The Math Demon King?

Qin Song told Liu Bin everything about Xiao Yi's performance on the exam.

Liu Bin had initially thought Xiao Yi's monthly exam results were just pretty good, but as soon as Qin Song started by saying Xiao Yi finished the math test in only 20 minutes, his eyes went wide.

A 120-minute math exam, and Xiao Yi finished it all in 20 minutes?

Just a fraction of the time?

Wasn't that a bit ridiculous?

12 multiple-choice questions and 4 fill-in-the-blank questions made 16, plus 5 open-ended questions, totaling 21 questions, all done in 20 minutes—that averaged out to even more than one question per minute.

Sure, the difficulty wasn't as high as competition problems, but in 20 minutes, he'd have to know how to solve each one just by glancing at it?

Probably only a bit slower than directly copying the answers.

And it didn't stop there. When Liu Bin saw the draft paper Qin Song sent over of Xiao Yi's work, his surprise nearly turned into shock.

Was he about to recruit a Math Demon King for their USTC Mathematics Department?

Two things—finishing the paper in 20 minutes and five ways to solve the final problem—were indeed stunning on the surface, but as a math professor, Liu Bin could see deeper implications.

The first showed Xiao Yi's thinking was extremely sharp; when faced with a problem, he could immediately start analyzing it and come up with a solution, unlike most people who need their brain to "boot up" by filtering out the previous problem's thought process before starting on the next one.

The second was even more impressive. Coming up with five methods for one problem, each simpler than the last, showed Xiao Yi's thinking was highly independent, able to break free from various inertial thought patterns and shift his perspective when solving problems.

This was especially crucial for mathematics—or for any science, really.

Inertial thinking is a good thing for similar problems in science; it saves time when solving them, and to some extent, it's a form of experiential thinking.

Its biggest problem is that it doesn't work well when facing new problems.

To solve new problems, you often need to change the direction of your thinking, the angle of your research, and so on. But because of the brain's laziness, people habitually try old methods when tackling new problems, struggling to shake off those ingrained experiences.

That's why we see that many important achievements in history came from creators with flexible minds, while the failures were defeated by mental ruts.

Especially in mathematics.

So Liu Bin knew very well how astonishing it was that Xiao Yi could think of multiple solutions to the same problem in just a few dozen minutes.

It meant his thinking had almost no inertia; whenever he wanted, he could break free and think differently.

No wonder the kid had always solved those competition problems he'd set in such brilliantly clever ways.

Liu Bin couldn't help but wonder—could their USTC Mathematics Department even handle this mathematical prodigy?

"Hey, Professor Liu? What's wrong?"

Qin Song's voice came through the receiver, probably puzzled by Liu Bin's prolonged silence.

Liu Bin snapped back to reality and replied, "Oh, nothing, it's just..."

He said helplessly, "A bit too stunned."

"Haha, if it stuns Professor Liu, then that's right! Once Xiao Yi enters the Gifted Class, he definitely won't let USTC's Math Department down!"

Not let them down—maybe drive them to despair instead?

That despair ordinary people feel when facing a genius.

Liu Bin shook his head. Well, he shouldn't overthink it.

Regardless, Xiao Yi's talent was plain to see. Once he joined their Gifted Class, he'd surely bring glory to it.

Hmm... he'd just have to let the other Gifted Class students suffer a bit, and take the blame himself.

Maybe it would even knock some of the arrogance out of those Gifted Class kids.

He couldn't help but start looking forward to seeing what astonishing abilities Xiao Yi would display once he entered the Gifted Class.

Especially that almost inertia-free genius thinking—once he started tackling real math problems, he'd probably surprise everyone.

Then he said to Qin Song, "Alright, once your monthly exam results are fully out, send me the score sheet. I'll submit it to our school, and after review, they'll issue Xiao Yi the College Entrance Exam Qualification Certificate."

"Great, great. Thank you for your trouble, Professor Liu." Qin Song was overjoyed—this was locked in!

As for the College Entrance Exam Qualification Certificate, only universities with Gifted Class programs could issue it. The Ministry of Education stipulated that only Grade 3 students could take the college entrance exam; students in other grades couldn't.

Gifted Class universities had this "backdoor" privilege, allowing non-Grade 3 students to take the exam, and those who met the score requirements could enter the Gifted Class and start university early.

"Also, I'll come to the Affiliated High School again next week to meet Xiao Yi. I promised him some competition problems and books last time—I'll bring them along then."

"Got it," Qin Song replied.

They didn't say much more and hung up.

Putting down his phone, Liu Bin looked at the books he'd prepared for Xiao Yi, rubbed his chin, then clapped his hands.

"Might as well add Algebraic Geometry, Algebraic Topology... those books too."

A few more days passed quietly.

Since the Grade 2 exams for physics, chemistry, and biology were still separate subjects, not combined papers, the testing took three days, starting Friday and running through Sunday.

Students could forget about resting that weekend—Sunday evening was self-study, and classes continued.

Though exhausting, years or decades later, this period might count as a precious memory of youth, right?

And so, the sun set and rose, and the second week arrived—Monday.

During morning self-study, unlike the usual drowsy scene in the classroom, all the students were sitting up straight, looking full of energy.

In truth, the reason they were so spirited was entirely due to the tension in their hearts.

No other reason—this morning self-study was the time to announce last week's monthly exam results!

Please collect, please recommend tickets.