The Shocking Chill of the River (Part 2)

  Because of Niang's relationship, Jiang Zhihan knew the exam results two classes in advance. Niang told him the result and whispered: "You're really smart." Jiang Zhihan corrected her saying: "Wrong, success is 1% intelligence plus 99% hard work, please don't belittle my spirit of working hard to catch up." After a while, Jiang Zhihan smiled at Niang again: "Who has ever sighed and complained after coming in second? And yet you keep praising the seventh place for being smart. Isn't this blatant ridicule and discrimination against me?" Niang let out a sigh and said: "Don't be playful with me. We both know how much effort we put into this exam." Jiang Zhihan looked into Niang's eyes, speaking softly: "You're much better than you think, and also much smarter. Whether it's intelligence or hard work that leads to success, they're the same. Moreover, in most cases, just being smart isn't enough to achieve anything." Niang said again: "Teacher Zhang even asked me to give a presentation on how I helped you. I thought to myself, is it just about copying homework?" Jiang Zhihan burst out laughing and said: "Don't scare me, after the second class, I'll treat you to ice cream. I've already owed you many ice creams for copying so much homework. You know Chen Yimeng just paid me back 200 yuan, now I'm in the richest state of my life."

  Then after class, Jiang Zhihan called Chen Yimeng and Chu Mingyang to go buy ice cream together. Jiang Zhihan knew that Ni Xiang was a careful person, who had been elected as the president of the student union a month ago and was a celebrity in school, with many people gossiping about her behind her back. So whenever Jiang Zhihan asked her out for dinner or shopping, she would also invite Chen Yimeng, Chu Mingyang, or other girls close to Ni Xiang. As a result, Chu Mingyang and the others became more familiar with Ni Xiang over time. The four of them bought ice cream (Jiang Zhihan treated today) and sat down at the basketball court to watch people play basketball. Basketball was a traditional sports project in Zhongzhou No. 7 Middle School, which was very popular.

  After sitting for two minutes, Chu Mingyang winked at Chen Yimeng and found an excuse to pull him away. Ni Xiang looked at them but didn't move or say anything. The two of them sat there doing nothing when Jiang Zhihan told Ni Xiang a joke he had just seen: It said that five people were on a helicopter over the sea, but unfortunately, the oil tank was leaking and they couldn't fly back. The only solution was to reduce the weight of the helicopter. After throwing away all their belongings, the people on the plane still found it too heavy, so they decided to play rock-paper-scissors, with the loser jumping into the sea to lighten the load. The first unlucky guy was an American, who cursed and said many F-word insults, drew a cross on his chest, and shouted "God save me!" before jumping off. The second one was a German, who solemnly adjusted his clothes, loudly proclaimed that the Aryan nation was the greatest, and jumped off as well. The third one was an Englishman, who proudly raised his head, shouted "Long live the Great British Empire!", and also jumped off. In the end, only a Chinese person and a Japanese person were left. The pilot said that land was just nearby, but unfortunately, there was only enough fuel to support the weight of one more person. So it came down to the Chinese person and the Japanese person playing rock-paper-scissors; unfortunately, the Chinese person lost. The Chinese person drew a cross on his chest, solemnly adjusted his clothes, proudly raised his head, shouted "Long live the Chinese people!", and with one kick, pushed the Japanese person into the sea.

  Ni Tang couldn't help but burst out laughing, and the more she laughed, the harder it got. Her hair lightly brushed against Jiang Zihan's arm as he leaned in close to her. She pointed at Jiang Zihan, almost unable to catch her breath, saying: "You're slandering us Chinese people, how could you!" Jiang Zihan's expression turned serious: "I'm telling a story about the brave and clever Chinese people who rid their country of evil."

  Laughing loudly, someone chimed in, "What's so funny? Tell us." Jiang Zihan looked up to see the long-absent Gu Wangshan. He hastily stood up and laughed, saying, "It's terrible, the debt collector has arrived!" and introduced Ni Xiang and Gu Wangshan to each other. Ni Xiang said, "You guys chat, I'll leave first," and after greeting Gu Wangshan, she headed towards the teaching building.

  As soon as the beautiful woman walked away, Gu looked back at Shan and patted Jiang Zhan's back with a chuckle, saying: "You're really something. You've already become inseparable from the beautiful Chairman, sitting together when you're in and walking together when you're out."

  Jiang Zhi Han changed the subject and asked with concern: "Has everything been going smoothly lately?"

  Gu Wangshan nodded and said: "Originally planned to return to school after a month, but there were many things at home that delayed for a while, and it was dragged until the mid-term."

  Jiang Zihan said: "As long as things at home are resolved, missing a month or two of school isn't a big deal."

  "If everyone thought like you, the world would be at peace. My mom has told me that countless times."

  Jiang Zhan thanked Gu Wangshan and said: "That day, thanks to you for calling people in time, otherwise I might have been chopped down already."

  Gu Wanshan waved his hand and signaled Jiang Zihan to stop being so polite.

  Jiang Zihan felt that there was something strange about Gu Wangshan, a kind of pride in his bones, and also a maturity that transcended his age. He couldn't quite put his finger on it, but when Gu Wangshan spoke to people, he always had an air of being very matter-of-fact, not at all like a first-year high school student.

  Jiang Zhan told Gu Wangshan, "I rode my bike today and locked it on the garden balcony outside the classroom building. I'll just push it down to return it to you." Gu Wangshan waved his hand and said, "You ride it instead. I just bought a brand new 6-speed gear one, this one is useless to me even if you give it to me."

  Jiang Zihan hesitated for a moment, he didn't like accepting things from others without reason, although he believed that Gu Wangshan really didn't need the car.

  Gu Wanshan said: "I'm not giving it to you, I just let you take care of it for a while, so it won't rust if I leave it at my own place."

  "Alright, when I have money, I'll buy a BMW and lend it to you for safekeeping, feel free to use it."

  Gu Wangshan laughed and said: "I'm waiting for that day."

  The two of them walked towards the classroom while chatting, and when they reached downstairs, the bell for class had already rung, so they parted ways and rushed to their respective classrooms.

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  Here is the translation:

  In the afternoon physics class, Teacher Li announced the scores, and the news that Jiang Zihan got first place caused a stir. Teacher Li decided to dedicate next Monday's physics class to discussing the exam papers and having students who did well share their learning experiences, and he called out Jiang Zihan and another student, Zeng Zeng. As soon as class was over, many familiar and unfamiliar people gathered around, some congratulating him, others asking him to treat them to food, and some sourly saying that sitting next to the class president is what helped him improve, which wasn't fair. This semester, Jiang Zihan spent a lot of time helping his mother with her store, and usually either did his homework with his head down or played video games, so to be honest, apart from Chen Yimeng, Chu Mingyang, and Ni Xiang, he didn't really interact much with other classmates. Half a semester had passed, and Ni Xiang, the new class president, was more familiar with the classmates and situation than Jiang Zihan, who had been in the class for a year. After summer break, Jiang Zihan couldn't shake off the feeling that most of his classmates were too immature or childish, and it wasn't easy to find someone with the same wavelength to communicate with. Jiang Zihan made some perfunctory remarks, and most people lost interest and dispersed. Ni Xiang quietly scolded him, saying "You're not very sociable, you're a bit too arrogant."

  On Monday's physics class, Teacher Li lectured for over ten minutes before asking two students to share their successful experiences on stage, followed by a Q&A session. Zeng Zhen spoke for less than 5 minutes, but only said some general phrases. When it was Jiang Zhihan's turn, Ni Xiang thought he would just say something casual, but unexpectedly, Jiang Zhihan spoke for nearly half an hour. This speech was even more shocking to the students and teachers of Class 3 than his first-place score, and soon spread throughout the entire grade.

  Jiang Zhihan's first words on stage were: To deal with exams, I thought it was nothing more than eight words - familiarization breeds skill, one example can be used to infer three.

  Jiang Zhanchan said: "Of course, anything is easy to know but difficult to do. However, if there is a systematic method, plus a smarter way to look at problems, solve problems and summarize problems, it should be able to improve efficiency a lot. Let me give an example."

  Jiang Zihan pointed to a big question in the exam and waved a stack of papers in his hand, saying: "I went back and carefully checked all the homework, classroom exercises, and tests we've done. In just half a semester, we've encountered five questions similar to this one. Two of them were exactly the same, the third was basically the same, with only some specific data being different, except that the calculation results and solution process can be completely copied. What about the remaining two? Each had a small difference. One changed a directly given force into a textual description. You just need to read this sentence and know it's giving out the data for this force. The other added a small trap in the textual description. Jiang Zihan roughly wrote down the differences between the five questions on the blackboard, then said: "So if we summarize what we've done, if you got this question right the first time, would you get it right the second, third, fourth, and fifth times? If not, why? If it's just a calculation problem, that's okay. We should pay more attention to it next time. But if it's something else, what's the reason? Are we being misled by small traps or is there another reason? We need to have an overall view of this type of question. This is a certain class of questions, and I've roughly found the direction for solving them. It basically tests these knowledge points, and the general solution path is like this. Of course, in minor places, it will have some variations and traps. If we make mistakes, summarize well, remember the lessons, and do more to develop sensitivity to this type of trap."

  "The ones who create questions and the ones who answer them are born enemies," Jiang Zhihan continued to say: "They will think of all kinds of changes and traps to add camouflage to the questions, and we need to penetrate these changes and traps to get to the essence of the question. Not every question is as easy to do as it sounds, let alone with new things constantly appearing. But at least when you practice once, you should subconsciously accumulate experience, not just passively completing classroom assignments or small quizzes, but truly accumulating knowledge, familiarizing yourself with this type of thinking, changes, and traps. When you learn to consciously summarize, generalize, understand, and consider problems from the question creator's perspective, 'practice makes perfect' and 'one thing leads to another' become easier to achieve. Familiarity comes from constant practice, while 'one thing leads to another' relies on clever methods and a learning system that suits yourself, combining them can lead to mastery."

  Mr. Li sat in the back seat, slightly opening his mouth. The classmates of Class 3 also looked at Jiang Zhihan with a shocked face. For the first time, perhaps in the history of No. 7 Middle School, there was a student who walked onto the stage, not limited to talking about how he studied hard, how he arranged his time, and how he had his own learning methods. He tried to be like a teacher, summarizing, concluding, inducing, and conveying his insights. Regardless of whether Jiang Zhihan's lecture was better than the teacher's or how much the students in the back understood and accepted it, Jiang Zhihan indeed showed a brand new attitude, walking onto the stage with confidence and giving a demonstration.

  Another example of a question on the exam paper was cited by Jiang Zihan, who attempted to summarize all similar types he had encountered, deconstruct them, and then reassemble them. He spoke continuously until the bell rang at the end of class. Jiang Zihan bowed slightly to Teacher Li and stepped down from the podium. He saw Nian Xiang nodding lightly towards him, her eyes shining with surprise, but more so with admiration and respect.

  It's worth mentioning that I have to thank Nian Niang for keeping all these past assignments and test drafts. Nian Niang is a very organized person, all her notes and exam papers are neatly categorized and kept in order. When Jiang Zihan borrowed all these materials from her last week, Nian Niang even joked with him saying "you've already reached the top of the hundred-foot pole, what more do you want to achieve?" But she didn't expect that he was actually preparing for this lesson's summary speech.

  In her heart, Ni Xiang thought that although she had organized and taken good care of these things, she had never thought of summarizing them like Jiang Zhihan, let alone examining them from a high level. This might be the difference between her and him. After sitting at the same table as Jiang Zhihan for more than two months, Ni Xiang really believed that if Jiang Zhihan studied hard, he would definitely surpass her. There were many people who were surprised by this but had different opinions, including Teacher Li, who couldn't help but sigh when she walked into the office: "This student... is a genius." However, Jiang Zhihan's classmates looked at him with somewhat strange eyes, and later they gave him a nickname, "Teacher Jiang". In just a few days, the story of "Teacher Jiang" had spread throughout the entire grade.