From child prodigy to chief scientist

The one who opened the door was Xu Xiao's father, Xu Lang.

After entering, Xu Lang first touched the back of the TV to make sure there was no sign of it getting hot.

Televisions of that era were all CRT televisions, also known as "big-butt" televisions.

In her past life, when Xu Xiao was a child, she would often secretly watch TV when she was home alone during holidays, and would only turn it off when she heard her parents' footsteps coming home.

This kind of clever trick worked repeatedly at first.

It wasn't until one day when the parents discovered the burning hot television that they realized they had been kept in the dark all along.

From then on, whenever they came home, they would habitually touch the TV to see if Xu Xiao had been watching it.

In this life, Xu Xiao naturally has no interest in such antique televisions anymore. Even with LCD televisions from his previous life, he would hardly ever watch them more than a few times a year.

"Dad, you're back."

"Hmm, Xiaoxiao, have you been studying hard at home?"

Children of this age are mostly playful, and Xu Lang still suspected that Xu Xiao had deliberately calculated the time he would get home and turned off the TV in advance to let it cool down.

Seeing that Xu Xiao nodded affirmatively, Xu Lang did not ask any further questions.

"Your mom is working the night shift today, so I'll cook for you. You can study on your own then."

Xu Xiao's mother, Yu Guilan, works as a nurse at the Central Hospital of Gangcheng. Due to the nature of her work, she often works night shifts.

As a bank teller, Xu Lang has more stable working hours, and therefore takes on more responsibility for taking care of Xu Xiao.

Xu Xiao really wanted to help Xu Lang, but in order to complete the entry task as soon as possible, he chose to continue studying.

Xu Lang skillfully tied on an apron and went to the kitchen to get busy.

First, wash the rice and cook it; then wash, chop, and stir-fry the vegetables.

In just over half an hour, Xu Lang had quickly prepared two dishes, and the rice was also cooked.

"Xiaoxiao, dinner's ready!"

Xu Lang called out several times, but Xu Xiao didn't respond. He had no choice but to go to the bedroom to check on the situation, somewhat annoyed.

At this moment, Xu Xiao was focused on studying the basic elementary functions. Because he was so engrossed in his studies, he did not hear Xu Lang calling him to eat.

Seeing Xu Xiao so focused on his studies, Xu Lang was even a little reluctant to disturb him, so he simply came up behind him and watched quietly.

"This... isn't this my high school math textbook?"

After seeing what Xu Xiao was studying, Xu Lang seemed somewhat puzzled.

It is clearly illogical for a fifth-grade elementary school student to suddenly start studying high school math.

"Xiaoxiao, why are you looking at high school math?"

Startled by the sudden sound behind him, Xu Xiao realized that Xu Lang had appeared behind him at some point.

"Dad, the knowledge in elementary school is too simple. I want to learn some high school knowledge in advance so that I can take the college entrance examination earlier."

Given Xu Xiao's abilities, it would indeed seem too naive for him to learn things like fraction multiplication and division.

However, Xu Lang perceived these words as overly arrogant and conceited.

"Xiaoxiao, it's good that you have this idea, but you can't be too ambitious. If you want to build a tall building, you have to lay a good foundation first, otherwise a gust of wind can blow it down."

Xu Lang felt that Xu Xiao's interest was just a passing fancy. Instead of learning such distant knowledge, it would be better to focus on previewing the courses for the next semester.

"But Dad, I really can understand it."

Seeing that Xu Xiao didn't seem to be lying, Xu Lang picked up the math textbook with some skepticism and asked Xu Xiao a question.

"Then tell me, what is a logarithmic function?"

To verify whether Xu Xiao could truly understand these high school math concepts, Xu Lang deliberately turned the book away from Xu Xiao to prevent him from seeing the contents.

"That's simple. If a raised to the power of x equals N, then x is the logarithm of N to the base a, and the function y=logax is the logarithmic function. Here, a needs to be greater than 0 and not equal to 1."

With Xu Xiao's current level, he may not be able to solve those difficult high school math problems, but he can definitely understand the basic concepts.

As he listened to Xu Xiao's answer and compared it with the contents of the book, Xu Lang couldn't help but raise his eyebrows.

Although Xu Xiao's answer was not exactly the same as the concept in the book, the meaning was basically the same.

Xu Xiao did indeed recite this concept from memory, something Xu Lang never expected.

Afterwards, Xu Lang asked Xu Xiao several more questions and gave him some example problems to work on.

Xu Xiao answered all the questions without exception, and even solved the example problems very easily.

Seeing this result, Xu Lang was completely at a loss for words.

"My son... can actually understand high school math?"

This was something Xu Lang could hardly dream of. In his mind, a child who could reach this level could definitely be called a prodigy.

Although Xu Xiao's grades at school were not bad, they were not among the top in his class, let alone a genius.

But only now does Xu Lang realize that he has greatly underestimated Xu Xiao's talent.

"Dad, I'm a little hungry. Is dinner ready?"

After studying all afternoon, Xu Xiao was exhausted, and her stomach was starting to rumble.

"It's been ready for a while now. I called you to eat earlier. The food's gotten a little cold, let me heat it up for you."

Although his mealtime was delayed again, Xu Lang was in a really good mood while the dishes were being heated up, his face visibly glowing.

After so many years, the Xu family is finally going to produce a genius, a genius who can teach high school math on his own at the age of 11.

During the meal, Xu Lang even took the initiative to serve food to Xu Xiao, which is a very rare thing in recent years.

"Xiaoxiao, are you serious about wanting to take the college entrance exam as soon as possible?"

"Yes, I'll start preparing now, and hopefully I can take the college entrance exam in the next two or three years."

Xu Xiao was quite confident about this. Even if she wasn't guaranteed to get into Tsinghua or Peking University, getting into a prestigious university shouldn't be a problem.

"Okay! Dad will see if we can find a way to let you skip a grade. We won't be sending you to Gangdu Elementary School next semester."

To register for the college entrance examination, one generally needs to be admitted to a high school first. At least Xu Lang had never heard of a primary school student registering for the college entrance examination.

Xu Xiao didn't think there were that many restrictions, but no matter what, he definitely didn't want to continue attending primary school.

After finishing their meal, Xu Xiao returned to her bedroom to continue studying, while Xu Lang tidied up the kitchen.

It wasn't until 10 p.m., under Xu Lang's urging, that Xu Xiao finally had to wash up and go to bed.

Actually, it's not late at all now. For Xu Xiao, who is used to working overtime late into the night, going to bed before midnight doesn't count as staying up late.

However, this body is only eleven years old, and its energy is not as abundant as that of an adult, so it needs to be used sparingly.

Around midnight, Yu Guilan finally finished her night shift and returned home.

Nurses work very hard. After returning home, Yu Guilan simply washed up, glanced at Xu Xiao who was fast asleep in the south bedroom, and then went to the north bedroom to prepare for bed.

"Gui Lan, you're back."

"Hmm. Why aren't you asleep yet?"

At this time of day, Xu Lang would already be snoring in bed and wouldn't wait for me to come back to sleep.

"I can't sleep tonight, Guilan. There's something I want to talk to you about."