By long-standing tradition, the six contestants of the same team are assigned to six different exam rooms.
This year was no exception.
So, Jiang Fuyue could hand in her paper however she pleased without worrying about affecting her teammates.
As for… whether contestants from other countries would be affected—that wasn’t within her scope of concern.
Sure enough, the moment she uttered the two words “hand in,” the entire exam hall fell silent.
The invigilator barely managed to keep calm as he walked over and asked: “Are you sure?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Yes.”
“Well, good luck!”
Jiang Fuyue stood up and left.
Those who had already encountered her in IPhO and IOI managed to keep their expressions fairly calm.
But those who hadn’t…
【OMG! She finished? Finished?! Damn——】
【What a crazy exam.】
【Did that Chinese contestant copy answers?】
【I suspect she’s just in a hurry to use the restroom.】
【Two great legends of Huaxia: one, middle-aged women know martial arts; two, weak students score full marks in math. I didn’t believe before, but now I do.】
As it happened, Naohara Tosaki was also in this exam hall.
When Jiang Fuyue asked to hand in her paper, he had just finished reading the third problem and hadn’t even started writing.
Back when they competed in “qin, chess, calligraphy, and painting” in Linhuai, it hadn’t involved problem solving.
So this was the first time he directly and clearly realized Jiang Fuyue’s speed.
Terrifying!
He couldn’t help but grip his pen tighter and focus all his energy on the final problem— the climax problem.
…
When Jiang Fuyue came out, Yuan Bentao was still chatting with a deputy leader from another country.
Suddenly that deputy leader threw up his hands with an exaggerated “Oh!”: “Which country’s contestant is that? She actually handed in her paper?! Unbelievable!”
Yuan Bentao followed his gaze, and one look nearly gave him a heart attack.
“You, you, you…” his lips trembled, “handed in?”
Jiang Fuyue didn’t think it was anything worth fussing over—after all, she’d handed in exams in thirty-eight minutes before.
This time she had even slowed down, taken it easy.
“Handed in. I’ll head back to the hotel for a nap. Call me when you’re done, we’ll eat together.”
“…Oh. Okay.”
Ling Xuan came out after about an hour and forty minutes.
Guo Zidong followed two minutes later.
Then Chen Cheng, Wei Kongjue, and Tan Jiaxu.
While other countries’ contestants were still scribbling furiously, the Huaxia team had already finished and left as a group.
This left the other countries’ deputy leaders giving Yuan Bentao strange looks.
As if sizing up a monster—an old monster leading a pack of little monsters, tsk!
Truth be told, Yuan Bentao himself was dazed.
Sure, back in training they liked handing in early, but this wasn’t some small practice exam—Immortals above!
This was the real IMO international stage, where team scores directly tied to national honor—and they actually just… handed in early?
Not even checking again?
Couldn’t they re-check their calculations?
Ling Xuan: “I checked and verified.”
Guo Zidong: “We actually handed in late this time, right? Sister Yue must’ve finished ages ago.”
Yuan Bentao: “…” Well, he wasn’t wrong.
Chen Cheng scratched his head: “I wasn’t trying to be fast, just… I’m already used to this pace. Slowing down feels unnatural.”
Tan Jiaxu: “I usually take Sister Yue’s hand-in time as reference. If I take two more hours than her, that’s normal for me.”
Wei Kongjue: “Sister Yue says solving problems is like going to war: speed is of the essence. The longer it drags, the worse for morale. The shorter the time, the more it rattles the enemy’s morale instead.”
Yuan Bentao: “…” Suddenly that made a lot of sense.
Other deputy leaders who understood Chinese: “?”
The first exam ended, with an afternoon and evening to rest.
The next day came the second exam.
Still three problems. Jiang Fuyue skimmed the paper and could clearly feel the difficulty was higher than yesterday’s.
As expected.
But when she reached the final problem, the level of difficulty did catch her off guard.
Even so, her writing speed wasn’t affected in the slightest.
In fact, she finished even earlier than yesterday.
Without the least pretense of modesty or low profile, she said directly: “Hand in.”
The magic voice rang again, and everyone stiffened.
Contestants who hadn’t even finished the first problem wore bewildered expressions that made one’s heart ache.
【Is she a devil?】
【Oh, she just needs the restroom again, that’s all. Doesn’t matter, really doesn’t matter (if I weren’t so bitter, I’d almost believe it).】
【Ten minutes faster than yesterday—how?!】
【Maybe I got a fake exam paper.】
【Huaxia girl, my lifelong shadow, f*ck!】
…
Yuan Bentao thought after yesterday’s shock, nothing could surprise him anymore today.
But he had still underestimated Jiang Fuyue’s capacity to terrify.
Seeing her walk out only forty minutes after the exam started, Professor Yuan felt his legs go weak, almost ready to collapse right there.
“Ag—again handed in?”
“Handed in.”
“…Fine. As long as you’re happy.”
This time Jiang Fuyue didn’t go back to the hotel, but stayed outside with Yuan Bentao.
She borrowed two sheets of paper and a pen from the Y-country deputy leader nearby and started writing.
At first Yuan Bentao didn’t care, thinking she was just killing time, so he continued discussing with the M-country leader about possible topics for this IMO—
“Last year’s plane geometry covered Menelaus and Ceva. This year I suspect it’ll be Ptolemy.”
“No.” Jiang Fuyue suddenly interjected, without lifting her head, still writing. “This year it’s Simson’s theorem, combined with the excenter, Fermat point, and Euler line of a triangle. It appeared in today’s first problem.”
Yuan Bentao’s eyes lit up. Of course—she just sat the exam, so her memory was fresh. Why speculate when you could just ask her?
“Ahem… Jiang, do you still remember what else was on the test?”
Finishing her last line, Jiang Fuyue set down the pen, walked over, and stood before him.
Yuan Bentao: “?”
The next second, the girl handed him the two sheets, saying lightly—
“Both exams’ original problems. Here.”
Yuan Bentao could only make a mechanical “Ah?”
“Don’t want them?”
He froze for two seconds before jolting back: “Want! Yes, yes!”
He quickly snatched them, clutching them like treasure, and looked down.
The more he read, the wider his eyes opened.
He thought she might just jot a rough outline, but no—every word was detailed, diagrams included.
The other deputy leaders crowded closer—
“Hey, friend, let me take a look?”
“Oh, brother, knowledge must be shared for the benefit of mankind!”
“I lent the pen and paper—surely I deserve a peek?”
Yuan Bentao: “?”
Where’s the gentlemanly restraint?
Meanwhile, Jiang Fuyue had already stepped three paces back, completely untouched by the crowd.
Yuan Bentao, on the other hand, was swarmed until he was red-faced, short of breath, shirt wrinkled, and hair a mess.
“Maybe… everyone could just snap a photo with your phones?”
The moment Jiang Fuyue said this, the crowd froze, looked at each other—
Right! Take pictures!
They all whipped out their phones.
So, when Ling Xuan and Guo Zidong came out, what they saw was—
A mob of deputy leaders surrounding Yuan Bentao, phones flashing away madly.
Guo Zidong was dumbfounded: “Th-they’re… what are they doing?”
Ling Xuan already guessed: “Most likely photographing the problems.”
“Problems? What problems?”
“Of course—the IMO original problems.”
“What?! Already? But aren’t international contest questions under a confidentiality period?”
Ling Xuan glanced at him. “That confidentiality doesn’t apply to Jiang Fuyue.”
“?”
When Guo Zidong saw the handwritten test problems for himself, he finally understood.
He swallowed hard: “Does she have to be this strong?”
Ling Xuan looked calm, terrifyingly calm.
“She’s always like this.”
“You mean… eidetic memory doesn’t have an expiration date?”
“…Oh.” Understood.
Guo Zidong now had only one thought in his head—
Mom, save me! Jiang Fuyue isn’t human!
By the time Chen Cheng, Tan Jiaxu, and Wei Kongjue also handed in, the Huaxia team had finished the core of this year’s IMO.
Now, it was just a matter of waiting for results…
