I was a top student in America.

The conditions Green presented were so shocking that the students below the stage had no interest in continuing to look at the blackboard.

Li Ao had just put down half a piece of chalk and hadn't even turned around when the students below started whispering amongst themselves.

Green stood to one side of the podium, his eyes fixed intently on Li Ao's back, expecting a heartfelt thank you.

"Mr. Green, thank you for your kind offer, but I don't have any plans to transfer schools at the moment."

Li Ao turned around and shook his head, his tone as calm as ever.

"what?"

Green assumed he had misheard and instinctively took half a step forward: "Leo, what did you just say?"

"I said thank you for your and the school board's kindness, but I still intend to stay at Wyndham High School."

"Didn't you understand?" Green's voice suddenly rose. "Full tuition waiver, Carbaner scholarship, plus living allowance! This is the first time the school board has made such an exception since the school's founding!"

He felt a surge of heat rush to his head, and his temples throbbed.

Between the top-tier Whitney Young High School and the quagmire-like Wyndham High School in the South District, any normal person could tell which to choose with their eyes closed.

Green stared intently at the stubborn young man in front of him, taking several deep breaths to barely suppress his soaring blood pressure.

He remained silent for a long time, finally suppressing the absurd feeling of being rejected, and waved his hand weakly at Li Ao.

"Okay, Leo, this is a serious matter. Don't rush to refuse. Go back and think it over calmly, and also talk to your family. Give me your answer in a couple of days... or next week."

After finishing his explanation, Green didn't linger. He let Li Ao start explaining the problems and then continued with the workshop schedule.

If any students were looking at the podium at this moment, they would notice that Mr. Green, who is usually decisive and efficient, had a noticeably unfocused look in his eyes, and his usually smooth teaching rhythm was somewhat disrupted.

"After class, I need to call the principal and ask if we can raise the requirements a bit more."

Green silently recited the instructions, tapping the chalk on the edge of the podium twice, quickening his pace in explaining the problem.

……

Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class. As soon as Green closed his notebook, the atmosphere in the classroom instantly exploded.

A group of arrogant and self-important young people suddenly stood up and swarmed around Li Ao.

Many students who had never spoken to Li Ao before took the initiative to get closer to him, congratulating him and asking for his secret to such rapid progress in mathematics.

Li Ao was quite approachable. Whenever someone asked, he would casually sketch a few lines on a piece of draft paper and reveal his simplified problem-solving approach.

As a student at Whitney Young's school, Ryan should have stepped forward to congratulate Li Ao, who might become his classmate in the future.

But now, he looked like a wilted eggplant, slumped in that expensive desk and chair, the notebook of wrong answers spread out in front of him seemingly mocking him silently.

"He actually got a perfect score...and even the school board wants to poach him?"

As he muttered to himself, he recalled what Mr. Green had once said: Li Ao had only been seriously studying mathematics for a little over a month.

In just two months, he achieved a perfect score and tied for first place in the entire state.

Others might not realize it, but as a top student in math competitions, he knows best how frightening this catching-up speed is.

In particular, he showed no reaction whatsoever to the scholarship offered for transferring schools, and even politely declined it.

This kind of mentality is even more unimaginable.

"Could a place like the South District really cultivate one's mental fortitude?"

He recalled Li Ao's performance over this period: from the first day he came to the workshop, he calmly pointed out a clever solution to a recursive sequence; during the first exam, he calmly said he was going to work and handed in his paper early; and in the state competition, he studied multiple solutions to the final question.

Leaving aside talent and diligence, just in terms of mindset alone, he had to admit that he was far inferior to Li Ao, and even now, he was still plagued by anxieties and uncertainties.

Thinking this through, he took a deep breath, his eyes hardening.

"In a couple of days, I need my dad to take me to the South District. I want to see what kind of magic that place has."

Li Ao left Whitney Young's school gate, boarded the red line, and headed south.

The train shuddered, and the murmurs from the classroom still echoed in his mind.

He didn't agree to transfer schools, and the reason was certainly not as simple as "the teacher was nice to him".

Anyone else would be ecstatic to be struck by such a windfall.

After all, once they nodded, it was as if they had stepped out of the slums of the South District and completely changed their fate.

But Li Ao had a very clear plan for his future, and his ambitions went far beyond that.

Whitney Young certainly has top-notch resources, but he had already decided on the persona of a "rags-to-riches" hero.

If this background story is told well, it will be enough to make up for his fatal shortcoming of having a GPA of only 2.x. The extra points he gets in his college application materials will be far more valuable than if he were to transfer to a prestigious university in the North District.

Moreover, math competitions are not like subjects such as physics and chemistry, which require spending money on experiments. As long as you have the books, you can attend workshops. The gap in hard resources between the two is not as big as you might imagine.

Even without considering these factors, the high rent and living costs in the North District cannot be covered by a small amount of scholarships and student loans.

Moreover, if one were to hand over their entire livelihood to the board of directors, wouldn't they become like an ant being manipulated, with the board able to stop funding at will? Their future and livelihood would be entirely at the mercy of the board's decision, which would be too risky.

Therefore, he really couldn't accept the transfer conditions offered by Green.

With these thoughts in mind, Li Ao returned to his apartment in the South District.

He climbed the creaking old stairs to the third floor and pushed open the door to room 306.

The room was dimly lit, but he immediately spotted his grandmother sitting at the broken wooden table by the window.

The old lady was holding half a loaf of toast in her hand, painstakingly using her fingers to pick off the green and moldy edges, leaving only the clean center of the bread.

Li Ao felt a lump in his throat. He took a few steps over, snatched the bread from his grandmother's hand, and threw it into the trash can.

"Grandma, this is all moldy, it'll give you a stomachache if you eat it. Come on, I'll take you out for a hot meal today."

"Oh dear, you child! It's still edible after you break off the moldy parts; it's such a waste to throw it away."

Liu Guifang slapped her thigh in distress and shook her head repeatedly, "How much money do we waste on eating out!"

"You don't need to worry about the money."

Li Ao smiled and patted the old lady's shoulder, "The school's bonus will be issued soon. It's at least several hundred yuan, more than enough to treat you to a meal or take you out to eat several times."

He knew that to completely escape this quagmire of life in the South District, he would have to grit his teeth and endure it for some time.

But these days, as soon as the bonus arrives, I feel more confident about my future plans.

Even if all that's left for Grandma right now is to stop her from eating moldy bread and to let her have a proper hot meal occasionally, then her life won't have been in vain.