I hung my backpack on the coat rack and took out my math reference book, solving the permutation and combination problems one by one, step by step.

  I'm considered one of the top math students in my css, but being unshowered, I was having trouble focusing. On top of that, many of the permutation and combination questions were filled with tricky traps and unclear phrasing. Within ten minutes, I had made five mistakes in a row.

  “This is weird. Seven girls and eight boys are sitting around a round table for a New Year's Eve dinner, but Mary and John are upset at each other, so they can't sit together. Meanwhile, Peter and Tom are really close friends and have to sit together. How many seating arrangements are there for these 15 people?”

  I propped my chin up, feeling a bit frustrated.

  This kind of problem is really strange; I don't know which mathematician, cking social knowledge, invented this prank.

  Since Mary and John can't stand each other and refuse to sit together, and Peter and Tom must sit together, does that mean the seating arrangements of the other eleven people don't matter at all?

  Even if person A doesn't dislike person B, it doesn't necessarily mean that person A wants to sit next to person B. Perhaps person A secretly likes person C and will do everything possible to sit next to them!

  What's more likely is that the fifteen people are sitting around a round table eating together, and perhaps they're all food lovers, each prioritizing sitting in a spot closest to their favorite dish. Therefore, the question should provide more details about the food options and the personal preferences of each individual for the problem solver's reference. Otherwise, blindly guessing isn't really a solution.

  No matter how many people are sitting around a round table, whether it's for eating or just chatting, there are always certain rules and underlying interpersonal dynamics involved. So, the answer to the question is actually quite restricted, and purely solving the problem is really quite dull.

  However, from another perspective, who ends up sitting with whom was already predestined long before the question even formed, wasn′t it?

  Everything is like this—the answers are already clearly etched in everyone′s minds before the questions even arise.

  “So, this kind of problem is really boring and adds no value to life.”

  But I know that if I continue with this “pragmatic” mindset, I won’t be able to solve a single problem. So, I resignedly turn the page and try to solve the next question that cks common social knowledge.

  Then my older brother came in, holding a towel on his head.

  “It stinks so much; go take a shower,” he said, plopping down on the bed and picking up the hair dryer to blow his hair with a loud buzzing sound.

  “Wait a minute, I′ll go after I finish this problem,” I replied, biting the end of my pen, the eraser on my pencil becoming crooked from my bite.

  As the math prodigy in my css, I can't afford to fall under the sniper attack of permutations and combinations.

  Our house is small, so my brother and I have always shared a room. I originally thought that once my brother went to college, I would finally have my own little space all to myself.

  To my surprise, my brother got into Chung Hua University, which is also in Hsinchu. To save money and to bully me, he didn’t move out to rent a pce and, as usual, stayed at home, continuing to infect me with his hopelessly immature behavior.

  Now my idiot brother, shirtless and yawning, is holding the hair dryer and using the hot air to attack the back of my head with a buzzing sound.

  “You're really boring; no wonder you can't get a girlfriend,” I said, feeling my hair getting all messed up.

  “Hehe, it’s not like I care about not having a girlfriend,” my brother ughed, looking totally ridiculous.

  “Oh, really? How does someone spend two years in college and still not manage to get a single girlfriend?” I retorted.

  Though I know my brother's been busy with part-time jobs and going crazy with club activities, leaving him no time to meet any blind and tasteless girls.

  “My dear little sister, if I really wanted to chase girls, sigh, what department beauty or campus queen wouldn’t fall for me in a heartbeat? It's just that the girl worthy of me hasn't appeared yet. All the dumb girls around me are as unremarkable as you. How could I even bother chasing them?” my brother said, oozing narcissism.

  “I′ll be watching,” I said, fixing my hair and returning to solving the ecological crisis of the “chickens and rabbits in the same cage” problem.

  My brother dabbed a bit of hair gel and smeared it onto his hair, messing it up into a bird's nest so hideous even chickens would want to flee. Standing in front of the half-length mirror, he let out a self-satisfied, ridiculous ugh.

  It seems college doesn't just create smiles—it also creates utterly invincible idiots.

  “Speaking of not having a girlfriend, hehe, I heard a hirious true story during our club activity today. Let me tell you about it,” my brother said, talking to the mirror. Every night, he would share one or two new stories about school life.

  “There’s this thing called math, and math requires full concentration,” I said seriously.

  In truth, I was deeply interested in anything my brother said about college. It felt like I was living vicariously through him, as if I were already experiencing the university life I yearned for.

  “You know NTHU, right?” my brother asked as he wound up the hair dryer cord and y down on the bed.

  “Of course I know. I work part-time at the NTHU night market. Are you being an idiot?” I replied absentmindedly, my eyes still fixed on the abstract, deceptively unrealistic chickens and rabbits in the problem.

  “Heh, today a bunch of us went to NTHU to discuss midterm teaching arrangements with their roller-skating club,” my brother said, kicking at the inline skates hanging by the bed.

  “What’s midterm teaching?” I turned to him.

  “It’s where we go to middle schools and high schools to promote inline skating. Ugh, it's basically just to take photos for club activity records. When the annual club evaluations come around, we use it as evidence to apply for funding,” he expined zily.

  “We went to their skating practice area, eating braised snacks while we talked. It was supposed to be serious, but damn it, I ran into a true genius of bad luck. What was his name again? I've already forgotten—was it A-Tu? Or maybe Ah Du?” My brother mumbled to himself.

  “Doesn’t matter what his name is—what did he do?” I reminded him to stay on track with his story.

  “Hmph, you’re not concentrating on your math, are you?” My brother said, as if he'd uncovered my deepest secret, looking strangely proud of himself for some reason.

  “You're so childish, you ridiculous college student. Just tell me about this unlucky weirdo already—don’t leave me hanging, thanks.” I sneakily gnced at the answer in the reference book, silently memorizing the solution method.

  “Fine, let′s call him A-Tu. A-Tu is part of NTHU's skating club. He's a junior, but I'd never seen him before. Today, when their junior-year club president was introducing their members to us, the whole thing was so hirious I literally spat out a braised egg from my mouth,” my brother said, lightly kicking his inline skates as he earnestly mimicked the NTHU skating club president.

  Patting the air next to him as if introducing someone, he said, “This is our new member, A-Tu. His most notable achievement is… his girlfriend of a year and a half was stolen by a lesbian st year around this time! He′s been single ever since and is now desperately seeking a girlfriend!”

  My brother then burst into exaggerated ughter, cpping so hard his face turned red from ck of oxygen.

  I couldn't help but find it pretty funny too.

  A grown man being introduced like that—poor A-Tu must have been utterly humiliated.

  “Then we all started throwing jabs, asking him if something wasn’t working down there or if he’d been hit in the wrong spot by a bowling ball as a kid. Someone even gave him the phone number for Jianhua Chinese Medicine Clinic, the one from those over-the-top cable TV ads ciming to fix… you know, ‘can’t get it up’ issues. We told him to go get it sorted. It was absolutely hirious!” My brother said, finally managing to stop ughing.

  “But A-Tu just scratched his head, completely at a loss, not even the slightest bit angry. It was like he'd built up immunity to situations like that. Haha, he’s honestly such a good-natured idiot!”

  “Maybe the club president of Qing Da was just joking? Even if it′s true, maybe the girl who got stolen away by the lesbian was also a lesbian herself but just didn′t realize it before?” I couldn't help but say, but my brother shook his head vigorously.

  (T/N: Qingda (清大) is a common abbreviation for Tsing Hua University (清華大學) in both China (Beijing) and Taiwan (Hsinchu). National Tsing Hua University (NTHU, 國立清華大學) – Located in Hsinchu, Taiwan, known for its strong programs in science, engineering, and technology. Tsing Hua University (THU), located in Beijing, China, is one of the most prestigious universities in the world, excelling in engineering, technology, business, and humanities.)

  “Oh no~ I don’t think so. Later, an ugly girl from Qing Da told me in private that A-Tu was her cssmate in the Department of Nuclear Engineering, and she knew all about A-Tu's embarrassing story. That girlfriend of A-Tu's started dating him when he was a senior in high school. Afterward, A-Tu went to the rather niche Engineering and Systems Science department at Qing Da, and the girl studied Management Science at Jiaoda. The two schools are practically stuck together, so it's only natural their retionship would have gone smoothly, right? Haha! The funny part is this: that girl ended up being pursued and won over by a lesbian after starting college! That turned A-Tu into a huge joke, and every time he goes to mixers or gets introduced by someone, this story gets brought up again. It's been repeated so many times that A-Tu's facial nerves have gone numb from the embarrassment! Hahahahahahaha!” My brother started ughing again.

  I ughed too, even though Mr. A-Tu, whose girlfriend was snatched away by a lesbian, is undeniably a complete loser. He really deserves a tear of sympathy rather than a bellyful of ughter.

  But as one commercial says, “If you can kiss, don’t speak.” I think, if you can ugh, then don't cry.

  “Mr. A- Tu is only a junior, right? Poor guy, I guess he's going to be ughed at for two more full years?” I chuckled softly.

  “Not just that, no matter how hard A-Tu tries to change his image, there are three mandatory credits in college: academics, clubs, and love. As for love, A-Tu is already doomed to get zero points,” my brother started ughing again.

  “Why?” I didn't understand.

  “Not only did A-Tu lose all his face, but that ugly girl also said that A-Ta′s masculinity has been completely stripped away by this huge joke. Think about it—his girlfriend was taken away by a lesbian, which means A-Tu's performance in the most essential area just wasn't manly enough! So A-Tu's confidence has been in freefall, constantly dropping, bottoming out!”

  My brother turned on the bedside mp and casually grabbed a comic, flipping it open.

  That's true; a guy without confidence can't take any action toward the girl he likes.

  Moreover, no girl would like a guy without confidence—it's like taking in a helpless little boy who's homeless and has a runny nose.

  “I can only say, college really has all kinds of people and stories,” I said, closing the reference book.

  Mr. A- Tu, a moment of silence for you.