I accidentally joined a group of charlatans, so I immediately called the police and handed it over t

The provincial math Olympiad competition was held at the most luxurious experimental high school in the provincial capital.

Luxury cars blocked the three streets in front of the school.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW were just the beginning; there were even several minivans with dual license plates parked in the most conspicuous locations.

The car door opened.

One by one, little gentlemen and ladies, dressed in custom-made school uniforms and with their hair neatly combed, walked down the street.

They were either holding imported brain-boosting liquids costing thousands of yuan per vial, or wearing so-called quantum headphones that supposedly could develop the right brain.

Behind every child are at least two anxious yet proud parents.

"Son, stay calm this time."

A mother wearing a Chanel suit is wiping non-existent beads of sweat from her son's forehead with a tissue.

"That country bumpkin from Hongqi Elementary School is taking the exam? It's hilarious."

As she spoke, she glanced contemptuously across the street from the corner of her eye.

There, a dilapidated minibus, its paint completely peeling off, came to a stop, panting heavily.

A plume of black smoke billowed from the exhaust pipe, choking the surrounding parents who covered their mouths and noses and retreated as if avoiding a plague.

"That's so rude."

"How dare they let this beat-up car into the provincial capital? Don't the traffic police do anything about it?"

The car door opened.

There was no air conditioning, only the smell of mountain soil and sweat from a long journey.

Principal Zhang Defu was the first to jump down.

His canvas shoes were covered in mud, and his faded Zhongshan suit had all the buttons fastened incorrectly.

Immediately afterwards, twenty children filed out.

They wore ill-fitting school uniforms with worn cuffs, their skin tanned dark red by the high-altitude ultraviolet rays, and their eyes revealed the timidity and panic of someone newly arrived in the provincial capital.

Like an ugly duckling that has wandered into a flock of swans.

"Oh, is this the Red Flag Primary School that's mentioned on the application form?"

A parent who was live-streaming on their phone pointed the camera directly at the children's faces.

"Look, family! This is what they call educational equity."

He laughed exaggeratedly, his tone full of superiority.

"They can't even speak Mandarin fluently, and they're taking the math olympiad? They probably can't even distinguish between the 'and' and 'or' words in the questions, can they?"

The live stream room was filled with laughter.

[This person can take the exam? What a waste of a spot!]

[They're just here to broaden their horizons; they probably don't even know how to hold a pen.]

Xiaohua stood at the back of the line, her hands gripping the hem of her clothes tightly.

Those blatantly disdainful looks were like needles, pricking her so deeply that she couldn't lift her head.

"Don't be afraid."

Principal Zhang turned around, blocking the glaring cameras.

His hunched back resembled a mountain that, while not particularly tall, was solid enough.

"We're here to take an exam, not to compete in dressing."

Xiaohua took a deep breath.

She reached into her pocket and touched the pencil she had sharpened to a fine point.

The words that older brother said on the video call before I left came to mind.

"Little Flower, remember this."

"Don't worry about what others say."

"The pens in your hands are swords that pierce the sky."

"Go and tell them what the real answer is."

Xiaohua's fingers stopped trembling.

She raised her head, and in her clear, black and white eyes was a calmness far beyond her years.

"Enter."

Principal Zhang waved his hand.

The children lined up and silently entered the magnificent examination hall amidst laughter and chatter.

The bell rang.

I tried curling my hair.

The entire examination room fell into a deathly silence; you could hear a pin drop.

This is known as the "most difficult" math Olympiad problem in history.

In order to select true geniuses, the question-setting team even borrowed some unpublished International Olympiad training questions in the last two major questions.

Only five minutes had passed.

The city's top students, who were just chatting and laughing outside the exam hall, changed their expressions.

Cold sweat trickled down their foreheads.

Someone bit the pen handle so hard that their lip bled.

Some people stared intently at the exam paper, as if trying to see a hole through it.

I can't understand it at all.

Those complex geometric figures and those obscure function definitions were like a book written in the heavens, lying across their path.

The chubby boy who had drunk the imported brain-boosting tonic was so shaky that he couldn't even hold a ruler properly.

However, at the end of the corridor was examination room number 03.

The proctor stared in disbelief at the bizarre scene unfolding before him.

He had proctored countless exams, seen students scratching their heads in frustration and writing furiously, but he had never seen anything like this.

Those twenty children from the Liangshan Mountains.

They sat up straight.

There was no draft paper.

There was no furrowed brow in deep thought.

There wasn't even a pause.

The moment their pens touched the exam paper, a heart-pounding dance began.

rustling --

rustling --

The sounds were uniform and dense, like a sudden spring rain.

No hesitation.

It's as if those problems that would drive even adults crazy are as simple and straightforward as "1+1=2" in their eyes.

The proctor was a graduate student in the mathematics department of a prestigious university.

He couldn't help but quietly walk up behind the girl named Xiaohua.

He wanted to see if the child was scribbling or drawing randomly.

However, the moment his gaze fell on the exam paper, his pupils suddenly contracted.

That was the final, most challenging question.

A variant application of topology.

Even if he were to write the standard answer, it would require at least half a page of derivation.

But Xiaohua only wrote three lines.

The first line is a domain refactoring.

The second line introduces a helper function he has never seen before.

The third line is the answer.

"this……"

The proctor involuntarily held his breath.

This is a minimalist aesthetic of violence.

It's like martial arts masters exchanging blows; while others are still putting on a show, she's already delivered a fatal blow.

That kind of logical leap is not a lack, but rather because the thinking speed is too fast, directly omitting the "nonsense" that is necessary for ordinary people.

Forty-five minutes.

There is still a full halfway through the exam.

Xiaohua put down her pen.

She gently raised her small hand, which was rough from years of farm work.

The sound was crisp and clear, echoing in the deathly silent examination hall.

"Teacher, I'm handing in my paper."

The proctor was stunned.

The other city students who were still struggling with the first big question were also stunned, staring at her as if she were crazy.

Followed by.

"Teacher, I'm handing in my paper."

"carry out an assignment."

The children of Hongqi Primary School raised their hands one after another.

They stood up and neatly placed the test papers on the corner of the table.

that moment.

Their worn-out school uniforms seemed to radiate a light that was too dazzling to look directly at.

The proctor, with trembling hands, collected Xiaohua's exam paper.

As he watched that dashing figure disappear into the distance, a sense of absurdity and shock welled up within him.

This exam.

For these children.

Perhaps it doesn't even qualify as a warm-up?

Outside the examination hall.

Parents are still comparing themselves to each other.

"My son is sure to win first prize this time; that brain-boosting tonic cost a lot of money."

"Yes, unlike those country kids, who are probably crying right now."

The parent who became an internet celebrity was still talking incessantly into the camera.

"Family members, this is the difference. Some gaps cannot be bridged by hard work alone."

At that moment, the door opened.

The children came out.

The city parents immediately gathered around, only to find that their children were all ashen-faced, and some even threw themselves into their arms and cried.

"This is too hard... Waaah... Is this even a problem for a human to solve...?"

"I couldn't solve a single one of the big problems..."

Parents panicked.

"How is that possible? Are the questions beyond the syllabus?"

On the other side...

Principal Zhang greeted the group of children with calm expressions.

A little nervous, he slung his pipe over his back and asked cautiously, "How was it? Don't worry if it's too difficult; we're just here to see what it's like..."

Little Flower raised her head.

Sunlight shone on her dark red face, and a smile rippled in her eyes.

"Grandpa Principal."

"The question is quite interesting."

"It's pretty simple."