Chapter Twenty-Five: Reverence

Ring, ring, ring...

The bell signaling the end of evening self-study echoed through the halls. The training class followed the same schedule as the evening session, running from half past six to nine—a neat two and a half hours.

Duang Hong made his rounds through the classroom. When he reached Wu Tong’s desk, he glanced down and saw that she had already turned a page, working on question seven. Her scratch paper, densely filled with deduction formulas and processes, was stacked at the corner of her desk, nearly as thick as a finger joint.

In other words, from the moment he handed out these test papers to now, about an hour and a half had passed. While the rest of the class still struggled with the provincial competition problems, Wu Tong had already completed six even more challenging national competition questions. The sheer speed and disparity sent another tremor through him.

He didn’t know what geniuses from other provinces were like, but this student, Wu Tong, made him dare to dream—not only of the national competition, but of the national team.

When the bell rang, Duang Hong announced the end of the session. While collecting the papers, he noted that few students had even finished four problems. In the past, he might have been so disappointed as to lose his temper, but tonight, with Wu Tong present, he uncharacteristically said nothing more. He collected the papers and dismissed the class.

The rest of these underachievers had already been sufficiently humbled by Wu Tong’s performance.

Sun Chao finally ended his internal debate over the last problem. He had written an answer, but felt his approach was likely off track. Turning to Wu Tong, he asked, “Hey, genius, how did you solve the final problem?”

Wu Tong paused in her packing. The nickname caught her off guard, but she was not one to mind. She drew out the scratch paper with her earlier solution from the pile in her hand. “Here’s my thought process, take a look.”

“Define set A as... where N is the set of positive integers... Since a is an infinite set, arrange the elements of A in ascending order to form an infinite sequence... determine the relationship among n, m, and k... thus the condition is satisfied.”

“Thanks!” Sun Chao was grateful for her clear guidance and the detailed deduction on her scratch paper. If he still couldn’t understand after that, he might as well quit the competition.

Waving off his thanks, Wu Tong packed up her bag and left the research room without delay. She was never one for small talk; her first instinct after class was always to go home. With the extra problems from Teacher Duang tonight, she didn’t even need to return to the classroom.

The few students who had hesitated and missed their chance to talk to Wu Tong could only glare resentfully at Sun Chao, who had seized the opportunity.

“Old Sun, hogging the genius’s advice for yourself? That’s not cool!” They all would have liked a bit of guidance from the prodigy as well. If not for the hope of another opportunity, they’d have dragged Sun Chao out for a good-natured beating.

Unbeknownst to them, Wu Tong had already received special permission from Duang Hong to study the national competition questions at her own pace, free from the regular class schedule.

The next few sessions were devoted to reviewing today’s test. Since Wu Tong had already achieved a perfect score, there was no reason to waste her time. She was highly self-disciplined and adept at learning independently; she’d gain far more managing her own studies.

Thus, Wu Tong was excused from the upcoming Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday math training sessions. In her view, the so-called Olympiad problems were just more challenging exercises; the training class itself didn’t teach any special methods—it was all about solving problems in the end.

Until the next exam, her classmates would have no further opportunity to see her, leaving them nearly regretful. When they discovered on Thursday that Wu Tong was excused from class, they took it out on Sun Chao, but that was not something Wu Tong would ever know.

...

“Tongtong, over here!” Wu Jingzhong waited by the school gate. At the sight of his daughter, his face lit up with a broad smile. He took her book bag and handed her a piping hot jianbing wrap. “Hungry? Here, have a bite. I asked for extra crispy bits!”

Since Wu Tong started evening self-study in middle school, Wu Jingzhong had picked her up every night he was home, come rain or shine. Their street was a main road, not especially dark, but he was never comfortable letting his daughter walk home alone after night classes.

“It smells amazing, Comrade Wu. Thumbs up! I was starving.” After two and a half hours of tackling advanced problems, her brain was running at full capacity and she was famished. The aroma of the wrap made her stomach growl. She took a generous bite—this was precisely the taste she craved.

Teacher Jin rarely allowed her street-side snacks, but whenever her father picked her up, he would sneak her a treat. Wu Jingzhong pedaled the bike while Wu Tong sat on the back seat, leaning against his back, one hand gripping his shirt, the other holding her meal. Happiness could not be simpler than this.

...

“Generally, in a process of change, if there are two variables, x and y... independent and dependent variables... then the relationship is a direct proportion function...”

After summarizing the long chapter on functions, Wu Tong paused her pen and turned to ask, “Little brother, did you understand?”

Over the past few days, Wu Tong had carefully arranged her schoolwork and self-study time, spending her lunch breaks at the Jin household to tutor Jin Xin.

She first spent two days reviewing sets with him, covering sets, subsets, unions, intersections, complements, and so forth, laying out the logic clearly. Once he grasped those, she moved on to functions over the following days.

“Got it!” Jin Xin’s eyes shone with sudden comprehension.

Wherever his understanding had faltered, Wu Tong’s explanations had filled in the gaps, forging his scattered knowledge into a solid chain of complete understanding. He was in awe of his sister; in her hands, every concept was as easy as breathing, her notes effortlessly laying out thorough derivations. She made mathematics almost playful. No matter where he stumbled, whether moving forward or retracing steps, Wu Tong could break down every concept until it was crystal clear.

Now, he felt as if his pen were itching to transform into a mighty blade, ready to hack his way through mountains of problems and conquer every difficulty.

Chuckling, Wu Tong didn’t dampen his enthusiasm. She picked up a stack of carefully selected practice papers and handed them over. “Then give these a try, little brother!”

At this stage, Jin Xin thought he’d mastered everything. Running through these targeted exercises would reveal any weaknesses. After enduring the many exams of senior year, he’d have truly mastered sets and functions in high school.

With her tutoring, she expected his improvement to show in tomorrow’s monthly exam, and the res