Chapter 01: 2 Points 

Outside the window, the golden ginkgo branches stretched out, sunlight brushing past the golden leaves and spilling into the classroom, casting dappled shadows.

Ming Can sat in the center of the third row, resting his head on one hand while absentmindedly spinning a pen twice with the other.

At the podium, the math professor was going over the midterm probability exam. Unlike high school teachers, university professors didn’t go into painstaking detail, especially not at a top-tier university. One moment he was saying, “There were quite a few challenging questions this time,” and the next, “If you look at it closely, it’s actually quite simple. Is there anything you want me to go over?”

The students below the podium: …………

Xu Jiayun leaned over to ask Ming Can about a question the professor had skipped.

Ming Can wrote out the solution steps for her while listening to the professor talk about the hardest question on the entire exam: “…This time, two-thirds of the students got an A, but only two people managed to solve this question.”

As the professor’s words fell, the gaze of nearly a hundred students in the large lecture hall instantly converged on the two individuals who had scored full marks. Their eyes were filled with admiration, envy, and a hint of unwillingness to be outshone.

One of these full-score geniuses was none other than Ming Can.

Ming Can enjoyed this feeling immensely, standing out among top students was the real measure of skill.

She curled her lips into a smile, tinged with barely concealed pride, but soon lowered her head calmly amidst the focused attention, continuing to write out the solution steps for Xu Jiayun.

“Awesome as always, Sister Can,” Xu Jiayun murmured, keeping her voice low. Her gaze swept over Ming Can’s profile, illuminated by the sunlight. Even as another woman, she was momentarily dazzled by her beauty. Then, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a few boys in the back row using the excuse of admiring the top student to let their gazes linger on Ming Can far too long.

Xu Jiayun shot them a sharp glare before turning back to Ming Can and saying, “Cancan, it’s rare to have no classes this afternoon. Want to go shopping together?”

Ming Can shook her head without even thinking, “I have something to do. Next time for sure.”

“Something again?” Xu Jiayun slumped over her desk, looking utterly bored. “Ever since you moved out of the dorm last month, you haven’t hung out with us at all. Come clean, who’s been monopolizing all your time?”

Ming Can’s eye twitched slightly. “The Student Union and the Youth League branch have been keeping me busy lately. Plus, I signed up for the Mathematical Modeling Challenge, and I have a meeting with my teammates this afternoon.”

She was talking utter nonsense with a perfectly straight face.

The truth was, the first-grade class at Morning Star Elementary School ended at 3 PM, and Ming Can needed to pick up the little kid from school. Not only that, but the kid’s homeroom teacher had also sent her a message asking her to arrive half an hour early to discuss something in person.

Xu Jiayun still wanted to say more, but the math professor happened to glance in their direction. She had no choice but to shut her mouth and pretend to be attentively listening to the lecture.

When the class bell rang, half of the students in the front row swarmed forward, crowding around the professor to ask questions.

The front door of the classroom was packed, so Ming Can and Xu Jiayun headed toward the back door.

As they passed the last few rows, a sudden greeting came out of nowhere: “Hello, Class Rep!”

Ming Can paused for a moment and glanced at the boy who had greeted her. He had one arm stretched back, vigorously prodding someone lying asleep on the desk behind him.

The person looked like a breathing corpse, one hand covering the back of their head. Black, short hair peeked through the gaps between their fingers, making the pale, slender fingers appear even more striking.

“Brother Yao! Wake up, the class rep is here!” The boy in the front row shook him violently. “Didn’t you have something to discuss with the class rep?”

After a long while, the “corpse” finally came back to life, rubbing his hand over his face, which was half pale and half flushed, and looked around in confusion. “The class rep… Where’s the class rep?”

The boy sighed in exasperation. “She’s already gone!”

“Huh? Didn’t she usually stay after class to ask the professor questions?”

“I was wondering about that too. Lately, it seems like the class rep has changed. She leaves faster than anyone else as soon as class ends.”

…

After having lunch with Xu Jiayun and the others, Ming Can left the university alone during the peak of the afternoon sun and took a cab to Morning Star Elementary School.

Morning Star Elementary was only two kilometers from Ming Can’s university, B University, so it took less than ten minutes for her to arrive. She got out of the car and stood in front of the school gate.

The autumn sky was clear, the sunlight bright and dazzling. The golden, ornate school gate shimmered so brightly that Ming Can squinted, momentarily overwhelmed by a sense of dizziness. For a second, she couldn’t tell whether this was reality or a dream—

She was only a sophomore.

Her 20th birthday hadn’t even arrived yet.

Why was she standing here…?

It all started a month ago.

It was a weekend that day. Ming Can had gone to a countryside villa to visit her grandmother. On the way back, she decided to take a walk by herself. Who would have thought that as she walked, she would come across a little child sitting in a roadside pavilion?

The child was five or six years old, with bright eyes and pearly teeth, looking both handsome and adorable. The moment he saw Ming Can, he rushed over and hugged her tightly, shouting, “Mommy!”

Ming Can stood frozen in place, utterly bewildered.

She had always liked children, especially those who appealed to her aesthetic preferences. So, she didn’t immediately push this unexpected “adorable son” away.

After a serious conversation with this “adorable son” who had seemingly fallen from the sky, Ming Can was even more dumbfounded.

First, the child shared her last name, and the more she looked, the more he resembled her younger self. Second, the child was intimately familiar with her family members, even knowing the birth and death years of her late mother. Third, the child wore a broken smartwatch on his wrist. Ming Can checked the recent calls on it and found a contact labeled “Mom.” She called the number back, and then…

Her own phone rang.

Ming Can: ?

How was this even scientifically possible?

After making that call, the barely functioning smartwatch completely broke down, leaving no way to retrieve any further information.

It was as if Ming Can had been bewitched. Amid the child’s sweet cries of “Mommy,” she gradually abandoned her materialist beliefs. Not only did she refrain from contacting the authorities to send the child away, but she also brought him back to her off-campus apartment, collected cell samples from both of them, and sent them to a lab for testing.

The test results came back: 99.99% confirmed a parent-child relationship.

Impressive.

At 19 years old and a sophomore in college, she now had a five-and-a-half-year-old biological son.

For the first few days after receiving the paternity test results, Ming Can spent entire nights staring at the ceiling, slowly coming to terms with this bizarre reality.

She had a resilient, tough-it-out personality and was never one to be defeated by difficult situations. Since her future child had somehow mysteriously appeared in the present, she decided to treat it as a “painless childbirth” and do her best to raise him well.

However, even though Ming Can had far more resources than the average college student—coming from a prominent and incredibly wealthy family—raising a child was still not something a 19-year-old university student could handle on her own.

A child’s needs in terms of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation were far more demanding than an adult’s. On top of that, Ming Miao was currently undocumented, requiring household registration and school enrollment… After pondering for a long time, a week after finding the child, Ming Can had no choice but to call her aunt, Ming Shu, to ask for help.

Ming Can had lost her mother at an early age, and due to various reasons, her relationship with her father was fraught with tension. Over the years, Ming Shu had filled the void of maternal love in Ming Can’s life, becoming the person she was closest to and most reliant on.

Ming Shu’s shock upon hearing about the situation was, of course, immense. Yet, over the following month, she offered unwavering support to Ming Can. Not only did she help Ming Miao get registered, but she also successfully arranged for him to attend Morning Star Elementary School, a prestigious private institution near B University.

Ming Miao’s identity became a shared secret between the aunt and niece. He was registered under Ming Shu’s household, making her his legal guardian on paper. Meanwhile, his true mother, Ming Can, publicly claimed to be his cousin.

Unfortunately, Ming Shu worked at a university in Shen City and couldn’t stay in Bei City long enough to provide consistent help to her niece.

Just last evening, Ming Can saw her aunt off, confidently declaring that Ming Miao was indeed her biological child. She promised to take good care of him and assured Ming Shu that she didn’t need to worry.

Yet less than a day had passed, and Ming Can was already feeling a bit guilty.

It wasn’t even the official dismissal time yet, but many parents had already gathered at the school gate.

Amid the crowd, Ming Can, with her youthful and delicate appearance, stood out awkwardly, completely out of place.

At that moment, Ming Can’s phone vibrated. She picked it up and saw a message from Ming Shu: 【Cancan, the more I think about it, the more I feel you should try to find Miao Miao’s father.】

【After all, raising a child isn’t just the mother’s responsibility.】

Ming Can typed back: 【I’ll see what I can do.】

In her heart, however, she immediately dismissed her aunt’s suggestion.

The child’s father.

From the very first day she found Ming Miao, Ming Can had been pondering the existence of this person.

She had always been a highly independent and self-centered person—perhaps even to the point of arrogance—preferring to keep everything firmly under her control. She could accept the sudden arrival of a little life because children, to her, were like works crafted by their parents, something she could guide and oversee. But the child’s father was different. He was an uncontrollable factor, a stranger who, up until now, had absolutely nothing to do with her. Ming Can couldn’t accept disrupting her current life rhythm by preemptively involving herself in a future relationship. Just the thought of some inexplicable man interfering in her and Miao Miao’s life made her so uncomfortable that her skin crawled.

Moreover, influenced by past family matters, Ming Can had little yearning for love.

As a child of a wealthy family, she was highly likely to enter into an arranged marriage in the future, and the probability of such a marriage being based on love was practically zero.

A man who was a stranger now and someone she wouldn’t care for in the future… Ming Can not only had no desire to look for him but also sincerely hoped he would never appear.

Of course, since Ming Can was determined to be a good mother, she couldn’t ignore Miao Miao’s feelings.

She didn’t need a husband, but the child might need a father.

Out of a bit of selfishness, Ming Can had never mentioned the word “dad” in front of Miao Miao. If he truly longed for a father or felt he needed one by his side, he would definitely say so, maybe even throw a tantrum. If that were the case, Ming Can would overcome all obstacles to bring that father into his life.

Strangely enough.

From the day they met until now, Ming Can never brought it up, and Miao Miao, surprisingly, had never once mentioned a father on his own.

It was as if…

…it was as if that man.

…simply didn’t exist in the future.

This realization brought Ming Can an immense sense of relief.

She had discussed it with her aunt and concluded that two possibilities seemed most likely: First, Miao Miao’s father genuinely didn’t exist, and he was conceived through artificial insemination abroad by Ming Can herself. Second, the future Ming Can and her husband had divorced, with Miao Miao staying with her and already accustomed to a life without his father.

No matter which scenario was true, Ming Can could comfortably act as if Miao Miao’s father didn’t exist in his life.

Ming Shu had originally supported Ming Can’s decision to handle things this way. Perhaps it was only after leaving Bei City and worrying too much about Ming Can managing on her own that she sent those two messages. Ming Can could understand that.

Before her phone screen dimmed, Ming Can glanced at the time. It was about time to go in and meet with the teacher.

She took a deep breath and confidently stepped through the school gates.

Morning Star Elementary sprawled across more than 200 acres, larger than many middle schools. With its red walls, white tiles, and lush greenery, it exuded an air of elegant luxury befitting a prestigious academy.

Normally, transferring into this elementary school required a letter of recommendation and several rounds of written tests and interviews, even for the parents, who were subject to background checks and interviews themselves. The screening process was extremely strict. Fortunately, Ming Shu was one of the school’s board members. With a single word from her, Ming Miao was admitted without undergoing any assessments.

Based on Miao Miao’s age, he should have started elementary school next year, but he insisted he was already in the first grade. Ming Can found this perfectly reasonable. After all, she was so intelligent herself, so naturally, her child would also be gifted and precocious. Starting school a year early was no problem at all.

The campus was spacious and tranquil, with the occasional sound of students reciting their lessons echoing through the air.

Miao Miao’s homeroom teacher, Ms. Lin, had been waiting for some time. When she saw Ming Can, she hesitated for a moment. “Miao Miao’s mom didn’t come?”

Ming Can thought to herself, I am Miao Miao’s mom, but calmly replied, “She’s on a business trip out of town. You can just tell me whatever you need to discuss.”

Ms. Lin nodded. The Ming family’s prominence was well-known, and it wasn’t her place to inquire too much about their affairs.

“Please follow me,” Ms. Lin said as she led Ming Can into the parents’ reception room. Smiling as they walked, she added, “I’d like to discuss Miao Miao’s math performance with you.”

Math performance?

Almost instinctively, Ming Can recalled her own elementary school days. Once, she had won a gold medal in a math competition, and her parents had been invited to the school to take part in the recognition ceremony. It had been such a proud moment.

Was that in fifth grade? Or sixth?

She hadn’t expected that her son, still only in the first grade and less than a week into his new school, would already be showing such promise. The homeroom teacher must have been so impressed that she couldn’t wait to call in a parent to discuss his academic development plan.

Could her son really be a genius?

Ming Can pressed her lips into a smile and said to Ms. Lin, “I’m studying at B University and happen to know Professor Zhou Yangang. If there’s an opportunity in the future, I could introduce Miao Miao to him.”

Zhou Yangang was a globally renowned mathematician, the kind of national treasure who had even won a Fields Medal.

“……” Ms. Lin fell into an inexplicable silence for a moment before saying cautiously, “Miao Miao’s sister, um, we still need to take things step by step.”

As she spoke, she pulled out a test paper and gently placed it in front of Ming Can.

“What’s this?” Ming Can’s gaze dropped to the paper.

…

Fake.

It had to be fake.

Which idiot took the test and put her son’s name on it?!

Author’s Note:

Please stop asking why there are midterm exams in college or why college professors are still explaining exam questions. This is just how it works for STEM-related subjects, especially mathematics and math-related disciplines such as economics, statistics, operations research, etc. Many of these subjects that involve calculations often include exams and question reviews. If you haven’t encountered this before, that’s okay—colleges differ from one another!