txolops Chapter 22 Semifinals
Chapter 22 Semifinals
The National Mathematical Olympiad semi-finals were held at a science and technology university in the province.
This is good news for Su Hao.
He had been vaguely worried that he might have to go to the capital again.
It's not that I have any prejudice against that city, it's just that the traffic there is as congested as a person's meridians when they're in a state of mental breakdown.
The air was so polluted that it was hard to breathe; every time I went there, I felt like I had a suffocating feeling in my chest that I couldn't exhale.
"Do your best on the exam. I'll pick you up later!"
"Okay!"
Outside the main gate of the University of Science and Technology, traffic was completely jammed.
Su Hao decisively opened the car door and got out early. After watching his father's car slowly merge into the congested lane, he walked alone along the tree-lined road into the depths of the campus.
Along the way, Shen Yuxuan's incessant nagging seemed to echo in my mind again.
Before parting last time, Teacher Shen grabbed his shoulders and shook him wildly, giving him countless instructions and reminders.
"Su Hao! Don't expect the examiners to fully understand your wildly different train of thought!"
Do you really think that all of the hundreds of exam papers across the country were personally graded by top-tier professors?
Among those teaching assistants who were conscripted to grade papers, many were simply not quick-witted enough!
Remember this: how should you write your answers?
"Write out the steps in detail! In a way that anyone, even the old doorman, can understand!"
"Remember! Those obvious logical chains that your brain automatically skips, you absolutely cannot omit on the answer sheet, understand?!"
I'm begging you, please give the examiners a break!
This sermon, delivered like a high-ranking Mahayana monk chanting scriptures, was so enticing that it felt like his ears were about to sprout relics.
He quickened his pace toward the teaching building.
Upon arriving at the science building, I found my examination room by following the numbers on my admission ticket.
Splash!
The moment the classroom door was pushed open, countless complex gazes swept over the once quiet examination room.
"Holy crap, is that the kid?"
"Are you kidding me? Elementary school students can participate in the domestic semi-finals of the International Mathematical Olympiad?!"
"There have been precedents abroad as well."
I heard that Ilya was 10 years old when he participated in the competition, but seeing him alive still seems a bit unbelievable...
Listening to the whispers around him, deliberately hushed yet clearly audible, Su Hao remained unmoved; he was already used to this kind of scene.
But I really want to grow up quickly, even if it's just a few years forward on the timeline, so I don't have to be stared at like a rare animal every day.
Splash!
The door was pushed open again.
"Is everyone here? Put your admission tickets on the table, get ready to start the exam."
The moment the proctor pushed open the door, the previously noisy examination room was instantly silenced.
Su Hao looked up and saw a female teacher with thin-rimmed glasses and sharp eyes walking onto the podium, followed by a young male teaching assistant with messy hair and unkempt clothes.
This combination seems inexplicably absurd and incongruous, but in the special context of a math exam, it inexplicably appears to be extremely harmonious.
The bell rang, and the exam papers, still carrying the cool scent of ink, were handed out one by one.
Only the sound of breathing could be heard in the examination room.
For Su Hao, what follows is his absolute territory all to himself.
Soon, Su Hao, like a ruthless answering machine, swiftly answered the first few questions with a speed that would infuriate the proctor.
When his gaze fell on the sixth question, a faint smile finally appeared on his otherwise expressionless, handsome face.
"Oh? This geometry problem is interesting."
That is a topic worth pondering deeply and one that brings pleasure.
In his mind, a three-dimensional coordinate plane suddenly unfolded, with countless points and lines crisscrossing in the void.
"I see, it's about the angle of reflection."
Three points are evenly distributed on the circumcircle, and the orthocenter H is slightly off-center.
The position vector of the orthocenter is equal to the sum of the position vectors of the three vertices. If a coordinate system is established with the circumcenter as the origin...
The triangle formed by the three intersection points exhibits unparalleled symmetry!
At this moment, Su Hao's eyes lit up, and the corners of his mouth involuntarily turned up slightly.
The distances from the circumcenter to each intersection point are perfectly equal, and these points, together with the foot triangle of the original triangle, form a connection that is both cold and beautiful, like the movement of stars.
The seemingly simple graphic with only a few lines actually hides such a magnificent geometric structure!
The person who set the question must have been captivated by the beautiful symmetry of reflection and transformation, which is why they devised this ingenious scheme!
"Um? 』
Su Hao, who was enjoying the thrill of solving the problem, suddenly sensed a suspiciously intense and fanatical aura coming from behind him.
Swish!
A sense of alertness stemming from biological instinct caused the hairs on his arms to stand on end instantly, raising a layer of fine goosebumps.
He didn't dare to turn around abruptly, but instead glanced to the side out of the corner of his eye.
That glance almost startled him.
The proctor, Liu Zhiyun, had somehow appeared behind him like a ghost, her eyes gleaming as she stared at his answer sheet!
She uttered a strange, joyful exclamation in a barely audible voice, as if she had seen a priceless treasure.
"Yes...that's it! It's perfect!"
She probably didn't even realize that she had excitedly shouted out her true feelings!
Su Hao silently turned around and met her gaze.
Liu Zhiyun instantly showed a startled expression, as if she had been caught doing something wrong.
"Cough...cough!"
She coughed twice, trying to cover up her misunderstanding, and walked back to the podium with stiff steps, feigning composure.
However, even after returning to the podium, this respected professor's suspicious behavior not only did not stop, but intensified!
She would either pretend to walk by casually, then crane her neck as if she wanted to gouge her eyes out and stick them on Su Hao's test paper.
Even when standing far away, they would occasionally glance at Su Hao, their eyes flashing with fervor and disbelief.
He looked just like a little dog that was in a hurry to go to the toilet but couldn't find a telephone pole, pacing around anxiously, almost wagging his tail!
The teaching assistant standing behind her was on the verge of a breakdown, desperately mouthing exaggerated words to her, his hands clasped together, and tears were welling up in his eyes!
It was as if they were desperately pleading with this ancestor, "You're supposed to be a leading figure in academia, please stop this shameful behavior!!"
beep—
Just as Su Hao was observing the two clowns and idly twirling his pen, the bell finally rang, signaling the end of the exam.
Liu Zhiyun's expression, which had been like that of a fervent fan, vanished instantly, instantly switching back to her dignified, icy demeanor as she strode onto the stage.
"Time's up, everyone stop writing and hand in your papers immediately. Results will be announced within two weeks."
Before the students gradually got up and left the examination room, Liu Zhiyun couldn't help but steal a glance at Su Hao, who was packing up his stationery.
She could feel her heart still pounding wildly.
Just a few days ago, the news that teaching assistant Xiao Zhang rushed into the office was like a nuclear bomb exploding in her mental world!
"Professor! A student used their answer sheet from the first exam... to create a Latin square!"
"What did you say?!"
At that moment, Liu Zhiyun pushed her office chair away, stood up abruptly, knocked over a cup on the table, and spilled tea all over the table without even noticing.
But when she used her privileges to investigate her background, she was completely dumbfounded.
The other person is just an elementary school student?!
Not a high school student! Not a middle school student!
Is this a primary school student who hasn't even gone through puberty yet?!
Liu Zhiyun felt a shock that was almost suffocating.
No matter how gifted a child is, they still need a long time to hone their skills and mature.
This is an ironclad rule.
But Su Hao's existence seemed to have severed the cause and effect of time, completely detaching himself from this cold and universal law of the world!
After a long period of stunned silence, she finally came to her senses, and a surge of joy welled up inside her.
"Ilya! After all, there are precedents like Ilya in the world!"
Just like a gift bestowed upon humanity by gods to demonstrate miracles to mortals, this kind of irrational and unconventional existence has existed throughout history and across the world.
What if I were to stumble upon such incredible luck in this remote, impoverished place, winning the lottery jackpot and discovering a genius capable of revolutionizing the world?
She frantically inquired about Su Hao from the Mathematics Society, and the feedback she received sent chills down her spine.
In every competition this child participates in, he always comes in first place without a doubt!
The scariest thing is that he signed up for the high school division competition!
From that moment on, Liu Zhiyun secretly swore an oath to all the gods and Buddhas in the heavens:
No matter what, even if it means binding him, we must firmly bind this exceptionally talented young man, Su Hao, to the chariot of the mathematics world!
To this end, she almost obsessively revised the interview questions overnight.
The sixth question was a geometry problem, extremely difficult, almost beyond the syllabus to an absurd degree...
But once solved, it will surely immerse you in the mysterious beauty of geometric shapes that points directly to the ultimate universe.
This was a test, but also a seduction!
"Damn it, even if the King of Heaven himself comes, I absolutely won't let him get away this time!"
Liu Zhiyun felt like vomiting blood just thinking about the current state of the mathematics community in China.
Although my country leads the world in the number of gold medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad, only a handful of people continue to delve deeply into mathematics and make significant contributions to the field.
Even if a few geniuses are lured in by "ideals" to study mathematics, most of them will quickly switch to quantitative funds or internet giants after graduation, happily jumping ship to earn millions in annual salary.
The underlying reason is very real, and also quite frustrating:
In Chinese society, pure mathematicians are not highly regarded.
Knowledge that cannot be immediately monetized is seen by many as a skill for slaying dragons.
Looking back at France, whose performance in the Olympiads was mediocre, how did they suddenly become a mathematics powerhouse?
Because their society holds mathematicians in an almost religious awe and respect.
They acknowledge the endless and brutal journey of those lone heroes as they face the vast unknown.
They respect the pain and romance of those who, in their quest for absolute truth, toil away until their hair turns white, struggling relentlessly.
"How could anyone bear to give up such a beautiful subject?"
Liu Zhiyun gritted her teeth, utterly unable to comprehend it.
If she were that exceptionally intelligent student, the one whose forehead had been kissed by a god...
She could never give up the pure, ultimate intellectual pleasure that comes from exploring the fundamental laws of the universe and getting infinitely close to absolute truth!
But this time, she had the confidence.
That child named Su Hao, in the preliminary test, even went so far as to deliberately write the wrong answers and lose points, just like a fanatic, to piece together the Latin square she envisioned on the answer sheet!
What does this mean?
This means that deep within that child's soul, there flows the blood that understands digital aesthetics!
He is a seeker of truth who would give up grades for the sake of beauty!
At such a young age, he has already displayed such terrifying and unreasonable mathematical talent.
Once his bones have fully grown and his brain has fully matured...
How far will he grow?
For decades, the huge pie of mathematics has been dominated by Westerners in Europe and America.
In China's mathematics community, the term "alignment" is euphemistically used, but to put it bluntly, it means picking up the leftovers of others' research and acting as a subservient "outsourcing contractor."
Every time Liu Zhiyun thinks about this, she feels extremely heartbroken and aggrieved.
"If only there were more geniuses in China who could persevere in studying mathematics, how wonderful that would be..."
This daydream-like thought had reverberated in her mind more than once or twice in despair.
After learning the results of the preliminary round, Liu Zhiyun managed to suppress the urge to rush to the child's hometown and have a heart-to-heart talk with him, thanks to her great rationality.
But when she saw with her own eyes the answer to question six that Su Hao had submitted, her scholarly composure and patience were finally shattered.
A flawless proof.
Every step of the solution written on the exam paper is like a meticulous work of art!
The seamless logical chain deeply touched her heartstrings, even giving her an urge to shed tears.
As long as we can win Su Hao over.
Even if he's all alone!
This is more than enough to make up for the countless talents lost by the domestic mathematics community in recent years, and even more than enough.
In any case, this field never relies on sheer numbers; a true genius is enough to lead the entire academic community to leapfrog forward!
but……
How should I convince them?
The professor, who wielded considerable influence in academia, panicked.
She's never done anything like this before, humbling herself to persuade students to stay.
Because those ugly and deformed people in the past were not worthy of her opening her mouth at all!