Chapter 5: Disagreement Over Grading

“We’re about to eat, why did you drag me back here!” Hao Shuai was inexplicably pushed onto the bed, clutching his body in extreme fear.

“My mind feels a bit dizzy, help me think about a few things.” After calming him down, Zhang Yifu sat beside him and asked kindly, “Shuai Shuai ah… our country is a socialist nation now, right?”

“…” Hao Shuai looked at Zhang Yifu like he was a monster, then began answering his various weird questions.

For over an hour, Zhang Yifu combined his own memories with Hao Shuai’s descriptions, gaining a rough understanding of this world and himself.

Although many things seemed familiar, this was still an alternate world, not history. The broad era environment wasn’t too different from the 1990 he knew, but the names of those in power were all ones Zhang Yifu had never heard, whether it was the President of the United States or the Prime Minister of Japan; they were all unknown to him. But those companies still existed, even movies and TV shows existed, just with a different cast of actors and directors. It seemed unlikely he could latch onto the coattails of future big shots.

As for Zhang Yifu himself, his situation was actually similar to his previous life. Both parents were workers in the power industry; his mother was a meter reader, and his father was responsible for installing and maintaining electric meters. It was just that in this generation, his dad had experienced that accident, going through major ups and downs.

As they chatted, Zhang Yifu suddenly remembered something and quickly asked, “Shuai Shuai, this year is ’90, there’s a World Cup, right?”

“Yes, but it won’t start for another two weeks.”

“The ’90 World Cup…” Zhang Yifu racked his brain. Unfortunately, his “electric” brain couldn’t access that knowledge. From a modern person’s perspective, if you knew in advance who would win, you could just bet everything. Sadly, in 1990, Zhang Yifu was still in split pants and had no idea what the World Cup was.

Hao Shuai remarked with feeling, “Yeah, Japan got the hosting rights for this one. We won’t have to stay up late to watch!”

“??” Zhang Yifu was shocked. “Japan?”

“Yes, the Japan World Cup.”

“Shouldn’t Japan be in a financial crisis with its people suffering?”

“What financial crisis? Japan’s economy is almost catching up to America’s right now.”

Zhang Yifu suddenly felt a headache coming on. Although he didn’t remember which country hosted the ’90 World Cup, it definitely wasn’t Japan. He immediately followed up, “What about the Soviet Union? Has it collapsed?”

“Collapsed? It collapsed long ago, three or four years already.”

Though Zhang Yifu’s knowledge was limited, he did remember the Soviet Union collapsed in the 90s. It seemed many of his past life experiences were useless now. Making a quick fortune in the stock market or placing bets on soccer matches were out of the question.

Fortunately, the macro-development of the era hadn’t changed. Although the timing and details were misaligned, the general direction was still correct. In his past life, Zhang Yifu often wondered—if you had your past life’s experience and were reborn in Shenzhen decades earlier, could you create QQ? If you went back to Hangzhou decades earlier, could you create Taobao? If you went back to Silicon Valley decades earlier, could you code Windows?

He believed the answer was no. Because even if he were sent back to the end of the Yuan dynasty, he couldn’t become Zhu Yuanzhang.

When QQ emerged, at least five companies were making that kind of software. Before Microsoft appeared, Gates was already a super expert in that field. Only the most outstanding, the luckiest guy could succeed. Those with lofty ambitions but only empty ideas would ultimately just become the inspiration for others.

Ability, character, opportunity—these were the eternal truths.

Zhang Yifu knew there were many things he could do. But for him, with the high-voltage knowledge in his head, only continuing down the professional path was the one true way.

Moreover, in the end, this path was truly no less promising than IT or finance. It was just that not many people knew this yet.

In the empty lecture hall, the Counselor and the Department Director were still accompanying Liu Jianwang as he graded the papers.

“The overall quality of our students is still quite high.” Liu Jianwang picked up an exam paper filled with formulas and smiled. “I really can’t understand this one. Professor Chen, could you please evaluate it?”

The old professor took the paper, squinted at it, and smiled with satisfaction. “Not a single mistake. All the thermodynamics and electromagnetism formulas used in power generation facilities are listed here. There’s even a rough sketch of a generator circuit design at the end. To write all this in such a short time—I believe this student has great potential for graduate school.”

Seeing the old professor’s approving expression, Liu Jianwang, afraid of offending him, swallowed the sarcastic remark he was about to make. True, this student filled the paper with formulas and diagrams, but there wasn’t a single sentence Liu Jianwang could actually understand. In fact, this was completely off-topic. It wasn’t explaining the principles of a Thermal Power Plant at all, but rather explaining all of thermodynamics and electromagnetism.

“Director Liu, what do you think of this one?” The Counselor next to him handed over another paper. “The handwriting is neat, the writing is elegant. Although there aren’t many formulas, anyone can understand it.”

“Oh?” Liu Jianwang took the paper with some expectation, glanced at it briefly, and shook his head.

Indeed, this paper was written concisely and simply, explaining complex ideas in simple terms, but it avoided all the key issues. Take the simplest example: the Boiler, Steam Turbine, and Generator are the three most fundamental facilities of a Thermal Power Plant. The person who answered this clearly didn’t know that, covering it up with vague, flowery language, only talking about coal heating, driving motion to cut magnetic field lines to generate electricity. It was broad, empty, and generic. Easy to understand, but containing nothing practical.

“Oh, here’s Zhang Yifu’s.” The old professor chuckled, taking out a paper and giving it a shake. “The handwriting is quite nice, but he answered too little. Let me take a look first.”

Neither the old professor nor Liu Jianwang had any real expectations for Zhang Yifu; at most, they were curious. They wanted to see how a smart but apathetic student who just coasted along would handle this assessment.

“Hmm… the concepts are all correct.” The old professor squinted at the paper, pursing his lips. “He is smart, after all; understanding the basics isn’t a problem… His thinking on countermeasures for power shortages is quite comprehensive too. This kind of question suited him well… As for the third question, China’s electric power twenty years from now…”

The old professor read line by line, growing more and more astonished.

“This… this is too outrageous…” The old professor’s eyes widened. “1 million kilowatt Power Plants becoming widespread… 5 trillion kilowatt-hours of electricity generation? Outrageous! Too outrageous! The development over more than forty years since the founding of the nation doesn’t even reach one-tenth of this number! Nuclear Power… Wind Power… sustainable development, where did these ideas come from! Too fanciful! Sending electricity to Europe? How is that possible! Do they need our electricity? Moreover, to transmit power over such a long distance, how long and tall would the transmission lines need to be? Most of it would be lost by the time it got there!”

The angrier the old professor got, the more he directly pushed the paper aside. “Divergent thinking shouldn’t be this chaotic. How can our students be so unrealistic!”

On the contrary, after hearing the fragments from the old professor’s mouth, a different light seemed to flicker in Liu Jianwang’s eyes. Without saying much, he quickly picked up the paper and began to study it carefully.