Jiang Yubai began to look forward to his undergraduate life. He said, "We are alumni again."
"Yeah!" Lin Zhixia nodded.
From that day on, Jiang Yubai stepped up his review efforts. His mindset changed from "I'd better get into Cambridge" to "I must get into Cambridge".
Jiang Yubai canceled his entertainment activities. When his friend invited him to go horseback riding at the horse farm, he politely declined. When his uncle invited him to a concert, he repeatedly declined.
Jiang Yubai was immersed in the atmosphere of learning, and occasionally imagined the future of him and Lin Zhixia. He would return to China after graduating from college, join the family business, and take on his responsibilities, while Lin Zhixia would teach at the university and continue her scientific research. He sincerely hoped that by that time, the relationship between Lin Zhixia and him would break through the boundaries of friendship.
He was willing to go through the long wait.
Jiang Yubai's self-enclosed training lasted for a long time. In December of this year, he flew alone to Cambridge, England for an interview.
On the day of the interview, Jiang Yubai got up at six in the morning, took a shower, combed his hair, put on his watch, put on his shirt and suit, and paced back and forth in his room. He admitted that he was a little nervous because he could not accept failure.
At this time, it was just after 2:00 p.m. Beijing time. Lin Zhixia sat on the bed in the dormitory, opened her laptop, and sent a QQ message to Jiang Yubai: "Are you up yet? Can you video chat with me?"
She waited for a few seconds, and Jiang Yubai replied, "Okay."
Lin Zhixia turned on the video and immediately saw Jiang Yubai. She faced the computer screen, clapped her hands, and praised him: "You look so handsome today! You have such a good temperament!"
Jiang Yubai didn't expect Lin Zhixia to be so straightforward from the beginning.
Lin Zhixia also said: "Please walk back a few steps. I want to see your whole body."
Jiang Yubai stood still.
Lin Zhixia urged: "Hurry up, let me take a look."
Jiang Yubai said on the surface: "There's nothing special about me..." But his legs involuntarily moved backwards, and he deliberately stood in front of the camera so that Lin Zhixia could observe him from the front.
Their eyes met through the screen, as if they had traveled through time and returned to the scene when they were together day and night.
Lin Zhixia stretched out her finger and gently touched the camera. Jiang Yubai and she were in tune with each other, so he also touched his finger. In the virtual online world, their fingertips touched, and Lin Zhixia typed another line of words: "Good luck in the interview! You are the best!"
Jiang Yubai asked her inexplicably: "Am I the best in your eyes?"
"Of course!" Lin Zhixia was very sure. She also said: "You are the best boy I know. You have a good personality. You are gentle, smart, steady, rational and patient. You are the best!"
Lin Zhixia praised Jiang Yubai crazily, satisfying his shameful vanity.
Jiang Yubai no longer felt nervous. He had breakfast, reviewed his notes, and went out calmly.
The weather in December was a little cold. The sky was a gloomy blue and the wind was blowing with a biting chill. The ancient marble buildings in the college stood quietly, surrounded by several square areas of neatly trimmed green lawns.
Jiang Yubai walked across a stone path in the middle of the lawn and adjusted his cuffs slightly. He glanced around and saw a dozen high school students in suits and ties.
Those students came from all over the world. They were all outstanding among their peers. Some students revealed their own strengths and backgrounds during the chat, creating invisible pressure.
Jiang Yubai heard a student's frustrated words: "The probability of Trinity College accepting me is the same as the probability of me winning the lottery..."
Jiang Yubai walked up to the boy and said, "No matter how small the probability is, it's better than no chance at all."
The boy shook his hand and asked: "Where did you go to high school?"
"In Beijing." Jiang Yubai said honestly.
The boy's eyes lit up: "Fellow countryman?"
Jiang Yubai denied it: "I am not a native Beijinger."
Jiang Yubai chatted with the male classmate for a while, and the two sides maintained a polite but cold conversation until the invigilator led them into the examination room. The invigilator was a college student from the school, who looked very young, perhaps only 18 or 19 years old. He had a very easy-going attitude and even made a joke, asking everyone not to be afraid of the written test.
Jiang Yubai is never afraid of written tests.
Besides, this written test only lasts one hour.
The questions on the test paper are very difficult and really test one’s math skills.
Since meeting Lin Zhixia, Jiang Yubai has been studying mathematics day in and day out, and has never slacked off. He uses the standards of high school mathematics competitions to demand himself, and firmly believes in the principles of "the early bird catches the worm" and "hard work can make up for lack of talent".
Now, his hard work paid off. He finished the first six questions smoothly, but got stuck on the seventh question. He concentrated and thought carefully, and his hand was as fast as a rocket. After he finally finished the question, the invigilator said, "You have ten minutes left."
Only ten minutes left.
Jiang Yubai still has three questions to answer.
He read the question of the eighth question and wrote down the answer based on his intuition without having time to think about it. He used the same method to finish the ninth question before the end of the exam.
Then, Jiang Yubai took the paper and walked towards the interview location.
The written test and the interview were almost seamlessly connected. The written test was the prelude and preparation for the interview. After completing the seven questions on the test paper, Jiang Yubai could not stand out from the competitors. He had to leave a deep impression on the interviewer in order to be qualified for admission.
Jiang Yubai's two interviewers were both professors with high academic achievements. As soon as he stepped into the office, he felt the professors' gazes. He exchanged a few words with the professors without any hurry and handed over his paper with both hands.
The first professor asked Jiang Yubai questions about the questions on the test paper, and Jiang Yubai answered them very fluently. The professor smiled, nodded, and talked to him about the ninth and tenth questions - these two questions were actually beyond Jiang Yubai's ability.
The second professor began to guide Jiang Yubai and provided him with simple ideas. He immediately grasped the key points and orally formulated a plan.
Jiang Yubai's tutor once taught him: Cambridge interviews are a bit troublesome. You have to have a good attitude - you can't be too tough and show any aggression, nor can you succumb to authority and have no opinion. You can't talk endlessly, and you can't be silent. You have to be gentle, polite, confident, honest, trust your own judgment, and correct your mistakes in time.
Jiang Yubai adheres to this principle.
Both professors smiled.
After one of the professors discussed the questions on the test paper with Jiang Yubai, he gave him a quick-answer question: Suppose you are playing a game and you have a coin. After you toss the coin, if the front side of the coin is facing up, the game continues and you can get one yuan. If the back side of the coin is facing up, the game ends immediately. What is your expected value of the profit
Jiang Yubai began to answer. He said that when a coin is tossed, the probability of the front and back sides facing up is uncertain because the question does not describe the situation of the coin itself. He assumed that the probability of the front side facing up is a and the probability of the back side facing up is b, and the expected value should be a/b.
Next, the professor turned the problem into game theory, with an increased number of players.
Jiang Yubai picked up a marker and drew a diagram on a whiteboard. The professor kept increasing the difficulty of the questions, linking the two fields of mathematics and economics, and even examining a little philosophy.
Jiang Yubai never had a dull moment. His thoughts were always clear, he could quote from classics, and his reading range was very broad.
Jiang Yubai has read countless books over the years to achieve ideological resonance with Lin Zhixia. Lin Zhixia's thinking mode is very eccentric, and her imagination is even more unrestrained, especially when she was a child. She didn't consider Jiang Yubai's mental state at all. As long as she caught him, she would say anything.
The interview was about to end, and Jiang Yubai thought of Lin Zhixia and was distracted for a few seconds. He heard the professor praise him, and he felt relieved, said goodbye to the professor, and slowly walked out of the main door of the room.
Jiang Yubai recalled the entire interview process and felt it was pretty good. He didn't stand out from the crowd, but he didn't make any mistakes either.
Jiang Yubai's uncle asked him if he was sure, and he briefly summarized: "70% to 80% sure."
Lin Zhixia asked him how he did on the test, and he replied in detail: "It was OK. In addition to math and economics, there was also philosophy. The teacher asked me whether humans have free will, which is something you often talk about..."
"How did you answer?" Lin Zhixia asked again.
Jiang Yubai said calmly: "It quoted the hypothesis of the Kantian school."
"That should be no problem," Lin Zhixia analyzed. "You are a student of the Economics Department. You understand free will and determinism, and have read Kant's works. You are so outstanding, you will definitely be admitted!"
Jiang Yubai acted very modestly: "Maybe others are better than me."
After Jiang Yubai said this, Lin Zhixia thought he lacked confidence, but she praised him several times, which made him very happy. He patiently waited for the admission result of Cambridge, and wanted to know whether he could study abroad with Lin Zhixia.
In January 2011, Jiang Yubai returned to the provincial capital to prepare for the Chinese New Year. His high school career was coming to an end, and in September this year, he would become a glorious college student.
In the eyes of Jiang Yubai's high school classmates, Jiang Yubai is a very outstanding boy. He is proficient in English and French, has a solid theoretical foundation, and has very high test scores. When he and his classmates do group work, he always plays the role of a leader. Everyone is convinced by him and almost forgets that he is younger than everyone else.
In addition, Jiang Yubai is not arrogant at all. He defines himself as an "ordinary person".
Jiang Yubai's high school classmates almost unanimously believed that Jiang Yubai would definitely be able to get into the university he wanted to go to.
The students are very far-sighted.
One morning in January 2011, Jiang Yubai opened the application system and saw the admission notice from Cambridge at first glance. He calmly closed the webpage, reopened it, confirmed that he had received the relevant email, read the admission letter again, and then announced the good news to his relatives and friends.