This humble Taoist priest wants to take the college entrance exam.

Chapter 28 Numbers and the Way (Bonus Chapter of 4700 words)
The three main subjects, Chinese, Mathematics, and English, are often taught consecutively. Today, the first two periods are consecutive Mathematics classes.

The math teacher's surname is Zhang. He is a middle-aged man in his forties. His hair is as sparse as Mr. Liang's. His glasses seem to have a very high prescription, and his eyes look particularly small when viewed through them.

As people reach middle age, it's inevitable to gain weight. His little belly made his white short-sleeved shirt, which was tucked into his pants, look noticeably fuller, but his arms, which were exposed from the short sleeves, were very thin.

Chen Shi'an glanced at it and knew that it was probably due to spleen deficiency and dampness, with phlegm and turbidity accumulating inside. He figured it was related to Teacher Zhang's sedentary lifestyle and his preference for rich, sweet, and greasy foods.

Of course, he came to learn, not to see a doctor. Many modern people have this kind of sub-health condition, and it's not a big deal. If Teacher Zhang is willing to improve, Chen Shi'an doesn't mind giving him a few pointers, prescribing some Chinese medicine to regulate his spleen and stomach, controlling his diet, and practicing Baduanjin or Wuqinxi when he has free time would also be helpful.

Right now, Teacher Zhang has already walked up to the podium, organizing the teaching materials she brought, and loudly announced, "Class begins."

Then one of the girls in the first group stood up and called out, "Stand up!"

This girl is named Qiu Yufu. She is the vice class monitor of Class 5, Grade 11. Her daily duties are to act as the class monitor and help Lin Mengqiu deal with everything she doesn't want to deal with. Only when Qiu Yufu encounters something that she really can't handle will she come to ask Lin Mengqiu to come out of retirement and be her savior.

It can be said that Lin Mengqiu's greatest significance as the class monitor in Class 5 was her deterrent effect, being the only person in Class 5 to wield the sword.

For example, when orders are given from above but no one listens to Qiu Yufu, Lin Mengqiu can step in and say something that will immediately stop everyone from having any objections...

After all, this one is different from Qiu Yufu; Lin Mengqiu has the principal's office behind her!

Sometimes, her best friends would secretly feel indignant on Qiu Yufu's behalf, thinking that she was the one who did all the work of the class monitor, so why was she only given the position of vice class monitor?
Silly child, how high does one have to go to be considered a class officer...?

Anyway, Qiu Yufu felt that she was already satisfied with being the vice class monitor. If she really became the class monitor, the things that she could manage on a daily basis would become more difficult to manage. She knew all too well that the students in the class were not afraid of her, but of Lin Mengqiu behind her.

Over time, Qiu Yufu also learned to work with Lin Mengqiu in a double act, one playing the good cop and the other the bad cop, and they managed Class 5 very well.

After Qiu Yufu shouted "Stand up!", the students in Class 5 stood up one after another. It wasn't exactly orderly; some stood up quickly, and some stood up slowly.

Chen Shi'an was among those who were slow to get up.

It's mainly because I'm not used to it.

Although I used to stand up and greet the teacher in elementary school, that was so many years ago...

"Hello, teacher—"

"Okay, sit down."

Since the division into arts and science classes in the second semester of my first year of high school, my classmates and teachers have never changed. They are all familiar faces, and Teacher Zhang is indifferent to these formalities.

He leaned slightly forward, his hands resting on the podium, and with a smile, he swept his gaze across the audience before finally settling on Chen Shi'an.

Chen Shi'an was easy to find. The main reason was that Lin Mengqiu had always sat alone before, but now that she had a deskmate, it was hard not to notice him.

Teacher Liang had already briefed all the subject teachers yesterday. Teacher Zhang knew that Chen Shi'an was a Taoist who had transferred to the class and that his foundation was very poor. However, he still looked at Chen Shi'an with great interest for a while. A Taoist student... that's quite novel!
"We have a new student in our class?"

"It's Master Dao!"

Without Chen Shi'an needing to introduce himself, the monkeys had already given him a long, enthusiastic introduction.

"Okay, welcome to our class, new student."

Teacher Zhang led the applause, and the students in the class followed suit with enthusiastic applause.

Chen Shi'an politely stood up from his seat and bowed slightly to Teacher Zhang on the podium.

Teacher Zhang's eyes lit up—

Wow, this new classmate is quite interesting...unshy and timid, calm and composed.

He looks quite refined and well-mannered, completely unlike the guy Lao Liang described as having terrible grades!

Old Liang is dishonest.

I guess this guy has been a homeroom teacher of an elite class for too long. He's arrogant and thinks that as long as the students' grades are not good, their attitude is fine!
Having been a teacher for so many years, Zhang Hong, though reluctant to admit it, like most teachers, has a stereotype about students with poor grades. He thinks they are either lazy, disruptive, or rely on their family's wealth or power, and therefore teachers don't respect them.

Chen Shi'an's image and performance really impressed Teacher Zhang, so much so that he was willing to believe that his grades were actually not that bad.

"Okay, new student, please have a seat."

Chen Shi'an then sat down.

After a brief introduction, Teacher Zhang took out the math test papers from the previous month's exam and went over them.

Chen Shi'an has this test paper; he took this one during his diagnostic test yesterday.

"Take out your papers, everyone. We'll go over them briefly in two class periods."

"You've all seen the grades and rankings. It's one thing for students in the regular classes to find the test difficult, but out of a test out of 150, how come some students in your class only scored in the 90s?"

"Except for Mengqiu, everyone else should copy down the questions they got wrong. Be conscientious, and the class representative will write them down. After evening self-study ends tonight, we'll collect all the copied error notebooks..."

The classroom was quiet when Teacher Zhang was speaking, but Chen Shi'an, with his good hearing, still managed to hear some quiet murmurs:
"This time it's really going to be tough. Old Zhang, he's so ignorant, he probably didn't even score as high as me when he was in school..."

Who scored 91 points?

"Who else could it be but Zihan?"

"Eat shit, I'm ninety-six!"

"Who's ninety-one?"

"I misremembered, no one scored 91, 96 was the lowest score."

"Your mother..."

Chen Shi'an: "..."

The young Taoist priest looked at the test paper in front of him, which he estimated to be a zero. He didn't know if this score would be included in the class's statistics, or if what Teacher Zhang had just said about copying test papers included him...

His paper was shockingly neat; he had drawn a circle after each question, like a hexagram line in a divination.

He didn't choose any multiple-choice questions, since it was just a diagnostic test and guessing was pointless. Besides, he couldn't even understand the questions, so he just circled them all.

Turning my head to look at my deskmate Lin Mengqiu's test paper, it was also completely blank, though there were some scattered lines and patterns on it, which served as drafts.

Chen Shi'an was taken aback and asked curiously, "Didn't you get a perfect score? Why didn't you do the test?"

Lin Mengqiu: "?"

As she moved the test paper on top, the answer sheet underneath was revealed—the black ink answers were pleasing to the eye, the red ink scores were plentiful, and the three numbers at the top, [150], were so dazzling that they were like the scorching summer sun, making it hard to look directly at them.

Lin Mengqiu subconsciously puffed out her small chest. She had seen the surprise on Chen Shi'an's face. What would he say this time?

"Oh, there was an answer sheet, no wonder..."

"..."

Lin Mengqiu didn't want to talk; she hated people who talked in class.

"But you answered the questions very well, and the paper looks very neat."

"~~~"

"May I see your answer sheet?"

"..."

Lin Mengqiu didn't say anything, but pulled out the answer sheet and moved it to the middle of their seats.

Chen Shi'an smiled, took her answer sheet, and gently held it in his hand, looking at the questions on the test paper while reading the answers she had written on it.

Lin Mengqiu glanced at him out of the corner of her eye and saw that he was looking at her intently, his brows slightly furrowed, as if he was thinking.

Lin Mengqiu didn't believe that someone who couldn't even solve junior high school equations could understand these questions and her answers. She had seen Chen Shi'an's test paper... and the circles he drew were quite round.

Lin Mengqiu guessed correctly; Chen Shi'an indeed couldn't understand it. After thinking for a while, he realized that he couldn't even understand the answer.

That's a serious problem, indicating that he is currently completely unable to keep up with high school math classes.

On the podium, Teacher Zhang was going over the test paper. "This question..."

Teacher Zhang bent down to pick up the broken piece of chalk that had fallen to the ground. His voice, tinged with displeasure and the hoarseness typical of middle-aged men, said, "It looks impressive, but when you break it down, it's all about basic skills. How come so many students still got this question wrong?" As he spoke, he drew a heavy circle at the top of the parabola, chalk dust falling in a flurry, and the entire classroom fell into a somber silence...

Chen Shi'an looked up at the blackboard, trying to understand the teacher's explanation, but found that he couldn't understand anything except for the circle that Teacher Zhang drew when venting his emotions...

Seeing his solemn expression, Lin Mengqiu finally spoke up.

Without even looking up, she was working on other questions while the teacher was going over the test paper. As she wrote, she muttered to herself, "Don't bother listening. Just look at the basic junior high school material first."

Why won't you listen?

"..."

Lin Mengqiu looked up at him with an expression that said, "How can we be the same?"

Chen Shi'an: "..."

Isn't that a lot of facial expression? I know what you're trying to say even if you don't say a word...

Seeing that Lin Mengqiu also said so, Chen Shi'an finally gave up listening to the lecture.

Previously, it was a sliver of pride in his heart that kept him from believing in fate, but now he has to admit that there are some math problems he just can't solve...

Without feeling discouraged or giving up, after realizing that he really couldn't keep up with the high school classes, he immediately put away his test paper, returned Lin Mengqiu's answer sheet, took out the "Seventh Grade Math Textbook (First Semester)," and began to focus on learning from the basics of junior high school mathematics.

Elementary school mathematics mainly revolves around natural numbers, fractions, and decimals, including basic number operations such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.

In junior high school mathematics, the scope of numbers expands to include rational and irrational numbers, and introduces concepts such as negative numbers and radicals. Calculations become more complex, and the concept of algebra is added, such as solving linear equations in one or two variables. In addition to numbers, there are also topics such as geometry, statistics, and probability.

These were all things that Chen Shi'an had never encountered before, which gave him a new understanding of the scope of the subject of 'mathematics'.

The textbooks used in various subjects in schools are optimized and arranged through generations before being sent to the classroom. The content taught in the textbooks is not required to be too in-depth, but only to be understood and mastered by the vast majority of students, so the difficulty is not high.

Especially with Chen Shi'an's intelligence, even without a junior high school teacher to teach him, he can understand and learn the content of the junior high school textbooks by himself.

"x and y... so that's what they mean..."

Chen Shi'an didn't find learning painful; the process of constantly absorbing new knowledge and understanding new concepts gave him a strange sense of pleasure.

Every time he understands a new concept, another new piece of knowledge immediately pops up to tell him 'you don't know enough';
Sometimes he was amazed by the solutions taught in the textbooks, and was surprised to find that the problem could be solved in this way.

A single formula can simplify complex problems or complicate them, its endless variations opening up his mind; no matter how large a circle is, like a wheel, or how small it is, like a fingertip, the ratio remains constant.
The profound mystery within this is none other than the Dao.
Lao Tzu said, "The Tao gives birth to One, One gives birth to Two, Two gives birth to Three, Three gives birth to all things." This speaks of an origin, a law of evolution.

What about mathematics? Mathematics also has its origins and its underlying principles, from the simplest numbers to complex formulas, and then to descriptions of the workings of the universe...

Chen Shi'an was looking at his textbook while doing exercises, completely absorbed in his work, so much so that he didn't even notice when get out of class ended.

The ringing of the bell and the noise of the surrounding environment did not affect his concentration at all. He seemed to be in a trance, watching, learning, practicing, and calculating at the same time...

Lin Mengqiu was stunned...

She is quiet most of the time, but eventually she will be disturbed when the influence of the surroundings reaches a certain level. It's not that she doesn't hear those voices, she just doesn't want to pay attention to them.

Unlike Chen Shi'an, who was called by Teacher Zhang on the podium for a long time but didn't react at all, as if his ears were blocked by prayer beads!
Was he faking it? No, she watched him get into it step by step.

In just one class period, he had flipped through more than twenty pages of his math textbook, and filled three double-sided sheets of scratch paper.

Lin Mengqiu was so impressed that she didn't know whether to admire his learning speed or his dedication. After all, he had just been dealt a blow, and Lin Mengqiu felt that if it were her, she probably wouldn't have been able to get motivated so quickly.

"Chen Shi'an?"

Teacher Zhang on the podium called out again.

It's already the third tone.

Lin Mengqiu felt that her deskmate should do something, so she took her pen and poked him with the tip.

Having been a student for so long, this was the first time she had poked someone with a pen, and she was still a little unaccustomed to it. Through the connection of the pen in her hand, she touched his arm, and the subtle elasticity from the pen made her feel something tingling and itchy in her heart.

Poke, poke,

no response?
Poke it again, poke it again!
Chen Shi'an turned his head and looked at her with a puzzled expression.

Lin Mengqiu: "..."

What kind of expression is that? I kindly reminded you, and it seems you're blaming me?
You don't know what's good for you! I'm deducting one point from your score!
"what happened?"

"Teacher Zhang is calling you."

"Ok?"

Chen Shi'an turned his head, and Teacher Zhang, who had been calling him for a long time without responding, simply walked over on his own.

"What were you looking at for the whole class, Shi'an? I called you for ages and you didn't respond." It was break time, and Teacher Zhang was already standing next to Chen Shi'an's desk with a chuckle.

With the teacher in front of him, Chen Shi'an, who did not have the habit of sitting and talking to people, immediately stood up.

With an apologetic look on his face, he sincerely apologized: "I'm sorry, Teacher Zhang, I didn't hear you just now."

"It's alright, it's alright, please sit down."

Regardless, polite people always make a good impression. Teacher Zhang increasingly felt that Lao Liang was lying to him. How bad could Chen Shi'an be?

"What book are you reading? I've seen you read for a whole class period."

"It was a seventh-grade math lesson, which Mr. Liang lent me to help me with my basic math skills."

"what?"

Teacher Zhang's heart skipped a beat.

Somewhat disbelieving, he picked up the math textbook on his desk, and sure enough, it was the "Seventh Grade Math, First Semester"!

No...no, no!
"I heard from Lao Liang that you did the monthly exam paper, right? Do you have the paper? Let me see it."

"Teacher Zhang, please take a look here."

"..."

Looking at the blank paper that was mostly just circles, Teacher Zhang was dumbfounded. He asked uncertainly, "Where are the answers? Did you write them on the test paper?"

"It was written on the exam paper."

"Then these questions..."

“I don’t know any of that. Teacher Zhang, I’ve never been to school. Teacher Liang told me this morning that I can learn on my own in class. He said he had already told you everything.”

"..."

Looking at the sincere and honest boy, Teacher Zhang felt like the sky had fallen—

That old Liang is a real scoundrel!

They only mentioned that Chen Shi'an had poor academic foundation and had never been to school, without saying a word about it!

No wonder he ran off faster than a dog after saying that! Better to die for your fellow Daoist than for yourself?

"Teacher Zhang, where are you going?"

"I... need to go back to my office."

"My test paper..."

"Can I borrow the teacher's chair?"

(End of this chapter)