CHAPTER 280: CHAPTER 277: CINDERELLA’S TURNAROUND 22

Anning stood outside Xiao Yuan’s door for a while before she knocked.

Soon the door was opened.

Behind the door was Xiao Yuan’s handsome face.

Looking at that face, Anning still felt quite disturbed inside.

She had lived through countless lifetimes, had long become indifferent to the affairs of the world, and rarely let any person or thing affect her mood.

But Xiao Yuan was the exception.

Xiao Yuan’s heart blossomed when he saw Anning.

"Here you are, please come in and sit down."

Anning went into the room gracefully.

She noticed right away that Xiao Yuan must have just bought the house not long ago, retaining the original owner’s style, not having had time to redecorate.

Even the furniture had not been replaced.

On the sofa there were still some marks left by the previous owner’s child, and there was even a part of the wall covered with doodles. Even the corners of chairs and tables were bubble-wrapped.

Anning smiled: "My mom asked me to bring something over."

While Anning was inspecting the house, Xiao Yuan was actually a bit nervous.

He knew Anning must have noticed something.

But since Anning didn’t point it out, he breathed a sigh of relief.

Feeling a little guilty, he turned to the kitchen and brought a drink over: "Would you like a drink?"

Anning nodded, accepted the drink and took a sip.

Then, Anning placed the cross-stitch on the table: "This was a gift from my mom and me last summer, um, we weren’t sure what gift to get you in return, so we thought we’d give something we made ourselves. It’s not well made, but it’s our sentiment."

"That’s great."

Xiao Yuan immediately took the cross-stitch.

He asked Anning, "Can we... add each other on WeChat?"

"Sure."

Anning put down her cup and took out her phone to add Xiao Yuan on WeChat.

After adding Xiao Yuan, Anning stood up to leave: "It’s getting late, I should head back."

Xiao Yuan was quite reluctant to let Anning go, but he knew he had no special relationship with her yet and didn’t dare to appear too eager, fearing he might scare the young lady away.

"I’ll walk you out."

He stood up, intending to escort her.

Anning waved her hand: "No need to walk me out, we live just opposite each other. You stay here."

Xiao Yuan looked on regretfully as Anning left, and when Anning reached the doorway, she suddenly turned around. She clearly saw the reluctance in Xiao Yuan’s eyes and smiled with pursed lips, waved at Xiao Yuan, and then opened the door and left.

Just with that one smile, Xiao Yuan’s spirits soared.

He clenched his fists, wondering if Anning also had some feelings for him, why else would she smile at him?

Anning went home and said a brief word to Mrs. Gu before retreating to her room.

The house they had bought was actually quite large, and Anning’s room was the largest in the whole house. Not only spacious but also well-furnished, and this room even came with a walk-in closet and a bathroom, obviously much better than the tiny room she had lived in before.

Anning lay on her soft bed for a while before getting up to do her homework.

She had just finished her math problems when she saw her phone light up at the side.

Anning picked up her phone to check the messages.

Two of them were from Wu Linna, asking about a physics problem, and the other one was from Jiang Zhengwei.

Anning first addressed Wu Linna’s message, writing down the steps to solve the physics problem, snapping a photo, and sending it to Wu Linna, then replied to Jiang Zhengwei.

Jiang Zhengwei’s message was both to thank Anning and to ask for her help.

It turned out that when Anning told him there would be good news when he went home, Jiang Zhengwei was somewhat puzzled, but after he got home, his wife excitedly told him she was pregnant.

Jiang Zhengwei was ecstatic.

He had been married for several years, and the affection between him and his wife was quite good. The two of them had always wanted to have a child, but for some reason, they just couldn’t conceive. They tried all sorts of methods and even went for medical check-ups; both of their bodies were fine, but they just didn’t have a child.

Jiang Zhengwei and his wife were so anxious they even considered IVF.

He had originally thought to wait until this project was finished, and then he would have time to accompany his wife to the hospital to try IVF. But unexpectedly, just at this time, his wife got pregnant.

Jiang Zhengwei was over the moon.

Afterwards, he began to worry, taking his wife to the hospital the next day for check-ups, scheduling various prenatal tests, and taking great care to nurture his wife and provide her with nutrition.

In any case, he was particularly busy these days.

Once the rush was over, Jiang Zhengwei remembered what Anning had said.

He found it extraordinary, so he told his wife about the incident with the painting that Anning had reminded him of and about this recent event.

His wife initially thought he was joking, but seeing how serious Jiang Zhengwei was, she began to believe, especially since Jiang Zhengwei was never the one to talk nonsense about such matters.

Coincidentally, his wife’s best friend’s family encountered a very strange incident, and her friend was so troubled that she was thinking of seeking a genuinely skilled master for help. Jiang Zhengwei’s wife then asked Jiang Zhengwei if he could ask Anning if she had time to help her best friend.

Jiang Zhengwei didn’t dare say yes right away, mentioning that he needed to ask Anning.

That’s why he ended up messaging Anning.

Anning set a time with Jiang Zhengwei after reading the message, and then she put her phone aside and focused on solving problems.

The next day, Anning delivered the problem set Teacher Li had given her to his office.

After two classes, Teacher Li called Anning to his office.

His desk had that problem set on it.

Teacher Li looked at Anning and asked, "Did you do this problem set? Did you not ask anyone for help? Did you not search for answers online?"

Anning shook her head: "I did not, I solved it myself when I got home yesterday."

Teacher Li suddenly smiled, appeared very pleased, and pointed to another set of problems on the desk: "Try to solve this set tonight."

"Okay." Anning took the new set and glanced at it, realizing it was a bit tougher than last night’s, but for Anning, such difficulty was naturally manageable.

She took the problems back to class, not planning to do them at home, using the breaks between classes to finish the problems before school was out.

Anning took the completed set to Teacher Li after school.

Teacher Li was quite surprised to see her: "Is there something you didn’t understand?"

Anning shook her head and handed in the problems: "I’ve finished them."

"What?" Teacher Li nearly stood up in shock.

He reviewed the problems and found that all of them were solved correctly.

"You..." Teacher Li was at a loss for words.

Anning had expressed her interest in participating in Olympiad Mathematics, and Teacher Li knew she had never participated nor tried Olympiad problems before. He wanted her to get acquainted with them, so he had given her yesterday’s set, thinking it would take Anning a couple of days to solve them. But she solved them overnight, and all by herself, which was remarkable.

Teacher Li wanted to test the limits of Anning’s abilities.

He picked out a set of the toughest Olympiad problems from past competitions, not just the city or provincial selection problems, but those from national-level contests, and gave them to Anning.

He figured this would surely challenge Anning.

But in turn, Anning finished even faster.

Teacher Li looked at the set, looked at Anning again: "Did you find these problems difficult?"

Anning shook her head: "Not at all."

Teacher Li suddenly thought of Anning’s math scores since she had started school.

Her math scores had never fallen short of perfect—from first grade to junior year, she always scored full marks on math exams.

Originally, Teacher Li thought Anning was quite good at math, but now it seemed, she was more than good—she was a math genius. Her past perfect scores were not the limit of her ability; they were just the highest scores possible.

Teacher Li sighed as he looked at Anning: "You have been held back, if only..."

He gestured with his hand: "Never mind, go back first. Tomorrow, I will arrange for you to attend the Olympiad class."

Anning thanked Teacher Li with a smile.

Later, Teacher Li mentioned Anning to other teachers, feeling particularly regretful for her. Anning’s academic performance was exceptionally balanced. He now wondered if her IQ was extremely high, making every subject seem incredibly easy to her. It was rare to see a prodigy like Anning—only her upbringing had limited her. Her parents lacked insight and foresight, not knowing how to nurture a child’s potential.

If Anning had come from a more privileged background, even just a middle-class family, she probably wouldn’t be in high school by now, but already involved in scientific research.