My subject turned into a beautiful girl

It seems that everyone encounters one or two stunning girls during their school years.

Xia Qing was one of the people An Yi encountered.

The process of getting to know Xia Qing was not complicated. It was high school registration day. Before he got the nickname "Crab Boss," the homeroom teacher, Xie Yilian, arranged a personal introduction session, with students taking turns to go on stage in order of their student ID numbers.

The student ID numbers at Jingjiang Middle School are arranged according to entrance exam scores. After Boss Xie gave the order, everyone curiously and cautiously shook their heads, looking around to see who the strongest student was. But after waiting for a long time, no one got up. The classroom, with the curtains drawn to block out the sun, was so quiet that you could hear the cool air blowing slowly from the air conditioner.

The atmosphere became somewhat awkward. As the crab shop owner picked up the list and read out the name "Xia Qing," the half-closed classroom door was suddenly pushed open.

A beautiful girl strode in, her short, neat hair swaying gently in the bright sunlight, her loose white T-shirt stained with casual watercolor patterns.

At that moment, the eyes of forty-five strangers were fixed on her. If it were An Yi in the same situation, she would have been at a loss for what to do with her hands and feet, too flustered to speak. But she only paused for a moment, then chuckled, "Sorry I'm late! Did someone just call me? I didn't hear wrong, did I?"

An Yi had never met such a generous and energetic girl; her confidence and enthusiasm seemed to be etched into her very bones. Seeing her was like seeing a sunny summer day, and all the gloomy, damp, depressed, and dejected emotions would vanish.

Amazing moments are so sudden and simple; it's as if she pushed open that door and stepped not into a classroom, but into your heart.

If she hadn't later become famous for pursuing another pretty girl in her class, there probably wouldn't have been enough boys in several classes to keep up with her pursuit.

Yes, Xia Qing, female, and of female sexual orientation.

There wasn't much objection to this, after all, it was quite a sight to behold when pretty girls were cuddling together. Countless men with ulterior motives, upon learning of this, quite politely chose to remain silent and not bother the others, at most occasionally remarking on the waste of such a beautiful sight during their leisure time.

Getting back to the main point, there's a reason why An Yi cried out "Big brother, save me!"

As the most popular person in the class, Xia Qing's nickname is "Big Brother".

As the saying goes, there are no wrong nicknames, only wrong names. Xia Qing's name and nickname are both perfectly matched. She has a generous and forthright personality and is always ready to help others; she's the kind of person who would definitely be considered a top-notch leader in the martial arts world.

The reason why everyone is willing to call her "Big Brother" is very simple - they don't have to help with errands or chores, there are no legendary group fights, just by calling her "Big Brother", they get to copy the homework of "the person who is always number one in the grade".

Of course, I appreciate it when I have a strong work ethic. No matter the subject, if you don't understand something, just ask, and I'll explain it until you understand. If it's evening study time and many people are asking the same question, I'll even go up to the podium and act as a substitute teacher.

If he felt there was too much homework, my older brother would argue with the subject teachers, and he would almost always manage to reduce it by a third to half. Last summer, my younger brothers had too much fun and didn't do the assigned workbooks, but my older brother dared to take more than a dozen of them to the teacher and pretend he had handed them all in…

Anyone who doesn't call me "Big Brother" is definitely out of their mind!

"What's going on with this question?"

Without hesitation, Xia Qing pulled over the chair of An Yi's good friend and sat down.

"Yes...no, no."

An Yi was about to nod when a sudden idea flashed into her mind.

The problem is like fish in a river. There are so many fish, what's the use of catching just one with the help of the older brother? But the older brother has his own things to do, and he can't keep bothering her to catch fish.

Instead of asking your elder brother to give you fish, why not ask him to teach you how to fish!

"Brother, I'd like to ask about function graphs... what's the deal with that...?"

An Yi carefully chose her words, "A better way to study?"

"Good study methods?"

Xia Qing paused, then pondered for a moment, "Hmm... I need to figure out what you're struggling with first. Is it that you can't remember the formulas corresponding to the features, or that you can't match them with the images and can't visualize them?"

"It seems a bit of an exaggeration to say that I can't remember or imagine it at all..."

An Yi twirled the pen, thought it over carefully, and finally decided to confess to his older brother.

"I just... didn't listen carefully in class before. Now that I'm reviewing, seeing so many formulas together makes me feel overwhelmed and I can't concentrate on memorizing them. As for matching the images one by one, I can do it, but when there are too many, I can't handle it, so I think about taking a break. But when I take a break, I just can't keep going."

"In other words, there are no problems with understanding at all, just simple issues of memorization and proficiency, and the difficulty in sticking to it?" Xia Qing summarized.

"Yes!" An Yi nodded expectantly.

"call……"

Xia Qing visibly breathed a sigh of relief. "Your situation is simple!"

"How so?" An Yi asked, still somewhat doubtful.

"Wait a minute!"

Xia Qing returned to her seat, reached into her desk drawer, and pulled out a dark gray rectangular object.

"Use this!"

She slid open the protective cover and turned the device on.

It was a calculator, clearly different from the ordinary calculators An Yi had seen before—it had many more black function keys, a larger lit screen, and the content was in color.

"This is……"

"CASIO Graphing Calculator".

Xia Qing operated the device skillfully, glancing up at him occasionally. "Have you ever drawn before?"

"I've taken art classes..."

An Yi was a little confused for a moment. Was the topic of conversation going too far off?

"How's your skill level?"

"My art teacher described me as a realist of the Parkinson's school."

"Ha, that's quite talented!"

Xia Qing smiled and said politely, "But you don't have to worry about that now, because the machine won't shake when drawing."

Before An Yi could figure out what those words meant, she waved the Casio graphing calculator in her hand.

"I'll teach you how to draw using functions!"

"Use functions...to draw?"

"Hmm, think about it, how many kinds of functions have we learned? Linear functions, quadratic functions, inverse proportional functions, power functions, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions..."

Xia Qing spoke with great enthusiasm, listing them off as if they were her most prized possessions. "Their images are all different: straight lines, parabolas, hyperbolas, waves... Don't you think they're perfect for drawing?"

"Is that so?" An Yi's eyes widened.

"Yes!"

Xia Qing nodded solemnly, "For example, if you want to draw a curved eyebrow, a simpler version, wouldn't you need two curves? Let's choose a quadratic function. First, should the eyebrow curve upwards or downwards?"

"Down?"

"Therefore, we need the quadratic function to open downwards, so 'a' should be..."

"Negative numbers." An Yi understood a little.

"The curves of the upper and lower lines of the eyebrow need to be different, right? Otherwise they won't intersect. The corresponding image properties can then be adjusted..."

"An opening? So the opening is big or small, and we need to adjust the absolute value of 'a'? The larger the absolute value, the narrower the opening, and the smaller the absolute value, the wider the opening..." An Yi pondered.

"Yes, and then, these eyebrows can't be symmetrical in the middle, they have to be staggered, right? So they need to be adjusted..."

"Axis of symmetry!"

An Yi suddenly realized and began to apply what he had learned to other situations. "Then they can't all be the same height, so the vertex coordinates also need to be adjusted. Finally... the domain? Because the eyebrows have to end at the intersection point, they can't just extend outwards indefinitely."

"Bingo!"

Xia Qing snapped her fingers crisply. "So you'll find that just in the process of drawing this one eyebrow, you have to consider most of the properties of the graph of a quadratic function."

This graphing calculator can draw out the functions you write, so you can gain a more intuitive understanding by observing the graphs.

Throughout the process, which data change will affect the image in what way? What value needs to be changed, and do you need to use a formula to calculate it?

If you misremember the properties of the graph corresponding to the data, if you misremember the formula and calculate the data incorrectly, if you use the wrong function... you will know you are wrong without anyone reminding you, and you will know where the error is, because that is not the graph you want.

Just keep drawing like this. As long as the drawings are complex enough, and you use all the functions you've learned, it will only take you a day or two at most. The knowledge related to functions and the properties of graphs will then be completely no problem for you.

"Brother, please accept my bow!" An Yi said with heartfelt admiration.

Learning methods are highly individual, and each person finds a different method that suits them. However, regardless of the method, they all essentially work in two areas: learning efficiency and learning interest.

Improving learning efficiency addresses the question of "how to learn more effortlessly," while enhancing learning interest addresses the question of "how to be willing to continue learning."

An Yi wasn't sure how efficient this method was, but at least it maximized his interest in learning, because just listening to it was very interesting!

"It's a minor issue. If you can understand it, you've already eliminated the biggest problem. All that's left is to memorize and apply it."

Xia Qing operated the CASIO graphing calculator and accessed the Graph function.

"But just doing practice problems can be tedious and distracting, so it's better to learn in a different way."

"How did you come up with such an amazing learning method, brother?" An Yi was full of admiration.

"Forehead……"

Xia Qing paused, then gave a dry laugh.

"Actually, I was just really bored during evening self-study, so I played this as a game to pass the time... You know, that way I could play it openly. If a teacher asked, I could just say I was researching the comprehensive application of the properties of function graphs!"

An Yi: "???"

He often found himself bored during evening self-study sessions, but whenever this happened, he would often choose to secretly read novels, risking being caught by the crab boss that might suddenly appear behind him or outside the window, or play a thrilling game of Gomoku with his equally bored deskmate.

Instead of researching "how to play games legitimately and learn at the same time"!

Damn, is this kind of legendary behavior that I always thought was made up actually real?

How can the differences between people be so great!

Suddenly, a screen of light popped up in front of me.

[Mathematics is very interested in the topic you mentioned! She's known you for so long, and this is the first time she's discovered you have a talent for drawing, and such interesting drawing methods.]

[Mathematics' favorability towards you +10]

Painting methods?

An Yi was puzzled at first, then realized what was going on.

My learning activities in the real world correspond to the various daily routines in the world described by the light screen. Mastering the method of drawing using functions is certainly considered learning, corresponding to the drawing method.

As for the sudden increase of ten points in favorability, it's probably because this learning method is really good... at least it's good for me?

The light curtain continues to change.

[Mathematics thinks, are you really planning to repair your relationship with her this time? After all, it's been twelve years... But things like this have happened before; you've disappointed her far too many times.]

An Yi's heart suddenly tightened.

[After considering it for a moment, Math decided to give you another chance. To show she accepts your apology, she shared a bag of snacks with you.]

"I love you, Math Master!" An Yi thought with delight.

You have received—[a pack of ordinary baking soda biscuits]

[Is it safe to eat?]

Just ordinary little cookies?

Looking at this description, An Yi's first thought was "the unremarkable Louis Koo".

It's impossible for something to be ordinary. Since everything related to learning in the real world corresponds one-to-one with the daily life in that world, then conversely, the daily life in that world should also correspond to various things related to learning in the real world, including objects!

An Yi chose "Yes".

You consumed [a packet of ordinary baking soda crackers]

Your computing power has been significantly boosted! Duration: Six hours

In an instant, it felt as if something that had been blocking his mind for a long time had been cleared away, and a feeling of exceptional smoothness emerged. An Yi looked at the content on the screen and subconsciously made a simple attempt.

He randomly thought of two numbers and multiplied them.

145 × 8237

For top-level mental arithmetic experts, this level of calculation typically takes only 2-3 seconds. For ordinary people using conventional vertical calculation, it would take approximately 40 seconds to a minute.

An Yi was the latter... once.

Now, the moment he came up with these two numbers and placed a multiplication sign between them, without any calculation steps, a whole new string of numbers instantly appeared in his mind!

_______(fill in the blank)

The speed was so fast that An Yi herself didn't even have time to react.

He tried to verify the calculation. This time, he forced himself to use vertical calculation, multiplying the numbers and adding the carry-overs. All the steps were no different from writing on paper, but he still got the same answer in the blink of an eye.

"Computational power has been greatly enhanced to the point of being a human calculator?" An Yi thought to himself.

This is just an "ordinary little cookie"!

Even if the effect is temporary, it's foreseeable that as favorability increases, what I can get from mathematics will only get better and better. And what effects will those items have then?

He suddenly felt a chill run down his spine. The protective mechanism of his brain triggered by the huge change gradually dissipated, and a heartfelt joy and shock filled his heart.

Sometimes An Yi felt like a foolish monkey who had been tricked. When he was little, people kept telling him that he would become the Monkey King in the future. After hearing it for a long time, he also felt that he should be the Monkey King who rides the clouds.

So he walked on confidently, but the world outside the cave was so vast that he could find monkeys stronger and smarter than him everywhere. Gradually, even the dumbest monkey should have realized something was wrong; he discovered that he seemed to be only at the level of a small-time drill serpent.

But no one told him where Little Drill Wind should go.

His parents still insisted that he follow the path that only the Monkey King could take, and that he refused because he was distracted by games and novels.

Walking is ultimately a personal matter, and he began to hesitate, circling in place, wondering where the future lay.

The monkey thought for a long time and circled around in the same spot for a long time, until it made a big hole in the ground. Today, the monkey fell into the hole and didn't even want to get up, thinking that it would be nice to just stay in the hole forever.

But suddenly a stick fell from the sky, and the monkey caught it and looked at it—

Hey, the Ruyi Jingu Bang!

It turns out he really could be the Monkey King.

For the Great Sage Equaling Heaven, there was no need to consider where the future lay, for wherever he went became the path. Wherever he headed, that became the future.

So,

It's time to set off.