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Chapter 292: Chapter 292: Come Watch the Academic Prodigy Shengbao Answer Questions Online!
Just as the whole classroom was buzzing with shock upon hearing Lu Sheng’s declaration that the paper on the left was not hers—
The girl’s expression remained calm, but she quietly pushed a note across the table to Huo Yu.
The note had only one sentence written on it:
[If the exam paper was swapped, would the system leave any trace?]
As Huo Yu caught sight of the note, his eyes sharpened involuntarily.
The level of intelligence of Lu Sheng, no one knew better than Huo Yu, Lu Youming, Han Jing, and Lan Yu—all fellow members of the K.A club.
For such a high school level mathematics exam, even if the answer was laid out next to Lu Sheng, she would not glance at it.
Huo Yu had been unsure about what exactly was going on, but once he heard Lu Sheng claim the paper was swapped, he immediately realized that this must have been a trap set for Lu Sheng.
Because if it was just highly similar answers, it wouldn’t have been impossible. After all, if the proof in a proof question used the same method, the process would definitely be more or less the same.
But Lu Sheng explicitly stated that the paper was not hers.
An exam paper that entered the admissions office’s system had been swapped—it was something that would probably not be believed even if told.
Since Huo Yu saw Lu Sheng being accused of such a severe crime, although his expression remained unreadable, his heart had been in knots.
Willing to help, but for a moment he did not know where to start.
However, the sentence Lu Sheng wrote reminded him.
It is impossible to perform any operation in a computer system without leaving any trace. If Lu Sheng’s exam paper were indeed swapped, there would certainly be traces to follow.
Thus, he looked at Lu Sheng, and without a word, their eyes met. There was a certain tacit understanding between them, and they had already confirmed some signal with one another through their gazes.
As Huo Yu thought, indeed, it was something people would not believe even if told.
Lu Sheng claimed her paper had been swapped, and no one in the classroom believed her, except for her friends.
"Somebody swapped your exam paper??" Tang Yiyi, who had just been put down, seemed to find an opportunity to make her stand, and with a sneer, said, "Lu Sheng, do you have a persecution complex? Or did you see the exam paper being leaked, and it was so obvious that you cheated, that you’re deliberately saying this to muddle the waters?"
"Yeah, that took some gall to say out loud," Tang Yiyi’s close friend Lin Ya chimed in, "The admissions office of Beijing University and Qing University, what kind of institution do you think that is? Secretly swapping just your Lu Sheng’s paper and even making it a perfect score? Do you think the admissions office’s teachers have nothing better to do or are they just crazy?"
"I declare, this is truly the most preposterous thing I’ve heard this year—your paper is identical to the answer key, and you say your paper was switched, what a learning experience."
"What else could she say? The answers were glaringly right there, and she has no other proof."
...
Hearing the other students in the class all talking at once, Lu Sheng, with a cool and indifferent look, calmly lifted her gaze, "Who says I have no other proof?"
"The reason why I recognized at a glance that this isn’t my paper is because the last question of my mathematics paper wasn’t solved this way."
Lu Sheng turned to Mr. Zhou to seek his opinion, "Mr. Zhou, may I go up and write down my original answer?"
Mr. Zhou teaches mathematics in Class A.
Originally, Mr. Zhou was also shocked to hear Lu Sheng say the paper displayed wasn’t hers, but he had always trusted Lu Sheng’s integrity.
Furthermore, he needed to investigate the cheating incident, so he didn’t refuse Lu Sheng’s request and directly said, "Go ahead, come up and write it for me to see."
Under everyone’s burning stares, Lu Sheng walked up to the podium.
This special mathematics test, the last major question was on functions, the question itself didn’t have many words.
It simply laid out a functional equation, the first part was to prove the intervals of monotony for f(x) when a=6; the second part was to prove, for any positive number a, 11 was somewhat more difficult and very time-consuming.
But proving f(x)<2 was basically out of syllabus.
Standing at the podium, Lu Sheng did not exhibit any awkwardness from being accused of cheating—her demeanor and expression were composed, not like a high school student.
She directly pointed to the reference answer on the big screen, "Mr. Zhou, you should be very clear that the latter part of the second question of this major problem is actually beyond the syllabus."
"For example, the standard answer provided here uses the property of inequality scaling to prove f(x)<2."
"However, using the property of inequality scaling to prove it is not the most straightforward method. It’s just that this method is less technical and easier for high school seniors to understand and master."
"And for high school seniors to think of using this method to prove it is already impressive, so the reference answer lists this method."
"But in fact, during the exam, I didn’t use the property of inequality scaling but used the method of trigonometric substitution."
"The trigonometric substitution method has high demands for transformation, and slight negligence will lead to the whole proof being wrong. But this method can cut the process by half."
As she spoke, Lu Sheng took up the chalk and began to write briskly on the blackboard beside the big screen.
The people below initially had looks of disdain, curious as to how Lu Sheng would continue to argue her case under such circumstances.
However, as they watched Lu Sheng’s content on the blackboard, their expressions changed into ones of surprise and shock.
They inadvertently sat up straight, eyes glued to the blackboard, closely following Lu Sheng’s moving wrist, eager to see how she would write next.
Class A was comprised of Shengjing’s brightest seniors, all very intelligent. Even though they had not encountered such a solution before, they could understand the proof process Lu Sheng was demonstrating.
In the reference answer, the proof process for this part filled an entire page.
To complete the proof in the exam, including time for thinking, required at least thirty minutes, that is also why Lu Youming failed to complete the exam.
Yet, Lu Sheng used this method and stopped writing after five minutes at the podium, standing aside.
Lu Sheng wrote incredibly fast, as if she hardly needed to think.
She had finished, but the people below had not seen it all, or rather, couldn’t keep up with her thought process.
When these people saw the proof process taking up half the blackboard, they all gasped.
Holy shit, so this problem can be solved like this??
Even the adjacent mathematics teacher, Mr. Zhou, had a look of sudden realization.
Lu Sheng looked at him, "So teacher, if I knew this method, using it on the exam would save at least fifteen minutes of time."
"Why would I choose to spend half an hour to use such a cumbersome method to solve this problem at that time?"
