The Mastermind

As the question was asked, Yu Shujun immediately tucked her legs under the desk.

Guilty?

Wen Nan looked at the school uniform trousers blocked by the corner of the desk.

Yu Shujun took a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh. Even though it was a midsummer night, it gave the illusion that the moisture she exhaled was about to freeze into frost.

She still didn't answer Wen Nan's question, but instead raised her hand to check her watch again, then said, "There are seventeen minutes and twenty-three seconds left. In the remaining time, I don't want to hear another word from you unless it's related to the test paper. Otherwise, you will bear the consequences."

Wen Nan raised his hand, pinched his fingers together, held them across his mouth, and made a zipping motion.

Yu Shujun lowered her head, refocusing on her Olympiad simulation paper.

Wen Nan stopped talking, but he had no intention of actually looking at the test paper.

Doing problems was impossible; doing problems was never going to happen in this lifetime.

He slumped against the edge of the desk, turned his head, and stared at the side of the girl's face from below.

She must have sensed Wen Nan's gaze, as the eyelashes hidden behind her lenses fluttered, but she stubbornly refused to spare him a single glance.

The two remained in a silent stalemate for a while.

Finally, Wen Nan broke the deadlock again, "I have a question."

Yu Shujun turned to look at him, her eyes saying: You had better actually have a question.

This time, Wen Nan pushed the test paper in front of him toward her and pointed at the first question, "I have a question about this multiple-choice question."

Yu Shujun looked at the problem statement—

[Xiao Wei and Xiao Jun are designing an irrigation system for a hospital garden. They plan to install a central fountain in an elliptical garden that can evenly irrigate the entire garden. The major axis of the garden is 40 meters, and the minor axis is 30 meters. The central fountain should be placed at the focal point to ensure maximum coverage. The center of the garden is at the origin (0,0).

Question: Where should the fountain be located to ensure optimal coverage of the entire garden area?

A) (±5, 0)

B) (±10, 0)

C) (±15, 0)

D) (±20, 0)]

This was the very first question on the entire paper, a freebie that didn't even require high school math knowledge!

Yu Shujun took a deep breath to calm herself, then said, "What's the question? Go ahead."

Wen Nan pointed at the problem statement and said, "I want to ask, Xiao Wei and Xiao Jun—are they good friends?"

Upon hearing this question, Yu Shujun's pupils constricted. Even though she tried to hide it, a flash of astonishment crossed her face.

But she quickly returned to a cold expression and retorted, "Do you think your question is related to the test paper?"

"It is." Wen Nan nodded very seriously. "This is the background of the problem. If I don't clarify it, I'll be very troubled when solving it."

As he spoke, Wen Nan's gaze fell back under the desk, toward the iodine on Yu Shujun's trousers.

"Xiao Wei scraped her knee and was sent to the school infirmary. It's quite late, and there's no one in the infirmary except for the doctor on duty. And Xiao Jun, who should have been in the classroom waiting to tutor Xiao Jiu, left halfway through to go to the infirmary to see her. Why?

"Is it because Xiao Jun and Xiao Wei are best friends and she was worried about her being alone in the hospital? Or... is there a hidden agenda?"

Yu Shujun looked at Wen Nan in silence, her gaze heavy with scrutiny. She seemed to have severely underestimated the intelligence and insight of the boy in front of her.

Seeing that she wouldn't speak, Wen Nan continued on his own:

"If we assume that Xiao Jun and Xiao Wei are best friends, then we know that Xiao Wei previously sent a letter to Xiao Jiu, tucked it into Xiao Jiu's desk, and asked him to meet at the playground. However, Xiao Jiu didn't see the letter and missed Xiao Wei's invitation.

"Theoretically, Xiao Wei and Xiao Jiu shouldn't have been able to meet that night. But Xiao Wei's best friend discovered the letter in the classroom in time and told Xiao Wei, which led to Xiao Wei rushing to the playground with the letter, causing the scene to become extremely chaotic.

"In other words, the accident at the playground that night wasn't really an accident, but something someone caused on purpose, right?"

After Wen Nan finished speaking, he looked into Yu Shujun's eyes and said, word for word, "Xiao Wei's best friend?"

At this point, Yu Shujun finally put down her pen, turned her head, looked back into Wen Nan's eyes, and asked, "What exactly are you trying to say? Xiao Wei has a best friend—is that so strange? Her best friend looked out for her, fearing she would miss her chance, delivered the letter for her, and then, upon learning she had scraped her knee, rushed to the hospital to visit her. What is the problem with these actions?"

Theoretically, there was no problem.

It was normal for characters in this novice trial zone to interact. For example, Qiqi and her aunt Lin Xuemei were in close contact and even shared a blood connection.

If the school beauty Wu Yuwei and the top student Yu Shujun were good friends, it wouldn't be strange for one to step up when the other was in trouble.

However...

Wen Nan felt that Yu Shujun's current behavior had already exceeded the scope of a character within a dungeon.

It wasn't strange for these characters to have their own behavioral logic, but Wen Nan felt that, at the very least, the underlying logic of the characters he chose to pursue should revolve around him.

For instance, if Qiqi didn't see Wen Nan at their appointed time, she would keep sitting at the small flower bed outside the playground waiting for him. Little Chili and Aunt Mei would also try to find Wen Nan when they couldn't wait for him, attempting to complete the appointment task. Wu Yuwei's behavior had shown some deviations, but it had always revolved around the theme of "confessing to Ye Jiu."

If one were to deduce based on this logic, when Yu Shujun couldn't wait for "her tutee Ye Jiu" at the back door of the classroom, shouldn't she have chosen to keep waiting, send a message to urge Ye Jiu, or simply leave in anger?

She ran to the school infirmary to visit Wu Yuwei, then pretended nothing had happened, ran back to the Grade 12 (Class 2) classroom, and continued waiting for Ye Jiu. What was the ultimate purpose behind this behavior?

In fact, it wasn't just the visit to Wu Yuwei at the infirmary.

When he first arrived at the classroom and saw Yu Shujun, the reason Wen Nan had been stunned was that Yu Shujun's attire was exactly the same as someone described by the other two characters—

Little Chili's background introduction stated that because she wasn't a student at No. 7 High, she shouldn't have been able to enter the campus. The reason she was able to get in was that a female student wearing a No. 7 High uniform, thick glasses, and a high ponytail had helped her talk to the security guard.

Aunt Mei had mentioned the same thing, saying she had also been led in by a girl wearing glasses.

Adding these things together, they all pointed to one fact—

Whether it was the small-scale "Shura field" where Liu Qi and Wu Yuwei appeared at the same time, or the medium-scale one that Little Chili and Aunt Mei later joined, the mastermind behind it all was Yu Shujun.