Chapter 84: One Wasn't Done Correctly

Zu An smiled, seeing the man's exasperated expression. "It's actually very easy to judge our math skills," he said. "I'll give you 20 questions. Whether you cheat or guess, if you can get all 20 right—no, let's say even half of them—I'll immediately pack my bags and get out of this school. Otherwise, you'll be the one to leave. What do you say?"

He knew very well that as an imperial official and a teacher hired by the academy, neither he nor the school authorities would allow him to leave because of the wager. However, if Yang Wei couldn't even solve a single question posed by a student, how could he possibly have the face to remain there?

Yang Wei was startled. Zu An's confident expression made him feel a little apprehensive, especially when he recalled how easily Zu An had just answered 20 difficult questions. He felt quite uneasy.

Beside him, 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 questions, even 200 wouldn't be a problem."

Although he was boasting loudly, he didn't change the terms Zu An had set. He worried that out of 20 questions, there might be a few he couldn't solve. However, if he only needed to get 10 right, that guy would be gone. He was the foremost arithmetic expert in Mingyue City, having calculated countless amounts of money for the Ministry of Revenue. How difficult could questions from a mere child be compared to the real-life problems he'd encountered? Getting 10 right would absolutely not be an issue!

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

He didn't pose questions involving partial differential equations, analytical geometry, or conic sections. Not only would Yang Wei not understand them, but probably no one in this world would either. That would only make it seem like he was deliberately trying to make things difficult.

The questions had to be ones everyone could understand, but were difficult to solve. He had it!

He swiftly wrote down 20 questions and, with a sincere smile, handed them over. "You are an expert in mathematics, so these questions shouldn't be a problem for you."

Yang Wei was taken aback, not expecting such sudden humility. He grunted, somewhat unaccustomed to it. "Of course! How difficult can questions from a young lad like you be?"

He took the paper and saw the first question:"There are two numbers between 1 and 20. The sum of these two numbers is told to the first person, and their product is told to the second person. The first person says they don't know what the two numbers are. The second person also says they don't know. At this point, the first person says, 'Now I know.' The second person then says, 'I know too.'""What are the two numbers?"

Judging from the questions Yang Wei had previously posed, the concept of multiplication existed in this world, so Zu An wasn't worried about going beyond the scope of their knowledge.

Yang Wei blinked instinctively when he saw the first question. What on earth was this? He had never encountered such a problem before.

"This... what kind of conditions were these? How did one even begin to solve such a problem?"

When Yang Wei first saw the question, he thought it was simple, but upon a second look, cold sweat broke out. All his life's learning offered no clue as to how to approach it.

Not only him, but the other students watching also began to discuss it. However, they had never seen such a novel question type before. After thinking for a long time, they still had no clue.

"Quiet down, all of you!" Yang Wei was already agitated. He had hoped to gain some inspiration from the students' discussions, but their chatter was all nonsense, providing no help whatsoever.

The students all stuck out their tongues, 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. Suddenly, a thought struck him: there were only 20 numbers in total. He could just try them one by one; he was bound to find the answer eventually. That guy earlier must have used a similar guessing method.

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

The students nearby watched him writing furiously on the paper and couldn't help but admire him: "Teacher is truly a teacher! He figured out how to do it so quickly."

Only Zu An sat leisurely on his stool, casually crossing his legs, sipping tea that Wei Suo had brought from somewhere, and admiring Shang Liuyu's graceful figure nearby. It had to be said, the woman was truly beautiful.

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

She subconsciously looked towards Zu An, only to find him brazenly staring at her. She couldn't help but be amused for a moment. This young man certainly was bold and truly unique.

In contrast to Zu An and Shang Liuyu's relaxed flirtation, Yang Wei's back was already soaked with cold sweat. He was using the exhaustive method, which was fine at first, but the further he calculated, the more muddled he became. He kept 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 deliberately put the hardest question first to trip him up! Hmph, he almost fell for his trick!

He decided to look at the later questions first and tackle the hardest one last.

The second question read:"You are standing in front of three doors. Behind only one door is a treasure, the others are empty. After you choose one door, someone opens one of the remaining two doors for you, revealing that it is empty. At this point, that person asks you: Do you want to change your choice to the other remaining door? To maximize your chances of getting the treasure, should you switch or not? Please explain your reasoning."

Yang Wei was instantly delighted. This guy truly did put the hardest question first; this one was much simpler.

"Hmph, isn't the probability the same whether you switch or not? Is he deliberately trying to mislead me and give me false clues? Does he take me for an idiot?"

He immediately wrote down "do not switch" as the answer. Still feeling uneasy, he added that the probability remains the same whether one switches or not.

Only then did he satisfiedly look at the third question:"Five pirates obtain 100 origin stones in a robbery. The five are designated A, B, C, D, and E. Pirate A proposes a distribution plan, but it must be approved by more than half of the pirates, otherwise, Pirate A will be thrown into the sea, and then Pirate B will propose a plan, followed by C, D, and E in turn, and so on. What distribution plan should Pirate A propose to get the most origin stones?""Given conditions: Each pirate is very intelligent and can rationally weigh gains and losses to make a choice."

After reading the question, Yang Wei was stunned. How did this guy's mind work, to come up with such an obscure problem? He hastily began calculations on the paper. His first thought was 20 stones for each, but he quickly rejected that answer and started working on other possibilities.

The other students also fell into heated discussion, but they were all like headless flies, none of them hitting on the right solution.

Shang Liuyu saw the word "pirate" and felt a strange sense of familiarity, thinking, "These questions this young man poses are really interesting."

A moment later, Yang Wei again took out his handkerchief to wipe away sweat. He found his handkerchief was already soaked, and he was truly starting to panic because he wasn't sure if his answer to this question was correct.

"Should I look at the next question?" he wondered. Recalling how that guy had deliberately put the hardest one first, perhaps the next one would be simpler.

Yang Wei swallowed with difficulty and began to read the fourth question:"There are 5 prisoners, numbered 1-5, taking 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 least will be executed. They cannot communicate with each other, but while taking beans, they can feel how many beans are left. Which of them has the highest chance of survival?""Hints:""1. They are all very intelligent.""2. Their principle is to prioritize their own survival, then to kill others.""3. All 100 beans do not have to be taken.""4. If there are duplicates for the maximum or minimum number of beans taken, those individuals will also be executed."

Yang Wei almost cursed out loud. The questions this guy was posing were utter nonsense, each one so devious. They looked simple, but when you thought about them closely, your head felt like it would explode.

After a while, Yang Wei, with a dark expression, decided to move on to the next question:"There's an island with 100 people, 5 of whom have red eyes and 95 have blue eyes. This island has three strange religious rules:""1. They cannot use mirrors or see their own eye color.""2. They cannot tell others what color their eyes are.""3. As soon as someone knows 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 celebration 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 thorough logical deductions, what will happen on this island?"

Yang Wei's eyes lit up. This question seemed a little simpler than the previous ones. He picked up his pen and began writing immediately.

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So it went. Yang Wei would sometimes smile, sometimes scratch his head, as he read through the questions one by one. By the end, he realized he could hardly solve any of them.

By now, the classroom door was crowded with people from other classes. It turned out that the class had long since ended, yet none of the usually playful students from the Yellow Class had left, which piqued the curiosity of other classes. Someone came to investigate, 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 Class probably wouldn't have bothered to come. But with Shang Liuyu present, it was a different story.

Shang Liuyu was the most popular teacher in the school. Many might not want to attend other teachers' classes, but her classes were always packed, and no one would ever fall asleep or get distracted—they were too busy admiring her beauty to have time for anything else.

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 questions Zu An had posed.

The interesting thing about his questions was that everyone could understand them, and everyone felt like they could solve them, unlike some difficult problems where people would lose interest after a glance, knowing they were beyond their capabilities.

One by one, they began to secretly discuss how to solve each problem. Even the eccentric students from the Heaven Class, who were only interested in cultivation, started calculating in their minds.

"Big brother-in-law is amazing!" The happiest person in the audience was none other than Chu Huanzhao. For some reason, seeing him show off felt like she was showing off herself. She didn't overthink it, simply regarding him as a family member of the Chu clan, feeling a sense of shared honor and disgrace.

Elsewhere in the crowd, the petite and adorable girl, Ji Xiaoxi, silently memorized the questions. Her delicate eyebrows, even when furrowed in thought, looked quite lovely. "How do you solve these questions? Should I go back and ask Father? But Father doesn't seem interested in these things; he's only interested in those messy picture books. He recently got a new one from somewhere, and he won't even let me touch it, hmph..."

On the other side, Pei Mianman, her impressive figure hidden beneath a black robe, subtly curved her lips upward. "This guy is quite interesting. It seems Chu Yan misjudged him. Should I take this opportunity to snatch him? Taking her things would surely be fun..."

Hiding behind the crowd, Zheng Dan was filled with doubt and surprise. All the information she had received previously indicated that Zu An was a good-for-nothing. Even when he won 7.5 million taels at the Silver Hook Casino a few days prior, everyone thought it was just dumb luck. But now, considering his profound mathematical skill, the 7.5 million taels lost by the Silver Hook Casino might not have been a loss at all.

Today, Yang Wei faced him and seemed to be suffering greatly. She wondered who had sent him.

It looked like she needed to be more careful, lest her honey trap end up costing her both the bait and the soldier.

After an unknown period, Shang Liuyu couldn't help but remind him, "Teacher Yang, time is up."

Yang Wei wiped the sweat from his cheeks. "Almost done, almost done." In the past, when he was proctoring exams, he would watch students struggle with his questions and try to buy time. He never expected to experience the same thing himself one day.

However, with so many people watching, he couldn't bring himself to stall for too long. After writing for a little while longer, he said, "I'm done."

Aside from one or two, he actually wasn't confident in any of the twenty questions. But after much thought, he believed his calculations shouldn't be too far off, and he should at least get around 10 correct in total.

Thinking this, he secretly congratulated himself for not boasting about getting all 20 right at the beginning; otherwise, he truly wouldn't be able to live this down now.

Getting a dozen or so correct would be acceptable, barely. After all, everyone had personally experienced how difficult these questions were.

"Well, how many did I get right? A dozen or so?" Yang Wei asked, putting his handkerchief back into his pocket and flashing a hint of a smug smile as he watched Zu An checking his answers. He thought that in all of Mingyue City, probably no one could have done better than him—except for that anomaly, Zu An, of course.

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

"Exactly, I didn't know how to do even one."

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

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

"Most likely, the teacher was just going easy on him. Who would pick a fight with a student?"

...

Hearing the students' whispers, Yang Wei's back straightened even further. It seemed his prestige at the school was still quite high after all these years. With that thought, he couldn't help but glance at Shang Liuyu, hoping to salvage his image in front of her. But she wasn't even looking at him; her beautiful eyes were curiously fixed on Zu An, who was examining the papers.

Just then, Zu An's voice suddenly reached his ears: "This is your math level? I truly overestimated you. You didn't get a single one right!"

The classroom instantly erupted in an uproar!

"What?" Yang Wei suspected he had misheard. How could he get none right? But seeing the other's mocking expression, he immediately became furious. "You insolent brat, how dare you slander me!"

Rage points from Yang Wei +1024!

One second he was triumphant, and the next, in front of almost the entire faculty and student body, he was told he hadn't gotten a single question right. The disparity was too immense, and he simply couldn't afford to lose face like this!