The next morning, the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Evan Lin opened his eyes and glanced at the time—it was six in the morning.
After washing up, he left his room and saw Old Man Liu already sitting in the hotel lobby.
Old Man Liu looked to be in a good mood. When he saw Evan come out, he nodded, "You wake up pretty early. Do you get up this early at home too?"
"Yeah, sometimes I go out for a run," Evan nodded.
"Come on, sit down and have something to eat."
Old Man Liu had bought quite a spread for breakfast, and Evan didn’t stand on ceremony.
Originally, Old Man Liu had set the meeting time for seven in the morning, since the Olympiad started at nine. They needed to enter the exam room half an hour early, and the extra hour and a half was mainly for getting the students familiar with the venue.
While Evan was eating, Old Man Liu reminded him again about a few things to watch out for when answering questions. Evan just kept nodding along.
At six thirty, Victor Qin arrived at the hotel, looking apologetic as he saw Old Man Liu. "Teacher, I was planning to come at five thirty to have breakfast with you, but my car broke down on the way."
Victor Qin had an apologetic look on his face—if it were anyone else here, they’d be completely shocked.
Victor Qin wasn’t very old, but he held a very high status in River City’s education world. Rumor had it that he once raised an entire class’s average math score by fifty points in just one month.
“It’s fine, you have your own things to handle. Want to grab a bite?” Old Man Liu glanced at Victor Qin, who smiled, nodded, and without any airs at all pulled out a chair and sat down next to them, grabbing a fried dough stick from the table and starting to eat.
“This is Victor Qin, my student. And you’re my student too, so technically, he’s your senior.” Old Man Liu looked at Evan Lin, then at Victor Qin, his tone neither light nor heavy.
Evan didn’t feel much about it, but when Victor Qin heard Old Man Liu’s words, he paused for a moment, then looked at Evan with interest. “So I should call you Junior Lin?”
“But in all these years, you’re the first student the teacher has valued this much. I’m really looking forward to seeing how you do in the Olympiad.” Victor Qin gave Evan a meaningful glance.
About five minutes later, the Brightsea First High team leader, Howard Huang, came downstairs. When he saw Victor Qin in the lobby, he quickly walked over. “Mr. Liu, Mr. Qin, you’re up early.”
“Yeah, I’m used to getting up early,” Old Man Liu nodded. “When you get old, you just don’t like sleeping in.”
“Mr. Huang, First High’s team has always been strong. I hope your students do well too.” Victor Qin greeted him. “If you have time after the contest, maybe we can exchange some teaching experiences.”
Howard Huang was flattered by this and quickly nodded. “That would be fantastic.”
By seven o’clock, students finally started coming downstairs one after another.
Rachel Liu was among them; she must have come back to the hotel after last night’s parting, so she wouldn’t have to rush from home to school early in the morning.
Sisi Shao and her friends all looked a little out of it—the events of last night still had them shaken.
No one could have imagined that those River City second-gens they’d always seen as untouchable would get thrown out of Sunwave Bluebay in disgrace, all because of a single card in Evan Lin’s hand.
“Evan Lin!”
When Sisi Shao came downstairs and saw Evan Lin sitting there calmly, her expression grew complicated.
Thomas Zhao and the others looked at Evan, their eyes full of mixed emotions, but none of them dared to provoke him now.
Howard Huang glanced at his First High students, frowning slightly. “Why do you all look so out of it? Today’s important—get ready and focus on answering carefully, got it?”
“Got it!”
Old Man Liu checked the time, then stood up. “Let’s go outside, get some fresh air, and adjust our mindset.”
The group walked out of the hotel.
First High and No. 2 High split into two small clusters as they walked.
No. 2 High’s group clustered around Rachel Liu, while Evan Lin walked alone beside Old Man Liu.
Victor Qin led the way up front, occasionally chatting with Old Man Liu about funny stories from his school days. Sometimes he’d say a word or two to Howard Huang, which made Howard secretly delighted.
“You’ve all graduated so many years ago—time really flies. Sometimes it feels like I was just teaching you yesterday.”
Old Man Liu sighed, and for once, his aged face showed a rare hint of melancholy.
Students who’d woken up later grabbed some buns and steamed bread from roadside stalls to fill their stomachs.
With some time left before the exam, Victor Qin led the group around First High, introducing River City First High’s history and buildings. The athletic field was lined with buses, most of them carrying students selected from the surrounding counties and cities to compete in the Math Olympiad.
At eight o’clock, Victor Qin finally led the students to the top floor of a teaching building—the site of this year’s Olympiad exam.
There were ten exam rooms in total, with twenty students in each—two hundred contestants altogether.
Even though this was only the city-level Math Olympiad, placing in the top three would earn you a spot in the national competition.
If you managed to get a good ranking at the national Olympiad, you could use that result to get direct admission to a top university in China, or qualify for a score reduction on the college entrance exam.
It was another way to get into college besides the regular entrance exam.
“Are those the students from Brightsea City? Why is Mr. Qin personally accompanying them? That’s way over the top.”
Outside the exam room, a few of River City First High’s top students watched curiously from a distance.
“You didn’t know? Mr. Qin used to be a student from Brightsea City. He’s probably here out of old ties,” said a student who seemed to know a bit, pushing up his glasses.
“So what? The students from Brightsea barely ever get good results. Hasn’t First High taken the top three every year in the Olympiad? And this time, the Math Queen Jing Tu is competing—they’re just cannon fodder.” The slightly chubby boy beside him yawned.
Evan Lin found his seat according to his admission ticket, while Victor Qin and Old Man Liu went off to chat and stroll around the school.
As soon as he sat down, Evan heard someone call his name.
“Evan Lin?”
A vaguely familiar voice sounded. Evan turned his head and looked at a small boy sitting one aisle over.
The boy had a round head, wore round-frame glasses, and had on a Nike T-shirt.
When Evan turned around, the boy still looked uncertain.
Although Evan looked about the same as in his memory, something about his eyes and aura made the boy hesitate, not quite sure if it was really him.