Chapter 582 - 578: ’Dumbass!

The words, delivered in Cecilia Sterling’s scornful tone, made the others clench up in fear.

Although Cecilia had used the plural "you," no one was a fool. It was obvious her words were directed solely at Elias Warner.

Yates Sanders’s eyes darted about. ’Have these difficult problems finally driven Cecilia insane?’ he wondered.

Sheila Hughes’s heart hammered in her chest. She looked at Cecilia, her eyes full of worry, clearly thinking her friend had given up and decided to burn it all down.

Lee Warner glanced at Elias Warner’s dark expression, then turned to Cecilia. "Cecilia, these problems are a bit difficult, it’s true, but everyone else managed to solve them in three days. We were all prepared for you not being able to, so there’s no need to be so passive-aggressive."

On the surface, he seemed to be blaming Cecilia, but he was actually trying to help her. He had cut in because he was afraid Elias Warner would say something even harsher.

Cecilia’s words had been so cutting that someone as proud as Elias Warner was naturally furious.

But he held it in. He felt his special status as the student council vice president required him to maintain his composure. If he lost control over a few words from someone else, he wouldn’t be fit for the position.

Besides, he never lost sight of his goal. As long as he achieved his objective, nothing else mattered.

So he let out a cold, mocking laugh and said lightly to Cecilia, "If you want to throw a fit, go do it in front of Mr. Stone. It’s useless with me. I only care about ability."

"If you have any sense, you should leave now. Don’t disturb the others."

With that, Elias Warner immediately looked away from Cecilia, picked up a test paper, and reminded the others, "Let’s continue. Don’t be distracted by irrelevant people."

Hearing this, the others had no choice but to look away as well, once again leaving Cecilia to stand alone by the side.

However, Cecilia wasn’t angry in the slightest. She calmly reached out and slowly pulled out the chair in front of her. The legs scraped against the floor, making an extremely grating sound that made Elias Warner look up at her again, his face filled with impatience.

Before Elias Warner could say another disrespectful word, Cecilia plopped down into the chair. She stared at him, expressionless, and declared, "If I had known you were such an arrogant, conceited, and self-righteous jerk, I never would have given up the team captain position to you just to avoid the trouble!"

This statement left everyone present completely stunned.

Elias Warner was taken aback. "What did you say?"

Cecilia looked at him and enunciated each word, "I said, I *let* you have this position."

"You let me have it?" Elias Warner sneered. The calm expression he had been feigning finally twisted. He glared fiercely at Cecilia and snarled, "Have you lost your memory? The person with the highest score on the first placement test automatically becomes the captain. And that person was me."

"Is that so?" Cecilia’s lips curled into a cold smile. She raised an eyebrow toward the finished problem sets she’d done, which Elias Warner had disdainfully tossed aside. "Then open your eyes and take a good look at how these three sets are *supposed* to be solved!"

Elias Warner’s brow furrowed. Just like the others, he looked down at the test papers and scratch paper Cecilia had tossed over.

Before Elias Warner could move, Sheila Hughes was the first to pull out the top paper.

In less than an hour and a half, they had assumed Cecilia would turn in a blank paper. But now, pulling the test out from under the scratch paper, they discovered that every single problem on Cecilia’s paper was filled with dense, detailed steps for the solution.

These were the same problems the group had just worked on a few days ago, so they all knew the correct answers by heart.

Sheila Hughes didn’t bother checking the steps; she went straight to the answers for each problem.

All correct!

She looked up in astonishment, her eyes bursting with delighted surprise. "The answers on this entire set are all correct!"

Slightly taken aback, Yates Sanders quickly pulled out the second set, while Lee Warner grabbed the last one.

They also went straight for the answers.

"This set is all correct, too!"

"Mine are all identical to the correct answers!"

The three of them stared at each other in shock. Then, they all turned to look at Cecilia. Sheila Hughes was extremely excited. She grabbed Cecilia’s hand and exclaimed, "Cecilia, you—you solved all these problems in less than an hour and a half?"

It was simply unbelievable. They knew better than anyone just how difficult these problem sets were.

Cecilia raised a slight eyebrow. Her attitude softened completely as she faced Sheila Hughes. "I was just sitting back there doing the problems by myself. You all saw me, didn’t you?"

"Badass!" Yates Sanders blurted out. The moment he said it, he realized Elias Warner was still there and quickly shut his mouth.

Lee Warner, however, asked hesitantly, "Cecilia, if you’re this capable, why did you turn in a paper with a zero on the first day?"

"Because I didn’t want to be the captain!" Cecilia said frankly, glancing at Elias Warner. "I don’t have that desperate a craving for power."

Hearing this, Sheila Hughes almost burst out laughing. When she looked up at Cecilia again, her eyes were shining with something akin to worship.

’She’s so amazing, so cool, so badass!’

Hearing that Cecilia had deliberately turned in a blank paper just because she didn’t want to be captain, Elias Warner secretly clenched his fists.

’Impossible.’

’Eighteen problems across three sets. An hour and a half is ninety minutes. That’s an average of five minutes per problem at this level of difficulty?’

’That’s completely impossible!’

’How could that be possible?’

He didn’t believe it. He picked up Cecilia’s scratch paper and began to meticulously check her steps and reasoning.

But the more he looked, the more his heart pounded and the colder he felt. Cecilia’s methods were far more concise and efficient than the solutions they had come up with after brainstorming together. She had omitted all the superfluous, roundabout steps.

Watching his expression shift continuously, the others couldn’t help but exchange secretive, varied glances.

Just as Cecilia had said, a self-righteous person like Elias Warner was being publicly humiliated by her, and they wondered how he was going to save face.

Unexpectedly, he wasn’t done yet.

Even after reviewing all of Cecilia’s complete solutions, Elias Warner still found an excuse to convince himself not to believe it.

He looked up, his fierce gaze sweeping over Yates Sanders, Sheila Hughes, and Lee Warner, who were so startled they could only blink in confusion.

Then they heard him ask in a low, accusatory voice, "Which one of you leaked the problems to her?"

"Ha!" Cecilia couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

’Leaked the problems?’

Elias Warner looked at Cecilia coldly. "If you’re going to cheat, at least make it look convincing. All eighteen problems correct? Do you really think I’d believe that? If someone didn’t leak the problems to you beforehand, I can’t think of any other explanation."

Cecilia looked at Elias Warner as if he were a clown and said, "You might be mediocre at everything else, but you’re a real pro when it comes to slander!"

With that, Cecilia wasted no more words. She picked up the new, difficult problem the group was currently working on, quickly read the question, and then grabbed a blank piece of scratch paper and began solving it right in front of them.

Again, in less than five minutes, Cecilia slapped the paper with the correct solution and answer down in front of a dumbfounded Elias Warner. "Leaked the problems, my ass! You fucking idiot!"