Genius Fundamentals

Chapter 24: Fraud (1)

After class, she first went back to the welfare home for lunch, then slipped out under the pretext of going to the bookstore to read. However, when she arrived at the intersection, she hesitated, and went in the opposite direction. She wanted to go to Zhuanzhu Lane one more time to see if she could find Old Lin.

Most office workers would take a holiday on the weekends, and if Old Lin still lived there, there was a good chance of bumping into him.
But plans can’t keep up with changes. When she passed the small park near her school, she was held up by a familiar figure.

There were many people under a camphor tree in the park, and the first thing that attracted Lin Zhao Xi’s attention was a peddler’s loud voice.

“This booklet of mine is in the hands of all the National Mathematical Olympiad contestants. It’s absolutely confidential…”
Then she saw her tsundere deskmate, Lu Zhihao, tiptoeing at the edge of the crowd, carrying a small school bag and counting the money inside his little frog wallet.

Lin Zhao Xi stepped to him quickly, then gave his left shoulder a pat and leaned to his right, asking, “What’s up?”

His cheeks trembled, “Is there something wrong with your head?”

“Shh!” Lin Zhao Xi put her index finger on her lips and motioned for him to keep his voice down, and then quietly asked, “What’s going on?”

Lu Zhihao’s eyes guiltily shifted to the young man who was peddling under the tree, “it’s none of your business. Shoo, shoo.”

Lin Zhao Xi stood on her toes and, looking in the same direction, saw a man wearing gold glasses.

The man wore a suit, his hair glossy, combed behind his ear with gel. His entire body seemed to be shining, attracting everyone’s attention. A small blackboard was nailed to the camphor tree trunk, several math problems were displayed on it. Next to it, was a big banner with the words “King of Mental Arithmetic” written on it, bolder than “Chen’s Big Flaming Hot Grilled Squid”.

Shortly after school, parents received children who had just finished their extracurricular class, and many of them were watching. Mainly the elderly, they were tricked by the man who taught “mental arithmetic”. They looked at their grandchildren, then looked at the peddler, back and forth, ready to hand over the money.

Lin Zhao Xi, deep down, understood.

After the development of the Internet, this kind of scam deceived many parents. The most famous was the “Zhou Gen’s Rapid Calculations” sold on TV. Each rapid calculation cost ¥1380. Later on, in the 1980s and 1990s, “Shi Fengshou’s Rapid Calculations” were also popular for a long time. It claimed to be able to develop the brain, taking advantage of parents’ simple wish to see their children succeed. Parents flocked to it, the fantastical shortcut on the road to mathematics.

The truth is, there are no shortcuts.

“Last time, a parent came back to thank me, saying that he bought my booklet for his son. His son later won the Olympic gold medal. He insisted on giving me money. Do you know why he wanted to give me money?” The slick man stretched his voice, a glimmer of light sliding across his lens.

“He was giving me a lot of money, he said, to buy out my rapid calculations. I wouldn’t be able to sell my calculations anymore, and his son would have no competitors…”

“How horrible.”

“People like him are simply terrible.”

Grandmothers and grandfathers who were listening in shouted one after another. Were they hired by “The King of Mental Arithmetic” for support?

The king of mental arithmetic said, “but I didn’t agree. I, too, think these people are bad intentioned. I wrote a booklet about mental arithmetic to benefit more students. Money is not important to me, I have more than enough money. I hope to see more children learning math. So my price is very low, 100 yuan, 100 yuan per set.”

With that, he held up a booklet, the copperplate script on the cover glittering in the sun. On his right, there was a woman receiving a banknote for each “confidential booklet”. Some of the elderly had already begun to pay, and the chubby little student, Lu Zhihao, swallowed. He tightly clenched his money, staring at the king of mental arithmetic’s “confidential” booklet, in a last-ditch struggle.
Lin Zhao Xi noticed out of the corner of her eye. After the first few people finished handing in the money, and gratefully left with the booklet, the woman next to the king of mental arithmetic nervously said, “Mr. Zhang, there aren’t many booklets left. I only brought 30 this time. Look…”

That was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Some of the elderly rushed to go and pay.

The little guy gritted his teeth and was about to go into the crowd when Lin Zhao Xi held him down and shook her head.

“What are you doing?” Lu Zhihao tried hard to break free from her hand.

“That’s a fraud.” Her voice wasn’t loud, but it was loud enough to be heard by the people around her.