The training camp was held at Q University.
Familiar campus. Familiar scenery. After the IPhO summer camp, Jiang Fuyue had returned once more.
There were a total of 34 participants in the training.
Among them, 30 were the top scorers from the CMO Winter Camp, and the remaining 4 were the top two winners from the China Girls’ Mathematics Olympiad and the China Western Mathematics Olympiad, respectively.
The camp would last for 7 days. After that, 6 individuals would be selected to represent China in this year’s IMO, competing against mathematical prodigies from around the world.
Ling Xuan: “I heard Naohara Tosaki is in Japan’s team this year.”
Jiang Fuyue, flatly: “I know. He challenged me when he left.”
Ling Xuan: “He’s still not convinced?”
Jiang Fuyue: “He’s accepted his loss in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting, but math is a different matter. Compared to his brother Chiba Tosaki, he’s at least a little better.”
Ling Xuan: “A little?”
Jiang Fuyue: “At least he can lose gracefully.”
He challenged her openly before leaving. As for Chiba Tosaki…
When he couldn’t win himself, he ran home and sent out his little brother. Coward.
“Ahem!” The teacher stood at the podium and cleared his throat loudly. “Ling Xuan, Jiang Fuyue—are you done with your problems already, that you’re chatting in secret?”
In an instant, everyone’s eyes turned toward the two, waiting for a good show.
The teacher was actually a kind one and didn’t like to embarrass students in public.
But these two clearly had no self-awareness.
How could they compete in the IMO with this kind of attitude?
Where was the poise of a great nation like China?
Left with no choice, he called them out publicly—to teach them a lesson, and also as a warning to the rest of the team.
But reality rarely followed the plan—
Jiang Fuyue: “Yes, I’m done.”
Ling Xuan nodded. “Me too.”
Teacher: “?”
Everyone else: “!” What the h*ll?! Yesterday, they didn’t hand in their tests until after an hour, but today, with harder questions, they finished in just forty-five minutes?!
The teacher stood frozen for half a minute before reacting: “Y-you’re done?”
Both nodded at the same time.
“I’ll take a look…” He stumbled down the steps to their desks, still dazed.
Jiang Fuyue handed over her paper first, then Ling Xuan.
The teacher checked the answers first, then skimmed the steps—his shock grew with every second.
All three major problems: correct!
They’d even used different methods, ruling out the possibility of cheating.
Xiang Pengyi was stunned.
To run into such prodigies right away, with no mental preparation?
Each day of the training camp was supervised by a different teacher for in-class Q&A, so it was normal that Xiang Pengyi didn’t know their abilities.
After all, the two teachers before him had worn the same expression.
Other students: “…” Bitter. So bitter.
Jiang Fuyue: “Teacher, may we leave now?”
“Y-yes, of course.”
She picked up her bag and walked out of the classroom, Ling Xuan following close behind.
Xiang Pengyi: “…” They’d packed their bags in advance?!
Ten minutes after Jiang Fuyue and Ling Xuan left, three more students submitted their papers. After that, the rest slowly trickled out…
None of them used the full allotted time.
“Tsk. This batch of students isn’t ordinary,” Xiang Pengyi muttered, tucking the test papers under his arm and heading back to the office.
***
Half an hour later—
Xiang Pengyi: “Scores are out.”
Several other teachers gathered around to analyze—
“Eight students got full marks: Jiang Fuyue, Ling Xuan, Guo Zidong, Chen Cheng, Tan Jiaxu, Wei Kongjue, Wu Pingting, and Shi Ranjan. The list is ordered by submission time.”
“How long did Jiang Fuyue and Shi Ranjan take?”
Xiang Pengyi: “Jiang Fuyue and Ling Xuan handed in at 45 minutes. Shi Ranjan took 2 hours and 26 minutes.”
“Hiss—such a big gap?”
“Actually, by past standards, Shi Ranjan’s speed is normal. IMO tests give 4.5 hours for three problems. Submitting two hours early and getting full marks is already very impressive.”
“So it’s not that Shi Ranjan is slow—those ahead of her are just too fast.”
Yuan Bentao furrowed his brows, a thoughtful expression on his face.
“What is it, Old Yuan? What do you want to say?”
“It’s strange.”
“Huh?” This was the first time the others had heard Yuan Bentao say something like that about a student.
“Come on, what do you mean ‘strange’? That’s so vague.”
Yuan exchanged a glance with Li Zhao, who nodded slightly.
Now everyone else was even more confused.
Yuan Bentao sighed. “Let Old Li explain.”
Li Zhao: “The test questions get progressively harder each day. We made that clear to the students before the training began.
Day 1: Two sessions, morning and afternoon. Three problems each.
Jiang Fuyue handed in her papers first both times, each within 1 hour and 20 minutes.”
He Longchang: “And what’s so weird about that?”
Li Zhao: “Hold on, let me finish.”
He Longchang: “Fine, go ahead. Let’s hear what’s so weird about this… Jiang, uh, whatever-her-name student.”
He hadn’t taught her yet and didn’t even remember her full name.
Li Zhao ignored him. As the first-day Q&A teacher, he had been the first to interact with Jiang Fuyue.
Yuan Bentao had been the second—that explained the silent glance exchange.
Li Zhao: “Day 2: Old Yuan taught. Same setup—two tests.
Again, Jiang Fuyue was the first to finish. This time, Ling Xuan was right behind her. Both submitted in one hour.”
Today: “Under Old Xiang, both finished in 45 minutes. All full marks. Just like the last two days.”
Yuan Bentao: “Still don’t see it?”
“Hiss… something’s wrong here. The tests are getting harder, so it should take more time to get full marks. But Jiang Fuyue is using less time?”
Li Zhao: “Exactly. That’s what Old Yuan found strange.”
He Longchang, still skeptical: “Are you sure the timing was accurate? Was there a clock error? Otherwise, how can she use less time as difficulty increases? That makes no sense!”
Xiang Pengyi glanced at the record of submission times and scores, deep in thought.
All 34 students’ data for the past three days were there.
Jiang Fuyue was consistently in the lead—outstanding in every way.
“Under normal circumstances, this shouldn’t be possible. Unless…”
Yuan Bentao: “Unless what?”
Xiang Pengyi: “Unless she was testing the waters!”
“Look here—on day one, she used 90 minutes to ‘scan the field,’ establishing a 20-minute gap with Wu Pingting, who was the second to finish.”
“On day two, she trimmed that down to an hour and continued probing. This time, the second to finish wasn’t Wu anymore, but Guo Zidong, with a 30-minute gap.”
“And today, she and Ling Xuan left Guo Zidong behind by a full hour.”
“So what you’re saying is… Guo Zidong was also holding back on day one, just like Jiang Fuyue?”
“But when the questions got harder on day two, and Jiang still finished first, he sensed the threat and showed his real strength.”
Xiang Pengyi: “Exactly. That means Jiang’s probing worked—she flushed out Guo Zidong’s hidden strength.”
“So today, she and Ling Xuan didn’t bother hiding anymore and just widened the time gap. Because after four tests in two days, she’d confirmed—no one in the training camp is stronger than her. Not even Guo Zidong, who seemed like a threat at first.”
Silence.
The whole office went dead quiet.
For two full minutes, not a single word was spoken.
Everyone looked at each other, eyes full of bewilderment.
Yuan Bentao: “…She pulled off such an elaborate scheme just to test the others’ strength? And she flushed out Guo Zidong… So what now? What’s her goal?”
Li Zhao chuckled and shook his head: “Turning a training camp into a battlefield, even setting up strategic plays—what are these kids thinking nowadays? They’re all such cunning little tacticians.”
Suddenly—
Xiang Pengyi: “Wait!”
Li Zhao: “Huh?”
Xiang: “That part you said just now—‘strategic plays’ and ‘tactics.’ Say that again?”
Li Zhao: “…That they’re treating it like a battlefield, playing strategy and tactics?”
Xiang Pengyi, slapping his thigh: “YES! That’s it! Jiang Fuyue is laying out a formation!”
He Longchang: “Huh? I didn’t understand a single word.”
Yuan and Li Zhao looked at each other—okay, they didn’t quite get it either.
Xiang Pengyi pointed to two other names on the list—Chen Cheng and Tan Jiaxu.
“See them?”
“Yeah. What about them? What do they have to do with Jiang Fuyue?”
“Of course they’re related! Jiang Fuyue, Ling Xuan, Chen Cheng, and Tan Jiaxu—all four are from the same high school in Linhuai!”
The student registration form listed everyone’s hometown and school. Easy to check.
He Longchang: “Okay, and?”
Xiang Pengyi was about to drop a bomb—
