I'm A Math Idiot, So What? - Chapter 34

The place he was pointing to was a small hill in Changning Park. Don’t be fooled by the lackluster environment of my neighborhood, where even a taxi can’t get in; being located in the suburbs of the Changning CBD Radiation Zone, next to University Park and the largest park in the city, the rent is quite impressive. At the time, I chose this place to live simply because it was close to the school, but after moving out for more than a month, I hadn’t really enjoyed any of the other benefits that came with the rent.

For example, the free oxygen bar that is Changning Park.

The reason I hadn’t been there is that Changning Park is situated on a bit of high ground, and I don’t particularly like doing potential-energy exercises, not to mention that I’m not fond of horizontal exercises either. Although it’s a park, it’s actually built on a slope. Even though the sun had already risen for a while, standing on the slope and looking at the small hill across, some of the sunlight was obscured, giving it a visual sense of dawn.

Having suffered from the harsh sun hanging high in the sky on a regular basis, the locals in Changning don’t have the romance of watching the sunrise. I, being particularly adaptable to local customs, also lack that refined taste.

At this moment, the sun gradually rose, revealing a strip of bright light at the edge of the slope.

Fang Congxin admired the sun for a moment, seeming to be softened by the gentle sunlight, and said in a rather mild tone, “I remember you won an essay competition in high school. Now that you see this rosy morning sun, doesn’t it remind you of many uplifting poems? Upon thinking of these, doesn’t it ignite your determination to start pushing hard again?”

I nodded, “Yes, there’s a poem that comes to mind.”

Fang Congxin said, “Recite it for me; let me feel it.”

“You’re asking me to recite? That’s so embarrassing, it makes me feel like a silly child being dragged out by my mom to perform every time relatives come to visit.”

“The payment for the last session is now void.”

“Hey! Just wait while I clear my throat.” I straightened up: “Bright winter sun, how lovely you are. I’ll move my seat to sit in the sun, still wrapped in my fur coat. The little servant kneads my feet, the little maid scratches my back—”

“Alright, that’s enough. How can you be thinking of people massaging your back and feet when you see the rising sun?”

“I thought of a few other things too.”

“What things?”

“Look at that sun; it really resembles a boiled egg. Just like how you would break the eggshell and pour it directly into boiling water, maybe add some sugar—how delicious is that? Are you hungry?” I licked my dry lips with my tongue.

Fang Congxin was silent for a moment, swallowed, and then said the one phrase I love to hear the most at this moment: “Let’s go have breakfast.”

“I’m so hungry I could eat a whole pig,” I immediately replied.

He walked quickly in front of me, turned back to look at me upon hearing this, and his eyes sparkled mischievously: “How could you be so cruel, thinking of eating one of your own kind?!”

“Don’t think just because I can’t run anymore that I’ll start spewing nonsense!”

“I shouldn’t have asked you to recite a poem. Can you please be civilized?”

“Don’t think just because I can’t run anymore that I’ll throw out waste carelessly in a parabolic or linear manner.”

“Since we’re talking about parabolas, how about we discuss conic section theorems in a bit.”

“……”

We exchanged playful banter as we left the park, leaving that pretentious sunrise behind us.

Although we were both famished and had little heart to enjoy the sunrise scenery, the sunlight, just as Fang Congxin said, was something that contained energy—under the sun, the drudgery began to evaporate slowly like water in a sponge, turning into the sweat of our morning run, dripping down our cheeks and necks. Though we were tired, we felt a long-lost sense of vitality.Facing the morning sun, it’s easy for anyone to feel motivated to push forward.

Alright, I thought seriously, let’s make an effort! For the sake of 1000 yuan and La Mer!

I proudly shared this decision with Fang Congxin, who wasted no time and quickly searched for the nearest Starbucks on his phone, dragging me along for breakfast and to kick off our tutoring session.

I suggested that we didn’t need to hurry; we could finish breakfast, go home to shower, and then set another time to discuss math.

He insisted that while I still had three minutes of enthusiasm, we should strike while the iron is hot, fearing that a shower would dampen my spirit.

I replied, “Why do you have so little faith in me? Maybe I’m an extraordinary genius; geniuses can be a bit dull in their childhood, just like Wilson, Newton, and Emerson. Who knows, one day I might win a Fields Medal in Mathematics.”

While placing the order, Fang Congxin glanced at me sideways and asked, “What about the Daydream Award?”

The cashier chuckled at that.

“What’s so funny? Just because he’s a handsome guy doesn’t mean you have to unconditionally side with him. That’s discrimination against appearance; watch out, or I might sue you!”

Fang Congxin said with genuine concern, “She’s probably laughing because your shirt is inside out, right?”

“Thank you! I wouldn’t have known if you hadn’t said anything.”

With that, I ran off to the bathroom to change clothes.

When I came out, Fang Congxin had already exchanged a stack of plain paper and a pencil from the waiter. Thinking back to just a half month ago, I too had been captivated by his looks and tricked into trading paper and a Carrot Pen, amidst all the chaotic events of reporting someone and meeting randomly. It felt like a different lifetime!

“What are you lost in thought about?”

I shook my head.

Fang Congxin cleared his throat and said, “Let me first give you a macro explanation of the broader context of our tutoring session.”

With that, he pulled up a PowerPoint presentation from his phone, showing the different topics covered in the course “The Beauty of Mathematics,” along with a bar chart he drew based on my last test scores, with 100 points as the Y-axis.

To be precise, it wasn’t exactly a bar chart; it was just a few horizontal lines touching the X-axis.I awkwardly covered my face, and then Fang Congxin said, “I originally thought that what I had to do in tutoring you was like Nüwa Mends the Sky. Now it seems that my role might be more like Pangu, the one who created Heaven and Earth.”

He really knows his mythology well.

Fang Congxin continued, “I don’t have many expectations of you. Just try not to let your brain become an even bigger black hole, stay focused, and not get distracted, because every moment of distraction is money wasted. I’ll also do my best to make the lessons interesting.”

I nodded. He was right; for me, time equated to money. I shook off my lethargy and told him not to hold back, to really challenge my brain.

Today, Fang Congxin was teaching Linear Algebra. Before he started the lesson, he threw out a question: If I were the Emperor with three thousand beauties in the harem, including Liu Haoran and William Chan, and I randomly selected one to favor each year, how many days would it take to favor them all?

“With Liu Haoran on my left and William Chan on my right, am I even human if I’m still considering favoring someone else?”

He twitched his lips: “The Old Minister knows the Emperor is feeling wronged, but for the sake of All Living Beings Under Heaven, let’s try to be fair and share the love. The Emperor should consider Brother Jackson in the Cold Palace, Brother Leo, Arthur Chen, Bai Jingting, Tom Hiddleston, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Holland…”

Not to mention, people who graduate from Peking University have great memories. Just hearing it once, they can remember everything, even in the correct order.

I pounded my chest and said, “My dear minister, just take it that I’m donating my Imperial Body to the common people.”

He pushed my head lightly: “Let’s save that question for the end of this section.”

“I have my pants down, and you’re telling me this.”

“Alright, let’s assume the beauties I have favored are n—”

“Wait, how come my pants are back on?”

His patience ran out, and he slapped his pen heavily on the table: “Your Majesty, please shut up; don’t push the Old Minister to the brink of regicide.”

I made a zipping motion with my lips, and he started his lesson again.

To explain the principles of linear algebra clearly, he launched into a grand theme of “Why did Homo sapiens stand out in ancient times?” As a history student, I perked up at the mention of a topic I was familiar with.

He began with the statistical number of ancient creatures’ food and explained that the earliest language of Homo sapiens was essentially an algebraic model, not restricted to specific objects or matters but focused on describing abstract concepts and relationships. Then he smoothly transitioned from language back to mathematical models, discussing food statistics, starting from capturing a rabbit and a bird.

He unhurriedly drew an xy-axis on the paper: “One bird has two legs; one rabbit has four legs. So, two birds have four legs; two rabbits have eight legs.”

After plotting a few points, he continued, “You see, this cumulative amount forms a straight line as the quantity increases because this variable is a fixed value. ybird = 2xbird. yrabbit = 4xrabbit. The 2 and 4 are constants, and we’ll unify them as w, also known as a scalar.”

He went on, “Now let’s combine the statistics.”“y legs = w birds * x birds + w rabbits * x rabbits, but if we catch monkeys and lions later, this formula will become too lengthy. At this point, we introduce the concept of vectors, using a vector [x1, x2] to represent the birds and rabbits, and another vector [w1, w2] to indicate how many legs each bird and rabbit has. So now we can modify it to y = wx, x = [x1; x2], w = [w1; w2].”

Thus, he systematically introduced the concepts of variables, weights, and matrices one by one.

Although he spoke in a straightforward manner, if I lost focus for even a moment, I would quickly fail to grasp the next concept, so I had to pay close attention. However, it was different from before; after focusing, I didn’t find myself lost, with my mind going blank.

A marvelous feeling surged within me, as if I were climbing a slope where I could pick up scattered fruits along the way, making the uphill journey not feel like an uphill battle at all. By the time he had explained all the concepts, I hadn’t realized that the hour hand had already moved to the next hour.

This was the first time I hadn’t daydreamed or glanced at the time throughout a math tutoring session.

“See, isn’t it really not that difficult?” He put down his pen and looked at me.

I nodded vigorously: “I feel like I’m touching the door to the world of mathematics!”

“Not at all. You don’t even know which way the door to mathematics opens,” he replied dismissively.

I held my head high and urged him to bring on more challenges. After he finished explaining an example problem, he casually gave me a few exercises, saying they were for practice. I picked up my pen and worked for a few minutes, then threw it down and asked him, “Aren’t these a bit far off from the example problem?”

He tapped the paper with his pen: “These two problems are akin to close relatives who can’t even marry within three generations. How are they far off?”

My flimsy confidence crumbled under this sharp rebuke, instantly collapsing.

What I thought I could easily understand by listening turned out to be everything I couldn’t do once I tried it out.

“Can you come up with a problem that has a close-knit relationship within one generation, where there’s a loving family dynamic?”

He raised his eyes to look at me: “Just say you want me to change Xiao Hong in the example to Xiao Ming, would you?”

I replied, “That’s not out of the question.”

Fang Congxin: “……”

I slumped on the table, exhausted, and said, “Fang Congxin, do you mind if I make a pass at your dad?”

Fang Congxin grabbed my neck and shouted in my ear: “If you have the guts, go hit on my grandpa in the Underworld, now get back to your problems!”

After yelling that, Fang Congxin spread out the paper, placing the example problem on one side and the exercise problems on the other, saying, “Have you ever ridden a bike? Doing problems is like learning to ride a bike; with someone holding the bike, you feel like you can do it, but once they let go, you can’t maintain your balance. The key is still in practicing more. Come on, try working on it first, and when you get stuck, I’ll give you a hint.”

I pursed my lips and looked at him: “I learned to ride a bike without anyone holding it; I figured it out after pedaling a couple of rounds.”

“Well, working on problems is like swimming. Swimming with a floaty and without a floaty—”

“Since I can remember, I’ve been able to dog paddle. Toss me in the water, and I’m a fish. Other than the built-in floaty on my belly, I haven’t touched a kickboard.”

He paused for a moment, visibly frustrated as if smoke were rising from his head, and spoke each word as though it were through clenched teeth: “Then doing problems is like cooking. Reading a hundred cookbooks is not as useful as—”

Before I could open my mouth, he quickly stopped me: “Okay, I get it, you were born a culinary prodigy. Lin Dui Dui, can we get on to doing the problems now?”

“Sure,” I replied obediently, picking up my pen, ready to work diligently like a farmer chatting with his pretty new bride while tending to his fields.