Chapter 25: A Time of Tranquility

　"Hey Napoleon, aren't you good at math? How come you didn't do a single problem today?" On the way to the library, a classmate came up from behind and yelled at Napoleon with a smirk.

　　Napoleon frowned but said nothing. Instead, another classmate beside him responded unconvincingly, "Bonoire, those questions were indeed too hard. I dare say that even though Mr. Joseph gave an explanation at the end, you still wouldn't be able to do the original questions even if you took them out. Because you can't even read the questions!"

　　"So what? I've never bragged about being good at math." Bonova laughed out loud, "There's another class on military geometry in two days, so then, we'll see if our math genius will be unable to do a single question again!"

　　Bonoix laughed while he turned a corner and went the other way - a noble cadet like him who had come to gild the lily wouldn't have been able to honestly go into the library and study on his own after class.

　　"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 Benoit's distant figure.

　　"Anderson, I don't care about them at all. It's you, on the other hand, who's getting carried away." 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 him. Right? But what about you? You just actually competed with a dog to see who has a louder voice, that's really ..."

　　"You have a point." Anderson rubbed his head and said, "If I had a big stick in my hand, I would of course hit it on the nose without saying a word. But the problem is, don t I not have a big enough stick in my hand, you know, although he is a vicious dog, but it is a dog with a knighthood, and I, ... the stick in his hand is bigger than mine. To rush up like that, I mostly could not beat the evil dog, but not saying a word made me angry. 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 the project of comparing who's the bigger fool first, and then use his vast experience in making fools to run you over. As much of an asshole as that guy is, there's a lot of truth in what he says."

　　At that, Napoleon couldn't help but grit his teeth again.

　　Indeed, Joseph was just too much of an asshole. During the class, he first gave several questions under the pretext of understanding everyone's current math level, and then "randomly named" the students to answer the questions on the blackboard. The first few questions were so simple that no fool could get them wrong - and they did. But then, at the end of the day, Joseph came up with another question - and damn it, it wasn't that hard, it was just an obscure trap in the conditions, and some deliberately misleading language. Then Napoleon was called up, and then, wary of Joseph, Napoleon complicated the problem himself, and ended up failing to do it in the allotted time. Then Joseph politely told Napoleon to go back to his seat, and proceeded to quickly show the correct answer to the problem in an extremely concise manner - an answer that even the dummies could understand, and all had the illusion that I could actually do it. (A common feeling of the underclassmen when faced with a lot of math problems is that they "know it when they hear it, know it when they see it, and get it wrong when they do it". Of course, if they had followed Napoleon when he was pondering on the blackboard, they might have realized that it wasn't that simple, but the problem was that they were scum because they didn't have to use their brains as much as they could.)

　　Then, towards the end of the class, Joseph asked another question to "test your mastery of what you have learned today". Then he used the excuse that he was "the only one who failed to answer the previous question" as an excuse to order Napoleon up again. And this question was really difficult. As a result, Napoleon still hadn't done it until the end of class. (Hell, it was only two or three minutes from the end of class at that point, so how could he possibly do it?)

　　"This guy is really an asshole! I have to study hard, but I can't let this asshole get away with this again!" Napoleon secretly gave himself a pep talk in his heart.

　　As the two men talked, they walked into the library.

　　While it was still light, the two went to the stacks and borrowed two books, then went to the reading room together. In order to ensure the safety of the books, fire and candles were strictly forbidden in the library, so as soon as the sky darkened, the library could not be used. (This was basically the case in libraries all over the world in the days before electric light was invented.) However, the reading room of the library of the Ecole des Officers in Paris was able to provide free lighting - as long as one had a student ID card, one could apply for a white candle in an iron candlestick, so the reading room could still be used at night.

　　Napoleon and Anderson claimed their candles and entered the reading room with their books, ready to find a brighter place to sit against a window and read while it was still dark. After all, the time a candle could last was rather limited.

　　At that moment, a man who was reading 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 that way and saw Joseph looking at him with a big smile on his face.

　　"Shit!" Napoleon gritted his teeth, but walked over.

　　"Hello Mr. Joseph." Anderson bowed politely.

　　"Anderson, did you understand everything that was said today?" Joseph asked with a smile.

　　"Teacher, at first I felt like I should have understood it, but when I saw that question at the end, 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 grasping the basics and learning to apply them practically." Joseph nodded, and with that he turned to Napoleon, "So Napoleon, have you figured out how to solve that question now?"

　　"I know how to answer it now." Napoleon said a little unconvincingly, "As a matter of fact, I could have solved it if I had only been given a little more time at the time."

　　"Speed in solving a problem is just as much an indication of mastery of knowledge." Joseph butted in like this.

　　"So you are 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, "In terms of calculations, Mr. Monge is indeed much better than me. But in my opinion, my calculation speed is already enough to support my research. But Napoleon, if you hope to pass your graduation exams early, your current problem solving skills are not quite enough."

　　"Ah, Napoleon, you want to graduate early?" Anderson was taken aback.

　　"Yes, my family is financially strapped and needs me to earn money early." Napoleon said, "Also, I'd like to get into the army as early 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 at least really have the level of proficiency that a true graduate should have." Joseph added.

　　Napoleon understood that the "true graduates" that Joseph was talking about did not include the great nobles who had come to gild the lily, nor did it even necessarily include the average graduate. The "true graduates" probably meant the "outstanding graduates". However, this kind of high demand did not make Napoleon feel resentful, because in his opinion, it was only right for him to meet such a demand.

　　"Napoleon, if you want to graduate early, you must be very good." Joseph continued, "I've heard about your intentions, so I've long since prepared a set of practice questions for you."

　　As he said that, Joseph fished out a small notebook from inside a bag sitting next to him before handing it to Napoleon.

　　"Do it properly!" 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 and reading. Sometimes he also wrote letters to discuss with Monge and Laplace on certain math problems. He also published a few more papers one after another. Besides, Joseph, who had already solved the problem of food, brought his brother Lucien to Paris and arranged for him to enter the school of Louis the Great.

　　As for Napoleon, he had already asked the school to take his graduation exams early. For this he was studying furiously.

　　The days passed so slowly that the skirts of the goddess of spring swung and drifted away without even a decent spring shower. After the dry spring, the dry summer came.

　　The price of bread in Paris had risen again, by a quarter of what it had been at the end of the previous year.

　　This price increase was still within Joseph's reach, but for the average commoner it was a very serious problem. Parisians in this era have not had the habit of taking to the streets to demonstrate, some in Paris can not use the normal way to survive, they have to leave Paris, go to the countryside, or simply go to the Americas to find a way out. Others, who could not survive in the normal way, took to the road of survival in abnormal ways, such as theft, or even robbery.

　　However, these things still did not threaten Joseph, who rarely left the school, and who was beyond the reach of burglars and the like. In fact, burglars or robbers, they could only pose a real danger to those who also lived at the bottom of the social ladder. As for those upper class people, not to mention the high class aristocrats, even the so-called "middle class" is not easy for these people to jeopardize. This is one of the reasons why some white leftists in the later times can continue to sing in a high pitch, ignoring all the problems brought about by the decline of social security.