It’s been 19 hours again without eating anything. I had dinner at 5 PM yesterday, and now it’s 12 PM. Counting it up, it’s almost 24 hours. Since it’s raining and I’m too lazy to go downstairs to buy food, and my dormitory stock has long been depleted, I’ll have to wait until 5 PM for dinner again. No choice, every weekend is like this. Can this barely be considered “emptying oneself”? Or perhaps “starving the body.” But I don’t have the lofty ambitions of Mencius, at least not now.

It’s been a long time since I last read “Mencius” or “The Analects.” Recently, I’ve been struggling to write anything. It’s because I haven’t memorized them well, and there’s no way around it. Who can blame the current education system? Without demands, there’s no motivation. I can barely manage to recite “The Great Learning.”

During my second college entrance exam, my essay was entirely based on “The Great Learning,” and the result was quite good. My modern Chinese reading comprehension has always been poor, and if my essay writing were also bad, there’s no way I could pass the Chinese exam. If my Chinese score didn’t improve, I would fail the college entrance exam again.

The only regret is my math score; I can only apologize for that.

During the math exam, there was a first-time examinee sitting next to me. As soon as the exam started, he figured out the backgrounds of several candidates around him. Upon learning that I was a repeater, he insisted on copying my answers during the math exam, copying whatever I wrote. Eventually, even the invigilator couldn’t stand it and came over to glare at him a few times.

I was furious, seeing that he even copied my problem-solving steps word for word. I couldn’t keep my composure. The exam paper was too long, and objectively, I couldn’t cover all my answers. Besides, if I had reported him to the invigilator on the spot, his future would have been ruined. (I later found out that if I didn’t report him, I might also face a cheating penalty.) Plus, the math questions were indeed a bit difficult, and I couldn’t maintain my composure. In a rush, I could only guess the answer for the last question based on experience, without writing out the process. That night, after checking the answers online, I almost jumped off the building. I really didn’t want to continue the exam. Estimating my Chinese score at around 110 and math at 90, how could I pass? Even if I got full marks in the comprehensive liberal arts, there was no hope. I didn’t sleep all night.

Later, my girlfriend called me, saying she didn’t do well, probably failing math too, and I had to comfort her. What a mess! Recalling the scene after the math exam, no one looked happy, and many were crying outside… I was ready to pack up and go home, but the next day, as if by some strange force, I went back to the exam hall. The comprehensive liberal arts exam was average, slightly better than usual. The last English exam didn’t matter much, but I still held on until 30 minutes before the end to hand in my paper.

After this college entrance exam, I was scared for over half a month. Every day, I was on edge, afraid I wouldn’t get in. I carefully checked the answers online twice, and my estimated scores felt no different from the previous year. Surprisingly, my estimates were almost accurate. Except for underestimating Chinese by 2 points and math by 4 points, and overestimating English by 3 points, I accurately estimated my comprehensive liberal arts score out of 300.

The result was that my final college entrance exam score was 2 points lower than the previous year’s total score… This year of repeating was a complete waste, and I felt deeply ashamed.

The only silver lining was that the admission score for liberal arts in Hunan dropped by 30 points this year. With nearly the same score, my provincial ranking rose from 23,000 to over 9,000. It was like a blind cat catching a dead mouse, especially since the number of examinees increased by 20,000 this year, totaling nearly 220,000.

I don’t know how I ended up talking about the college entrance exam. Damn, I’m really hungry, and my weight keeps dropping. I was 67 KG at the start of the semester, and now I probably need to be fully armed to reach 60 KG.

The Lakers finally won, not letting down my years of support. It seems the championship is within reach. Not to brag, but I also like Garnett, but the rest of the Boston team isn’t that great. Garnett is getting old, and it’s a pity that after so many years with the Timberwolves, he didn’t achieve much. Unless the Lakers have major personnel issues in the final series, I think the Finals MVP will likely go to Kobe. After all, the Lakers have been quite stable in the last three series, 4:0, 4:2, 4:1, without reaching the seventh game, while Boston struggled, even being pushed to the seventh game by the Hawks. I think Boston’s strong performance in the regular season is partly due to the overall strength of the Western Conference. The internal competition in the West is fierce, leaving little time to focus on the Eastern teams, giving Boston a chance. In the East, they seem invincible, allowing them more time to tackle the Western teams one by one. But at this stage, Boston is no longer invincible. Bored, let’s simulate the results. Honestly, I don’t think NBA 2K8 is that great; it’s not as fun to play. 2K6 is easier to handle, but what can you do? The character graphics in 2K8 are better…