Genius Fundamentals

Even with the cap covering most of his face, Pei Zhi, standing at the back of the group, was still very noticeable. He drew the attention of everyone around, they stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

Amid the gazes, Pei Zhi slightly raised his cap and looked at the young college student climbing the stairs. As the cicadas buzzed, his face came into view.
“It’s getting late,” Pei Zhi said to Xie Ran in a cold tone.

“Yeah, it is,” he replied.

“It’s already 11:12 a.m. and the test has started,” said Pei Zhi, looking at his watch. “Is it safe to assume that it doesn’t matter when you go to the test, but it has to be finished by noon?”

“Why ask something like this?” Xie Ran questioned.

“Because people’s luggage sizes are different, some have especially large ones, and they will be very late to the tests. Can they still participate in the exam?” Pei Zhi was calm, his tone nonchalant from beginning to end. Although he was a child, his calm demeanour made it impossible for anyone to look down on him.

Xie Ran, who was all smiles until a moment ago, turned serious. He deliberated for a few moments before saying, “They can.”

In that instance, Lin Zhao Xi was able to grasp Pei Zhi’s intentions. Her heart raced, she stared at the guy in disbelief.

Pei Zhi looked her in the eye and said, “Leave me 10 minutes.”

As she gazed into his profound and tranquil eyes, it was instantly clear. He meant that he will look after their belongings while they take the test, once done, she would swap with him.

Lin Zhao Xi was dazed. If it had been someone else, she would have just laughed at them and told them to stop with the jokes, but this was Pei Zhi. Although he was young, he was unlike any child his age.

There are three times more questions than the selection test!, was what Xie Ran wanted to say, but he reminded himself that Pei Zhi wasn’t just any ordinary lad.
“Don’t rush,” Pei Zhi said to her.

Those two words, although simple, suffused her with confidence. She didn’t refute him; she had faith in him. “Nn!” she nodded and then shouted to the group of children. “Everybody, leave the luggage to him and head up first!”

She relaxed her shoulders, placed her backpack by Pei Zhi’s feet, and walked up the stairs.

***

While the selection test had 10 questions, this elimination test had 30. Lin Zhao Xi was sure the question would be harder as well.

The moment she left her bags with Pei Zhi, she rushed up the stairs, taking two steps at a time, leaving all the other children behind.

*

Top Floor of Teaching Building, Examination Room

Lin Zhao Xi was panting heavily as she opened the door. A female teacher sitting at the desk playing with her phone. When she saw Lin Zhao Xi step in empty-handed, she looked at her with surprise.

Lin Zhao Xi continued to pant as she closed the door. After skimming through the seat arrangement sheet by the door, she went to the one she was assigned to. On her desk were placed a pencil, eraser, and scrap paper, but there was no question paper.

She raised her hand and asked, “Teacher, can I have the Test Paper please?”

The female teacher was stunned, but she reacted immediately. She pulled out a box cutter and started to unpack the Test Papers.

They were on the top floor. A moist wind waltzed in from the lake bringing along the scent of grass.

When she was still downstairs, she had overheard Zhang Liang’s group talking among themselves. They said that Pei Zhi was just showing off and they shouldn’t care about him since he will be eliminated. However, there were also some kind-hearted ones who wanted to help Pei Zhi carry the bags upstairs.

Once she began her ascend, she ignored the talks about Pei Zhi. She didn’t know how Pei Zhi would deal with them, but she was certain none of this would matter to him.
The female teacher placed the test papers on her desk.

1, 2, 3 … So there are 3 pages.

The breeze rustled the test papers.

Lin Zhao Xi analyzed each page and came to a conclusion that the questions were similar to the ones from the Jin Cup, as such the main problem now was time. She raised her head and looked at the clock. It was 11:15, Pei Zhi had told her that she needed to spare him 10 minutes for him, therefore, she only had 35 minutes to finish the entire exam.

She planned to spend 10 minutes on each page. If she managed to wrap it sooner, she would use the time to check her answers and the last 5 minutes to rush downstairs. Since there were three times more questions than before, she knew she had to be very fast at solving them.

When she was about to start writing, Lu Zhi Zhao and Hua Juan arrived. They were the second and third people to arrive.

An anxious Lu Zhi Zhao asked, “Will Pei Zhi really be okay?”

“Don’t worry, he can finish 30 questions easily, he’s too weird!” Hua Juan said as he ran into the classroom and took the seat assigned him. Then, he raised his hand and shouted, “Teacher, test papers please!”

If it’s only 30 questions, Pei Zhi can do it. Lin Zhao Xi thought.

Although Pei Zhi looked confident, it was his trust in her that moved her. He had entrusted his entire future in the summer camp and Jin Cup to her, she reckoned that trust was really valuable.

Lin Zhao Xi twirled the pencil between her fingers and began to focus on the test. The questions were just like she had imagined, and the difficulty was moderate. However, each page had one question with relatively high difficulty.

She first looked over each question and determined their difficulty. She wanted to ignore the difficult questions and solve the easier ones first. This strategy of foregoing the difficult questions ensured that she could grab all the points from the easier ones. As long as the entire class didn’t achieve full marks, she wouldn’t get eliminated.

*

Soon, children started running into the classroom one after the other. Nobody was carrying any heavy luggage, only small and light bags. Xie Ran was the last to walk in.

The female teacher hurriedly walked over to him and asked softly, “What happened?”
He took her to the window outside the classroom, pointed downstairs, and whispered something to her.

Once they were done with their conversation, they strode towards Lin Zhao Xi.
Lin Zhao Xi felt two pairs of eyes on the top of her head, she could hear their faint whispers.

Calm down and solve the questions, this is just a simple exam. She reminded herself that their conversation had nothing to do with her and Pei Zhi. She continued to focus on the questions.

There were many basic questions. To save time, she ditched the scrap paper, directly did her calculations on the exam paper, and quickly wrote down the answers.
The next question is a graph…

Just when she was about to grab the paper, her desk suddenly moved. The pencil drew a long line across the test paper. Lin Zhao Xi raised her head to look at the person who had pushed her desk — Zhang Liang.

Zhang Liang was sitting to her left. She could hear him giggling as if he had achieved something amazing. She rearranged her desk, putting a distance between the two.

Page 1, Page 2…

She didn’t raise her head to look at the time and behaved like Zhang Liang didn’t exist. She was in her own world filled with mechanical and rapid calculations. The questions became a sequence of numbers upon perusing, her world very simple and pure.

She never stopped once; it was a rhythmic pattern of reading the questions, computing, and turning the page.

Lin Zhao Xi knew not how much time had passed, she kept calculating at a constant pace. Everything around had blurred, except for the gentle breeze from the ceiling fan.
***