GBP Chapter 61 The Forbidden Zone of Campus Ghost Stories
Chapter 61 The Forbidden Zone of Campus Ghost Stories
"Thank you, Professor Hu."
On the streets of Daji County, Su Hao opened the car door, turned around and waved to Professor Hu, who had driven him all the way back, to express his gratitude.
Although there was a minor hiccup at the airport due to some complicated media interviews, the national team still successfully completed the extremely grand summary and commendation meeting, and the team members were dismissed and went home.
Who would have thought that this thin young man in front of me wasn't even wearing a designer shirt...
Just a few days ago, he brutally rubbed the pride of more than 600 of the world's top mathematical geniuses into the ground?
"You've worked hard. Congratulations again on winning first place in both the individual and team events."
Professor Hu rolled down the car window, looked at the young man in front of him, and spoke with undisguised admiration. Then, he changed the subject and comforted him.
"Also, you don't need to take the momentum set by the American team to heart at all, understand?"
Actually, it's quite a funny story.
It was later learned that it was not a proper protest at the official level at all.
It was purely because the US team's coaching staff made some outrageous remarks on camera during interviews with several media outlets, due to a breakdown in their defense.
"No matter how you look at it, the grading of Su Hao's questions 4 and 5 was far too lenient!"
How can someone get a 5 out of 10 with an answer sheet that completely defies expectations? We simply can't understand it!
"If we refer to the conventions of previous IMOs, a deduction that skips several steps usually only gets 3 points for the process!"
If the judging had been stricter, it would have been really hard to say who would have won the individual first place in this competition!
These remarks have caused a great stir online, but in reality, the academic community is well aware of the situation.
It's not about being lenient at all; it's about even the IMO's highly self-important question-setting committee members, who have won countless awards...
It still takes several people a lot of time in a conference room to barely digest Su Hao's inhuman logic.
Do you expect those American coaches who haven't even studied the test papers in depth to understand them?
It's understandable that he's full of complaints.
"Yeah, I don't mind."
Su Hao shook his head, his tone indifferent.
That was a truly understated and effortless description.
Professor Hu gave him a deep look, feeling both gratified and incredulous.
This kid... he really doesn't care?!
There was no vanity in this child, no desire for adult approval, no yearning for flowers and applause, and no anger at being offended.
It was as if a giant dragon couldn't hear the clamor of the ants beneath its feet.
It was so pure it was chilling.
This left the professor, who had prepared a whole host of comforting and inspiring words, feeling utterly stifled and internally injured.
"Alright, come inside. Get some rest." Professor Hu waved his hand wearily.
The engine roared.
As the car drove further and further away, the boy's figure remained upright in the rearview mirror.
Professor Hu sighed deeply, feeling as if his entire academic career had been wasted in front of this twelve-year-old child.
"Ah! Home is the best."
Su Hao stood still, closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.
The fresh scent of ripe rice, mingled with the earthy fragrance wafting from the distant fields, suddenly filled my lungs.
This is a unique flavor from Daji County that he is very familiar with.
The wheels of the suitcase made a "rolling" sound as they rubbed against the ground.
My pace quickened without me even realizing it.
Standing in front of the house where he had lived for more than a decade, he paused briefly to catch his breath.
Even though I only left for a few days to participate in a competition, I now have a strange feeling that it's like a different world.
He unzipped his backpack, took out the dark red velvet box containing the IMO individual first-place gold medal, and then pushed open the door.
"Dad, Mom! I'm home."
In the courtyard, Su Hui, who was squatting by the flower bed and intently playing with mud, suddenly stopped, raised her head, and jumped up.
"elder brother!"
Su Hui shot out of the courtyard like a cannonball and rushed over at full speed.
It seems this girl has grown a little taller in just a few days.
Su Hao smiled, put down his suitcase, half-squatted down, and steadily caught his younger sister who bumped into his arms.
The familiar body temperature, along with the aroma of milk and mud, wafted towards me.
Only at this moment did the warmth of truly coming home completely envelop him.
"Have you been a good girl at home?"
Su Hui nodded her little head vigorously in his arms, like she was pounding garlic.
"Yes! I listened to my mom very well and didn't fight with any of the other kids at kindergarten. We had a great time together!"
Su Hui's eyes sparkled as she looked at her brother expectantly, like a little glutton waiting to be fed.
"Here, your gold medal."
Su Hao casually opened the box and handed over the IMO gold medal, which countless geniuses dreamed of touching, like a piece of chocolate.
Su Hui's face instantly lit up with a smile.
After helping her younger sister hang the gold medal around her neck, Su Hui was so happy that she spun around in the yard. After running around twice, she ran to the dressing mirror and started admiring herself, striking various poses and giggling to herself.
"This girl, I don't even know what that thing is, she's so happy."
Lin Wan walked out of the kitchen with a big smile on her face.
She was wearing a floral apron around her waist and wiping the water off her hands with a dry towel. She was clearly preparing a lavish meal to welcome her beloved son home.
"Mom! I'm home!"
"Yeah! Hao Hao, you must be exhausted from the competition."
Lin Wan stepped forward and hugged Su Hao tightly, patting his back gently twice with heartache.
The moment the news of Su Hao's victory was broadcast on television, the entire Daji County was in an uproar.
These past two days, even when Lin Wan went out to buy some vegetables, she was surrounded by neighbors praising her for half an hour. They couldn't hide their envy and admiration.
Su Hui, with a heavy gold medal hanging around her neck, spun around in front of the two of them like a little top.
"Brother! You worked so hard to get first place because of me, right?"
Su Hao thought about it seriously for a moment, then nodded solemnly:
"It seems that's true."
Upon hearing this, Su Hui was so happy that she couldn't stop smiling.
"Stop teasing her...this girl will take it seriously," Lin Wan said reproachfully.
"Go wash your hands, dinner is almost ready. Mom made your favorite pork rib and lotus root soup."
Su Hao's eyes lit up.
This was undoubtedly the best news he had heard all day.
What world champion? Nothing tastes as good as my mom's cooking.
......
"Next news item."
The news anchor's clear and articulate voice echoed in the living room:
"In the recently concluded International Mathematical Olympiad, our team won first place in the overall team score."
It is worth mentioning that Su Hao, a sixth-grade student from my country, won the individual gold medal at the age of 12, breaking the record for the youngest champion in the competition's history and attracting widespread international attention.
The television feed smoothly switched to the IMO awards ceremony.
Amidst the frenzied flashing of the cameras, the slender young man stood quietly on the podium, his expression unusually calm.
"This year's International Mathematical Olympiad has been hailed by the international mathematics community as 'the most difficult Olympiad in history since 1988'."
Today, we have invited a well-known domestic mathematics expert to the studio for an in-depth interpretation.
Professor Liu Zhiyun, have you seen this exam paper?
Everything in the picture.
In the studio, a refined-looking mathematics professor wearing gold-rimmed glasses sat upright, holding a stack of materials covered with densely printed formulas in his hand.
"Yes, I've seen it. To be honest... it's very impressive."
It's even unbelievable!
Professor Liu Zhiyun took a deep breath; even in front of the camera, she couldn't hide the shock in her eyes.
"Especially the final, sixth question, that's not even for humans!"
That's a highly challenging topic that you might only encounter at the doctoral level in mathematics, or even use as a graduation thesis!
This question tests less its knowledge reserves and more the extremely vast, precise, and complex logical thinking process involved in deriving the conclusion.
The host then quipped, "Is it really that difficult?"
Professor Liu Zhiyun gave a wry smile:
"In fact, only Su Hao solved question 6 in this competition!"
Keep in mind, this is a top-level competition where over 600 of the world's top mathematical geniuses compete!
"So, how would you rate Su Hao's abilities?"
"Haha!" Professor Liu Zhiyun laughed self-deprecatingly.
"Viewers at home might want a more intuitive ranking, but math isn't a ranked match, so you can't just slap a label like 'King of Glory' on someone."
Her gaze became incredibly solemn as she spoke, enunciating each word clearly:
All I can say is that he is a genius that comes along only once every few decades!
Because since Ilya Cronin, no one in the entire history of mathematics has ever achieved such astonishing and devastating mathematical accomplishments at that age!
The moment the news aired, it was like pouring a bucket of cold water into a scalding pan of oil, instantly igniting a frenzy of trending topics across the internet!
[Holy crap? A new generation of academic genius has been born?! I'm bowing down to this genius!]
What's going on? Just how impressive is this? Can someone explain?
[Heh. If you don't understand basic advanced mathematics, you won't even know how to be a die-hard fan or how to shower him with compliments.]
I'm currently in the lab, a PhD student in number theory from one of the top two universities in China. I just looked at the PDF of problem number 6 from an external website...
To be honest, after watching it, I gasped and my scalp tingled!
This topic is more than enough for a research project published in a top-tier journal! This kid is an absolute once-in-a-century genius!
[Could you please provide a link to the problem? I'd like to see what kind of math problem would even make a PhD student crumble.]
[Hey upstairs, what, do you think you'll understand the link? Like you're reading gibberish? Hahaha!]
[However... the American team seems a bit sour, aren't they? They're going crazy on Twitter, saying we stole first place.]
They're always like this, acting like they can't accept defeat.
[No joke, are those people crazy?]
They're frantically flooding the Twitter accounts of internationally renowned mathematicians, posting screenshots of the exam paper and answers, demanding an explanation from around the world about whether the scores are fair—they've embarrassed themselves internationally!
......
Across the ocean, in the United States.
At the far end of the 13th floor of the Princeton University research building is Professor Ilya Cronin's office.
Princeton is a forbidden place among the entire student body, known for all sorts of bizarre campus tales.
The students privately referred to it with trepidation as "the curse of the 13th floor".
This is not groundless.
According to unofficial statistics, in the past decade, more than half of the brilliant graduate students who entered Professor Cronin's program with great ambitions eventually dropped out.
Some of them even developed severe depression because they couldn't bear the extreme torment of being intellectually crushed.
He rolls his eyes whenever he sees mathematical symbols on the blackboard and has to undergo long-term psychological treatment.
At the annual freshman orientation, there are always upperclassmen with haggard faces who pull the naive freshmen into a dark corner and give them a mysterious and earnest warning:
"Listen, if Professor Ilya Cronin glances at you in the hallway, or shows any interest in your paper..."
Forget everything else, just run! And whatever you do, don't look back!
Once he gets close, he'll crush your brain to dust and then devour your soul!