What the World Looks Like Through a Top Student's Eyes

"Ring-ring-ring."

The class bell rang. Old Yang stood at the podium, frowning at the test papers in his hands.

"This monthly exam was a disaster for our class!"

Old Yang's voice carried a trace of exhaustion.

"The highest score in our class was only 109! I honestly never expected that not a single one of you would score above 110!"

Most of the students below lowered their heads in shame.

"Especially the final bonus question, which involved derivatives and inequalities that hold universally. Out of fifty people in the class, not one of you got it right!"

Old Yang sighed before helplessly waving his hand.

"Alright, take out your papers. Let's start with the first multiple-choice question."

Given the sets A = {x | x² - 2x - 3 < 0} and B = {x | y = ln(x - a)}, if A ⊆ B, what is the range of values for the real number a?

Normally, Li Dong's mind would have gone blank the moment he saw a problem combining sets with a function's domain.

His logical thinking had always been weak. Problems like this were his nightmare.

But things were different now. He had Focus +1.

The instant he saw the question, it felt as though everything around him had frozen. All the surrounding noise vanished.

He could only hear Old Yang's voice, as if it had been slowed down.

"This question tests set operations and the domain of logarithmic functions..."

The moment he heard that, all the knowledge that had been buried in Li Dong's mind flew toward his brain like iron filings drawn to a magnet.

He could even clearly recall that this topic was on page 12 of the first compulsory textbook from the first semester of his first year of high school. There was even a ballpoint pen mark in the lower-left corner of that page that he had accidentally drawn himself.

He also remembered a similar variation problem on page 24 of Five Years of College Entrance Exams, Three Years of Simulations that he had done last month. He had gotten it wrong because he had forgotten that a could be equal.

All the relevant knowledge arranged and combined itself in his mind. The speed was not particularly fast, but he really did know how to solve this problem!

x² - 2x - 3 0 → (x - 3)(x + 1) < 0 → -1 < x < 3

Set B was x a.

Since A ⊆ B, the interval (-1, 3) had to lie entirely within (a, +∞) on the number line.

Therefore, a ≤ -1.

Old Yang was still drawing a number line on the blackboard and explaining, but Li Dong had already moved on to the next question.

It was a question about transformations of trigonometric function graphs.

Li Dong did not know this one at all. The knowledge in his memory could not solve it.

Normally, he would have gotten annoyed and skipped it long ago, but not now.

Because he could quickly identify the crucial knowledge he lacked.

He was not sure what "symmetry about the origin" meant for a sine function in terms of its equation.

Did it become an odd function? sin(-x)? Or did the phase simply change to kπ?

He quickly wrote it down in his correction notebook.

Li Dong had never experienced this feeling before. Even when he could not solve a problem, he could find a direction to work toward.

Was this what the world looked like through a top student's eyes?

Before he knew it, the dismissal bell rang.

"Alright, that's all for this lesson."

Old Yang never dragged out class, which was one of the things his students liked most about him.

But Li Dong howled inwardly.

Don't go!

For the first time, he hated the dismissal bell.

He had not had enough. Even if Old Yang lectured for another ten minutes... no, even five minutes would do! There had just been an analytic geometry problem about deriving the eccentricity of an ellipse. He had only just begun to get the hang of it and had not had time to fully grasp it.

He wanted to rush over and stop Old Yang.

"Teacher, please explain just two more yuan's worth!"

But reason stopped him. If he dared do that, the rest of the class would immediately ostracize him.

So Li Dong merely glanced at the countdown in the upper-right corner.

Fifteen minutes left!

He could not waste them!

He quickly began rummaging through his things for the knowledge gaps he had marked in his correction notebook during class.

"Found it! Elective 2-2, page 34!"

Li Dong let out an excited whisper.

Normally, he would lose focus after just a few glances at such a dull mathematical derivation. But now, every symbol seemed to be dancing before him, and every line of formulas displayed the beauty of logic.

He had to understand it! He had to "instantly master" this knowledge point!

Just as he was fully focused on deriving the formulas, a chubby hand patted him on the shoulder.

"Dong! Stop pretending. Come on, I'll show you something good. A movie that just came out..."

Li Dong abruptly turned around. A fat-faced boy was holding up his phone with a lewd grin.

"Liu Liang!"

"Go play by yourself. I need to study!"

The air suddenly went quiet for two seconds.

Liu Liang looked at Li Dong as though he were an alien.

"No way, Dong? You're done for. You've caught studying!"

Li Dong ignored his teasing.

13:10

Time was passing. Every second was focus that money could not buy!

"Stop bothering me. I'm deriving formulas."

Li Dong once again immersed himself in the world of mathematics.

Seeing that he was genuinely studying, Liu Liang did not keep pestering him. It was not the first time Li Dong had said he wanted to study something, after all. At most, he would revert to his old ways in three days.

The surrounding clamor was screened out again.

Li Dong seized the last dozen or so minutes. Facing one knowledge point after another, he took them down one shot at a time and scored a direct triple kill.

The geometric meaning of derivatives, the chain rule for composite functions, methods for determining extrema—all solved!

At that moment, the blue countdown finally reached zero.

The mathematical formulas that had seemed so warm and lovable just moments ago suddenly became utterly detestable.

"That's it... it's over?"

He looked at the sunlight outside the window and felt as though an age had passed.

The learning efficiency of that short hour had been higher than the past week... no, higher than the past month!

An unprecedented light gleamed in Li Dong's eyes.

"If I could maintain this focused state all the time... forget an ordinary first-tier university, I'd even dare take a shot at Tsinghua or Peking University!"

Unfortunately, it was a one-time thing.

But...

He unconsciously took out his phone and looked at the WeChat group named "Azure Dragon Study Group."

This was his only chance to change his fate!

The following English class was exceptionally agonizing for Li Dong.

Li Dong's English foundation was actually much better than his math. He could usually score around 110, but after experiencing that kind of focus that "pierced through truth," his current learning efficiency made him feel as if he were wasting his life.

He memorized words and forgot them, forgot them and memorized them again. He could understand the grammar, yet still got questions wrong.

This way of studying made him desperately miss the red packet sent by that guy called Isaac Newton.

He finally endured until school let out in the afternoon.

There were still two hours before evening self-study, time set aside for commuting students to go home for dinner.

Li Dong lived on campus and did not need to go home to eat, so he hastily ate some rice in the cafeteria before returning to the classroom to consider a serious question: how could he trick... no, get another red packet from those scientist big shots?

He even tried playing red packet games with the group members.

But the chat group prompted him: [This behavior has been detected as unrelated to "academic discussion." Please correct your learning attitude.]

Just as he stared blankly at the screen, feeling at a loss for where to begin, his phone suddenly vibrated.

A new message popped up.

Li Dong hurriedly opened it.

[Isaac Newton]: Following the line of thought you mentioned, I just went to the laboratory and conducted an experiment.

I found an abandoned copper cannon barrel, drilled into it forcefully with a blunt drill bit, and submerged the entire setup in water.

If heat were a substance, then the amount of copper scraped away would be limited, and the heat released should also be limited.

But! Sir, guess what happened?

Li Dong could sense Newton's excitement.

[Isaac Newton]: The water boiled! As long as I kept drilling, the water remained boiling!

Heat was continuously generated! This proves that heat is not some fluid substance at all, but a form of motion! Violent molecular motion!

Thank you for your guidance, sir. The fog that has troubled me for years finally cleared today!

Seeing the string of messages, the corner of Li Dong's mouth twitched.

Wasn't this experiment done by Count Rumford or Joule?

Newton, weren't you stealing the spotlight from future generations?

Yet the instant Newton finished sending that message.

Lines of translucent text appeared above his phone screen:

[System Announcement: Group member "Isaac Newton," inspired by you, has developed the preliminary form of the Kinetic Theory of Heat 150 years ahead of schedule.]

[The technological tree of Parallel-Time Universe 1666 has shifted...]

[Congratulations. As the "mentor" who triggered this butterfly effect, your group owner permissions have been unlocked.]

[Attribute Panel activated.]

Li Dong had not even reacted when a transparent panel appeared before his eyes:

Host: Li Dong

Identity: Azure Dragon Study Group Owner (Act******** Attributes]

Focus: 0 (The average level of an ordinary person. The slightest disturbance will make you lose focus.)

Logic: 0 (The grooves in your brain may be relatively smooth. Even a slight twist can leave you behind.)

Memory: 0.1 (Your only commendable trait. You can probably remember the name of the prettiest girl in the next class, but that is all.)

[Special Reward]

For changing the course of history, you have received a feedback reward: Focus +0.1