He Is the Spreader of Perfect Scores

Night fell, and the headquarters building of the Provincial Mathematics Society was brightly lit.

Over 600 First Test papers from the Nangang competition area had been graded, with one paper achieving a perfect score of 120.

Scores from all competition areas across the province were also being compiled at the Provincial Mathematics Society headquarters. A total of two papers achieved perfect scores.

"The questions this year were indeed difficult. Only two papers got a perfect score, compared to 38 last year," said the Vice President of the Provincial Mathematics Society, who was mainly responsible for the business of mathematics competitions for primary and secondary schools.

"Last year's questions were too easy, and didn't reflect the authority of our society, so we appropriately increased the difficulty of the competition this year," said one of the judges, who was one of the question setters for this year's Math League First Test.

"Increasing the competition difficulty is fine, but don't make it too tricky. Our original intention in establishing the High School Mathematics League was to cultivate young people's interest in mathematics as a foundational subject. If your First Test questions are so difficult and tricky, what if you scare the students away?" the Vice President said earnestly.

At this moment, a bald judge spoke up, "I have something to report. A paper from the Nangang competition area has not yet been included in the statistics. It's this one in my hand."

"Oh? Is there anything special about it?" the Vice President asked.

The bald judge handed the paper to the Vice President, "I graded this paper. Please review it, Vice President."

The Vice President was a high-level manager of the Provincial Mathematics Society. He generally did not handle specific tasks like grading papers, but was responsible for making decisions on major issues.

He took the paper and glanced at it, then frowned in confusion, "Nangang Second High School, Shen Qi. You gave him a perfect score of 120, but then added three question marks after it. What do you mean by that?"

The bald judge explained, "When I was grading this student Shen Qi's paper, my initial feeling was one of exhilaration. His fill-in-the-blank questions were all correct, as were his calculation and proof questions. There wasn't a single correction mark on the entire paper, and his handwriting was neat and his diagrams were standard. This indicated that his answering process was seamless, and I gave him a perfect score of 120 without a second thought."

"Then why did you add three question marks after the 120?" The Vice President became interested and began to carefully review Shen Qi's paper.

"Later, I thought about it more and more and felt something was off. I re-examined Shen Qi's paper and finally found the problem, so I added three question marks," the bald judge said.

The Vice President's interest in Shen Qi's paper grew significantly. The fill-in-the-blank questions didn't reveal anything unusual. He focused on reviewing the three proof and calculation problems.

As he read, the Vice President discovered the issue, "Well, well, this student Shen Qi is quite cunning. For the first proof question, a Solid Geometry problem, which required proving that the centroid of a sphere and an inscribed triangular pyramid coincide, he actually used the Mercator Projection Principle."

Bald judge: "That's right. The Mercator Projection Principle is a knowledge point from university-level Geometry, mainly used for drawing nautical charts and route maps, widely applied in navigation. Few people use it to solve high school Geometry problems."

"Shen Qi's auxiliary line is very cleverly hidden. In the Mercator Projection Principle, the lines of longitude and latitude on the Earth are represented by straight lines instead of curves. He knows this knowledge point, and this auxiliary line gives him away," the Vice President saw through everything, after all, he was an old hand.

"Shen Qi definitely knew that we don't encourage using knowledge outside the scope of the high school syllabus to solve problems, so he adopted a covert method to exploit a loophole. 90% of his proof process used high school mathematics knowledge, but for the crucial auxiliary line, he applied the Mercator Projection Principle," the bald judge said.

"Cunning, cunning indeed, very cunning. However, no matter how cunning the fox is, it can't escape the hunter's gun in the end." The Vice President continued to review Shen Qi's last two problems. "Oh ho ho ho ho, this Shen Qi is truly remarkable. For the second problem, he used Bernoulli's Lemniscate Theory, and for the third problem, he used Descartes' Rule of Signs. His methods are identical, a classic case of feinting in the east while attacking in the west. But he's still young, his skills are shallow. No matter how great the Monkey King's abilities were, could he escape the Buddha's palm?"

The bald judge asked, "So, Vice President, do you think Shen Qi's paper should get a perfect score of 120? Or should we deduct a few symbolic points as a warning?"

The Vice President said decisively, "Give it. Why not? Your question-setting skills are limited, allowing contestants to find loopholes. What's there to say? Shen Qi exploited the loopholes with his own skill, technically utilizing the Mercator Projection Principle, Bernoulli's Lemniscate Theory, and Descartes' Rule of Signs, and provided 100% correct answers. We have no reason not to give him a perfect score. I will set the questions for the semifinals myself. Let's see who can get a perfect score then?"

"Cough, cough." Several of the judging panel coughed simultaneously. They had just been criticized for setting questions that were too difficult and tricky, and now they were being told their skills were limited. Awkward.

The next day, Monday, in the classroom of Class 2, Grade 12, Nangang Second High School.

Early in the morning, as soon as Shen Qi entered the classroom, he felt a peculiar atmosphere.

All eyes in the class were focused on Shen Qi as he walked from the front door to his seat.

Shen Qi sat down and touched his chin, "Could it be that this handsome guy got even more handsome?"

"Tch~"

A chorus of boos erupted.

Shen Qi spread his hands and shrugged, "Then why are you all staring at me? It's so embarrassing."

"Embarrassing your sister! Shen Qi, I'm asking you, what was your score in the Math League, and what place did you get?" Xu Rui asked loudly, his voice being the loudest in the class.

"Yeah, Shen Qi, we're all very curious," Chen Xiaoting said with anticipation.

"Don't let classes 45678 look down on our Class 2," Huang Zikun added.

"The exam finished yesterday morning. How would I know what place I got?" Shen Qi genuinely didn't know the result; no one had told him.

"Was the Math League difficult?" Chen Xiaoting asked again.

"Not difficult," Shen Qi shook his head.

Ring ring ring.

The class bell rang.

The first class of the morning was mathematics.

Zhang Wanbang strode into the classroom and his first words were, "I have some good news to announce. In the High School Mathematics League First Test that just concluded yesterday, Shen Qi represented our school and achieved a perfect score of 120."

"Holy crap!"

"Awesome!"

"Another perfect score!"

"Amazing!"

"Double-tap 666!"

The entire class exclaimed. Wherever Shen Qi went, a perfect score followed. He was a propagator of perfect scores.

"Congratulations, Shen Qi, that's fantastic!" Chen Xiaoting, being close by, was the first to congratulate him.

"Thank you, Xiaoting, thank you everyone, thank you Teacher Zhang!" Shen Qi smiled and expressed his gratitude. Although a top student had to bear immense pressure and endure loneliness that ordinary people couldn't, the joy after achieving results was also something ordinary people couldn't comprehend.

Zhang Wanbang remained silent for a minute, not stopping the noisy and boisterous atmosphere in the classroom. He let Shen Qi fully enjoy this moment of exhilaration.

Shen Qi smiled at Zhang Wanbang, everything unspoken between them.

"Alright, quiet down." Zhang Wanbang effortlessly regained control of the situation and continued, "Our school is sending 12 members from the Math Olympiad team to compete. Among them, we have three second-place winners, one first-place winner, and one who made the provincial team line. The only member to make the provincial team line is Shen Qi. He will advance to represent our school and our city in the provincial finals, competing for one of the 6 main provincial team spots. I hope Shen Qi can bring glory to our school and achieve even greater results."

"Holy crap!"

"That's awesome!"

"The king of the nerds!"

"Shen Qi is amazing, 666, 999!"

Class 2 of Grade 2 erupted again. The commotion was so great that even the teachers in the adjacent classes, Class 1 and Class 3, rushed over, thinking the students were rebelling!