Lu Mingfei, why are you slaying dragons if you're not involved!

What the heck is Chapter 100, "Advanced Mathematics"?! (528)

The night sky was a deep, inky black, almost devoid of any other color.

The villa area was shrouded in silence. Occasionally, a breeze would sweep through, causing a few soft rustling sounds of leaves rustling, before plunging the area back into deeper silence, with nothing more. The streetlights cast a dim, soft, and meager yellow glow on the road, barely enough to make out objects.

One of the pieces, pressed against the cold windowpane, silently entered the bedroom. By the time it reached the ceiling, it was so dim that it could only outline the faint patterns on the ceiling.

Beneath the ceiling, on the bed, the boy's eyes were closed.

In the stillness of the night, amidst the almost unchanging scenery, four o'clock in the morning arrived.

[Warning, it's time to get up...]

Lu Mingfei suddenly opened his eyes, still lingering drowsiness churning within them, threatening to engulf him like a tidal wave. However, this drowsiness dissipated almost instinctively as he activated [Vitality Micro-Management] to activate "Awake".

But Lu Mingfei did not get up.

He remained lying in bed, waiting for the warning, electric shock countdown to begin, until the countdown reached one, at which point he suddenly sat up!

The electric shock warning countdown has disappeared.

"Hmph, let's see if you get tired of reading!"

With these thoughts in mind, Lu Mingfei smoothly jumped out of bed and went to the bathroom to wash up.

This was his "revenge" against the schedule, a tiny bit of resistance... but at least it showed that his "fighting spirit" still existed and remained firm!

Regardless of its usefulness, Lu Mingfei felt that pushing himself to the limit not only gave him almost three extra seconds of relaxation, but also provided a sense of pleasure from defying his schedule and the thrill of flirting with danger...

win!
"There are ten chances in a plan, almost thirty seconds, that's half a minute!"

As Lu Mingfei brushed his teeth, he thought to himself, "At least in a short-term plan like [washing up], I have to make the most of it!"

So he started doing it—he suddenly stopped brushing his teeth and looked around, he abruptly stopped taking deep breaths while washing his face, and even hummed a short tune.

The countdown to the electric shock warning would abruptly stop after each "one," alternating with Lu Mingfei's smug "Heh heh."

He felt like Fang Tangjing from the movie "Hail the Judge," jumping back and forth on that line, yelling, "Hey, I'm slacking off! Hey, I'm starting to execute the plan again! Hey, I'm slacking off again! If you're so capable, then electrocute me..."

[…One, release the electric shock!]

It wasn't that the schedule shortened the judgment time, but rather that Lu Mingfei failed this time after pushing himself to the limit several times... Always walking on the edge, it's inevitable to make occasional mistakes.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

A sudden, intense pain shot through his entire body! Lu Mingfei screamed, but he had to force himself to keep his voice down, afraid that Ling, who might be waiting outside the door, would hear him...

After a while.

As the warning message "[Warning, it's time for your morning run...]" sounded as scheduled, Lu Mingfei opened the door.

As expected, Ling stood quietly at the door waiting for him. When she saw Lu Mingfei's unsteady steps and stiff movements, she tilted her head slightly with a blank expression to express her doubt.

"I'm numb from winning... no, I'm numb from sleeping too long!"

Lu Mingfei forced a smile and quickly changed the subject, "Let's go."

Once I stepped out of the villa and started running, the lingering numbness in my body finally disappeared.

Lu Mingfei breathed a slight sigh of relief. If he hadn't been able to increase his speed due to the continued paralysis... the consequences would have been unimaginable!
He didn't try to cause trouble again. Each time he was electrocuted, he would behave for a while, but there's a saying, "Once the wound heals, the pain is forgotten." As time went on, he would always start getting restless again…

The asphalt road stretched out, streetlights dotted both sides, and Lu Mingfei and Ling ran silently, their steps neither fast nor slow but crystal clear, their rhythm unchanging yet full of vitality, as if announcing the arrival of a new day in this quiet early morning.

Day 7 has begun!

……

It's almost 6:30 in the classroom.

Lu Mingfei frowned deeply, as if he had encountered some enormous problem.

However, he did not enter a state of "flow," and his subordinates were not working on any challenging problems.

Such behavior was certainly not a whim or a deliberate attempt to "provoke" his schedule. He was currently in a "compliant" state, and Lu Mingfei was very clear about when he could slack off and when he should work hard.

The root of his worry is—

[Through hard work, your [mathematics] skills have improved, and you have gained 1 proficiency points.]

[Mathematics LV1 - Proficiency 100/200]

Gaining proficiency is certainly a good thing, but if the proficiency gained per instance drops to only 1 point, and the frequency of gaining proficiency also begins to decrease... then that's not a good thing!

The schedule planner certainly wouldn't cut corners in this way without a reason; it emphasizes impartiality and follows the rules completely.

Even if Lu Mingfei jumps like that, it won't violate the pre-established rules and retaliate.

But what could be the reason for that?
Lu Mingfei subconsciously looked at Zero.

The all-powerful Senior Brother Chu isn't around right now, and it wouldn't be good to make a phone call and hear "Zihang is still awake"... Chu Zihang probably won't say anything, but Lu Mingfei himself feels bad about it.

After all, it's not a matter of life and death!
Let's ask Zero. A top student who can guarantee full marks on objective questions must have a solution! Zero was clearly reading a book, but when Lu Mingfei looked at her, she also turned her head to look at him, as if she was paying attention to his every move.

It must be a coincidence, right?

Their eyes met, and those deep, calm eyes remained unchanged.

"Zero, I have something I want to ask you."

Lu Mingfei banished the thought from his mind. "I suddenly feel that with the current learning method, I'm learning less and less. What should I do in this situation?"

"This is not a problem of learning methods."

Zero looked at him calmly, her tone indifferent, "Your mastery of high school math has reached a bottleneck."

"How can we break through this bottleneck?" Lu Mingfei asked humbly.

Ling tilted her head slightly: "Why break it?"

"How can we make progress without breaking through the bottleneck?" Lu Mingfei was taken aback.

"The bottleneck I'm referring to isn't the one where learning ability is limited to its upper limit, thus creating a bottleneck."

Ling explained casually, "It's because your grasp of high school knowledge has reached its maximum threshold. The reason you can learn less is because there's only so much high school math knowledge."

These words struck Lu Mingfei's nerves like a cold hammer!
All the confusion suddenly cleared up.

The standard for assessing proficiency in schedule planning is the learning, mastery, and application of "new knowledge."

The less new knowledge you learn and master, the less proficiency you gain!
Even if you practice "one plus one equals two" a hundred million times, it won't improve your proficiency at all.

Previously, Lu Mingfei had been immersed in the "flow" mode, repeating the steps of "learning - doing practice problems - mastering".

Only now, with Zero's words hitting the nail on the head, did he realize something—

It seems that he... can no longer encounter problems that require time to think.

Most of the time, as soon as they finished reading the question, the traps and hidden conditions buried by the question setter were discovered, and the corresponding solution ideas emerged in their minds. They would pick up a pen and write it down, and what they wrote was correct.

Sometimes, he can even guess what the question setter is going to ask before he has even finished reading the question!
As for questions that cannot be answered or answered incorrectly, they have not appeared for a long time.

Lu Mingfei has been working on past years' college entrance exam questions these past two days, excluding the Beijing exam. Many of them are quite difficult, specifically designed to select high-scoring candidates.

Even so, he never froze!
"My advice for this situation is to use a larger bottle."

As Zero spoke, she handed over the book she was holding.

Lu Mingfei subconsciously took it, closed it, and looked at the cover.

This is a book whose cover is divided into light green, white, and dark green, while the white part is marked with its identity in striking black font: "Advanced Mathematics, Sixth Edition, Volume 1".

Advanced Mathematics!

Even as a high school student, Lu Mingfei had heard of the book's reputation.

Every year after college students' final exams, a large number of people wail online, saying things like "I failed advanced mathematics again" or "This is the first time, I'm used to it by the third time."

"This is a domestic university engineering mathematics textbook. It is relatively lacking in theoretical depth and rigor, but it comprehensively covers the needs of non-mathematics majors and can give you a preliminary understanding."

Ling spoke casually, his gaze sweeping over the green book that was considered hellishly difficult by countless college students.

"I don't recommend spending too much time on this textbook. Just study it briefly today and get a basic understanding of the relevant knowledge."

The textbooks "Mathematical Analysis" published by Higher Education Press and "A Course in Calculus" by Fichtenholz are more suitable for your learning style, and their depth and breadth are also top-notch.

But those two books are at home now; I didn't bring them with me.

She paused for a moment, then said, "If needed now, I can have someone pick it up from my home and bring it over."

"No need, no need, there's no rush."

Lu Mingfei waved his hands repeatedly. He looked down at the book "Advanced Mathematics" in his hand, then looked up at Ling. A question popped into his mind and then he couldn't help but blurt it out.

"Zero...you weren't a college student before you transferred schools, were you?"

Otherwise, how could there be textbooks that are only used in universities?
It couldn't be that she had already foreseen that she would master all the high school math knowledge in advance, to the point that there was "nothing left to learn"... and thus prepared in advance.

Zero looked at him quietly, her eyes devoid of any emotion, yet Lu Mingfei felt an invisible pressure, as if he were being observed under a microscope.

Just when he could barely withstand the silent scrutiny, Zero finally spoke.

I am seventeen years old.

The voice remained calm, as if stating an objective fact unrelated to oneself.

"No grades were skipped."

(End of this chapter)