Chapter 83: Shameless

Someone nearby immediately exclaimed, "This family is too stingy! How can two people share one rice bowl?"

Yang Wei's face darkened. "Why do you have so many questions? You're supposed to be solving problems, not discussing whether a family is stingy or not."

Zu An smiled slightly. He couldn't understand why Yang Wei found such a simple problem difficult. It was something that could be solved with a single equation. Could it be that people in this world didn't know how to multiply two-digit numbers?

He quickly made a calculation and wrote down "60 guests."

Gulp. Yang Wei swallowed hard. How was that possible? Did this guy know the answer? But these were the problems he had just created.

Were these problems truly that simple?

He began to doubt himself until he saw the blank expressions on the faces of the other students. That somewhat reassured him. This guy must have guessed, and just happened to try 60 as his first attempt. Yes, that had to be it.

Zu An moved on to the third problem: In the Brightmoon City market, a rooster costs 5 qian, a hen costs 3 qian, and three chicks cost 1 qian. A farmer's wife spent 100 qian to buy 100 chickens. How many roosters, hens, and chicks did she buy in total?

Oh, this was quite interesting: three unknowns, but only two equations could be formed.

However, since the numbers weren't very large, it was possible to use enumeration. Not a foolish brute-force approach, but a strategic one. If roosters, hens, and chicks are represented by x, y, and z respectively, setting up and simplifying the equations reveals that y = (100 - 7x) ÷ 4.

Since chickens are living animals, their count cannot be a decimal. Therefore, x, y, and z must all be integers. This means the number of roosters (x) must be an even number so that (100 - 7x) can be divided by 4.

Starting with x = 2, it quickly yielded the answer: 4 roosters, 18 hens, and 78 chicks.

When he saw Zu An write down the answer, Yang Wei's mind went blank. Three problems! He had already answered three correctly!

Even if he wanted to cheat and use his authority as a teacher to claim the answer was wrong, he couldn't. Under the gaze of so many people, even if they couldn't solve the problem themselves, it would be easy to verify the answer by working backward. Furthermore, Shang Liuyu was also present, observing everything.

What was going on with this guy? Wasn't he supposedly a good-for-nothing? How could he solve these problems so easily? And at a much faster pace than even him?

Now that the other party had answered three problems correctly, Yang Wei had lost his bet. He no longer hoped to have Zu An expelled; instead, he desperately hoped Zu An wouldn't answer all of them correctly, as that would put him in an extremely difficult position.

He had never anticipated such a scenario, which was why he had made the promise so casually. But now, the current situation was causing him to panic.

"No need to fear," he thought. "The later problems are increasingly difficult, especially the last one. I found it in an ancient, rare book. Not to mention students, even I can't solve it."

No matter how capable this guy was, there had to be a limit. There was no way he could solve an ancient problem like that!

Yet, Zu An wrote with fluid speed, rapidly scribbling down the answers to one problem after another, eliciting gasps of surprise from those around him. Initially, like Yang Wei, everyone thought he was merely a lucky guesser. But by now, they weren't blind; they naturally understood that he was truly a mathematical prodigy.

Many had initially intended to watch Zu An fail. After all, he had married the beautiful Miss Chu and seemed to flirt with every campus beauty listed in the "Register of Beauties," which made everyone intensely jealous. They had all hoped he would be expelled from the academy.

But as events unfolded, everyone was not only not disappointed but became increasingly excited. Watching a student get expelled from the academy was nothing compared to the amusement of seeing a teacher expelled.

A faint smile also appeared at the corners of Shang Liuyu's lips. She looked at Zu An, who was engrossed in writing, and thought, "He's quite handsome when he's serious."

Involuntarily, she recalled their first encounter in the pavilion, and a growing sense of curiosity filled her eyes. "Just how many secrets does this guy hold?" she wondered.

In contrast to Shang Liuyu's relaxed demeanor, Yang Wei was frantically wiping cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief. He could distinctly feel everyone's gazes slowly turning towards him, and a genuine sense of dread crept into his heart. He could only continually reassure himself: "Don't panic, don't panic. There's absolutely no way he can solve the last problem."

At this point, Zu An also paused at the final problem: "Two farmer's wives brought a total of 100 eggs to sell at the Brightmoon City market. Both sold their eggs for the same amount of money. The first farmer's wife said to the second, 'If I had as many eggs as you, I could sell them for 15 qian silver.' The second farmer's wife replied, 'If I had as many eggs as you, I could only sell them for 6 and two-thirds qian.' How many eggs did each of them have?"

The surrounding students immediately started discussing: "Strange, why would two farmer's wives sell the same eggs at different prices?" "Isn't that normal? Clearly, one farmer's wife is prettier and the other is less attractive. The prettier one can sell for more, and people will still buy, while the less attractive one has to sell her eggs cheaper." "Brother, that's a brilliant insight!"

Zu An was momentarily stunned by the problem, then looked at Yang Wei. "Do you consider this problem difficult?"

Yang Wei inwardly scoffed, *Of course it's difficult! Why else would I save it for last?* However, he no longer dared to underestimate Zu An, so he ambiguously replied, "It's not difficult for those who know how to solve it."

"Indeed, it's not difficult," Zu An thought to himself. It was simply a system of equations problem: four unknowns, requiring four equations. The solution process might just be slightly cumbersome.

Yang Wei, however, was fuming. *I was just being polite, and you're taking advantage? Let's see if you can actually solve it!*

[System Message: Rage value from Yang Wei +222!]

Zu An gave him a strange look, then casually jotted down some calculations on the paper before writing down the answer: The first farmer's wife had 40 eggs, and the second had 60 eggs.

An eager bystander quickly took the answer to verify it and immediately shouted, "It's correct! It's correct! All 20 problems are right!"

All the students in the classroom were stunned, then looked at Yang Wei with peculiar expressions. In their recent bet, he had declared that if Zu An answered all 20 problems correctly, he would resign.

Yang Wei's head was buzzing. Everything that had happened today seemed to defy common sense. He had initially thought he was simply undertaking an easy task, effortlessly putting down a supposedly useless student. Instead, the tables had been turned, and he was now in an impossible predicament.

"This isn't how it was supposed to go!" he thought. "The intelligence said he was a well-known good-for-nothing in the city. How can he be so skilled at arithmetic?"

Zu An looked at the elegant Shang Liuyu beside him and asked with a smile, "Teacher Shang, since you're the judge, who would you say won?"

"Naturally, you won," Shang Liuyu replied, nodding and sharing a subtle smile that only the two of them seemed to understand.

Zu An then turned to Yang Wei. "Teacher Yang, wasn't it? Someone just said that if I answered all 20 problems correctly, he would automatically resign. I wonder if that offer still stands?"

Yang Wei's face turned beet red, his parted hair trembling above his forehead. "You cheated! Yes, you must have cheated!"

At this point, he no longer cared about losing face in front of the "goddess." His primary concern was to save his job. He couldn't bear the disgrace of becoming the first teacher in the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty to be dismissed by a student.

"Hmph!" A loud chorus of boos immediately erupted in the classroom, clearly showing everyone's strong disapproval of his shameless behavior.

Shang Liuyu also frowned slightly and couldn't help but say, "Teacher Yang, everyone here witnessed the entire process. How could he possibly cheat?"

As if sensing the contempt in the "goddess's" eyes, Yang Wei smoothed the hair from his forehead and hurriedly said, "I just remembered, these problems can actually be guessed with a bit of luck. The numbers aren't that large; he could have simply tried out each answer one by one."

"Look at the steps he wrote; can any of you understand them? Clearly, he was just guessing wildly."

Some students carefully examined the steps on Zu An's paper and nodded in agreement; they truly couldn't understand them. Could he really have guessed? His luck would have to be extraordinarily good! However, they had heard that he previously won 7.5 million taels in two rounds at the Silver Hook Casino, so his luck, in that regard, was indeed beyond question.

Zu An couldn't help but shake his head. "While I knew you were shameless before, I didn't realize you could be this utterly shameless. You're able to lie with a straight face in front of so many people. Just tell me directly: were all my answers correct or not?"

"What's the point of just having the correct answer?" Yang Wei insisted stubbornly. "Without the process, it's still zero points. This is a rule of arithmetic class, primarily to prevent those who copy answers, as well as lucky guessers like you."

Shang Liuyu, standing nearby, chuckled softly. "Teacher Yang, what you're saying might be a bit unfair. Even if he were lucky enough to guess one or two answers, it's impossible for him to guess all 20 problems correctly. Could it be that his method is simply too novel, something nobody has encountered before?"

She was very beautiful and possessed an elegant, graceful demeanor. Though she spoke softly and uttered only a few words, they resonated with almost everyone, fostering a sense of agreement:

"Teacher Shang is right!" "It really couldn't be such a coincidence."

Yang Wei's eyelid twitched. He was secretly enraged. Was this woman deliberately trying to oppose him? With his position and reputation on the line, he no longer cared about any "goddess."

His face darkened. "Teacher Shang, you teach foreign languages, so I don't blame you for not understanding arithmetic. The jumbled steps he wrote down—not to mention me—even the arithmetic teachers at the Imperial National Academy in the capital would absolutely not be able to understand them. There simply isn't a solution method like that in this world. What's wrong with me saying he just guessed wildly? If you don't believe me, ask him to explain what these steps mean!"

He had already made up his mind. Later, regardless of whether Zu An's explanation was reasonable or not, he would directly dismiss it as utter nonsense. This confrontation had staked his entire reputation, so he no longer cared about maintaining appearances.

Shang Liuyu frowned slightly. After all, her opponent was a renowned arithmetic expert in Brightmoon City, and his words carried considerable authority, leaving her unsure how to assist.

She could only look at Zu An, who stood beside her. This young man had given her so many surprises; she wondered how he would handle this situation.

Zu An said calmly, "Given your level of arithmetic proficiency, you wouldn't understand these steps even if I explained them."

Yang Wei was so infuriated that he laughed. "Haha, did you all hear that? What arrogant nonsense is this boy spouting? I've never in my life encountered such an insolent student! I will absolutely report you to the school and have you expelled to uphold school discipline!"

[System Message: Rage value from Yang Wei +521!]