"Hey, Napoleon, aren't you good at math? How come you didn't do a single question today?" On the way to the library, one of his classmates came up from behind and yelled at Napoleon with a grin.
Napoleon frowned but said nothing. Instead, another student next to him responded unconvincingly: "Bornova, those questions were indeed too difficult. I bet you still wouldn't be able to do the original question even if you took it out, despite Mr. Joseph's explanation at the end. Because you can't even understand the title!"
"So what? I've never bragged about being good at math." Bornova laughed out loud, "There's another class on military geometry in a couple of days, and then we'll see if our math genius can't do a single problem again!"
Bornova laughed while he did so, but he turned a corner and went the other way - a noble cadet like him who had come to plate himself would not have been honest enough to go into the library to study on his own after class was over, either.
"Napoleon, you don't even have to pay attention to guys like that, they're just incompetent themselves and they have to ..." the classmate next to Napoleon said to Napoleon as he looked at Bornova's distant figure.
"Anderson, I don't care about them at all. It's you, on the contrary, who are too agitated." Napoleon said, "What do you do when a dog barks at you? You either ignore him, then pick up a big stick and beat the shit out of it. Right? But what did you just do? You just competed with a dog to see who had the loudest voice, that's really ..."
"You have a point." Anderson rubbed his head and said, "If I had a big stick in my hand, of course I'd hit it on the nose without saying a word. But the question is, is it not true that I have not a big enough stick in my hand, you know, and though he is a vicious dog, he is a dog with a title, and I ... have a bigger stick in his hand than I have. I more than likely wouldn't be able to beat that vicious dog if I just charged at it like that, but not saying a word made me furious. So I had to swear at it."
"My brother said that." Napoleon said, while frowning slightly, "Don't argue with a fool, because he'll bring you to a project of comparing who's more foolish first, and then run you over with his vast experience in committing foolishness. As much of an asshole as that guy is, there's a lot of truth in what he said."
At that, Napoleon couldn't help but bite his tongue again.
Indeed, Joseph is just too much of an asshole. In class, he first came up with several questions under the pretext of finding out how good they were at math today and then "randomly named" students to come up to the blackboard and answer the questions. The first few questions were so simple that no fool could get them wrong - indeed, the fools didn't get them wrong. But in the end, Joseph came up with another question - and damn it, that one wasn't really that hard. It was just an unremarkable trap dug into the conditions and some deliberately misleading additions to the language. Then Napoleon was called up, and then, wary of Joseph, Napoleon himself complicated the problem and, as a result, failed to make it in the allotted time. Then Joseph politely motioned for Napoleon to return to his seat and proceeded to quickly show the correct answer to the question in an extremely succinct manner - an answer that even the idiots could see, and all had the illusion that they could actually do it, too. (A common feeling when faced with a lot of math problems is that "you get it when you hear it, you get it when you see it, and you get it wrong when you do it". Of course, if they had followed Napoleon's brain while he was brainstorming on the blackboard, then maybe they could have realized that the topic wasn't such a simple one, but the thing is, the reason why they're scum is, they don't use their brains as much as possible when they can.)
Then, toward the end of the class, Joseph came up with a question to "test your mastery of what you have learned today". Then, under the pretext of being "the only one who failed to answer the previous question", Napoleon was again pointed up. This one, however, was a real challenge. As it turned out, Napoleon still hadn't done it until the end of class. (Hell, it was only two or three minutes before class ended, so how could it have been done?)
'This guy really is an asshole! I must learn well, but I can't let this asshole get carried away like this again!' Napoleon gave himself a mental pep talk.
As the two talked, they walked into the library.
While it was still light, the two of them went to the bookstore and borrowed two books. Then, they went to the reading room together. In order to keep the books safe, fire and candles are strictly forbidden in the library, so as soon as darkness falls, the library is unusable. (In the days before the invention of the electric light, libraries all over the world were basically like this.) However, the reading room in the library of the École Militaire in Paris provided free lighting. With a student ID, you could request a white candle mounted on an iron candlestick, so the reading room was also available at night.
Napoleon and Anderson claimed their candles and entered the reading room with their books, ready to find a place to sit by the window, where it would be brighter and read before it got too dark. After all, a candle can last a limited amount of time.
At that moment, a man who was reading a book with his head down at a table next to a large floor-to-ceiling window suddenly looked up and shouted at them, "Napoleon, come over here!"
Napoleon looked over toward that side and saw Joseph looking at him with a smile on his face.
"Shit!" Napoleon gritted his teeth but walked on.
"Greetings, Mr. Joseph." Anderson bowed politely.
"Anderson, did you understand everything that was said today?" Joseph asked with a smile.
"Teacher, at first I thought I should have understood it, but when I saw that last question, I felt like I didn't get it at all. Until now, I still don't have a clue about that question." Anderson replied.
"There is indeed a great distance between mastering the basics and learning to apply them practically." Joseph nodded, turning to Napoleon, "So Napoleon, have you figured out how to solve that problem now?"
"I know how to answer that now." Napoleon said, a little unconvincingly, "As a matter of fact, I could have solved it then if I had only been given a little while longer."
"The speed of solving a problem is just as much an indication of mastery of knowledge." Joseph, however, put it this way.
"So you're only two-thirds as fast as Mr. Monge on the same subject?" Napoleon couldn't help but say this.
This answer was beyond Joseph's expectations. He frowned and said: "When it comes to calculations, Mr. Monge is indeed much better than me. But it seems to me that my calculation speed is enough to support my research. But Napoleon, you don't have quite enough problem solving skills right now if you hope to pass your graduation exams early."
"Ah, Napoleon, you want to graduate early?" Anderson was taken aback.
"Yes, my family is financially strapped and needs me to earn money as early as possible." Napoleon said, "Besides, I'd like to get into the army as soon as possible, instead of being here all day watching those fools of the Parisian aristocracy."
"I agree with you, but I'm not going to let up on my subjects. Napoleon, if you really wish to graduate early, then you should really have at least the level that a real graduate should have." Joseph added.
Napoleon understood that Joseph's "real graduates" did not include the great aristocrats who came to plat their names, nor did it even necessarily include ordinary graduates. The term "real graduates" most often refers to "honors graduates". But this high demand did not make Napoleon resentful, for it seemed to him that he deserved to meet it.
"Napoleon, if you want to graduate early, you're going to have to be really good to do it." Joseph continued, "I've heard about your intentions, so I've long since prepared a set of practice questions for you."
As he did so, Joseph fished out a small book from inside a bag he kept next to him and handed it to Napoleon.
"Do it right!" Joseph said, then lowered his head and continued reading.
The days after that were very quiet, and Joseph spent his days either lecturing or preparing lessons and reading books. Sometimes, he wrote and discussed certain mathematical problems with Monge and Laplace on certain mathematical problems. There have also been a few more papers published one after another. In addition to this, Joseph, who had already solved the problem of food, took his brother Lucien to Paris and arranged for him to enter the Louis-le-Grand.
As for Napoleon, he has asked the school to take his graduation exams early. For this reason, he is in the midst of a learning frenzy.
The days passed so slowly that the skirts of the goddess of spring swung and drifted away without even a decent spring shower. After a dry spring, a dry summer followed.
The price of bread in the city of Paris has risen again, by a quarter from what it was at the end of last year.
This price increase is still within Joseph's reach, but for the average civilian, it's pretty damning. In this era, Parisians were not in the habit of taking to the streets for demonstrations, and those who could not survive in Paris in the normal way left the city to go to the countryside or simply to the Americas to find a way out. Others who are also unable to survive in a normal way go down the path of surviving in an abnormal way, such as theft or even robbery.
However, these things still didn't threaten Joseph; he rarely left the school, and the burglars and such couldn't get their paws on him. The fact is that burglars, whether they are thieves or robbers, can only do real harm to those who also live at the bottom of the social ladder. As for the upper class, not to mention the high and mighty nobility, even the so-called "middle class" is not easily jeopardized by these people. This is one of the reasons why some of the future generations of the Baizou are able to persist in singing the praises of society by ignoring all the problems brought about by the decline in social security.