I Just Want to Be a Quiet Top Student

London, England, the venue of this year's International Mathematical Olympiad.

In the past few days, Mathematical Olympiad teams from more than 100 countries around the world have arrived in London one after another.

There is an eight-hour time difference between Greenwich Mean Time and the Chinese capital time. The Chinese Mathematical Olympiad national team arrived in London three days ahead of schedule, allowing time for jet lag.

The British organizers arranged for the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad team to stay in a hotel near Waterloo Station, which is not far from London South Bank University and can be reached within a ten-minute walk.

The team leader, deputy team leader, coach, interpreter, logistics staff and six members of the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad team were all satisfied with the accommodation arrangement. The hotel is not luxurious but clean and comfortable. It is also very close to London South Bank University, where the IMO competition is held.

Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an lived in the same room, and both of them persevered until the end, and were selected into the official roster of six for the Chinese Mathematical Olympiad Team.

The two boys of the same age were full of energy. This was their first time in the UK. They didn't want to suffer from jet lag. They packed their luggage at the hotel, and Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an went out to play together.

Of course, they didn't dare to go too far. The two of them walked around the hotel, with a radius of no more than 3 miles.

As soon as he left the hotel gate, Shen Qi discovered something that shocked him.

"Hey, Zhou Yu'an, look here. My English is average, but I know all the English on this brand. If I'm not mistaken, it's impossible for them to sell even a box of strawberries." Shen Qi said in the waterloo street. Stop in front of a supermarket.

There is a sign at the entrance of this Tesco supermarket, which reads in English: "Today's special offer, strawberries 1 pound per box, 3 pounds per two boxes."

Zhou Yu'an's English is pretty good. He quickly understood the offer information, thought for a while and said, "Perhaps the British use a mysterious and special number system, where 1 is directly followed by 3, and there is no 2."

"Hehe, Zhou Yu'an, you've caught my joke. I'd rather believe that this is a clerical error. Let's go, let's go into the supermarket and have a look." Shen Qi dragged Zhou Yu'an into the supermarket together.

After browsing the supermarket for a few minutes, Shen Qi keenly discovered that "strawberry 1 pound/box, 3 pounds/two boxes" was not caused by a clerical error of the supermarket promotion manager.

There is a shelf with chocolate products, among which Hershey’s chocolates are on sale, and the promotion information in the supermarket is: “HEYSHEY’S-30%-off, £18.5.”

"Hey, Zhou Yu'an, take a quick look. The original price of Hershey's chocolates is 15 pounds a box, and 30%-off means 30% off, so the discounted price should be 10.5 pounds a box, and what the hell is this 18.5 pounds?" Shen Qi was lost in thought.

After thinking for a while, Zhou Yu'an said, "This store wants to close down and keep customers away?"

Seeing the endless stream of local customers coming and going, Shen Qi shook his head: "However, this is not the case. You see, this supermarket has a lot of customers, and it can be said that the business is booming. I am also surprised that some customers actually buy strawberries and strawberries. When it’s good, there’s still a lot!”

Zhou Yu'an carefully observed a cash register not far away, "1 pound/box, 3 pounds/two boxes" of promotional strawberries, a British lady bought 8 boxes in one go, she was very happy, as if picking up strawberries. The sky is cheap.

After the British lady paid the bill, a blond guy put 4 boxes of Hershey's chocolates on the cashier counter, smiling, and the sun was shining brightly.

Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an looked at each other, speechless.

"I'm afraid...the residents in this area are all fools, right?" Shen Qi deduced this hypothesis.

"Obviously, this is a black shop, and the customers are all fools." Zhou Yu'an nodded, agreeing with Shen Qi's assumption.

"London, capital of finance, capital of fashion, capital of football, capital of idiots?" Shen Qi further deduced the second hypothesis.

"It's also possible that the people of London are generally rich. After all, it's the capital of an empire where the sun never sets. It's understandable that people are stupid and rich." Zhou Yu'an added a supplementary hypothesis based on Shen Qi's.

"Olympic mathematics competition, the Olympic Games in the mathematics world, a quiz competition for people with high IQs, Zhou Yu'an, why do you arrange it to be held in the capital of foolish hats?"

"Maybe it's to highlight... the contrast between cuteness?"

The two Chinese boys paced among a group of whites, blacks and Indians, feeling that the world is so big and full of wonders, and it was worthwhile to come out and learn a lot.

"Zhou Yu'an, you're here, you can't go back empty-handed, let's buy something, after all, it's produced in England." Shen Qi took a shopping basket, stopped and walked, and picked up some snacks from the shelf.

Zhou Yu'an was relatively frugal, so he bought a toothpaste and held it in his hand: "When I entered the customs, my Zhonghua toothpaste was confiscated by the British as dangerous biochemicals. I have to buy a toothpaste to deal with it for a few days."

"Give me the toothpaste, I'll pay for it together." Shen Qi took the toothpaste from Zhou Yu'an's hand and put it in his basket.

Lining up in front of the cash register, Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an waited to pay.

A few minutes later, the two came to the cashier, and Shen Qi put his shopping basket on the cashier.

"Hello." The cashier girl said in English, she was a young red-haired white girl.

"Yeah." Shen Qi nodded and didn't speak.

The cashier girl quickly took out items from the shopping basket, scanned the QR code, and the cashier computer displayed the total amount: £33.50.

"33 pounds and 50 pence." The cashier girl said to Shen Qi.

"Water?" Shen Qi was puzzled.

"33 pounds... 50 pence." The cashier girl repeated, slowing down.

Shen Qi said to Zhou Yu'an: "I bought a box of biscuits for 5.8 pounds, a muffin for 4.6 pounds, three donuts for 5.4 pounds, and five packs of potato chips. The unit price of each pack of potato chips is 2 pounds. Buy five packs With a 20% discount, plus Zhou Yu'an's £2.20 for your toothpaste, together with the 7% GST here, I should pay £27.82 for our consumption, not £33.50, which can't be calculated as a result of 33.50. "

"That's right, it is indeed 27 pounds and 82 pence." Zhou Yu'an also mentally calculated the total amount in a short period of time.

"Hey, young gentlemen, do you need these products?" The cashier girl saw that Shen Qi and Zhou Yu'an were talking for a long time, and she couldn't understand Chinese, so she reminded her and remained patient enough.

"Sorry." Shen Qi said apologetically to the cashier girl, and then said to Zhou Yu'an: "Your oral English is 6, please tell this red-haired lady the consumption details I just said, and translate it into English."

"OK." Zhou Yu'an nodded, and said to the cashier girl in English, "Ma'am, I think you miscalculated our consumption amount."

The cashier girl shook her head resolutely: "Impossible, this is the result of computer calculations."

Zhou Yu'an reported the details in one breath, and his spoken English is very fluent: "A box of biscuits is 5.8 pounds, a muffin is 4.6 pounds, three donuts are 5.4 pounds, a toothpaste is 2.2 pounds, and five packs of potato chips enjoy 20% discount A subtotal of £8, including 7% GST, brings us to £27 82p, which we think is a reasonable and correct amount."

The cashier girl was stunned for a moment: "You... what are you talking about?"

Zhou Yu'an was also stunned: "I speak English, don't you understand?"