Coach, I Want to Learn Calculus

Jiangcheng University of Technology.

This used to be a vocational college. A few years ago, it merged with several technical institutes and was upgraded to an undergraduate university.

Although it bore the name Jiangcheng University of Technology, locals still called it Jiangcheng Institute of Technology. Its prestige was nothing special, either.

Girls' Dormitory 306.

Lu Yao was facing the mirror, filling in her eyebrows.

In the mirror, her skin was fair and her features delicate. With a little makeup, she looked especially radiant.

Her roommate came in from the balcony carrying a washbasin. Seeing this, she immediately teased her.

"Ooh, beautiful Lu, are you going on a date? Did that handsome guy from the Civil Engineering Department finally win you over?"

Lu Yao shot her an annoyed look.

"What date? I'm going to tutor someone."

"Tutoring?" Her roommate looked unconvinced. "You're putting on makeup to tutor someone? Who are you trying to fool?"

Lu Yao pursed her lips and offered no explanation.

The reason was actually simple.

At an engineering university with a severely skewed gender ratio—especially in the Mathematics Department—she was one of only two girls in her class, and boys were practically commenting on them every day.

What girl didn't enjoy hearing a few compliments?

Over time, putting on makeup before going out had become standard practice for Lu Yao.

How could she possibly explain such little thoughts to girls from other departments?

After finishing her makeup and changing into an off-white trench coat, Lu Yao picked up her bag and left campus.

She hailed a taxi at random.

"Driver, Gentleman's Road in the old district."

Sitting in the back seat, Lu Yao watched the scenery outside and let out a soft sigh.

As for this tutoring job, she was really going to repay a favor.

At fifty yuan an hour, you had to wait for Thursday just to afford Golden Arches in those days, let alone one-on-one high school math tutoring.

Besides, she wasn't exactly free right now. Although there weren't many classes in her junior year, she had already started preparing to take the graduate entrance exam for another university.

She hadn't chosen to study for it on her own because she knew herself. With her self-discipline and independent study skills, getting admitted was practically impossible.

So lately, she had been busy looking for a graduate exam prep program.

But what could she do? It was Auntie Li Qin's child who needed tutoring.

The last time her mother had made a huge mistake at work and nearly been fired, Auntie Li Qin had run around everywhere to help settle it.

She hadn't even wanted to take money, but her mother had said,

"You should charge him, but not too much. If you charge too much, your Auntie Li won't be able to afford it. If you don't charge anything, with your Auntie Li's personality, she definitely won't let you go."

"I heard Auntie Li's son only scored in the eighties last time. I'll just straighten out his basic formulas and explain the key points from Compulsory One, Two, and Three. That should be about enough."

Lu Yao silently planned out today's lesson.

The taxi soon stopped outside an old residential complex.

Lu Yao paid the fare and got out. Looking at the red-brick apartment buildings before her, she couldn't help feeling a little uneasy.

If there were no streetlights here at night, she absolutely wouldn't dare come alone.

Following the location pin on WeChat, she found the apartment building.

Sixth floor.

No elevator.

In her high heels, Lu Yao climbed until she was out of breath.

Standing outside apartment 602, she steadied her breathing before knocking on the door.

"Knock, knock..."

"Who is it?"

A boy's voice came from inside, clear and clean, quite pleasant to hear.

"I'm Lu Yao. Auntie Li asked me to come tutor you."

With a click, the security door opened.

A boy in a gray T-shirt stood there. He was fairly tall, and though somewhat thin, he looked very neat and clean.

"Sister Lu Yao? Come in."

Li Dong stepped aside to make room for her.

What Lu Yao didn't know was that when she knocked, this clean-looking boy had been furiously working through practice problems in a state of extreme excitement.

Ever since Li Dong had received Joule's guidance yesterday, it was like he had opened the door to a whole new world.

He had kept grinding through problems until three in the morning last night. The feeling of knowledge points refusing to leave his head was countless times better than instantly killing opponents in Valorant.

That made Li Dong realize just how terrifying 0.1 Focus was.

Of course, Li Dong's naturally built-in 0.1 memory also let him memorize those knowledge points faster.

At six this morning, he had woken up automatically and started cramming like mad again.

Using Joule's "deconstruction + foundational closed-loop" method, he had gone through almost all the key math concepts from three years of high school in just one night and one morning.

Formulas that had once looked like heavenly script now made sense at a glance, and after doing just a couple of problems, he could draw inferences from one case to another.

He even felt that high school math was becoming a little... beneath him.

When Lu Yao came in, Li Dong's phone was displaying New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis by Zhang Zhusheng.

He was looking up university mathematics.

"No need to change your shoes. We're not that particular at home."

Li Dong scratched his head awkwardly.

He had never hired a tutor before and had no idea what the process was. Was he supposed to introduce himself? So he foolishly said,

"Hello, Sister Lu Yao. I'm Li Dong, your... um, tutoring client."

Seeing how nervous he was, Lu Yao couldn't help laughing. The teacherly air she had been planning to put on vanished at once.

"You're a junior, aren't you? Don't be so nervous. I'm not going to eat you."

As she spoke, she naturally walked into the living room.

The old wooden table in the living room was piled with math textbooks from freshman to senior year of high school, along with several opened workbooks. It looked somewhat messy.

In the middle of that pile of books, a phone screen was still lit.

Lu Yao had excellent eyesight and immediately caught what was on the screen.

New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis?

Lu Yao froze for a moment, then felt a surge of helplessness.

Kids these days... their foundations weren't even solid, yet they loved reaching beyond themselves.

He had only scored in the eighties. He still hadn't figured out trigonometric functions or solid geometry, yet he was already reading Professor Zhang Zhusheng's New Lectures on Mathematical Analysis?

Wasn't that the very definition of having eyes bigger than his stomach?

Looks like I'll have to give him a proper talk later. You have to walk one step at a time and eat one bite at a time.

Lu Yao silently made up her mind.

When Li Dong saw Lu Yao staring at his phone, he panicked and hurried over to lock the screen and put it away.

It felt as awkward as being caught by your parents watching porn.

After all, if word got out that a poor student like him was studying advanced mathematics, people would laugh their teeth out.

He quickly brought over a chair.

"Sister Lu Yao, have a seat. I'll get you some water."

"No need to fuss. Let's begin right away."

Lu Yao waved her hand, sat down briskly, and took a pen from her bag.

"Auntie Li told me your score on this monthly exam wasn't very ideal? Take out your test paper first and let me have a look."

"I want to analyze the kinds of mistakes you made first, see where your main weaknesses are, and then strengthen them specifically."

Lu Yao was very familiar with this process.

Li Dong hesitated.

He really wanted to say,

"Sis, I actually understand all my mistakes now. How about you teach me some calculus?"

But seeing how serious and responsible Lu Yao looked, he didn't dare say it.

"Oh, okay."

Li Dong could only obediently hand over the monthly exam paper.

Lu Yao took the paper and glanced at the score.

87 points.

Sure enough, it was exactly as expected.