Chapter 49: Genius Thrashes You! Xu Wenzhao was Stunned
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Of course, Xu Wenzhao did not complete his sentence.
If Shen Lang managed to answer more than five questions correctly, it meant that Xu Wenzhao was stirring up matters and had to apologize to Shen Lang in front of others.
However, was that possible?
The sun couldn’t rise from the west. Therefore, it was definitely not possible for Shen Lang to accomplish that.
“Remember, finish it within an hour!”
Then, Xu Wenzhao lit an incense stick.
It would be exactly an hour after the incense stick finished burning.
...
Seeing this, the Earl shook his head in desperation.
Shen Lang would probably have to go through immense torture later!
Xu Wenzhao was probably already like that when he was younger. He did not care about others and was extremely competitive.
However, as a successful individual, the most important thing was to make use of others by allocating important roles to essential people.
To make the best possible use of men and the best possible use of things. The Earl was successful in this aspect in the past. However, with the current circumstance, he felt helpless.
On the one hand, he’s looking at his son-in-law, who was mischievous and had a generation gap with him. However, from deep within, the Earl admired and liked his son-in-law.
On the other hand, it was someone he trusted a lot since he had been taking care of the accounts of the Palace of the Earl for more than 20 years.
Therefore, sometimes, it was difficult for the master to do anything freely.
For the teenagers who were watching this, it was an exciting show.
They were so excited that they could not control themselves. Shen Lang was going against Xu Wenzhao. It was something they would only see once in their lifetime.
They looked forward to it.
Although they were slightly siding with Shen Lang, they wanted to see Shen Lang getting his punishment.
“How could he marry their dream girl?”
If he did not suffer, how would the others be satisfied?
...
Shen Lang looked at the ten questions and exclaimed internally.
Aiya!
“I thought the questions would be difficult. Xu Wenzhao had to think extremely hard for more than an hour to come up with these questions?”
They were so simple!
It was such a mismatch for me, a scholar with the master’s degree, to answer these ten Mathematics questions!
Look at the first question.
“The first person has one grain of rice, the second person has two grains of rice, the third person has three grains of rice, and so on. There were 100 people in total.”
How many grains of rice do every person in the group of 100 have altogether?
That was a standard of a primary four or primary five.
Shen Lang felt like he was a moron when he wrote the answer. He was solving such a simple question.
Of course, this question was too simple for Shen Lang. However, to someone in this world, it was sufficiently tricky.
At least, nobody in the room could answer the question correctly.
(This question had appeared in a particular town’s primary four mathematical olympiad competition, and some people have yet to solve it. Don’t ask me how I know that.)
...
Then, Shen Lang looked at the second question.
Eh?
It seemed interesting!
Although it was still straightforward for Shen Lang, it was extremely difficult for the people in this world.
Find the number that gives two as a remainder when grouped in threes, gives three as a remainder when grouped in fives, and provides a remainder of two when grouped in sevens. The number is smaller than 100. What is the number?
“Wow, now he’s using formulas.”
Shen Lang thought of the answer, 23, in less than three seconds. He did not even have to use the laptop in his brain.
The third question was even more enjoyable.
Divide the number by three and multiply 70 to the remainder. Divide that by five and multiply 21 to the remainder. Divide that by seven and multiply 15 to the remainder. Then, subtract a multiple of 105 from this number to obtain the answer.
Although the question was phrased poetically, Shen Lang could easily solve the real problem.
Shen Lang figured out the answer without any problems.
Then, the fourth, fifth, sixth... ninth.
Shen Lang could solve all the questions without any difficulties.
He spent less than two minutes on every question.
Therefore, he looked forward to the last question.
...
The last question occupied an entire page. Shen Lang took a glance and widened his eyes uncontrollably.
The question was interesting and a little challenging!
In fact, it was extremely difficult!
There were 20 trees in total. What is the maximum number of lines there could be if we planted four trees in every line?
Draw the solution out. If the answer is less than 14, the answer is wrong!
Although this question looked easy, it was a difficult question on Earth.
An ordinary person would think that to plant 20 trees such that there were four in a row, five rows were needed.
However, that was not the answer. One could plant the trees without following the ordinary shapes. Therefore, there would be more than five rows.
In the 16th century in Rome, a 16-row formation was made.
In the 18th century, the famous Mathematician Gauss completed an 18-row formation.
Until the end of the 20th century, two experts in computer science made use of the computer to complete a 20-row formation.
That broke the record.
20 trees, four trees in a row, they formed 20 rows.
Yet, a new record was formed in the 21st century. Someone managed to come up with a 23-row formation.
This question was Xu Wenzhao’s proudest question. He discovered it from an ancient Mathematics book.
Then, he began to think about the question and used more than ten years to come up with the 14-row formation.
Besides that, he liked to use this question to make it difficult for others.
That included the staff of the Palace of the Earl, the Earl, and the scholars.
That was because none of them were as good in Mathematics as him.
When he drew out the 14-row formation, he would receive a shocking and astonishing look from others.
Now, he tested Shen Lang with this question. He set it as the last question.
Of course, he did not expect Shen Lang to solve it. He merely used it as a show.
‘To let Shen Lang, the countryside man, see, how good I, Xu Wenzhao, am?’
It was already incredible for Xu Wenzhao to come up with a 14-row formation.
However, to Shen Lang, that was not even the standard of the 16th century.
However, he could quickly draw out a 23-row formation. It was a few thousand-year advancements from Xu Wenzhao’s answer.
20 trees, four trees in a row. He came up with 23 rows.
That was incredible. He thrashed Xu Wenzhao’s 14-row solution!
Xu Wenzhao would probably be so stunned that he would lose his mind!
...
Shen Lang spent less than ten minutes to solve the first nine questions.
He used about 30 minutes for the last question!
Of course, he could solve the question extremely quickly in his mind. He figured out the impressive solution in his mind instantly.
However, he needed time to draw it out on the paper.
It was an extremely accurate and precise diagram. Any mistake was not allowed.
Therefore, Shen Lang used 30 minutes.
For the remaining time, he continued to write and draw. He had to take preventive measures.
In order not to pressure him while he answered the questions, the Earl and the old Mister did not stay beside him.
Xu Wenzhao was incredibly proud of himself as he watched Shen Lang answer his questions from the top of the classroom.
He had been noticing Shen Lang and realized that he spent very little time on the first nine questions and spent most of the time on the last question.
It was normal behavior.
To him, the first nine questions were fixed questions. One either knew how to solve it or not.
Shen Lang definitely did not know how to solve it, no matter how much he used his brain. Therefore, after looking at the questions, he quickly wrote an answer.
Meanwhile, although the last question was the most difficult, it was a flexible question without a definite answer.
“There were 20 trees in total. What is the maximum number of lines there could be if we planted four trees in every line?”
Anyone who saw this question would have hope and jump into solving the problem, trying different solutions.
However, they would realize that no matter how many months they spent, they would not be able to solve it.
Xu Wenzhao spent more than ten years to come up with a 14-row formation.
Therefore, he was sure that Shen Lang would not be able to solve any question.
He would definitely be able to give him a 100 whip punishment.
Why was Xu Wenzhao so confident?
That was because Shen Lang did not make any calculations for the first nine questions.
Even a mathematician would need to do computations on it for an extended period.
Since when could one solve a question without computations? If one did not use any, then it could only show that one did not know anything and was writing blindly.
Besides Xu Wenzhao, the Earl also thought so.
Shen Lang did not do any calculations. Perhaps, he could not solve any question.
That was terrible.
He really had to watch Shen Lang getting whipped 100 times?
Shen Lang was young. Moreover, Xu Wenzhao would not know how to control his strength, what if he really injured him?
Therefore, the Earl quickly gave his servant a look.
Instantly, one of his servants ran to report this incident to the Earl’s wife.
If Xu Wenzhao wanted to hit Shen Lang, it would be difficult for the Earl to stop him. However, the Earl’s wife was a woman and could stop him.
After completing the ten questions, Shen Lang could submit the script. However, he purposely did not send it and continued to scribble on the paper and spent the last few minutes daydreaming.
Xu Wenzhao felt even happier.
“Arrogant pretty boy, you will never solve my questions even if you stared at them for ten years.”
“Try to mess around with me? Try to stop me from achieving my goals and ruining my nephew’s plans?”
“I will kill you later.” 1
Because of the presence of the wind, before an hour was up, the incense stick finished burning. 1
Xu Wenzhao said coldly, “Time is up. Submit your script!”
Then, he walked down and took Shen Lang’s script.
“Uneducated brat, you don’t pay attention in class and dare to talk back to me. A moron who is unafraid...” said Xu Wenzhao.
Then, he looked at Shen Lang’s answers.
First question.
Xu Wenzhao took a look casually and was about to skip to the second question. His natural instinct was to write a cross on the script.
However, he paused for a second and looked back at the first question.
He got it... right?
How was that possible?
Although the first question was the easiest, it was much more complicated than the content he taught.
A person who did not know how to do advanced Mathematics could only manually add up to 100. That would take up the entire hour.
However, Shen Lang gave the most efficient solution and computations.
Then, he looked at the second question. It was correct too.
The third question was correct too.
Xu Wenzhao felt that something was wrong, and his expression changed immediately.
The fourth and fifth question was still correct.
It was perfect. The solution that Shen Lang gave was better than Xu Wenzhao.
Xu Wenzhao started to sweat profusely.
He had said it personally that if Shen Lang answered five questions correctly, he had to apologize to Shen Lang in front of the public.
However, Shen Lang managed to get all five questions correct. What should he do?
After that, Xu Wenzhao looked at the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth questions!
He was utterly stunned.
That was absurd... absurd!
***
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