The National Day holiday that started on the eleventh had finally come to an end.
The day was clear, with sunlight pouring brightly onto the streets. Zi Yan, carrying his off-white backpack, walked along the road under an umbrella.
He had bought this backpack at the MUJI store just a day before classes started. Made of canvas in an off-white color, its simple design was something he really liked.
In fact, for students at Haizhou No. 3 Middle School, the review textbooks and materials they needed had long been required by teachers to be kept on the classroom desks, making it convenient to flip through them during study sessions.
Moreover, the daily homework was mostly single-page worksheets, so Zi Yan usually just held a thick stack of the papers he needed to take home tightly against his chest and went straight home.
But holding all those things in one hand while using the other to hold an umbrella left almost no chance to switch hands and rest, which was truly tiring for Zi Yan.
Using a backpack was definitely better— when his hand holding the umbrella got sore, he could switch hands, making it much more comfortable.
Looking up at the sky from under his umbrella,
Zi Yan saw a clear blue sky stretching out before him. The blue was pure, with a few wisps of clouds drifting by.
It was good weather.
As he walked and looked around, his eyes began to sting a little from the sunlight’s diffuse glare. He raised a hand to shield his eyes and smiled.
He really was something.
Even though he knew he shouldn’t stare too long at things so brightly lit by the sun, he just couldn’t help but keep looking.
Clear skies, crisp autumn air, low pressure— it was hard not to be in a good mood under such perfect weather.
When he arrived at school, Zi Yan saw a crowd of students gathered near the Public Notice Board right by the gate.
Most of them were Grade Three students, with a few scattered underclassmen from Grade One and Two.
He didn’t know how other schools handled this, but this was the custom at Haizhou No. 3 Middle School: after every exam for the graduating class, the students’ scores and rankings were compiled and posted on a large red paper list with black characters on the notice board at the school entrance.
The crowd was thick, so Zi Yan didn’t push his way through but stopped a little distance away to take a look.
The list was large enough that even from his spot, Zi Yan could read it clearly.
His gaze swept from top to bottom, and he found himself roughly in the middle—
Grade Three, Class 3-6, Zheng Ziyan, 47th place.
“Uh…”
Zi Yan rubbed his forehead.
Class 3-6, and the name was still “Zheng Ziyan.” It must have been a careless teacher who had written his name wrong.
But no matter what, Zi Yan couldn’t help feeling quite happy.
Good weather now meant good weather ahead. And his dad’s promise to get him a Sewing Machine was now something he couldn’t back out of.
Once he had the sewing machine, the fabric his mom sent by mail would probably still take a while to arrive… What kind of clothes should he make first?
His palms itched at the thought, itching to pull out his phone and call his dad immediately.
“Never mind, I’ll talk to Dad when I go to his office for lunch.”
After all, he had an agreement with his homeroom teacher, Big Sister Yanli, that if any student saw him using his phone on campus, it wouldn’t be good.
——
So, during the first class of the morning, Zi Yan was gently invited onto the stage by Teacher Yanli.
Well, the reason wasn’t his phone this time— he had stubbornly resisted the urge to call earlier.
Teacher Yanli said it was only natural for the strong to help train the weak.
As the only student in Class 3-6 who had solved the final math problem— the 28th problem, a complex planar geometry proof— Zi Yan was naturally asked by Teacher Yanli to explain the problem to everyone.
Usually, when students explain problems, teachers don’t come up with simpler or easier explanations, especially when Teacher Yanli was one of only two Special-grade Teachers of mathematics in Haizhou.
But since the students were all peers, occasionally having a student explain a problem on the stage, in language without barriers, could bring unexpected benefits for both the explainer and the listeners.
Zi Yan stood beside the podium; on the blackboard, Teacher Yanli had already drawn the standard diagram in chalk.
“…”
To be honest, Zi Yan felt a bit dizzy.
The stage was only ten centimeters tall, and even with that, he was just about 1.68 meters tall. Not to mention the boys in class who had developed very well physically.
The girl sitting in the back row by the window was 1.8 meters tall and, according to Wei Lai, weighed over two hundred jin.
Her appearance wasn’t considered particularly attractive, so many girls had nicknamed her “Tank.”
Rest assured, it was just a nickname. There had been no incidents of bullying in Class 3-6 so far.
But even with such a mighty presence sitting below, Zi Yan felt as if he was towering over the whole class.
Fifty-five people in total, fifty-five pairs of eyes all staring at him, fifty-five different faces watching.
“Teacher…”
The situation overwhelmed Zi Yan, and he looked toward Teacher Yanli with a troubled expression, silently pleading for help.
“It’s okay. Believe in yourself. You’re the only one in class who solved this problem.”
It was true that only Zi Yan had solved the problem. But solving it didn’t mean he could explain his reasoning well.
Especially not under these circumstances.
So many people, so many pairs of eyes…
What if he made a mistake? What if he explained poorly? Would someone laugh at him?
Zi Yan didn’t know.
“Come on, Zi Yan!” Wei Lai suddenly cheered him on.
Zi Yan frowned, feeling down, and pulled out a piece of chalk from the chalk box, muttering softly, “Well, if I don’t explain well, please forgive me…”
He wasn’t completely tongue-tied, but his heart was pounding wildly, and he really hated the feeling.
The chalk screeched pitifully against the blackboard under pressure, leaving faint white lines forcibly drawn.
“Sorry if I hurt you,” Zi Yan silently apologized.
After adding the auxiliary lines he needed, Zi Yan put down the chalk and was about to turn when he suddenly heard soft giggles coming from somewhere behind him.
“Huh?”
He instinctively looked at the auxiliary lines he had drawn— neatly done, there shouldn’t be anything wrong.
Why was someone laughing?
Surely, there must be some mistake he hadn’t noticed.
Zi Yan timidly turned his head, only to see Teacher Yanli glaring and snatching a manga book from Lin Hua’s desk mate, which was wide open.
Oh.
Zi Yan understood.
Someone was secretly reading manga during class and couldn’t help laughing.
Relieved, relieved, it wasn’t him making a mistake.
After Teacher Yanli dealt with the disturbance, Zi Yan took a deep breath and pointed to the diagram on the board.
“This problem requires proving that the southwest triangle abc is similar to the northeast triangle hij.”
“When I solved the problem, I found that if I relied only on basic planar geometry knowledge to brute-force it, it would be difficult and cumbersome. But if—”
Zi Yan’s pale fingers stopped at the right triangle in the center of the figure, contrasting sharply against the dark board.
“By adding the auxiliary lines, it only takes three steps to prove this is a right triangle. I think that’s what the problem setter intended?”
He then picked up the large compass on the podium, carefully placing its point on the midpoint of the hypotenuse of the right triangle. Opening the compass, he used the hypotenuse as the diameter and decisively drew a circle.
“Like this— based on the right triangle proven with the auxiliary lines, drawing a circle makes it easy to apply all the rules within the figure into the rules of the circle.”
“Then, using the theorems about central angles and inscribed angles subtended by the same arc, the required equal sides and equal angles come naturally, and the problem can be solved.”
After Zi Yan finished, the room fell silent.
A moment later, thunderous applause erupted through the class.