I'm A Math Idiot, So What? - Chapter 1

This morning when I woke up, my right eyelid kept twitching like it was staging a rebellion.

I suspected that something unfortunate might happen today.

I flipped through my class schedule and discovered the revolutionary source of my eyelid’s rebellion: there was a math class today.

My math skills are not just bad; they’re extremely bad.

My mom is an accountant, and my dad is a senior high school math teacher. By all logic, I should have math in my genes. So when I scored single digits in primary school math, I could understand why they would stare blankly at my baby photos. After all, just like them, I’ve seriously contemplated a very practical question: Did they mistakenly take the wrong child home from the hospital?

At that time, my dad hadn’t yet been defeated by the harsh reality and still harbored unrealistic hopes for my younger self, believing that “there are no unteachable kids, only teachers who can’t teach.” So, he poured all the patience and enthusiasm of his lifetime into guiding my math homework.

“Here, look at this problem. There’s a plot of land in front of this old man’s house where he planted potatoes the first year. He harvested 25 kilograms. The cost per kilogram was 1 yuan, and the selling price was 2 yuan. Calculate how much he earned.”

I couldn’t do the calculation. My dad wrote it out on scratch paper for me, showed me the steps, and then wrote down 25 yuan.

He asked if I understood.

I nodded.

He continued with another question: “The second year, he planted tomatoes and harvested 30 kilograms.””At 2 yuan per kilogram cost and 3 yuan selling price, how much does he earn?”

I shook my head. My dad said, “Isn’t this very simple? By the same logic, you can figure it out.” He wrote down the steps and told me it was 30 yuan.

My dad worried that his questions were too difficult and hadn’t gradually brought me into the right mindset. So he took a sip of water to clear his throat and said, “What if he plants grapes and harvests 70 kilograms, with a cost of 2 yuan per kilogram and a selling price of 3 yuan?”

I calculated for ages but still couldn’t figure it out. My dad yelled loudly, taking a deep breath, “How can you still not get it? It’s 70! Isn’t it obviously 70?!”

I quickly shouted, “I understand, I understand!”

Seeing my sudden enlightenment, my dad restrained his temper and asked with a hint of hope, “Lin Meng, don’t be afraid of math. Math can be very interesting. If the old man mastered math methods, he would know what to plant for more profit, right?”

I frowned and said, “I think grandpa is being tangled up in math. In my opinion, grandpa could plant potatoes on the ground, build a small frame for tomatoes above them, and then above the tomatoes build a trellis for grapes. Nothing would be delayed. Dad, I want to eat grapes. Let’s buy some grapes. It’s 3 yuan per kilogram, not expensive.”

My dad stammered “you, you, you” for a long time, then gave the rickety table a mighty slap, breaking our already frail table apart.

Math is indeed very interesting. Suddenly, my dad turned into a kung fu master unleashing his inner energy.

By the time I stumbled into high school, my math scores were still flashing red alerts. Although I was leading in liberal arts at school, math was such a major weakness that it was almost devoid of hope.

My senior class teacher said, “Lin Meng, math and liberal arts are like two legs. You need them balanced to move forward. With your current situation, it’s like one leg is amputated up to the waist.”

The math teacher always sighed deeply when he saw me, as if to him, I was an incurable terminal patient.

On the day of the college entrance exam, after I finished the math part, I saw many good students wiping tears together. I thought they were moved to tears just like me because they were saying goodbye to math. I joined them excitedly, but they said this math exam was particularly perverse, as hard as Olympiad questions, and they were very frustrated.

An incorrigible underachiever is like a color-blind person who can’t distinguish between hard and very hard.To me, whether math is difficult or not, I’m just here, neither sad nor happy.