PFC Chapter 15. Basketball has home and away games. Mathematics doesn't.
Chapter 15. Basketball has home and away games. Mathematics doesn't.
Saturday morning. Jiangcheng Yunding Hillside Villa Area.
Security here is extremely tight. Vehicles entering and exiting require license plate verification, and visitors must be personally confirmed by the resident through the gate's system.
Lin Yu stood outside the gate, wearing a plain black T-shirt without any logo and carrying a backpack over one shoulder. The security guard looked at him with obvious wariness.
A black Maybach slowly drove out of the residential area and stopped in front of the security booth. The rear window rolled down, and Xia Zijing leaned out.
She was still wearing an old school uniform from Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School that was a size too big, with thick black-rimmed glasses pressing down on her nose.
"Get in the car."
Xia Zijin said.
Lin Yu opened the car door and sat in the back seat. The car was very spacious, and the air conditioning was on full blast. The leather seats emitted a faint scent of pine.
The driver glanced at Lin Yu in the rearview mirror, said nothing, and turned around to drive back to the villa area.
"Your home?"
Lin Yu looked out the window at the receding detached buildings and neatly manicured French gardens.
"My dad's."
Xia Zijing took out a stack of bound A4 papers from her school uniform pocket and handed them to Lin Yu. "Copies of all of Zhao Tianyu's provincial physics and mathematics competition answer sheets from his first to second year of high school. Also, four sets of encrypted test papers from the internal training camp of the provincial capital's No. 1 High School."
Lin Yu took the stack of papers. It was over two hundred pages thick.
The car stopped in front of a very large villa. Xia Zijing got out of the car. Lin Yu followed behind.
Passing through the spacious, high-ceilinged living room, devoid of any luxurious European-style furniture, the entire floor has been transformed into a giant open-plan library. The walls are lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, and the floor is scattered with various original foreign language books on science and engineering.
Xia Zijing walked to a long, rectangular wooden table, pulled out a chair, and sat down. On the table were two workstation computers running complex modeling software.
Lin Yu pulled out the chair opposite her. He threw his backpack at his feet and opened the stack of photocopies.
The only sound in the room was the rustling of papers being turned.
Fifteen minutes later.
Lin Yu closed the copy and pushed the pile of papers to the middle of the table.
"I've finished watching it."
Lin Yu said.
Xia Zijing stopped typing and looked up. "Evaluation."
"A qualified test-taker."
Lin Yu leaned back in his chair. "He solves problems very quickly and has a solid foundation. But his understanding of physics is limited to the existing formulaic framework. His computational power limit is the third-order tensor. When faced with calculations involving nonlinear systems and the edge of chaos, he instinctively chooses to avoid them, using lengthy classification discussions to fill in logical loopholes."
Lin Yu tapped the table twice with his slender fingers.
"He was able to score 295 on the combined science exam this time because the difficulty level of that exam was just right at the edge of his comfort zone. The extra 5 points weren't because he couldn't get them, but because the question setter wasn't capable of creating questions at that level of difficulty."
Xia Zijing looked at Lin Yu. The thick glasses couldn't hide the light that suddenly gathered in her eyes.
"Where do you think he ranks in the provincial winter camp?"
Xia Zijin asked.
"If it were a high school syllabus exam, he would be number one."
Lin Yu said calmly, "If he has to take advanced or advanced theory courses for university entrance exams, he'll break down."
Xia Zijing opened the drawer, took out a blank sheet of paper and a pen, and pushed them in front of Lin Yu.
"It's your turn to fulfill your promise. (Essay patch)"
Lin Yu picked up the pen but did not write immediately.
"I looked at all your Chinese language exam papers from the past year yesterday."
Lin Yu looked at Xia Zijing, "Your essay score is less than 40%. The reason is simple. You lack empathy. All emotional material in your mind is automatically converted into physical parameters."
Xia Zijing didn't refute it. It was a fact.
"Since you can't learn to be emotional, then quantify your emotions."
Lin Yu drew a coordinate system on a piece of paper. The horizontal axis represented the progression of events, and the vertical axis represented emotional tension.
He drew an upward-opening parabola in the coordinate system.
"The core of high-scoring essays lies in the violation of emotional expectations. After reading a thousand mediocre emotional essays, the examiners' brains have developed dopamine tolerance."
Lin Yu drew a heavy circle at the vertex of the parabola.
Formula Four. Emotion Reverse Reasoning Algorithm.
As Lin Yu wrote, he explained, "The opening paragraph uses three absolutely objective, descriptive sentences to lower the reader's emotional expectations. The middle paragraphs use terms from biology or astronomy to create cross-disciplinary metaphors. For example, when writing about parting, don't write about tears. Write about the process of cell apoptosis, or about the gravitational tearing after two stars broke the Roche limit."
Xia Zijing's eyes lit up. She could understand this language.
Lin Yu wrote a line at the end.
"The ending uses an open-ended structure. There's no summary or elevation of the theme. It leaves an unsolvable physical mystery. The examiners will experience intellectual anxiety because they can't understand your profound metaphors, and to mask this anxiety, they'll give you a high score."
Lin Yu put down his pen and pushed the paper over.
"Use this model. Your essay will get at least 50 points."
Xia Zijing picked up the paper, her gaze quickly sweeping over the coordinates and terms. Her breathing quickened slightly. This logic perfectly aligned with her way of thinking: using the dimensional reduction techniques of science to deconstruct the emotional aspects of the humanities.
"efficient."
Xia Zijin folded the paper and put it in her pocket.
Lin Yu's phone vibrated in his pocket.
He took it out and glanced at it. A text message notification.
"Your savings card account ending in 9527 has received a deposit of RMB 100,000.00. Current balance: RMB 100,123.50."
The 100,000 yuan scholarship from the municipal finance department has arrived in my account.
Lin Yu stood up.
"The money's here. I'm leaving."
Xia Zijing did not get up to see him off. She put her hands back on the keyboard.
"Meet at the school gate at 8:00 AM tomorrow, we're going to the provincial capital."
Xia Zijin stared at the screen and said.
"Um."
Lin Yu walked towards the gate.
"Lin Yu."
Xia Zijin's voice sounded from behind.
Lin Yu stopped.
"Li Hao went to the No. 1 High School in the provincial capital. Zhao Tianyu is the head of the physics competition group at the No. 1 High School in the provincial capital."
Xia Zijin pushed up her glasses. "Winter camp is their home turf."
"Home field".
Lin Yu smirked. "Only basketball has home and away games. Math doesn't."
He pushed open the door and went out.
Monday morning, 8:00 AM. Outside the gate of Jiangcheng No.1 Middle School.
A large bus bearing the logo of the Jiangcheng City Education Commission was parked by the roadside. The ten students who had secured their spots in the winter camp were lining up to board the bus. Leading the group was their grade leader, Teacher Liu.
Lin Yu, carrying a tiny black backpack, was the last to board the bus.
The carriage was almost full. He glanced around.
Xia Zijing sat in the third-to-last row, by the window. The seat next to her was empty.
Lin Yu walked over and sat down.
Xia Zijing was reading a Russian-language lecture note on theoretical physics. Lin Yu glanced at it, said nothing, and leaned back in his chair to rest with his eyes closed.
Sitting two rows in front of them was Su Qingwan.
She wore very light makeup today, a white knitted cardigan, a pleated skirt, and a school uniform jacket over her legs.