Establishing His Image as a Boy Genius

Li Mo spoke up. "1729. That's an interesting number."

Wayne didn't understand. "What... what's interesting about it?"

Li Mo said, "Haven't you noticed? It's the smallest number that can be expressed as the sum of two cubes in two different ways."

Wayne: "?"

He thought, What's this kid babbling about?

Li Mo continued, "That is, 1729 = 1³ + 12³ = 9³ + 10³."

Wayne: "???"

A gentleman didn't understand mathematics. A gentleman was better at poetry and horsemanship... He comforted himself with that thought, then looked at Anna.

Anna looked just as lost, which made Wayne feel better. A gentleman minded inequality more than scarcity...

Naturally. Who could look at a house number and instantly calculate two sums of cubes in their head? Was that something a person could do?

In truth, Li Mo hadn't meant to show off.

The main thing was, he was destined to put forward many groundbreaking ideas in the future.

So he had to establish his image as a boy genius starting now.

That was also why he had been fairly conspicuous in front of Sister Sarah at the textile mill a few days ago.

Li Mo sighed and thought, This is really exhausting.

A moment later, Anna finally understood. She said, "How did you think of that? You worked all that out with one look at the house number?"

"Intuition," Li Mo said. "I could tell at a glance."

Anna fell silent again.

Li Mo motioned for the two of them to keep going and added briefly, "I actually used to love math. It's just that I was later lured astray by mysticism... Now that I've lost my mysticism perception, it's a good thing when I think about it. I can focus on math and physics. How interesting is that?"

Anna and Wayne looked at each other.

Wayne scratched his head and thought, Even so, getting into the Capital Royal Academy of Sciences is still going to be a bit difficult, isn't it...?

Forget it, Wayne decided. He'd better not undermine his brother's confidence for now.

He gave a slight bow with a gentleman's impeccable manners and said, "I'm impressed, brother."

The school wasn't far away.

From a distance, they could see an ornately carved gate with stone pillars on either side. One of the pillars bore the words:

[Mondel General Studies Academy]

Farther inside stood a clock tower, with the main classroom building behind it.

The three of them had only just returned to school when someone recognized Li Mo.

He was simply too much of a talking point.

As they passed through the courtyard, the students who saw Li Mo discussed him in low voices as they walked.

"He really came."

"I thought he'd spend the rest of his life lying at home. Losing your mysticism perception isn't a blow just anyone can take."

"He actually came to class. Looks like the rumors are true-he's taking the entrance exam again..."

"Sigh, it hasn't been easy for him either. Anyway, as long as he's happy."

Anna quietly stepped back and walked half a step behind Li Mo.

Noticing what Anna had done, Li Mo felt a warmth in his heart.

He had been a squishy mage before, always falling ill.

But Anna was completely different.

Anna was in excellent physical condition.

Growing up, Li Mo had never seen her fall ill once.

She was also exceptionally strong, nothing like an ordinary girl.

Once, Li Mo had been buying something on the outskirts of the town market when he got into an argument with a drunk.

The man cursed up a storm and even wanted to start a fight.

Then-

Anna stepped forward and knocked him down with a single punch!

The man fell asleep on the spot.

So, sensing Anna standing behind him, Li Mo felt a strong sense of security.

For him, having lost his mother at a young age, Anna really did bring a motherly presence and feeling...

They went up the stairs to the second floor of the classroom building and pushed open the classroom door.

Mr. Harrison looked slightly surprised to see Li Mo. "Li Mo, you're back in class. How is your health?"

"Much better. Thank you for asking, Mr. Harrison."

"That's good. Go back to your seat for now. We're about to start class."

Li Mo nodded.

His deskmate was a girl with freckles.

As soon as Li Mo sat down, she raised her hand. "T-teacher, I'm not feeling very well. May I leave for a little while?"

Mr. Harrison nodded. "All right, you may go."

Given permission, the girl hurried out of the classroom!

Li Mo watched her leave in silence.

People in this world were all somewhat superstitious.

They were afraid that sitting too close to him would make them catch some kind of curse.

The girl had found herself a respectable excuse.

But anyone with eyes in the classroom could see that she simply didn't want to sit with Li Mo...

The students began whispering among themselves.

Matthew, who sat in the front row, also turned halfway around and glanced at the empty seat beside Li Mo.

"Teacher, I'd like to move here."

Just then, Anna's voice rang out.

She had originally been sitting at the other end of the classroom, but she was already packing up her things.

Mr. Harrison asked, "Anna, why do you want to change seats?"

Anna said, "Li Mo is in poor health. Before his father left, he specifically asked me to look after him. If I sit next to him, I can keep an eye on how he's doing."

Mr. Harrison looked at Anna, then at Li Mo, and finally nodded.

Most people in town knew something about the relationship between the two.

"All right, then. In that case, you can sit there. Everyone, settle down. Let's continue with the lesson."

Anna pulled out the chair and sat down.

Li Mo turned his head and said softly to her, "Thank you."

Anna arranged her textbook and turned toward him. "If you feel unwell, tell me at any time."

"Okay," Li Mo agreed.

He wasn't feeling unwell for the moment. In fact, he was quite happy.

He looked at the blackboard.

Mr. Harrison was going over an algebraic geometry problem.

It was a problem about finding the maximum volume of a geometric solid under certain conditions.

The problem required them to find the maximum possible volume of a cylinder within a given surface area limit.

The teacher's solution was to first use the surface area formula to express the cylinder's height in terms of the radius of its base, then substitute that into the volume formula to obtain a cubic function of the radius. He would then differentiate the volume function and set the derivative to zero to find the extremum.

The blackboard quickly filled up.

The students scribbled away, trying hard to keep up with the teacher's reasoning.

As Mr. Harrison wrote, he explained, "At this step, we need to be very careful when simplifying this derivative equation. We mustn't make a mistake..."

Li Mo twirled his pen, bored out of his mind.

As for this problem,

There was nothing wrong with solving it by differentiation, but to Li Mo, the derivation that filled half the blackboard was far too cumbersome.

There was actually no need for calculus at all.

All one had to do was split the surface area formula into a sum of three terms using the arithmetic-geometric mean inequality, work in a coefficient, and apply the basic property of "greater than or equal to." The answer could be obtained directly in two lines of equations at most.

Should I go up and explain the problem now to establish my image?

After thinking it over, Li Mo decided against it. That could easily embarrass the teacher, which would be an emotionally unintelligent thing to do.

Just as he was thinking this,

Mr. Harrison said, "For the next problem, let's have two students come up and solve it."

Matthew immediately raised his hand in the front row.

He was so eager that he had clearly come up with some devious idea...