The Real Daughter Just Wants to Pilot Mechas - Chapter 14

It’s over.

Jiang Momo collapsed onto the desk.

Little Eight had told her before that after registration, the academy would conduct a screening, and the entrance exam would be in ten days. So, she had been at ease the past few days, focusing on learning how to assemble mechas. When Little Eight took time to teach her how to read characters, she mostly treated it like listening to a story. Now, she had barely remembered any of the characters.

“How could the exam be today?” Jiang Momo muttered in a barely audible voice. “Little Eight never makes mistakes, right?”

Could it be that the academy created the surprise to lower the students’ guard and test their true abilities? Jiang Momo thought about it more and more and found it plausible.

Too devious. Little Eight wasn’t wrong. Human society really is complicated!

The invigilators saw what was happening and whispered among themselves.

“Why isn’t she answering the questions? Why is she lying down? Could she be trying to cheat?”

“Are you crazy? With the abilities shown in the footage before, do you think she needs to cheat in this kind of exam?”

“Still, you can’t rule out the possibility that she’s the type who focuses on practice over theory, like the mecha pilots from the Mecha Piloting Department led by E Mingjun.”

“Don’t say that. Mecha piloting and mecha manufacturing are different. Our department values theory above all else.”

“But this exam includes all mecha-related knowledge, including piloting and maintenance. Look at the others, their brows are furrowed so much it looks like they’re going to crush flies. It’s hard to say they don’t know anything.”

“Hey, she’s up! She’s starting to answer now!”

***

Anxious.

Right now, Jiang Momo is extremely anxious.

She barely sat up and seriously flipped through the exam paper several times. She realized that while she could only recognize two or three characters out of ten, if she stared hard enough, she could somehow guess their general meaning.

She remembered that Little Eight had taught her some ancient tricks for taking exams. What was that chant again?

Oh, right! If there are three longs and one short answer, choose the shortest. If there are three shorts and one long, choose the longest…

Soon, Jiang Momo managed to finish the multiple-choice and true/false questions with a mix of guessing and intuition.

Then, she got stuck on the essay questions.

The problem was that she couldn’t recognize the words and she couldn’t write either. She only knew the simplest and most common characters.

Jiang Momo narrowed her eyes and stared at the image next to the big question. She started arranging and rearranging the few characters she knew in her head, writing them repeatedly.

“Well, it’ll have to do.” Jiang Momo sucked in a breath, muttering to herself, “If it doesn’t work out, I’ll try again next year. I wonder if the Mecha Maintenance Center is hiring. Maybe I should go work for a year to save up for tuition.”

She half-heartedly finished the paper.

There were less than 20 minutes left in the exam.

Jiang Momo double-checked that she had no more ideas left in her head and resignedly stood up.

“Finished?” The invigilators were shocked.

The exam had a lot of questions and the time limit was three hours.

Is this what genius looks like?!

“Yes, finished,” Jiang Momo confirmed.

She couldn’t squeeze out a single more word!

“Just leave it here. Wait in the school for a while and after you hear the announcement, come for the practical exam,” the invigilator instructed. “Don’t go too far.”

Jiang Momo lowered her head and left the room, heading to the first floor.

Inside the exam room, the invigilators gathered together, turned the sound on the room’s intercom system to the highest setting, and began discussing Jiang Momo’s paper.

Among them, a tall, thin male teacher with silver-rimmed glasses spoke first, his tone filled with sarcasm, “What’s the difference between her answering the essay and not answering at all? I told you she didn’t know anything but you all argued with me!”

A short, stocky invigilator standing next to him slapped him on the arm, his voice rough, “Stop it. You were the one saying she was trying to cheat earlier. Don’t think we don’t know. You’re just upset because Dean Ge’s video of her made you look bad yesterday. If you had guts, you would take it up with Dean Ge.”

The two of them had never gotten along and now the tension between them was palpable. However, before they could argue further, the rest of the invigilators interrupted them with shocked exclamations.

“Stop arguing! Look at her multiple-choice answers. Oh my, did I see that right? All correct!”

“True/false questions too! All correct!”

“She’s amazing. She’s a prodigy!”

“So what? Just because she got the multiple-choice right doesn’t mean she didn’t guess.” The tall, thin teacher crossed his arms, unconvinced.

“You try guessing them then,” the stocky invigilator retorted, tilting his head.

Not far away, Peng Ji was secretly watching the invigilators huddled together. He had been paying attention to the entire exam hall since the beginning. He was the one who had wanted to cheat but couldn’t.

Although he couldn’t hear their conversation, from their expressions, he knew that the person who had just left was definitely a strong contender.

“Jiang Momo, I’ve remembered you,” he muttered softly.

The invigilators were still arguing when Dean Ge’s voice came from behind them.

“Whose paper is this?”

“This is Jiang Momo’s,” the tall teacher quickly replied, flipping the paper to the back and handing it to Dean Ge. “Dean Ge, take a look at the way she answered the big question.”

“This answer is quite good, concise and to the point, no unnecessary words,” Dean Ge said. He had already learned Jiang Momo’s name when the invigilators came to report her paper to him. After glancing at it, he continued.

The invigilators were all stunned.

Were there no unnecessary words? The five big questions together didn’t even add up to six hundred characters! Dean Ge must have had a thick filter on!

“Dean Ge, don’t you think she wrote too little?” the tall teacher pressed, asking, “Are you planning to give her a pass just because she’s your student?”

The other invigilators, lowering their heads: “…”

This guy’s really bold. Who said he only complains behind people’s backs?

Hearing the question, Dean Ge casually nodded. “I don’t participate in the grading. What I said earlier was just my personal opinion. How you grade her is up to you. Besides, I don’t have any students yet.”

“You said her big question was good, does that mean she should get a high score?” The invigilators, who were in charge of grading, were already worried that Jiang Momo wouldn’t get any points for the big question according to the grading criteria, so they quickly seized the opportunity to ask.

“As I said, that’s your business,” Dean Ge replied.

***

Jiang Momo wandered aimlessly around the academy. People came and went but no one noticed her, the outsider who had nothing to do.

“This school is huge!” Jiang Momo looked at the endless walls surrounding the campus, then walked toward the area with more people.

In the distance, a group of people were hiding behind a hedge and peeking out, clearly watching something.

Among them, there were both men and women, occasionally letting out excited gasps and whispering.

Jiang Momo’s curiosity spiked and she walked over.

“What’s going on?” She tiptoed to see what the crowd was looking at.

“Don’t go over there! The young master of the Ling family, the vice president, and the president of the Student Council are all chasing the same girl!” A girl beside Jiang Momo quickly whispered an explanation and invited her to join in the gossip. “Our president is usually so aloof, he avoids both male and female attention, but I’ve never seen him stand next to anyone! Ah, it’s a pity that there are too many people in front, I can’t see the whole picture.”

The young master of the Ling family, the one who gave her 1,000 star coins as tip?

Jiang Momo became even more curious. She glanced at the tree nearby, jumped up, and grabbed the trunk to climb up.

Once her view was fully open, Jiang Momo saw the four people standing together five hundred meters away.

Now she understood why the main characters hadn’t reacted yet despite being the center of attention.

It was just too far.

It was impressive that people could see clearly at all.

In the distance, Jiang Yingying stood with her graceful swan-like neck, one hand covering her mouth as she smiled and talked to those beside her. Jiang Yuan stood close beside her and Ling Wenlin looked as casual as ever, hands in his pockets. But his expression seemed less relaxed than when they were at the Jiang family’s place.

Nearby, five meters away, E Mingjun, dressed in Student Council’s attire, perfunctorily spoke to the three, his attitude clearly impatient, his face as dark as a pot bottom.

Jiang Momo leaned down from the tree and moved close to the girl who had just spoken to her. “Which one is the Student Council’s president?”

If it was Jiang Yuan, she’d have to steer clear when she enrolled next year.

“How did you get up there?!” Zhu Qian looked up, startled to see Jiang Momo hanging upside down from the tree, and asked curiously.

“I climbed up. There’s still space here. Wanna come up? I’ll pull you.” Jiang Momo estimated the branch could easily hold two people and extended the invite.

Zhu Qian reached out her hand.

Just like Jiang Momo’s, her hand was a bit rough with some thin calluses on the fingertips.

Jiang Momo grabbed her hand with her left and wrapped her right arm around Zhu Qian’s waist, giving her a strong pull to help her onto the branch steadily.

The branch was about three meters off the ground. Zhu Qian clung to the trunk, not immediately looking at the ‘battlefield’ in the distance. Instead, she stared at Jiang Momo for a while. “You’re pretty strong. Are you in the Mecha Piloting Department?”

Only the Mecha Piloting Department at the school did frequent physical training.

“Not yet! Today’s just registration day. I handed in my form and now I’m just wandering around the campus. I might not even pass. If I don’t, I’ll just go into the Mecha Manufacturing Department.” Jiang Momo clapped her hands cheerfully.

Zhu Qian’s eyes lit up. “You know mecha manufacture too? What a coincidence! I’m from the Mecha Manufacturing Department. I’m Zhu Qian, head of the Student Council’s Disciplinary Committee.”

“Jiang Momo,” she introduced herself, then glanced curiously into the distance.

E Mingjun had drifted further and further away without them noticing.

“That one’s our president.” Zhu Qian pointed at E Mingjun, remembering Jiang Momo’s earlier question. “He’s super mysterious and aloof. Even us Student Council members have barely seen him since we enrolled!”

Zhu Qian got a little excited. Seeing Jiang Momo tilt her head and look at her, she blushed. “Don’t get the wrong idea, okay? I don’t like him. I just admire him a bit! He’s at the top of the Mecha Piloting Department. They say he broke the academy’s piloting record the moment he entered! Even the freshman teacher couldn’t beat him and he instantly became famous!

“You have no idea. I really wanted to study mecha piloting but I failed the physical exam and got reassigned,” Zhu Qian rambled on. “If you don’t pass, you can get reassigned too! You know maintenance, right?”

Jiang Momo scratched her cheek. “Nah, I’m really set on piloting.”

“True! Piloting mechas is super cool!” Zhu Qian nodded hard and gave Jiang Momo a hearty slap on the shoulder. “This senior believes in you. You got this!”

Jiang Momo laughed. “Thanks, Senior!”

“Don’t thank me yet, they’re dispersing! Let’s get down first,” Zhu Qian said quickly and quietly. “Wait, why’s the president walking this way?! He saw us!”

Jiang Momo looked over when she heard that.

E Mingjun was also looking at her.

Their eyes met.

Jiang Momo waved at him with a bright smile.

Zhu Qian: “!!!”

Zhu Qian gasped and ducked her head guiltily.

How did she dare? They were totally spying!

“What are you doing up there?” E Mingjun walked quickly to the base of the tree and looked up.

Zhu Qian: “Sorry, President, I…”

She looked up nervously, only to find that E Mingjun wasn’t even looking at her.

“I came to register!” Jiang Momo jumped down from the tree, said that to E Mingjun, then looked up at Zhu Qian who was still clinging nervously to the trunk.

Jiang Momo opened her arms. “Coming down? I’ll catch you!”

“No need, no need, I’ll get down myself.”Zhu Qian slowly slid down while hugging the trunk, then glanced between Jiang Momo and E Mingjun.

And she noticed something.

When E Mingjun stood next to Jiang Momo, his demeanor was completely different from earlier. His whole posture was relaxed and natural, not exactly warm but casual enough. Plus, they were standing really close, less than a meter apart.

“You two knew each other before?” Zhu Qian asked with a teasing smile and gossip in her eyes.

Jiang Momo was momentarily dazzled by the pretty lady’s smile and nodded, pulling out a fancy idiom from her brain, “We just met by chance.”

E Mingjun lowered his head slightly. “Oh, just met by chance? I was about to treat you to a big meal…”

Jiang Momo: “!”

She immediately changed her tune, looking at Zhu Qian seriously, “I was talking nonsense just now. We’re life-and-death comrades!”

E Mingjun chuckled and glanced from Jiang Momo to Zhu Qian. “Want to join us?”

“I already ate. Next time.” Zhu Qian winked at E Mingjun with a knowing smile and quickly walked away.

E Mingjun was puzzled. “What’s up with her?”

Jiang Momo was also confused. “No idea.”