Chapter 168: Savage Goes Live
“I took a look at them. The past years had most of their questions about mathematical analysis and advanced algebra. Each occupied thirty percent of the questions.”
When Yun Xiangxiang came back, Song Mian drew a pie chart for the ratio, “Analytic geometry takes up fifteen percent of the questions, while functions, limits, calculus, and infinite levels all add up to take fifteen percent.”
Yun Xiangxiang listened carefully. She raised her head when Song Mian paused. “What about the remaining ten percent?”
“This ten percent would be the variable,” Song Mian gave Yun Xiangxiang the past questions.
Yun Xiangxiang discovered that she could not fully answer them after perusing it, “There are blind spots in my knowledge.”
“They are comprehensive questions. These test you on how much work you did outside of class, as well as problem solving,” Song Mian jotted down a question mark here.
“Math has many branches. The possibilities are infinite if combined. The questions are different every year. There are no patterns there.”
Yun Xiangxiang picked up the comprehensive questions again and perused them carefully. She was about the same level as Du Jing. This was perhaps the key to victory.
“I can probably solve it if you give me enough time,” Yun Xiangxiang already had an approximation of the path in her mind.
It would be a big project to solve it using all of her math knowledge. One question would maybe eat up all the time in the competition.
“So we can only spread our concentration everywhere,” Song Mian started to tidy up. “Your math’s foundation is solid. Not much you don’t know there. Half a month would be enough to finish everything once if I give you a two hour tuition every day. I want to see how you absorb the knowledge.”
He had also finished tidying up after that. Leaning forward, he kissed Yun Xiangxiang’s forehead softly, “Sleep early.”
Yun Xiangxiang did not entangle herself with the questions she did now know. She slept as soon as she hit the bed. There was no class in the first period the next morning. When she did what she needed to do after waking up, she started consolidating the basics she had learned yesterday.
After breakfast, she gave Song Mian a look that said: You know what to do. She insisted on learning one thing from Song Mian before going to school.
She called He Wei on the way to school, telling him that she would not be accepting any jobs before the ad shoot in Italy.
She was busy like a bee every day. Her downtime after class was used to finish homework. Tao Manni and the others avoided disturbing her knowingly.
There was of course no problem with Du Jing’s results after the recheck. Everyone was waiting for the math competition held in early March.
“I can only do eighty percent of the questions,” Yun Xiangxiang handed Song Mian the answer sheet.
She filled all the blind spots in her knowledge bank in ten days. However, that was only limited to the things that she knew about, and how the math worked. All of them were in theory, no practical usage involved.
Song Mian gave her ten questions today. All of them were about the new things she had learned recently.
She could only do eighty percent of them. She did not think she had more than half of them correct.
Song Mian went through Yun Xiangxiang’s answer sheet carefully, “You passed.”
Yun Xiangxiang solved eight out of ten questions. She answered five questions correctly. The remaining three questions could add up to award her ten marks.
“Really?” Yun Xiangxiang’s eyes lit up.
She was prepared to only get fifty marks. Surprisingly, she got sixty marks. Naturally, she was happy.
“Math One is about knowledge. You have a great memory. I believe you would not forget about it.” Song Mian took out a question paper he made himself. “Math Two is about practical usage. Do a set every day. I’ll explain the parts you did wrongly. Start from this set today.”
Yun Xiangxiang quickly sat up straight as she listened to Song Mian’s explanation from the first question she did wrongly.
Song Mian’s phone rang during his explanation. He pressed the speakerphone button, and a hearty voice boomed, “Do you miss me, Mianmian?”
Yun Xiangxiang covered her mouth. She looked at Song Mian, who was unfazed at all. Didn’t think anyone would call him Mianmian!
“One minute please,” Song Mian replied calmly. He did not stop drawing the geometric figure with the pen in his hand.
“Mianmian, you are always so cold to me. Watch out, I may throw myself into someone else’s embrace,” the caller pretended to threaten him.
The voice was too hilarious. Yun Xiangxiang could not hold back her laugh.
“There’s a woman’s voice!” The caller raised their voice in shock. “Wait, you’re in Beijing. Now it’s almost ten at night. You actually still have a woman beside you!”
He also heard a faint laugh. In other words, this woman was close to the phone, which meant she was right beside Song Mian.
“It’s my girlfriend!” Song Mian looked at Yun Xiangxiang with smiles in his eyes.
“Your girlfriend!” The caller raised his voice further. “When did you get yourself a girlfriend?!”
“I gave both of you the heads up,” Song Mian lowered the volume of his phone.
“We thought you were only joking…”
“When have I ever joked with you guys?”
“Erm…,” You never. The caller immediately changed the topic. “Okay okay, let’s put this aside. I discovered a big sprig of Paris polyphylla here. But beasts are aplenty here. Snakes and bugs? Even more. Come here ASAP.”
Song Mian hung up and opened his WeChat. A user called Savage sent him a photo.
It was a precariously steep ground. He even shot some snakes and beasts, but they were far from where Savage was. The only thing in his photo was the plants.
The plant that had the most number that was in the photo was the Paris polyphylla he spoke of. Yun Xiangxiang knew about this Chinese medicine. It was an endangered species.
This ingredient has major medicinal value, but it is difficult to grow artificially. Its environment is harsh too. A wild sprig needs to wait for five to seven years before it could be harvested.
Aside from Paris polyphylla, Yun Xiangxiang could not recognize any other plants. They should also be valuable medicinal ingredients.
“What is this place?” Yun Xiangxiang instinctively felt that it was not in their country.
“Bhutan,” Song Mian naturally knew where his good friend was.
“Bhutan, the country located between us and India?” Yun Xiangxiang recalled about such a neighboring country.
Song Mian nodded, “I need to make a trip there.”
“When are you leaving?” Yun Xiangxiang could guess that Song Mian would go.
“The day after tomorrow. I’ll make a quick trip out of this.” Yun Xiangxiang’s birthday was a week away. He had always kept that in mind.
“That’s great. I’ll be leaving for Italy three days later,” their appointment was supposed to be on the eighteenth. It had to be delayed for a few days since Lu Jin had matters to attend to.
The time was just right. She gobbled up all the theory. She could only solidify the rest on her own.
She was worried that she might have to leave Song Mian alone when she went to Italy. Now that both of them had something to do, the yearning would not be as strong.
“How many days will you be there?” Song Mian was concerned about this.
“There’s an ad shoot and an interview for a magazine. It should take five days or so,” Yun Xiangxiang estimated.
Since she needed to apply for a leave, Yun Xiangxiang went out of her way to ask about the flow of the ad shoot. Lu Jin explained that it was fine as long as the early take is passable.
Under different systems, enterprises would have different expectations about the flow of an ad shoot.
It was now the twentieth. Yun Xiangxiang would leave for Italy on the twenty-third. In other words, she could only return home in March.
Her birthday was on the twenty-seventh. Song Mian replied, “Okay. Got it.”
He had to hurry up and settle the matter in Bhutan before the twenty-fifth, and hurry to Italy on the twenty-sixth.
“Your business is more important. Don’t give yourself any pressure,” Yun Xiangxiang kissed Song Mian’s lips.