Class Rep, Could You Teach Me Some Math?

By the time Chen Shi'an went upstairs and returned to the classroom, Lin Meng Qiu was already back in her seat.

She wasn't reading or working on a test paper, though. Perhaps because she'd just finished morning exercises and spent some time in the sun, a light sheen of sweat covered her face. She was taking small sips from her water bottle.

Her head tilted slightly back, and her lower lip trembled faintly as the mouth of the bottle touched it. The movement of her throat was gentle, and a few stray hairs clung to her temples with sweat. Her delicate brows weren't drawn as tightly as usual; instead, a faint flush colored her face.

If Chen Shi'an had to describe how she looked right now, he would have said she resembled a mochi softened by the sun. She was actually rather cute.

Unfortunately, that softness didn't last long. As soon as she saw Chen Shi'an approaching the empty seat beside her, the girl turned cool and aloof again.

Lin Meng Qiu didn't speak to him. She neatly screwed the cap back on, put her water away, and took out the math paper she would need for the next class.

She'd seen Chen Shi'an looking at the honor roll by the stairs.

Unless he was blind, he couldn't have missed her name, rank, and score.

Now you know how ignorant that "oh" of yours was!

Her expression unchanged, Lin Meng Qiu spread the paper on her desk, but she couldn't stop glancing his way out of the corner of her eye. She thought he ought to have something to say, so she spared a little attention to wait for him to speak.

Yet Chen Shi'an seemed to have no intention of talking to her at all.

He simply took the first volume of the seventh-grade math textbook out of his stack of books, opened it to the first lesson, and read while taking a sip of water, just as she had.

The attention she'd deliberately set aside went to waste. Having misjudged him left her with an irritating, restless feeling, as though she had energy but nowhere to direct it.

Forget him.

Lin Meng Qiu uncapped her pen, took out some scratch paper, and began working on math problems.

Reality, however, seemed determined to toy with her.

When she hadn't wanted a deskmate, her dad had arranged one for her.

When she'd deliberately waited for Chen Shi'an to speak, he hadn't.

Now that she was genuinely concentrating on her work, she somehow caught his attention.

Chen Shi'an's gaze settled on the tip of her pen. The mathematical symbols he found awkward even to copy flowed smoothly and gracefully beneath Lin Meng Qiu's swiftly moving pen. He couldn't follow her reasoning or calculations, but that didn't stop him from finding the way her expressions transformed and simplified pleasing to watch.

At one point, her pen stopped moving. Its tip rested against the scratch paper, bleeding a conspicuous dot of ink.

Chen Shi'an snapped out of his reverie. When he looked up, she was staring at him.

She didn't say a word, but the meaning in her eyes was clear: What are you looking at?

Even caught in the act, Chen Shi'an wasn't embarrassed. With easy curiosity, he said, "Just watching you solve problems. What kind of problem is that?"

"A math problem."

"I know that much."

"Proving an inequality involving a sequence."

"I don't understand."

Chen Shi'an was perfectly honest. Then he smiled and added, "I looked at the honor roll earlier. I saw you scored 706, with full marks in math."

"Mm."

Lin Meng Qiu's expression remained indifferent, but she suddenly felt much better inside, as refreshed as if she'd finally solved a problem she'd been stuck on for ages.

"You're really good at math."

"..."

"I watched you work for a while just now. I couldn't really understand it, but your solution flowed so smoothly. It was a pleasure to watch."

"~~~"

At those words, the girl's previously indifferent expression began to soften. Chen Shi'an's remark had surprised her.

Growing up pretty and academically gifted, she'd never lacked praise. But it had always been general praise. Specific compliments like Chen Shi'an's were rare, and he was praising the very thing she took the most pride in: math.

"If you can't understand it, how do you know I didn't make a mistake?"

"It's not whether you're right or wrong that draws me in. It's the way you are when you're solving a problem. Confident, focused, and fluid."

"~~~"

Chen Shi'an always said what he thought. Listening to his sincere words, Lin Meng Qiu inexplicably felt her earlobes grow hot, though the rest of her felt no warmer.

His answer left her no room to argue, as though he'd found the unique solution to her question.

It's not whether you're right or wrong that draws me in. It's the way you are when you're solving a problem. Was that really right when it came to studying math...? Perhaps not, but she liked hearing it.

Lin Meng Qiu didn't reply again. She went back to solving the problem.

Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Chen Shi'an watching her work again. His eyes really did seem to be fixed solely on the tip of her pen.

Being watched like this while solving a problem felt strange.

Especially when the person watching had just praised her so enthusiastically.

Her slender, pale fingers tightened slightly around her pen, and she unconsciously sat straighter. She began writing each symbol and number with even greater care...

Only once she finished the problem did Chen Shi'an's gaze shift from the tip of her pen to her pretty face.

"Did you solve it?"

"Mm."

"Was it a really hard problem?"

"Not particularly."

"I couldn't understand any of it."

"Your fundamentals are weak."

"You're really good at math."

Having said that, the young Taoist finally revealed his true intention-

"So, class monitor, could you teach me math?"

"..."

Lin Meng Qiu turned toward him. Chen Shi'an was looking at her with a clean, uncomplicated, sincere smile.

He sat on the aisle side, with the noisy classroom behind him during the break. In that instant, his smiling figure seemed like a silhouette frozen in time, leaving Lin Meng Qiu briefly dazed.

Lin Meng Qiu almost instinctively said yes, but her meticulous nature caught the distinction. Chen Shi'an had said "teach," not "can I ask you when there's something I don't understand?" There was a fundamental difference between the two: actively teaching versus merely explaining when asked.

Seeing her remain silent, Chen Shi'an didn't rush to say anything else, nor did he turn away. Just as when he'd first asked her name, he seemed prepared to keep staring at her until she answered his question.

How rude-one point off for that.

Lin Meng Qiu surrendered. She had no fondness for being stared at, but she didn't answer him directly either. She merely said:

"I'm not very good at teaching people. You don't have the fundamentals, so it'd be hard for me to teach you."

"What sort of fundamentals?"

"You've never been to school."

"I just haven't

been to school. That doesn't mean I haven't been educated."

"Can you add, subtract, multiply, and divide?"

"Yes."

"What's 743 + 849?" Lin Meng Qiu asked offhandedly.

"1,592," Chen Shi'an answered without hesitation.

Chen Shi'an answered so quickly that Lin Meng Qiu barely had time to react. Almost as soon as she'd finished asking, he gave her the answer.

Instead, Lin Meng Qiu herself froze for a moment. She'd picked the numbers at random, and only after Chen Shi'an answered did she calculate the answer in her head. He was exactly right.

But she clearly hadn't been as fast as he was.

"What's 367 × 295?" Lin Meng Qiu asked again.

"108,265." This time, Chen Shi'an didn't answer instantly, but he still did it in his head, and remarkably quickly.

Now it was Lin Meng Qiu's turn to stiffen.

This time, she'd deliberately started calculating in her head as she asked.

Simple multiplication wasn't difficult, but more digits meant more calculations, making it a considerable test of memory and computational ability.

She'd only just begun checking the calculation, and Chen Shi'an was already done?!

367 × 295... 367 × 295... The process of verifying his answer dragged on long enough to leave her embarrassed. Usually unhurried, she began to feel anxious, but the less composed she became, the harder it was to calculate the answer quickly.

And that rotten Taoist had to rub salt in the wound!

He asked, "Are you thinking of the next question?"

"..."

Lin Meng Qiu flushed, but refused to admit she still hadn't worked it out. Sounding somewhat irritated, she said, "Let me think of a question..."

Her thoughts were in complete disarray. She wouldn't be able to calculate it mentally anytime soon.

Lin Meng Qiu gave up on checking his answer on the spot and settled for writing down the question first. She would verify his answer later...

"What's 178,945 ÷ 321?"

"557, with a remainder."

"..."

I can't keep asking him basic arithmetic!

Either he was making up answers, or he'd really worked them out.

But was he really just making them up?

Though Lin Meng Qiu hadn't calculated the exact answer, her number sense told her it should indeed be in that range.

From Chen Shi'an's relaxed, untroubled expression, she could tell these questions hadn't posed the slightest difficulty for him.

Some people did specifically train in rapid mental arithmetic, allowing them to calculate answers in very little time. But Chen Shi'an had never even attended school, so Lin Meng Qiu naturally didn't think he'd undergone any such training.

That left only one answer: he'd really calculated them directly. Perhaps he had some unique technique of his own, but his sensitivity to numbers was undeniable. It was a tangible demonstration of mathematical ability.

Still, being good at math wasn't simply a matter of calculating quickly...

Lin Meng Qiu calmed down. By this point, Chen Shi'an had already surprised her considerably, almost overturning her understanding of someone who'd missed out on compulsory education.

But she wasn't finished yet. After thinking for a while, she gave him a standard middle-school equation to solve.

"(x + 1)/(x - 2) = 2x/(x + 3) - 1. What's x?"

Chen Shi'an paused, then asked, "What does 'ex' mean?"

"...It's the unknown."

"Oh-"

Another "oh"! One point off!

Since this problem involved a few more transformations than basic arithmetic, Chen Shi'an wasn't as quick to solve it this time.

A problem like this required simplifying an equation, and Lin Meng Qiu herself couldn't solve it mentally either.

When Chen Shi'an failed to produce an answer for some time, Lin Meng Qiu felt she'd regained a little ground.

"?"

"Hmm, hold on. I need to work it out on paper."

Lin Meng Qiu watched him take out a notebook and pen. He used a circle in place of x, wrote down the equation, and then began calculating it the hard way...

Before long, Chen Shi'an had filled an entire page with calculations, but he had also found the answer.

"One-third?"

"Mm..."

Lin Meng Qiu couldn't help saying, "Just multiply both sides of the equation by the lowest common denominator, (x - 2)(x + 3), to eliminate the denominators. Then expand the terms, move them across, and simplify. You wouldn't need such complicated calculations."

"Oh, right...!"

Chen Shi'an suddenly understood. This was his first time solving an equation like this. He'd indeed managed to grind out the answer, but his method was clearly nowhere near as simple or convenient as Lin Meng Qiu's.

Strong mathematical ability, but poor mathematical thinking-that was Lin Meng Qiu's assessment of Chen Shi'an.

Still, that wasn't hopeless. After all, math classes at school were meant to develop students' mathematical thinking. Innate mathematical ability alone determined the upper limit of how far someone could go.

When Chen Shi'an put down his pen and looked over, waiting for another question, Lin Meng Qiu had no intention of continuing.

She acknowledged that Chen Shi'an had some mathematical talent. At the very least, he was exceptionally sensitive to numerical calculations. But basic arithmetic alone meant nothing in middle- and high-school math. Developing mathematical thinking was what mattered most.

"No more questions?" Chen Shi'an asked.

"I can teach you," Lin Meng Qiu said, ignoring his question.

Chen Shi'an paused, then broke into a smile. "Thank you, class monitor."

"..."

The girl's expression was conflicted. She'd begun regretting the words the moment they left her mouth. What impulse had made her, someone who hated trouble more than anything, willingly invite it upon herself?

It's all because of Dad's assignment!

Otherwise, why would I possibly teach him?

I'm in a bad mood. One point off first...

Lin Meng Qiu thought that once she'd deducted his score below sixty, she could go to her dad and demand a new deskmate with every justification.

Class began.

Chen Shi'an took out his seventh-grade math textbook. When he turned to look, Lin Meng Qiu was writing and calculating something on her scratch paper.

He glanced over curiously, only to provoke a fierce reaction from her-

She abruptly covered the contents of the scratch paper with her small hand and shot him a vicious glare.

Chen Shi'an: "..."

The young Taoist felt very apologetic. This time, he really shouldn't have looked.

Because she was checking 367 × 295...

...He'd exposed her weakness right to her face.