Chapter 70

Jiang Zhihuo’s New Year schedule was straightforward and intense.

On January 1st, he studied at the provincial library.

On January 2nd, he studied at the provincial library and worked a short shift at the bar that night to earn five times his usual pay.

On January 3rd, he visited the provincial library to study.

The school bully Jiang spent his three-day break in the library. If anyone in Class 1 heard that, nobody would believe it.

Zong Bei asked Jiang Zhihuo if he wanted to grab a meal together. Jiang Zhihuo immediately declined and sent him a screenshot of his reservation number for a study room at the provincial library on January 1st.

Jiang Zhihuo: Not going. Your Huo-ge needs to study.

Zong Bei: !

Zong Bei: I honestly feel like a proud old father watching his child turn over a new leaf!

Zong Bei: Huo-ge, you’re making me so happy right now!

Jiang Zhihuo: Have fun, study hard, and watch out, or I might beat your ranking.

Zong Bei: How can you possibly surpass me?

Jiang Zhihuo: ?

Jiang Zhihuo: I’m saving this right; I took a screenshot. If I beat you, what will you do about it? Tell me.

Zong Bei: My score’s nothing special, just under 600. If you manage a wild comeback and score over 200 points, I’ll be so happy. I’ll even call you Dad¹[T/N: “叫你声爸爸” is a slang phrase meaning to acknowledge someone’s superiority in a humorous or exaggerated way.].

Jiang Zhihuo: Ah, my good son.

After exchanging words with Zong Bei for a few minutes in circles, Jiang Zhihuo stopped paying attention to him and logged into the provincial library’s official account.

Usually, when going to the library to read, it didn’t matter where he sat. Sitting cross-legged in front of a bookshelf for hours felt relaxed and carefree. But studying was different; it had to be at a table. That was a matter of attitude, and it helped both with efficiency and his lower back.

The study room at the provincial library requires a reservation, and it’s even more difficult to get one on weekends or holidays, so many people are watching and waiting for openings.

Jiang Zhihuo inquired about Yan Mu’s ID number beforehand and began monitoring the official account five minutes prior to the reservation opening.

At the top of the reservation page, a notice indicated that on January 2nd, the library would restrict capacity, offering only half of the seats. Staff would be coming and going between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., which could impact studying.

“Yan-ge.” Jiang Zhihuo lay on the bed, rolled over, and pulled up the notice to show him. “It looks like there’s an event at the provincial library tomorrow. It might get pretty noisy. Still want to go?”

The God of Learning Yan didn’t mind if it was noisy or not. What mattered was who he was going with. “If we can reserve seats, then let’s go.”

“Alright.”

Jiang Zhihuo acted swiftly, securing two seats as soon as the reservation portal opened.

The next morning, the two of them arrived at the provincial library promptly, found their seats, and laid out their exam papers.

Everyone in the study room was focused on studying. No one was talking, and it was so quiet that the only sound was the flipping of pages. If anyone needed to communicate, they had to use notes.

The seats Jiang Zhihuo reserved were perfect. They sat directly across from each other, just like when they studied at home a few days ago. One looked up, and they could see each other.

Yan Mu slid a piece of paper over—

Take a look at this question.

Bring it on.

Jiang Zhihuo happily sketched a miniature doodle of a hooked finger.

Yan Mu turned the textbook toward Jiang Zhihuo. Jiang Zhihuo instinctively lifted the top of the book, propping its spine against the edge of the table to read at an angle.

With a slight tilt, a red registration form tucked inside the textbook slipped out.

Whenever there was a competition in another city, a parent’s signature was needed on the confirmation form. Last time, it was also signed. Both times, Qin Shi signed for Yan Mu.

Yan Mu said she was his mother.

When Jiang Zhihuo saw that name last time, he didn’t associate it with Yan Mu and didn’t ask about it. Even now, he wouldn’t bring it up voluntarily.

In truth, Jiang Zhihuo had never seen Yan Mu’s mother. Since he and Yan Mu became neighbors, the only person he had seen was Yan Mu’s father, Yan Buwei.

Yun Zhou often visited Qin Mu’s home to play, but he had only seen this man a few times, so his impression of him wasn’t very deep.

He only remembered that Yan Buwei had thick eyebrows and a lot of visible sclera in his eyes, which gave off a stern and aggressive appearance at first glance.

Completely opposite to the gentle and refined demeanor of the two professors at home, children naturally feared adults who appeared this fierce.

Luckily, this man was seldom at home, and even during the rare times they met, Qin-ge never allowed him to get close to Yan Buwei.

Back then, he was still young, and Yun Zhou didn’t think much about other people’s family matters. The two professors had also taught him that when it came to private family issues unless the other person brought it up themselves, he shouldn’t ask.

He heard the name Yan Buwei again later after the Yan Corporation had started to grow gradually.

Nowadays, people tend to take the success of the rich second generation for granted, while celebrating the success of someone who started from nothing and is now in debt as an inspiring story or a role model.

Yan Buwei was precisely that kind of person.

It was said that he shared a deep connection with his omega wife, who passed away young. He was always protective of her, and the public knew little about her. All they knew was that when her family faced trouble, Yan Buwei took on the burden. Later, during his comeback, he avoided close relationships with omegas and even displayed apparent disdain for them, as they reminded him of his wife.

At that time, many envied what they thought was love as perfect as that between immortals²[T/N: Literally means “immortal love” and refers to an idealized, flawless romantic relationship.].

Jiang Zhihuo took the registration form and tucked it inside his textbook.

Yan Mu circled the answer to question nine.

Jiang Zhihuo carefully read the question, then wrote his thoughts on the paper, and finally drew a question mark to ask for Yan Mu’s opinion.

After reading it, Yan Mu replied, “I have a different idea.”

They exchanged a few notes. When discussing issues like this, speaking aloud rarely clarifies anything. After scribbling an entire page back and forth without a conclusion, Jiang Zhihuo asked, “Should we talk outside?”

The two quietly slipped out of the study room.

The voices in the hallway couldn’t be heard inside the study room, but Jiang Zhihuo still lowered his voice. “I think we need to approach this in three steps. The Bn sequence, which decreases monotonically with n squared, should be linked with this string of square roots to create a functional equation, and we need to analyze it by intervals.”

Yan Mu pointed out, “The An condition is contradictory. The three sequences don’t hold.”

This problem was extremely tough. Using standard methods meant narrowing down five or six possible answers. The two of them huddled shoulder to shoulder in the hallway, scribbling drafts, wholly absorbed in the question and unaware that a few people had approached from behind.

Jiang Zhihuo discovered a new approach. “Then what if we consider the intercept equation, plug in the k value, take the square root, and then eliminate Kn and Kn+1?”

The method was effective. Yan Mu said, “Try it.”

The drafts continued to pile up.

Someone patted Jiang Zhihuo on the shoulder.

“Wait, wait, wait!” Jiang Zhihuo raised his hand. “I’m almost done calculating.”

The person who had patted his shoulder moved back two steps and said, “Sorry about that.”

Jiang Zhihuo paused his pen. That voice sounded familiar. He set the pen down and looked back. At some point, three male students had appeared behind him, and farther back stood several middle-aged men holding cameras.

The moment he saw one of their faces, Jiang Zhihuo blurted out, “Yun Xiaoxu?!”

“Ah? You know me?” Yun Xiaoxu pointed at himself, eyes widening gradually, with the corners drooping slightly in excitement. He turned to the other two boys and said, “Oh my god, I’ve been out here all day, and someone finally called me by name!!”

Jiang Zhihuo saw the cameraman shoving the lens into Yun Xiaoxu’s face to film footage and understood.

A few days ago, he overheard some girls mentioning that this season’s Pick U training camp was in Lincheng. No wonder, when he booked yesterday, it noted that staff would be arriving and leaving from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It turns out the show crew was using the location to shoot footage.

The talent show not only films public performances and training sessions but also features some on-location footage.

According to the schedule, the first public performance was already recorded, and the next filming would be the first round of eliminations. By this point, the Pick U production team had dispersed all the trainees to different locations in Lincheng for on-site filming.

The production team prepared various themes, and Yun Xiaoxu’s group drew the library treasure hunt.

As the name suggests, clues were hidden throughout the library, and the trainees had to follow them to find the next one until they discovered the final treasure.

The clues came in different forms as well.

Yun Xiaoxu and the other two teammates were completely confused when they got the first clue card.

Two math problems.

—They couldn’t understand them at all.

The other trainees who had come to the library had already left to find the second-round clues, while the three of them grabbed pens, asked Teacher VJ for a sheet of scratch paper, crouched in the hallway, and stared at each other with wide eyes, completely at a loss.

Teammate A: “What is the length of the base chord³[T/N: “底边弦长” refers to the length of a chord along the base of a geometric figure, often seen in trigonometry or geometry problems.]?”

Teammate B: “What’s the Benz Theorem⁴[T/N: “奔驰定理” (Benz Theorem) is a real geometric theorem in projective geometry.]?”

Yun Xiaoxu: “Um… what’s an odd function again⁵[T/N: “奇函数” (odd function) is a mathematical term referring to functions where f(−x) = −f(x).]?”

Teammate A and Teammate B turned to Yun Xiaoxu in shock.

Yun Xiaoxu scratched his head awkwardly. “I’m just bad at school stuff…”

Performance shots were saved for the stage, and during the daily parts, if you didn’t fight for screen time, you basically wouldn’t get filmed at all. The three boys initially planned to make a good impression during this outdoor shoot, but the one who was supposed to draw lots, Yun Xiaoxu, had terrible luck. Everyone else drew topics like technology or history. At least those were understandable, and even if not, they could be looked up online. But when Yun Xiaoxu reached in and drew his slip, it was math—a bunch of square roots and even an ellipse, which was impossible to search. The production team had specially prepared a unique question, and not even photo-search apps could find a match.

“I’ll teach you.” Jiang Zhihuo said after glancing at the question, “You take the square root for this one, and in the end, the value of a comes out to 10.”

Yan Mu followed up, “The answer to the second question is 5.”

The three boys widened their eyes in shock. They had just handed over the card. “That was fast?”

Yun Xiaoxu wrote down two numbers, still reeling from the shock. “Th-thanks.”

He couldn’t even understand the question, but the other guy solved it as easily as ‘1 + 1 = 2.’

Is this the difference between a top student and a complete failure?

The three boys crouched to the side. When Jiang Zhihuo looked back, he had already forgotten where he left off on the question. He didn’t want to think about it anymore, so he put down his pen and looked over at Yun Xiaoxu.

Jiang Zhihuo had seen Yun Xiaoxu twice.

The last time was in Professor Yun’s hospital room.

Yun Xiaoxu had been by the bedside, slicing fruit for Professor Yun. Jiang Zhihuo could only sneak a peek from outside the door.

Yun Xiaoxu didn’t go to court that year on the day of the trial, so the time before that was when Jiang Zhihuo was taken from the professor’s house.

He saw with his own eyes a dark and skinny boy walk into the house he had lived in for eight years.

This boy had never been properly raised. Even though they were the same age, he was half a head shorter than him.

Yun Xiaoxu—at that time, he didn’t have the surname Yun yet.

He looked at the two professors in front of him in surprise and exclaimed with joy, “I can live here from now on?!”

“I got it! When two numbers show up, you can usually think of them as coordinates!” The three boys crouched in a corner, discussing what the two solved numbers might mean.

Teammate A said: “10 and 5—maybe shelf 5 on the 10th floor, or shelf 10 on the 5th floor.”

Teammate B said, “The provincial library doesn’t have ten floors, so it must be the tenth bookshelf on the fifth floor!”

After the two teammates finished speaking, the class clown, Yun Xiaoxu, took on his humorous role and pulled them up. “We finally made it in—boohoohoo, thanks to these two kind souls!”

The camera swung over to film Jiang Zhihuo and Yan Mu, then panned back. Yun Xiaoxu called out, “Teacher VJ, over here, over here! Get a shot of us walking in all cool, add a slow-motion effect in the post, and throw on a subtitle. Oh my god, we finally made it in!”

The three boys unzipped their jackets and struck outrageously flashy poses. The cameraman cooperated, counting “One, two, three.” All three stepped forward with their left legs at the same time, walking through the doorway as their coat hems dramatically flared out behind them.

Jiang Zhihuo had no interest in continuing the discussion about the problems. He said, “Yan-ge, let’s go in too.”

Yan Mu put away the draft paper and the textbook without asking anything further.

The production team had rented five floors of the library.

Because the recording required ordinary people to make it feel more authentic, the library wasn’t closed to the public. Instead, the number of visitors was limited, a notice was posted at the entrance, and a message was also added to the reservation page.

At the same time, the production team’s staff went to the study rooms to explain the situation and promised to keep their voices down as much as possible.

Everyone showed understanding; the notifications and explanations were thorough, and happiness outweighed all other emotions. After all, they had taken part in a variety show recording, which brought them one step closer to the entertainment industry.

The treasure hunt project in the library involved eighteen boys divided into groups of three. One of the groups likely drew a time-limited card and moved extremely fast, rushing up the stairs like the wind. Three cameramen carrying heavy equipment chased after them, each more physically capable than the last. In the blink of an eye, not even a flutter of a shirt hem was left at the stairwell entrance.

The noise wasn’t loud enough to disturb people studying hard.

However, Jiang Zhihuo couldn’t concentrate. He rested his cheek on his hand and randomly jotted down notes on the scratch paper. Several lines of formulas became a chaotic tangle of scribbles. Finally, he sighed, gazed out the window for a moment, and then handed a note to Yan Mu—

Yan-ge—

The one you were supposed to know was never really me.

• 1
  [T/N: “叫你声爸爸” is a slang phrase meaning to acknowledge someone’s superiority in a humorous or exaggerated way.]
• 2
  [T/N: Literally means “immortal love” and refers to an idealized, flawless romantic relationship.]
• 3
  [T/N: “底边弦长” refers to the length of a chord along the base of a geometric figure, often seen in trigonometry or geometry problems.]
• 4
  [T/N: “奔驰定理” (Benz Theorem) is a real geometric theorem in projective geometry.]
• 5
  [T/N: “奇函数” (odd function) is a mathematical term referring to functions where f(−x) = −f(x).]