Chapter 84: One Wasn't Done Correctly

Zu An smiled, seeing Yang Wei’s flustered expression. "Actually, it's easy to judge our math skills. I'll give you 20 questions. Whether you cheat or just guess, if you can get all 20 right... no, even if you can get half of them right, I'll pack my bags and leave this school immediately. Otherwise, you leave. What do you say?"

He knew very well that the other party, being an imperial official and a hired teacher at the academy, would never be allowed by either him or the school to leave because of the previous bet. But what if he couldn't even solve a single problem set by a student? Even with his thick skin, he probably wouldn't have the face to stay.

Yang Wei was taken aback. The confident look on Zu An's face made him feel a bit nervous, especially considering how easily Zu An had just solved 20 difficult problems. He felt quite uneasy.

Beside them, Shang Liuyu's crimson lips parted slightly. "Teacher Yang, surely you're not afraid to accept, are you?"

"How could that be!" Yang Wei immediately straightened his posture. "Bring it on! Not to mention 20, even 200 questions would be no problem."

Despite his loud boasts, he didn't change Zu An's terms. He was concerned that among 20 problems, there might be a few he couldn't solve. However, if he only needed to get 10 right, that guy would be gone. In Brightmoon City, he was the foremost expert in mathematics; countless treasury funds had passed through his hands for calculation. Could problems given by a mere child truly be harder than the real-world situations he'd encountered? Getting 10 right would absolutely be no problem!

Observing Yang Wei's reaction, Zu An roughly guessed his thoughts and couldn't help but smile faintly. "Let me make you taste the fear of being dominated by mathematics!"

He didn't pose problems involving partial differential equations, analytic geometry, or conic sections. Not only would Yang Wei not understand them, but likely no one in this world would either, and it would only seem like he was deliberately trying to be difficult.

He decided to create problems that everyone could understand but would be very difficult to solve. And then, he had an idea!

He wrote furiously, quickly jotting down 20 problems. With a guileless smile, he handed them over. "You are an expert in arithmetic, sir. These problems should be no trouble for you."

Yang Wei was startled, unprepared for Zu An's sudden modesty. He let out a snort. "Of course. How difficult could problems from a young lad like you be?"

He took the paper and saw the first question:"Two numbers sum to 120. The sum is told to the first person, and the product is told to the second person. The first person says he doesn't know what the two numbers are. The second person also says he doesn't know. Then the first person says, 'Now I know.' The second person immediately adds, 'I know too.' What are these two numbers?"Given the problems Yang Wei had previously posed, it was clear that the concept of multiplication existed in this world, so Zu An wasn't worried about the question being beyond the scope.

Yang Wei instinctively blinked upon seeing the first question. What on earth was this? He had never seen a problem like it before."What... what are these conditions? How do I even begin to solve a problem like this?"At first glance, Yang Wei thought the problem was simple, but as he looked at it again, cold sweat broke out. All his life's learning offered absolutely no clue on how to approach this.

Not only him, but the other students observing also started discussing it. However, they had never encountered such a novel type of problem before. After thinking for a long time, they still had no clue.

"Everyone be quiet!" Yang Wei was already flustered. He had hoped to gain some inspiration from the students' discussions, but their chatter was all nonsense, providing no help whatsoever.

The students stuck out their tongues one by one, thinking, "You can't solve it yourself, so why take it out on us?"

Hearing their murmurs, Yang Wei's face turned as black as charcoal. Then, a sudden thought struck him: there were only 20 numbers in total. At worst, he could try them one by one; he was bound to find the answer eventually. That guy earlier must have guessed using this method too.

With this thought, he calmed down and began various calculations.

The students nearby watched him write furiously on the paper and couldn't help but feel admiration. "Teacher is indeed a teacher; he figured out how to do it so quickly."

Only Zu An sat calmly on a stool, crossing his legs, sipping tea that Wei Suo had brought from somewhere, and admiring Shang Liuyu's graceful figure nearby. He had to admit, she was truly beautiful.

Shang Liuyu's attention was originally on the problem. Although she was a foreign language teacher, she knew a little about mathematics. She could solve many of the problems Yang Wei had posed earlier, but Zu An's problem was too bizarre. No matter how much she thought, she couldn't figure out how to solve it.

She instinctively looked towards Zu An, only to find him openly ogling her. She couldn't help but be amused for a moment. This young man certainly was bold; he was truly a bit different.

In contrast to the relaxed exchange of glances between Zu An and Shang Liuyu, Yang Wei's clothes were already soaked with cold sweat. He was using the brute-force method, which was fine at first, but the further he calculated, the dizzier he became, constantly feeling that something was wrong either here or there.

He swallowed hard and instinctively glanced at Zu An, seeing the other's enigmatic smile. Suddenly, a thought struck him: "This guy must have intentionally put the hardest problem first to trick me. Hmph, I almost fell for his elaborate scheme!"

He decided to look at the later problems first and tackle this most difficult one last.

The second question read:"You are standing in front of three doors. Only one door has treasure behind it; the others are empty. After you choose a door, someone opens one of the remaining two doors for you, and it's empty. At this point, that person asks you: do you want to change your choice and pick the other remaining door? To maximize your chances of getting the treasure, should you switch or not switch? Please explain your reasoning."Yang Wei instantly brightened. "This guy really did put the hardest problem first! This one is much simpler."

"Hmph, isn't the probability the same whether I switch or not? Is he trying to mislead me with false hints, does he think I'm an idiot?"He directly wrote down "do not switch" as the answer. Still not fully convinced, he added that the probability was the same whether one switched or not.

Then, satisfied, he looked at the third question:"Five pirates obtained 100 elemental stones during a robbery. The five are designated A, B, C, D, and E. Now, it's A's turn to propose a distribution plan. However, his plan must be approved by more than half of the pirates; otherwise, he will be thrown into the sea. If A is thrown into the sea, B will then propose a plan, followed by C, D, and E, and so on. What distribution plan should pirate A propose to get the most elemental stones?""Given conditions: Each pirate is very intelligent and can rationally judge gains and losses to make choices."

After reading the problem, Yang Wei was instantly dumbfounded. How was this guy's mind wired? How could he come up with such an obscure problem? He hastily began calculations on the paper. His first thought was 20 stones for each person, but he quickly dismissed that answer and started calculating other possibilities.

The other students also fell into intense discussion, but they were all like headless flies, none hitting on the right point.

Shang Liuyu saw the word "pirates" and felt a strange sense of familiarity, thinking, "The problems this young man poses are really interesting."

After a while, Yang Wei again took out his handkerchief to wipe away sweat. He found his handkerchief was already soaked, and now he was genuinely flustered because he realized he wasn't sure if his answer to this problem was correct either.

"Maybe I should look at the next problem?" He thought. Considering that guy had deliberately put the hardest one first, perhaps the next one would be easier.

Yang Wei swallowed hard and began reading the fourth problem:"There are 5 prisoners, numbered 1 to 5, who take turns grabbing green beans from a sack containing 100 green beans. Each person must take at least one bean. The person who takes the most and the person who takes the fewest will be executed. They cannot communicate with each other, but when they take beans, they can feel the number of remaining beans. Who among them has the highest chance of survival?""Hints:1. They are all very intelligent.2. Their principle is to first ensure their own survival, then try to eliminate others.3. Not all 100 beans need to be taken.4. If there's a tie for maximum or minimum, all those tied will be executed."

Yang Wei almost swore. The problems this guy was posing were all utter nonsense, each one so tricky. They looked simple, but upon closer thought, they were the kind that made your head feel like it was about to explode.

After working on it for a while, Yang Wei, with a dark expression, decided to move on to the next problem:

"On an island, there are 100 people, 5 with red eyes and 95 with blue eyes. The island has three strange religious rules:1. They cannot look in mirrors or see their own eye color.2. They cannot tell anyone else their eye color.3. If someone realizes they have red eyes, they must commit suicide that very night.One day, a traveler arrived on the island. Unaware of the rules, during a feast with all the islanders, he inadvertently said, 'There are people with red eyes among you.'The final question is: Assuming the islanders are intelligent enough to make intricate logical deductions, what will happen on this island?"

Yang Wei's eyes lit up. This problem seemed a bit simpler than the previous ones. He picked up his pen and quickly began to write.

And so, Yang Wei alternated between smiling and scratching his head. As he read through each problem, one by one, he eventually realized he knew how to solve very few of them.

By this time, the classroom doorway was already crowded with students from other classes. It turned out that class was long over, but none of the usually boisterous Yellow-rank class students had left, piquing the curiosity of other classes. Some came to check, and soon, what was happening spread throughout the entire school. Students from all classes couldn't resist coming to watch the spectacle.

Of course, if it were just a contest between Zu An and Yang Wei, the arrogant geniuses of the Heaven-rank class would probably not have bothered to show up. But with Shang Liuyu present, it was a different story.

Shang Liuyu was the most popular teacher at the school. Many might not want to attend other teachers' classes, but hers were always packed, and no one would ever sleep or get distracted—they didn't even have enough time to admire her beauty, let alone be distracted.

Of the students who rushed over after hearing the news, a small portion came to watch the show, while the majority came for Shang Liuyu. However, as time went on, they all became captivated by the problems Zu An had posed.

His problems were interesting precisely because everyone could understand them, and everyone felt they could solve them. Unlike some difficult problems that people knew were beyond their ability after a glance, causing them to lose interest.

One by one, they began secretly discussing the solutions to each problem. Even the eccentric geniuses of the Heaven-rank class, who were usually only interested in cultivation, started calculating in their minds.

"Brother-in-law is amazing!" Chu Huanzhao was the happiest person there. For some reason, seeing him in the spotlight felt like she was in the spotlight herself. She didn't overthink it, simply regarding him as family, feeling a sense of shared honor and disgrace.

Meanwhile, the petite and soft-spoken girl, Ji Xiaoxi, silently memorized the problems in the crowd. Even when her delicate eyebrows furrowed, she looked quite pretty. "How are these problems solved? Should I go back and ask Father? But Father doesn't seem interested in these; he's only interested in those messy picture books. He recently got a new book from somewhere, and he won't even let me touch it. Hmph..."

Elsewhere, Pei Mianman, her impressive figure hidden beneath a black robe, had the corners of her lips slightly upturned. "This fellow is quite interesting. It seems Chu Yan misjudged him. Should I take this opportunity to snatch him away? Taking her possessions is always fun..."

Zheng Dan, hidden behind the crowd, was filled with doubt and surprise. All the information she had received previously indicated that Zu An was a useless person. Even when he won 7.5 million taels from the Silverhook Casino a few days prior, everyone thought it was just dumb luck. But connecting that to his deep mastery of mathematics, the 7.5 million taels the Silverhook Casino lost probably wasn't unjustly lost at all.

Today, Yang Wei was clearly having a tough time against him. She wondered who had sent Zu An.

It seemed she needed to be more careful, lest her honey trap end up costing her more than she gained.

After an unknown amount of time, Shang Liuyu couldn't help but remind him, "Teacher Yang, time's up."

Yang Wei wiped the sweat from his cheeks. "Almost done, almost done." In the past, only he, as an invigilator, would see students struggling with his problems and trying to buy time. He never expected to experience such a situation himself one day.

However, with so many people watching, he couldn't bring himself to delay any longer. After writing for a little while more, he declared, "I'm finished."

Of these twenty problems, he wasn't confident in any of them except for one or two. But after much thought, he reasoned that his methods shouldn't be too problematic, and he should be able to get around 10 correct overall.

At this thought, he secretly congratulated himself for not boasting earlier that he'd get all 20 right; otherwise, he truly wouldn't be able to live this down now.

Getting a dozen or so right would still be acceptable. After all, these problems were so difficult, and everyone present had personally experienced that difficulty.

"So, how many did I get right, a dozen or so?" Yang Wei asked Zu An, who was checking his answers. He put his handkerchief back in his pocket, a smug smile on his face. He thought that no one in all of Brightmoon City could have done better than him—except, of course, for Zu An, that anomaly.

"As expected of Teacher Yang, he solved all the problems!"

"Yeah, I didn't know how to do a single one."

"Teacher Yang is the academy's math teacher after all; how else could he command respect without some skill?"

"But these problems Zu An posed are really tricky. I think his math skills are no less than Teacher Yang's."

"Most likely, the teacher was just being easy on him. Who would genuinely challenge a student?"

Hearing the students' whispers around him, Yang Wei felt his back straighten even further. It seemed his prestige at the school was still quite high after all these years. At this thought, he couldn't help but glance at Shang Liuyu, hoping to salvage his image in front of her. To his surprise, she wasn't looking at him at all; her beautiful eyes were curiously fixed on Zu An, who was reviewing the papers on the other side.

Just then, Zu An's voice suddenly reached his ears: "Is this your mathematical ability? I truly overestimated you. You didn't get a single one right!"

The classroom immediately erupted in an uproar!

"What?" Yang Wei suspected he had misheard. How could he not get a single one right? But seeing Zu An's mocking expression, he immediately became furious. "You insolent brat! How dare you slander me!"

Anger value from Yang Wei: 1024!One moment he was triumphant, and the next, in front of almost all the school's teachers and students, he was told he hadn't answered a single question correctly. The emotional plummet was too immense, and he simply couldn't afford to lose face like this!