Lillie Mathematics Academy Opens Its Doors to Female Students

Lillie's Academy of Mathematics began as a school founded by Rong Zilai in C City and became notable for admitting women despite public opposition. Its early history joins a family inheritance to a controversial educational decision: the policy exposed the academy to scrutiny, but the ensuing attention helped establish its reputation and preceded its development into N University.

Founding and family support

Before leaving to study abroad, Grandmother Rong had put in writing that Rong Zilai would receive the silver kept behind a sliding panel in her room when he returned. She intended it as a reward for his filial piety. He later used that money to open a school in the provincial capital, naming it Lillie's Academy of Mathematics. The family bequest thus became the material foundation for an institution whose importance extended beyond the original school.

The academy was the predecessor of N University. Its rise to prominence began while it was still known by its original name, linking the later university's beginnings to Rong Zilai's decision to establish the school with inherited funds.

Admission of women and public scrutiny

Rong Zilai insisted that the academy admit women students despite opposition, a decision that shocked people around him. In the social climate described by the narrative, the policy alone might have seemed sufficient to bring official closure. Instead, the academy remained open, and its unusual admissions drew visitors: people travelling to the provincial capital made time to look in, treating the school as a spectacle rather than simply an educational institution.

The official Rong family genealogy offers an explanation for why the academy survived the resulting gossip: its early women students belonged to the principal branch of the Rong family. Keeping the admissions within the family helped prevent public scandal from closing the school. The controversy did not fade quietly; the uproar itself made the academy better known.

Students and growing reputation

A later source of recognition came from a young Rong family member, Rong Youying, who began attending the academy at eleven. At twelve, she competed against an expert abacist. She could multiply two four-digit numbers with startling speed, and mathematical problems that challenged others seemed to come easily to her. Some people suspected she had learned the questions in advance, showing how admiration for the academy's exceptional student could coexist with disbelief and suspicion.

The academy's reputation therefore grew through both its contested admission policy and the abilities of its students. Its founding as a family-supported school, its decision to educate women, and the public response to that decision formed part of the history from which N University emerged.