The math subject representative, Xu Tinghuan, flipped the page and looked at the problem. She had solved this question yesterday too, spending a full half-class period and writing half a page of solution steps!
This question not only tested basic derivative formulas and logarithm rules, but also required careful attention to the misleading trap hidden in the problem’s domain.
If she had not solved enough problems, had not been flexible enough in her thinking, and had not studied and reinforced the knowledge for this derivative unit in advance, she would not have known how long it would have taken her to finish yesterday’s problem!
When Teacher Jia told Zhang Chen to solve this problem, Tan Jian and Huang Yuyuan, who also had pretty good math grades, both looked over at Xu Tinghuan.
The three of them were basically the best in math in Class 8 at the moment. After finishing math homework, they would always exchange ideas, and after class they would discuss difficult problems and share their own insights and approaches.
And the problem Teacher Jia asked Zhang Chen to do was one that only Xu Tinghuan had managed to solve.
As for the two of them, they only had their eyes opened after looking over Xu Tinghuan’s problem-solving thought process.
Now that they heard Jia Wei had actually made Zhang Chen do such a problem, and then learned that Zhang Chen had also gotten it right, they could not help but find it both surprising and funny.
Even they had been unable to solve this problem after spending two evening self-study periods on it last night. How could Zhang Chen, who barely scored over 30 in math, possibly do it!?
Unless he had cheated!
Otherwise, he could only have copied the answer! No, wait, that would not work either. The answer was just “omitted.”
He could only have copied someone else’s!
Everyone looked toward Zhang Chen on the podium. They saw him pick up the blank textbook belonging to Teacher Jia from the lectern, turn around, and slowly write the character “Solution” on the blackboard.
Then he glanced at the problem and added a colon after “Solution”…
Neatness matters! Pay attention to proper formatting!
Seeing him stand there for so long without getting even the opening line out, Tan Jian and Huang Yuyuan could not help but exchange a glance. Before Zhang Chen even continued writing, the two of them started whispering to each other: “It’s over. He doesn’t know how to write it.”
“GG. What does what I wrote last night have to do with me today?”
“‘Solution,’ and then nothing else… ha ha ha…”
Xu Tinghuan did not have much of a reaction when she heard that. She just glanced at Zhang Chen’s back on the podium, then lowered her head and went back to solving her own problem.
Su Yu was somewhat surprised, but seeing Zhang Chen standing up there and seeming not to know how to begin, she found it a little funny.
Then she turned her head and glanced at Bai Xiruo, who was currently watching Zhang Chen.
She sneered inwardly: If he really cannot do it, why not go up and help him? After all, Bai Xiruo’s grades are so good. She definitely knows how to solve it.
Tap, tap, tap…
Just as most of the classmates in class were treating it like a joke, Zhang Chen started writing.
The sound of chalk hitting the blackboard flowed smoothly and continuously, like a river.
From the moment he started, he never paused once!
The classmates who had been laughing on the floor, including Tan Jian and the others, looked at the blackboard, wanting to see what Zhang Chen could possibly write.
Half a minute later, the laughter died down. Zhang Chen, up on the podium, finished one blackboard and started on the second.
He was writing faster than they could read from below!
One minute later, the smiles on Tan Jian and the others’ faces had already stiffened. Some of them were even scratching their heads, completely unable to understand it.
Two minutes later, Tan Jian and the others no longer had smiles on their faces. In their place was only blank confusion, the expression of people waiting for Teacher Jia to explain it.
The entire classroom was left with only the crisp sound of Zhang Chen’s chalk moving across the blackboard on the podium…
As Zhang Chen finished the last few strokes, he had completely and perfectly answered the entire problem!
Zhang Chen turned around and steadily placed the chalk and the book on the podium desk.
This time he had used a brand-new method, completely different from the one Nan Xingwan had taught him yesterday. The process was not necessarily more convenient, but it was, comparatively speaking, easier to understand.
The few seconds he had paused after writing “Solution” were spent constructing a new approach in his head that would work, and then he chose the one that was easiest to understand.
That should be enough to prove that he had really done his homework himself, right?
As Zhang Chen turned around, the classmates in class all turned to look at Teacher Jia, who was still standing beside Zhang Chen’s seat.
At that moment, Jia Wei was holding Zhang Chen’s book and comparing it with what Zhang Chen had written on the blackboard.
“This isn’t the method you used yesterday.” Jia Wei said with some pleasant surprise, smiling at Zhang Chen.
Only then did he truly begin to look at Zhang Chen differently.
“Mm… I thought of it just now,” Zhang Chen replied lightly. “This one is easier to understand.”
The classmates in class: !!??
Xu Tinghuan looked at the solution process: ????
Could you be any more of a show-off?
The whole class was choked by Zhang Chen’s words once again.
Just moments ago he had said the problem was too simple, and now he was saying he had thought up this method on the spot.
You’re only scoring in the 30s in math. Can you stop talking like someone who can score 300!?
Xu Tinghuan did not understand what Zhang Chen meant by “easier to understand.” On the contrary, she felt that many parts of Zhang Chen’s solution were things she could not understand at all!
If even she found it this hard to understand, there was no need to mention the other classmates.
If the final answer had not been correct, she would have suspected Zhang Chen was just writing nonsense and forcing a logical explanation…
At that moment, Huang Yuyuan just happened to ask the question on Xu Tinghuan’s mind: “Then Teacher Jia, did Zhang Chen get this right?”
Seeing Jia Wei walk over, Zhang Chen was about to step down and return to his seat, but just as he got down from the podium, Jia Wei smilingly stopped him and answered Huang Yuyuan’s question at the same time: “Of course it’s right. It’s completely correct. These steps are very clever.”
At the same time, he had Zhang Chen also write down the method he used in yesterday’s homework on the blackboard.
He then used the final few minutes to explain all of Zhang Chen’s steps to the classmates on the spot.
And so Zhang Chen began writing yesterday’s solution method that Nan Xingwan had taught him on the other two blackboards, while Teacher Jia explained all the already-written steps to the classmates in class!
Finally, the bell rang. Zhang Chen sat back down, and Teacher Jia had also just finished explaining both of Zhang Chen’s methods.
“It seems some classmates are actually quite impressive if they study seriously. Look at this… such a difficult problem, and he can come up with two methods? If this were on the college entrance exam, wouldn’t those 12 points be in the bag? Everyone, applaud!”
Jia Wei took the lead in encouraging them!
Clap…
“Brother Chen is amazing!”
After listening to Jia Wei explain Zhang Chen’s thought process, Xu Tinghuan had a sudden moment of clarity. These clever ideas were things she could never have thought of, even in her dreams, and she clapped sincerely, full of admiration.
Su Yu’s eyes were wide open like copper bells!
“Alright, copy down these two methods. If you do not understand anything, ask Zhang Chen. Class dismissed.”
Teacher Jia never ran over time, and promptly announced the end of class before walking out of the classroom.
And just after Jia Wei left the classroom, a few classmates who got along fairly well with Zhang Chen started calling out to him with affectionate cries of “Brother Chen”…
“Brother Chen, you’re cheating!?”
“You’ve started studying hard!?”
“Let me imitate Brother Chen’s tone from just now: ‘I thought of it on the spot, this one is easier to understand~’”
“Get lost!” Zhang Chen irritably shoved the few of them away.
…
Recess.
Zhang Chen’s drowsiness had been completely shaken off by that math class just now, so he went to blow some wind in the corridor.
He suddenly noticed that Li Junhao had disappeared right after class, so he turned to Duan Chenxu and asked, “Where’s Haozi?”
“With Wang Xu and the others in the restroom,” Duan Chenxu said while munching on some spicy strips he had just bought from the school store.
“Didn’t I tell him to help me find someone?”
Duan Chenxu shrugged. “How would I know?”
Zhang Chen clicked his tongue and shoved Duan Chenxu. “Take me to find him.”
Yesterday at lunch, when the four of them were eating, Zhang Chen had asked Li Junhao to help him look for a boy named Ye Fan at school.
That’s right, the male lead.
When they reached the upstairs floor full of empty classrooms, none of the classrooms here had students in class, so there would not be any teachers patrolling either.
Duan Chenxu waited outside the restroom while Zhang Chen went in alone.
The moment he entered, several boys inside all shot looks at Zhang Chen and quickly hid the cigarettes in their hands behind their backs…
But the air still carried a thick cigarette smoke.
Seeing that it was Zhang Chen, the boys relaxed and laughed, greeting him. Then Wang Xu… the spiky-fringe boy from the first day… came forward and handed Zhang Chen a cigarette…
“I don’t smoke. After all that, you guys came here to smoke,” Zhang Chen frowned and refused the cigarette Wang Xu offered.
“Heh heh, one during break,” Wang Xu said as he took a drag from the cigarette between his fingers and skillfully exhaled a puff of smoke.
“Cough, cough, cough…” Zhang Chen waved at the air, frowning at the pungent smoke, and asked Li Junhao, “Did you find the person I asked you to look for?”
Li Junhao quickly lowered his cigarette and replied, “Brother Chen, I didn’t find him. There’s no such person.”
“No such person? How is that possible?”
“I asked other classes too. There’s nobody named Ye Fan. If you don’t believe me, you can ask them.” Li Junhao nodded toward the others present.
They were all the top dogs from various classes, and they all got along well with Zhang Chen.
However, in the original novel, they were written as Zhang Chen’s underlings.
Zhang Chen then looked toward Wang Xu and the others.
“There really isn’t such a person. I asked people I know from other grades too, Brother Chen. There really is no such person in our school.”
“I asked around in the middle school division too, Brother Chen. I’ve never heard of him.”
“I didn’t hear anything either.”
“I even went to No. 7 Middle School to ask, and there was nothing.”
The answers were all the same, which left Zhang Chen stunned.
That could not be right. Then there would be no male lead left!?
“You’re sure? What if I find him?” Zhang Chen looked over the group, suspecting that they were lying and had not actually looked seriously.
“We really didn’t find him, Brother Chen. We’ve already asked everyone we could ask,” Li Junhao said seriously while smoking.
Wang Xu and the others nodded in agreement, all looking sincere and harmless.
“If it really does not work, we can keep looking. Did he do something to upset you, Brother Chen?”
“No, not really.” Zhang Chen shook his head. He was puzzled, but he still chose to believe them. “Alright, then keep looking. If you find him, don’t start any trouble. Tell me right away. Cough, cough, cough.”
“Why is this smoke so choking? What brand are you smoking?”
“Liqun. Isn’t that the one you like, Brother Chen?”
“Other brands don’t have any flavor.”
“Want one?”
“…”
Zhang Chen rolled his eyes at the group and said nothing more before walking out of the restroom.
Wang Xu and the others were still confused. If it had been before, Zhang Chen would have been the one smoking the most. Yet this time he had come and not smoked a single one.
“Brother Chen… what’s going on?” Wang Xu asked, leaning toward Li Junhao.
Hearing this, Li Junhao immediately adopted a thoughtful expression and exhaled a mouthful of stale air, looking deep and serious.
“About that… Brother Chen, well, it’s a long story…”
“What, what is it? Did he, did he break up with someone?”
“Did his sister-in-law go play with some other boy again?”
“Could it be that Ye Fan guy?”
“Shh! You can’t say ‘sister-in-law’ casually anymore!” Li Junhao warned them. “Brother Chen has really changed a lot these past two days…”
“Spill it.”
Wang Xu and the others immediately gathered around Li Junhao in a circle…
“Brother Chen, he…”
Just as Li Junhao was about to speak, Zhang Chen suddenly came back to the restroom doorway and said, “Li Junhao, you come out here.”
“Huh?? Brother Chen? What’s wrong?” The others scattered like frightened birds, leaving Li Junhao exposed in Zhang Chen’s line of sight.
“Hurry up!”
“…”
Under the pitying gazes of Wang Xu and the others, Li Junhao took his last drag from the cigarette and walked out of the restroom…
Little did he know, that puff would be the most free puff of his life.
“Don’t smoke that crap anymore. You reek of cigarette smoke.”
“Huh?”
“And your hair. Tonight, you’re cutting it just like me. It’s covering your eyes completely. What, are you trying to cosplay Sasuke?”
“No way, Brother Chen? I can agree to everything else, but this hair is my dignity!” Li Junhao protected his hair.
“Do I look like dignity to you?” Zhang Chen stared at him coldly…
“…”
“Didn’t I also cut mine?” Zhang Chen touched his own hair.
“…No, Brother Chen, that is not how this works…”