Ji Zhiyuan walked out onto the balcony.
"Rouxue, Lan Zigang has indeed broken the law, and the Ji family has always had zero tolerance," he said in a gentle voice. "If the tenfold compensation can be paid within three days, the Ji family will withdraw the report."
"Tenfold!" Lan Rouxue gasped. "My brother doesn’t have that kind of money—this would ruin him... Zhiyuan, you’ll help us, won’t you?"
Ji Zhiyuan reassured her, "Don’t worry, leave this to me."
"Thank you, Zhiyuan. I don’t know what I’d do without you. Thank you so much..."
Ji Zhiyuan spent over ten minutes comforting her before finally hanging up.
Standing on the balcony, he let the cool night breeze wash over him, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.
Rong Yu had slept well.
Early in the morning, she received several pages of equations from her senior, Lin Rang, asking her to continue the derivation and calculate the first-stage solution.
It was a calculation regarding planetary orbital trajectories.
For Rong Yu, it wasn’t exactly simple.
Before this, she had rarely dealt with aerospace-related subjects.
As soon as she entered the classroom, she flipped open her scratch paper and began working meticulously. Once absorbed, time flew by—by the time she finished the calculations, the second class had already ended.
She pulled out her phone, took photos, and sent over a dozen pages to Lin Rang.
Lin Rang had just finished a lecture.
Seeing a message from his junior on WeChat, he assumed she had run into trouble. But when he opened it, a flood of images poured in—and to his shock, she had derived the first-stage data perfectly.
This was a newly discovered asteroid by the Aerospace Research Institute last month, steadily approaching Earth. The institute had urgently begun calculating its trajectory, enlisting numerous mathematicians for the task. It wasn’t until last night that the precise data had been finalized.
And yet, Rong Yu’s calculations matched the institute’s internal results exactly.
Lin Rang was stunned.
The aerospace bureau had the most advanced computational tools for simulations.
Rong Yu? Just a pen and paper.
No wonder... no wonder their professor had been so eager to bring her into their research group. He must have been afraid someone else would snatch her up.
"Junior, I’ll send you another set of data. Calculate the second-stage trajectory of the planet."
Rong Yu received the message and immediately dove into a new round of calculations.
This period was physics class. Pei Yaru walked into the classroom with a bright smile. "Class, I have some great news."
Class Twenty was notoriously the worst-performing group in the school. Since Pei Yaru had been assigned as their homeroom teacher, she had visibly aged at least ten years. This was the first time the students had seen her looking so radiant.
"Our very own Rong Yu scored a perfect mark in the preliminary round of the National Physics Competition!" Pei Yaru announced cheerfully. "Let’s all congratulate Rong Yu!"
She started clapping.
The students, bewildered, followed suit before bursting into murmurs.
"Perfect in physics?"
"How... how is that possible?"
"Wasn’t she an arts student before? I heard she only scored a little over a hundred in her last college entrance exam. If her grades were that bad, how could she possibly get full marks in physics?"
Pei Yaru smiled. "Think back—hasn’t Rong Yu been quietly studying ever since she transferred to our class?"
The class monitor paused.
Now that he thought about it... she had.
Rong Yu was strikingly pretty, so he’d naturally paid more attention to her. Every time he glanced her way, she was at her desk, scribbling away at math problems.
"Rong Yu’s low score in her last exam was due to a mistake, not a lack of ability," Pei Yaru explained. "Monitor, study rep, and class secretary—you three are the top students in our class. Keep in mind, the monthly exams are coming up. I’m curious to see which of you will be pushed out of the top three by Rong Yu."
The pressure instantly weighed on the monitor.
The study rep thought to himself, If Rong Yu was really this good, why would she have been transferred to Class Twenty?
The class secretary pursed her lips. Rong Yu spent all her time with Ji Zhouye and his crowd of slackers. Surely her grades couldn’t be that impressive...
Each of them had their own doubts.
Yet, as soon as class ended, the class secretary was the first to approach. "Rong Yu, could you explain this physics problem to me?"
The monitor and study rep exchanged glances before quietly gathering around.
Rong Yu glanced at the question, jotted down an answer, then suddenly remembered Pei Yaru’s instructions. She crossed it out and began explaining in detail. "This question tests the most fundamental concept..."
The class secretary was stunned.
Such a complex problem, and Rong Yu had solved it with the simplest approach?
She really was that good.
Not to be outdone, the monitor asked, "What about this one?"
Rong Yu patiently walked through the solution.
The study rep was about to ask another question when—
Ji Zhouye slammed his palm on the desk. "You’ve been at this for five minutes. If we wait any longer, the cafeteria won’t even have soup left."
The group snapped out of it and rushed toward the cafeteria.
Though the cafeteria was already packed, all it took was Ji Zhouye knocking on a table he liked, and the occupants would immediately clear out.
Rong Yu gave him a cool glance.
Ji Zhouye stiffened, muttering, "They were almost done anyway..."
Chen Nian covered his face.
He had never seen his usually fearless friend look so chastened.
The cafeteria buzzed with chatter about the physics competition.
"Did you hear? Song Huai from the elite class aced the preliminary round with full marks! He’s moving on to the finals—insane!"
"No way, a perfect score in physics? That’s not just a top student, that’s a genius!"
"If he wins a national award, he’ll get direct admission to Peking or Tsinghua. Some people are just on another level."
"..."
Ji Zhouye scoffed. "Big deal, a perfect score in physics. Why’s everyone acting like it’s the end of the world?"
"Look who’s jealous."
"He used to chase after School Beauty Rong. Song Huai’s his rival—of course he’s salty."
"But isn’t he dating Rong Yu now?"
"Please, how could Rong Yu compare to School Beauty Rong?"
Ji Zhouye’s temper flared.
Sure, he’d pursued Rong Ruoyao back then—but only because she’d been crowned school beauty, and he’d wanted the thrill of the chase.
That was years ago. Why were people still bringing it up?
"Jealous? Over a physics score?" He rolled his eyes. "Our class also has someone who aced it. I don’t get why this is such a big deal!"
"Exactly!" Chen Nian chimed in. "Our Rong Yu got full marks and a finals spot too. Has she bragged about it? Nope!"
The cafeteria fell silent.
"Who’s Rong Yu?"
"That girl who did the talent show with School Beauty Rong. Heard she’s a repeater with terrible grades."
"She got full marks and advanced? That’s hard to believe."
"Bet she just copied off Song Huai. Tsk."
Ji Zhouye threw his chopsticks down and stood abruptly. "Who the hell said she copied? Say it again, I dare you!"
His great-grandmother had been a university graduate, a researcher, a professor—back in the seventies. High school physics? A joke. As if Rong Yu would need to cheat.
Well, although he had once doubted that his great-grandmother might perform poorly due to being out of touch with the times... clearly, he had overthought it.
A remarkable person excels no matter where they are.
