My IQ has been increasing year by year.

In mid-June, the wind in Zeyang had lost all its chill.

It was past six in the evening, and the sun was still high in the sky, blazing brightly on the asphalt road. Zhang Zhicheng walked to his front door, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a bunch of keys.

Unlike usual, he didn't fumble for his keys across two floors and rattle them around. Instead, he held the key to the security door between his thumb and forefinger, carefully aligned it with the keyhole, and inserted it.

There wasn't a sound. He flicked his wrist slightly. Clink.

The sound was very faint, but it was still somewhat noticeable in the quiet hallway.

Zhang Zhicheng frowned, stopped what he was doing, held his breath and listened to the sounds inside the door before slowly turning the handle and pushing the door open a crack.

The house was eerily quiet, with no television on. Zhang Zhicheng slipped inside and closed the door behind him.

As he closed the door, he gripped the doorknob tightly with two fingers, and only after the door was completely closed did he slowly loosen his fingers, allowing the doorknob to gently return to its original position.

Zhang Zhicheng bent down, untied his leather shoes, took them off, and neatly placed them in the corner. Then he stepped onto the floor tiles wearing only his socks.

This building materials business owner, usually loud and brisk, was now tiptoeing towards the living room like a thief. The kitchen sliding door was half-open.

Wang Li, wearing an apron, was standing in front of the gas stove.

A clay pot sat on the stove, white steam billowing from the edge of the lid, making a bubbling sound. Hearing the noise behind her, Wang Li turned around.

She raised a finger to her lips and shushed him forcefully.

Zhang Zhicheng nodded and tiptoed into the kitchen. "What are you making?"

Zhang Zhicheng lowered his voice to an extremely low level, almost speaking in a hushed tone, "What else can we do?"

Wang Li used a rag as a hand warmer to lift the lid of the casserole.

A thick, pungent aroma, mixed with Chinese medicinal herbs and some indescribable odor, instantly filled the small kitchen. Inside the clay pot, milky white broth simmered, with a few red dates and goji berries floating on top, and a piece of meat in the center.

Zhang Zhicheng glanced at it, his brows furrowing. "Pig brains again?"

"Pig brain is good for the brain; like cures like."

Wang Li picked up a soup spoon and stirred the pot a couple of times.

"I also added gastrodia elata and walnut kernels. Qiangzi has been using his brain a lot these past few days. Look at his dark circles, they're almost down to his chin. He needs some nourishment, right?"

Zhang Zhicheng wanted to retort that the sight of this stuff made him nauseous, but he swallowed his words. Wang Li, watching the bubbling broth in the pot, softened her voice.

"These gastrodia elata and walnuts were picked out by Xiuying at the morning market early this morning." Wang Li scooped up a whole walnut kernel with a soup spoon and showed it to Zhang Zhicheng.

"Xiufu said she had never prepared these for Xiaozhuo before and had no experience. Last night, she specially went to ask the old Chinese medicine doctor at the alley entrance. She sat in the sun this morning and cracked each walnut open with a nutcracker, picking out the kernels whole with a toothpick. She said broken pieces are bad luck and they must be whole."

Zhang Zhicheng listened and nodded.

"Old Chen and his wife are kind-hearted people; they truly treat Qiangzi like their own son."

"Of course." Wang Li turned the stove down. "Is he inside?"

Zhang Zhicheng glanced towards the bedroom. "They're doing a science practice test."

"He went in at 2:30 pm and hasn't come out yet. I went in to bring him some mung bean soup, but he didn't even look up," Zhang Zhicheng sighed.

He walked to the kitchen window, wanting to have a smoke.

He reached into his pocket, found the cigarette case, took one out, put it in his mouth, then took it off and put it back in the case. He felt a tickle in his throat and wanted to cough.

Zhang Zhicheng immediately turned around and strode to the balcony that connects to the living room. He opened the glass door to the balcony, went out, and then closed the door tightly.

He grabbed a dry towel from the clothesline and covered his mouth. "Cough cough cough."

The muffled cough was muffled by a towel, dissipating into the warm air outside. After finishing coughing, Zhang Zhicheng pushed open the door and went back into the kitchen.

"Have you arranged a place for me to sleep at noon?" Wang Li asked without looking up as she chopped scallions. "Zeyang Hotel," Zhang Zhicheng replied.

"I went to three hotels, and Zeyang Hotel was the closest to the No. 1 Middle School exam site, only a five-minute walk away."

"I booked a business suite on the sixth floor of their building, facing north. The window overlooks the government compound, there's no road, it's absolutely quiet. After the exam at noon, I'll have him go straight there for lunch, sleep for an hour and a half, and then go into the exam room." Zhang Zhicheng paused for a moment.

"I booked all three rooms on their floor at the end of the corridor. They're empty anyway, so it'll save people from walking around and disturbing him." Wang Li put down the cleaver and put the chopped scallions into a small bowl.

She turned around, wiped her hands on her apron, then reached into her trouser pocket and rummaged around for a while. She pulled out a small red cloth bag.

It was triangular, with red thread sewn along the edges, bulging and emitting a faint scent of incense. "What is this?" Zhang Zhicheng asked.

"This morning, Xiuying accompanied me on the early bus to Nanshan Temple." Wang Li held the red cloth bag in her hand, carefully cradling it.

"We knelt before the Bodhisattva for half an hour, praying for a talisman that would ensure we pass all our exams." Wang Li's eyes were a little red.

"When Xiuying was kowtowing, she kept chanting Qiangzi's name, praying to the Bodhisattva to bless Qiangzi so that he would not be careless and to help him get into the No. 1 Middle School smoothly."

Zhang Zhicheng stared at the red cloth bundle without saying a word. He remained silent for a while.

"When I came up just now, I was smoking downstairs and I ran into Old Chen," Zhang Zhicheng said, lowering his voice.

"I told Lao Chen that I was worried that Qiangzi's suffering over the past six months had been in vain. Lao Chen patted me on the shoulder and told me not to worry." Zhang Zhicheng recalled Chen Jianguo's confident expression in the hallway.

"Old Chen said that Xiao Zhuo called home last night. Xiao Zhuo is working on such important research with a professor in Huizhou, and he's been working non-stop. He even called to ask Qiangzi which page he was on in his error notebook." Zhang Zhicheng said, his eyes filled with gratitude.

"Xiao Zhuo confided in Lao Chen, saying that with Qiangzi's current level, he'll definitely get into the No. 1 High School in the city. Lao Chen told me exactly what he said: Xiao Zhuo's judgment of people is even more accurate than the test setter." Wang Li breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this.

"With Xiao Zhuo's words and their whole family supporting us, Qiangzi will definitely succeed." Wang Li turned around and picked up a clean white porcelain bowl.

I'll bring the soup in later and take out his school uniform t-shirt.

"I sewed this talisman into the left inner pocket of his school uniform. The left side is closer to the heart, and the Bodhisattva can protect his mind." "Sew it securely," Zhang Zhicheng said.

"Don't let any loose threads prick his skin. He's ticklish, and if he scratches during the exam, he'll lose focus." Wang Li rolled her eyes at him.

"Do I need you to teach me? I sewed it with the finest pure cotton thread, wrapped it in the fabric lining, and he can't feel it at all from the outside." Wang Li turned around and picked up a clean white porcelain bowl.

She used a ladle to scoop the pig brains out of the casserole and placed them at the bottom of a bowl. Then she poured two spoonfuls of milky white broth over them and sprinkled some chopped green onions on top to cover the fishy smell. "Are you taking it in?" Wang Li asked.

"You take it," Zhang Zhicheng waved his hand.

"I just came back from outside and I'm all sweaty. I'm going to go to the sun to get some fresh air."

Wang Li carried the white porcelain bowl out of the kitchen and came to Zhang Qiang's bedroom door.

The door was ajar, with a crack in it.

Wang Li didn't knock. She gently pushed the door open with her elbow and stepped inside. The curtains were drawn, making the room somewhat dim.

The white light from the eye-protection lamp on the table shone directly onto the surface. Zhang Qiang, shirtless, sat in the chair.

He was noticeably thinner than he had been a few months ago, and the bones in his shoulders were protruding.

The desk was a mess, with several completed test papers spread out, covered in black ink. Eraser shavings, like snowflakes, were thickly spread along the edges of the papers and in the cracks of the desk.

Zhang Qiang held a pen in his hand, head down, intently working on a difficult physics problem. Wang Li walked over quietly and placed the porcelain bowl in an empty corner of the table.

"Qiangzi, take a break." Wang Li's voice was very gentle.

Zhang Qiang didn't look up. His pen tip quickly swept across the draft paper, writing down a series of formulas, and then crossing them out heavily.

"Mom, just put it there," Zhang Qiang said without turning his head.

"Drink it while it's hot; it'll taste fishy when it cools down."

Wang Li didn't leave. Zhang Qiang sighed.

He stopped writing and turned his head.

His eyes were unusually bloodshot, and there was a dark bruise under his eyes.

He glanced at the white porcelain bowl and frowned. "That pig-brain noise again."

"It's stewed with gastrodia elata and walnuts; it's good for the brain." Wang Li pushed the bowl forward.

"After you finish your drink, don't stay up late. Go to bed early after you finish this set of science problems." Zhang Qiang didn't say anything.

He picked up the spoon from the table, sipped the soup, and put it in his mouth. It wasn't as salty as he'd imagined; it was rather bland. He then kept a piece of pig brain.

The stuff was soft and fluffy, like tofu, but much greasier. Zhang Qiang didn't chew it; he just tilted his head back and swallowed it whole.

"Drink slowly, don't burn yourself." "Gah."

Zhang Qiang quickly emptied the bowl, leaving not even a drop of soup.

He pushed the empty bowl aside. "Take off your school uniform."

Wang Li pointed to the short-sleeved school uniform from the junior high school section of No. 1 Middle School that was draped over the back of the chair.

"It's all sweaty, I'll wash it so I can wear it tomorrow." Zhang Qiang didn't pay attention and continued to look at the physics problem.

Wang Li picked up the school uniform, held the empty bowl, and quietly slipped out, closing the door behind her.

Once the door closed, only the gentle hum of the air conditioner remained in the room. Zhang Qiang turned his gaze back to the exam paper.

This is a physics exam paper from a provincial middle school entrance exam in 2004. It's the second-to-last major question.

An extremely complex dynamic circuit diagram.

The diagram shows a power source, two variable resistors, three fixed resistors, two voltmeters, and one ammeter. There are also three switches, each in a different state: open or closed.

The problem asks to calculate the power consumption of the entire circuit and the voltage variation range across a certain resistor under different switch combinations. Zhang Qiang was looking at those haphazard lines.

If he had seen this picture six months ago, his mind would have gone completely blank.

The tangled wires were like a jumbled mess; he couldn't tell which were connected in series and which in parallel. He was completely baffled as to which voltage the voltmeter was measuring, or which end of the rheostat was short-circuited. But now...

He didn't even bother to read the text descriptions in the question carefully; his body reacted almost mechanically.

He put down the black ballpoint pen in his hand and reached into the pen holder in the upper right corner of the table.

There were a dozen or so pens in the pen holder, and his fingers precisely found two of the thicker pens. He pulled them out.

A red marker, a blue marker. Zhang Qiang's eyes became somewhat vacant.

In his mind, he automatically pictured Chen Zhuo sitting opposite him, flipping through "Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils," speaking in that flat, monotone voice. "Don't worry about how complicated the illustrations are."

"Electric current has no intelligence; it only flows from high potential to low potential." The current from the positive terminal is red, and the current from the negative terminal is blue.

"When it encounters an electrical appliance, the color changes; when it encounters a wire, the color continues to extend."

There is no voltage between people of the same color, but they are connected in parallel between people of different colors. Chen Zhuo's voice echoed in Zhang Qiang's mind.

There was no emotion, no word of encouragement, only cold, hard rules. Zhang Qiang removed the cap from his red marker.

He placed the tip of his pen on the positive terminal of the power supply in the circuit diagram. He began drawing lines.

The red ink extends along the black printed lines. After a closed switch, it continues to be red.

When you encounter a node, it forks, with two paths, one above the other, both of which are red.

The red line continues to be drawn until it hits a fixed resistor R1 and stops.

The other red line collided with the sliding rheostat R2 and stopped. It then encountered the voltmeter.

Chen Zhuo's words flashed through Zhang Qiang's mind again: "The voltmeter is not there; it's an open circuit."

The red line skips the voltmeter. The red line is now drawn.

Zhang Qiang capped the red pen and removed the blue marker.

The pen tip touches the negative terminal of the power supply. The blue line begins to push backward past the switch and forks.

The blue wire hit the other end of resistor R1 and stopped.

The other blue line hit the other end of the sliding rheostat R2 and stopped. The drawing is finished.

Zhang Qiang put down his pen.

The complex, maze-like circuit diagram that had just appeared before was now crystal clear in Zhang Qiang's eyes.

At the boundary between red and blue, there are only R1 and R2. There are no other complex structures.

All the perceptual wires are indistinguishable by color.

This is an extremely simple circuit with R1 and R2 connected in parallel. The ammeter is on the red line, measuring the main circuit current.

One of the voltmeters, with both ends red, was short-circuited and showed a zero reading. The other voltmeter, with one end red and the other blue, measured the total voltage of the parallel circuit, which was the power supply voltage. Zhang Qiang picked up a black ballpoint pen.

Write the first line of formula on the scratch paper.

=U/R total. Substitute the data. Two minutes later.

He wrote three numbers on the answer sheet and labeled them with units. Done.

Zhang Qiang threw his pen on the table.

He looked at the exam paper, covered in red and blue scribbles, and felt a cool breeze blowing on his back from the air conditioner. He suddenly felt a bit absurd.

This question reportedly stumped 30% of the test takers in the province that year.

But when he was solving the problem, he didn't even use much logical thinking.

He was just like a worker on an assembly line, mechanically painting and then mechanically applying the most basic Ohm's Law. The method Chen Zhuo taught him was so simple and brutal that it was almost thuggish.

Zhang Qiang flipped over the physics test paper and pulled out the math test paper underneath. It was the last, most challenging question.

A problem combining quadratic functions and geometric figures.

In a Cartesian coordinate system, a parabola opening downwards intersects the x-axis at points A and B, and the y-axis at point C. There is a moving point P on the parabola, moving in the first quadrant.

Problem statement: Find the coordinates of point P when the area of ​​triangle PAC is maximized, and prove that triangle PAC is a right triangle at this time. (Zhang Qiangting wrote this problem.)

Dense text. A problem involving a moving point, finding the maximum or minimum area, and proving it using right angles.

This is the most frustrating type of question in the middle school entrance exam in mathematics; many students give up as soon as they see this kind of diagram.

Zhang Qiang closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

The whirring of the electric fan gradually faded away.

He felt as if he had returned to that chaotic arcade in the basement of the city center.

The air was thick with the smell of smoke and the electronic sounds of game consoles. He sat next to Chen Zhuo.

Chen Zhuo's fingers danced rapidly across the joystick and buttons.

The image of Yagami on the screen blurred into an afterimage. "Down, forward, light punch, subtle flick."

"This is the starting stance," Chen Zhuoting said, looking at the screen.

"Just like when you're doing a math problem, no matter what the question asks, you first find all the known fixed points in the coordinate system." Zhang Qiang opened his eyes.

"Down, forward, light punch," Zhang Qiang muttered to himself.

He picked up a pen and wrote down the equation of the parabola on the draft paper. Let y=0, and solve the quadratic equation.

Find the coordinates of points A and B. Set = 0 and find the coordinates of point C.

The initial stance is complete, and all the fixed points on the diagram now have coordinates. "Forward, down, back, heavy foot, Kotozuki Ink."

"This is a connecting technique," Chen Zhuo's voice rang out again.

"The moving point P is in motion, and its coordinates are unknown. Since we don't know them, we assign them coordinates and represent them as an unknown."

Zhang Qiang wrote on the test paper: Let the coordinates of point P be (m, am² + bm + c). "And then?"

Zhang Qiang remembered asking himself a question in the arcade: "Power Up, unleash your ultimate move."

Chen Zhuo slammed his hand down on the button.

A burst of blue light erupted from Yagami's body on the screen, pinning his opponent to the ground and tearing at him frantically—Yagi-onna.

"What's the key to solving this problem?" Zhang Qiang looked at triangle PAC on the test paper. It has the largest area.

A triangle whose three sides are not parallel to the coordinate axes. "The ultimate move is the auxiliary lines."

Chen Zhuo's words echoed in my mind.

"If there are no right angles, we'll create right angles; if there are no parallel lines, we'll create parallel lines." Zhang Qiang picked up a ruler.

Draw a perpendicular line from point P to the x-axis, intersecting the x-axis at point D and line segment AC at point E.

Once this perpendicular line is drawn, the originally tilted triangle PAC is instantly divided into two smaller triangles, triangle PCE and triangle PAE.

These two small triangles share a common base, PE. Furthermore, PE is parallel to the y-axis.

The sum of their areas is equal to 1/2 multiplied by the base PE, and then multiplied by the distance from point A to the y-axis. The area formula suddenly becomes extremely simple.

The length of PE is the difference between the ordinate of point P and the ordinate of point E. The ordinate of point P is known.

Point E lies on line AC. Find the equation of line AC, substitute it into the x-coordinate m, and the y-coordinate of point E will be obtained. Zhang Qiang's pen flew across the draft paper.

Let the coordinates be defined, find the equation of the line, and subtract the equations to obtain the expression for the length of line segment PE. Substitute this expression into the area formula.

Ultimately, he obtained a quadratic function of m.

Find the maximum value of the quadratic function. Use the completing the square method.

After completing the square, the area reaches its maximum value when m equals a specific value. The coordinates of point P are then determined.

The final step is to prove that it is a right triangle.

Given the specific coordinates of points A, C, and P, we can directly apply the converse of the Pythagorean theorem.

Calculate the squares of AC, CP, and AP. The sum of the squares of the two shorter sides is equal to the square of the longer side.

The proof is complete. Zhang Qiang put down his pen.

He looked at the densely packed but clearly organized calculation process on the answer sheet.

He felt another layer of sweat on his back. But he didn't feel tired.

Instead, it brings an indescribable sense of exhilaration.

It was like being in an arcade, unleashing a perfect combo that wiped out the opponent's health bar. He used to only experience this kind of thrill when playing video games.

Now, on a daunting mock middle school entrance exam paper, he experienced the same exhilaration.

Zhang Qiang leaned back in his chair. He turned his head and looked at the upper right corner of the table. There lay a black notebook.

The notebook was quite old; the edges were frayed from repeated use. The cover had several large characters written in black marker:

"A Guide to Avoiding Pitfalls at the No. 1 Middle School of the City." The handwriting is slender

Zhang Qiang reached out and took the notebook, placing it on his lap. He didn't open it.

He knew all too well what was written inside.

For the past six months or so, this notebook has been his dream notebook.

Every single question in it was either hand-picked by Chen Zhuo or modified by him. Those questions weren't meant for exams; they were meant to torture people.

In physics problems, pulley systems involve friction, circuit diagrams contain non-pure resistors, and you might even need to consider how the resistance of the wires themselves changes with temperature.

In math problems, geometric figures are constantly folded and rotated, quadratic functions are given absolute values, and moving points can become two, three, or even a moving circle. Zhang Qiang once stayed up until 2 a.m. to solve one of these problems.

He filled an entire page of draft paper, thinking he had found the perfect solution.

The next day, sporting dark circles under his eyes, he excitedly took the process report to Chen Zhuo. Chen Zhuo merely glanced at it.

Then, with a red pen, he drew an X on his first assumption. "The premise is wrong."

That's what Chen Zhuo said at the time.

"The conditions in the problem are a paradox. This problem has no solution. It doesn't test your calculation ability, but your understanding of the basic definitions."

Zhang Qiang was so angry at the time that he wanted to tear the laptop apart. But now...

Zhang Qiang placed his hand on the cover of the notebook.

He looked at the neatly printed mock middle school entrance exam papers that he had just finished on the table.

The topics that once terrified him now seemed so dry and insignificant.

They have no traps, no suspenseful theories; all the conditions are laid out plainly. As long as you follow the steps, you can get points.

This is like someone practicing swordsmanship under a bleaching cloth every day for half a year.

Then someone told him that his opponents were a few kids with sticks. Zhang Qiang suddenly smiled.

He grabbed the empty bowl from the table and stood up. He walked to the window and pulled back the curtains a little.

It was completely dark outside, and the streetlights on the distant road cast a dim, yellowish glow.

A hot breeze blew in through the screen window. Zhang Qiang muttered to himself.

"Chen Zhuo, you pervert."

"I've survived all those ridiculous problems you set for me."

"These middle school entrance exam setters can't be more perverted than you, can they?" He turned around and placed the empty bowl on the table.

He reached out and pulled the next set of English test papers in front of him. He didn't want to think about anything else.

All he wants to do now is finish the exam as soon as possible and get the admission notice from the No. 1 High School in the city.

Then call that pervert in Huizhou. Tell him.

I'm waiting for your Kobe jersey!