Flip, flip, flip.
Page after page of the interview file turned. The scripted questions seemed to be exhausted.
Cornered, Johny Lee felt stifled. With no way to vent his frustration, he could only grind his teeth in silence and wait for the next blow.
The Tall Man tapped the file, saying nothing for a long while.
He fully intended to crush Johny's interview score.
The day after the written exam results had been released, the Tall Man had received a call from a higher-up in the bureau.
The leader had mentioned, "in passing," the upcoming interviews and dropped a certain young man's name.
No specifics were given, yet the Tall Man understood the code immediately: the youth was the leader's nephew, and he needed a slot.
A quick check confirmed the problem: the leader's nephew ranked fifth in the written exam.
There were only four openings.
To get the nephew in, one of the top four candidates had to be eliminated.
The first three candidates had already finished their interviews and performed flawlessly.
That left the fourth candidate...Johny Lee as the only vulnerable target. Johny appeared to have no political backing and came from an ordinary family.
His score was the closest to fifth place.
A harsh mark in the interview could easily shove his overall ranking down to sixth or seventh.
That political calculation had produced the hostile interrogation Johny had just endured.
Both the Short Man and the Female Examiner understood the game perfectly and stayed silent.
But now, a problem arose.
Johny's answers had been mediocre, yes, but they were without real flaws. To crush his score regardless of principle would look suspicious.
If anyone investigated later, the Tall Man would be trapped. It was too risky to fail him without cause.
So, the Tall Man decided to use the "Final Question." By prior agreement, the last item could stray from the set list, allowing an examiner to invent a question to test a candidate's "adaptability."
Johny didn't know any of this.
From the moment he entered the room, the deck had been stacked against him.
"Hmm, the last question..." The Tall Man frowned in concentration, drumming his fingers on the file.
Just as Johny pricked up his ears, scattered footsteps sounded outside in the hallway. Several men and women strolled past the open door, chatting and laughing loudly.
A young girl giggled.
"If you're buying, get an iPhone 4 that's what's hot now."
A slightly older youth scoffed.
"I still prefer Nokia. They're durable."
"We should support domestic products," another man in his thirties added.
Their voices carried clearly into the room. Johny and the three examiners all glanced over instinctively.
When the chatter faded down the hall, the Tall Man, who was seated nearest the door, stood up and shut it.
He returned to his desk, sat down, and smirked.
"Final question: What were the colors and styles of the clothes and shoes of those people who just passed by?"
"Huh?" Johny dug a finger in his ear, certain he'd misheard.
"Sorry, what?"
The Tall Man repeated impatiently.
"The colors and styles of their clothes and shoes, Describe them."
Johny froze.
His attention had been fixed entirely on the examiners inside the room...how could he have noticed random pedestrians in the hallway?
The Tall Man eyed him coldly. "Can't answer a single one?"
The Female Examiner's face twitched. She opened her mouth as if to protest the absurdity, then shook her head and stayed silent.
Damn! What kind of question is this?
Who could, without warning, glance once and memorize colors, let alone styles...especially during a high-stakes interview? It was impossible! Outrageous!
Johny couldn't hold back his anger. Clenching his molars, he said, "Sorry, but what do their clothes and shoes have to do with this interview?"
The Tall Man replied flatly.
"We assess many things...observation, memory, focus. Intelligence work requires noticing details others miss. Can't answer?"
Seeing Johny pale with fury, the Tall Man scribbled quickly on his evaluation sheet. "All right. That's it. Wait for notification."
Finished? This job... it has nothing more to do with me?
Screw it!
Furious, Johny summoned his nerve. Fine, you want to test observation?
Memory? Focus?
Bring it on!
BACK!!
...
Flash!
The scene before him lurched.
Footsteps pattered outside the door.
"...iPhone 4—that's what's hot now."
"I still prefer Nokia."
"We should support domestic products."
The two men and one woman walked past the office door again.
This time, Johny didn't glance casually. His eyes snapped wide, locking onto them like a hawk.
He scanned them from head to toe, burning every detail into his brain.
The Tall Man stood up, shut the door, thought for a moment, sat back, and crossed his legs.
"Final question: What were the colors and styles of their clothes and shoes?"
He knew the kid couldn't answer. Even he, deliberately watching this time, hadn't caught their footwear, let alone specific styles. It was an impossible test designed to fail him.
The Female Examiner looked away, finding it distasteful.
Who could answer such nonsense? But with orders from above, she bit her tongue.
Johny kept his eyes shut for a moment, saying nothing.
Seeing this, the Tall Man smirked.
"Don't know? Then we're done.
Wait for notification." He poised his pen to record the failing grade.
Johny's eyes opened slowly. He spoke in a calm, level tone.
"The girl: Cotton camisole on top, orange. Pleated skirt to the knees, white. High-heeled sandals, grey-and-white, with a small purple flower on the vamp."
Under the stunned stares of the three examiners, he continued without pausing.
"The man in his thirties: Coffee-and-white striped T-shirt, gold chain visible at the collar. Black dress trousers. Black pointed patent-leather shoes with grey scuff marks at the tips."
The Tall Man's pen clattered onto the desk, rolled to the edge, and dropped to the floor.
Johny took a breath.
"The last youth: Black leisure shirt with an embroidered dragon design threads mostly gold and white.
Grey denim jeans, soft fabric. Canvas shoes, brown-yellow uppers, grey-white soles. And his laces were mismatched, left red, right green."
He had once trained his instant memory to cheat on the civil service written exam; though days had passed, the skill hadn't faded.
He glanced up at the frozen examiners.
"...Done."
Without a word, the Tall Man sprang up, threw open the door, and chased down the hallway.
Three minutes later, he returned. He looked dazed.
Meeting the querying looks of the Woman and the Short Man, he nodded numbly.
It was all correct.
Both other examiners drew sharp breaths.
The Tall Man stared at Johny as if looking at a freak of nature.
He cleared his throat, his composure shattered.
"Good... well... wait for notification."
Johny rose and bowed politely. "Thank you, examiners."
Once the door clicked shut behind him, the room fell into a heavy silence.
The Tall Man lit a cigarette with shaking hands and dragged hard.
"Learned something today."
"Exactly," the Short Man said wryly.
"Never imagined such a prodigy. How did he remember?"
"I'd like to know," the Female Examiner marveled, shaking her head.
"Without forewarning, just those few glances, he even caught lace colors and scuff marks on shoe tips?
That's past good memory or sharp eyes....that's downright miraculous!"
Authors Note:-
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