Having achieved financial freedom, I reorganized my workplace.

Chapter 26 Why Should We Expect Others to Be Excellent?

While Lin Chen was battling the centrifugal pump in exam room D, Chen Lei stood at the entrance of exam room C, his palms sweating as he gripped his admission ticket tightly.

"Good morning, examiners. I am Chen Lei, candidate number 016!" He deliberately raised his voice to announce his candidate number, nervously observing the examiners' reactions, because he had no idea where the two examiners his uncle had bribed were.

Upon hearing the number "016", the previously expressionless examiner, Liu, narrowed his eyes slightly, then revealed a warm smile, stepped forward and gently patted Chen Lei's shoulder: "Relax, this question is very simple, just perform normally."

Upon receiving this "secret code" response, Chen Lei felt much relieved. He took a deep breath and secretly rejoiced that he had switched topics with Lin Chen, otherwise he would have been in serious trouble.

"Get ready and let's begin." Examiner Liu kept his tone as calm as possible, while subtly moving the camera back half a meter and slightly tilting the angle. He was experienced; as long as the person was in the shot, it didn't matter if the details weren't clearly visible.

Even if someone reviews the surveillance footage, they can only blame the camera's poor resolution.

Another examiner, surnamed Chen, saw this situation and tacitly sat down to the side, ignoring it. The reason he was able to pass the advanced qualification exam and become an examiner was because he had been given preferential treatment in this way.

Everyone has this moment, and he can't cut off other people's path. Besides, since they have connections, it means they have strong backing.

Question C is "Practical Observation of Settlement and Horizontal Displacement of Hydraulic Structures". It requires you to conduct precise leveling and line-of-sight displacement observation at three observation points of a simulated dam within 30 minutes, and complete data recording and analysis.

This question was a piece of cake for Lin Chen, but difficult for Chen Lei, an administrative staff member who had never been to a construction site before.

As the exam began, Chen Lei frantically set up the leveling instrument.

Although I had some experience with the equipment during my internship, it was all theoretical. When I actually used it, I found that even leveling it was difficult. The bubbles would sway back and forth in the circles and just wouldn't stay in the center.

Before long, he was sweating profusely, his whole body covered in sweat. In his anxiety, he became even more clueless about what he was doing, and his hands and feet became extremely clumsy.

Chen, the examiner who was scrolling through his phone in the corner, occasionally looked up and shook his head when he saw this scene. This level of skill dared to take the senior technician exam. It must be the connections that gave him the confidence. Back then, although he also had someone to help him, at least he had a certain level of skill.

"A big forest has all kinds of birds."

"Turn the left side up a little." Examiner Liu leaned closer and whispered in Chen Lei's ear, a sound so soft it was impossible for the camera to pick up.

Chen Lei was taken aback, but then overjoyed. He quickly did as instructed, and sure enough, the bubbles gradually stabilized.

Next came the measurement process, where Chen Lei made numerous mistakes. However, with the guidance of Examiner Liu, he was completely bewildered when reading the value: "This is... 12.35, right?" He then looked at the instructor with a hint of embarrassment.

"1.285." Examiner Liu stood behind him, speaking softly, continuing to support Chen Lei.

Chen Lei quickly wrote it down.

When measuring the third point, he completely forgot that the line of sight should be aligned with the backsight point, and simply turned the instrument around. This action is required to deduct ten points.

"Look first, then look later." Examiner Liu's voice rang out at the right time. Chen Lei suddenly realized what was going on, quickly turned back, and fiddled with it again.

Finally, data recording was required. Chen Lei had no idea what those numbers meant, so he could only bite the bullet and fill them in randomly. "The settlement is 3 millimeters, right?" He had given up hope and kept glancing at the examiner, Liu, hoping he would give him an answer.

"Don't look at me, just focus on the test. You can just write down a few random answers, the camera won't capture them. The important thing is that you complete all the steps, understand?"

Examiner Liu was really annoyed. How could this guy be so clueless? Not only was his skill level poor, but he also didn't know the rules. He was given a hint, and the guy should have just accepted it silently. Why did he have to complain to him?

Damn it, are they afraid others won't know? If someone really takes it seriously and reviews the video footage, they could end up getting themselves into trouble, which wouldn't be worth it.

Chen Lei finally understood and started pretending to fiddle with the instrument. Then he scribbled down a few answers haphazardly. Anyway, when the timer went off, Chen Lei had completed all the operations perfectly.

"Time's up, you can leave now." Examiner Liu waved his hand.

"Thank you, instructor!" Chen Lei walked out of the examination room with a relieved expression and a beaming smile.

As soon as the door closed, the two examiners began their "professional scoring".

"What score would you give this?" examiner Liu asked.

"Go ahead and say it," Examiner Chen said without looking up.

"How about 45?"

"A level of 45? That's outrageous! They can't even adjust the level." Examiner Chen finally put down his phone and pointed to the surveillance camera. "Although the image is blurry, anyone who knows what they're doing can see what's going on."

"What about 44? There's nothing we can do about it; we've already given instructions from above."

"40, 40 at most." Examiner Chen sighed. "I can't live with myself if it's any higher. I have to at least make it look like a proper score; there will be a review later."

"Okay, then it'll be 40. I won't make things difficult for you."

Examiner Liu readily wrote down the score on the scoring sheet. The score wasn't too high, but it was enough for Chen Lei to "pass".

Whether someone takes care of you or not makes a world of difference. How can you compete with others when you're all alone? Some might say something sarcastic: Stop complaining about injustice all day long. As long as your strength is far superior to theirs, they can't suppress you.

This is a false proposition in itself.

An ordinary person already has a low starting point and limited resources, so why do you expect others to be so much better?

Why don't you demand that those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth be even more outstanding?

The world is unfair, it's just awful.

After Lin Chen's group finished their exams, all the morning's exams were over. The afternoon exams continued. While packing up for lunch in the cafeteria, Bai Xiuyi approached again, her fair face showing a hint of probing: "Lin Chen, how did your exams go?"

"Not bad, all the problems have been found." Lin Chen wiped the sweat from his forehead, his tone calm and without any boasting.

Bai Xiuyi's eyes lit up, and she immediately adopted a coquettish tone: "Wow, I see you took the D question. Can you tell me what kind of glitches the examiners set up? I also took the D question this afternoon."

She had already asked several people who took the D test, but they either stammered and couldn't explain clearly, or they were completely confused and couldn't find the problem at all. Of course, it's also possible that some people were deliberately pretending to be stupid.

She didn't have high hopes for Lin Chen, after all, they were competitors, and who would be willing to tell others the key to solving the problem? But she had no other choice but to try asking him.

Lin Chen looked around. The cafeteria was bustling with noise, filled with discussions about the exam. He frowned, his expression hesitant.

Seeing this, Bai Xiuyi felt a little disappointed and quickly said, "If you don't want to, that's fine. I was just asking casually." She could understand that in such a competitive situation, everyone wanted to have a better chance and didn't want to do the work for their opponent.

"It's not that I'm unwilling," Lin Chen shook his head. "It's just that the questions are quite complicated, and it's too noisy and crowded here. Let's find a quieter place, and I'll draw diagrams to explain it to you slowly."

Bai Xiuyi was completely taken aback when Lin Chen agreed, and so enthusiastically at that. She was flattered and said, "Then... then let's go to my room? I live alone." After saying that, she felt a little awkward and her cheeks flushed slightly. There were only an odd number of girls at the exam this time, so she could have a room to herself, avoiding the awkwardness of sharing a room with a boy.

"Okay, let's go."

Lin Chen agreed without thinking too much. It's not easy for girls to work in waterworks, and the disadvantage of being a girl is obvious.

Moreover, Bai Xiuyi has a very innocent look and a warm feeling about her figure.

It inexplicably reminded him of his wet nurse when he was a child.