Otaku Translation: Literary Genius: This Kid Was Born Smart C156

Please support the translation by reading the translation and commenting on otakutl official site.

Thank you.

Everyone from Otaku Translation

Chapter 156: Hanging the Banner

This truly demonstrated understanding and emotional stability. If it were him, he’d definitely have gotten angry—oh well!

Gu Lu’s train of thought suddenly froze. Come to think of it, he really had just shrugged it off when Lü Ping hadn’t turned in his essay for three days.

"What if something important came up at home? Like extra physical training or something? I should’ve asked. I was a bit harsh on Lü Ping—after all, he gave me two potted plants!" Gu Lu realized he’d learned something valuable from his desk mate once again.

With lightning speed, Gu Lu caught up to Lü Ping, who was already at the school gate.

"Hey, you still haven’t finished your essay after three days. Is there something going on at home?" Gu Lu appeared beside Lü Ping, asking casually.

The sudden appearance startled Lü Ping, who was munching on crispy fried potatoes. The burly athlete flinched backward.

"Bro Gu Lu, want some crispy potatoes? My treat," Lü Ping offered.

Crispy fried potatoes were simple—chunks of potato fried until golden brown, fragrant and cheap.

"Sure." Gu Lu nodded, waiting until he had the snack in hand before continuing, "You still haven’t finished your essay after three days. Is there a reason? Let’s talk about it."

Lü Ping was speechless. Wasn’t food supposed to shut people up?

"Cough, cough—it’s mainly because I don’t know how to start. You could say… I’m stuck. Yeah, writer's block. I saw the prompt but couldn’t figure out how to begin," Lü Ping explained.

"Is that really the reason? Nothing else?" Gu Lu pressed. "Like extra training at night, or maybe your parents arguing, leaving you too distracted to write? Or perhaps you wrote several drafts but weren’t satisfied with them—show me the scrapped ones if that’s the case."

"..." Lü Ping hesitated. "Nah, nothing like that. I’ve just been lazy lately. After finishing homework, I feel like doing nothing else. But I promise I’ll write it today, even if I’m stuck."

So it was laziness. Alright then. Gu Lu retracted his earlier guilt.

"Hmm—the crispy potatoes are pretty good," Gu Lu remarked before parting ways with Lü Ping to head home.

Back home, a mountain of tasks awaited Gu Lu. If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t need to do homework, even growing two extra hands wouldn’t be enough.

He tackled the easier assignments first, saving the challenging math problems for last.

Logging into his account as "Gu Lu the Great," he scrolled through the comments.

Wen Baiyu: [Will there be a signing event for ? According to the news, sales have surpassed 300,000 copies. Why isn’t there a single signing event?]

Laughing Fatso: [Hahaha, “Young .” Domestic newspapers really dare to make these comparisons. Wilde is a towering figure in European literary history! Just because The Little Prince and sound similar doesn’t mean they can compare!]

Nodens: [Wilde was indeed brilliant—a representative of aestheticism—but personally, I think The Little Prince is better than The Happy Prince.]

And so on.

With 150,000 followers, Gu Lu was surprised to see arguments breaking out in the comment section.

Reading further, he noticed debates over whether Wilde was more impressive during his youth or if Gu Lu himself was superior now.

"This atmosphere feels a bit off…" Gu Lu felt uneasy about posting anything here.

He remembered he had another social media platform.

! He’d created an account hoping to become one of those early influential creators, but he never figured out what content to post.

"Perfect! I’ll read aloud . Time for my debut!"

Using his laptop’s built-in webcam, Gu Lu began recording—

---

The next morning, as soon as Gu Lu entered the school gates, he spotted a banner hanging proudly:

[Congratulations to , Class 10, Grade 2014, for winning the only gold medal for in the ! He has also qualified for the and will participate in the IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad).

Sincerely congratulatory!

Grade 2014

November 24, 2012]

"That’s incredible! Grade 2014 means 11th graders," Gu Lu muttered, impressed. Banners like this were reserved exclusively for award-winning competition participants.

If writing were involved, how could one earn such recognition?

Gu Lu pondered. It seemed nearly impossible.

To think, in 2012, Chongqing wasn’t particularly strong in math olympiads. Even failing to make the national team warranted a banner, but within a decade, Chongqing would rise to rank among the top ten nationwide…

Today was Wednesday, the second most anticipated day of the week for students (Friday being the first).

Basketball club activities.

A scrimmage match between 10th and 11th graders. Most of the key players were from the 11th grade, so the 10th graders were predictably crushed. However, Lü Ping stood out as an exception.

It wasn’t that Lü Ping’s basketball skills were extraordinary—he wasn’t exactly from —but his athleticism made it hard for defenders to stop him without double-teaming.

After twenty minutes (half-court game time), the score was 21-32, with the 10th-grade team trailing.

"Ping, you’re awesome!"

"You’re insane!"

"Narrow loss—we almost won!"

The members praised each other.

"You’re so ducking amazing," Gu Lu chimed in, exhausted from the high-intensity workout. Add to that yesterday’s frog jumps, and his thighs felt like steel rods this morning. The double whammy left him drained.

Lü Ping stared at him. "Bro Gu Lu, did I offend you? Why are you cursing at me?"

"Ducking" in referred to male genitalia. Saying someone was "ducking great" essentially meant they were terrible.

"But isn’t ‘ducking’ the same as ‘awesome’? Since we’re close friends, I figured I couldn’t praise you the same way others do. So I switched it up—you know, added some variety. No problem, right?" Gu Lu explained.

Seemingly convinced, Lü Ping accepted the logic.

As the practice continued, Lü Ping kept hearing "ducking amazing" whispered in his ear, making him increasingly uncomfortable.

After the Wednesday club activity ended, Lü Ping finally couldn’t take it anymore. "Can you change the word? Your compliment honestly doesn’t sound good."

"Not good? Are you questioning our friendship?" Gu Lu teased.

"You—" Lü Ping felt defeated, realizing he couldn’t win the argument. "All I did was slack off on my essay. Did I deserve this kind of punishment?"

"Was calling Zeng Ha'er also a punishment?" Gu Lu suddenly asked.

"How is that—" Lü Ping wanted to argue it wasn’t the same, but deep down, he knew it kind of was. Eventually, he muttered, "Your hearts are dirty, twisting words around."

"I was just using an example. Even the best intentions can go wrong if the wording’s off," Gu Lu said. "Like when I praised you this way—it probably didn’t sit well, right?"

There was some truth to it. While Lü Ping disliked studying, he was generally receptive to advice.

Reflecting further, he realized calling Zeng Ha'er wasn’t necessarily about expressing deep affection. Instead, it was more about showing off their closeness—"See how close we are? Even calling you Ha'er doesn’t bother you." It was all self-serving.

Having come to terms with this realization, Lü Ping approached Zeng Jie’s desk after school.

"Zeng Jie, stay seated. I need to talk to you," Lü Ping said, standing tall.

While Lü Ping apologized, elsewhere, If Never Existed had reached the hands of the activity organizer…

https://www.novelupdates.com/series/literary-genius-this-kid-was-born-smart/

If you like this project, please rate or leave a review for this novel through the above link, thank you.

Join our discord you will receive update notification

If you would like to support this translation, you may choose any one of the options below.

All the tiers provide an off-line reading experience

Tier 1: 10 Advance chapters

Access fee $3.00 Monthly