Are You Betraying the Organization Too?

"Old Wang," Professor Zhou said, leaning back in his chair and folding his hands over his stomach, "I trust your judgment, but having a freshman take part in the mathematical modeling competition... How should I put this..."

He weighed his words, trying to sound tactful. "The competition isn't just a test of mathematical ability. It also requires programming, paper writing, and teamwork. Just learning all that beforehand is a considerable challenge."

"Can a freshman who hasn't even fully adjusted to college life handle that intensity of study?"

"And to be honest, the two students from our elite class are a competition gold medalist and a top junior who's already independently published an SCI paper. Their starting points are what they are. If we put a freshman on their team... I'm afraid there'll be a gap when they work together, and he'll probably be under a lot of pressure too."

He had made himself quite clear: Old Wang's recommendation wasn't good enough.

Old Wang understood what Professor Zhou meant.

Old Wang thought the man was fine in every respect except for his almost obsessive confidence in his elite-class students. He believed only his own students deserved to be called outstanding, and students from other schools weren't worth mentioning.

"If that's how you see it, there's nothing I can do," Old Wang said, spreading his hands.

"Old Wang, don't take it the wrong way. It's not that I look down on your student. The competition is coming up, and I have to answer for the results. How about this? Do you have any sophomores or juniors? Preferably someone with a potential recommendation for graduate admission, solid fundamentals, and decent programming skills."

To put it bluntly, Professor Zhou wanted only the best.

In his dictionary, the definition of best was clear: an impressive résumé and weighty credentials.

As for things like "freshman genius" and "self-taught prodigy," they sounded unreliable. He wasn't about to take that risk.

Old Wang fell silent for a moment, quickly running through his list of students.

"There's a sophomore who ranked in the top three of his year in both mathematical analysis and advanced algebra. He's fairly proficient with MATLAB and Python, and he won a provincial first prize in a math competition last semester."

Professor Zhou's eyes lit up, and he leaned forward slightly. "Sounds good. He's the one!"

"Old Wang, arrange a meeting with him for me. I'll have a chat with him and see if he gets along with the two students from our elite class."

Old Wang agreed.

Professor Zhou was thoroughly pleased. "Old Wang, you're a true friend! I'll treat you to tea another day!"

"No need. You can go now." Old Wang waved a hand, his head aching.

After Professor Zhou closed the door, he gave a snort, thought for a while, and took out his phone.

"Hello, counselor. I'd like to see the records for Qi Hao, a freshman in Class One of our school's applied mathematics program."

Night fell, and the lights in the dormitory building came on one after another.

The moment Qi Hao pushed open the door and stepped inside, a dark figure pounced on him with a rush of wind.

"Hey! You fiend, confess! Where did you run off to have fun all afternoon? Did you sneak off behind our backs to meet some junior girl in person?" Wang Jun locked an arm around his neck in his signature move and hung directly onto his back.

"Let go, let go. You're choking me," Qi Hao said, caught between laughter and tears as he patted Wang Jun's arm. "I went to study on my own and fill in some gaps. A purely academic activity!"

"Fill in gaps? Didn't you spare any concern for the studies of the senior and junior girls?"

Li Hui was sitting shirtless in a chair, tapping away at his keyboard. Hearing that, he gave a wicked chuckle, turned around, and raised his eyebrows mysteriously. "Brother Hao, don't say I never look out for you. The English department is having a mixer this weekend. My girlfriend personally confirmed that the girls in her dorm are all single, and every one of them is a beauty. Are you coming or not? Give me a straight answer!"

Qi Hao set his backpack on the desk and opened his laptop. Without looking up, he replied, "No. I have to study. With no women in my heart, I'll be a god at solving problems."

"Damn, the mysterious stubbornness of a single dog!" Wang Jun let go and made an exaggerated face. "With your disposition, you deserve to spend your whole life with math formulas. But that works too. If you're not going, our dorm's good looks will have to be carried by me!"

Qi Hao said in surprise, "You're going too? Fine, at least I'll still have Chen Yuan for company... Holy crap, Chen Yuan, why are you changing into that shirt?"

"What teenager in the bloom of youth wears a shirt like that?!"

Chen Yuan, who was usually shy and quiet and spent all day doing nothing but reading, was now standing in front of the mirror, awkwardly fiddling with his collar. When he heard Qi Hao's exclamation, his honest face turned red all the way down to his neck, and he became self-conscious.

Qi Hao looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Chen Yuan, don't tell me you're going to the mixer? I thought you were our dorm's last line of defense. Are you betraying the organization too?"

Embarrassed, Chen Yuan said quietly, "Well... Wang Jun said the girls in the English department all have a good foundation in English. I want to prepare for the CET-4, so I thought... maybe I could find an English major who could help me improve my score, and practice speaking with me too."

The dorm fell silent for a few seconds.

Qi Hao listened, dumbfounded. That excuse was truly original!

"You're going to a mixer to find someone to practice speaking with? Chen Yuan, they want romance, and you want them to be your free CET-4 tutors? Did the English department girls owe you something in a past life?"

Wang Jun laughed so hard he nearly fell off his chair, slapping the desk wildly. "Hahaha! That's brilliant! If he really gets a girlfriend, Chen Yuan won't even have to leave the dorm to prepare for the graduate entrance exam's English section. He can just video call her for practice. That's what you call winning at the starting line!"

"But I don't think Chen Yuan's idea is wrong."

Li Hui laughed from the side. "You're only finding out now? My girlfriend and I practice English together every day. When I go to the United States, I won't even have to worry about the language!"

Qi Hao looked at the bunch of them, who were nearly suffering Qi Deviation, and came up with an idea.

"All right, all right. What's so mysterious about learning English? For speaking practice, no one you practice with beats creating your own context. If you really want to practice, just read books in the original. And if that doesn't work, I can help you practice too. There's no need to go bother the girls in the English department."

"You?" Wang Jun stopped laughing. "Brother Hao, are you sure you can do it?"

Qi Hao smiled confidently.

He had used the Deep Focus ability he redeemed from the system to study basic English thoroughly. His English experience had risen from 110 to 300. Although he still hadn't leveled up to Lv2, his current English was, at the very least, a little better than everyone else's in the dorm.

"Of course. How about we make things interesting?" A mischievous idea was forming in Qi Hao's mind.

"To help everyone pass the CET-4, and to improve the study atmosphere in our dorm, we're adopting an English Only policy from now on. Anyone who says a sentence in Chinese has to buy dinner for the whole dorm for a week. Do you dare?"

"Fine, let's do it! Who's afraid? It is so easy! I am the king of English!" Li Hui was the first to jump up and accept the challenge.

"OK, no problem! Deal!" Wang Jun joined in.

Chen Yuan nodded earnestly too. "I... I will try."

And so, half an hour later, the entire dorm fell into an unprecedented silence.

Wang Jun wanted to borrow nail clippers. His face turned red from holding back before he managed, "You... that... the silver thing... cut... cut finger? Can I borrow?"

Li Hui was gaming with his friends and didn't even turn around. "Go away, I am busy... no... I am killing people!"

Chen Yuan wanted to ask Qi Hao what time he was going to the bathhouse that evening. He opened his mouth. "What... what clock... you go water house?"

Seeing that everyone was about to suffer internal injuries from holding it in, Qi Hao spoke.

"Actually, guys, if you want to express the concept of bathhouse, shower room is more appropriate than water house. And regarding the nail clipper, Wang Jun, it's right under Chen Yuan's pillow."

(Actually, guys, if you want to express the concept of a bathhouse, shower room is more appropriate than water house. As for the nail clippers, Wang Jun, they're right under Chen Yuan's pillow.)

Wang Jun, Li Hui, and Chen Yuan all turned their heads at once and stared at Qi Hao as if he were a monster.

His feel for the language, the smooth way he used his vocabulary-Qi Hao's English really did seem better than theirs!

The three of them had mostly learned to read English without speaking it. When it came time to open their mouths, they could never remember the words or the correct grammar.

So when they discovered that Qi Hao could speak English more fluently than they could, the same thought occurred to all three of them at once:

We all grew up memorizing "abandon" from the same vocabulary book, so how come you get to show off like this?!

No wonder Qi Hao read math books in English class.

He had the ability to back it up!

"You... your English is good," Wang Jun said, keeping his praise very concise.

That night, thanks to the costly rule that whoever spoke Chinese had to treat everyone, the roommates, who would normally have been noisy, gained a profound understanding of what "silence is golden" meant in practice.

The rule lasted just one night from its introduction to its abolition, setting a record for the shortest-lived policy in the dorm's history.