After Evan Lin finished the multiple-choice section, he moved on to the fill-in-the-blank problems.
All around the exam hall, plenty of students were scratching their heads with their pens, not daring to write anything for ages. Others scribbled endlessly on their scratch paper, but in the end, they still couldn't figure things out.
The questions were tough—every single one felt like a sharp turn. If you found the right angle, you could overtake it; if not, you just got stuck in a mental trap.
Evan held his pen, jotting down just a line or two of calculations for each problem on his scratch paper before filling in the answers.
An hour and a half into the test, Evan stood up, packed his things, and walked out of the classroom on his own.
He handed in his paper.
"He finished that fast?"
"No way, right? But I heard he's from Brightsea No. 2 High—that third-rate school. He probably thought the questions were too hard and just gave up."
"Math Olympiad isn't for people without brains."
Watching Evan turn in his paper, a few students below all looked on with disdain.
"Stop talking. Quiet down and work on your own questions."
The female proctor frowned, and the students below instantly plunged back into their struggle.
"That student really just came here to mess around. If you can't even stick it out until the end of the Math Olympiad, that's pretty pathetic." The female proctor muttered to herself, pacing forward. When she reached Evan's desk, she picked up his exam paper and glanced at it.
She was a math teacher herself, and anyone qualified to teach at River City First High had solid math skills.
At first, the female proctor saw Evan's answer sheet filled to the brim and figured he'd just scribbled randomly before giving up. But when she spotted one problem, stared at it for over ten minutes, and double-checked the answer in her mind, she noticed that Evan had picked the same answer as she did. That surprised her.
"Still, he probably just guessed."
Thinking this, the female proctor put the exam paper back down.
Meanwhile, Evan walked out of the exam hall. At the stairwell landing, he bumped into a girl coming down from the upper exam rooms.
She had short hair, a white T-shirt, black sneakers, and a calm expression, spinning a ballpoint pen in her hand.
She was petite, maybe about 1.55 meters tall.
When she saw Evan, a spark of curiosity flashed in the girl's eyes. "Math Olympiad?"
"Yeah."
Evan nodded, about to head downstairs, but didn't expect this girl to speak up.
"Finished already?" The girl frowned.
"Finished." Evan felt a bit weird and glanced at this short girl, sensing a hint of dissatisfaction in her gaze.
"Check answers." The girl spoke crisply and to the point.
Evan couldn't be bothered with her and went straight downstairs.
Seeing Evan leave, the girl snorted to herself, clearly annoyed.
Not long after Evan left, Victor Qin walked over from nearby. When he saw the girl, he wasn't at all surprised she'd finished so early. Smiling, he asked, "How'd it go?"
"Very simple." The girl looked at Victor, absolutely certain.
"Jill Jing, keep it up this afternoon." Victor cheered her on.
The girl called Jill Jing nodded. "I know."
Hearing Jill's reply, Victor felt a headache coming on and smiled wryly. "Jill, could you ever say more than three words? Every time you talk, it's three words at a time."
"Can't do." Jill shook her head, grinned, grabbed the railing, and hopped down the stairs, bouncing along with zero pressure in front of Victor.
Downstairs, classes were in session. The next Math Olympiad round was in the afternoon, so Evan went back to the hotel and took a nap.
After the morning test, Sisi Shao and her crew trickled back to the hotel, planning to nap before the afternoon exam.
"Man, why were these problems so hard? I stared at a few for ages and still couldn't understand them." Ivy Zhao looked gloomy and sighed.
"Yeah, this set was brutal. So many twists and turns—whoever wrote these problems is seriously twisted." Lydia Liao shook her head, clearly impressed.
"What about Liu Luran? She probably did pretty well this time. I saw her hand in her paper half an hour early." Allen Zeng glanced around, but didn't spot Liu Luran.
Just then, Sisi Shao and the others walked into the hotel, with Howard Huang leading the way.
"Don't get discouraged, everyone! The test was tough for us, but it's just as tough for everyone else. Just do your best this afternoon and show your real ability." Howard Huang tried to reassure them, but the First High crew looked totally deflated.
"There was a freak in my exam room—a girl from River City First High. She handed in her paper after just over an hour. Hit me hard." Allen Zeng looked frustrated.
"She probably just couldn't do it, so she gave up and left early, right?" Owen Ou guessed.
"Nope. I saw the proctor smile when she left, and when she handed in her paper, I peeked—she filled out the whole thing." Allen Zeng hung his head, totally defeated.
Sisi Shao kept her head down, silent. She hadn't even focused on the test, her mind kept drifting to Evan Lin.
The more Sisi thought about Evan Lin, the more mysterious he seemed.
Just as everyone was heading upstairs, they ran into Evan Lin, who'd just woken up and was coming down for food.
"Evan? What are you doing up there? Don't tell me you handed in your paper early?"
"Was it too hard for you? Couldn't finish, huh?"
A few people saw Evan come down the stairs and couldn't help making snide remarks.
"Just because you're dumb doesn't mean everyone else is as dumb as you." Evan sneered, making Owen Ou and the others' faces turn green then white.
Even Howard Huang's face changed a bit, but remembering Evan was Old Man Liu's favorite, he could only snort quietly to himself.
Sisi Shao watched Evan Lin's back as he left the hotel, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't, lost in thought.
The afternoon exam started at 2:30—this was the main event of the whole Math Olympiad.
The morning was mostly basics—multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank. The afternoon was all big problems, seven in total, with the same two and a half hour time limit.
When Evan got to the exam room, he saw Martin Ma sitting with his head down, looking gloomy. Brandon Yang was still acting cocky next to him.
"What's wrong? Didn't do well?"
There was still some time before the test started. Evan walked over to Martin Ma and asked.
"Nah, I think I did okay." Martin Ma shook his head, then glanced at Brandon Yang.
"What are you looking at? You better do well, or when we get back, you'll be sorry!" Brandon Yang gave Martin Ma a contemptuous look and snorted.