2:45 PM.

Shen Yuan sat in the exam hall, feeling a little anxious.

The bell for distributing the test papers had already rung, and the proctoring teacher was starting to hand out the math monthly exam booklets and answer sheets.

Shen Yuan was just waiting for the test paper to land on his desk.

Old Zhou placed the test paper on Shen Yuan’s desk and happened to meet his gaze.

Shen Yuan read "You better do well, kid" in Old Zhou’s eyes.

Old Zhou read "Just you wait and see, Old Zhou" in Shen Yuan’s eyes.

Old Zhou gave Shen Yuan a look of approval, then continued distributing the papers.

’What does this Zhongdeng mean? Is he going to be watching me closely?’

Shen Yuan’s heart tightened, but he quickly decided he didn’t care.

’Whatever, let him watch. What’s there to be afraid of!’

Shen Yuan focused his attention on the test paper and started thinking about the multiple-choice questions.

In the time before they were allowed to start writing, Shen Yuan could probably solve two or three math problems in his head.

Shen Yuan’s mental arithmetic wasn’t strong.

If he didn’t write it down on paper, it was basically impossible for him to calculate it.

Of course, the main reason was his fear of miscalculating.

So he might as well save the effort and take a look at the major questions at the end first.

After identifying the problems he was confident about, Shen Yuan glanced at the major questions.

Great!

The familiar solid geometry... a cockroach was already starting to crawl around inside it.

Look at this ellipse equation. Doesn’t it look like the ring around a Sunny Day Doll’s neck?

And this function graph. Doesn’t it look like the image of the rope falling from the Sunny Day Doll’s ring?

But when his gaze fell upon the number sequence problem, the Sunny Day Doll had become him.

Oh, so it turned out he was the one being hanged by the math free-response questions.

Shen Yuan shuddered.

At the same time, the voice on the broadcast announced that they could begin answering.

Shen Yuan quickly tossed the images from his mind and started to seriously work on the problems.

They gave you two sheets of scratch paper for the math exam.

In the past, Shen Yuan never used it all.

After all, he couldn’t even understand the questions, let alone solve them.

But things were different now.

Shen Yuan had broken what Li Zhi called the "R-18" curse.

After writing the word "Solution" for the free-response questions, Shen Yuan began to solve them.

Shen Yuan’s weakness in math was his logical thinking. As soon as the steps in an equation got too numerous, he’d just be done for.

He could never find the key points.

Old Zhou meandered slowly through the classroom, pausing briefly beside the students from Class 15.

Sun Xiansheng wasn’t great at Chinese, but his math was decent. Getting a 110 normally wasn’t a problem, and sometimes, if he had a burst of inspiration, he could even get above a 125.

Old Zhou watched Sun Xiansheng’s problem-solving process with some satisfaction.

As everyone knows, for a student, the most scalp-numbing thing during an exam is having the proctor stand right next to you.

Old Zhou understood this, of course, so he didn’t watch for too long before continuing his stroll.

After meandering around, Old Zhou arrived at Shen Yuan’s side.

The moment he saw Shen Yuan, Old Zhou’s eyes lit up.

’Holy crap, has this kid had a power-up?’

Old Zhou looked at Shen Yuan’s answer sheet and nodded to himself.

While it couldn’t be said that everything was correct, just from the looks of it, he had at least secured 90 points.

As for why it was only 90 points...

It was because Shen Yuan hadn’t touched two of the major questions yet.

If you included the last two major questions...

Old Zhou was startled.

This kid might actually score over 100 this time!

’Not bad, not bad. Any progress is a good thing.’

’After the next round of review is over, his score should go up a bit more.’

’Setting a goal of 120 for the college entrance exam wouldn’t be a problem.’

At this thought, Old Zhou felt incredibly gratified.

’When it comes to teaching math, I’m still the one!’

If Shen Yuan knew what Zhongdeng was thinking, he would probably nod and agree.

’Of course, it’s because you’re such a good teacher, Teacher Zhou. I wonder if you have any special practice tests for improvement, so that this student can improve even more?’

In short: Drop some loot, Zhongdeng!

Two hours flew by.

When Old Zhou reminded everyone to put their pens down, Shen Yuan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Math was over.

Regardless, two and a half hours of effort had now come to an end.

As soon as he got back to the classroom, Shen Yuan "arrested" Li Zhi, who hadn’t left yet.

"Let’s check answers!"

Li Zhi rolled his eyes slightly and rattled off a string of answers for the multiple-choice questions.

Shen Yuan’s eyes lit up. "I got the last one wrong."

Getting the last one wrong meant that he’d gotten all the others right.

"What about the fill-in-the-blanks?" Shen Yuan asked impatiently.

"I’m hungry."

"My treat. Let’s talk on the way. What do you want to eat?"

Li Zhi stood up. "Let’s just go to the cafeteria. It’s convenient."

"I’m going too, let’s go together!" He Zhiyu, who had just returned, heard their conversation and immediately dropped his pencil case.

Ah Jie had just reached the classroom door when he saw the three of them getting ready to go to the cafeteria.

"Lao Yuan, wait up, let’s go together!"

After putting down his pencil case, Ah Jie quickly caught up.

"Lao Yuan, wanna check the multiple-choice answers?"

"I was off by one question compared to Young Master Li’s answers. The last one was A."

Ah Jie nodded and asked, "It was A. What did you pick?"

Shen Yuan’s mouth twitched. "C."

"Dumbass," Ah Jie blurted out.

Shen Yuan was about to retort when he saw Li Zhi nod.

Evidently, Young Master Li approved of Ah Jie’s assessment.

Shen Yuan immediately shut his mouth.

Once they reached the cafeteria, the four of them were still checking answers.

Li Zhi’s and Zhou Shaojie’s answers were basically identical. Any discrepancies were in their problem-solving methods, but the final results were the same.

Beside them, He Zhiyu felt his heart grow colder the more he listened.

He Zhiyu’s math score was usually around 120, but who wouldn’t want their score to be higher?

He had worked hard for two and a half hours, carefully checking his calculations, but in the end, his score was still stuck in the same place.

But Shen Yuan was different.

The more he listened, the more energized he became.

’It’s right! It’s all right!’

’Is this what it feels like to use a cheat?’

’Awesome!!’

"I feel like I can break 100 this time!" Shen Yuan said excitedly.

Ah Jie chuckled. "Just one of life’s delusions."

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey!" Shen Yuan gave him a threatening glare like a husky. "Hurry up and say it!"

"Bleh! I won’t, I won’t!"

Ah Jie started acting like a little shit.

"You think I can’t handle you? Huh? Still acting up?"

Back in the classroom, Shen Yuan put Ah Jie right in a headlock, pinning him to his seat.

"I’m wrong, I’m wrong, my bad! Brother Yuan, you’ll get 180 on math! 280!"

Ah Jie slapped Shen Yuan’s thigh. "Bro, I can’t breathe."

Shen Yuan let Ah Jie go. "Just focus on your English. Go memorize some sample essays."

Zhou Shaojie slumped in his seat, looking like he’d lost all his strength.

"Dude, I want to. But this stupid brain of mine just can’t memorize anything."

"Go look up some methods for memorizing vocabulary online. My sister used to use the head-pressing memorization method."

A curious look appeared on Ah Jie’s face. "What’s the head-pressing memorization method?"

Shen Yuan glanced at Ah Jie. "Wanna try?"

Ah Jie nodded and opened his English vocabulary book.

"Bring it on, I’m ready!"

The moment the words left his mouth, Ah Jie felt a pressure from behind his head, and his face was promptly slammed into his vocabulary book.

"Memorize! You memorize vocabulary with your eyes? Where’s your mouth? Are you mute?"

Ah Jie lifted his head and looked at Shen Yuan in astonishment, but before he could speak, Shen Yuan pushed him back down again.

"Still not memorizing? Your brain can’t control your mouth anymore? Why are you looking at me? Are there words written on my face?"