’t think of it then. So that’s it! No wonder different iron tools react differently under different circumstances. I understand now!”

The students were left utterly bewildered. When they looked at Zhou Shen, they found he looked just as lost.

“Brother Zhou? Why do you have the same expression as us? Didn’t you attend the lecture?”

“I don’t understand it either,” Zhou Shen said, wanting to cry but having no tears. “I told you just now, I only understood ten or twenty percent of today’s curriculum. This… this iron element business, I only caught the general gist of it…”

A clever student reacted quickly and immediately spoke up: “Brother Fan, could you explain to us in detail what these positive divalent and trivalent states of iron are?”

The rest of the students also looked over, waiting expectantly for the answer, hoping to gain more knowledge to secure a good grade when it was their turn to be tested.

But no one expected the knowledge within subjects like Physics, Chemistry, and Biology to be so complex.

After several days of selection exams, the students compared notes on the lecture and exam contents, only to discover that everyone’s lessons were different, and the exam questions were even more varied.

Even if they had inquired in advance, when the moment actually came and they saw the exam papers, everyone’s expressions were as grim as if they were at a funeral².

It was bad enough that the lecture content consisted of knowledge they knew nothing about, but the exam questions were also incredibly unpredictable. It was impossible for the questions to be identical to the lecture material. To solve the problems, a candidate needed to be exceptionally brilliant; being able to infer three things from one³ wasn’t enough—they needed to infer six or even nine things from one.

Under such circumstances, even these students, who had survived multiple trials and were considered the cream of the crop nationwide in terms of intelligence, could only say one thing: It’s too hard!!!

Bai Miao, however, did not care what these students thought. She wanted the questions to be difficult; only then could she find those with truly superior IQs.

After all, national development required talent. While steady, step-by-step cultivation was good, there wasn’t enough time. Furthermore, if they continued the old development model during this process, it wouldn’t be easy to change it later.

Therefore, rather than waiting for a massive, painful overhaul in the future, it was better to change things from the very beginning.

This group of selected, high-IQ individuals was the first step.

Of course, the remaining students would not be wasted. Their intelligence might not match the top tier, but they were all smart people. They could be put to work while they learned; sooner or later, they would become the pillars the country needed for its development.

In the first few years of the country’s stabilization, the most important tasks were the development of agriculture and basic industry.

Before returning, Bai Miao had already transferred all the books to their original Plane.

Every room on the top floor was filled with books.

Having decided to develop agriculture and basic industry, Bai Miao began flipping through various related books, looking for developmental experiences from “history” and moving successful examples to this Plane one by one.

Consequently, it wasn’t long before all the commoners received specially customized identification cards and ration books.

In a situation where everything was waiting to be rebuilt, the rationing of goods came first.

This was something Bai Miao had read about in the books.

However, during actual implementation, because the country’s population was relatively small and supplies were not that scarce, the policy was not overly strict and did not restrict private transactions.

But goods belonging to the state were strictly controlled. Once someone was caught reselling state supplies, the newly established penalties were very severe—ranging from ten or twenty years of imprisonment to the death penalty.

Bai Miao flipped through the books one by one, absorbing everything into her mind. She then listed out policies one by one based on the actual situation, which were rapidly spread and implemented across the country.

When new policies arrived in this country, implementing them was not so easy.

Many local officials strictly followed them at first, but later, realizing that the central government couldn’t possibly monitor them, they began to let themselves go, feigning compliance while acting in opposition⁴.

Half a year passed, then a year, then two. From their initial caution, they moved to bold troublemaking once they realized the higher-ups only dealt with the most heinous crimes.

But it was also from this point that Bai Yu and Bai Xi began to act. They decisively dealt with batch after batch of duplicitous officials, then replaced them with the reserve talents trained over the past two years, quickly completing the handover.

Only then did those officials realize that the higher-ups hadn’t been idle during those two years. They had been gathering evidence of their crimes all along. It was only because of a lack of manpower that they had tolerated the officials’ defiance. Now that manpower was becoming abundant, they naturally began to strike, not only dragging down a group of officials but also replacing them with talents possessing new ideas.

And this was not the end of it.

From the moment Bai Yu and Bai Xi began their sweeping travels, purging and replacing officials with bold strokes, the state’s talent cultivation program was brought into the light. Everyone was made aware that this group of talents constituted the Reserve Cadres for future government positions.

The reality lived up to the name.

As soon as one official was pulled down, a member of the Reserve Cadres would step up to fill the void.

All the Reserve Cadres watched the sitting officials with burning intensity, practically praying for them to make a mistake. Only when an official fell from grace would they have their chance.

This forced the current officials to tighten their belts and work with frantic diligence. They poured every ounce of energy into their duties, terrified of making a single misstep.

Even so, there were still those who considered themselves exceptionally clever and attempted to stir up trouble in secret.

If such people remained undetected, they were lucky. Once caught, however, the Reserve Cadres back at the academy would roll up their sleeves and engage in fierce debates. The winner of these intellectual contests would then be dispatched post-haste to take over the office.

Over time, officials became even more hesitant to act recklessly. Many took the initiative to study new ideologies, fearing that a shift in policy might leave their outdated thinking behind. They knew that even if they didn’t succumb to bribery or corruption, they could still be ousted simply for failing to keep up.

This left the Reserve Cadres feeling quite disappointed.

Fortunately, this state of limbo for the Reserve Cadres did not last long.

Once the initial phase of official reshuffling was largely complete, the next stage of the plan was swiftly implemented. The country needed to build large-scale state-owned enterprises, hospitals, and schools. Every industry required development, and every sector needed leaders. These Reserve Cadres were the perfect candidates.

The Reserve Cadres were delighted to have new jobs, and the sitting officials were equally thrilled and relieved to no longer have a pack of hungry successors breathing down their necks.

However, as the old batch of Reserve Cadres moved into their roles, a new generation began their training. To stay securely in their current positions, the officials still couldn’t afford to make mistakes.

Still, if one could manage to hold onto their position until retirement, that wasn’t a bad outcome at all.

“I have three years left. In three years, I officially retire, so I won’t be making any mistakes during this time.”

“I didn’t ask you to make a mistake, so why are you looking at me?”

“Heh, you think I don’t know what you’re thinking? Back when the new Emperor ascended, you were so afraid your past conduct would be discovered that you resigned and went into hiding early. You regret it now, don’t you?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong. I just opened a granary without permission to sell grain to disaster victims at a low price. Besides, that granary belonged to the previous dynasty… But I do regret it. If I’d known the new Emperor would act this way, I wouldn’t have left. Luckily, I wasn’t held accountable. But things are fine now. Let me tell you, my daughter is now the director of a major state-owned factory. Do you have that?”

“I… I am a government official.”

“Merely a sixth-rank official⁵. A state factory director holds the fifth rank.”

“I can collect a pension after I retire.”

“My daughter can support me.”

“I can collect a pension after I retire.”

“I can play chess and raise birds⁶ right now, while you still have to go to work.”

“I can collect a pension after I retire.”

“You are impossible!”

“Hahaha, take care now!”

…

“Those two are quite amusing,” Bai He said with a smile. She listened to the report from the household servant and noted the details in her ledger for tracking official conduct. She turned to look at Bai Miao. “Miao Miao, are you still coming with me to inspect and record the officials’ actions?”

“No,” Bai Miao shook her head. “I have to go back to the island. Now that our factories are established, we’ll be producing a vast amount of goods. Sooner or later, supply will exceed demand, so I need to prepare in advance to ship everything overseas for sale.”

“I didn’t expect the maritime route to be so useful. I thought that since your Eldest Sister and Second Sister are here, you would move back too,” Bai He remarked wistfully.

“Our island and the country are one entity. Working on the island is the same as being with my sisters.”

Bai Miao was now in her teens, while Bai Yu and Bai Xi were in their twenties. They no longer needed to be inseparable as they had been at the start. The current arrangement was perfect; everyone had their own path and achievements.

Furthermore, she still had matters regarding the Plane to handle. While being in the capital was nice, it wasn’t convenient for her secret work.

Then there was their ship. She had accumulated enough materials and upgrade cards. The next upgrade would surely bring massive changes, and it would be less conspicuous to perform the upgrade out at sea.

“For this voyage, I plan to have a massive ship built. When the time comes, why don’t we all go on a world tour together?”

Bai He’s eyes lit up. “A world tour?”

“Mhm. We’ll sail around the world on a cruise ship and see what other countries and islands are like,” Bai Miao said with a smile.

“That sounds wonderful! You speak so many languages anyway, so we won’t have to worry about communication barriers in different countries,” Bai He said excitedly. “Once things settle down here and your big ship is built, come find me. I want to see the world.”

Bai Miao thought to herself that building the ship would only take an instant; it just depended on when Bai He was free.

However, given the current state of the country, Bai He wouldn’t feel right leaving yet. It was better to wait until domestic affairs were stable before they set off on their global journey.

Bai Miao nodded solemnly. “Then it’s a deal!”

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The story officially ends here. Thank you all for your support.

Translator’s Notes