Chapter 92
Percy was about to head downstairs when he noticed the silence coming from the stairwell. But just then, he heard footsteps behind him. Turning around, he saw that Lily had finished early and was coming down.
He raised an eyebrow, and after recalling what he’d just overheard, his gaze toward her became significantly more intriguing.
Lily froze when she saw Percy. Did he finish his paper early? Damn it!
She quickly walked over, flashing what she believed was her most charming smile. She tried to sound casual and asked, “Percy, how did you do on the test?”
Percy crossed his arms, a knowing smile tugging at his lips as he glanced at her. “Definitely better than you.”
Lily felt her heart tighten, almost unable to keep her smile intact. “Oh really? Then you must be confident about winning first place, right?”
“Of course?” Percy’s lips curled into a sly grin. “Did you manage to finish the last bonus question?”
Lily chuckled. “I did, luckily, I had already worked through Mr. Lancaster’s practice papers, and one of the questions was the same type as the bonus one.
“I heard that the Elite Math Tournament didn’t include any of Mr. Lancaster’s questions, but he somehow managed to predict the bonus question. That’s impressive,”
Percy could tell there was a lot of bragging in her words. She still thought that only she and Jonah had worked through Caius‘ practice papers. Percy almost didn’t want to spoil it for her after seeing her so pleased with herself.
But he couldn’t resist smirking. “Mr. Lancaster did indeed give a similar question, but the method to solve it is different. His question was more challenging, and it required using the substitution method with an indefinite integral.
“But the bonus question was a bit simpler. Using substitution would have made it more complicated. You actually needed to use the integration–by–parts method
Uh, are you okay?“/
Lily’s face grew paler with every word he spoke. She forced a smile and asked, “Did you also do Mr. Lancaster’s practice papers?”
Percy nodded casually. “Of course, it’s not a big deal. It’s not just me, though. Scarlett did even more than I did.”
He emphasized the point. “Scarlett is way better than I am. She solved those difficult problems in less than five minutes. Mr. Lancaster even praised her as a real prodigy!”
“You… You also met Mr. Lancaster?” Lily’s voice trembled.
“Yeah, of course. Why else would Scarlett skip class and hang around Mr. Lancaster, asking him for extra help?”
Lily’s eyes went wide in shock.
Percy delivered the final blow. “First and second place are definitely going to be me and Scarlett, so you can forget about them. As for third place…”
He gave Lily a quick once–over, then shook his head with a smirk. “Eh, you’ve got no chance, too.”
Lily was left speechless. Percy took a few steps down the stairs, then turned back for one last hit.
“The bonus question equals eight. If you didn’t get eight, you didn’t score a single point. Heh!”
Lily froze, her heart sinking. She had gotten 64!
Panic completely overtook her, and she couldn’t even pretend to stay composed. She hurried down the stairs, pushing past Percy and running toward Jonah.
“Jonah, what did you get for the bonus question?”
Jonah frowned. He didn’t like to discuss the answers right after the test, but since Lily asked, he answered, “Eight.”
Lily’s face drained of color. Jonah was confused. “What’s wrong? Did you get something other than eight?”
“I…” Lily was on the verge of tears. “I used substitution, and I got 64.”
Jonah was speechless. That question clearly didn’t require substitution. Suddenly, he started to wonder if Lily might not be all that sharp. But he couldn’t bear to say something that would hurt her, so he quickly tried to reassure her.
“It’s okay. That question was really tough. I doubt many people got it right.”