Jiang Fuyue and a boy walked out of the exam hall simultaneously.
In the corridor, she paused, slowly lifting her eyes: “Long time no see, Chiba Tosaki.”
She spoke in fluent Japanese.
“Hello, Jiang Fuyue,” the boy replied in Chinese, smiling slightly.
Their gazes met: one was cold as frost, the other charmingly smiling.
Yes, charmingly.
The boy before her wasn’t tall, had a baby face, and dimples appeared when he smiled.
With short black hair, suspenders, and Martin boots, he looked like the boy next door.
Unfortunately, no matter how he disguised himself, he couldn’t hide the fleeting sinister look in his eyes.
They turned simultaneously, one to the left, the other to the right, and walked in opposite directions.
Outside the exam hall.
Yan Zhenfeng and Qin Libin had been waiting for a long time.
Seeing Jiang Fuyue come out was both expected and unexpected.
“Finished?” they asked.
“Yes.” She nodded and walked to the rest area, taking an orange.
The two followed.
“Cough… how did you find the difficulty?” they asked, now that the exam was completely over, they could ask freely.
Jiang Fuyue answered truthfully, “Average.”
Yan Zhenfeng: “…”
Qin Libin cleared his throat: “How do you think you did?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Not bad. Unless something goes wrong, I should get full marks.”
They exchanged a look, eyes wide in shock.
In the past, students from the Chinese team had scored full marks in the IPhO, but this year’s test was much harder, especially the experimental part, significantly tougher than previous years.
During summer camp training, they had predicted a much lower difficulty.
Yet, Jiang Fuyue calmly told them she could get full marks?
They had doubts but didn’t question her immediately.
Yan Zhenfeng thought for a moment: “In the first experimental question on optical measurement, how did you approach the third part, measuring the refractive index of a transparent disk?”
Jiang Fuyue discarded the orange peel, took another slice, and explained her process.
The two nodded as they listened.
Qin Libin asked, “How did you assemble the diffraction grating?”
Jiang Fuyue briefly described it, then grabbed a few straws to demonstrate the key steps.
“… That’s right! Just like that!” Qin Libin exclaimed, slapping his thigh with a broad smile.
Embarrassingly, during the closed-door review yesterday, he had tried to assemble the diffraction grating. Because of some modifications, the traditional method didn’t work, but he stubbornly persisted and spent nearly an hour without success.
Afterward, he worried that students might be just as inflexible.
Thankfully, Jiang Fuyue wasn’t.
Qin Libin: “How long did it take you to assemble this?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Five minutes? I didn’t keep track.”
Qin Libin: “…” Sorry, I shouldn’t have asked.
The third person to finish early was Edmond, followed by Frank, but they were nearly two hours behind Jiang Fuyue and Chiba Tosaki.
“D*mn experimental questions, almost got me…” Edmond muttered as he walked, scanning the rest area.
Yan Zhenfeng: “Hey, Old Qin, do you think that blond foreign kid keeps looking our way?”
“Really?” Qin Libin looked up. “I don’t think so. Maybe he’s looking for his teammates.”
“What teammates? All his teammates are still inside.”
“Maybe he’s looking for his leader.”
Yan Zhenfeng smirked: “Which of their leaders waits outside the exam hall like us? They all went back to rest.”
“Right…”
Yan Zhenfeng nudged him: “Look, that kid is coming our way.”
Edmond approached them and asked in broken Chinese: “Are you the Chinese team leaders?”
Uh…
Qin Libin: “Actually, you can speak English. We understand.”
Edmond sighed in relief: “Hi, good afternoon, sorry to bother you. Are you the leaders of the Chinese team?”
Yan Zhenfeng nodded: “Yes, what do you need?”
“Oh, I wanted to ask where Jiang Fuyue is.”
Their expressions turned strange and then cautious—
Yan Zhenfeng: “Why are you looking for her?”
Edmond: “Oh, she’s so cute! I want to be friends with her, but I don’t have her contact info yet, so I wanted to ask her in person.”
Yan Zhenfeng: “Sorry, she already had lunch and went back to her room to rest.”
Edmond looked disappointed: “That’s a pity, but thank you anyway.”
He walked away, dejected.
Soon after, several African boys approached them, also inquiring about Jiang Fuyue.
Yan Zhenfeng’s eyes nearly turned green.
Next, two American boys came over, fair-skinned, with high noses, their smiles could charm anyone.
Even Qin Libin, usually calm, couldn’t sit still.
“Do so many boys fancy our little cabbage?”
Yan Zhenfeng’s face was serious: “Probably even more.”
“We can’t let these foreign boys take her away. Losing Jiang Fuyue would mean fewer future scientists for China.”
After all, intelligence is inherited!
Ling Xuan and Lin Shumo came out in the last fifteen minutes. Compared to the theoretical part, the experimental questions were much harder.
Maybe the theoretical part wasn’t easy either, but they found it manageable thanks to the problem sets Jiang Fuyue had compiled.
“Professor Yan, what are you doing?”
“Oh, just posting on social media to express my determination to protect our little cabbage.”
The two: “?”
