Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 148 - 91 I Humbly Say

On the third day after the results were available, which was the last day of October, the Xingnan Mathematics Association announced the list of provincial award winners for this year’s National High School Mathematics League.

A total of 81 first prize winners. This year, the Huaxia Mathematics Society allocated 32 spots for Xingnan Province. It seems quite a lot but actually four fewer than last year.

There’s no other way, each province’s spots fluctuate based on their past few performances in the finals.

In other words, only the top 32 students in the first prize can form the provincial team and participate in November’s winter camp, or rather, the upcoming national contest. Just as Qiao Yu mentioned after his exam, he ranked first in Xingnan Province, but not tied for first.

Unfortunately, even though he thought the questions were easy, another lucky person did not appear.

Although it’s said to represent the province, participating in the national contest is still registered at the unit of schools. Moreover, Xingnan Province doesn’t organize training camps. Generally, after confirming the team leaders, a meeting is held with confirmed participants before going to the national contest.

Qiao Yu didn’t really care about these procedures, just felt that the Xingnan Mathematics Association announced the list a little too early. fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓

It’s already October 31st, why not just drag it into next month?

It’s not any other reason, mainly he’s afraid that those graduate senior brothers from Yujiang University might accidentally see the Xingnan Province announcement and feel uncomfortable.

After all, a student ranking first in the province’s preliminaries has a great chance of entering the top 60 nationally, which would naturally dispel claims that he needed to pay for extra tutoring.

Although Qiao Yu also understands that his senior brothers likely don’t believe his nonsense, some things just need that subtle feeling of ’I know you’re pretending not to know, and you know I’m pretending not to know you’re pretending not to know.’

For instance, if suddenly a senior in the group blurts out: "Congratulations to Junior Brother for taking first in the national high school mathematics league in the province!" wouldn’t it be awkward?

If the list were announced in November, Qiao Yu could easily find an excuse. After all, what does October’s Qiao Yu have to do with November’s Qiao Yu? With a month apart, a slight change in thinking is very reasonable.

Fortunately, such an unpleasant occurrence did not happen.

Instead, someone in another of his friend groups started making a fuss.

"@Yu Shulin, whoa, Qiao Yu, you actually took first place in the provincial league again? Are you going all out or what?"

Clearly, the person who could send such a message must be Yu Yongjun.

Generally, the rich second generation Yu Wei is surely lurking quietly as long as he’s not in a spat with Yu Yongjun.

Anyway, that’s what Qiao Yu thinks. After all, it can’t always be a coincidence that every time Yu Yongjun says some bad things about Yu Wei or slightly overpraises Qiao Yu, even without specifically @-ing him, this guy always pops up in the group chat in time, either to counter, or to respond with sarcasm.

And then the two start arguing in the group.

It’s always like this every time.

Although Yu Wei doesn’t know, Qiao Yu has already forgiven this guy countless times in his heart, even moving himself many times — such a hot-tempered person like him has an incredibly high tolerance for rich kids!

Today was no exception.

Seeing Yu Yongjun’s message, Qiao Yu humbly replied: "It’s not that I’m going all out, it’s that the test makers weren’t. If getting first isn’t because the questions were too easy, then if they were harder... Oh, right, the competition’s questions are unified nationwide, everyone had the same test, huh? Then never mind... just pretend I didn’t say anything."

Sure enough, as soon as the message was sent, Yu Wei appeared.

Chu Buzhi: "Hehe..."

Yu Yongjun: "Some people should have some self-respect. Just checked, someone ranked third in Linhai, so how do you even have the courage to pop out here with a ’hehe’?"

Chu Buzhi: "There are those who must be aware of how strong Linhai’s math competition, especially CMO, is. You think being the strongest mathematics household in the country is a joke? Qiao Yu can only take first in Xingnan, who knows if he can even rank top three in Linhai! And I’m only 5 points away from first!"

Yu Yongjun: "Didn’t they only announce rankings? How could you find out someone else’s scores?"

Chu Buzhi: "I have my ways, so don’t worry about it!"

...

Seeing this conversation, Qiao Yu felt he couldn’t stand it anymore.

Being underestimated by others is one thing, but can’t be looked down upon by a rich kid...

So he quickly replied: "No no no, even humbly speaking, I’m first in Linhai too. Although I don’t know what the top score in Linhai is, I’m sure at most I can be tied for first."

Yu Yongjun: "The boss is right, no wonder you’re a gold medalist! It’s all about this confidence! Some Yu person here just wants to make up for his shattered self-esteem, let’s not bother with him!"

Chu Buzhi: "Hehe... You say first and it’s first? Do you even know what the first place score in Linhai is?"

See? It’s not that Qiao Yu wants to show off, it’s that the world is constantly forcing him to do so. What can a fifteen-year-old kid do?

All he can do is quickly pick up his phone, skillfully access the score-checking system backstage, and immediately post the screenshot of his competition scores, verified by the official query, into this small group of just three people.

Then calmly added: "There’s really nothing I can do, I accidentally got a perfect score on both the first and second tests, sigh... I don’t know what the graders are doing, can’t they be more serious and take off a few points for minor errors.