The Reincarnated Science Whiz

Chapter 18: Returning to School

January 3, late afternoon, as the sun set Qin Yuanqing stood at the school gate, gazing at the red banner hanging there—a banner celebrating his gold medal victory at the CMO. Even though more than half a month had passed, the red banner still hadn’t been taken down. This time, he flew directly from Beijing Capital International Airport to Lutou Island Airport. After landing at Lutou Island Airport, Qin Yuanqing didn’t choose to return to Jinpu No. 1 High School because it was already the New Year’s holiday—even seniors were enjoying a three-day break this time. So Qin Yuanqing took a ferry directly from Lushi Island back home. At home, he thoroughly enjoyed this rare New Year’s holiday. His parents were overjoyed to learn he had won the CMO gold medal. They told Qin Yuanqing that reporters had been coming to interview them constantly during this time, and town officials had visited to offer their congratulations—including a cash prize of 50,000. With this 50,000 yuan bonus, added to the 100,000 yuan Qin Yuanqing had previously sent to his father, the family now had 150,000 yuan, which immediately eased their financial situation considerably. His father mentioned wanting to add another story to the house, which would also help keep it from getting too hot in the summer. Qin Yuanqing worked in engineering design—though not specifically in building design—but many of the principles overlapped. The old house had been built over a decade ago. Construction practices in rural areas during the 1990s were relatively backward: the foundation consisted of just a single stone beam serving as a ring beam, with walls built directly on top of it—no columns. Since the house was right next to the road, the foundation had been sinking for over a decade, causing uneven settlement. Cracks had already appeared in the walls, and water could be seen seeping through the floor slabs on rainy days. Therefore, it was impossible to continue building upward on the old house; otherwise, it would become a structurally unsafe building, and the money spent would be wasted. In the original plan, the question was whether to add another story to the old house’s foundation or rebuild it from scratch. After careful consideration, Qin Yuanqing chose to rebuild it. At that time, labor and material costs were relatively low; a three-story shell house could be built for around 200,000 yuan. If he had waited until 2015, when the prices of cement, rebar, and sand had all risen, along with labor costs, the same floor area and design would have cost 380,000 yuan. After convincing his parents, Qin Yuanqing went to an internet café, downloaded CAD software, and redrew the house he had originally designed from memory. However, he had learned from his previous experience: he widened the staircase to 1. 5 meters. In rural areas, staircases shouldn’t be too narrow; the original design, at 1. 25 meters wide, was clearly too narrow and had drawn a lot of criticism from his father. He also optimized the master bedroom: the bathroom was made smaller and divided into dry and wet zones to make space for cabinets, resulting in a much more rational layout than before. Then, his father hired a master builder, and Qin Yuanqing gave him detailed instructions—covering architecture, structural engineering, plumbing, and electrical work—one by one. Only then did Qin Yuanqing feel at ease enough to leave. Upon returning to campus this time, Qin Yuanqing received an even grander welcome than before. The principal specially organized a celebration on the school playground. Since Qin Yuanqing hadn’t spoken at the previous event, he couldn’t avoid it this time. He chose “The 90s Generation Is Not a ‘Lost Generation’” as the topic of his speech. “Fellow students and faculty members, I was born in 1990. I imagine the vast majority of you here were born in the ’90s or later. In society, there’s a label for those of us born in the ’90s and later: ‘the lost generation’!” “The ‘lost generation’—what a heavy label to be pinned on us, one that leaves us gasping for breath…….” “In fact, we are by no means part of the ‘lost generation.’ We are a generation with individuality. The era of us, the post-90s generation, is beckoning to us. History will ultimately prove that each generation of Huaxia is stronger than the last—the disciple surpasses the master!” “Some might angrily accuse us of disrespecting our elders and being arrogant and conceited! But I must say this: our revolutionary forebears sacrificed themselves one after another to build New China. Wasn’t it precisely to provide future generations with a whole and peaceful nation? Didn’t they hope that their descendants would have an ever-better life?” “Each generation is stronger than the last; the disciple surpasses the master! This is our greatest tribute to our revolutionary forebears!” As Qin Yuanqing finished his speech, thunderous applause erupted. Every student felt deeply moved, as if Qin Yuanqing had spoken the very words in their hearts. Following the celebration, after a brief address by a high-ranking county official, the county government presented Qin Yuanqing with a 200,000 yuan award to encourage him to keep up the good work, lead the Huaxia Math Olympiad Team to the IMO, and bring glory to the nation! Qin Yuanqing and the county official each held a sign representing 200,000 yuan as they posed for a group photo! Qin Yuanqing never expected the county to award him 200,000 yuan for winning the CMO championship—it was a truly generous gesture. However, Qin Yuanqing soon discovered that this was not all: the Provincial Department of Education, the Provincial Mathematical Society, and the Municipal Bureau of Education subsequently awarded him additional prizes, bringing the total bonus to 500,000 yuan. That’s Huaxia for you—as long as your academic performance is outstanding enough, you’ll never have to worry about a thing. Qin Yuanqing even recalled a student who had made a career out of taking the college entrance exam: every year, he’d sit for the exam, get accepted into Shuimu University or Yan Da University, receive a hefty bonus, and repeat this for several years in a row without missing a single year—truly an extraordinary individual. Qin Yuanqing didn’t transfer the money to his dad; such a large sum wasn’t safe, so it was better for him to handle it personally. Anyway, with only 10 days left until the final exams, he’d head back home after they were over. Qin Yuanqing gave a few more interviews, mainly to county, city, and provincial media; as for interviews with national media, those had already taken place at the CMO closing ceremony. Qin Yuanqing quickly settled back into campus life. He spent his days reading, helping classmates with their homework, and chatting and laughing with them. As for love letters, he received a stack of them every day—including several from pretty female classmates. However, as the saying goes, “Good looks are a dime a dozen, but an interesting soul is one in a million! Qin Yuanqing had no intention of dating during high school anyway. Once his final exams were over, he would head home briefly before rushing off to Beijing for his second training camp—he didn’t want to date, and he didn’t have time for it! So, while the maiden had her dreams, the prince had no interest! In the blink of an eye, who knows how many young girls were crying in their beds, or how many male classmates were seething with indignation over this! That day, during evening study hall, Qin Yuanqing wrote a problem on the blackboard: “Class, I’m going to share a problem with you now!” Qin Yuanqing said to the students. “You have 20 minutes to work on this problem!” The problem Qin Yuanqing wrote on the blackboard was as follows: (1) A problem involving matrices and transformations. Given that the linear transformation corresponding to matrix M maps point A(x, y) to point A’(13, 5), find the inverse of matrix M and the coordinates of point A. (2) involves coordinate systems and parametric equations: Given line l and circle C, determine the number of points they have in common. (3) is an inequality problem: Solve the inequality |2x - 1| < |X| + 1. Qin Yuanqing watched his students as they worked diligently on the problems, his expression as calm as a still pond. It was while he was working on these problems that the final question from next year’s college entrance exam came to mind, so he decided to include it as a bonus and as today’s practice problem. As long as the students put their hearts into it, these 14 points are guaranteed on next year’s exam. Yes, although there are three sub-questions, students only need to answer any two of them. By now, everyone has completed the entire high school curriculum, and you’ve already studied matrices. Qin Yuanqing recalls that many students struggle with this problem and fail to earn the points. Take Part (1), for example: you must first use matrices to find M, then calculate the value of M’. Only by deriving a new equation can you determine the final value. Part (2) requires transforming the equation of the circle to find the coordinates of the center and the radius. Part (3) involves breaking it down into different cases: the first case is when x = 0, which yields the result that x does not exist; the second case is when 0 ≤ x ≤ 1/2, where you transform the original equation to find the range of x; the third case is when x ≥ 1/2, where you find the range of x. Finally, by combining these three cases, you determine the solution set of the original inequality. This problem isn’t particularly difficult, but if it were placed as the final question on a college entrance exam—where students are already highly stressed from solving previous problems—many might forget key concepts or run out of time by the time they reach this question, which could easily lead to a disastrous outcome. Qin Yuanqing originally scored only half the points on this problem. Sure enough, since the students hadn’t yet gone through several rounds of review, their performance hadn’t reached its peak. Only two students in the entire class wrote out the complete calculation process and answer, while a large portion of the class didn’t even finish the first part of the question. Qin Yuanqing asked Lin Yuling to come to the front to solve the problem, then stood beside her explaining each step as he wrote the relevant concepts from the textbook on the blackboard. He didn’t know how many students would remember this problem, but the opportunity had been presented—if they didn’t seize it, they had no one but themselves to blame. During this period, Qin Yuanqing would take past college entrance exam questions or key topics he recalled from the previous year, tweak them slightly, and use them as practice problems. As long as the students put in the effort, reaching the cutoff score for a first-tier university would be no problem. For those with a strong foundation to begin with, a little extra effort might even land them within the admission ranges for Shuimu University or Yan Da University. “Very good. Lin Yuling’s solution is thorough. This problem essentially covers all the key concepts from the math elective. I hope everyone will use this as a practice problem to reinforce their understanding of the elective material,” Qin Yuanqing said. He realized that sometimes the environment really does make a difference. Although he hadn’t participated in the last monthly exam, the class’s scores had improved significantly: Lin Yuling ranked 38th in the grade, and three other students made it into the top 100—a marked improvement from before. Perhaps they could achieve even better results on this final exam. At the very least, Qin Yuanqing was confident he would secure first place in the grade, which would in turn boost the class’s average score. January 14, 2009: The sun was shining brightly, and the temperature was around 20 degrees. The entire Jinpu No. 1 High School was in the midst of final exams. Freshmen and sophomores were spread out across different sections, while in each senior class, only half the students remained—one student per desk—with the rest assigned to the multimedia hall and other spare classrooms. Midterm and final exams were the most important tests for the school. Teachers used every means possible to prevent students from cheating, with the grade-level coordinator, homeroom teachers, and proctors repeatedly emphasizing the rules. However, for some resourceful students, no matter how thorough the preparations, the saying “as the master’s wall grows a foot higher, the thief’s ladder grows a foot longer” holds true—such measures are of little use to them. The vast majority of students, however, are well-behaved and honest; even when two students share a desk, they wouldn’t dare to peek at each other’s work.