The Principal felt that Wei Mingzhe was hopeless. He laughed coldly and said, “Fine. If someone reported it, then show me the evidence.”
Wei Mingzhe seemed to have anticipated that the Principal would enquire about the person who reported it.
With a shrug, he said, “This is a question of a student’s privacy. I can only say that Huo Yao definitely got her hands on the National Quiz Contest notes in advance.”
The Principal looked at Wei Mingzhe strangely when he mentioned the National Quiz Contest notes. His lips parted, wanting to say something, but Wei Mingzhe beat him to it.
“I am not denying that I have my own suspicions about Huo Yao as well. She’s an arts student. How can she do better than Yi Lianfan in the science subjects? Moreover, I have seen the quiz questions of the last round. Most of them were tricky science questions. If she didn’t have the notes in advance, I don’t think an arts student could have answered them,” said Wei Mingzhe firmly.
He had been in the education field for decades and seen all kinds of students. All rounded students certainly existed, but if he could not tell when a student was cheating, then he would have worked in the education field all these years for nothing.
A perplexed expression suddenly appeared on the physics teacher’s face when he heard Wei Mingzhe. He glanced at the question in his hand and contemplated for two seconds. In the end, he decided that he ought to say something.
He stood up and walked over to Wei Mingzhe and handed him the piece of paper. “Ahem. Wei, take a look at this.”
Wei Mingzhe had just gotten to the crux of his conversation with the Principal, so he was a little angry for the interruption, but he patiently took the paper from the physics teacher. “What’s this…”
Before he finished his sentence, his eyes became glued onto it.
Although Wei Mingzhe was a maths teacher, his grasp on physics was quite good, and he taught the subject to the lower level classes. He was deeply astounded when he saw the physics question and the accompanying solution beneath it.
A little while later, Wei Mingzhe raised his head to look at the physics teacher and asked him. “Who solved this?”
“Yi Lianfan gave this to me,” said the physics teacher unhurriedly.
The Principal could not help coming over to look at the piece of paper which was filled with symbols and equations. He could see that it was a physics question but did not quite understand it.
Although the Principal had no idea what the physics teacher was driving at, he did not interrupt the man.
The moment Wei Mingzhe heard Yi Lianfan’s name, a look of surprise emerged on his face. “Did Yi Lianfan solve this? Even the kid who got scouted by all those Ivy League colleges didn’t solve it in such a simple and brilliant manner, right?”
A sea of emotions flooded in Wei Mingzhe’s heart.
“Yi Lianfan is probably the only person in No.1 Middle School capable of coming up with such a brilliant answer…”
Before he could complete his sentence, the physics teacher interrupted him. “He didn’t come up with the solution.”
Wei Mingzhe was stunned. He stared at the physics teacher for a second and then asked him in a slightly wavering voice. “It wasn’t him? Then who was it?”
The physics teacher took the paper back from Wei Mingzhe and smoothened its creases with his fingers like it was a treasure. He eventually said in a neutral voice, “It was Huo Yao.”
Wei Mingzhe’s eyes had an incredulous expression in them. He immediately shook his head in denial. “Impossible! This was in the last year’s Physics Olympiad. How could she have solved it? You must be joking, right?!”
Wei Mingzhe would anyday believe that someone else did it than Huo Yao. He simply found it inconceivable that she was so capable.
