Under the desperate gazes of the students in the front row, the math teacher once again slammed his hand on the desk in anger.
He looked at Lin Wan, who was still sitting there in a daze, with a confused expression, and his voice was filled with fury.
"Stand up!!"
Seeing the math teacher's angry demeanor, Lin Wan, although still bewildered, obediently stood up.
Watching Lin Wan finally stand, the math teacher took a breath and slammed the desk again, then shouted, "Why do I assign homework and hand out papers? Huh? Isn’t it to get you to do more practice and improve your grades?"
"Now look, some students are blatantly copying their homework! Those last four bonus questions were specifically assigned to excellent students to help them push themselves. And now, besides Heze, there's another student who got all four questions right!"
"I’ve told you before, if you don’t know how to do a problem, leave it blank. Don’t copy! You can come to me anytime to ask! I’ve emphasized this countless times, yet some still dare to defy me!!"
Lin Wan:...
Hearing this, Lin Wan already knew where the problem lay.
Heze is the super academic overachiever in their class, and when he accidentally copied Heze's homework before, he ended up copying way too much...
“Lin Wan!”
Just as Lin Wan was reflecting on how he must be more careful when copying homework next time, the math teacher on stage had finished lecturing him.
Seeing Lin Wan standing obediently, the teacher was still filled with anger.
Gripping a piece of chalk, the math teacher turned around and forcefully wrote the fourth additional question, the hardest one, on the blackboard. Then he shouted at Lin Wan,
“Come on, you know how to do this, right? Come up here and solve this problem!”
“Hurry up!!”
Watching the math teacher's face nearly turn red with anger, Lin Wan felt a wave of guilt.
Thus, he walked to the podium, took a piece of chalk from the box, and turned to the blackboard, starting to write rapidly.
When he copied the homework in the morning, he didn’t know what he was copying, but thanks to his excellent memory, he had memorized all those numbers, symbols, and words.
Now facing the teacher's bizarre request, although Lin Wan didn't know what the teacher was after, he still obediently wrote down the answers he had memorized from the overachiever.
After finishing, Lin Wan looked at the stunned math teacher standing beside him and cautiously asked, “Teacher, can I go back to my seat now?”
??!!
He actually solved it?!
The math teacher, shocked by the astonishing scene before him, snapped back to reality and looked at Lin Wan's innocent face in disbelief. “You really understand this question?!”
…How is that possible? He didn’t even know what the question was about...
Lin Wan hesitated between showing off and being honest, ultimately choosing to admit, “Teacher, I don’t really understand; I just memorized this question.”
??!!!
“What did you say?! You memorized it?! You actually memorized this question??!”
Hearing this, the math teacher was shocked once more.
He looked at Lin Wan with a complex expression, unsure of what he was imagining in his mind. Finally, he waved his hand, his face a mix of sentiment and pity.
“Alright, you can go back. Come to my office after class.”
Was he planning to call him into the office for a private reprimand...?
Thinking he had ultimately not escaped a disaster, Lin Wan sighed sadly in his heart and nodded obediently.
He placed the chalk back in the box and brushed off the chalk dust from his slender fingers before preparing to return to his seat.
Just as he was about to step off the podium, the math teacher called out to stop him.
“...Math isn't like Chinese; memorizing doesn’t work in this subject. It’s more important to master the methods than to exert yourself.”
Looking at the math teacher’s eyes filled with concern, Lin Wan fell silent for a moment, realizing that the teacher had misunderstood something.
But explaining now would just make him look like he was bragging...
After hesitating for a while, Lin Wan ultimately nodded reluctantly and silently accepted this new persona of being “hardworking and diligent but not grasping the essentials.” In the awed gazes of his classmates, he slowly made his way back to his seat.
As soon as he sat down, a classmate beside him leaned over curiously.
“Bro, how did you think of memorizing the question? I thought Old Li was about to be stunned by you. Impressive!!”
Old Li is their math teacher, known for being very strict and serious, never letting lazy students off the hook, and thus deeply disliked by many classmates.
Now seeing Lin Wan, the typical representative of their class's underachievers, pull off such a dramatic turnaround in front of everyone, the underachievers felt a sense of pride and honor.
“...If I say I memorized it while copying homework this morning, would you believe me?”
The earlier admission had been made out of necessity; if it weren’t for that, Lin Wan really didn’t want to lie.
So now, facing everyone's curious inquiries, he honestly revealed the truth.
However, sometimes, absurd truths are not accepted by others.
Faced with Lin Wan’s honesty, everyone felt he was just brushing them off.
“...Bro, just act a bit in front of Old Li; don't overdo it!”
Patting Lin Wan on the shoulder, the underachievers turned back to their desks and resumed their nap.
…This was the reason he hadn’t told the truth on stage earlier!
Lin Wan felt wronged, thinking he was just speaking the truth, so why didn’t anyone believe him?
...
After class, Lin Wan followed the math teacher to the office.
After giving Lin Wan a heartfelt lecture, the math teacher took a thick stack of tutoring materials from his desk and handed Lin Wan a book.
“Your foundation is currently quite weak. If you want to improve your grades, you need to start from the basics. Go home and master this book. If you have any questions, feel free to come and ask me.”
“There are only a few months left until the college entrance exam. It’s not too late to work hard now. Make the most of your time, and you’ll definitely see great progress.”
“Okay, thank you, teacher.”
After receiving the tutoring book, Lin Wan bowed slightly to the math teacher in gratitude and then hurried toward the classroom as the class bell rang.
After Lin Wan left, a teacher across the way curiously asked, “Hey, Mr. Li, what’s up with that Lin Wan from your class? Is he finally going to start studying?”
“Yeah,” the math teacher sighed, feeling a bit emotional. “You know his family situation; this kid has it really tough...”
---
While Lin Wan was in class, outside the school gate, Xia Wenzhuo and Xu Shan were still squatting in the car, struggling to keep watch.
Watching the crowd that never seemed to thin out, and seeing the cheerful uncle outside the window coming over again to deliver steamed buns, Xia Wenzhuo felt utterly hopeless.
“Sis, how long do you think they’ll be selling those?” Xia Wenzhuo felt like he was going insane.
He had initially thought that with just one cart of buns and so many buyers, they wouldn’t have to wait too long since the food cart wasn’t very big.
Who knew that the bun seller would be so shrewd? The buns in the cart were nearly sold out, but they kept replenishing the stock!
When Xu Shan, sitting next to Xia Wenzhuo, finally saw the cart filled up again, and watched the lucky ones joyfully squeezing out of the crowd with their plump white buns in hand, she felt an intense loathing for this food for the first time in her life.
“I declare that steamed buns are officially my most hated food from now on, no exceptions!”
Just as the two cousins sank into despair, the driver in the front seat turned around to ask them,
“Miss, Mr. Wang just called and asked when we could get there.”
“Uh, I almost forgot…”
Suddenly realizing, Xu Shan slapped her forehead, dug out two talismans drawn on yellow paper from her backpack behind her, and handed them to the driver.
“Uncle Zhao, take these two protective talismans and go protect Mr. Wang for a bit. We’ll come find you after we finish buying from this food cart… I mean, after we finish gathering the wealth!”
“Uh…”
Facing the worried look from Uncle Zhao, Xu Shan waved her hand decisively.
“Alright, it’s settled. Uncle Zhao, you drive over first, and we’ll head there once they sell out the buns.”
“Sure.”
After thinking it over, Uncle Zhao nodded in agreement.
He would still be uneasy leaving Xia Wenzhuo alone outside, but with a reliable Xu Shan along, it should be fine.
With that in mind, Uncle Zhao didn’t hesitate any longer.
He glanced at his phone as it buzzed again with a call from their employer—Mr. Wang Ping'an—and patiently answered, calming Mr. Wang down before driving off to the designated address.
Watching the business vehicle gradually leave, Xia Wenzhuo was enveloped in the heat wave and shielded from the sun's glare as he pulled Xu Shan toward a nearby milk tea shop.
“Let’s go inside and wait; it’s too hot out here.”
“You’re so delicate…”
As Xu Shan was pulled toward the milk tea shop, she whispered back,
“Today’s Friday; the high school will let out at noon. There will be a huge crowd then. Once we get past that, the buns should be mostly sold out. We just need to keep an eye on it and not let anyone run off with the cart.”
“Let out at noon? Why’s that?! Are high school students that spoiled nowadays??” Xia Wenzhuo immediately shifted his focus.
“Online said it was because they got reported for extra lessons…” Xu Shan answered casually, shooting him a glare before frowning and saying,
“Why do you care so much? It shouldn’t be long now, just pay attention.”
“Oh…”
---
Meanwhile, in the classroom, Lin Wan borrowed two coins from his deskmate to cast a fortune.
Extending his slender fingers to make some calculations, Lin Wan flashed a stunning smile amidst the curious gazes of his classmates.
The fortune indicated he would receive a large sum of money today.
Tonight, he wouldn’t have to sleep in the restroom anymore!!
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