These Top Students Are Really Strong

Jiangcheng No. 7 High School, Monday morning.

The atmosphere in Senior Three Class 2's classroom was somewhat strange.

The entire class watched the figure with his head lowered, stuffing textbooks and test papers into his backpack one by one.

Just a few minutes earlier, Old Yang had announced from the podium.

"Due to some family matters, Li Dong needs to complete transfer procedures. For a period of time, he will no longer be attending classes with us."

"Family matters?"

The students below were not the sort who spent every weekend at home with their heads down, grinding through practice problems. Naturally, they went online to browse videos and the like.

Over the past few days, the much-discussed "crushing the competition" incident in Jiangcheng, along with No. 6 High School personally jumping in and "getting right in their faces" on its official website afterward, had long spread through the QQ groups of every class.

Everyone knew perfectly well that Li Dong had really pulled off a shocking stunt that had rocked the whole city this time.

Was he transferring schools?

He had been poached by Jiangcheng No. 6 High School.

In the hallway outside the classroom, Dean Zheng Hua stood beside Old Yang, his face ashen.

"Those people from No. 6 High School have no shame at all! Their behavior is disgusting!"

"The moment they see a promising student, they'll do everything they can to poach him!"

Of course, his anger was not directed at Li Dong.

Putting himself in Li Dong's shoes, if No. 6 High School had extended an olive branch and invited Zheng Hua to be its dean, he would probably have run even faster than Li Dong.

Old Yang comforted him from the side.

"Alright, Old Zheng, stop going on about it."

"Li Dong has promised us that he'll still compete in the Huaxuan Cup finals as a student of Jiangcheng No. 7 High School. He'll only officially transfer his registration after the competition is over and the honors are secured."

"For now, he's only attending as a temporary student in name."

Zheng Hua let out a long sigh.

"Sigh... Principal Wang is in his office again, smashing cups."

Old Yang secretly found it amusing.

Last time, Li Dong's first-place finish in the preliminaries had been "stolen" by No. 2 High School in the news, and Principal Wang had smashed cups.

This time, Li Dong himself had been directly "stolen" by No. 6 High School, and Principal Wang was still smashing cups.

It seemed their Principal Wang truly had no other outlet besides smashing cups.

Inside the classroom, Liu Liang walked over to Li Dong's desk.

"Dongzi..." Liu Liang's expression was extremely complicated. After holding it in for a long while, he finally squeezed out a sentence.

"I heard you're going to No. 6 High School, right?"

Li Dong nodded.

"Yeah, No. 6 High School."

Liu Liang felt a little bitter.

He did not even know what he was feeling right then.

Logically speaking, he and Li Dong were best friends.

When Li Dong's grades had suddenly skyrocketed before, Liu Liang had been motivated as well and forced himself to quit gaming.

Over the past half month, his grades had indeed undergone a qualitative leap. He had gone from only being able to get into an ordinary second-tier university to having even Old Yang say that he had a chance at making a run for an ordinary first-tier university.

He had thought that as long as he gritted his teeth and followed behind Li Dong, even if he could not catch up, he could slowly narrow the gap a little.

But who could have expected...

Though his heart felt sour, this was, in the end, the purest kind of friendship between schoolmates.

Liu Liang patted Li Dong on the shoulder.

"Dongzi, good luck!"

Li Dong looked at him and lightly punched his chest.

"You too. Getting into a first-tier university definitely won't be a problem."

If Li Dong's departure made anyone in Class 2 the happiest, it was definitely Jiang Yizhou, who sat in the second row.

Jiang Yizhou had completely given up on competing with Li Dong.

Compete? Compete my ass!

Li Dong was now studying things like Taylor Expansion and matrix operations. Jiang Yizhou could not even understand them.

Since they were not even the same species, what was there to compete over?

Still, once Li Dong left, he and Mi Xia would remain the most dazzling pair of "top student twins" in the class.

What was more, Jiang Yizhou was a shrewd guy.

When he saw that Li Dong was nearly done packing, he immediately went over.

"Li Dong, congratulations! Going to No. 6 High School is a great thing!"

Li Dong was startled.

Were we really that close?

"It's like this..." Jiang Yizhou lowered his voice.

"I heard No. 6 High School moves through the curriculum very quickly. They finish the standard textbooks in their second year, and by Senior Three, they use entirely school-developed materials."

"You won't need these old textbooks after taking them over there anyway, so... how about selling them to me? I'll pay a high price!"

Jiang Yizhou held up one finger.

"One hundred yuan per book. How about it?"

Li Dong had no idea what textbooks No. 6 High School used, but his mind worked quickly.

In any case, he had indeed memorized these high school textbooks. To him, they were no different from scrap paper.

"Sure!" Li Dong readily agreed, but he picked out Chinese, English, and biology.

"Not these ones. I haven't fully mastered them yet. I can only give you physics and math."

"No problem, no problem!"

Jiang Yizhou hurriedly said.

But inwardly, he grumbled, Those perfect-score physics and math books were all I wanted anyway! Your Chinese and English? Forget it. I scored higher than you!

Jiang Yizhou generously scanned the code and paid 200 yuan. Then he returned to his seat and eagerly opened the textbooks, wanting to see Li Dong's study methods.

However...

The notes at the front of the textbooks were all things the teachers had taught in class. There was not a trace of Li Dong's problem-solving approach.

And the notes in the back...

What notes were there?

Even when those after-class exercises had answers, there was only a damn "A" or "C," without even half a derivation process!

Jiang Yizhou felt his head buzzing.

When Li Dong walked out through the classroom's back door, Mi Xia, seated in the first row, stopped writing.

She turned around and took a deep look at his retreating figure before shifting her gaze back to the complex calculus problem before her.

Rather than caring about useless things, she might as well make herself even better.

Jiangcheng No. 6 High School, Elite Class.

This class was maintained at around thirty students year-round.

More precisely, there were only twenty-nine students today.

Because one of them was currently preparing with the National Training Team.

Every student who could sit here carried at least one provincial-level or higher competition award.

Moreover, the class implemented a brutal last-place elimination system. After every major joint examination, newcomers entered and old students left.

When Liu Limin led Li Dong to the classroom entrance, a biology teacher wearing glasses was teaching inside.

When the biology teacher saw Director Liu bring in an unfamiliar face, he merely nodded as though it were nothing unusual, not even pausing his lecture for a moment.

"Li Dong, go in and listen for now. Find an empty seat."

"I'll come find you after this class to handle the paperwork."

Liu Limin said to Li Dong.

Li Dong nodded, slipped in through the back door, and sat down in the last row.

The students around him merely glanced at him from the corners of their eyes before immediately returning their attention to the blackboard.

After sitting down, Li Dong looked up at the blackboard.

"Let's look at this classic BBO question."

The biology teacher was drawing a genetic pedigree on the blackboard.

"Regarding cytoplasmic male sterility in plants, you must remember the core logic of the 'three-line system'! That is: the sterile line, maintainer line, and restorer line."

"The reason Yuan's hybrid rice could achieve large-scale seed production lay in the genotype matching of these three lines."

"The interaction between nuclear genes, R/r, and cytoplasmic genes, S/N, determines pollen fertility."

"If and only if the cytoplasm is S and the nucleus is rr, or S-rr, will male sterility be expressed..."

The teacher on the podium spoke quickly.

Li Dong sat below with a completely blank expression.

He looked around and saw that the No. 6 High School students were listening intently, nodding from time to time.

These are the real top students! Am I getting completely crushed?

The biology knowledge in Li Dong's head came solely from memorizing the compulsory high school textbooks by rote.

CMS? Nuclear-cytoplasmic interaction? He had not even begun encountering these concepts, which went beyond the ordinary high school biology curriculum.

But Li Dong naturally did not want to give up. He forcibly linked the "three-line system" the teacher was explaining to the "laws of inheritance" in his high school textbooks.

"The sterile line is S-rr... the maintainer line is N-rr... when the two are crossed, the offspring receive S cytoplasm and rr nuclear genes, remaining a sterile line, thereby allowing the sterile line to be propagated..."

Very quickly, relying on his terrifying foundational abilities, he forcefully sorted out a rough framework for this complex biological logic.

"Biology is clearly a major weakness. It took me half a class just to barely keep up, and I'm still uncertain about many points. They're only my own guesses."

"I have to find a way to pick the brains of some biology experts in the group."

What he did not know was that the framework he had sorted out by himself in half a class had taken these No. 6 High School top students half a month to learn from their teacher.

"Ring ring ring..."

The dismissal bell finally rang.

The biology teacher briskly walked out of the classroom.

Li Dong was still digesting the genetics derivations he had just memorized when someone suddenly patted him on the shoulder.

"Boss! You really transferred to our No. 6 High School!"

Li Dong turned around and saw a familiar face leaning close.

"Mi Ge?" Li Dong was stunned.

"Aren't you in your first year? Why are you in this class?"

Mi Ge chuckled and pulled over a chair to sit beside Li Dong.

"Boss, our Elite Class doesn't distinguish between first-years, second-years, and third-years! We're grouped entirely by ability and competition focus."

Mi Ge pointed at the other students in the class.

"See that one with glasses? He's a second-year, preparing for BBO and aiming for a British university.

"The girl on the left is preparing for AMC 12 and targeting the Ivy League.

"As for me, I'm working on the Physics Bowl with the Senior Three students, just getting some practice."

BBO? AMC 12? Physics Bowl?

Back at No. 7 High School, Li Dong had never even heard of these terms!

The only thing on No. 7 High School students' minds was clearing the Gaokao cutoff and securing a second-tier university as a fallback.

Old Yang was right. The outside world really was full of powerful people.