Puzzle Madness

Chapter 32 Mutual Aid
Tianhu Community, Building 5, Unit 2, 4th Floor.

Night was the darkest and most turbid moment, sticking to every corner of this community: except for the only room in the entire building where the lights were still on.

The skinny man who looked like a skeleton and the young man in the yellow raincoat were still talking here.

After vomiting, the skinny man held his knees - saliva mixed with undigested food stained the corners of his mouth and chest:

"Yes, yes! Of course I can do it! I can do the math homework for middle school! I can do it for college! I can do it even for after-school homework during summer and winter vacations!"

"You want me to help you with your homework, right?! No problem, absolutely no problem!"

The skinny man nodded his head so fast and so violently that people were afraid his head would fall off.

Doudou opened his eyes wide, as if shocked by the string of sticky vomit on the skinny man's chest:

"Oh my, why are you vomiting like this? Did you get the norovirus or gastroenteritis?"

He stretched out his hand, as if wanting to help the skinny man brush off the dirt, but quickly retracted it.
"Change your clothes first, change your clothes—and then tell me what's going on with you."
-
The skinny man took out a set of clean clothes from the woven bag next to the sofa - still a shirt, vest and trousers, to change out of the filth all over his body. His body looked more like a skeleton than his face, with protruding ribs covered with skin and a patch of red and swollen spots like hives on his chest.

"Oh there are so many bugs in the apartment. I'm bitten so badly."

He scratched his head but didn't explain the pursuit and injustice he had suffered. The skinny man took the opportunity to change his clothes and glanced at Doudou—only to find that his emotionless, unblinking eyes were staring at him, like a stone statue; the human emotions he had just a moment ago seemed to have faded away in an instant:

"And--and wait a moment!"

Although they were in the apartment rented by the skinny man himself, he could not hide his awkwardness at all.

"Wait! Besides the homework, I also want to hire you. Of course, I'll use real money. I have cash. Look, there's a lot of money here."

He rummaged through the fabric sofa that he had cut open with a utility knife and pulled out two bundles of tightly wrapped, square plastic bags; inside were thick squares wrapped in printing paper.

The skinny man weighed them - they slipped from his palms and hit the ground with a "thud".

Doudou looked at the heavy bundle of banknotes and raised his eyebrows:

"No, neighbor, you really are talking like a desperate villain in a movie: Are you really being wronged?"

"Thank you, but I'll let the money go. I have enough money. My school's terminal exploded sometime ago, and the company that made it has to pay me for the rest of my life, every month. I don't spend money recklessly."

"I haven't finished my summer homework yet, and I have a lot left. It would be great if someone could help me with my math homework."

Doudou turned around and yawned: This summer he spent too much time running around, building models, reading magazines, hanging out in audio bars listening to radio dramas, and watching movies in video halls -
He was worried about the amount of homework left over from the summer vacation; the most terrifying one was the math homework, which he had no idea how to do at all.

"Wait! No need for tutoring, I can help you with your summer homework directly - remember? I'm a math major. Are you in junior high school? High school? You look smart, maybe a college student? No problem, just leave it to me."

【Eh? That's right.】

Doudou paused: He scratched his head subconsciously - this was an option he had never considered. Before, he just wanted this neighbor to help him with math, but he didn't expect there would be such a more convenient method:
"But this is cheating, right? The teacher said we can't copy homework: that would make us a bad student."

He crossed his arms over his chest, looking conflicted, hesitant, and somewhat resentful.
Although this topic about middle school summer homework was raised by Dou Dou himself before.

The skinny man hurriedly shook his hands:

"No, no, no, I'm not asking you to copy your homework. I'm helping you do it—wait, how about I teach you how to do your homework? I'll help you with your studies! That should be fine, right?"

The two of them kept talking about the same thing over and over again, not realizing that the topic had come back around to where it was.
-
Doudou had, of course, copied homework before, and he loved it. During the first days of school, he'd even copied his deskmate and best friend's homework every morning during morning reading—perhaps a love-hate relationship would be more accurate. There were some questions he simply couldn't answer, and others he simply wasn't bothered to think about.

Besides, whether you are a good student or not is not something that the teacher or the school can decide - Doudou has his own set of standards.

However, not everything can be shared with someone you've just met: not even your neighbor. That's the wisdom of life. Indeed:

If my new neighbor is really wronged, then he might be a good mathematician! Then it is not impossible to ask him to teach me how to calculate the problem.
Mathematics is really too difficult. Just thinking about it makes my head hurt:
"I accidentally left my homework at your place—my neighbor's. Out of kindness and professional habit, you helped me finish it. You see math problems as if they were pornographic movies. You tremble and vomit until you solve them all."

"As much as I wanted to finish my homework, I had no choice but to accept this imperfect outcome and feel regret for the rest of the summer. This seems logical, especially in a friendly community like ours. What do you think? Is it logical?"

The skinny man placed his hands on his trouser seams, his cervical vertebrae looking like they were about to break from the high-frequency shaking.
"It fits, it fits! Of course it fits! It makes perfect sense!"

"Oh! I don't even know your name—oh! Don't tell me yet, don't tell me yet."

Doudou raised his hand to stop the skinny man.

"If you want to call me Mathematician, you can call me Doctor. It's safer to call me by two nicknames, just in case you get into a dangerous situation. You're a wanted criminal, so I can't just call you by your full name."

The [Mathematician], who had just been given a new codename, mumbled:
"How can I be called a mathematician? I'm not at that level at all. I'm just a math major, and I changed my major to get here."

Doudou's eyes widened, but it was impossible to tell what emotion he wanted to express:

"Huh? So you're not a mathematician?"

The mathematician shuddered and stood up straight:
"Oh! Of course, of course, I am a mathematician. Sometimes I feel like I'm a modern-day Gauss, but I used to be too embarrassed to say it. When I was a kid, everyone called me the Prince of Mathematics."

Teng--
Doudou suddenly turned 180 degrees, but did not continue the conversation; he slowly walked around the mathematician and in the small room, carefully examining the furniture that this thin man used to live in for the first time.
Normally, Doudou would want to see what’s on the other person’s bookshelf and audio-visual rack: but the mathematician, who had hastily moved into this new apartment, didn’t have any of those things.

He didn't speak, and the mathematician didn't dare to speak either.

After pretending to ponder for a long time, Doudou finally cleared his throat:
"Just tell me first: what exactly do you need help with?"

The temptation of having someone do his summer math homework for him was too great—too great to refuse; but as in "The Godfather," he had to pretend to be mute for a while.

The mathematician picked at the seam of his trousers with his hand:

"I'm waiting for someone; but I'm not sure when the person I'm waiting for will come. It may be a week, or it may be a month——"

Snapped!
Doudou suddenly clapped his two palms together:
"Ah! Wait for someone to contact you and then smuggle you out, right? Once you're overseas, you can find a way to prove your innocence."

This is how it was played out in the movie "New Special Police" released two years ago: Doudou just watched it this summer - in a video hall filled with damp, moldy smells and snoring, the protagonist had a hoarse voice and a strong physique, which did not match the tall and thin man with a shrill voice in front of him.

The mathematician hesitated, squeezing the cardboard box he had squeezed into the corner, now warped and deformed. Inside, layers upon layers of materials, a mixture of tape and paper, rustled with each shake.
"No, I am waiting for you to join my research."

"Oh. That's it? Waiting for someone just for this? By the way, what exactly are you researching?"

Doudou felt a little disappointed: although he was drooling over the idea of ​​having someone to help him with his math homework, the legendary nature of this matter plummeted in an instant, and he felt bored from the soles of his feet.

"Research. Very important research. So, I would like to ask you to protect me for a month—"

Doudou crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head from side to side like a rattle:

"A month?! Impossible! That's too long, a week at most. And I'll be back in school in a week! Wait, if I want to protect you, then don't I have to stay home the whole time?"

Fortunately, I didn't agree, otherwise I would have suffered a great loss: there is only a short time left in the summer vacation, but Doudou still has a lot to do - among them, the summer homework can only barely make it into the first tier in terms of importance.

There will be a model airplane competition at the end of the year and on New Year’s Day, so Doudou has to start practicing now; the monsters haven’t been found yet, and the search in Mong Cai City has to continue; in order to greet the new neighbors, I haven’t even played “Dragon Triad” yet (if I had known that this guy might be a serial killer, I would have just stayed at home and played games)!

(End of this chapter)