Yin Changgui took out the six thousand that Xia Yu had just given him and hypocritically handed it back to Xia Yu, saying, “Mom, you just bought a house, and you’ll need money. Take this for now.”
“I have money. I don’t need yours. You can leave now,” Xia Yu replied, unwilling to get entangled with Yin Changgui.
Yin Changgui could see Xia Yu’s disgust clearly. However, he thought it wasn’t a big issue—after all, even a biological mother and son couldn’t stay angry at each other forever. Things would surely get better tomorrow.
With this thought in mind, he left cheerfully. He didn’t return to work but instead took a leave of absence to go home and discuss things with his wife.
“What? You still want to reconcile with your mother?” His wife’s expression immediately changed.
Yin Changgui wasn’t in a hurry. He slowly said, “My mother bought a villa in town for 200,000.”
“You mean that one on the side?” Seeing Yin Changgui nod, she first asked about the price, “I went to see that villa before. The asking price was at least 220,000. It’s amazing that she managed to get it for cheaper.”
“Isn’t that the point!” Yin Changgui slammed the table, “A villa worth 200,000! I’ve only managed to save over 100,000 so far. And she definitely has more money. She’s really something, hiding this from us three sons!”
“We must plan carefully then.”
The couple began discussing their strategy.
On the other side, after getting rid of Yin Changgui, Xia Yu was immediately approached by his second and third sons. The third son, Yin Dingjie, mostly showed genuine concern, while the second son mixed some ulterior motives into his concern.
These two were relatively normal sons, so Xia Yu couldn’t treat them the same way he treated Yin Changgui. He asked them to help clean the villa and instructed them to pick up Yin Ling in the afternoon.
Returning to the countryside house, Xia Yu finally began his pharmaceutical experiments. He was busy until around 8 p.m., almost the end of the game time.
He tidied up the yard and turned off the big light that illuminated the entire yard, then started calculating the money.
Ten thousand to repay external debts, another nine thousand for internal debts, twenty thousand for the house, and some additional expenses. Now, only ten thousand remained in Yin Shulan’s account.
If he had known it would be spent so quickly, he should have kept more aside initially.
Should he come again? Xia Yu hesitated. Coming twice in a row would be too conspicuous.
He decided to use what was left first—there was still ten thousand. If necessary, he could ask An Siyao for help.
To reassure Yin Shulan, Xia Yu explained that more money would come, then returned to his own body.
He opened the skill panel and checked—his pharmaceutical skill was still at LV2, needing just a bit more to reach LV3.
Currently, this skill wasn’t particularly useful, only allowing him to mix herbal remedies.
If he insisted on finding a use for it, maybe he could try making medicinal dishes.
However, Xia Yu couldn’t cook.
He turned to his side, played with his phone for a while, and then fell asleep.
The next morning, he arrived at school, opened his exercise book, and prepared to continue practicing problems, only to find the book filled with densely written answers.
I didn’t write this much yesterday!
After identifying the handwriting, Xia Yu recognized it as the work of the Hosted AI.
This AI must be cursed. If you’ve done everything, what’s left for me to do?
Fortunately, it was the Chinese exercise book. There was still math left.
Xia Yu cross-checked the answers provided by the hosted AI. All the completed problems were correct, but some remained unanswered.
Xia Yu tried answering the blank ones, but none were correct. As for the completed ones, Xia Yu could solve them all.
However, even though Xia Yu could solve all the completed problems, he couldn’t guarantee he would make no mistakes at all.
Perhaps he could have the AI custodian take the college entrance exam on his behalf?
The thought flickered through his mind, but Xia Yu quickly dismissed it. Who knew whether the score achieved by the hosted AI would even count as completing the task.
By the second-to-last class in the morning, the math teacher entered the classroom carrying a stack of test papers: “The art teacher for the next class has something to attend to, so we’ll have math class instead. Since we have two consecutive classes, we’ll have a test.”
Groans of disappointment echoed from below.
Xia Yu also put away his math exercise book. It would be too conspicuous for him to do exercises while others took the test.
Anyway, a test was just like doing exercises. He would just do it.
Grabbing the test paper, Xia Yu began writing.
Fortunately, since the hosted AI had finished the Chinese workbook, he had gone over the math exercises in the morning and refreshed his memory of forgotten formulas and theorems.
At first glance at each question, Xia Yu could immediately determine whether he could solve it. If he could, the key points and topics would immediately appear in his mind. With just a little thought, the solution path would emerge.
This was the power of the Test-Taking Education skill at level 4. There was no need for painstaking thinking. With just one glance, it was clear whether he could solve it or not.
He quickly completed the test. He couldn’t solve the last blank in the fill-in-the-blank section, the last sub-question of the second-to-last application problem, the last sub-question of the last application problem, and he had forgotten the formula for one problem in the middle.
As for multiple-choice questions? The college entrance exam in Jiangsu Province didn’t have those types of questions where you could guess.
Xia Yu checked the time—thirty minutes had passed.
He stood up and handed the test to the math teacher.
“Finished already?” The math teacher, who was using his phone to argue with others on a forum, raised his head in surprise.
“The rest I can’t solve,” Xia Yu replied.
“Hmm, if you can’t solve them, thinking more won’t help,” the math teacher nodded, put down his phone, and accepted Xia Yu’s test.
He then asked Xia Yu, “Do you want to walk around the school or continue sitting here?”
Xia Yu chose to return to his seat. He picked up his math textbook and reviewed the forgotten formula again, going over other formulas as well.
Xia Yu had originally thought that after acquiring the Test-Taking Education skill, he would still need a lot of practice. However, now he realized he was mistaken.
Take this test as an example. Except for the last fill-in-the-blank question and the final sub-questions of the last two application problems, the rest seemed very easy to him.
Regarding these three questions, he felt that it was only due to lacking some knowledge that he couldn’t solve them. Otherwise, he might have been able to at least write a few steps and earn one or two points.
Thus, out of a total math score of 160, he could at least get over 140, approaching the scores of the top scorers in the college entrance exam.
After all, math formulas were much easier to memorize than guzheng pieces.
However, he still needed to continue practicing problems to raise his Test-Taking Education skill to level 5, ensuring he could firmly secure the top position.
Therefore, he continued doing exercises.
Seeing this, the math teacher nodded approvingly. This attitude was commendable. He returned to the forum for a while but found himself outmatched in the argument. Putting down his phone, he picked up Xia Yu’s test and took out a red pen to start grading.
In his opinion, Xia Yu, who hadn’t attended class for a long time, might have a good attitude and previous foundation, but surely couldn’t perform well now.
Scoring 110 would already be difficult.
The first ten questions, which were easy points, were all correct. Not bad, not bad.
Questions eleven and twelve, which were a bit difficult, were also correct. Very good, very good.
Question thirteen, a high-difficulty one, was also correct?
Fortunately, question fourteen was left blank.
Continuing to grade downward, the math teacher’s eyebrows gradually furrowed.
After finishing the entire test, he calculated the score—137.
There was a simple question in the middle that, for some unknown reason, was left blank. Otherwise, the score would have been 145.
In previous years, even the top scorers in liberal arts barely reached below 150 in math.
The math teacher, holding his pen in his mouth, fell into deep thought. This test was from a friend’s school, intended for a monthly exam next week, so there was no possibility of answer leakage.
How could his performance improve against the odds after not attending class for months?
When the class ended and all the tests were collected, the math teacher called Xia Yu back, pointing to the blank question on the test and asked, “How come you didn’t answer such an easy question?”
“I forgot the formula,” Xia Yu replied.
It was normal to forget formulas after not attending class for so long, the math teacher thought. So, could this test score reach 145?
The math teacher fell into deep thought.
Handing the test back to Xia Yu, the math teacher silently left the classroom with the stack of tests.
Xia Yu returned to his seat with the test paper, only to have his neck hooked by Gui Zixiao: “You even forgot the formula. You’re really slipping.”
Gui Zixiao had overheard the math teacher’s words and saw the math teacher’s furrowed brows while grading the test, thinking he had uncovered the truth.
He felt happy. For the past three years, Xia Yu had always outperformed him academically. Now, it was finally his turn to rise above!
If the scores were related to Xia Yu’s college admission, Gui Zixiao might have felt a bit sorry for him. But now that Xia Yu had already received a recommendation, the exam scores no longer mattered. Gui Zixiao’s heart was filled with nothing but pride, and he wanted to mock Xia Yu a bit.
He comforted Xia Yu, “You haven’t attended class for a long time. It’s normal to perform poorly.”
His face was full of pride as he took Xia Yu’s test paper, saying, “It’s okay to do poorly this time. How about this? I’m free this weekend, so I’ll tutor you. I estimate I can score 120 this time!”
Saying this, he flipped Xia Yu’s test to the first page and looked at the bright red score.
137.
“…”
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