Chapter 98: The Real and Fake Deng Yuyuan

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The Real and Fake Deng Yuyuan

"Also, I had a child in the countryside, so the production team leader later reassigned me to a lighter job," Deng Yuyuan added.

The counselor’s doubts were answered one by one. With no further questions on his end, the rest of the matter had to be resolved with the dean and the other "Deng Yuyuan."

The counselor stood up and asked a colleague at the next desk to help take attendance for his students while he went to handle Deng Yuyuan’s situation. He took Deng Yuyuan straight to the Academic Affairs Office, told her to take a seat and wait, and went to fetch the other student.

The impostor was dark-skinned and thin, wearing a dark padded cotton shirt and trousers. She was just over one and a half meters tall. Clutching her identification documents to her chest, she looked at the real Deng Yuyuan timidly. "Hello, comrade. I am Deng Yuyuan."

Compared to Deng Yuyuan’s standard Mandarin, she spoke with a thick regional accent. It didn’t sound like it was from Dazhang Village; it was an accent Deng Yuyuan had heard before in Baitu Town.

The counselor explained the situation to the dean. "Both of these comrades have sufficient documentation proving that they are Deng Yuyuan."

The dean took both sets of documents and compared them carefully. Upon close inspection, both appeared official. They would need to be sent to a professional agency for verification.

The dean leaned more toward the Deng Yuyuan who had enrolled first. His eyes hadn’t failed him yet—how could a sent-down youth like Deng Yuyuan look so delicate and radiant? Such an appearance was more typical of someone from a privileged background with connections.

Furthermore, while the latter Deng Yuyuan had documents proving her identity, she didn’t have any enrollment materials. If she really wanted to enroll, she would have to go back and replace her paperwork.

"Give us a few days to contact Dazhang Village for verification. I promise we will give you both a satisfactory answer. What is real cannot be fake, and what is fake cannot be real," the dean said, his voice steady and firm. "This concerns your futures, and we will absolutely investigate this to the very end.

"However, until the truth comes to light, I must ask you both to remain patient and maintain the status quo."

"I have a simpler method, though I don’t know if it’s feasible," Deng Yuyuan suddenly spoke up. "Why don’t we both take this year’s college entrance exam right here? If our scores are similar, we can take another classified test of a similar level. After all, intelligence cannot be faked."

A flash of panic crossed the impostor’s eyes. Her family had clearly told her that the real female sent-down youth had gone home for a blind date. How did she end up in Beijing? She was completely unprepared for this. She had thrown that exam paper to the back of her mind the moment she finished it, never checking her answers or reviewing the material.

Hearing this, the dean, the counselor, and the other teachers in the office agreed it was a good idea. Logically, one of them would be able to solve the problems, and the other wouldn’t. If, by some chance, both of them managed to do it, they would investigate further. Worst case scenario, the university could just admit them both.

After all, who would complain about having too many geniuses?

"Wait a moment, I’ll go prepare the exam papers," a female teacher said, standing up. Meanwhile, the counselor helped clear two desks to make room for the female students to take the test.

The impostor’s already dark complexion darkened even further. Hidden beneath her sleeve, her hand viciously pinched her own thigh. She clenched her jaw until her lips turned pale from the pain. Suddenly, she swayed, clutched her stomach, and slowly slumped against the wall.

"Player, guess if she’s faking a fainting spell," the AI assistant said.

Deng Yuyuan observed her expression, then looked at the counselor who was rushing over to express his concern. She analyzed the situation with the AI assistant. "I’m guessing she’ll chat with the counselor to stall for time, and then ask to go to the restroom."

Someone who had to actually inflict pain on herself just to fake an illness might have a little street smarts, but she lacked acting skills. Naturally, she wouldn’t fake fainting. After all, keeping one’s eyelashes perfectly still while pretending to be unconscious was no easy feat. Moreover, passing out at a time like this would only attract more suspicion.

Sure enough, after chatting with the counselor for a moment and recovering from her bout of pain, the impostor left the room.

"She’s unaccustomed to the local climate and diet. She just went to use the restroom," the counselor told the other teachers. He hadn’t grown suspicious, as her complexion had indeed looked terrible just moments ago. "Let’s wait for her."

"Could she have an inside man?" the AI assistant asked. "Someone to feed her the answers in such a short time?"

Deng Yuyuan’s eyes flickered. She turned to the teachers and said, "Alright, I’m free all day today. Let’s wait."

The counselor’s initial assumptions upon seeing Deng Yuyuan reflected a common reality of this era. Aside from an anomaly like Deng Yuyuan—who had her own cheat—people here had their social statuses written all over their faces. The other female comrade was dark and thin but not frail, which meant her family had some connections, but they were by no means wealthy or powerful. People like that couldn’t possibly extend their reach all the way to Beijing.

However, if she were clever, she could easily grab a few random students in the unmonitored restroom and ask them how to solve a couple of the exam questions.

In her past life, Deng Yuyuan had heard the older generation talk about the past. Back then, stealing someone’s college admission wasn’t exactly easy, but it wasn’t incredibly difficult either. It was common for people to have their spots stolen by fellow villagers, leaving them to live out the rest of their lives in mediocrity.

Almost half an hour passed. Just as the teachers were growing impatient and were about to ask Deng Yuyuan to go urge her along, the impostor finally returned.

Her complexion was far from good, and her hand trembled as she sat at the desk to work on the math problems. After just five minutes, the teachers already knew the outcome.

Deng Yuyuan’s writing flowed smoothly. Not only was her handwriting neat and firm, but her problem-solving steps were thorough, and her logic was crystal clear.

Meanwhile, the impostor got stuck after finishing the first few easy questions. Forget about getting into Jing City University; she’d be hard-pressed to get into a regular college.

In the end, treating it as a lost cause, the impostor scribbled down the final answer for the last, most difficult math question. She had asked other female students about it in the restroom, but the solution process was too long for her to memorize; she could only remember the final answer.

When Deng Yuyuan finished and set down her pen, the teachers collected the papers. The impostor slid out of her chair and slumped to the floor.

"Comrade," the dean said, "I think you need to have a chat with the police about your criminal actions. We will investigate this thoroughly, and everyone who helped forge your documents will go to prison."

The impostor suddenly threw herself to her knees before him, tears streaming down her face. "Please, I beg you, don’t do this! If my family finds out I failed, they’ll beat me to death! Let me stay at the university, even if it’s just to sweep the floors! No, just please don’t have me arrested. I swear I’ll never do something like this again!"

"Or, or..." She turned her hopeful gaze to Deng Yuyuan. "Could you give this admission spot to me?"

Deng Yuyuan shook her head.

The woman broke down. Crawling over to Deng Yuyuan, she hugged her calves. "You don’t need to go to college to have a good life, so why must you fight me for this spot?! I’m not like you! In the countryside, you had so many men taking care of you and helping you, and even your ex-husband is still obsessed with you! I just want to go to a good university, be assigned a stable job, and survive!

"Why do you have to take away the only path to survival that I fought so hard to get...? I’m begging you..."