I was a top student in America.

In the cafeteria, the people at the surrounding tables were still in shock.

Across two aisles, Lin Jinni couldn't help but look up, her gaze falling on Li Ao.

Thinking back to seeing him come out of Mr. Brown's office in the hallway that morning, she really couldn't understand this Chinese-American boy who used to only sleep on his stomach.

Jamal, carrying his tray, slipped over from another table and squeezed into a seat next to Li Ao, his eyes sparkling.

"Leo, you were pretty cool just now..." He stuffed a fry into his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, and then suddenly lowered his voice, "But to be honest, TySean isn't a bad guy. He just got into a fight with the guys on the playground yesterday, and he's been in a bad mood lately. If you run into him, just avoid him."

He pushed the plate onto the table and gestured with his chin toward TySean.

DeMarcus, still shaken, lowered his voice and asked, "You know TySean? He's not going to bring people back to ambush us later, is he?"

"He still needs to rely on the school team, so he can't go too far."

Jamal smirked. "Especially in front of so many people, no way."

DeMarcus finally relaxed, draped his arm over Li Ao's shoulder, and grinned, "Dude, that last one was really—"

Li Ao pushed away the arm that was being draped over his.

"Finish your English homework first."

For him now, worrying about these trivial matters is not as worthwhile as doing a couple more practice problems at night.

After saying that, he lowered his head and continued reading.

Over the next two days, Li Ao devoted all the time he could spare to Algebra II.

Needless to say, math class is another one.

After memorizing the new words in English class, I flipped through the math textbook.

While the history teacher turned to write on the blackboard, he still flipped through math textbooks.

Some teachers would glance at him a couple of times when passing by the back row, but seeing that he was actually doing his homework, they wouldn't bother with him.

After all, this is Wyndham High School, and you're already in eleventh grade. As long as you don't go too far in class, the teachers rarely care whether you follow the schedule or not.

that's it.

During the day, I study hard in class; in the evening, I do practice problems; and when I get home, I continue working on my homework at the folding table.

Over the course of two days, the intelligence value on the panel slowly and steadily climbed, and it was about to break through the 100 mark.

……

"I finally finished the second half of the book."

As evening self-study was about to end the next day, Li Ao closed his Algebra II textbook on the table and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

His gaze then fell on the panel.

【Intelligence: 99.7】

"Go through the rest of the material again, and I should be able to get 100 by tomorrow."

Thinking about the first term he was about to unlock, he couldn't help but feel a little excited.

However, he also knew that the rapid progress these past two days was purely due to reviewing previously learned knowledge.

The memories are there, the framework is there, it's just that the brain in this body needs to run through it all over again.

When it comes to tackling competition problems like those in the AMC, the speed definitely won't be that fast.

But there was one thing he was certain of.

If you were to ask him to do the homework Brown assigned last week, he would definitely not just guess the two multiple-choice questions correctly to pass.

The bell rang, signaling the end of get out of class.

Back in room 306, the TV in the living room was still on, and Grandma was curled up on the sofa, dozing off.

Jamal huddled in the corner, listening to his headphones and nodding his head—he hadn't taken the school bus; he'd come back first.

But Li Ao was too lazy to get involved in such matters. This kid was unconventional and would eventually find his own way.

Seeing him come in, Jamal gestured with his chin toward the kitchen stove.

There was still a bowl of warm porridge left for him on the stove.

Li Ao glanced at it, said nothing, picked up the bowl, ate it in a few bites, rinsed the bowl, and then turned around and went into the room to continue working on the problem.

He studied until after nine o'clock, and only when the panel displayed the reward of "Focus on studying... Stamina +0.1" did he close the workbook, wash up, and go back to his room to go to bed.

In his schedule, staying up late into the night was never part of it.

The folding table lamp was too dim, but more importantly, I had to preserve this body.

Instead of wasting time inefficiently at night, it's better to get up an extra half hour tomorrow morning.

-

On the morning of the third day.

When Li Ao opened his eyes, the alarm clock hadn't gone off yet.

I got dressed, washed my face, and went straight out the door.

When he arrived at school, the classroom was empty. He skillfully took out his vocabulary book from his bag and memorized SAT vocabulary by the light of the classroom's overhead lamp.

Not long after, footsteps were heard at the bottom of the stairs.

Lin Jinni had just finished her school's track and field team's morning practice and was carrying a stack of homework as she hurried upstairs.

When she saw the lights in the classroom from afar, she visibly paused.

"Who's here so early?"

Upon entering the classroom, I was surprised to see Li Ao sitting in a chair, muttering to himself.

Looking at that focused figure, a thought suddenly popped into her head that even she found absurd:

Is this guy planning to go to college?

She didn't say anything more, threw her workbook on the table, took out her glasses, put them on, and started studying with a math book in hand.

They moved much faster than usual, afraid of missing out on learning even a little bit.

Li Ao looked up and noticed that Lin Jinni was reviewing Chapter Seven, obviously preparing for the midterm exam. He didn't greet her and continued memorizing vocabulary.

Fridays at Wyndham are always the worst days of the week in terms of discipline.

Many students started counting down the minutes from the second period, waiting for school to end.

Before the third period of the morning was even halfway over, more than half of the students' minds had already wandered off.

On the podium, the history teacher, with his back to the students, wrote the topic of the lesson on the whiteboard. After finishing, he didn't turn around but said to the whiteboard, "Open the window, the classroom smells too bad."

There was no reaction from below. He was too lazy to ask any further questions.

The lesson continued, with the teacher reading from the textbook while glancing at her phone every now and then.

Ten minutes before get out of class ended, he strolled down the aisle to the back row—more for stretching his legs since they were numb than to patrol.

As I passed Li Ao's seat, I glanced at it and saw a sheet of draft paper filled with calculations.

This kid is doing math in history class; I don't know if he loves learning or if he's on a high...

He paused for a second, too lazy to ask any further questions, and continued walking forward.

Li Ao's gaze never left the paper.

He is proposing a parameter variation:

Given x = (t²− 1)/(t²+ 1) and y = 2t/(t²+ 1), eliminate the parameters and find the right-angle equation.

The first two steps went smoothly—the relationships between x+1 and y and t were derived and written out.

Unfortunately, the solution is to combine the two equations to eliminate t, and that's where the thought process stops.

I understand the example problem and the variations next to it, but when I get back to this problem, I just miss the mark.

Just then—the panel refreshed.

[Focusing on studying... Intelligence +0.1]

【Intelligence: 100.0】

[Attribute Breakthrough! Unlock Attributes - Learn by Analogy]

[Entry: Applying Knowledge to New Situations]

[Benefit: You can more quickly see the common structure behind similar problems and extrapolate from one problem to the entire class of variations.]

"This is……"

Li Ao's eyes lit up, and he pressed his back tightly against the chair back.

After a few seconds of stunned silence, ecstasy welled up inside him.

He immediately realized that the purpose of this entry was not to give him extra knowledge out of thin air, but to enable him to see the common structure behind similar problems more quickly after reading a question.

He lowered his head and stared again at the parametric equation that had gotten him stuck.

The denominators of both equations are (t²+1).

First, try to calculate x² + y² directly – expand the numerator and combine them to get (t² + 1)², which is approximately equal to 1.

He drew a circle on the paper.

x² + y² = 1.

The answer was always there.

What stumped him wasn't that he didn't know how to deduce it, but that he didn't realize that the two fractions could be combined first—and the timing of that combination was exactly the same as the structure of the example problem next to it.

Previously, we learned one problem at a time.

Now, we can see a structure that leads to a series of questions.

During the years he worked as a study abroad consultant, he helped a student who won a state-level gold medal pass through the college entrance examination.

The child said he never memorized formulas to solve problems; instead, he repeatedly looked for the structure. Once he understood one problem, he could solve a whole category of problems.

At the time, he only listened to it as an inspirational story, but now he understands a little bit about it.

Li Ao did not rush to write on the original topic.

He already knows how to solve this problem; the real test is how to apply this term to more difficult problems.

Thinking of this, he immediately pulled out a crumpled comprehensive workbook from his schoolbag—pages full of red crosses and large blank spaces, all of which were the "legacy" left by the original owner.

I quickly flipped to the last few comprehensive questions marked with an asterisk and put them under the textbook.

He had tried these questions several times before, but got stuck halfway through each time.

Now, it's perfect for sacrificing the knife.

……