Su Qiangwei's attention had been fixed on Ma Ran for quite some time—from when he entered the classroom until now, a total of five minutes and seven seconds.
As a senior preparing for the gaokao with Tsinghua and Peking University as his goals, she considered such wasteful behavior almost unforgivable.
But the problem was...
There seemed to be some mysterious magic about him that made it impossible for her to look away.
Ma Ran's features and build were exactly the same as before, without the slightest change. At most, he could be considered mildly handsome.
The key was his bearing!
That sharp, unrestrained bearing instinctively reminded Su Qiangwei of an unparalleled swordsman from Wuxia novels.
After hiding his blade for years without ever revealing himself, he had finally mastered his swordsmanship one day and simply stopped keeping a low profile, bursting into the world and charging across Mount Kunlun, savoring all the beauty of life!
At this moment, compared with the other boys in the class, Ma Ran stood head and shoulders above them, radiating charm.
"He only had the afternoon off..."
"What on earth happened to this guy?"
Su Qiangwei was somewhat puzzled.
Unlike the group of shallow girls in her class, she would not go crazy over handsome boys.
In her view, when it came to men, talent was the most important thing. As for looks, it did not matter whether they were good or not. After all, when she found a husband in the future, there was basically no chance he would be better-looking than her.
She simply felt somewhat puzzled.
Bearing was such an abstruse and mysterious thing that people usually could not sense changes in it from day to day.
Yet Ma Ran's transformation left everyone utterly baffled.
In fact, it was not only Su Qiangwei. The gazes of the other students in the class, some reserved and some undisguised, were all focused on Ma Ran.
"Brother Ma, why did you suddenly start studying?"
"Hey! Don't just laugh! I keep feeling like you're laughing at me for being an idiot. Am I imagining things?"
"I feel the same way. That look in his eyes... It's like the way humans look at gorillas in a zoo..."
"Holy crap, Young Master Ma, are you solving an Olympiad problem? I can't understand a single word!"
"Brother Ma is awesome!"
A flash of inspiration struck Su Qiangwei. She clapped her hands, a faint glow shimmering in her eyes as a few guesses formed in her mind.
"Everyone, move aside!"
She pushed through the crowd, her gaze landing on Ma Ran's desk.
At that very moment, he was writing furiously, filling the page with things that looked like unintelligible scribbles.
As a top scholar who had taught herself and already finished studying Advanced Mathematics ahead of time, Su Qiangwei had every right and ability to be proud.
At the very least, she would not merely stand by and watch the excitement.
"These are the symbols for gradient pressure and the vector form..."
Su Qiangwei gave Ma Ran's draft paper a cursory glance, and immediately felt a splitting headache. Even her temples began to throb faintly.
What he was studying was definitely not something a high school student ought to dabble in!
Even a master's student majoring in mathematics at an advanced university might not study such a disgusting, twisted problem!
"Wait! These formulas..."
Su Qiangwei's pupils contracted slightly. She pulled out her phone, opened the browser, and typed in a line of characters.
After comparing the search results, she blurted out, "It really is the Navier-Stokes equation!"
Hearing this, one of her roommates asked in a low voice, "The Navier-what equation?"
Su Qiangwei, who had been struggling to keep up with Ma Ran's train of thought, immediately lost her place when she heard that.
She turned her head and rolled her eyes in annoyance. "On May 24, 2000, the Clay Mathematics Institute announced at the Collège de France in Paris that it would offer rewards for solving seven Millennium Prize Problems, with one million dollars for each."
"Among them, the Poincaré Conjecture has already been solved by the Russian mathematician Grigori Perelman. What Ma Ran is currently proving is the N-S equation, one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems."
To be fair, Su Qiangwei did not think Ma Ran had actually found the correct approach to the problem.
If his mathematical talent was truly that high and he really possessed this ability, why did he hover around the passing mark of ninety on every exam?
Hmm?
At this thought, Su Qiangwei's pupils contracted slightly.
Around ninety every time?
Su Qiangwei had an excellent memory.
Ma Ran had scored ninety on the last monthly exam, ninety-one on the one before that, and ninety-two on the one before that.
A descending arithmetic progression?
"That's impossible!"
Su Qiangwei stared unblinkingly at Ma Ran and murmured, "If it were me, I should be able to achieve this too, right?"
"No..."
"I don't think I could."
What kind of lunatic would do this?!
Leaving Su Qiangwei, who had fallen into self-doubt, aside, the entire classroom instantly turned into a bustling marketplace because of her few words.
The Millennium Prize Problems, the N-S equation—none of that mattered to the students.
Everyone's attention was focused entirely on the words "one-million-dollar reward."
"Really? That's an absurdly high prize!"
"Of course it's real. My goddess never lies!"
"Enough with the flattery. No matter how well you lick her boots, she can't be bothered to spare you a second glance."
"I don't like what you're saying! How is that bootlicking? What I said was clearly an objective fact!"
"One million! Dollars! Oh my god! If I could make that much money, my parents wouldn't complain even if I played video games every day!"
"Heh, do you have what it takes to get that million?"
"I don't have what it takes, but you do?"
Su Qiangwei wore a stern expression and shouted, "All of you, shut up!"
The moment she finished shouting, the mathematics teacher walked into the classroom.
The atmosphere grew somewhat awkward.
The mathematics teacher was a tall, thin, middle-aged man with thick lenses perched on his nose. His surname was Zhu.
Seeing that the atmosphere in the classroom was off, he greeted Su Qiangwei, "Oh? Did the sun rise in the west today? I've never seen you lose your temper with anyone before. What's going on here?"
Su Qiangwei was not only the class monitor but also the top student in the class. Ever since he had taken over the class, she had always scored full marks on every mathematics exam, major or minor.
The saying "You score 150 because 150 is all you can score; I score 150 because the test only has 150 points" could have been written specifically for Su Qiangwei.
"Teacher Zhu."
Su Qiangwei quickly regained control of her emotions. With her little face tense, she answered stiffly, "Ma Ran is solving the N-S equation."
Teacher Zhu stepped forward and glanced at it casually.
After that glance, he could no longer look away.
That ordinary-looking draft paper seemed to possess a strange magic.
After all, he had been the coach of No. 1 High School's Olympiad mathematics team for five consecutive years. He could at least understand what he was looking at.
The more one knew, the more one understood how difficult it was.
"Done."
Ma Ran showed little expression on his face, but inside, he was laughing wildly.
An outstanding actor did not need any lines!
The slightest expression or an inadvertent physical movement could perfectly display the image he wanted to create!
At this moment, in everyone's eyes, he was Demon of Learning Seeking Defeat, a hidden expert on the level of the sweeping monk from the library!
To get this far so smoothly, he had to thank Student Su Qiangwei for playing the straight man.
"Let's keep things separate. Although I'm grateful, I'm determined to get the spot that should have been yours!"
Thinking this, Ma Ran raised his head and gave Su Qiangwei a deep look.
There were many ways to join the Academic Society. As time passed, more methods would emerge, but...
The Academic Power assessment was the safest and quickest route.
Before you continue