I was a top student in America.

Li Aogang walked into the gymnasium and put down his backpack. When he turned around, he found Jay Chou standing straight behind him, and the two almost bumped noses.

He instinctively tensed his muscles, thinking this guy was going to pick a fight again.

To everyone's surprise, Jaylen cleared his throat awkwardly and said in an unusually soft tone, "Leo, I heard you're really good at math, you got first place in the whole state, could you tutor me?"

Math tutoring?

Li Ao was slightly taken aback.

These words, coming from Jay Chou's mouth, sounded utterly out of place.

This guy is usually always defiant and competitive with himself on the team, so why did he suddenly change his attitude today?

He frowned and looked Jaylen up and down. "Are you sure? You want me to tutor you in math?"

Jamal, who was standing nearby, also came over to watch the fun and teased, "Jaylen, buddy, I think you should just give up."

Jamal had seen the math books that Li Ao usually flipped through; they were covered with dense symbols that looked like Namekian language, and even a normal person would get dizzy just looking at them.

Jay Chou was truly at his wit's end.

He already got an "F" in his midterm math exam, and according to the school team rules, if he fails again at the final exam, he will be expelled.

This wouldn't normally be a big deal, but Wyndham has been in good form this season, and as a qualified rotation player, he has a good chance of being spotted by college scouts.

If we get kicked out because of this stupid math, it would be a huge loss.

So as soon as he saw Li Ao push the door open and come in, he put all his resentment about the previous challenges on the field and the bet he lost out on, and braced himself to greet him.

"Leo, if I fail math again on my final exam, I'll have to get kicked out of the team."

Jaylen gritted his teeth and forced out, "I apologize for all the offenses I've committed in the past. This time, for the sake of the team, you absolutely have to help me."

Li Ao didn't have any prejudice against Jay Chou.

This kid was indeed quite annoying at first, but after being subdued time and time again, he's been quite polite lately.

Pointing out a few questions is really not a big deal.

"OK."

Li Ao agreed, but unsure of the other person's background, he added, "You're in 10th grade, right? Tonight I'll pick 10 example problems from Algebra 1 and send them to you. You must understand them tonight. You can ask questions before tomorrow's training. If you're just trying to get by, don't waste my time."

"Absolutely. I'll finish it tonight, even if I don't sleep." Jay patted his chest.

Jamal, who was stretching on the sidelines, witnessed the whole thing, glanced at Jaylen with sympathy, and almost couldn't help but laugh.

This guy is probably going to be crippled.

During this period, Li Ao was juggling studying, training, and working, and his non-stop work schedule was simply insane. Who could keep up with that?

Back then, he thought Li Ao just wanted to graduate from high school and work at Walmart, but in just a few days, he was so busy that Wyndham was practically erecting a monument to him.

"They're still young and haven't experienced the harsh realities of life."

Jamal muttered something in a mature tone, grabbed a basketball, and headed towards the court.

……

At 9 p.m. that night, Li Ao stretched, closed his AP Calculus textbook, and prepared to wash up and go to bed.

Just before turning off the lights, he remembered what he had promised Jay Chou during the day. So he picked up his phone and the "Algebra I" textbook, flipped through them casually, picked out ten typical examples, and sent them the page numbers and question numbers.

Meanwhile, Jay Chou, who was dozing off on the sofa while watching TV, was awakened by the vibration.

He rubbed his eyes, saw that it was a question sent by Li Ao, and sat up abruptly, instantly replying with a text message:

"I'll do it right away."

After receiving the reply, Li Ao didn't pay any more attention to it, and casually turned off his phone and went to sleep.

Jaylen downed a large bottle of iced coffee and began to work hard on the ten example problems on the table.

Strangely enough, perhaps because of the pressure of being kicked out of the team, he actually managed to tackle the questions one by one and actually understood quite a bit of them.

After going through everything once, I looked up at my watch and it was already 2:30 a.m.

He grabbed his phone, took a picture of the draft paper filled with steps, and sent it over, secretly pleased with himself.

When Leo wakes up tomorrow morning and sees this progress, he'll definitely have to think more highly of me.

The intense training and staying up late caused Jay Chou's heart to pound wildly, his body to feel like it was about to fall apart, but his spirits were unusually high.

He could almost see himself barely passing his math final, dominating the playoffs, and then being scouted by college basketball players.

The screen vibrated as soon as the message was sent successfully.

It was Li Ao's reply: "Well done."

Within two minutes, five more example questions popped up on the screen.

Jay Chou's smile froze instantly—why isn't this guy asleep yet?

He suppressed his ghostly agitation and typed rapidly, trying to probe:

"Do you usually study this late?"

The other end replied instantly: "I'm already up. Is there a problem? You can call if you have any questions."

Jay Chou, holding his phone, slumped in his chair, dumbfounded.

At that moment, he suddenly felt relieved.

It's totally reasonable that Leo could earn Coach Durant's appreciation and win first place in the state math competition.

Others might just work hard, but this guy doesn't even sleep; he's practically risking his life!

Once he understood this, he wasn't so conflicted anymore.

Recalling Li Ao's energetic demeanor in the gym every day, there was no trace of fatigue from staying up late to study.

If a normal person did this every day, they would probably have died of overwork on the training field long ago.

Jaylen shook his head, attributing it solely to species differences—the gap between humans is sometimes greater than that between humans and pigs.

It finally dawned on him that Jamal had looked at him like he was an idiot before training that afternoon; the kid already knew what kind of weird routine Li Ao had.

"Never mind, my life is more important..."

Thinking about having to get up for school in a few hours, followed by intense training in the afternoon, and knowing he'd get a scolding from the coach if he slacked off even a little, Jay Chou decisively turned off the desk lamp and slumped into his bed.

The following afternoon, as soon as Jamal entered the stadium, he bumped into Jaylen, who had huge dark circles under his eyes and looked like a walking corpse.

He glanced at the other man from head to toe, chuckled gloatingly, and then turned and left, concealing his achievements and fame.

……

At the same time, in the corridor leading from the teaching building to the gymnasium, Mr. Brown, carrying a briefcase, walked with much lighter steps than usual, humming an off-key tune.

These past few days, he's been in a very good mood.

He hadn't gone far when he looked up and saw basketball team head coach Karl Durant walking ahead of him.

Brown's eyes lit up, and he quickened his pace to catch up: "Karl!"

Brown had been planning to go to the arena to confront Li Ao and have a proper talk, but he unexpectedly bumped into him in the hallway.

"Oh, Mr. Brown."

Durant nodded to him as a greeting, but didn't stop walking, afraid of missing the afternoon's training.

Brown jogged a couple of steps to catch up and walked alongside him, dropping the bombshell right off the bat:

"Carl, you've heard that Li Ao got a perfect score in the Illinois State Math Competition, right?"

"What? Number one in the whole state?"

Durant suddenly stopped in his tracks, stunned.

He recalled seeing Li Ao squatting in the corner of the locker room doing math problems after the game a while ago.

At the time, he thought it was just a student casually asking to finish his homework, but he never expected that this kid had a big surprise up his sleeve!

Number one in the entire prefecture?

This concept is as magical as a substitute player under his command suddenly winning the MVP in the state high school league and leading the team to victory single-handedly.

No wonder the school leaders have all been beaming these past two days.

For a public school like Wyndham, which is at the bottom of the South District rankings, producing a state-leading math team is definitely more prestigious than having their basketball team win the South District championship.

Seeing Brown's smug and boastful expression, Durant found it amusing and went along with the compliment:

"I hadn't heard of that. Congratulations, Professor Brown, you're sure to get a hefty bonus this time."

"Sigh, it's all thanks to Leo's own hard work." Brown waved his hand, finally getting to the point, "By the way, Carl, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. Leo is about to prepare for the national competition, so try to make sure he takes it easy with his basketball training lately. Don't push him to his limits, leave some energy for his homework."

Durant then understood Brown's purpose and couldn't help but laugh:

"Mr. Brown, you're overthinking it. Li Ao's physical condition is nothing to worry about. No matter how hard he trains one day, he'll be full of energy the next day. He's practically a perpetual motion machine. Sometimes I wonder how this kid manages to keep going."

Hearing Durant's exaggerated description, Brown also frowned and began to ponder:

Li Ao has to undergo high-intensity training, prepare for the All-American Competition, and I heard he also works odd jobs on the side...

How did he manage to do that?

……

Saturday, the AMC workshop, is here again.

Li Ao arrived at Whitney Young High School's classroom half an hour early and easily chose a seat in the back row by the window.

He had just unfolded his AMC practice book, ready to start practicing, when his train of thought was interrupted by a calm, unhurried male voice:

"Leo, right? I heard you got a perfect score in the ICTM competition?"

Li Ao looked up and found it was a stranger.

The other person had blond hair and blue eyes, and a tall and straight figure. From his clothes and demeanor to his speech and mannerisms, he exuded the air of an elite who had been raised in a wealthy family.

Seeing that Li Ao remained silent, the blond boy smiled and generously extended his right hand:

"Let's get acquainted. My name is Matthew Carter."

Li Ao lowered his eyelids, his gaze sweeping over the hand with distinct knuckles in mid-air, and paused slightly.

……