Chapter 254 - 152: Fight! Fight

Chapter 254: Chapter 152: Fight! Fight

"What’s so great about physics! It’s all just engineering work, calculating approximations! For a mind like yours to study physics is a crime against mathematics!"

Outside in the hallway, two staff members who had been about to deliver reports to the records office heard the commotion, and their steps came to an abrupt halt.

They looked at each other in dismay, clutching envelopes in their hands. Neither dared to take another step forward.

This was Vice Principal Zhou’s office, a place where one rarely even heard a raised voice. But now, a nearly roaring accusation was coming from within. And judging by the sound of it, it was the famously stubborn Professor Li Jianming from the School of Mathematics.

Inside the office.

Fang Shi stood a few steps away, the expression on his face completely frozen. His previously composed face now looked as if he had just been viciously slapped twice.

His face darkened bit by bit, turning ashen.

But Li Jianming paid no attention to Fang Shi’s reaction at all.

In his eyes, in his mind, there was only the twelve-year-old boy before him, dressed in a pure white, collared, short-sleeved T-shirt.

Li Jianming’s right hand was gripping Chen Zhuo’s left forearm tightly.

His grip was incredibly strong.

He was an old professor, his finger joints already somewhat deformed from years of writing complex equations on a blackboard. In this moment of extreme excitement and tension, he unleashed a strength he himself wasn’t even aware of.

He was like a traveler lost in the desert for months, on the verge of despair, who had suddenly latched onto a well of sweet water. He was terrified that if he loosened his grip even slightly, this new, viable path in mathematics before him would dissolve into an ephemeral mirage.

Chen Zhuo’s brows furrowed immediately.

A sharp pain shot up through the muscles of his forearm.

He gave a slight tug with his shoulder, trying to pull his arm back, but it was useless.

Chen Zhuo didn’t cry out in pain, nor did he forcefully shove the elder before him.

The pain was real, but his ingrained sense of decorum and gentle nature forced him to suppress his body’s instinctive, violent impulse to resist when startled.

He lowered his head slightly, his gaze shifting from his wrinkled sleeve to the edge of the solid wood desk.

Li Jianming’s left hand was pressed firmly down on the stack of A4 scratch paper.

Li Jianming’s palm was sweating profusely. He had been so engrossed in the last three minutes of calculations, his brain working at high speed, and was now overwhelmed by the intense emotional fluctuation of the moment.

"Teacher Li."

Chen Zhuo spoke.

Because of the pain in his arm, his voice was a little strained. It was no longer as calm and composed as when he had first entered, but now carried a trace of genuine, youthful urgency.

"Please, try to calm down."

Chen Zhuo’s gaze was fixed on the edge of the scratch paper.

"Your left hand is sweating."

Li Jianming’s breathing was still heavy, his chest heaving violently. His eyes remained fixed on Chen Zhuo’s face, as if he hadn’t heard a word.

"The bottom right corner you’re pressing on."

Chen Zhuo endured the pain in his forearm and continued to remind him, his speech quickening slightly.

"The collapse result of the two singular terms from the homology mapping you just completed is written right under the heel of your palm. The paper’s getting soaked with sweat, and the writing is about to smudge."

It was a simple reminder.

But for Li Jianming, who at this moment regarded that scratch paper as his life, as his only hope, those few words were more effective than any hoarse rebuke.

Li Jianming shuddered violently.

As if suddenly jolted from some kind of trance, he snapped his head down to look.

Sure enough, the heel of his left hand was pressed right on the corner where he had just calculated the constant.

The sweat from his palm had already dampened a small patch of the rough scratch paper. Soaked by the moisture, the edges of the dark gray pencil markings were already starting to blur and fade.

"Agh!"

Li Jianming let out a short, panicked cry, as if his palm had accidentally touched a red-hot branding iron.

He instantly released his right hand from Chen Zhuo’s arm and recoiled half a step as if electrocuted.

With slightly trembling hands, he pinched the clean, unmarked edges of the scratch paper and lifted it level from the desk.

He didn’t even dare to wipe away the damp spot with his fingers, terrified that a single swipe would completely erase the formula.

He could only bend over slightly, pucker his lips, and blow gently and evenly on the corner that was about to be smudged by sweat, trying to dry it as quickly as possible. His cautious expression was like that of someone cradling a fragile, priceless antique.

In the brief moment Li Jianming let go and stepped back, Fang Shi, who had been standing by the whole time, finally made his move.

Fang Shi strode forward and, with a turn of his broad shoulders, inserted himself between Li Jianming and Chen Zhuo with practiced and forceful ease, shielding Chen Zhuo with most of his body.

"Li Jianming, has graph theory driven you mad?"

Fang Shi lowered his voice, but his tone was thick with a hostility that couldn’t be concealed.

He stared at Li Jianming, who was still blowing on the scratch paper, his eyes cold.

"Running to the administration building, trying to snatch a student right in front of Principal Zhou, shouting at a twelve-year-old boy and getting physical with him... Professor Li, do you have any sense of decorum left as a teacher?"

Li Jianming stopped blowing. He carefully folded the stack of scratch paper as if it were a treasure and placed it in his pocket, making sure to leave the damp corner exposed to air-dry. Only then did he raise his head to meet Fang Shi’s gaze.

"Decorum? Compared to this colossal waste of talent, what does decorum even matter!"

Li Jianming didn’t back down an inch.

"Who are you calling a colossal waste of talent?"

That sentence completely ignited Fang Shi’s anger.