Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai made an appointment that she would visit Jiang Yubai's home on the first Saturday of March. She wanted to win the 2007 Romanian Mathematics Masters Championship and bring the gold medal back for Jiang Yubai to play with.
"I'll wait for you." Jiang Yubai replied.
Lin Zhixia suddenly had an idea: "Jiang Yubai, during the time we are apart, I will write down my daily experiences in a notebook, and when I come back..."
Before Lin Zhixia finished speaking, Jiang Yubai had already guessed what she meant: "We will each record our own experiences. When you come back, we will exchange notebooks."
"Yes!" Lin Zhixia was delighted. "When we exchange notebooks, it's like we exchange each other's memories. It's like we haven't separated."
Jiang Yubai was impressed by Lin Zhixia's rigorous logic.
To express his support and affirmation, he took out two notebooks from his schoolbag. Lin Zhixia took one of the notebooks and wrote on the title page: Captain Lin Zhixia's interstellar treasure hunt.
Jiang Yubai wrote in another notebook: The long waiting history of Chief Jiang Yubai.
The five words "a long history of waiting" faintly reveal the sadness and loneliness of "Chief Jiang Yubai". However, "Chief Jiang Yubai" is a heroic character who stands tall and upright. He should not feel the slightest bit of loss and frustration.
Jiang Yubai was about to cross out this line of words when Lin Zhixia added a sentence next to his handwriting: The experience of guarding the spacecraft.
Lin Zhixia said word by word: "Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia will always be good friends."
Jiang Yubai put away his notebook. He was not used to recording his daily life, but he decided to make a short change - he decided to briefly summarize the trivial things that happened from 8 am to 8 pm every day in chronological order.
While Lin Zhixia was training with the national team, Jiang Yubai became the acting monitor of the Grade 2 (17) class. He maintained the class order in an orderly manner and summarized it in his diary: Lin Zhixia, there are three main things today, please be informed. The first thing is that the Grade 2 (17) class won the hygiene red flag again. The second thing is that Teacher Zhang is getting married next week. He distributed wedding candy to the whole class. You are not in school, so there is no wedding candy. I will give it to you when you return to school. The third thing...
Jiang Yubai was about to tell Lin Zhixia that he had scored full marks in both math and English in the midterm exam in February, and ranked first in the grade in total score. However, he thought again, does Lin Zhixia care about grades? In her eyes, all students in the second grade should be about the same.
Jiang Yubai put down his pen, and Duan Qiyan shouted, "Jiang Yubai, what are you busy with?"
Duan Qiyan saw the words "Lin Zhixia" on the notebook. He quickly approached Jiang Yubai and asked, "Jiang Yubai, what are you writing to Lin Zhixia?"
Jiang Yubai covered it up and said, "Work report."
"Work report?" Duan Qiyan was skeptical.
"Yes," Jiang Yubai said calmly, "As the acting squad leader, I report on daily work."
Jiang Yubai finished speaking, and the students nearby heard it. Everyone rushed to him and asked enthusiastically: "Lin Zhixia is in the national training team. Does she still miss our classmates?"
Cultural and Art Committee member Tang Tingting replied, "Of course! Lin Zhixia is the monitor of our class."
Tang Tingting pulled Duan Qiyan away and sat next to Jiang Yubai—the seat should belong to Lin Zhixia. Jiang Yubai's territorial consciousness was instantly awakened. He pretended to remind Tang Tingting casually: "Your seat is in the front row."
"I know," Tang Tingting raised her voice, "Jiang Yubai, don't just focus on writing official business. It's boring to just write about official business. You should write about your classmates' private affairs. Lin Zhixia will definitely like to read it."
"No," Jiang Yubai refused sternly, "She doesn't like to watch it."
Tang Tingting still insisted: "She loves to watch it."
Jiang Yubai said: "You don't understand her."
Tang Tingting retorted: "I am a girl, Lin Zhixia is a girl, I know her better than you."
Then, Tang Tingting gave detailed instructions: "Write about it. This month, Tang Tingting's composition won a prize in the city."
The students watching burst into laughter. Duan Qiyan mocked directly, "Tang Tingting, don't you just want others to know that your composition won a prize in the city? Lin Zhixia has won a national award, will she care about your city's composition award?"
Last September, Duan Qiyan and Tang Tingting played a couple in the play "Changes". There were a few people in the class who always paired Duan Qiyan and Tang Tingting together. They jokingly called Duan Qiyan a "family man" and often took the lead in making trouble in the class.
Duan Qiyan was very angry. The bad relationship between him and Tang Tingting was obvious to the whole class.
Duan Qiyan thought to himself: Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia are the truly inseparable ones, why is no one talking about them
Soon, Duan Qiyan made up a reason - based on Lin Zhixia's unattainable competition results, no one treated Lin Zhixia as a human being. Lin Zhixia was in the second grade (seventeenth) class, like a god who was not affected by the mundane world. Everyone was too busy paying homage to her, so how could they dare to laugh at her
Duan Qiyan firmly believed that the reason he was involved with Tang Tingting was because he was not strong enough. If he was strong enough and surpassed Lin Zhixia, then he could be domineering in the Grade 2 (17) class and no one would dare to mess with him.
Duan Qiyan rested one hand on the desk and moved closer to Tang Tingting. Several classmates laughed secretly. The subtle feelings of adolescence were sprouting around him, and he said viciously: "Jiang Yubai, tell Lin Zhixia that when she comes back, she must rectify the class atmosphere and eliminate the unhealthy atmosphere!"
Jiang Yubai closed his notebook and said, "Just tell me what's wrong with the class atmosphere. I'm the acting monitor."
Jiang Yubai has great official power.
Duan Qiyan surrendered unconsciously.
As if he was appealing to a government official, Duan Qiyan lowered his head, looked submissive, and bashfully narrated, "It's that, the crew of 'Changes'..." Halfway through his words, his eyes met with Tang Tingting's.
Tang Tingting raised her eyebrows in displeasure, and Duan Qiyan's expression suddenly changed, turning red, like the brilliant glow of an autumn evening.
In the play "Changes", Tang Tingting called Duan Qiyan "husband". Last September, Duan Qiyan thought it was nothing. In February this year, he recalled that scene and felt bad.
Maybe it was because he was fourteen years old and started to pay attention to his reputation.
After a struggle between himself and himself, Duan Qiyan said, "There's always a bunch of hooligans making trouble in the class. Can you take care of them?"
Jiang Yubai nodded slightly and replied, "Just tell me who is causing trouble again. Lin Zhixia has gone to the national team for training, I will help her build the team's morale."
Jiang Yubai stood up from his seat and explained his point of view. He hoped that everyone would pay attention to the boundaries of joking. He said that respect is mutual and the class belongs to everyone. Everyone nodded in agreement and agreed with Jiang Yubai's words.
Jiang Yubai was born good at public speaking. He was clear and logical, his views were clear, and his tone of voice was steady and powerful, making people want to listen to his advice. He was reasonable and fair like Bao Qingtian. He calmed down the rumors in the class and cleared Duan Qiyan's name.
Duan Qiyan even felt that Lin Zhixia's way of handling the situation was not necessarily better than Jiang Yubai's.
However, Duan Qiyan still hoped that Lin Zhixia would come back soon. Although Jiang Yubai was good at managing the class, he was not Lin Zhixia after all. He could not maintain his position as the top student in the grade and occasionally lost to Jin Baihui from Class 18.
Jin Baihui from Class 18 is really a thorn in Duan Qiyan's heart.
He sincerely hoped that Lin Zhixia's test scores would always be better than Jin Baihui's.
At this moment, Lin Zhixia is participating in the national team's training.
The training lasted two weeks, during which there were four exams. Lin Zhixia was determined to participate in international competitions. She took every exam seriously and did not dare to make mistakes.
The management of the math training team is relatively loose and not harsh. In class, the attendance rate of auditors is very high, and some members of the training team often skip classes - they can be described as "dragons that can only be seen from the head but not the tail", and only show up during assessments.
Sure enough, true masters all have their own style.
The top math contestants from all over the country gathered together. Lin Zhixia's biggest feeling was that the top students basically had their own plans. They were busy with their own things and had no time to care too much about others. Especially those students who were preparing to study abroad, they also had to pay attention to foreign universities, organize application materials, and review TOEFL and SAT.
Some students in the training team have already received admission letters from Cornell, Stanford, and Princeton University.
Lin Zhixia admired them very much. But she never took the initiative to talk to others. She always stayed by Luo Ying's side.
Lin Zhixia and Luo Ying lived in the same dormitory. Luo Ying was the last one in the training team, so she worked extra hard. Every night, Luo Ying would study in the study room until eleven o'clock, then tiptoe into the dormitory, while Lin Zhixia had already fallen asleep.
Lin Zhixia likes to sleep lying on her side, holding a little penguin tightly in her arms. Whenever this happens, Luo Ying will remember that Lin Zhixia is only eleven and a half years old this year, still a little girl who has not grown up. She rushes around in the math arena, but is still cautious in life.
The study tasks during the training were heavy, and Luo Ying felt quite exhausted. Lin Zhixia was not in a very good condition either - she had never been away from her parents for such a long time since she was born. After a week of training, Lin Zhixia missed home very much, and felt a little dazed day and night, dreaming about her parents and brother.
Even so, she persisted and ranked top in four exams.
The students with the best performance in the exam will have the opportunity to participate in the second round of training in March and represent the country in the 2007 International Mathematical Olympiad this summer.
The 2007 Romanian Mathematics Masters will be held at the end of February this year.
The Romanian Mathematics Masters includes both team and individual awards. Each country can send four regular team members and two alternate team members. When calculating the final team score, the player with the lowest score will be eliminated, and the team's total score will be equal to the sum of the scores of the other three players [1]. This cruel competition system not only tests the psychological quality of the players, but also tests the cohesion of the team.
According to the teacher's suggestion, they were going to send an excellent provincial team to participate in the competition. After a round of selection, Lin Zhixia's provincial team finally got the opportunity to compete this year. Lin Zhixia was selected as a regular member of the team without any surprise.
Official team member!
Lin Zhixia is going abroad to take an exam!
After returning to the provincial capital, Lin Zhixia still had a week to prepare. Accompanied by her parents and teachers, she quickly processed the documents. This was her first time going abroad, and her mother seemed very worried about her. For two consecutive nights, her mother did not sleep well, and dark circles fell under her eyes.
Lin Zhixia noticed the dark circles under her mother's eyes. She grabbed the corner of her mother's clothes and promised, "Mom, Mom, I will stay in Romania for a week and will come home immediately."
Her mother hugged her and said, "Xia Xia is only eleven years old."
"This September, Xia Xia will be twelve years old." Lin Zhixia added. She raised her head and looked at her brother.
My brother's face looked even worse. He grabbed an apple, took a few bites, and then asked, "Where is Romania?"
"Southern Europe." Lin Zhixia replied.
"Is it safe?" My brother frowned tightly.
Lin Zhixia nodded: "With the team leader leading us, it should be safe. My senior from the same school, Luo Ying, will go with me. She is the substitute player in our team."
"Is Luo Ying's academic performance good?" the brother asked again.
Lin Zhixia described it tactfully: "Brother, our team is not the strongest in the training camp. The most capable and experienced players are mainly focusing on the International Mathematical Olympiad in July. The influence of the Romanian Masters is not as great as that of the International Mathematical Olympiad."
My brother took a deep breath and couldn't even eat the apple.
He paced back and forth in the narrow living room, like an old cadre with a lot on his mind. He even said: "Lin Zhixia, there are substitutes in your team, you might as well give up the game."
Lin Zhixia was stunned: "Why should I give up?"
"You are too young," the elder brother said with reason. "I am worried about you going abroad alone. Which child can go abroad at the age of eleven?"
Lin Zhixia said seriously: "This is not my problem, but my brother's problem. My brother must overcome his inner fear."
She even called out her brother's full name: "Lin Zeqiu, I have already signed up for the competition, and I must not run away. This is not a chess competition at the gate of the community where you can run away if you want. This is the 2007 Romanian Mathematics Masters Competition, and I am determined to win a gold medal, both individually and as a team."
Lin Zeqiu was intimidated by her aura and ignored the fact that she was holding a strawberry yogurt in her left hand and a stuffed penguin in her right hand.
After Lin Zhixia finished his heroic speech, he turned around and went to the bedroom to pack his things.
Every winter vacation, Lin Zhixia would stay in her hometown for a week. Her parents had bought her a suitcase. She threw her clothes into the suitcase, and her brother suddenly stood beside her: "You don't know how to fold clothes."
Her brother was already fifteen years old. Although Lin Zhixia was also trying to grow taller, her brother was still much taller than her. She could only raise her head and stare into his eyes, only to see that his eyes were full of complex emotions, so serious that it was frightening.
He kept asking like Xianglin Sao: "Romania is a small country in southern Europe. Is it safe?"
"Safe." Lin Zhixia gave an affirmative answer again.
Lin Zeqiu sat on the floor and took the initiative to help her pack her luggage. He was very good at tidying up clothes and folded them meticulously. His slender fingers pressed tightly on the edge of the box, and he said to himself: "If you encounter an emergency abroad, remember to run to crowded places and don't get caught by bad guys."
"Are there many bad people abroad?" Lin Zhixia was skeptical. "My friend Jiang... said that he often travels abroad, and he always comes back intact."
Lin Zhixia wanted to mention Jiang Yubai's name, but she was worried that her brother would teach her to keep a distance from boys. She described Jiang Yubai's personal experience vaguely, and her brother still maintained a serious and rigid expression.
My brother whispered, “I saw a story in a magazine the other day.”
Lin Zhixia squatted next to her brother and asked curiously, "What's the story?"
"Travel story." Lin Zeqiu's voice became deeper and deeper.
He narrated in detail: "There was a man who went to Thailand for his honeymoon with his wife not long after getting married. His wife was changing clothes in the fitting room, and the husband was waiting for her outside the door. After waiting for a long time, his wife did not come out..."
"Then what?" Lin Zhixia became even more curious.
Lin Zeqiu stared at her intently: "There was no one in the fitting room, and the woman disappeared. The man couldn't find his wife no matter how hard he looked. Several years later, the man went to Thailand again and happened to encounter a circus performance. There was a disabled woman with disheveled hair in the circus. When the disabled woman saw the man, she cried like crazy. The man suddenly noticed that the birthmark on the woman's body was exactly the same as his missing wife's."
Lin Zhixia's breathing froze.
Lin Zeqiu was afraid that she didn't understand, so he patiently explained to her: "The man took his wife to Thailand, and his wife was kidnapped in the fitting room and sold on the black market in Thailand... Do you understand?"
Lin Zhixia calmed down for less than a second and ran out of the bedroom. She rushed to her mother like a kitten returning to its nest: "Mom, mom, hug me."
Her mother asked her, "What happened to Xia Xia?"
Lin Zhixia complained: "Brother just told me a story to scare me."
Lin Zeqiu watched this scene and complained in his heart: She is such a mother-clinging person.
Lin Zeqiu knew that Lin Zhixia was very timid. During her time in Romania, she had better stay in the hotel and not go anywhere. As long as she could understand Lin Zeqiu's deep meaning, Lin Zeqiu was willing to tell her a thrilling travel story every day.
The night before Lin Zhixia left, her parents and brother all suffered from insomnia.
The next morning, with dark circles under his eyes, his brother went to call Lin Zhixia to get up. It was still around five in the morning. Lin Zhixia woke up for a while and said happily, "Brother, I will bring you a gift!"
The brother was horrified: "No, don't buy gifts."
Lin Zhixia tilted her head: "Why can't I go?"
My brother analyzed: "If you want to buy gifts, you have to go out. You might go out alone and get lost in Romania where you are unfamiliar with the place. Bad guys might put you in a sack and throw you into a van."
"Really?" Lin Zhixia expressed doubt.
Last night, Lin Zeqiu thought about this problem for a whole night. He had never been abroad, or even out of his province. The unknown country he imagined was extremely cruel and terrifying. And his young, weak, immature, and conceited sister would suffer in a foreign country, with no one to cry out to. Whenever he thought of the grievances that Lin Zhixia might suffer, his throat and heart would involuntarily ache, which was really a torture that was difficult to describe in words.
He did so much housework to raise Lin Zhixia.
He couldn't tell us what he was thinking. He just said, "The gift is not important, you just need to bring the person back."
"I will definitely come back." Lin Zhixia said as a matter of course. She slept soundly last night and had a beautiful dream. She dreamed that she had grown up and turned twenty years old, and her life became better.
At around seven o'clock that morning, Lin Zhixia met up with her comrades at the airport with great anticipation.
She saw Luo Ying at first sight. She dragged her suitcase and ran towards Luo Ying, shouting, "Senior, Senior!"
The senior student held out her hand to her: "Come on, let's go check in the luggage together."
Lin Zhixia held her hand and said, "I've never been on an international flight. Have you ever been on one, senior?"
"I've been here quite a few times." Luo Ying replied.
Luo Ying's passport was covered with many stamps. It turned out that she had traveled around Europe with her parents. She calmly passed through customs and security checks, knowing all the procedures by heart. Lin Zhixia took her as an example and chose a seat next to her on the plane.
Perhaps it was because it was Lin Zhixia's first long-distance flight and she was too excited. After nightfall, she felt very sleepy and couldn't fall asleep. She lay on her back, on her side, and with her legs curled up, but it didn't work. Luo Ying simply pushed the armrest up and whispered, "Put your head on my legs."
"No! Absolutely not!" Lin Zhixia shook her head frantically.
Luo Ying sighed. There was a "Ying" in her name, and she had a light rose scent. That scent made Lin Zhixia relax her guard. Luo Ying reached out again and touched Lin Zhixia's head - Lin Zhixia immediately thought of her brother. What should she do? She had only been away from home for one day, and she already started to miss her family.
Luo Ying said softly, "You are so young. If you don't sleep all night, you will feel uncomfortable tomorrow."
Lin Zhixia rubbed her eyes: "It's okay."
Luo Ying revealed: "I promised Teacher Zhang and Teacher Sun that I would take good care of you."
"Has my homeroom teacher, Mr. Zhang, looked for you?" Lin Zhixia asked in surprise.
"I have looked for you," Luo Ying told her, "Teacher Zhang said that you skipped a grade and were admitted, and you are younger than the average students, so he asked me to take care of you."
Lin Zhixia didn't expect so many people to care about her silently. She fell to the side and fell on the legs of the senior. About two seconds later, Lin Zhixia sat up straight and said firmly: "Thank you, senior, I have already felt your kindness. If I rest my head on your legs, you will also be very uncomfortable on the plane."
Lin Zhixia turned around and looked at Luo Ying: "Teacher Zhang, please take care of me. I think care should be mutual."
Luo Ying raised her finger and rubbed it across her chin: "Well, when we get to the hotel, we can have a good sleep."
"Yeah." Lin Zhixia agreed. She had endured more than ten hours on the plane and finally waited for the plane to land.
The organizers of the Romanian Masters sent someone to pick them up at the airport. On the way to the hotel, Lin Zhixia fell asleep in the car. The teammates were all praising the streetscape of Romania. The roads and buildings were full of classical European style. The church on the street showed the characteristics of the Orthodox Church. Luo Ying couldn't help taking a few photos.
The hotel they stayed in was called "moxa hostel".
Lin Zhixia was very excited about the breakfast buffet provided by moxa hostel. Various slices of ham and bread were lined up, and glass bowls were filled with exquisite small cream cakes - each cake was decorated with a strawberry on top. Lin Zhixia had to praise the chef, strawberries and cream were a perfect combination.
Lin Zhixia ate two cakes and she came back to life. Strawberries were her lifelong love and her life-saving medicine. She might have been a strawberry spirit in her previous life, so she needed to replenish more of the source of life in this life.
After breakfast, Lin Zhixia returned to her room and fell asleep again. When she woke up, it was exactly 1:30 in the afternoon, and Luo Ying called her to have lunch. They met many contestants from other countries in the restaurant.
Lin Zhixia shuttled between teams from different countries, and various languages floated past her ears, stimulating her brain. She heard German, French, English, and Russian. Her teammates sat around a table and waved at her from a distance.
She ran to her teammates and asked, "How was your rest?"
One of her teammates is from an experimental middle school in a neighboring city. His name is Du Cunkang. Du Cunkang has studied Mathematical Olympiad since he was young and has received very professional training. Du Cunkang is 17 years old this year and has won gold and silver medals in the National Mathematical Olympiad. He is best at solving geometry problems and is one of the favorites to win this year.
While eating, Du Cunkang answered Lin Zhixia's question: "I didn't sleep for two consecutive days, and it didn't affect my exams."
"You haven't slept for two consecutive days?" Lin Zhixia asked in surprise, "Don't you feel dizzy?"
Du Cunkang has a square face and wears a pair of black-rimmed glasses. He holds his glasses in a special way. He spreads his fingers, pinches the two sides of the frame, and gently pushes them upwards before saying, "No matter how tired, sleepy, or dizzy I am, as long as I enter the examination room, I will be awake."
Du Cunkang was telling the truth. Luo Ying agreed, "Me too."
Two other regular members and one alternate on the team also said, “Everyone does this.”
Lin Zhixia found it incredible - her situation was completely different from everyone else's. If she didn't sleep well, her calculation ability would deteriorate and her brain would not be as sharp.
Sure enough, IQ is not the only criterion for evaluating ability!
Ordinary people also have many strengths!
Lin Zhixia must never underestimate the enemy.
She secretly made up her mind and ate faster than usual. Although she wanted to chat with the contestants from other countries, she didn't know what to talk about with them. If she talked to someone about mathematical theory, it might bring invisible competitive pressure, which was not in line with the "competitive style" mentioned by Duan Qiyan. If she asked someone to engage in philosophical speculation, no one might be willing to pay attention to her. If she asked about the customs and practices of various countries, it would be obvious that she was just making small talk.
After some ideological struggle, Lin Zhixia decided to remain silent.
Silence is the safest route. Silence is the safest harbor.
She ate two mouthfuls of rice in silence when Du Cunkang suddenly called her, "Here comes that person. Let me show you that person..."
Lin Zhixia looked up blankly: "Who?"
Du Cunkang pointed to the front and said: "The Russian player has a long name. We call him by the last word of his name, Alexandrov."
Lin Zhixia repeated: "Alexandrov?"
Du Cunkang's eyes never moved away from the distance. He said, "Alexandrov is a mathematical genius in Russia. He has been in the newspapers. Don't you know, Lin Zhixia?"
In the past six months, Lin Zhixia rarely read newspapers and magazines. The team leader did not tell them how strong the Russian players were, and Lin Zhixia had no idea about Alexander.
She stood up from her seat and looked ahead without hesitation. She saw a tall Russian boy - he had blond hair and blue eyes, with slightly longer hair that covered his forehead and ears, making him stand out in the Russian team.
"How strong is he?" Lin Zhixia asked.
Du Cunkang was an excellent student after all. He praised the outstanding player from the enemy camp in a calm tone: "Alexandrov published a math book in junior high school."
Lin Zhixia was not intimidated: "I also helped my deskmate summarize the competition methods. It's a thick book with all kinds of questions, and some questions I made up myself."
Several players at the table were stunned. Everyone has done this kind of question type summary. In the national training camp, many experts took turns to accurately grasp the direction of the competition. The experiences described by Lin Zhixia were not enough to cover up Alexander's brilliant resume.
Du Cunkang tried to smooth things over by saying, "Team competition is a team competition. Three cobblers can be better than one Zhuge Liang. As long as a few of us can answer five out of the six questions, we can get first place in the team competition."
The Romanian Mathematics Masters exam is also divided into two days, with a total of six questions, each with a full score of seven points. The contestant's score on the paper is the final score.
Du Cunkang's praise for Alexander Rov made Lin Zhixia look forward to tomorrow's race even more.
The next morning, the organizer sent a car to pick up all the contestants from the hotel and take them to the competition venue.
At nine o'clock in the morning, the Romanian Mathematics Masters Competition officially opened.
The first two questions in this competition were not too difficult. The third question was the watershed that widened the gap. Lin Zhixia needed some time to think and avoid possible misconceptions, which gave her an ominous premonition.
After the exam, the other three members of the team seemed to be normal. Du Cunkang was in particularly good shape. He was still chatting and laughing with everyone at the dinner table, and even deliberately chatted with the Korean and Japanese teams. The Korean and Japanese teams responded politely to Du Cunkang, and Du Cunkang found that the Koreans all spoke Japanese well.
After some inquiries, Du Cunkang learned that Korean students, in addition to taking English, had to choose between Chinese and Japanese as their second foreign language. Du Cunkang immediately offered to teach his Korean friends Chinese.
One of his Korean friends was named Kim, so Du Cunkang used a fork to dip in water and wrote the Chinese character "Kim" on the table. He had a pleasant conversation with the Korean classmate. When talking about the girl idol group Wonder Girls that debuted in Korea in early February this year, Du Cunkang was even more excited. He revealed with a little shyness that he liked the Korean movie star Jeon Ji-hyun very much, and he also wanted to find a wife of this type in the future.
However, the more lively and outgoing Du Cunkang was, the more suspicious Lin Zhixia became of him. On the first day they arrived at the hotel, Du Cunkang rejected all diplomatic activities. There was probably only one explanation for his sudden change of temperament today—in order not to worry his teammates, he pretended to be relaxed and happy.
Finally, under Lin Zhixia's piercing gaze, Du Cunkang secretly confessed to her alone: "I didn't get the third question right. I failed the test."
This is such sad news.
Du Cunkang’s failure to make it means that their team has lost a powerful general.
Before Du Cunkang set off, he ranked third in their team.
The most difficult questions in the Romanian Masters usually appear tomorrow. If Du Cunkang cannot turn the tables, then their team gold medal may not be retained.
In the warm hotel light, Du Cunkang's face turned yellow: "I have done a psychological test, my mentality..."
"You have a good mentality," Lin Zhixia lowered her head and whispered to him, "The other two people in our team have solved the third question. At present, we are not in danger of losing the gold medal. Tomorrow, you have to believe me, I will finish all the questions tomorrow. Even if Alexandrov is as smart as me, or smarter than me, I can tie with him. Don't feel pressured. We are a team, and we will move forward together."
Lin Zhixia is six years younger than Du Cunkang.
Du Cunkang never expected that Lin Zhixia could give him the encouragement of an elder. He held the knife and fork tightly, cutting the thin pizza. The tip of the knife made a crisp sound on the porcelain plate, and he agreed: "Okay, I don't feel any pressure."
"Yeah!" Lin Zhixia nodded.
At night, Lin Zhixia went to bed early. She had no distractions and fell asleep very quickly. When she woke up the next day, she adjusted to the best state and devoted herself to today's exam. Just as she expected last night, the last question of this exam was the most difficult question of this year's Romanian Masters.
The prototype of the question comes from a graph theory problem. It is known that a simple graph g contains v vertices. Suppose that after adding n edges, two cycles of the same length can appear in graph g. What is the lower bound of n
Lin Zhixia remembered that a mathematics paper in 1998 had discussed this problem in detail. Inspired by that paper, she wrote down her own solution and further narrowed the scope of the lower bound. While writing, Lin Zhixia sighed, wondering if Du Cunkang could come up with a better solution. She hoped that they could win the team gold medal through joint efforts.
She even stole a glance at Russia's Alexander Androv.
As Du Cunkang said, Alexandrov of the Russian team was very strong. His thinking was smooth, and there was no anxiety or hesitation on his face. The entire Russian team felt that they had won the game, but Lin Zhixia felt guilty when she saw them.
Why! The Russian team is so stable
Can every one of them get full marks
Lin Zhixia made up her mind that after returning home this time, she would study Russian seriously. Knowing yourself and your enemy, you can win every battle.