I was a top student in America.

Li Ao raised his hand and shook hands with him.

The moment he grasped that hand, he finally matched the blond, blue-eyed face before him with the resounding name in the North District competition circle.

Matthew Carter.

When Green was giving feedback to the trainees in the workshop, he often mentioned this name as "someone else's child".

"Congratulations on getting a perfect score in the state competition." Matthew tilted his chin slightly. "However, I've been focusing most of my energy on physics lately, and math... well, it's been kind of dormant. Thanks for your score; it's really rekindled my fighting spirit."

Li Ao was speechless for a moment, thinking to himself, "What is all this about?"

Before he could respond, Matthew confidently withdrew his hand and straightened his collar: "The AMC is in a little over a month, and I'll be shifting my focus back to mathematics. I hope you'll still be a worthy opponent for next year's USAMO."

After saying that, he tossed his hair, leaving behind what he considered a dashing silhouette, and turned back to his seat in the front row.

Li Ao's hand was still frozen in mid-air, listening in a daze.

He glanced at the other person's back, which seemed to have its own background music, and couldn't help but think to himself:

This guy... must watch too much Japanese anime. Is he really that dramatic?

"Oh, good luck then."

Li Ao gave a dry, perfunctory reply, his gaze returning to the AMC practice test booklet spread out on the table.

In the time it takes him to spout such threats, I could have solved an analytical geometry problem myself.

As for Matthew's statement that they will compete again at USAMO next year...

Li Ao curled his lip.

Li Ao curled his lip. At his current rate of progress, by next year, this arrogant young master would probably be too old to even see his taillights.

Just then, Sam came running over with his schoolbag, pulled out the chair next to him, and sat down.

"The view is good here." Meeting Li Ao's surprised gaze, she mumbled a little guiltyly, but her eyes couldn't help but glance at the exercises on his desk.

Li Ao glanced at the empty back row and thought to himself, "This is the furthest from the blackboard, how can it have a good view?"

However, he was too lazy to expose him and looked away, focusing on solving the problem.

At 9:00 sharp, Green entered the room carrying his lecture notes, went straight to the blackboard, and wrote down a problem:

Given positive integers a and b such that (a^2 + b^2)/(ab + 1) is an integer value k. Prove that k must be the square of some integer.

"The state competition is over, everyone get back to the problems." Green tossed the half-burnt chalk back into the chalk box, dusted his hands off, and asked, "Anyone have any ideas?"

The classroom fell silent, with only the scratching sound of pens slicing across draft paper.

Green picked up his thermos and took a sip of water, looking quite content.

The state competition had just ended, and these students were a bit too restless. This problem was a good opportunity to put them on their toes.

"I'll do it."

Matthew Carter stood up, walked to the blackboard, and began writing directly on the board:

1. Assume the conclusion is false. Let (A, B) be a set of non-square solutions that minimizes A + B.

2. Construct a quadratic equation: x^2 - (kB)x + (B^2 - k) = 0. 3. Let the other root be A'. By Vieta's formulas, A' = kB - A...

As the steps gradually took shape on the blackboard, the students in the front row began to whisper among themselves:

"Vieta's leap? He's trying to derive a contradiction using the method of infinite descent."

"You've got an idea so quickly? How did you come up with the idea of ​​using Vida to jump..."

"It's a bit complicated; I didn't quite understand the third step..."

Green looked at the well-organized writing on the blackboard and nodded slightly.

At this moment, in the back corner, Li Ao stared at the blackboard for a moment, then casually wrote an inequality in the blank space of the past exam paper.

He didn't even write a draft; once he finished writing, he immediately turned to the next page to read something else.

Sam, who was standing nearby, leaned over for a look and then stopped.

That equation was completely different from Matthew's long explanation.

Meanwhile, Matthew finished writing the last step, put down the chalk, turned around and walked back to his seat, glancing at Li Ao as he came down.

"It's a very rigorous solution, but the steps are a bit cumbersome and prone to errors." Green turned to face the group. "Any other ideas?"

Sam glanced at the densely packed writing on the top half of the blackboard, then at the lone line of text on Li Ao's booklet, and asked in a low voice, "Did you solve it using another method?"

Li Ao remained silent.

He didn't want to provoke that immature teenager in front of him just to show off, so he pretended not to hear and stared down at an indefinite integral problem.

The next second, Sam raised his hand and said, "Mr. Green, Leo has another solution."

"...?!"

Li Ao's hand, which was about to put down his pen, paused, and he turned his head to glance at her incredulously.

"Oh?" Green pushed up his glasses. "Leo, come up and write something."

Dozens of eyes in the classroom instantly focused on them.

Li Ao sighed, got up and walked to the podium.

As he passed the front row, he could feel Matthew's gaze fixed on him.

Li Ao could only pretend not to see it, picked up the chalk, and wrote three lines of equations next to Matthew's complicated derivation:

Let A'=(B^2 - k)/ A; if A'< 0, then A'^2 - kA'B + B^2 - k >= A'^2 + k + B^2 - k > 0, which is a contradiction;

Therefore, A' can only be 0, that is, k = B^2.

After finishing writing, he put the chalk back in the trough, clapped his hands, and stepped off the stage.

The whole process took less than half a minute.

The classroom was silent for a few seconds.

The trainees frowned and stared at the blackboard for a long time before a suppressed whisper finally broke out from the crowd:

"Using scaling to restrict the range of values? That's a pretty brute-force algebraic transformation."

"Matthew went through a long and complicated process to prove the descending lower bound, but he just blocked the path with an inequality."

"This process is so streamlined, how did they skip that middle step?"

Matthew stared silently at the three lines of text on the blackboard, his pen moving rapidly in his hand.

Li Ao walked back to his seat and said to Sam in a low voice, "Could you please not raise your hand for me next time?"

"Why?" Sam muttered to himself, "Your method is so good, you just use algebra to solve it directly, how cool is that?"

"What's the use of being handsome?" Li Ao flipped back to his calculus textbook, too lazy to explain to her.

And here I am, being targeted by that chuunibyou (middle school syndrome) again.

In the following period, Li Ao completely broke away from Green's rhythm.

As his intellectual abilities improved, he found that he could understand knowledge points faster and faster.

He could glance at the examples Green presented and automatically categorize them into modules he had already learned.

Since the workshop material wasn't challenging enough, he simply pulled out his AP Calculus book from his bag, flipped to the chapter on indefinite integrals, and started reading it on his own.

Green, standing on the podium, naturally noticed Li Ao, who was daydreaming.

Upon catching a glimpse of the thick preparatory textbook, he not only didn't stop it, but instead looked away as if he hadn't seen it.

After all, any teacher would be happy to condone the privilege of a student who has just won a perfect score in the state competition and can solve a difficult problem in three lines of equations.

……

Meanwhile, in the conference room at the end of the corridor, Whitney Young's Dean of Academic Affairs, Jackson, sat at the head of the table, silently watching the math competition team leaders from other schools on either side of the long table.

Edmund, the head coach of Lane Institute of Technology, broke the silence with his loud voice:

"Mr. Jackson, everyone's pretty busy, so let's get straight to the point. Don't keep Wyndham's kid hidden away like a precious treasure; let everyone meet him, okay?"

This seasoned veteran, who has been in the North District competition circle for over a decade, has always been keen on poaching top students from others.

"Everyone should offer their own price based on their abilities, and in the end, it depends on the child's own wishes. Is that alright?"

The meeting room was quiet for a few seconds, with only the soft sound of chairs being moved.

The news of a math prodigy emerging from the South District had already spread far and wide. Upon learning that the child was attending a workshop in Whitney Young, the coaches dropped everything early in the morning to come and "request" him.

"Yeah, let us see for ourselves." The coach from Highland Park High School across the street chimed in, "We know what the academic atmosphere is like in the South District. To produce a perfect score in a state competition in that kind of environment is something I've never seen before in all my years of coaching."

"I heard he's only been involved in competitions for two months."

"Two months for a perfect score?" The man by the window put down his coffee cup. "At this rate, what will AMC be like next year?"

Having said all that, these people didn't even bother with the pretense of politeness anymore.

"We at Lane Institute of Technology are determined to have this kid. We came in second in the state team competition this year, so we can give him the best training resources." Edmund tapped the table.

"Don't make promises you can't keep. The amount of scholarships that our Highland Park can approve is more than you can come up with."

"This isn't about money! His family background requires a school that can provide comprehensive support..."

"Alright everyone." The meeting room door opened, and Green walked in carrying lecture notes, pulled out a chair and sat down. "We made an offer last week, and they rejected it in front of the whole class. It wasn't about the terms at all."

The words had barely left his mouth when the school bell rang and students poured out of the corridor, creating a noisy atmosphere.

The coaches at the table reacted quickly, immediately getting up and leaving.

As soon as Li Ao stepped out of the classroom, he was blocked by this group of people at the corner of the corridor.

The names of several top high schools and various generous offers were immediately thrown at them, and everyone started talking at once.

"Leo, right? Do you want to come to our Linkin Park High School? Look, Matthew is also from our school. You'll compete with each other, and you'll improve very quickly."

"Lane Polytechnic got second place in the state team competition this year, and their training conditions are the best. Would you like to come and audit their class next week?"

"Our Highland Park..."

Li Ao listened patiently, then adjusted his backpack strap with one hand.

"Thank you, teachers, but I don't plan to transfer schools at the moment." He said calmly, "Wyndham has been very kind to me, and I also have to take care of my grandmother."

After saying that, he nodded politely, turned and walked through the crowd, leaving a group of coaches looking at each other in bewilderment.

At the end of the corridor, Green, who had followed them out, witnessed the entire event.

When he was rejected last week, he secretly wondered if the guy was playing hard to get and waiting for a better price.

After all, he had offered a top-tier package including tuition waivers, scholarships, and interest-free loans, and he had even prepared his explanation for asking the principal to "add more" later.

Having poached talent in the North District for so many years, he's seen countless clever people using job offers as bargaining chips to bid against each other.

But when Li Ao rejected those schools just now, he didn't even hesitate or stammer.

There was no feigned indifference or attempt to compare prices; the other party simply didn't take those temptations seriously.

Only now did Green truly understand that his adult-like calculations had been misplaced from the very beginning.

He shook his head self-deprecatingly, too lazy to pay attention to those few still persistent colleagues, and turned to go downstairs.

Who cares? With this free time, you might as well go back and think about how to teach properly.