You Like The Smart Ones? You Should Have Said So Sooner! - Chapter 27

Chapter 27: The Ancient Greek God of Air Conditioning

The day after the results were announced, during the long break.

Ding Zi suddenly opened the back door, leading three workmen inside.

“Come, come, make way, over here,” Ding Zi directed. “Qin Mian, contribute your stool for a bit.”

Qin Mian looked over and saw two workers carrying a wall-mounted air conditioner, while the third carried a toolbox.

In an instant, Qin Mian’s pupils shook with shock. He blankly moved his chair out of the way so the workers could step on it.

“Holy crap, did ‘Pickled Fish’ (Director Cai) actually approve this?” Qin Mian leaned in toward Ding Zi, asking in disbelief.

Ding Zi said solemnly, “Of course. An excellent school naturally addresses the reasonable requests of its students.”

“……” Qin Mian looked skeptical. He exposed the truth ruthlessly with a wooden tone: “I’ve been making this request for three years, and I never saw Pickled Fish give me the time of day.”

Qin Mian continued sarcastically: “The grades just came out yesterday, and today the air conditioner is being replaced. Pickled Fish’s efficiency is quite high indeed.”

Ding Zi fell silent; he had no rebuttal because everything Qin Mian said was true. Cai Yu was exactly that kind of person.

After a while, he looked at Qin Mian and asked coolly, “How about I have them take the air conditioner away then?” He pointed at the workers who were currently installing it.

“……” Qin Mian went silent instantly.

Cao Wei, who had huddled over, suddenly reached out and covered Qin Mian’s mouth.

Qin Mian: ??? You’ve got some nerve?

He directed a murderous gaze at Cao Wei, but it was completely ignored.

Cao Wei: “Don’t! Absolutely don’t! He’s talking nonsense! This school is caring, understanding, and reasonably attentive to student needs—it’s a great school!!”

Ding Zi waved them off in disgust. “Cut it out, I know exactly what you guys are like.”

Song Ying, also standing nearby, cast a cool glance at Cao Wei’s hand covering Qin Mian’s mouth. Cao Wei, being thick-skinned and oblivious, didn’t notice a thing.

Song Ying frowned unhappily and reached out to pry Cao Wei’s dark hand away. Once Qin Mian was rescued, he immediately punched Cao Wei.

“Ow!” Cao Wei clutched his head, looking back with teary eyes.

Qin Mian raised his fist in a physical threat: “You dare cover your Brother Qin’s mouth?”

Cao Wei shrunk his neck back spinelessly: “I’m sorry…”

Song Ying suddenly snorted from the side: “Serves you right.”

Cao Wei looked at Song Ying with blown-out pupils: “?? Brother Song?? You…”

His filter of Song Ying as a friendly, polite, and kind-hearted person shattered.

Song Ying ignored him.

Cao Wei: QAQ, my tiny heart has suffered a massive blow.

Qin Mian also raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked at Song Ying. Song Ying returned the gaze as usual, even offering a very handsome and gentle smile—completely different from the cold ruthlessness he showed Cao Wei.

Qin Mian’s face heated up, and he looked away.

Cao Wei was dumbstruck.

The world isolates me and lets it mock me.

While Class 18 was in session, the workers remained busy in the back installing the AC. It was finished quickly.

With a “beep” of the power turning on, accompanied by a whirring sound, a refreshing cold breeze blew out, dispelling the sweltering heat in the classroom.

As soon as class ended, a group of boys crowded under the unit, letting the cold air blow directly onto them.

“Hoo~ refreshing!”

“Wooo! This feels so good!”

“Man! This is amazing!”

It was like the “cries of monkeys on both banks” (a classic poem reference for loud, joyful noise).

Yu Canxing remarked: “I finally understand why Brother Qin said Brother Song is the birth of a new god.”

The two mentioned looked over curiously.

“Brother Song, you are simply the Ancient Greek God of Air Conditioning!”

“……” Song Ying gave a polite smile. “Thank you.”

Qin Mian couldn’t help it; the corners of his mouth curled up. He really admired Yu Canxing’s wild imagination.

Because Song Ying’s grades were so legendary, a group of people in Class 18 were eager to ask him academic questions. After all, they had never interacted with such a top-tier scholar in their lives.

Plus, with Qin Mian acting as a human billboard—every time he asked Song Ying something, he’d realize the answer in just a few words—the appeal was too strong.

So, as soon as the bell rang, a crowd swarmed Song Ying’s desk with their exercise books. They wanted to witness the teaching level of a Top Scorer-level academic god.

“Brother Song, Brother Song, look at this problem for me!”

“Student Song Ying, I don’t understand this part, can you explain it?”

Back when they first found out Qin Mian was in the Provincial Top 100, there wasn’t such a spectacle. The main reason was that Qin Mian’s “scary face” back then was too intimidating.

But Song Ying was different. Aside from Cao Wei, who had just received a critical hit, everyone else’s impression of Song Ying was still that of a beautiful, kind, polite, and quiet scholar.

So many people came that they were jostling and even bumping into Qin Mian’s desk. However, Qin Mian didn’t mind; he watched the scene with amusement, unable to suppress his smile.

“Brother Qin, what are you laughing at?” a boy asked.

Qin Mian pursed his lips to look normal: “Nothing. I just think your filter for academic gods is too thick.”

The other guy didn’t understand: “Huh?”

Qin Mian didn’t explain. He knew Song Ying’s “lean and jumpy” teaching style all too well. To Song Ying, these problems were too simple; he could solve them in his head in seconds. But to others, it was different. Without Qin Mian’s solid foundation, they wouldn’t understand a word Song Ying was saying.

Sure enough, Song Ying scanned a problem handed to him and explained: “For this one, just use the projection theorem, set an $x$, and solve it.”

“……Huh?” The student looked blank.

Song Ying paused, thinking they hadn’t heard clearly, and repeated it. Consequently, the student still looked like they were suffering from constipation.

Song Ying asked tentatively: “……Is there something else you don’t understand?”

“Uh…” The student swallowed with difficulty.

Could he say he didn’t understand a single thing?

“That… what is the projection theorem? No, I mean, how do you use it? Doesn’t the projection theorem need three lines? Uh, and what are we setting as $x$? How do we solve it?”

Looking at Song Ying’s blank expression, Qin Mian couldn’t help but burst out laughing. He offered a friendly tip: “Too fast. Slow down.”

Song Ying: “…….”

He suddenly had a sense of déjà vu, like he was teaching Li Zhixun.

In the time that followed, Song Ying felt like he was living through the darkest hour of his life. The word echoing most in his mind was: Why?

He’d say one sentence, and the student would ask, “Why is that?” He’d say another, and they’d frown and ask, “Why is that?”

By the end, both the teacher and the student were silent.

Song Ying, with a dry throat: “Understand now?”

Student: “……Understand now.”

Song Ying: “……”

Onlookers: “……”

Why was this so different from what they imagined?

Compared to the silence and suffocation of their group, the group behind them was exceptionally harmonious. They all heard a smooth, steady voice coming from behind.

Turning around, they saw Qin Mian explaining a problem to Jiang Mengqian.