I'm Speaking English

In London, United Kingdom, the host city for this year's International Mathematical Olympiad.

Over the past few days, math competition teams from over 100 countries worldwide have been arriving in London.

There is an eight-hour time difference between Greenwich Mean Time and the capital of China. The Chinese Mathematical Olympiad National Team arrived in London three days early to allow time for adjusting to the time difference.

The British organizers arranged for the Chinese national team to stay in a hotel near Waterloo Station. The hotel is not far from the University of South Bank, London, just a ten-minute walk away.

The leader, deputy leader, coaches, translator, logistics staff, and six team members of the Chinese national team were all satisfied with the accommodation arrangements. The hotel was not luxurious but was clean and comfortable, and it was also very close to the IMO competition venue, the University of South Bank, London.

Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an shared a room. Both of them had persevered until the end and were selected for the six-person official roster of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad team.

The two young men, of similar age, were full of energy. This was their first time in the United Kingdom, and they had no desire to adjust to the time difference. After putting their luggage in the hotel, Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an went out together to explore.

Of course, they didn't dare to go too far. They just wandered around the hotel, their radius of activity not exceeding 3 miles.

As soon as they stepped out of the hotel, Shen Qi discovered something that shocked him.

"Hey, Zhou Yu'an, look at this. My English is average, but I recognize all the English on this sign. If I'm not mistaken, they can't possibly sell even a single box of strawberries here," Shen Qi stopped in front of a supermarket on Waterloo Road.

A sign stood in front of this Tesco supermarket, with English text stating: "Today's Special, Strawberries 1 pound/box, 3 pounds/two boxes."

Zhou Yu'an's English was good, and he quickly understood the promotional information. After thinking for a moment, he said, "Perhaps the British use a mysterious and special number system where 3 directly follows 1, with no 2 in between."

"Haha, Zhou Yu'an, you've hit my funny bone. I'd rather believe it's a typo. Let's go, let's go into the supermarket and take a look," Shen Qi pulled Zhou Yu'an into the supermarket.

After browsing in the supermarket for a few minutes, Shen Qi keenly noticed that "Strawberries 1 pound/box, 3 pounds/two boxes" did not seem like a typo by the supermarket's promotion manager.

There was a shelf displaying chocolate products, and Hershey's Chocolate was on sale. The supermarket's promotional information read: "HEYSHEY'S - 30% off, 18.5 pounds."

"Hey, hey, Zhou Yu'an, look quickly. Hershey's Chocolate is originally 15 pounds a box. 30% off means a 30% discount, so the discounted price should be 10.5 pounds a box. What on earth is this 18.5 pounds?" Shen Qi fell into thought.

Zhou Yu'an thought for a moment and then said, "This store wants to go out of business, refusing customers?"

Looking at the endless stream of local customers coming and going, Shen Qi shook his head. "However, that's not the case. Look, this supermarket has a large customer flow; its business is booming. I find it strange that customers are actually buying strawberries and Hershey's, and quite a lot of them!"

Zhou Yu'an carefully observed a checkout counter not far away. For the "Strawberries 1 pound/box, 3 pounds/two boxes" promotion, a British lady bought 8 boxes at once. She seemed quite happy, as if she had gotten an incredible deal.

After the British lady finished paying, a young man with blond hair placed 4 boxes of Hershey's Chocolate on the counter, chuckling. The sun was shining brightly.

Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an looked at each other, speechless.

"I'm afraid... the residents of this area are all idiots?" Shen Qi deduced this hypothesis.

"It's obvious that this is a shady establishment, and the customers are idiots," Zhou Yu'an nodded, agreeing with Shen Qi's hypothesis.

"London, the capital of finance, the capital of fashion, the capital of football, the capital of fools?" Shen Qi further deduced a second hypothesis.

"It's also possible that the people of London are generally wealthy. After all, it's the capital of the Empire on which the sun never sets. It's understandable for them to be foolish and rich," Zhou Yu'an added a supplementary hypothesis to Shen Qi's.

"The Olympic Mathematical Olympiad, the Olympics of mathematics, an intellectual competition for highly intelligent people. Zhou Yu'an, why is it being held in the capital of fools?"

"Perhaps it's to highlight... the charm of contrast?"

The two young Chinese men walked among a crowd of white, black, and Indian people, marveling at the vastness of the world and feeling that coming out to broaden their horizons was well worth the trip.

"Zhou Yu'an, since we're here, we can't go back empty-handed. Let's buy something, after all, it's British-made," Shen Qi casually picked up a shopping basket and, stopping here and there, took some snacks from the shelves.

Zhou Yu'an was more frugal. He only bought a tube of toothpaste and held it in his hand. "My Zhonghua Toothpaste was confiscated by the British as a dangerous biological agent when I entered the country. I need to buy a tube of toothpaste to get by for a few days."

"Give me the toothpaste, I'll pay for it together," Shen Qi took the toothpaste from Zhou Yu'an's hand and put it in his own basket.

Queuing at the checkout counter, Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an waited to pay.

A few minutes later, the two arrived in front of the cashier. Shen Qi placed his shopping basket on the counter.

"Hello," the cashier girl said in English. She was a young, red-haired Caucasian girl.

"Mm," Shen Qi nodded, saying nothing.

The cashier girl swiftly took out the items from the shopping basket, scanned them, and the total amount displayed on the cash register was: 33.50 pounds.

"33 pounds 50 pence," the cashier girl said to Shen Qi.

"What?" Shen Qi was confused.

"33 pounds... 50 pence," the cashier girl repeated, slowing down her speech.

Shen Qi said to Zhou Yu'an, "I bought a box of biscuits for 5.8 pounds, a pancake for 4.6 pounds, three donuts for 5.4 pounds, and five bags of potato chips. The unit price for each bag of potato chips was 2 pounds, and there was a 20% discount for buying five bags. Adding Zhou Yu'an's toothpaste at 2.2 pounds, along with the 7% consumption tax, I should have paid 27.82 pounds for our purchases, not 33.50 pounds. How can this possibly add up to 33.50?"

"That's right, it is indeed 27 pounds 82 pence," Zhou Yu'an also quickly calculated the total amount in a short time.

"Hey, young gentlemen, do you want these items?" The cashier girl, seeing Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an chatting for a long time and not understanding Chinese, reminded them, maintaining sufficient patience.

"Sorry," Shen Qi apologized to the cashier girl and then said to Zhou Yu'an, "Your spoken English is quite good. Tell this red-haired lady the breakdown of my purchases just now, translated into English."

"OK," Zhou Yu'an nodded and said to the cashier girl in English, "Madam, I think you've calculated our total incorrectly."

The cashier girl shook her head firmly. "Impossible, this is the result calculated by the computer."

Zhou Yu'an rattled off the breakdown in one breath, his spoken English very fluent: "One box of biscuits for 5.8 pounds, one pancake for 4.6 pounds, three donuts for 5.4 pounds, one tube of toothpaste for 2.2 pounds. Five bags of potato chips with a 20% discount total 8 pounds. Including the 7% consumption tax, we should pay a total of 27 pounds 82 pence. We believe this is a reasonable and correct amount."

The cashier girl was stunned. "What... what are you saying?"

Zhou Yu'an was also stunned. "I'm speaking English, don't you understand?"