My subject turned into a beautiful girl

After the thunder, the rain finally began to fall.

Perhaps because it had been brewing above this giant steamer for so long, the first few drops were even warm. The thousands upon thousands of tons of rain that followed also had the fierce intensity of summer, pattering everywhere and bursting into a white expanse.

An Yi walked into the classroom with a serious expression.

During dinner time, there was no one else in the classroom. He breathed a slight sigh of relief, went to his seat, took out a roll of toilet paper from his desk drawer, and rubbed it haphazardly in his hair.

Toilet paper is a strategic resource in the classroom; anyone who dares to leave it directly on their desk is considered a warrior. Students often believe in the principle of "don't miss out" and try to get some. Rolls of toilet paper are okay, but a newly opened pack of facial tissues might not last a day.

After drying his hair, he took off his glasses and slowly wiped away the fine, dense water droplets on them.

The whole world became blurry, and his vision went unfocused. Just like hearing becomes more acute when you close your eyes, An Yi always felt that his thinking was clearer and faster in this state.

A thought struck him, and a semi-transparent light screen appeared before his eyes, crystal clear.

On his way back to the classroom, he had already grasped some of the information from the light screen—

1. This light curtain is invisible to others;

2. The operation method is simple, convenient, and allows for flexible use.

3. The main interface of the light screen currently only has two options: "List of Heroines in the Dimensions Being Conquered" and "List of Heroines in the Dimensions Currently Available for Conquering". The former will show the four Dimensions of Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, while the latter is currently unavailable.

An Yi didn't care about this. Even if he had more potential suitors in the short term, he probably wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

4. Open the list of heroines in the current world you are pursuing and then select one to see the affection level and character portrait of the heroine in the corresponding world!

This is precisely why An Yi's expression was solemn.

It's not that the character art is bad.

Although An Yi wasn't a fan of anime and animation, his best friend kept showing off his collection of anime waifus to him, so he could only do what an outsider could do, offering comments like "Your waifus are amazing." Over time, his appreciation skills did develop a bit.

Mathematics, or more precisely, Mathematics Girl's character design, features a girl with long, silver-white hair. Her icy blue eyes are as clear as the sky after a winter snowfall, serene and ethereal, capable of seeing right through people.

She just stood there, expressionless, as still as an ice sculpture, everything about her was just right.

Looking at her, An Yi recalled many things, such as that challenging math problem she couldn't solve no matter what she did during the high school entrance exam, and the moment she first realized that she wasn't that smart...

For example, all those beautiful things that are just out of reach and untouchable, so in the end you can only look at them from afar.

The road is now visible; all that remains is to trek on it.

But this start is far too rushed and tragic!

An Yi lowered his gaze, looking at the root cause of his solemn expression—

[Affection level: -10/Dislike]

[Note: Affection is divided into six stages: Dislike, Neutral, Friendly, Ambiguous, Trust, and Love. Each stage has a maximum affection level of 100 and a minimum of -10. Maintaining a -10 status for an extended period may cause the affection level to drop.]

It's already fallen so low it can't go any lower! If this continues, won't the strategy completely fail?

This was the second time he had seen it, yet An Yi still couldn't help but feel a tightness in his heart. He had seen it before entering the classroom, so the question lingered in his mind, unanswered.

Why is this happening?

As if sensing his confusion, the content displayed on the screen below the character portrait gradually changed—

You and math officially met twelve years ago, and have been classmates since elementary school, through middle school, and now, as you approach your senior year of high school. You chat often, eat together frequently, watch many movies together, and even go shopping a few times.

An Yi was stunned.

Twelve years... and they've gone through all this, with this frequency and number of times, it definitely qualifies as a legendary childhood sweetheart relationship. Even if the affection level isn't maxed out, it should at least be at the level of ambiguity or even trust, right?

[But math can detect that as you get to know her better, you gradually become more and more distracted. You don't care about the content of your conversations, the restaurants you choose mostly don't suit her taste, the movies you pick are of low quality, and you don't watch them attentively.]

An Yi glanced at the character illustration, then looked at the content on the screen, and seriously doubted that her aesthetic sense and preferences were being slandered.

She's so beautiful!

What makes Math most unhappy with you is shopping. You've suggested shopping several times, but you either stand me up or make an excuse to leave early after a while; you've never actually finished a single shopping trip.

An Yi: "..."

It seems the initial favorability rating was a bit too high... Is there still a chance to salvage the situation? Mathematics Master is truly magnanimous; most other people would probably have cut ties completely, right?

Wait a minute, I've never done anything so tasteless. This is a complete frame-up!

[24 days ago, Math decided to give you another chance and accepted your invitation to go shopping. But this time, you still made an excuse to leave early after only walking a few steps after we met.]

[Mathematics' favorability towards you -10]

Current favorability: -10/dislike

[Warning: Current affection level has reached its lowest point. If this continues for an extended period, the romance strategy will fail.]

Something's definitely not right!

An Yi frowned, trying to sort out his thoughts from the beginning.

First of all, if you only look at the literal meaning of the content displayed on the screen, you definitely wouldn't have done those things.

Forget about eating out, shopping, or watching movies, he rarely even chats with girls, okay?

But now, this "girl" is mathematics.

"We officially met twelve years ago." I'm seventeen this year, which means I was five years old when I started elementary school and began learning math!

In that instant, it was as if lightning had struck his mind, and An Yi understood the description of the "planetary heroine"—"Only those who are naturally intelligent and diligent can gain favor."

Those who don't work hard won't learn, and those who aren't smart simply can't learn!

Wait a minute, so you're saying that the so-called strategy guide is actually just learning?

Damn it, I had to learn before I had a cheat, and now I have to learn again after I have a cheat? Does that mean I got this cheat for nothing?

While mentally complaining, An Yi put on his glasses and looked at the wall of books standing on the table.

Some things are like looking at flowers through a fog before you understand them, but a single flash of insight can make them clear.

He roughly understood what "shopping" actually meant.

Book walls, a feature found on the desks of most junior and senior high school students across China, are generally arranged in three ways: horizontal, vertical, and a combination of both. They can even be connected with deskmates, providing convenient access to books and materials, or a convenient place to lie down and sleep or secretly read novels on your phone…

But in reality, anyone who has stood on the platform and looked at it will know that the defensive capabilities of this facility are purely psychological. The advantage of the high vantage point is simply too great; everything below is clearly visible.

An Yi's gaze focused on the spine of a brand-new orange-covered book on the far left of the bookshelf—

Five-Year College Entrance Examination and Three-Year Simulation: Mathematics - 2016 College Entrance Examination Review

He sighed, pulled it out, and opened it.

He bought this book at the bookstore on August 1st, exactly 24 days ago.

I vaguely remember the reason for buying it was that the book was so detailed and had such a variety of question types. If I could study it carefully during the 20 days of summer vacation, I would definitely be able to improve my math score from hovering around 90 to over 110 or 120. If I was lucky (meaning I guessed the multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and final questions correctly), it wouldn't be impossible to reach 130 or 140. Then I would go back to school for the monthly exam and amaze everyone, hehehe!

To this end, An Yi even reviewed the table of contents and made a detailed plan based on her own situation. In general, she allocated corresponding review time for knowledge modules such as [Sets], [Functions], [Plane Vectors and Solving Triangles], [Sequences], [Inequalities], [Solid Geometry], [Plane Analytic Geometry], and [Probability and Statistics].

For example, sets are quite simple, taking more than half an hour. Functions are of medium difficulty but account for a large portion of the marks, and since it's one of my weakest areas, spending two or three days on it wouldn't be unreasonable...

As for how well this plan was ultimately executed—

Today is Thursday, August 25, 2016. The twenty-day summer vacation is long over. An Yi, who is nominally a senior in high school but is practically a senior, has been taking extra classes for ten days. His monthly exam results from five days ago have also come out. He ranked 312th in his grade and scored 91 points in math.

Yes, after reviewing the "Sets" section, he never opened that textbook again.

Upon closer reflection, it seems that this is always the case.

From childhood schedules to current study plans, An Yi's plans are so detailed that they can be broken down to the minute, even including meals, drinking water, going to the toilet, and rest.

The more carefully and meticulously he planned, the harder it was for him to put his plans into action; most of those plans became worthless by the next day.

Sometimes An Yi really envies those "other people's children". In his mother's words, they are always smart, self-disciplined and hardworking. Once they make a plan, they can carry it out meticulously. But when it comes to doing the same thing, it is as difficult as an insurmountable barrier.

"In short, shopping should correspond to studying according to a schedule, right? Not completing the schedule is like leaving halfway through shopping. Not following the schedule at all is just canceling."

An Yi sorted out his thoughts and tentatively opened the textbook.

The content of the light screen changes.

You found math and want to chat with her...

An Yi was taken aback.

Why is it chatting again?

Wait, that makes sense, because the plan was for "shopping," which is a long-term task. But this time I didn't make a plan; I just randomly opened the "53" (a popular study guide for college entrance exams)...

So, does this kind of reading and doing exercises without a detailed time schedule correspond to "chatting"?

The content on the light screen is still changing.

Math doesn't want to chat with you, but in the classroom, she won't be so rude as to kick you out. On the other hand, given their twelve-year friendship, she's prepared to hear what you have to say before making a decision.

Childhood sweetheart is the best! This seemingly cold but warm-hearted girl deserves a strong comeback!

As for what to "say," An Yi had already roughly guessed.

In real life, if a childhood friend were to stand you up while you were out shopping, the best course of action would be to apologize profusely, play the victim, and perhaps even sign a few unequal treaties... But now, girls are like math.

An Yi has completely changed her mindset.

The key point remains the same: the strategy is to learn!

Chatting, eating, shopping, and watching movies are all forms of learning, just in different ways.

Phrases like "not paying attention to the content of conversations," "choosing food that doesn't suit one's taste," and "not watching a good movie"... these are probably issues with the quality of learning in different learning formats.

Because this fits the saying, "As you get to know someone, you gradually become more and more distracted."

The difficulty of mathematics increases year by year, and An Yi's math scores are getting worse and worse. He can't learn more and more of the math, and naturally he appears to be "absent-minded" in various ways!

In short, if this series of conjectures holds true, the only way to improve the effectiveness of chatting and increase favorability is...

An Yi picked up the water-based pen, removed the cap, and looked like a swordsman drawing his sword, ready to wreak havoc.

Let's get started!

He continued along the path of his previous work, which was to move on to functions after discussing sets.

The layout of "53" (a popular college entrance exam preparation book) is roughly as follows: the summarized knowledge points are listed first, followed by past college entrance exam questions on the corresponding knowledge. In this way, the difficulty gradually increases from simple to complex, from basic to varied to comprehensive, which can be used for precise review or to fill in knowledge gaps.

Although functions were An Yi's weak point, he still knew the most basic aspects, such as the concept and properties of functions, and basic elementary functions.

Therefore, he answered the questions fairly smoothly at first.

However, he soon started sweating – because he came to the graphical properties of various functions.

Quadratic functions, power functions, exponential functions, logarithmic functions, trigonometric functions...

The so-called image properties refer to the functional expressions corresponding to characteristics such as opening, vertex, axis of symmetry, range, monotonicity, root distribution, and even amplitude, period, and phase.

An Yi was not proficient in the graphical properties of these functions, had not memorized them, and could not match them one by one at all!

For some college entrance exam questions that only test the properties of the graphs of a single function, he could still solve them by reviewing previous knowledge points and substituting them into the solutions. But after that, he was at a loss.

The questions on functions in the college entrance examination are of medium difficulty and are generally comprehensive.

For example, if a trigonometric function and a quadratic function intersect, only one or two key pieces of information are given in words or images. Then, the test taker needs to use their knowledge of trigonometric constant transformations, power reduction formulas, the influence of graph changes on period, amplitude and the maximum and minimum values ​​of quadratic functions, root distribution, etc., to solve the problem comprehensively.

He wanted to try to solve it using the same method as before, but staring at the large number of xyabαβs listed together, he quickly felt dizzy and his thoughts became a jumbled mess.

Suddenly, a familiar sense of frustration washed over me, accompanied by the natural, habitual thought: Maybe I should take a break? I've already reviewed a large portion; I can continue later…

Thinking of this, he subconsciously brought up the light screen to check—

[I think your apology was sincere enough, and most importantly, the content of the chat was quite interesting, so I've decided to forgive you a little for now.]

[Mathematics' favorability towards you +1]

Current favorability: -9/dislike

An Yi was overjoyed; he hadn't expected it to be so simple.

Looks like I really can take a break!

Text changes on the light screen —

Mathematics senses that you want to rest and is quite unhappy about it.

She always believes that if you can do something, you can do it; if you can't, you can't. What does it mean if you're clearly capable but want to take a break? Is chatting with her tiring and painful?

[Mathematics' favorability towards you -1]

Current favorability: -10/dislike

Buhou!

An Yi gasped, feeling a headache coming on.

While it's true that men shouldn't admit they can't do something, math is different. If you don't know math, you don't know it; if you're not good at it, you're not good at it.

What do you mean I can still do it?

I feel like I'm no longer capable!

Just as he was about to force himself to memorize those knowledge points, a girl's curious voice suddenly came from the side and entered his ears.

The voice was incredibly familiar.

"Oh, studying?"

An Yi shuddered, and a sentence immediately slipped out without thinking.

"Big brother, help me!"