Chapter 4

Bianca was utterly shocked and still could not believe it.

She pulled several past exam papers out of her backpack, including mathematics, physics, and programming.

“If you’re really that good, then prove it. Do them right here.”

I did mathematics with my left hand and physics with my right hand, working on two papers at the same time.

In one hour, I finished seven subjects’ worth of past exam papers.

Bianca checked them one by one against the answer key.

Her jaw dropped lower with every paper she marked.

“Perfect score.

“Another perfect score.

“Another one!

“Not a single question wrong...”

She stared at me blankly. “You... don’t think I’m dumb, do you?”

I chuckled. “Of course not.

“You’re my motivation.

“Without you, I’d have just kept playing it safe.

“But for you, I’m ready to go all out.”

Over the following week, we continued our tutoring sessions.

Other people thought she was tutoring me.

In reality, I was tutoring her.

She was initially an average student, ranking around twentieth in the class. I planned to tutor her all the way into the top ten.

Victor was naturally furious.

He spread the word about the bet I had made with him.

The whole class thought I had lost my mind.

They reveled in my misery and piled on.

“He’s in way over his head!”

“He’s just asking to get humiliated!”

“This is suicide!”

“Does he really love sucking up to whoever’s at the top?”

Bianca had a lot of boys pursuing her. So, Victor was not the only one who saw me as his romantic rival. I had plenty of them.

For example, there was Owen Hardy, my dormmate.

He also liked her, but he knew he was out of her league and did not dare pursue her directly.

He was jealous of me in every way. I would hear him mutter, “Ferdinand, you’d better keep your word and drop out when you get last place.

“Otherwise, you’re nothing but a coward.”

He used to be a top scorer. However, lately, he had been out chasing girls every day, juggling a few at a time.

All the girls eventually left him, and his grades went downhill.

Still, it never once crossed his mind that I would score higher than him in the exams.

I looked at him and sneered.

I was sure he would come in last.

When the exam began, Victor and I happened to be in the same exam room.

The first subject was calculus, and the exam lasted two hours.

I finished all the questions in seven minutes. However, being cautious by nature, I went back and double-checked every single one.

Even then, only twenty minutes had passed.

I could have turned in my paper right then, but I did not.

I patiently waited for the exam to end.

At the fifty-minute mark, Victor finished and became the first to hand in his paper.

That was very typical of him.

I heard that during the SATs, he was also the first to submit his paper and even ended up on television.

The other students were also proud geniuses, and they thought turning in their papers on time was shameful.

So, they all rushed as fast as they could to finish and hand in their papers early.

One after another, they submitted and left.

By the one-and-a-half-hour mark, I was the only one left in the exam room.

I was not in a hurry and kept waiting.

Only when the bell rang did I hand in my paper.

When I walked out of the exam room, I did not expect Victor and the others to still be waiting there, eager to see me make a fool of myself.

Victor said with crossed arms, “Ferdinand, just give up already. You might as well skip the rest of the exams.”

Owen smirked maliciously and chimed in, saying, “Last place doesn’t just have to call Victor a ‘true genius.’ He has to call everyone in the class a ‘true genius.’”

Everyone burst into laughter.

I laughed, too.

Owen was digging his own grave. Soon, all seven exams were over.

This time, I went all out. I was fully confident I would rank first in the entire program.

The results came out quickly.

Three days later, during an evening self-study session, our department advisor, Tristan Sterling, walked in holding a sheet of paper.

“It’s time to announce the results.

“Starting from the bottom, we have Owen Hardy.”

Owen froze, feeling stunned.

This meant he had to drop out and call everyone “true genius.”

Victor and the others looked disappointed that it was not me.

Tristan began reporting from the bottom up.

“Number six from the top, Bianca Hastings.”

Everyone was even more shocked, not expecting her to have improved so much.

Victor, who had just been disappointed, burst out laughing as he stood up and pointed at me.

“The top five are coming up next, and there’s no way you’re in there.

“That means you didn’t even get a score, and your exam got voided!

“You’re still dead last!”

Owen perked up, too.

“Yeah! You’re still dead last! Drop out and start calling people ‘true genius’!”

Tristan was caught off guard. “What are you all talking about?

“Ferdinand Bayland is the top of the class this time around. Wait, no. He’s the top in the whole program.”