Old Wu finished writing the question, then drew a diagram to the side to help the class visualize the problem more clearly. He then labelled the diagram and drew some more lines.
Xie Yu glanced at the board and got the gist of the third solution He Zhao had mentioned. It was workable, but it involved some unnecessary calculations and went in a few circles before arriving at the answer.
[xy]: Too complicated to calculate.
[Handsome He]: It's all right. Three minutes via mental math.
[xy]: You're a real showoff.
On the phone screen, both game avatars were surrounded by the flashing lights of skills being used. Xie Yu finished typing, then swiftly set off a chain of attacks.
Following his lead, He Zhao broke through the waves of enemies surrounding them and went straight for the big boss in the back.
The boss was a monster with high defense and He Zhao whaled on it for a long time before finally chipping away at its hit points. He glanced at the top right corner and saw Xie Yu's message in the team chat.
[xy]: What are your plans?
Xie Yu hadn't directly asked, 'How much longer are you going to pretend?'
Plans.
He Zhao stared at the word 'plans' and his fingers suddenly stopped moving. He had been about to execute a final attack. As if possessed, he selected the healing skill instead.
His game avatar stopped moving and took a healing potion on the spot.
In the several seconds it took for him to do this, the tide of the battle turned.
Handsome He stood to one side, healing himself, while his HP kept dropping.
His hit points fell to 0 and the avatar slumped to the ground. In the same moment, He Zhao finished typing his response and sent it.
[Handsome He]: I think I have the answer.
He Zhao continued typing, but before he could finish, an alert popped up in the middle of his screen: Your friend Shen Jie requests to join the team.
Wu Zheng's tough question now occupied two sections of the blackboard. The sounds of the class next door reciting classical poems also drifted in through the window.
"While you are all still awake, I'll go over this question with you." Wu Zheng had used up his half a stick of chalk, which was now about the length of a fingernail. He turned to get a new piece and happened to see the two students in the back row doing who-knows-what. "......"
This time, Wu Zheng didn't throw chalk. He made a shushing motion at the class, indicating to everyone to be silent, then picked up the ruler and walked over.
Liu Cunhao held back his laughter. He made a fist with his hand, put it next to his mouth, and said to Wan Da, "Bet you fifty cents they die today."
"That might not happen." Wan Da leaned over. "Zhao-ge's so full of tricks. I bet he can bounce back."
Subsequent events proved that Wan Da had thought too highly of him.
He Zhao still had his phone in hand. Wu Zheng walked in front of him and could see the game screen clearly. This was unshakeable evidence; He Zhao was dead meat.
Wu Zheng bent to look closer. "You two lead very exciting lives."
Xie Yu barely managed to leave the team and hide the chat window from view.
