In response, Zu An chuckled softly and said, “You’ll be the one leaving the academy if I get everything right.”
Not just Yang Wei, but even the other students in the classroom felt that Zu An had a screw loose in his head. Shang Liuyu merely watched the scene with an enigmatic smile on her lips, as if she knew something that the others didn’t.
“Ignorant and arrogant!” Yang Wei flew into a furious rage. “You shall pay the price of being so full of yourself!”
You have successfully trolled Yang Wei for 541 Rage points!
He didn’t take being insulted in front of his goddess too well, especially by a mere student.
Ignoring the outburst, Zu An shrugged leisurely and took the test paper.
Without warning, he exploded with laughter. “Is that all you got?”
To be honest, he hadn’t been certain that he would be able to answer all of the questions. After all, he wasn’t too sure how far mathematics had developed in this world. However, when he saw the questions on the paper, he realized that he had been overestimating Yang Wei’s ability.
“I advise you to focus your efforts on answering the questions instead of letting your mouth run. If you can’t finish the paper before class comes to an end… Heh…” Yang Wei didn’t finish his sentence, but his implied meaning was clear enough.
Shang Liuyu spoke up. “There isn’t much time before the class comes to an end. Isn’t that too much of a rush? Why don’t we do this instead? Since I’m taking the next class, I’ll allocate half of the lesson to you so that you can take things slowly.”
Yang Wei was taken aback by the proposal. However, he didn’t think that Shang Liuyu had proposed this to help Zu An. After all, the two were not related in any way, so there was no reason for her to look out for him.
My goddess is probably just pitying Zu An and wants to give him a chance. She must also be worried that others would accuse me of bullying the juniors, and she’s doing this with my reputation in mind. How touching.
Yang Wei was so moved that tears were about to leak out from his eyes. He quickly nodded in agreement. “Yes, what Teacher Shang makes perfect sense. Zu An, I’ll give you another half a class to answer the questions then.”
Arithmetic is a subject where either you get it, or you don’t. If you don’t understand the question, I can give you all the time in the world, and it will do you no good.
Zu An had given up on responding to Yang Wei. Instead, he started reading the first question.
‘3 people drink 3 buckets of water in 3 days. How many buckets of water do 9 people drink in 9 days?’
Wei Suo’s eyes lit up right away. “This is such an easy question! Even I can answer that! If 3 people drink 3 buckets of water in 3 days, it should go without saying that 9 people would drink 9 buckets of water in 9 days!”
Most of the spectating students nodded in agreement. Only a small minority felt that there was something wrong with the answer Wei Suo proposed, but they couldn’t put their finger on what it was.
Yang Wei smirked at Wei Suo’s confident statement. Do you think that I would come up with such an easy question? Of course, he didn’t bother putting a halt to the discussions going around. He would love more than anything for these people to mislead Zu An.
Zu An, meanwhile, shook his head in disappointment.
Even elementary-schoolers would be able to solve such a question easily. 3 people drink 3 buckets of water in 3 days, which means 3 of them drink a bucket of water each day. Multiplying it proportionately, 9 people should drink 3 buckets of water each day, and 27 buckets of water in 9 days!
Zu An wrote down the answer, and Yang Wei’s eyes widened in disbelief. How could this be possible?
The first time he had seen this question on an ancient record, he had ended up falling for its trick and answered wrongly. Afterward, he posed this question to many of his colleagues, and most of them would instinctively answer ‘9 buckets of water’. How did this fellow solve it so easily?
Then again, this question wasn’t too difficult. It was possible that Zu An had just gotten lucky.
Hmph, this is the easiest question of the lot! The difficulty will only increase with each passing question. I don’t believe that you can remain so lucky!
Now that Zu An had managed to answer a question, though, it would probably be more difficult to chase him out of the academy. If only I had known that this would happen, I wouldn’t have set the bar so low.
You have successfully trolled Yang Wei for 9… 9… 9…
Seeing the inflow of Rage points, Zu An was surprised by how well Yang Wei lived up to his name. Even his Rage points dribbled in, instead of flowing in a steady stream.[1]
He moved on to the second question.
‘A farmer’s wife is washing bowls by the river. Passers-by ask her why she has so many bowls to wash. She answers that she had just hosted a number of guests. Every 2 people would share a bowl of rice, every 3 people would share a bowl of soup, and every 4 people would share a bowl of a side dish. All in all, there are 65 bowls. How many guests did she host?’
1. In Mandarin, Yang Wei’s name is a homophone for a medical term (阳痿) referring to impotence.