"Mind your own business!"

"Nosy nelly!"

"Go defend your food!"

Sun Liang sat puzzled, rubbing the back of his head.

Unfazed, he moved to take a seat and asked Zhao Yi, "Where’s our gift? Didn’t you promise to buy something for us when you went to the capital?"

Both Lin Xiaoqing and Zhao Linlin turned to look at Zhao Yi.

Zhao Yi walked over and fetched a suitcase, pulling out two gadgets that looked like robot cats, with small screens on their bellies and a keypad underneath.

This was a product of Universe Interactive Company.

While copying files to the robot hard drives, Zhao Yi thought they seemed pretty cool, so he bought two at a discounted price as gifts.

This model was titled ’Education Machine’.

The robot cat had many features like waving, spinning, and stored songs. It could download more songs from the internet and had a voice recorder. It could also refer to a lot of information via the keypad and the ’Wenquxing Dictionary’ function on the screen beneath.

And so on.

If this were ten years into the future, the robot cat might be considered an outdated children’s toy that even lack voice interaction, had poor audio quality, couldn’t connect directly to WiFi, and had pathetic storage capacity...There were many issues.

But here and now, at a time when MP3 players were popular, smartphones hadn’t been invented, and students liked buying ’Wenquxing’, these products were capable of attracting three high school seniors because nothing more high-end was available on the market.

The three examined the gadgets for quite some time.

Suddenly, Sun Liang noticed a problem, and sceptically asked Zhao Yi, "Why are there only two? Where’s mine? Zhao Yi, don’t tell me you forgot to buy me a gift!"

"Of course not!"

Zhao Yi immediately shook his head in denial and squatted next to the suitcase, rummaging through it.

He searched and searched.

Perseverance is a virtue!

In an unknown pocket of the suitcase, he found a small plastic flag, which looked like a toy giveaway for children.

Zhao Yi carefully cradled the small flag in both hands and solemnly presented it to Sun Liang. "Monkey, this is the carefully selected gift I got for you!"

"Since you’re going to the winter camp, it’s a big deal. I hope this small flag will help you make a victorious start and achieve success, and strive to get into the top sixty!"

"Keep it up!"

Zhao Yi passionately handed it over.

Deeply moved, Sun Liang accepted the flag, but on closer inspection realized it was a plastic toy. He didn’t hold it well and it fell to the ground.

"Crack!"

The flagpole... broke?

Amid the awkward laughter of others in the living room, Sun Liang mustered up all his strength and yelled at Zhao Yi, "Zhao Yi!"

"Damn it!"

"We are no longer friends!"

...

Ultimately, considering that he was staying at Zhao Yi’s place, Sun Liang decided to reconcile with Zhao Yi – at least not until the next day.

By the next day, he’d forgotten all about it.

Zhao Yi returned to his school life. He still took his studies seriously. There was a monthly test in December, followed by the year-end exams.

He set a small goal for himself: To come first in the Monthly Test in their school and rank among the top 100 in the province’s year-end exam.

Reaching this goal wasn’t easy.

Nanjiang was a power province in the College Entrance Examination. If the questions were a bit easier, a few dozen or even as many as a hundred students could score 700 points. To make it into the top 100 in the province, it would be best to aim for a score of 700.

Zhao Yi diligently memorized Chinese and studied Chemistry and Biology.

He didn’t see much of a problem with the other three subjects.

During his research on ’filtration method’, hacking techniques, and solving the Collatz Conjecture, the most valuable thing he acquired was not the research output itself, but the proficiency in using the ’Causality Law’, and ’Connection Law’. Even in his daily life, he habitually used ’Causality Law’, and ’Connection Law’ which consumed very little energy.

This was very helpful for his problem-solving.

For tricky math or physics problems, he would subconsciously use ’Causality Law’, and ’Connection Law’. Combined with his own problem-solving ability, most problems seemed rather easy for him.

Nuff said about English.

Zhao Yi started to habitually use the ’Causality Law’ to solve errors in short passages. He could easily detect the errors, making answering the questions much easier.

If he wanted to continue to improve his scores, he needed to focus on Chinese, Biology, and Chemistry.

Others could see Zhao Yi’s efforts.

Many didn’t understand him.

"Why are you studying so hard even if you don’t have to take the College Entrance Examination?" Lin Xiaoqing sounded pitiful. The thought of Zhao Yi working so hard made her very depressed.

Because...

Zhao Yi had become a competitor for the top scorer!

Zhao Yi looked up and laughed, "Studying makes me happy!"

"Speak human!"

Lin Xiaoqing didn’t believe him at all.

"Alright!"

Zhao Yi let out a sigh of resignation and suddenly noticed Wang Chengmin striding into the classroom. He immediately stated righteously, "Actually, the reason is simple. Our school has never had a top performer, and I just want to add a few more points to maybe become the champion in the College Entrance Examination. That would bring honor to our school, wouldn’t it?"

"Great!"

"Well said!"

Wang Chengmin was delighted by Zhao Yi’s statement. He clapped his hands vigorously and yelled at the others, "Did you hear that? This is the best student in the history of our school. The exam is not for oneself but for the entire school!"

"Such a spirit is grand indeed!"

Finishing his praises, he turned to Zhao Yi and said earnestly, "Zhao Yi, whether you achieve it or not, your name will be remembered in the history of our school! You are the best, most devoted student with the strongest sense of belonging to the school throughout the years!"

After glorifying Zhao Yi thoroughly, Wang Chengmin remembered his purpose, "Some journalists want to interview you, they all belong to major media outlets, you can’t turn them down."

Can’t turn them down?

You just want more interviews from major media, don’t you?

Zhao Yi thought to himself.

However, it really wasn’t easy to decline interviews from major media outlets, and accepting an interview could help guide public opinion, so Zhao Yi agreed to it.

Several journalists were present in the ’interview classroom’.

Aside from "Nanjiang News", there were also journalists from "Urban News", "News Express", and other media outlets.

Liu Huimin and Zhao Yi knew each other; she asked a weird question right away, "Miao Hongchao claimed in an interview that he has solved the ’Collatz Conjecture’. What are your thoughts on this?"

"Miao Hongchao, who’s he?"

Zhao Yi asked subconsciously. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Miao Hongchao, a film and television star. He has starred in ’Hero Chronicles’, ’Youth Journey’ and several other movies. He also has a Ph.D...."

Liu Huimin introduced him in detail .

Zhao Yi was a bit dizzy by her words and replied directly, "I don’t know who Miao Hongchao is, but if he has really solved the ’Collatz Conjecture’, he should publish a paper in a top journal or present at an international mathematical conference."

"I don’t have much to say about it."

"Alright!"

"I’ll just say one thing: Congratulations to him!"

"..."