Chapter 27: Turning Like a Weather Vane

Chen Yu’s eyes lit up instantly!

Master-level science and mathematics knowledge!

Isn’t this exactly what he had been dreaming of? Culinary arts, music, combat—all of these were utterly pathetic compared to such hardcore academic knowledge!

This was the ultimate skill that a brilliant, well-rounded, and perfect man like him truly deserved to master!

However... the ideal was plump, but the reality was skinny.

He was now facing a most fundamental and fatal problem—he didn't even know how to solve the first question!

If he couldn't even initiate the task, how could he talk about master-level rewards?

No, he had to think of a way!

In a flash of lightning, a brilliant idea took shape in his mind.

He wiped away all the embarrassment and confusion from his face, put on an inscrutable, profound expression, and slowly looked toward his daughter.

"Ahem."

He cleared his throat and said in a tone of gentle guidance, "Niannian, of course, Daddy knows how to solve this problem. But, as the saying goes, 'Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.' Do you understand this principle?"

Niannian nodded, appearing to understand half of it.

"So," Chen Yu continued, spouting nonsense with absolute seriousness, "it’s not that Daddy doesn't want to give you the answer directly, but I want to test you first to see how far you can get by thinking independently. Come on, tell me, what is your thought process for solving this?"

Taking advantage of the moment Niannian lowered her head and began racking her brains to explain her unique logic of "one chicken plus one rabbit equals two animals," Chen Yu quickly and covertly pulled out his phone.

He swiftly snapped a picture of the "chickens and rabbits in the same cage" problem.

Then, he clutched his stomach, his face contorting into an expression of "agony."

"Ouch... ouch... Niannian, you think about it carefully first. Daddy... Daddy suddenly feels a bit unwell in his stomach. I might have eaten something bad for breakfast. I... I need to go to the restroom, I'll be back in a second! You must keep thinking independently!"

With that, he clamped his legs together and sprinted toward the bathroom with the speed of a hundred-meter dash, as if his backside were on fire.

"Bang!" He slammed the door shut.

He left Niannian alone at the desk, staring at her father’s retreating back with a face full of confusion.

This series of fluid operations left the viewers in the livestream completely hysterical.

[Hahahahahahahaha! I knew it! I knew it would be like this!]

[This excuse! 'I'm going to the restroom'! It’s the universal golden phrase for everyone from elementary school students to parents!]

[God Yu, your acting is great, but don't act next time! That sprint with your legs clamped together—were you afraid we wouldn't notice you were going to fetch reinforcements?]

[I’m dying of laughter. I bet he’s hiding in the bathroom right now, opening 'Xiao Yuan Search' or 'Homework Help'!]

[The guy above, your scope is too small! I bet God Yu is posting directly to his Moments for help: 'Urgent! Waiting online! It's quite hard!']

[The persona of the omnipotent dad has crumbled into tiny pieces at this moment! But why... do I feel like he’s even cuter now?]

The viewers' guesses were spot on.

At this moment, Chen Yu was leaning against the bathroom door, his fingers tapping rapidly on his phone screen as he uploaded the photo he had just taken to a problem-solving app.

"Hurry up... show me the results already..."

"With how competitive these problem-solving apps are, can't the servers be a bit better? If you delay my moment of showing off, can you afford the consequences!"

He muttered viciously under his breath at the phone screen.

One second, two seconds...

Finally, the screen flashed, and it finished loading!

"Chickens and rabbits are in the same cage; there are thirty-five heads and ninety-four feet. How many chickens and how many rabbits are there?"

Below, a set of standard elementary math competition solutions was clearly listed:

Method 1: The Assumption Method.

Assume all the animals in the cage are chickens; then there should be 35 x 2 = 70 feet.

But in reality, there are 94 feet, which is 94 - 70 = 24 extra feet.

Because swapping one chicken for one rabbit keeps the number of heads the same, but the number of feet increases by 4 - 2 = 2.

Therefore, the 24 extra feet exist because there are 24 / 2 = 12 rabbits.

So, the number of chickens is 35 - 12 = 23.

...

Below that, there were other diverse methods like the algebraic equation method and the "lifting legs" method.

Chen Yu scanned through them quickly, engraving the steps firmly into his mind.

He even spent a few seconds looking through the different methods to ensure there would be no mistakes.

Very good!

A smile of victory curled at the corners of his mouth.

He put on his inscrutable, teacher-like expression once again.

He walked back into the living room.

Niannian was hunched over the desk, her little brows furrowed into a knot, and she was muttering to herself: "If a rabbit had three legs and a chicken had one leg... no, that's not right..."

Seeing her father return, she immediately lifted her head. "Daddy, is your stomach better? I still can't figure it out..."

Chen Yu walked over with his hands behind his back and lovingly patted her head.

"Niannian, don't rush. It's normal not to be able to figure it out; it just means you've encountered a good problem that requires some thinking."

Instead of giving her the answer directly, he picked up a pen and tapped lightly on the draft paper.

"Come, let's try a different approach. Tell me what you were thinking just now, one more time?"

"I was just thinking... if you put one chicken and one rabbit together..."

Niannian’s voice sounded a bit aggrieved.

"Hmm, that approach is too messy."

Chen Yu nodded, his tone full of affirmation. "Let’s do a thought experiment. Close your eyes and imagine that right now, in the cage, there are only chickens and not a single rabbit. Then, how many feet should there be?"

Niannian blinked and quickly reacted: "35 heads, if they were all chickens... that would be 35 times 2, which equals 70 feet!"

"Excellent!"

Chen Yu praised her without hesitation, while writing "35 x 2 = 70" on the paper.

"But, the problem tells us, how many feet are there actually?"

"Ninety-four!" Niannian blurted out.

"Correct. And what is the difference between the 70 feet we calculated and the actual 94 feet?"

"94 minus 70... equals 24!"

Niannian's eyes lit up.

Chen Yu’s smile grew even gentler. "Then think about it, why are there 24 extra feet?"

Niannian’s little brain spun rapidly, and she counted on her fingers: "Because... because we treated the rabbits... as chickens too!"

"Absolutely correct!" Chen Yu snapped his fingers. "Now, every time we swap a fake 'chicken' back into a real rabbit, what happens to the number of feet?"

"A chicken has two feet, and a rabbit has four... if we swap one, the number of feet increases by... by two!"

Niannian was so excited she almost jumped off her chair. She finally understood!

"Then, since there are 24 extra feet in total, how many rabbits does that mean we swapped?"

Chen Yu asked the final question.

"24 divided by 2! That equals 12! There are 12 rabbits!"