Chapter 62 - 47: Test
"Hahaha, you and your ways, Principal Chang," Liang Tianshi was in a good mood. "But still, thank you for the information. If you need my help with anything in the future, feel free to contact me anytime."
"Not at all, not at all, Elder Liang. You’re too kind!"
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before hanging up.
Liang Tianshi put down his phone, leaned back in his chair, and tapped his fingers lightly on the desk, muttering to himself, "Shen Yan..."
After a moment of thought, he picked up his phone again and began scrolling through his contacts. Soon, he found a familiar number.
The contact name was: Xiaodong.
He dialed it without hesitation.
...
「Meanwhile, in Shuixiang City, Jiangsu Province.」
In a certain net cafe, Liang Xiaodong was playing a MOBA game.
"Nice!"
"Fucking awesome! What a play from Dong!"
"He’s styling on them! He’s popping off!"
"Bozi, where are you?! Help me out!"
"Bozi, how come you’re never here for team fights! Stop being greedy for minion waves, holy shit!"
The dense clatter of mechanical keyboards, the frantic clicking of mice, and the excited shouts of the teenagers rose and fell in waves.
The tense and thrilling battle made Liang Xiaodong temporarily forget the pain of being relentlessly scolded by his mom for half an hour yesterday over his terrible final exam scores. He was completely immersed in the game’s thrill of the kill.
「Half an hour later.」
"DEFEAT!"
As their nexus exploded, the giant, scarlet word "DEFEAT" took over the entire screen.
Liang Xiaodong stared at the grayed-out screen, glanced at his own brilliant 11-2-7 KDA in the top right corner, then at his teammates’ miserable negative scores. He was so angry he almost smashed his mouse.
’How the fuck did we still lose this?’
Liang Xiaodong felt like he was going to vomit blood. He had been on fire this game, absolutely dominating, and everything was going smoothly. But then, mid-game, he noticed his teammates were feeding, going in one by one to die. After losing one crucial team fight in the late game, the enemy team steamrolled their base.
He irritably ripped off his headset and leaned back in his chair.
Just then, the screen of the phone he had carelessly tossed onto the desk suddenly lit up.
Caller ID—Grandpa.
Liang Xiaodong jolted and instantly sat bolt upright.
’Grandpa? Isn’t he in the Imperial Capital for some important meeting?’
’Why would he suddenly be calling me?’
A sense of foreboding washed over him.
He cautiously scanned his surroundings, making sure there was no danger.
He immediately snatched his phone, ducked down, and left his seat. He hurried to a relatively quiet corner of the fire escape corridor near the net cafe’s back door before finally pressing the answer button.
"Hello, Grandpa? You were looking for me?" Liang Xiaodong’s voice held an unconscious trace of guilt. "Aren’t you in the Imperial Capital?"
On the other end of the line came Liang Tianshi’s voice, as steady and calm as ever, tinged with a unique kindness he reserved for Liang Xiaodong.
"Xiaodong, Grandpa has something to ask you. That person you mentioned last month, the one who helped you with that test paper—have you been in contact with them since?"
Liang Xiaodong’s mind went BUZZ, and the hairs on his arms stood on end.
"What the fuck?" he blurted out, his voice cracking. "Grandpa, you’re not... monitoring my phone, are you?!"
The other end of the line was silent for two seconds.
"What do you mean?" Liang Tianshi’s voice held a clear note of confusion.
Hearing that reaction, Liang Xiaodong immediately realized he had misunderstood.
He quickly explained, "N-nothing."
He cleared his throat and hurriedly explained the whole story from the beginning.
"It’s like this. A couple of days ago, my good buddy, Han Sibo—you know he’s preparing for the Strong Base Plan selection, right? He got stuck on a problem from his special training class. It was a proof question, and he couldn’t figure it out after thinking about it for a whole day. He looked so miserable that I... I went and found that online seller from last time to help."
"Oh?" Liang Tianshi’s tone revealed a hint of interest.
"That guy is a real genius," Liang Xiaodong said, his voice full of admiration. "In less than twenty minutes, he sent over the solution, a full two pages of work. Han Sibo spent over an hour studying the answer. When he was done, he was completely blown away. He said the problem-solving approach was absolutely brilliant."
On the other end of the line, Liang Tianshi fell silent for a moment, seemingly processing this information.
A moment later, his voice came through again.
"Xiaodong, the photo of the problem and that person’s solution—you haven’t deleted them from your phone, have you?"
"Nope, they’re still in my WeChat chat history."
Liang Tianshi: "Good. Send me the original problem and that person’s complete solution right now."