During recess, Dong Wenqi handed over the homework to the office. And since she’s Su Xi’s deskmate, the class teacher asked her about Su Xi.

“How is the new student doing?”

“Quite good.” Dong Wenqi thought about it, then added, “We had a good conversation.”

Hearing Dong Wenqi’s words, Teacher Yang was relieved—— Principal Chen specifically instructed him to take more care of this new student who transferred to their school. Dong Wenqi was a student with good academic performance and a cheerful personality, so he arranged for Su Xi to be on the same table with her.

Teacher Yang nodded. “She just arrived at school and is still unfamiliar with many things, so as her deskmate, you should help her a little more.”

Remembering Su Xi’s entrance exam paper, Teacher Yang couldn’t help saying, “The new student’s previous course of study may be a little different from ours, so if she has any difficulties in her studies, you, as the class monitor, should help her.”

Upon hearing what the class teacher said, Dong Wenqi thought of the idea that she had made up in her own brain about Suxi’s ‘legendary experience’—— What Su Xi learned from her master before must be about all kinds of hidden expert things, they were definitely different.

“Rest assured, Teacher Yang. I will do my best to help Su Xi with her studies!” Dong Wenqi said as she patted her chest.

Back in the classroom, Dong Wenqi patted Su Xi on the shoulder at once and said with a determined look on her face, “Student Su Xi, I’ll be responsible for your studies from now on. I’ll help you adapt to our curriculum as soon as possible!”

Su Xi was stunned. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, we’re good deskmates.” Dong Wenqi said as she sat down and took Su Xi’s arm.

Facing her deskmate’s friendliness, Su Xi was a little amused and at the same time felt warm inside.

———

At this time, before the class bell rang, they saw the class teacher walk into the classroom with folded test papers in his hand.

“The monthly exam is coming up so let’s do a pop quiz first.”

As soon as the class teacher said this, there was a burst of wailing in the class.

“What’s all the noise?!” The class teacher yelled at everyone. “Doing a test in advance is for your own good! Last time our class scored so much lower than Class 18 but you still have the nerve to complain? Class President, Class Monitor, come here and hand out the papers. This is a 60 minutes test, so you guys hurry up or you won’t be able to go the next PE class.”

Listening to the whispered complaints from the students surrounding Su Xi, she learned that it was common occurrence for their class’s Old Yang to take up the recess and delay them, making the PE teacher troubled.

“Even if we finished it, I reckon the next class will be math.” Dong Wenqi couldn’t help complaining to Su Xi in a low voice before she got up to get the papers.

Soon Su Xi had one.

Su Xi glanced at the questions briefly. They obviously weren’t in the same level as the questions on her previous admission test paper, and were noticeably much more difficult.

But it’s okay.

Su Xi took out a pen, wrote down her name on the paper, and then began to concentrate on the questions.

The class teacher’s voice came from the podium, “The difficulty of these questions has increased a bit compared to before, so it’s normal for you to find it hard, but try to do what you can.”

When he said this, Teacher Yang gave Su Xi a curious glance. He still remembered those ‘magical’ problem-solving methods on Su Xi’s admission paper. This time, the questions were more difficult, so he wondered if she could still use those solutions.

On the seat below, Su Xi was doing the questions seriously. Dong Wenqi on the side however, had a troubled expression on her face. While doing the questions, she would look at Su Xi from time to time.

——What to do? The teacher said that this time’s questions were difficult. She had no idea if Su Xi could do it. What if she couldn’t and became discouraged?

Dong Wenqi thought to herself, wondering whether she should let Su Xi copy her papers casually.

In the end, Dong Wenqi gritted her teeth and moved her elbow to quietly shift it towards Su Xi.

“Hey, Su Xi……” Dong Wenqi turned her head and called out to Su Xi in a quiet voice. However, at that moment, she noticed something that surprised her. Su Xi’s test paper was already answered! It was filled to the brim!

What surprised Dong Wenqi even more was that after checking the answers, it was exactly the same as hers!

However, the problem-solving process was completely different for the two.

What’s more, she couldn’t understand what Su Xi had written.

What’s a chord diagram? Why did Su Xi write that the answer to this question was 10 by using the chord diagram?

What’s a minute ratio^[1]traditional Chinese mathematics; 355/113, approximation of pi discovered by Zu Chongzhi? What’s a simple ratio? What’s Tianyuan^[2]ancient Chinese algebra? What’s cutting circle method^[3]Liu Hui’s pi algorithm?

Why does she feel that not only had she not learned these things, she had never even heard of them?

There were also ‘in-and-out complementary principle^[4]by liu hui’, ‘surplus and deficit^[5]an ancient arithmetic method for calculating profit and loss’ ‘multiply by 4 Zhushi^[6]right-angled triangle in chord diagram’…… ‘multiply by itself to become Zhonghuangshi^[7]small square in the middle in chord diagram’……

What do these mean? Why couldn’t she understand it at all!

Who’s going to tell her if this was really math?

“Take the exam properly, stop whispering and looking around!” The class teacher’s voice rang out, startling Dong Wenqi.

Dong Wenqi’s hand trembled. She glanced at the time, then turned her head back and buried herself in writing.

However, after writing a question, Dong Wenqi couldn’t help but glance at Su Xi’s answer.

Sure enough……

It was right again.

It wasn’t until the pop quiz was over that Dong Wenqi finally couldn’t hold back and pulled Su Xi to ask, “Su Xixi! How on earth did you do that?!”

Su Xi was full of doubt. “How did I do what?”

Dong Wenqi: “The test just now. You know it all?”

Su Xi nodded. “I pretty much know how to do it.”

The expression on Dong Wenqi’s face became even more fantastical.

Seeing Dong Wenqi’s surprised face, Su Xi mull over it, and then explained, “I’ve learned something similar.”

Although the terms were different, in fact they all mean pretty much the same thing.

“What’s that? What did you learn?” Dong Wenqi leaned over.

“《The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art^[8]a Chinese mathematics book, composed by several generations of scholars from the 10th–2nd century BCE, its latest stage being from the 2nd century CE》 and such.”

“It’s that what you wrote just now on your test paper, about Tianyuan or something?”

“The term Tianyuan refers to the unknown number used to solve higher-order equations. This is in 《Sea Mirror of the Circle Measurements^[9]written by Li Ye》. In addition, the calculation of the shaded area is in 《The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art 》 and the Pythagorean Theorem is also in 《Zhoubi^[10]Zhoubi Suanjing; one of the oldest Chinese texts on astronomy and mathematics》.” Su Xi explained seriously.

Dong Wenqi: “……”

Life was full of blind spots. Forgive her for being a shallowly educated second year student who has only heard of the first volume of eighth grade mathematics, the comprehensive explanation of Middle School textbooks, 《Dian Zhongdian^[11]a well-known teaching aid for teachers, parents and students》 and 《Five Years of Examinations and Three years of Simulation》.

Thinking of something, Dong Wenqi suddenly looked at Su Xi with both eyes shining. “What about other subjects? Have you also studied similar ones?”

“There are some.” Su Xi flipped through the physics textbook and casually found pinhole imaging and lever principle, then said, “These are in 《Mohist Canon^[12]an ancient Chinese text from the Warring States period (476–221 BC) that expounds the philosophy of Mohism》 that Master had me read before.”

“There’s also chemistry, I feel like it’s actually the same thing as alchemy and metallurgy.”

Su Xi looked at her bewildered deskmate and raised her eyebrows. “Don’t you know what I’m talking about?”

“No……” I don’t understand what you’re saying, it seems pretty cool.

“Wuuu, your master is too powerful. I really want to follow such a peerless expert as my master too.” Su Xi’s uncommon words have become ‘immortal techniques’ to Dong Wenqi.

“Just tell me what your master did not teach you!”

“Yes, this.” Su Xi pointed to the English book next to her. Her master didn’t know this.

“English? You don’t know anything about it?” Most of the students in Shangming Middle School have been exposed to bilingual education since kindergarten, and many others has lived abroad before, so the students in the school generally speak very good English.

Of course, there were exceptions. Every year, there were students from disadvantaged backgrounds who receive financial aid to study at Shangming Middle School. Those people were less versed in English, especially in practical applications.

However, Su Xi doesn’t look like a student from a humble family.

Dong Wenqi knew at a glance that what Su Xi was wearing and using was superb.

“En.” Su Xi replied. At most, she had seen some words while playing on her mobile phone or scrolling Weibo.

“Hehe, that’s right. I haven’t seen any hidden sects named in a foreign language ​​in novels. It doesn’t matter, I can teach you!”

“Okay.”

Su Xi thought Dong Wenqi was just saying so, but she didn’t expect that before school was over, the other party had already drawn up a large English study plan and handed it to Su Xi. “That’s all I can think of for now. Let’s start tomorrow, first with the phonetic symbols, no, the letters.”

……

As soon as Su Xi left school in the afternoon, she saw the villain’s car that had brought her here in the morning, parked across the road.

Uncle Fu also came and was standing in front of the car looking nervously in the direction of the school.

Su Xi got into the car and said to him, “Uncle Fu, you didn’t have to pick me up.”

Hearing this, Uncle Fu smiled. “It’s all right. It’s your first day of school so it’s only right that I come and pick you up.”

“How was Xiao Xi’s first day? Is everything going well?” Uncle Fu asked.

A smile appeared on Su Xi’s face as she thought of her very nice deskmate. “It’s pretty good.”

“That’s good to hear.” After a pause, Uncle Fu asked uneasily, “How are you getting along with your classmates? Have you encountered any troubles?”

“It’s okay too.” The only episode happened in the morning with that Yellow Hair. Su Xi still remembered Dong Wenqi said that that person was called Ye Zexing, however, Su Xi didn’t take him seriously, so when Uncle Fu asked, she didn’t mention anything about him.

Back at Jingyuan Villa, Su Xi calculated the time to go upstairs after dinner.

The villain would call home at about the same time every day, and Su Xi had basically figured out the pattern.

“Uncle Fu, I’m going up to study English.” Su Xi went back to her temporary room before Uncle Fu’s phone could rang.

“This child……” Uncle Fu smiled and sighed, but didn’t say anything.

———

During the night, after Su Xi fell asleep, her consciousness gradually fell into a dream.

In her dream, Su Xi was unable to move as if she was trapped by something.

It’s cold. The temperature of her body seemed to have disappeared, causing her to feel like she was gradually sinking into ice.

Moreover, it hurts so much. Her whole body hurts with a kind of pain Su Xi had never experienced in reality. Not only her body, bones, and brain were hurting, even her internal organs were burning in pain. Su Xi tried hard to open her mouth to say something, but her chest seemed to be blocked by something. Just as she opened her mouth, there was a sharp pain in her chest and something gushed out of her throat. It tasted of rust, like blood.

Who was moving her?

Someone seemed to be shouting something next to her, it sounded anxious and sorrowful, but Su Xi couldn’t tell what the person was saying.

Su Xi struggled to open her eyes, but in her dream, she couldn’t do anything except look at the rapid flash of lights dancing in front of her eyelids……