On the way home, Qiao Yu silently vowed to himself that he would never go to the Rocket Class entrance to find Xia Keke again.
He was a proud man, having grown up listening to his grandfather's stories about "Why not wield the Wu hook, to gain the fifty states of North America," but here he was, being forced at the classroom door by a little girl to play the finger-hook game, swearing not to change for a hundred years, which was simply humiliating.
But Qiao Yu had to admit, at the moment of parting, seeing that fiery gaze shooting out from the classroom, he felt secretly delighted.
Very petty, but he couldn't help it.
Painful but joyful.
So, passing by the classic restaurant, Qiao Yu hesitated for a moment but eventually went in and packed two orders of spicy snacks.
Though he had agreed with his mom yesterday to be more frugal in the near future, his complicated mood needed some relief, and food was obviously the best remedy for that.
Moreover, today the good guy introduced him to a legal way to make money.
Although this path might not necessarily work out, it was at least something to think about.
Many times people are like this, after spending two bucks on a lottery ticket, they can't help but think that maybe this ticket could be worth millions; self-confidence always comes out of nowhere like that.
And just now, Qiao Yu got a rough understanding of the rules. As long as he could make it to the finals, there was a high probability of winning an Excellence Award.
Speaking of which, the Excellence Award also carried a reward of two thousand US Dollars, which was equivalent to a big ten thousand and some yuan, so he wasn't concerned about a few extra hundreds or tens.
It's hard to go from luxury to frugality!
...
"Oh? How curious, you really brought your backpack back? Wait, didn't we agree to be a bit more frugal during this period? Why did you buy so many treats again?"
Qiao Xi was as usual staying at home, probably just woke up, with a trace of daze in her eyes, but after the aroma of the spicy snacks wafted out, she sobered up.
"Today the good guy introduced me to a way to make a fortune," Qiao Yu casually explained.
"No way? The good guy is that good? You always say not to trust the get-rich schemes introduced by others, if it really makes money, why would they introduce it to you?" Qiao Xi lazily mumbled.
This was the content of a conversation the two of them had when discussing scams.
Qiao Xi had asked Qiao Yu to download an anti-fraud app, which Qiao Yu firmly refused, citing just these lines.
"It's different, because this way has a high threshold and doesn't require any money."
"Oh? What kind of way?"
At the dining table, the mother and son started discussing.
"You know Little Alibaba?"
"Nonsense, could I stay at home and not use Taobao?"
"They are hosting a mathematics competition, and if you can enter the finals and win the Gold Award, there's a 30,000 US Dollar prize."
Qiao Xi glanced at her son and asked, "Does the good guy have this much confidence in you?"
Qiao Yu shook his head and corrected, "It's not that he has confidence in me, it's that I have confidence in myself, or rather, I have confidence in anything that can make money. If I don't even have confidence in making money, we'd have starved to death."
Qiao Xi rolled her eyes but said nothing.
There was no way to refute that statement, after all, it was taught by the kid's grandfather, the original saying was: A man must never lose confidence in himself.
In any case, whether they can make money is another story, but confidence must come first, just like when Qiao Yu dragged her along to learn foreign languages before; it felt very difficult at first, but once they got into it, it actually wasn't that hard.
Although in the end, they didn't make money by joining a subtitle group, they at least became proficient in two foreign languages. If she eventually goes back out to work, this would be considered a skill advantage.
What comforted Qiao Xi the most was that she had managed to raise Qiao Yu quite well, at least he understands the principle of making a living within the rules. Well, maybe it also had something to do with his grandfather. A lifetime of uprightness, having a daughter like her was probably the unluckiest thing for him?
Qiao Yu noticed that the mother who was chatting with him a second ago had started daydreaming again.
But he was not surprised at all.
Everyone's circumstances are different, just like his mom. Her mind tends to drift, uncontrollably. It might be completely harmless to a person, but entirely unmanageable for most job intensities.
Any leader probably couldn't accommodate a subordinate who frequently drifts off in mid-conversation.
So indeed, the most suitable role for mom would be a wealthy housewife.
Unfortunately, after he was born, Qiao Xi couldn't stand any man being the slightest bit unkind to Qiao Yu, so many originally good matches were broken up by him.
Qiao Yu felt that this was fate, because they depended on each other for survival, so it was both Qiao Xi's fate and his own.
He needed to make money to make life better for both him and his loving mom. As long as it was legal, the means didn't matter.
As for what others thought of him, Qiao Yu never cared.
The two of them happened to also share a deep-seated pride.
Actually, given their situation, they could apply for many subsidies, and the neighbors around them had mentioned it to them more than once, but they just listened with smiles, and then magnificently chose to ignore it, not even discussing it at home together.
After all, receiving subsidies would mean being constrained and scrutinized, and even turning life into mere existence. At least to Qiao Yu, that was worse than death.
Qiao Yu didn't disturb Qiao Xi who was mentally wandering someplace else.
After enjoying the food, he quietly took his bowls to the kitchen, then returned to his room. Instead of opening a book, he powered on his computer first.
He logged into the Little Alibaba Global Mathematics Competition website, browsed the registration and competition rules thoroughly, confirmed that he was indeed eligible to participate, and only then downloaded the previous question bank and answers.
Qiao Yu thought that Little Alibaba did quite well in this regard.
There was no need to scour the internet, the official website provided a direct link to the previous competition's question bank below the registration portal, so aspiring competitors wouldn't misjudge their capabilities by finding false information.
An hour later, Qiao Yu found himself quite surprised.
Not because it was particularly hard… but — just this?
Yes, he browsed through last year's preliminary and finals exams across all five tracks, then wondered if the good guy had exaggerated a bit.
Although he couldn't solve every problem, for most of them, just after a glance, Qiao Yu already had a rough idea of how to approach them.
Seriously, using questions that a junior high school student could have a thought process for, to test masters and Ph.D. students from Yanbei, Huaqing, and other world-renowned universities, isn't that underestimating people a bit?
No, considering Little Alibaba is such a massive company, and this is a global event, according to the registration rules, math enthusiasts from any country can enter, and the committee even seeks questions from all over the world, it shouldn't be so perfunctory.
Does that mean, that the level of mathematics he self-taught, or his level in solving these problems after self-study, could already be on par with those graduates from Huaqing and Yanbei?
This made Qiao Yu couldn't help but mutter to himself with self-satisfaction: "Tsk tsk tsk, Qiao Yu, your mathematics level has actually gotten this strong? That's too terrifying, isn't it?"