Chapter 51

Chapter 51 – 1+1=?

The next day, Wednesday, inside Sixth High’s Class 2-2…

Leaning back in his chair, Chen Yu paid full attention to his form teacher’s class. Occasionally, he would also write and draw things in his notebook.

Brr! Brr, Brr!

Suddenly, the phone in his pocket started vibrating. Upon taking it out, he discovered that Transdimensional Marketing’s staff had sent him a message.

[Transdimensional Marketing: “Congratulations, Mr. Chen! Your true subscriber count has broken past the 30,000 threshold already!”]

Chen Yu was stunned when he read the message. After snapping out of his daze, he excitedly typed a reply.

[Chen Yu: “30,000? Did it just break through?”]

[Transdimensional Marketing: “Indeed. Congratulations.”]

[Chen Yu: “Today’s Wednesday. Would it be possible to reach 40,000 by next Monday?”]

[Transdimensional Marketing: The possibility is very high. The promotional effect of Bilibili’s front page is excellent. It is unfortunate that all news, reuploads, and discussions of your videos have been removed from the net. Otherwise, your subscriber count would increase much more quickly.”]

[Chen Yu: “So, I’m being blocked all over the internet?”]

[Transdimensional Marketing: “Basically. As news, reuploads, and discussions hosted on other platforms are not listed under our company’s legal income, we cannot prevent this situation from happening. However, it is fine. Once your probation period is over, you’ll be able to host your livestreams and videos on many more platforms. At that time, the influence external forces have on your performance will weaken.”]

[Chen Yu: “I’ll have to trouble you with that, then.”]

[Transdimensional Marketing: “It is no trouble at all. Our interests are aligned. These are all things that I should do.”]

[Chen Yu: “I am really touched by your diligence. Is the application for the fourth episode’s product complete?”]

[Transdimensional Marketing: “We have already started the application process. The product this time is very interesting. You will definitely like it.”]

[Chen Yu: “Anything is fine so long as I can break through the 50,000 subscriber mark and bring back that girlfriend. (Unsent)”]

[Chen Yu: “Anything is fine so long as I can break through the 50,000 subscriber mark.”]

[Transdimensional Marketing: “:)”]

Exiting WeChat and pocketing his phone, Chen Yu breathed out a sigh of satisfaction. He then resumed listening and taking notes of his teacher’s class.

Now that he had already caught up on all the knowledge he had missed, he no longer had any problems keeping up with classes. Moreover, through his observation, he also faintly sensed that his form teacher’s teaching standards seemed to be very low.

Ring… Ring… Ring…

Twenty minutes later, the bell signaling the start of recess rang. Putting away his lesson preparation book, the form teacher leaned forward against the lectern and glanced at everyone present before saying, “Students, before you leave, I have an announcement.”

Thump.

Upon hearing the form teacher’s words, several male students, who were just about to dash out of class, obediently sat back on their seats.

“On Saturday two weeks later, Sixth High will be holding our autumn sports festival. Whether you are an athlete or not, every student must attend. You need to fight and cheer for both our class’s and school’s honor! Many administrators from the local education ministry will be attending this time! Some administrators from Beijing will also be attending! You all must maintain discipline and show everyone how outstanding Sixth High’s students are!”

After the form teacher finished speaking, he fell silent for a moment before adding, “Why are you all frozen? Applaud!”

Clap, clap, clap, clap, clap…

“Very good! Class dismissed!”

As soon as the form teacher waved his hand, the students promptly dashed out of the classroom one after another.

“Chen Yu, don’t leave yet. Come here.”

Just as Chen Yu was about to leave the classroom to get some fresh air, the form teacher crooked his finger at him.

“What is it, Teacher?”

“It’s like this. Due to your monthly examination results this time, Principal Pang is willing to make good on his promise. At the same time, he has also decided that if you can score first place in the school in next month’s tests, he won’t force you to do sports ever again.”

“First place in the entire school?” These words stunned Chen Yu. “Isn’t the jump a little too big?”

“In any case, the situation is like this. If you have any objections, bring it up with Principal Pang.”

After saying so, the form teacher picked up his textbook and left the classroom.

“Of course, I’m going to bring it up! Scoring first place is nonsense!” Chen Yu grumped as he followed his form teacher out of the classroom. He planned on going to Principal Pang to debate with him right away.

“Don’t go looking for him now. The principal and faculty head are dining together with the administrators,” the form teacher said as he glanced at Chen Yu.

“Really?”

“Why would I trick you? Head there in the afternoon.”

At this time, the teacher of Class 2’s upcoming mathematics class came walking over and greeted both Chen Yu and Class 2’s form teacher. “Good afternoon.”

Chen Yu’s eyes glowed as he hurriedly approached his math teacher and asked, “Teacher, are you free right now? There are some questions in the previous monthly test that I don’t understand. Can you explain them to me?”

Hearing Chen Yu’s words, the mathematics teacher squinted his eyes.

Similarly, the form teacher standing nearby also squinted his eyes.

The two teachers then exchanged glances and subtly nodded at each other, completing a perfect “spy-level” information exchange.

“Alright, no problem. I’ll explain whichever question you don’t understand right now,” the math teacher said while patting his chest.

“The final question! I don’t understand the logic behind it.” After pulling the math teacher to his classroom’s lectern, Chen Yu ran to his seat and pulled out his mathematics test paper. He then ran back to the lectern, placed the paper before the teacher, and pointed at the last question, saying, “It’s this one. I don’t understand it.”

“Oh, this question.” The math teacher nodded and frowned.

“Right. How should I solve it? What’s the concept behind it?”

“This question…” After studying the question for a while, the math teacher shrugged and said, “I don’t know, either.”

“?”

“It’s too difficult. None of the teachers in the school know how to solve it.”

“Then, why did you even put this question in there?!” Chen Yu bellowed.

“It’s because we don’t know how to solve it that we put it in there,” the math teacher said. Scratching his head, he continued, “We wanted to see if there were any students that knew how to solve it. Unfortunately, we found out that the students didn’t know, either.”

Chen Yu: “…”

“Student Chen Yu, don’t look at me like that. There are no perfect humans. Even Einstein had problems he didn’t know how to solve, right? You shouldn’t impose your opinions on others.”

“Do you think you sound very logical?”

“In any case, I don’t know how to solve it,” the math teacher said. Puffing up his chest proudly, he continued, “On what basis must teachers know how to solve the questions they give out? Aren’t the mathematics world’s three major conjectures unsolvable as well?”

Chen Yu: “…”

“I don’t know.”

“…Fine. Fine, fine, fine.” Breathing out a deep sigh, Chen Yu nodded and pointed to the second most difficult problem in the test paper and asked, “What about this one? It’s very difficult, as well. I can’t grasp the concept behind it.”

“This question?” After taking a serious look at the question, the math teacher said, “I don’t know.”

“You damned…”

“It’s too difficult. I think only Sixth High’s top student managed to answer it correctly.”

“A student managed to answer it, yet you don’t know how?”

“Then, if there are students that know how to dance, why don’t you know how to dance too?”

“Are these two things even related to each other?!”

“In any case, I don’t know how to answer that question.”

“Fine, fine, fine. You win.” After flipping to another page, Chen Yu pointed at a fill-in-the-blank question and asked, “What about this one?”

“Don’t know.”

“This?”

“I don’t know that, either.”

“This…”

“Oh, I don’t know that, either.”

After a moment of silence, Chen Yu asked, “Then, do you know what’s 1+1?”

At Chen Yu’s question, the math teacher’s eyes glowed immediately. He then grabbed a piece of chalk and started frenziedly writing formulas on the blackboard!

[i) 0 is a natural number; ii) Every determined natural number a would have a successor number x’. x’ is also a natural number; iii) if b and c are both a‘s successor numbers, then b = c; iv) 0 is not a successor number of any natural number; v) Let S be a subset of the set of natural numbers, and (1) 0 belongs to S; (2) If n belongs to S, then n’ also belongs to S.]

[…x is not in the range of f; f is an injective; if x ∈ A and “a ∈ A implies f(a) ∈ A,” then A = x…]

[…N (Natural Number Set) is not an empty set; there is an a→a’ one-to-one mapping from N to N…]

[…If the subset P of N contains both non-successive elements and subsequent elements containing each element in the subset, then this subset is equal to N…]

[1+1 proves that:

∵ The successor number of 1+1 is a successor number of 1, which is 3,

∴ The successor of 2 is 3.

According to Peano axioms ③, 1+1=…]

Under Chen Yu’s shocked gaze, the math teacher spent five minutes filling up the entire blackboard with formulas. After pondering for a minute while hugging his shoulders, the math teacher finally wrote a number after the “=” symbol.

[1+1 = 13,627]

Finally, Chen Yu’s mouth fell wide open.