Chapter 22: Talent

Tang Lingwu cherished the last sip of milk tea, savoring it before setting the empty cup aside, stuffing it into her backpack, and then leading Zheng Fa upstairs.

"I drank your milk tea, so consider this matter handled by me!"

She was just short of patting her bulging chest.

Reaching the fourth floor, she stopped, pointed at a security door, and said, "My teacher lives here. Wait while I go in and speak with him."

She knocked on the security door. Someone inside opened it. Tang Lingwu gave Zheng Fa a "wait here" look, slipped through the crack, and casually left the door slightly ajar.

Zheng Fa stood behind the door, waiting, as muffled voices drifted from within.

"Teacher Bai, may I ask you a favor?" Tang Lingwu's voice was very clear.

Zheng Fa grinned.

That voice's sweetness was slightly over the limit.

"Tell me first."

An old man's voice came through, brimming with caution. Zheng Fa inexplicably felt it sounded somewhat familiar.

"I've brought you another student!"

"Did you fall in love?"

The old man's voice instantly rose in pitch.

"What love? I mean, a classmate of mine has a question for you."

"A studious student, eh? Male or female?" The old man clearly didn't believe Tang Lingwu's explanation.

"Male... but we really aren't in love!"

It was evident that for a cup of milk tea, Tang Lingwu was trying her hardest.

"Tch, what do you young people think? I know! Young men, few are studious, but I've seen plenty of lechers! I won't agree."

The old man clearly viewed Tang Lingwu as a junior.

He harbored a certain hostility toward every male around her.

"Teacher Bai, aren't you a university professor? Answering questions, teaching without discrimination!"

The old man's tone was indignant: "I'm retired! Retired, do you understand? If I taught students before retirement and still teach after retirement, wasn't my retirement in vain?"

This old man clearly held some resentment toward work.

Simply put, he was lazy.

"Then teaching one is teaching, and teaching one more isn't a big deal!"

Tang Lingwu was really trying hard. Hearing her voice from outside, Zheng Fa felt his whole body go numb.

It was hard to imagine such a voice coming from her slightly cold-looking face.

"You're different. Your mother gave too much... no, I mean you have great talent in mathematics! You're smart!"

"Then you haven't even seen him. Maybe he has talent too?"

"Mathematical talent, you know, if you see someone and immediately say they lack it, that method is actually quite accurate."

"... Is this really impossible?"

"Impossible!"

Tang Lingwu walked out of the room dejectedly, a hint of apology on her face.

"I'm sorry, he doesn't want to see you."

"It's fine. You've already tried your best."

Listening from outside, Zheng Fa could imagine how Tang Lingwu had coaxed and flattered him, her voice betraying her effort.

Besides, that cup of milk tea was actually to thank Tang Lingwu for agreeing to bring him here.

Just now, he also realized that Tang Lingwu's family had spent a lot of money to find her this teacher.

Two hundred and eighty yuan wasn't even enough.

With just one cup of milk tea, he wanted this teacher to agree to teach him? He wasn't that greedy.

"How about..." Tang Lingwu glanced at her backpack, where the empty milk tea cup still sat, and hesitantly said, "I'll buy you another cup of milk tea?"

"No need for that. If you really feel awkward, just ask me questions later. If you can't ask the teacher, asking the student is almost the same."

"Don't worry, I will. I'll definitely teach you!"

"Teach my foot! A cup of milk tea bribes you? He just wants an excuse to talk to you more!"

An old man's voice came from behind her, sounding disappointed and frustrated.

Zheng Fa watched helplessly as a white, curly-haired head poked out from the crack in the door.

Seeing that familiar old face.

Zheng Fa suddenly realized, "Ah, now I know why it sounded familiar!"

Inside the room, three people sat on the living room sofa, the atmosphere momentarily awkward.

Zheng Fa and Teacher Bai, the curly-haired old man they had met in the park earlier, didn't know how to start speaking.

Tang Lingwu still looked a bit dazed, looking at one, then the other, seemingly unsure how the three of them had suddenly ended up inside.

"Um... young hero."

"Please just call me Xiao Zheng, or Classmate Zheng."

Hearing the words "young hero," especially in front of a classmate like Tang Lingwu, Zheng Fei felt an inexplicable surge of shame.

"Very well, Classmate Zheng, no need for 'you' and 'you' and 'you.' Just call me Old Bai or Teacher Bai." The old man continued asking, "The person she mentioned just now, is that you?"

"Yes. I encountered a few diagrams and wanted to show them to Teacher Bai."

"No rush, no rush. You want to have me tutor you?"

"I don't dare hope to become your student, Teacher Bai; asking two questions would suffice."

Zheng Fa, recalling the man's earlier adamant refusal, said awkwardly.

"Don't! I just thought about it. I've been a teacher all my life; now that I've suddenly retired, this heart of mine for educating people just won't stop."

Tang Lingwu's face was plastered with question marks.

You didn't just say that a moment ago!

Zheng Fa was stunned too, looking at the old man's sincere, weathered face.

"Then what does Teacher Bai mean by that..."

"What I mean is, I, a mathematician, just want to find students with good mathematical talent to teach. Young hero—no, Student Zheng—doesn't your sect also need to find people with high talent to impart some untransmitted secrets?"

"Hmm?"

"Look at me..." Teacher Bai pointed at himself again.

"I can see at a glance that you, Teacher Bai, have extraordinary bone structure!"

Zheng Fa suddenly understood.

"I see you are also very sharp when it comes to mathematics!"

Tang Lingwu watched from the side, her eyes filled with confusion.

These two men seemed to have completed a dirty transaction right in front of her.

Looking at the few diagrams Zheng Fa handed over, Teacher Bai frowned slightly, his face appearing somewhat serious.

Compared to his earlier grinning and joking demeanor, only now did he have the air of a university professor.

He waved his fingers over the few diagrams, then looked up and asked Zheng Fa:

"Just these?"

"Mm."

"Then I can't see anything." Teacher Bai put down the few sheets of paper: "Why don't you ask those fortune-tellers to take a look? Let them calculate with their fingers what kind of thing this is."

Zheng Fa: "..."

"However, if you ask me whether there are any patterns in these few figures, there are indeed some."

"Please tell me."

"This one, this one, and this one." Teacher Bai pointed at three figures, speaking somewhat uncertainly: "If we look at it from the perspective of our mathematical topology, they are actually the same pattern."

"Ah?"

Zheng Fa looked at those three diagrams in confusion.

Looking left and right, he truly could not see them as one.

"Topo... what?"

"This involves a relatively basic and simple topological concept called homeomorphism..." Teacher Bai, talking about his own specialty, became incredibly voluble, waving his hands and feet.

After lecturing for a long while, he finally stopped and asked Zheng Fa: "Do you understand?"

"..."

Zheng Fa felt that just now a little knowledge spirit had held a chisel trying to pry open his skull, but alas, he seemed to have mastered the Iron Head Skill without a teacher.