The Reincarnated Science Whiz

Chapter 15: CMO

“Classmates, let’s give a warm round of applause to welcome our classmate Qin Yuanqing back with honors!” No sooner had Qin Yuanqing stepped into the classroom than a booming voice echoed throughout the room, followed by enthusiastic applause—a welcome organized by his classmates. Meanwhile, Dai Qiuyu walked toward Qin Yuanqing holding a bouquet of flowers. Qin Yuanqing accepted the bouquet, and Dai Qiuyu gave him a quick hug. Instantly, the entire classroom erupted in screams and whistles, which made Qin Yuanqing chuckle to himself. “These guys! Qin Yuanqing had joined the class partway through the semester, so he’d missed out on a semester of getting to know his classmates. After arriving, he wasn’t very sociable, so his relationships with his classmates were rather lukewarm; he came across as a bit of a loner and didn’t get involved in the usual commotion with the others. After graduation, he rarely kept in touch with his high school classmates; aside from a handful of them, they had almost never gotten together. It wasn’t until after they started working that they’d occasionally get together, or attend a classmate’s wedding to celebrate. Their bond wasn’t particularly deep! But at that moment, Qin Yuanqing was deeply moved. He bowed to everyone and said, “Thank you all for your warmth and applause. Thank you for your blessings and your praise! I’m so happy to have you all in my life!” As soon as Qin Yuanqing finished speaking, the classroom erupted in enthusiastic applause once more—even students from the neighboring class came running over to watch. “We’re already halfway through the semester. I hope we can encourage one another in the days ahead and give it our all for the college entrance exams! If any of you have questions about a problem you don’t understand, feel free to bring them to me—as long as I know the answer, I’ll do my very best to help!” Qin Yuanqing said. Instantly, the classroom erupted in enthusiastic applause once more. At that moment, their English teacher, Ms. Zhan, arrived at the classroom door, walked in, and asked everyone to take their seats—the English listening practice was about to begin. Only then did everyone settle down and start preparing for the listening exercise. The first fifteen minutes of every evening study session were strictly reserved for listening practice. About three minutes later, the English audio began playing over the intercom. Qin Yuanqing wrote down the answers to each question, and when the listening section ended, Teacher Zhan sat down right at the lectern to grade the tests. The students worked on their homework, and Qin Yuanqing picked up his book to read. In fact, he would only be at school for three weeks this time, and then he would participate in the CMO on December 15. The winter camp lasted five days: the opening ceremony on the first day, exams on the second and third days, academic presentations or field trips on the fourth day, and the closing ceremony on the fifth day, where the exam results were announced and awards were presented. The CMO exam is modeled entirely after the IMO, with three problems per day to be completed within four and a half hours. Each problem is worth 21 points, for a total of 126 points across the six problems. Awards are divided into first, second, and third prizes. Only those who rank in the top 30 qualify for the IMO national training camp. After further selection during the training camp, six students are chosen to form the IMO National Team, representing Huaxia on the world stage to compete against mathematical prodigies from other countries. That’s why Qin Yuanqing now cherishes his time with his classmates so much; whenever a classmate brings a problem to ask him, Qin Yuanqing patiently explains it. “Class, I’ve finished grading the listening section. Everyone did a great job this time, especially Qin Yuanqing, who scored a perfect 30 out of 30. If I’m not mistaken, this is the first time Qin Yuanqing has achieved a perfect score on the listening section. Let’s give him a round of enthusiastic applause!” Teacher Zhan suddenly said. After a moment of surprise, the students erupted into thunderous applause. Everyone in the class knew that Qin Yuanqing’s English listening skills were terrible—he barely scraped by with a passing grade, and sometimes even scored as low as 12 points. Because of this, his overall English grades weren’t particularly high. No one expected him to score a perfect 30 this time. Qin Yuanqing couldn’t help but feel a bit exasperated. Now that his English had reached Level 10, it would be unthinkable if he still couldn’t score 30 on the listening section. In fact, he no longer even looked at English textbooks; he simply flipped through the Oxford Dictionary to further expand his English knowledge. As for his other subjects—Chinese, physics, chemistry, and biology—he’d review them back in his dorm, since he was no longer studying from high school math textbooks. His classmates were amazed to discover that Qin Yuanqing seemed capable of anything—he could solve any problem. When teachers of math, physics, and other subjects were too busy, they would even ask Qin Yuanqing to explain the exam papers directly. He never refused, walking them through each problem one by one. His classmates found that his explanations were actually easier to understand than the teachers’ own. Sometimes, during evening study sessions, Qin Yuanqing would use problems as examples to expand on the material. His explanations of the various formulas led everyone to have an “aha” moment—realizing how they could be transformed and derived in such ways. Gradually, Qin Yuanqing’s reputation grew even more. Whether out of laziness or for some other reason, the teachers increasingly asked him to explain and solve problems. The math, physics, and English teachers even openly admitted that Qin Yuanqing’s proficiency had surpassed their own. On December 8, Qin Yuanqing once again vanished from school without a trace, as he had already boarded a bus bound for Fuzhou. There, he and five other qualified teammates would undergo intensive training organized by the Provincial Mathematical Society—essentially, a special preparatory program. As long as he placed in the top 30 on the CMO exam, he was guaranteed admission to top-tier universities nationwide, such as Shuimu University, Yan Da University, Fudan University, Jinling University, Huaxia University of Science and Technology, Zhejiang University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Every year, students who gain direct admission to these prestigious universities are almost exclusively those who have achieved high rankings in such high-level competitions. Qin Yuanqing, however, didn’t really care about this; if he’d wanted to, he could have chosen any of these universities after winning first place in the National High School Mathematics League last time. On December 14, Qin Yuanqing and five others flew directly from Fuzhou Airport to Harbin. Their tickets had been booked by the Provincial Mathematical Society, so they didn’t have to spend a single penny. Otherwise, if they had taken the train, it would have taken two days and two nights to reach Harbin. Upon arriving at Harbin Airport, staff from the National Mathematical Society were already on site. After checking in, Qin Yuanqing and his group boarded a bus and, together with contestants from other provinces, headed to Harbin Normal University Affiliated High School. In mid-December, temperatures in Harbin were already very low. The city had seen its first snowfall as early as November 1. When Qin Yuanqing and his group saw the roads lined with a vast expanse of white snow, they were all thrilled. In Fujian Province, it almost never snows—in fact, in Qin Yuanqing’s hometown of Shuixian City, it had never snowed in recorded history. Even during the major snowstorm of 2008, the temperature had merely dropped slightly,as for snow, there wasn’t even a trace of it. Qin Yuanqing couldn’t help but recall that in his previous life, when he was in college, he saw snow for the first time. He had reached out with his hands to catch the snowflakes outdoors, shouting with excitement as if he were a madman. He had visited Harbin in his previous life. During his freshman year, he met an online friend who attended Heilongjiang University of Science and Technology. Back then, they’d chatted about how the winters in the three provinces of the Northeast were spectacular, with their ice and snow creating a striking contrast. A few of them made plans and traveled to Harbin in late December 2011 to visit this friend. As a result, they were frozen to the point of nearly turning into popsicles, and when they went skiing, they ended up rolling all the way down the slope, looking utterly disheveled. So this time, Qin Yuanqing was wearing a thick down jacket—here, you’d definitely regret it if you didn’t dress warmly. Once they arrived at the hotel, the heating made things much better; they could even wear short sleeves. Qin Yuanqing was now in a very calm state of mind. Compared to the last competition, his math level had risen by one grade to Level 8—he simply couldn’t believe he wouldn’t take first place under these circumstances. The participants this time were actually the same group as last time—a total of 400 students. He didn’t believe their skills could have improved faster than his own. The academic atmosphere throughout the winter camp was intense. At the opening ceremony on the first day, he saw many mathematicians, including the president of the Huaxia Mathematical Society. The exams on the second and third days—though there were only three problems each day—allotted four and a half hours per day. The difficulty of the problems was even higher than that of the previous national competition; no wonder the CMO is said to be more challenging than the International Mathematical Olympiad. After two consecutive days of exams, Qin Yuanqing suddenly felt confident—the championship was his for the taking this time. For three of the problems, he had not only provided one solution but three different ones. For two others, he had used two distinct approaches. The fourth day featured academic seminars, with several presentations by mathematicians. Anyone was free to choose which ones to attend. Qin Yuanqing selected a seminar on algebraic geometry given by a young mathematician. Some of the concepts were entirely new to him—things he had never heard of or seen before. Qin Yuanqing couldn’t help but be deeply moved; mathematics was as vast as the ocean, and he had only just begun to scratch the surface—he hadn’t even reached the entry level yet. During the Q&A session, Qin Yuanqing raised his hand and was given the opportunity to ask questions. He asked three consecutive questions about points he hadn’t understood. The young mathematician was very polite and answered each one in turn, which thrilled Qin Yuanqing—he felt the trip had been well worth it. Afterward, Qin Yuanqing attended a lecture on topology, a field he had only recently begun to explore. Compared to algebraic geometry, there were many aspects of topology he did not understand; he could only silently commit them to memory, waiting to delve deeper into them later. At the closing ceremony on the fifth day, the president announced everyone’s exam scores. Qin Yuanqing once again achieved two perfect scores, bringing his total to 252 points, and he rightfully earned a First Prize in the CMO. Qin Yuanqing held the glass trophy in his left hand and the certificate in his right, a delighted smile on his face. This sense of accomplishment was simply off the charts! Not even a billionaire could match this sense of accomplishment! Qin Yuanqing was equally delighted that, with his CMO championship victory, he also received a reward of 2,000 Study Coins. At the same time, Qin Yuanqing’s task bar updated to read: “Task 1: Rank first in the city on the college entrance exam; reward: 500 Study Coins.” “Task 2: Win an individual gold medal at the IMO, reward: 3,000 Study Coins.” “Task 3: Win a team gold medal at the IMO; reward: 3,000 Study Coins.” Clearly, competing in the IMO required facing off against gifted students from other countries, making it harder to win a gold medal—but the rewards were also more generous. However, at that moment, Qin Yuanqing’s attention was entirely focused on his Study Coins—a whopping 3,000 of them. Although he had so many, he hadn’t yet decided how to use them, so he decided to set them aside for now. One by one, others sent their congratulations to Qin Yuanqing. At the same time, Qin Yuanqing accepted the invitation from the Huaxia Mathematical Society to join the national training team for the International Mathematical Olympiad.