Chapter 5: 1st Faceslapped
APRIL 1997, MIDDLE SCHOOL DAYS
"Mr. Ben Addams!" A scream sounded, making Ben snap out of his nap.
"Ahh yes, Miss Daviss?" Ben got up from his seats in surprise, with a confused expression. He deliberately ignored the funny expressions and giggling of his classmates and focused his attention on his math professor.
Miss Davis, a 98-kg obese 32-year-old math teacher,. There's nothing noteworthy about her appearance except the necklace around her neck that scream 'rich', and like most mathematics professors, she was extremely strict.
"I repeat: What are you doing, Mr. Addams?" Miss Davis asked as she stared at him sternly.
"Ah.. that? Yes, Maam, I'm..." Ben, with a nervous 'hehe', turned around to look at his classmates, hoping to get some help, only to be greeted by various expressions, as if wanting to see his joke.
'Damn~.' Unfortunately, Keny wasn't with him at this moment. The two had different mathematics schedules; otherwise, he wouldn't dare fall asleep during Miss Davis's class.
"Um, I'm reviewing the lesson, ma'am." Forcefully calming down himself, he turned to look at his mathematics teacher, making sure to look confidently (or so he thinks), and made up a reason on the spot.
"Really, then how about solving the problem on board?" Miss Davis was obviously annoyed by his answers; she had caught him napping in her class yet had a knack for shameless lies.
"That problem?" Ben was obviously stunned at the sudden turn of events.. His mind was running at full speed as several thoughts popped up out of nowhere.
'Damn, I swear I've seen this plot in a novel...'
'Too cliché...'
'What is this problem anyway? '
'Oh, it's just a basic geometry problem.. I've already memorized the entire curriculum book of the subject, so it shouldn't be a problem.'
'Calculating the area of a triangle? Basic! Not hard at all.'
"What are you surprised? Didn't you say that you're reviewing the lesson? Then go ahead! answered it." Miss Daviss gestured at him with a scornful expression, obviously expecting him to see his joke... Unfortunately, she was doomed to be wrong this time.
"Okay, maam, I'll do it." With a confident expression on his face, he strode towards the board, much to Miss Davis and his classmates surprise.
"To solve the area of the triangle, we used the formula 'A = ½ bh." Ben took the chalk, wrote the formula on the board, and continued: "Since the base of the triangle is 18 and the height is 8, we can substitute these values according to the formula:
= ½(18)(8).'
Next is to multiply the numbers together: ½ multiplied by 18 equals 9.
= (9)(8)
Then, lastly, 9 multiplied by 8 equals 72, which brings us 72.
= 72²."
"..."
"Maam, I'm done. May I go back to my seat?" Ben confidently asked his professor with a smile on his face, while inwardly, he thought, 'Damn. This feeling is great; no wonder Chinese protagonists love faceslapping.'
"Very good, Mr. Addams, you may take your seat." Miss Davis finally woke up from her surprise, let out a cough, and let him go back to his seat.
"Huh?" Ben was lost for a moment. Looking at Miss Davis, he saw no embarrassment or annoyance on her face at all.. no, no.. On the contrary, she seems to be giving off a satisfied look.
'Huh, this plot is so wrong... usually, after the protagonist faceslaps people, they will plot revenge on him because he hurt their egos, then boom, instead of getting revenge, they're going to get faceslap again, until finally, their whole family, who turned out to be a multimillionaire clan, began dealing with him because they thought that people would laugh at them for being unable to deal with nobody, and then again, the MC will solve it again by healing (using the ancient Chinese acupuncture that his grandfather taught him when he was a kid) a dying rich man's who had a heart attack in the middle of the day... And then, the said rich man is the richest in the city, and seeing his benefactor being bullied, he'll bankrupt them...' Ben's eyes lit up. 'Damn, I'm so genius; maybe I could write my own book? '
***
SCHOOL CAFETERIA
"Okay, let me get this straight. You fell asleep during the class, were awakened by the professor, got scolded, and were forced to solve the problem on the board, and you did, then got a correct answer.. Is that right?"
"You forgot the part where everyone looked at me with a surprised and amazed expression.. but basically, that's what happened."
"Wow.. I mean, wow, did you really do that?"
"Hehe, I know, right, cool, isn't it?"
"A bit nerdy, but indeed cool... But why are you sleeping in the class in the first place?" Keny Doyle asked with a strange expression on his face.
"Hey, it wasn't my fault that I've memorized and learned the whole curriculum of this year... You know, I kind of regret doing it; things just become boring afterwards," Ben shamelessly lied (half truth) as he bragged... well, not entirely lying.
True, he had memorized all sorts of books from their school year's curriculum. However, his understanding fell short at ¾ of them, leaving about ¼ of the material still to be truly learned.
But hey, what's the difference?
In a month or so, he was confident enough to learn all the study materials in his current grade. Afterwards, he felt that he could start learning for the next grade and so on.
Photographic memory is just that crazy. Everything was accomplished in just a month and a half, and, on top of that, he still had time to study finance. The crazy part? He could understand them.
Well.. most of it was attributed to his past lives' memory, but hey, at least, he was confident that he knew finance better than any students in his school.
"Sigh~ What can I do? I'm just naturally awesome without putting in much effort."
"..." Keny Doyle's face twitched in annoyance.
Remembering the countless days and sleepless nights spent immersed in studying and doing homework, then looking at Ben, who always did his schoolwork almost effortlessly, he suddenly felt like smacking him.
***
AN: Studying is one thing; applying is another. In other words, learning Ph.D.-level science stuff doesn't necessarily allow one to invent some kind of high-tech device or whatever. In his case, studying college-level finance subjects doesn't automatically make him a genius investor or businessman.
(EDITED-4X)
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