"Fourth place, Lin Xiaoqing, 130 points."

"You made mistakes in both the multiple-choice and fill-in-the-blank sections. You must have been careless! Also, you miscalculated on such an easy sequence problem!"

"Fifth place, Zhou Xin..."

"Sixth place..."

Teacher Niu handed out the tests according to the students’ rankings. She claimed not to ’call out’ those who failed, yet distributed the tests based on their scores.

The last three to receive their tests were certainly the ones who had failed.

Nobody was paying them any mind now.

Everyone in the classroom was discussing Zhao Yi’s score. His improvement was too rapid — from a little over a hundred to one hundred and thirty points. The gap could be described as a ’chasm’, and it certainly couldn’t be explained by good performance alone.

Lin Xiaoqing returned to her seat and immediately turned around to get Zhao Yi’s test paper.

She looked carefully!

"Multiple-choice questions, all correct!"

"Fill-in-the-blank questions, only one mistake!"

"The last two major questions, both of them had the third part unsolved, everything else was correct except for some steps missing in the process and lost points."

"131 points..."

Lin Xiaoqing gritted her teeth as she read, she simply could not accept that her math score was lower than Zhao Yi’s.

If she didn’t score as well in English, then so be it.

But math?

You’ve got to be kidding!

Lin Xiaoqing read through several times, carefully comparing her test with Zhao Yi’s. At last, she found some solace.

She got the penultimate problem right and only fell short on the last one. The reason she scored lower was only that she miscalculated the sequence problem.

"Carelessness!"

Exactly what Teacher Niu had said.

Lin Xiaoqing returned the test paper to Zhao Yi, clenched her fists, and thought earnestly, "Next time, I must be more careful and cannot make any mistakes!"

"To have been beaten by Zhao Yi..."

"That guy!"

The more she thought about it, the more annoyed she became.

Zhao Yi had a faint smile on his lips, and when he took the paper back, he casually said a word, "keep it up!".

Lin Xiaoqing, detecting his mockery, turned her head in annoyance, "What’s there to be proud of? It’s just one exam! If I put more effort into it, I will definitely score higher than you!"

"Keep it up!"

Zhao Yi repeated, giving a thumbs up with a smile.

Lin Xiaoqing felt her temper flaring up. In the end, she just twisted her head back.

Zhao Yi made a teasing face.

Be more serious? 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

If they were to compare actual abilities, Lin Xiaoqing was unquestionably better. With even the most difficult problems, she could solve them.

But...

Exams were a different matter altogether!

HIs advantage was not just in multiple choice questions. The cause and effect law could help determine whether the calculation result was correct or not, regardless of whether it was a fill-in-the-blank or a major question. As long as computation was involved, he would know whether he had made it correctly.

The advantage was overwhelmingly great.

When he got a problem wrong, he would instantly know and could then check to find the mistake. Thus, as long as he knew how to solve the problem, he could get it right hundred percent of the time.

In the entire exam paper, apart from the unanswered questions, only the steps in the major questions cost him some points. And it happened not because he could not think of them, but because of experience.

Some steps in the major questions that seemed simple, he subconsciously thought could be omitted, or when the steps were too complex, he had to simplify some.

A lack of experience led to the loss of marks.

With more practice and more tests, the loss of points from steps would greatly reduce. By then, only the problems that he didn’t know how to solve would cost him marks.

Therefore,

Once he surpassed their scores, it would be nearly impossible for anyone to catch up.

He was, after all, most adept at taking tests!

...

The time taken by Teacher Niu to discuss the problems was not long. She only explained a few difficult ones, and quickly passed over the other questions.

This was the advantage of being in the elite class.

The students only got the easy questions wrong due to carelessness, not because they didn’t know how to solve them. Hence, there was no need for explanation.

Before the class ended,

Teacher Niu called Zhao Yi out and publicly praised him again, expressing her approval in a voice dripping with warmth. "Everyone should learn from Zhao Yi — from a little over ninety to over a hundred and thirty points! That’s what I call improvement!"

"Zhao Yi can do it, so can all of you! He is your role model!"

Despite considering himself thick-skinned, Zhao Yi was still embarrassed by the lavish praise, he waved his hand and said, "It’s nothing, it’s all thanks to Teacher Niu’s good teaching!"

"What a bootlicker!"

"Impressive!"

"I feel sick..."

The whole class burst out laughing.

Teacher Niu, who was basking in pleasure, immediately pulled a serious face upon hearing the students’ comments, "Quiet! Quiet!"

"Don’t be jealous of others. If you study diligently, you can achieve it too!"

"Zhao Yi, could you talk about how you managed to improve your scores? Share some of your learning insights, how could you make progress so quickly?"

The classroom quieted down.

Everyone wanted to know the reason for Zhao Yi’s incredible improvement.

The improvement was by more than thirty points after all!

For many elite class students, an increase of thirty points in their grades would guarantee that they could get into a first-rate university, and those ranking higher could even confidently state that they would be admitted to top-end institutions.

Zhao Yi pondered and hesitated before asking, "Teacher Niu, should I tell the truth or the fabricated story?"

Niu Lianhua was taken aback, "What’s the fabricated story?"

"It’s by doing tons of practice questions and being thorough!" Zhao Yi stated matter-of-factly, "Doing many practice questions increases familiarity with different question types, which certainly helps improve grades. Also, it’s essential to be cautious during an exam to avoid careless mistakes and to grab all the points you can. That way the score will not be low!"

Niu Lianhua kept nodding, then asked with some skepticism, "What’s the truthful answer then?"

"Talent!"

Zhao Yi sighed and pointed to Sun Liang who was sleeping soundly in the back row, "Just think about it. He somehow managed to score more than 140 points."

Suddenly.

Everyone turned to look at Sun Liang.

Niu Lianhua chuckled at the sight of Sun Liang, then shook her head dismissively just as the bell rang signaling the end of class. She walked out of the room.

Sun Liang woke up.

He looked left and right, feeling something was amiss, and asked suspiciously, "Why are you all looking at me?"

No one responded.

"Just because I slept during class, Teacher Niu wasn’t bothered, and now you all can’t let it go?" Sun Liang said somewhat annoyed, his temper was indeed not good when he had just woken up.

Suddenly someone shouted, "I want to beat him up!"

"Count me in!"

"Grab him, don’t let him run away!"

Sun Liang sprang to life and bolted for the classroom door, shouting as he did so, "Zhao Yi, to the bathroom!"

"Not going!"

...

At night, nine thirty.

Zhao Yi walked through his home’s front door and noticed that both his parents were sitting on the sofa, engrossed in a television program.

Liu Jing pulled Zhao Yi onto the sofa, "Come and watch, your program’s about to start."

"My program?"

Zhao Yi was somewhat confused.

"It’s that competition, the ’Youth Cup’. There’s a preview today, I heard it from Zhang Guilin."

"Really?"

Zhao Yi was intrigued.

The program playing on the screen was on Nanjiang’s satellite channel.

There was a program called "Brain Power Burst" every Monday night, a variety show that was mostly about showcasing intelligence, though it had a more showy flair.

The program would invite gifted students from top schools to compete in intellectual contests, with famous professors and stars serving as guest judges.

This episode featured complex problem-solving and a memory test where contestants would be given a complex pattern of colors to memorize in just a few seconds.

"Is that even possible..."

Zhao Yi was somewhat skeptical of such exceptional talent.

The screen showed thirty-six color balls arranged in a ’66’ square matrix, all of which needed to be memorized within ten seconds?

He could recreate the sequence as well.

But that would be with the help of the Causality Law, trying each position one by one. The contestants in the show did not have such a system.

Despite being a variety show, the process was indeed quite interesting.

Zhao Yi watched until the very end.

After the program ended, there were a few minutes of advertisements, and then it was time for ’his program’--’Youth Cup’ competition finals preview.

The preview video lasted for two minutes, briefly introduced the competition and also some of the schools that made it to the finals.

Jiangzhou University Attached Experimental Middle School.

Yongyang Middle School.

Zhengyang No.1 High School.

Zhengyang No.13 Middle School.

Yongyang Middle School is a private school, while the others are public schools.

Whether they are public or private, it’s is a sure thing that the other three schools are among the top middle schools in Nanjiang Province. They are widely renowned across the province, while the Zhengyang No.13 Middle School is so ordinary that it’s challenging to remember its name.

This disparity was evident in the competition trailer.

The introduction about Zhengyang No.13 Middle School was merely a single sentence, "This is a school in Zhengyang, their team scored full marks in the preliminaries."

After that, nothing.

Liu Jing was obviously annoyed, "I thought they would at least show Xiao Yi, these TV producers really have no discernment!"

"Xiao Yi scored full marks in the preliminaries, and they didn’t even mention it!"

"Boring!"

"Xiao Yi, perform well in the final so that they get to see!"

Zhao Yi pursed his lips tightly.

He had never really cared about the competition; he felt that just being in the finals and possibly appearing on TV was kind of interesting. But after watching the preview, for some reason he was looking forward to the final round.