Guess How Much?

Xu Mang was in anguish. The first class in the morning was the usual politics class, and he had been chased out. This was unacceptable for a man who regarded attending classes to be as important as his life.

That was why he made a call to the Education Bureau and complained about the unfair treatment he was facing, and needless to say...their reaction was quick, and now, Xu Mang stood in the teacher's lounge to reflect on his actions.

"I say, Xu Mang...how did you come to be studying in One High?" His Math teacher, Liang Feng, had no classes at the moment and was the one overseeing Xu Mang while he reflected on his actions.

"Through connections." Xu Mang replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Mr. Liang, everyone in this school knows about it. It's not a secret that my father and Principal Mu were classmates and friends for a few decades."

Liang Feng chuckled. "Xu Mang, can you tell me honestly. The midterm exams this time, you handed in all blank papers apart from Chinese? And one of the blank papers was my subject?"

Xu Mang shook his head. "Maths is full marks!"

Liang Feng was at a loss for words, not wanting to speak suddenly. It was rare that he swallowed his pride and sat down with a student to discuss the most basic human emotions. And the result was that the other party didn't take it seriously at all, he felt a little sad at that.

"Come over here." Liang Feng said, beckoning for Xu Mang to come over.

"No can do! Old Lin asked me to stand here, if he knew that I was wandering around, I might even lose my head!" Xu Mang said, clutching his neck with a horrified look on his face. "Since this is the case, Mr. Liang, could I trouble you to come over instead?"

"You little brat… I asked you to come over, why are you spouting so much nonsense!?" Liang Feng was getting angry.

"Oh…" Xu Mang walked over to Liang Feng's side, asking him curiously, "I'm here, what's up?"

"Didn't you say you got full marks?" Liang Feng said, pulling out a copy of the maths exam paper from his drawer and pointed at the last question, saying, "This is the toughest question in the entire paper, I'd explained it before in class, although just briefly, as I didn't expect this sort of question to appear in the midterm exams."

"You say you scored full marks, so tell me the best solution to this problem." Liang Feng continued, "If you get it right, I will let you join the Mathematical Olympiad team and permit you to join the competition!"

"Really!?"

"Absolutely!"

Looking at Liang Feng's serious face, Xu Mang knew that he was doing this for real, but when the question came...he didn't understand!

At this time, Xu Mang thought of a way out, and that was called playing hard to get!

Pretending to understand it well, but not prepared to say it. He would allow Liang Feng to get angry to the point he was so pissed, and then, when the time came that the papers were delivered, Mr. Liang would finally understand that he, Xu Mang, was really such a special genius!

As a genius stuck in this situation, his value was very high. This was something that Xu Mang had calculated before, and compared to an honest answer, this kind of attitude which would further arouse other people's curiosity when he pulled back suddenly, the 'wow' factor was sure to be on an even higher magnitude. 

"Uh...Mr. Liang, I know how to solve this question...but I don't feel like explaining." Xu Mang said bashfully. "Please forgive my willfulness, you need to understand, a genius just doesn't use the normal paths."

Liang Feng: #￥%...&*@

Calm down… His blood pressure was rising too high!

Liang Feng was going through his drawers for his antihypertensive medicine, and he swallowed the needed pills. There was no helping it. According to unvalidated statistics, every math teacher had unusual blood pressure, and it was caused by students.

"Xu Mang! The last question of the exam last month, how exactly did you do it?" Liang Feng asked. He began to doubt his entire life, to this day, he still couldn't understand how that perfect solution had been produced by Xu Mang.

"Because I'm a genius! Is this reason not enough?" Xu Mang replied, a surprised look on his face. "Mr. Liang...have you been under too much pressure lately that you have some misunderstanding at the concept of being a genius?"

I…

This…

Oh my God!

No, that was not enough, I still need a few more pills.

Liang Feng rubbed his forehead in exasperation, and he couldn't help but feel some resentment in his heart. Xu Mang was the most lethal student since the founding of the school, with just a few words, he could push you into a mental breakdown. 

"It's here, it's here! The car that's bringing the papers!"

Wang Xue walked into the office and was startled to see Xu Mang there. She couldn't help but ask curiously, "Xu Mang, why are you here?"

"I'm reflecting on my actions…" Xu Mang said earnestly.

"Just as well, come and help take the papers to your class, then."

***

Xu Mang found the box for his class among the many boxes, and just as he was going to move it, another unknown teacher asked him to move two more boxes. Xu Mang immediately refused this unreasonable request.

There were people who would use their identity and position to get others to do what they were not supposed to do, and Xu Mang had always been resistant to these kinds of situations.

"Who is this student!?"

"Xu Mang!"

"Ah...forget it then. If it was anyone else, I'd speak to their class teacher."

Stepping into the office, Lin Yishan had coincidentally just finished a class. When he saw Xu Mang taking the initiative to move the box that belonged to his own class, he felt a rush of gratitude toward him. Even if he had a mountain of problems, he was still a kind boy inside.

"Hm! Not bad at all." Lin Yishan said, smiling. "Come help me calculate the scores, you can state the students' scores while I record them down."

"Oh…" Xu Mang nodded his head. 

Firstly, it was the Chinese papers.

"Yang Xiaoman, 147 marks."

"Li Hua, 142 marks.

"Sun Xiaoxiao, 74 marks."

Hearing Sun Xiaoxiao's marks, Lin Yishan let out a heavy sigh.

"Xu...Xu Mang…"

"What, dare not state your own score?" Lin Yishan snorted. "Hurry up!"

"0 marks."

As expected!

Lin Yishan didn't get angry, he just quietly wrote a big fat zero on Xu Mang's record.

History paper.

"Xu Mang...0 marks."

Politics paper.

"Xu Mang...0 marks."

English paper.

"Xu Mang...0 marks."

Geography paper.

"Xu Mang...0 marks."

Lin Yishan felt that both his mind and body were weary and aching, as though Xu Mang had trampled on him a thousand times. Even though he knew that this guy had broken the record of submitting blank papers, to see it with his own eyes, it was impossible to let it go.

Five blank papers…

Apart from writing his name, class, school, and student number, the entire paper was blank...just filling in the ABCD's would also be better than this!

Would it hurt to just move your pen a little?

Would it kill you?

"Mr. Lin? Your complexion doesn't look so good, there's something wrong!" Xu Mang said, looking at Lin Yishan's face that was as red as a pig's liver, concern written all over his face. "If you call an ambulance now and get admitted into the ICU, there's probably still a chance to save you."

"Quiet! Continue to state the marks, next is Mathematics!" Lin Yishan sent a scathing glare toward Xu Mang, the rage clear in his voice.

"Oh…"

Mathematics paper.

"Yang Xiaoman, 146 marks."

"Li Hua, 94 marks."

"Feng Yiping, 23 marks."

"Gu Fenfang, 12 marks."

"Lin Hao, 32 marks."

The scores for the Math paper were downright miserable, and except for Yang Xiaoman and Li Hua, the entire class had been slaughtered by it. Lin Yishan was not really bothered about this seeing as the entire city's Year 3 classes were in the same boat.

In comparison, at least his class still had Yang Xiaoman, while the other schools and classes surely didn't have her!

"Xu Mang…"

"Uh…"

"Mr. Lin, guess how much?" Xu Mang suddenly asked Lin Yishan, a cheeky smile on his face and even in his tone.