Chapter 2 (2/2)
All the students laughed.
Ling Xueru covered her forehead and said without making any sound, “I meant four days!”
She couldn’t calculate the precise time but was sure it was around four days. Since the error margin was half a day, the answer couldn’t be greatly wrong…
Yet, the guy said four hours!
The difference was too large.
“Would it have been necessary to give you a half-day error tolerance if the time needed was so short?”
She was gloomy but dared not say anything.
“You think I can return to the school across Mount Thorn with the unconscious iron-toothed wolf in four hours?” Ms. Bai Yu snapped, her kindness gone, “Is this the result of your calculation?”
“Yes…” With everything coming to that point, Shen Zhe had no other choice but to admit it.
He was quite experienced after being an underachieving student for a long time.
It was important not to leave any blanks unfilled in a test, whether or not he knew the answer. It could prove that he had the right attitude, even though he couldn’t answer the questions.
Besides, with his obsessive-compulsive disorder, he found empty paper intolerable, and he had to fill it anyway.
“Are you sure?”
“Well…” Shen Zhe slapped his head. Just then, the other people’s answers were measured to the a hundredth of a second, which showed that their answers were not made up.
For a man who pursued perfection, how could Shen Zhe give an imperfect answer?
Thinking about that, he gritted his teeth and said, “Four hours, forty-four minutes, forty-four seconds and forty-four milliseconds!”
It was precise and perfect!
Crack!
Ms. Bai Yu was so infuriated that her spiritual energy almost burst out. Her chalk was crumbled into halves.
He was so outrageously wrong, and yet he seemed so confident and relieved…
Had he grown bold after days of not being beaten up?
“Do you know how far it is from here to the iron-toothed wolves’ habitat?”
Instead of waiting for an answer, Ms. Bai Yu continued, “The closest purple iron-toothed wolves are not far away in a straight line, but there are mountains in between. I need to cross three mountains and one river to reach them. It will take four days even if I try my best! Even a level-two Martial Artist can’t achieve it in four hours!”
“Four days?”
Shen Zhe looked at Ling Xueru, only to see her nodding her head slowly with her eyes covered.
He finally knew that he had misunderstood her. He could hardly breathe…
Ms. Bai Yu demanded, “Your answer is too wrong even though a half-day error was allowed. Go to the back of the classroom and accept the punishment!”
Shen Zhe turned pale.
As a teacher, she wouldn’t use her full strength, but he was in such a weak condition that one casual slap from her might easily kill him!
“Wait…”
Gritting his teeth, Shen Zhe came up with an idea. “Who can decide the correctness of an answer to a hypothetical question? I have reasons for my answer. Unless you can prove me wrong, miss, I will not accept my punishment! You have to convince me!”
“Are you questioning my answer?” Ms. Bai Yu sniffed.
Shen Zhe gritted his teeth and did not reply.
The teacher’s answer had to be correct, but to prove it, a round trip to catch the wolf would take ten days. He would be more familiar with this body by then, or he would probably escape from the school. The punishment would mean nothing to him.
He had to postpone it as long as possible. There would always be a solution as long as he was not beaten up right then.
“Very good. This is the first time I’ve been challenged after teaching for so long, and by the last place in the last semester, no less. You’re truly bold!”
Enraged, Ms. Bai Yu went to the rostrum and grabbed a book.
“This is a guidance book the school made for the teachers. The question I asked you is right there. Its answer has been verified by the Mages of the school and can’t be wrong!”
“A guidance book for the teachers?” Shen Zhe was stunned.
He thought it was a random question whose answer needed proof. It never occurred to him that it was in a guidance book.
The guidance book had always been convincing. There was no way that he could deny it.
The answer of the guidance book for teachers was a proof itself and essentially a truth.
Since it was a truth, it had been tested by too many people. How could it be changed easily?
Shen Zhe trembled coldly.
Questioning the teacher and the guidance book was a violation against the school rules. The punishment would be much more severe than a simple slap!
He might be kicked out!
If he was beaten up for failing to answer a question, wouldn’t he be killed if he was kicked out?
“I…”
Gritting his teeth, Shen Zhe was about to admit that he had given a random answer without any calculations, when Ms. Bai Yu opened the book and found the question.
“Here are the question and the answer. I’ll read it to you… To bring the purple iron-toothed wolf back, it will take…”
As if she had seen the most unbelievable thing, the teacher’s eyes bulged so hard that they were popping out. “How is this possible?”
It was clearly written on the guidance book that the answer was four hours, forty-four minutes, forty-four seconds and forty-four milliseconds!
It was precisely the answer Shen Zhe offered!
…
At the same moment when the answer appeared on the book, an iron-toothed wolf which had a cluster of white hair on its forehead slowly walked out of a crack on Mount Thorn far away.
Hooooooo!
All the trees rattled under the wolf’s roar.