The late autumn sun slanted through the windows, casting a warm glow on the desks. On the blackboard, the number for the college entrance exam countdown grew smaller each day.
The pressure of moving on to higher education loomed over every senior at Jiangcheng Seventh Middle School.
Even the students with the worst grades had no choice but to shed their usual laziness and bury their heads in their books at this critical juncture.
The days passed, one after another, monotonous and unchanging.
The only difference, perhaps, was that Li Dong, who had previously gone largely unnoticed, had suddenly become very busy.
If it wasn’t the dean of students, known as Zheng the Tiger, looking for him, it was Old Yang, who would periodically slip him a few test papers that didn’t bear the school’s letterhead.
And every time Li Dong finished and handed them in, Old Yang’s expression would be complicated.
Sometimes he would be beaming, other times his brow would be deeply furrowed, but in the end, he would always leave with the papers without a word.
This happened so often that it naturally piqued many people’s curiosity.
"Dongzi, why does Zheng the Tiger keep looking for you? Did you get into trouble?"
A boy he was on good terms with sidled up to ask.
Li Dong just lifted his head from a pile of books and laughed.
"It’s nothing. You know how I signed up for the physics competition? Teacher Zheng is just giving me a few practice problems."
"I knew it." The boy pursed his lips. "That’s a complete waste of time."
Everyone had their own things to worry about. After the initial buzz about Li Dong suddenly entering the physics competition died down, they now just treated it as a bit of a joke.
But not everyone was so dismissive.
The notes on derivatives and mechanics in the error-log notebook of Misha, who sat in the front row, were becoming denser and denser.
Whenever she got tired from studying, she would look back and see Li Dong still buried in his calculations. She would then bite her lip and pick up her pen again.
Li Dong had single-handedly ignited her competitive streak.
Jiang Yizhou and Liu Liang were similarly spurred on.
Jiang Yizhou had been much more low-key recently, but the review books in his backpack had been upgraded to more advanced versions.
Rumor had it his family had hired a top-tier private tutor for him.
As for Liu Liang, his change was the most dramatic.
He never asked Li Dong to go to the internet cafe to play games anymore. He even spent the time during morning exercises memorizing vocabulary.
It was as if he had become a completely different person—quieter and more grounded.
Perhaps it was because Li Dong’s words at the bus stop that day—"I want to give it my all"—had truly struck a chord with him.
The bell for evening self-study rang.
Old Yang hurried into the classroom, looking even more tired than usual.
"I have something on tonight, so everyone just study on your own. Keep it quiet. Class president, maintain order."
After saying his piece, he rushed out without even taking his usual lap around the classroom.
As his footsteps faded, a low murmur of discussion rose in the classroom.
"Why has Old Yang been so busy lately?"
"Yeah, he used to practically glue himself to a stool on the podium to watch over us during evening study. Why does he keep disappearing recently?"
"I heard he has some business to take care of outside of school..."
The students’ voices didn’t disturb Li Dong.
At this moment, his world contained only *University Physics, Volume I*.
He was devouring the book.
Because he had discovered that there really wasn’t enough time.
Many people assumed university physics was just an extension of high school physics, but that wasn’t the case at all.
In terms of the sheer volume of knowledge, they were on completely different levels.
Take high school physics, for example. Combining the required and elective courses, you’d have five or six books at most.
But University Physics?
Li Dong had looked it up. The information density in this single *University Physics* textbook was several times that of all the high school physics textbooks combined.
In university, a professor might cover Newton’s laws of motion in two lectures, a topic that would take an entire month in high school.
Not to mention what came after: statistical thermodynamics, wave optics, fundamentals of quantum physics...
The formulas treated as "axioms" in high school all had to be re-derived here using Calculus.
’If I didn’t have this attribute bonus to back me up, I probably wouldn’t even be finished with high school physics yet.’
Li Dong felt a surge of gratitude as he quickly flipped past a Chapter on the rotation of rigid bodies about a fixed axis.
His current plan was simple.
First, he would build a theoretical framework for physics. Then, he’d use the "inspiration" from the experts in the ’lurker’ group chat to force himself to understand the physical concepts. After memorizing all that, he would start grinding practice problems to activate all the knowledge points.
DING-A-LING...
The bell signaling the end of evening self-study rang.
The academic building instantly erupted in noise. Day students swarmed out, while boarding students headed back to the dorms in twos and threes.
The dorm conditions at Seventh Middle School were pretty decent.
Since there weren’t many boarders, the school didn’t cram the rooms full. Many of the original eight-person dorms housed only four students, or even fewer.
Li Dong’s dorm, Room 302, had only three people.
Besides him and Liu Liang, there was also Chen Yue from the neighboring Class 1.
Chen Yue was a powerhouse.
He was the top student in the science track’s Class 1 and perennially occupied the number one spot in the grade.
That’s why he was allowed to skip evening self-study and review in his dorm room instead.
When Li Dong and Liu Liang got back to the dorm, Chen Yue was sitting at his desk with a pained expression.
Li Dong and Liu Liang exchanged a look, then moved quietly as they each went to wash up.
When the two of them returned after getting ready, they found Chen Yue still staring into space.
Liu Liang fished a bag of potato chips out from a pile of socks in his locker and tossed it over.
"Old Chen, what’s up? You look constipated."
Chen Yue caught the chips and gave a wry smile.
"Don’t ask. I’m stuck."
He sighed, threw his pen on the desk, and slumped back in his chair.
"This problem is too hard. I’ve been stuck on it for a full hour! I was planning on playing a round of Honor of Kings after finishing this paper, too. Just my luck tonight, I’m only one star away from reaching Glorious King."
"Oh? A problem that even you can get stuck on?" Liu Liang’s interest was piqued, and he leaned in for a closer look.
"Let me see it."
Chen Yue handed over the test paper, pointing to the final, most challenging question.
"Take a look. It’s a variation of a final question on derivatives from last year’s Gaokao Paper I. The person who wrote this is sick. They combined extreme value point offset and hidden zero points. I can’t even find a way to approach it."
Li Dong, who was about to get into bed, heard this and glanced over instinctively.
[Given the function f(x) = ae^(2x) + (a-2)e^x - x.]
(1) Discuss the monotonicity of f(x).
[(2) If f(x) has two zeros, find the range of values for a.]
’Hmm, this problem is indeed quite difficult.’
’The key to the first part is factorization.’ Li Dong automatically filtered out the steps and arrived directly at the conclusion: ’When a ≤ 0, f’(x) 0, setting f’(x) = 0 gives x = -ln(a), and the function has a local minimum at x = -ln(a).’
’The second part requires considering the hidden zero point and endpoint effects...’
’So the range for a should be 0
It still took Li Dong a full minute to arrive at the answer.
Meanwhile, Liu Liang was staring at the paper, completely bewildered.
"Forget it, forget it. I don’t even understand what it’s asking."
He turned to look at Chen Yue.
"Old Chen, this is beyond the syllabus, right?"
"It’s not, it’s just hard."
Chen Yue shook his head helplessly.
"It tests all the basic concepts, but the way they’re combined is just deadly."
Liu Liang was suddenly hit by a competitive urge. He pulled out a piece of scratch paper and said,
"No way, I’m copying it down to give it a try. What if I solve it? Then I can brag that I’m even better than the grade’s number one student."
Chen Yue was amused. "Alright, alright, you’re the man!"
After saying that, he noticed Li Dong still standing off to the side, looking dazed.
"Hey, Dongzi, aren’t you going to take a look?"
Chen Yue was from another class, so he was completely unaware of the recent "Li Dong legends" that had been circulating in Class 2.
In his impression, Li Dong’s math skills had always hovered around the passing line, even a little worse than Liu Liang’s.
So he was just asking casually.
Li Dong snapped out of it and shook his head.
"I still have a few physics problems I haven’t figured out. I won’t waste time on this."
Chen Yue nodded in understanding.
In his mind, Li Dong’s meaning was, ’There’s no way I can solve this problem. It’d be a waste of time to even try, so I’d rather work on physics.’
’A good display of self-awareness.’
To spare his roommate’s pride, Chen Yue didn’t say anything more and turned back to wrestle with the problem.
Liu Liang, however, turned and gave Li Dong a deep, searching look.
’Was it... too easy for him?’
He didn’t dare to pursue that line of thought. He just lowered his head, staring at the problem that looked like gobbledygook, and clenched his jaw.
「Meanwhile, in Jiangcheng’s Sunshine Garden District.」
It was an old residential complex, over twenty years old. The security door to Apartment 406 was pushed open.
Old Yang shuffled in, his steps heavy.
"You’re back? Have you eaten?"
A gentle-looking woman peeked out from the kitchen.
Old Yang hung his briefcase on the coat rack and shook his head.
"Not yet. Today was too rushed."
"Wash your hands then. I’ll go heat up dinner for you." His wife wiped her hands and turned back into the kitchen.
Just then, a little girl in a middle school uniform came out, looking troubled and holding a workbook.
"Dad, you’re finally home! Quick, come help me with this geometry problem. I’ve been thinking about it for ages and still can’t get it."
Old Yang forced himself to rally his spirits.
"Alright, let Dad see..."
"Ningning!"
His wife’s voice, tinged with reproach, came from the kitchen.
"Let your dad finish eating before he helps you with your homework! He’s had a long day."
The sensible Yang Ning nodded.
"Oh, okay. You eat first, Dad. I’ll wait for you in my room."
With that, she obediently returned to her room.
A short while later, steaming hot dishes were served on the table.
Old Yang sat at the dining table, wolfing down his food.
His wife sat across from him, a flash of pity in her eyes.
"Honey, you’re so busy every day. You have to teach a graduating class, run to the grad school prep center, and give those... extra lessons to that little genius you mentioned. Can you handle all of it?"
Old Yang swallowed a mouthful of food and smiled. "When it comes to life, there’s no such thing as being able to handle it or not."
He sighed.
"Ningning’s about to start high school. We can help her with math and language arts, but what about the other subjects? We’re both on fixed salaries. If we don’t earn a little extra now, what will our daughter do later?"
"Besides..." A bit of light returned to Old Yang’s eyes.
"That grad school prep center might be tiring, but it’s meaningful. Today, I saw a student in my class, I think her name was Lu Yao or something. She’s a third-year girl from Jiangcheng University of Technology, very sharp."
"I think if we plan things out properly, she has a great chance of getting in, and into a very good school at that. Helping these kids achieve their dreams makes me happy, too."
His wife looked at him and sighed softly.
She was a teacher too, so she naturally understood that feeling of seeing a promising student and being unable to resist lending a hand.
"You... you were just born to worry."

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