The tense, thrilling four exams came to an end with the final bell signaling the end of the English exam, marking the basic conclusion of this year's college entrance examination.
The results would come out in around twenty days. During those twenty days, all the students who had finished the college entrance examination began enjoying this period of relaxation. After all, once the results came out, whether they could still relax would be another matter. They might even have to return to school to repeat a year.
Of course, such a problem did not exist for Xiao Yi at all.
Having finished his exams, Xiao Yi had nothing else to do. He could hardly go back to Class 3 of Grade 2 Science Stream for lessons, so he left school and returned home.
As for going out to have fun, that was out of the question for him. His friends were all still at school, entering the grueling third year of high school, so they obviously could not come out and play with him.
If he went and asked them whether they wanted to go out, would that not be like eating watermelon in front of people undergoing military training?
Besides, he did not have the time to go out and have fun.
As for that paper, he studied to broaden his knowledge while writing it, and it finally made him feel what difficulty was like.
In every respect, he felt a sense of being impeded.
However, that feeling did not make him give up. Instead, it sparked an even greater thirst for knowledge in him. Thus, the problems that had made him feel impeded were gradually conquered by him.
He also gradually gained insight into the direction of the paper's derivation.
In short, Xiao Yi was getting into the groove with this paper.
Just like that, time arrived at June 24.
If Ki was an open subgroup of Δi, then let V~(Ki)(E(Ki)) be the set of vertex decomposition groups of GYi in K(p′)i, where Yi→Xi was a finite étale cover...
Xiao Yi was writing his paper on a Huawei laptop. This was the laptop Principal Liu had given him back then. It had cost 9,999 and was a high-end, lightweight model. After using it for so long, he found it quite comfortable.
He typed while thinking about the next steps.
Beside him lay stacks of draft paper covered in calculations. There were also all kinds of math books, including Algebraic Geometry and various others.
Those forty books from before were no longer enough for him. He had now bought even more books to tackle this paper.
"Anabelian, anabelian..."
He could not help sighing. "It really is worthy of something proposed by Grothendieck."
Alexander Grothendieck—according to Liu Bin's introduction back then—was the father of modern algebraic geometry and was also known in the mathematics world as the Math Emperor.
To research this paper over the past while, Xiao Yi had looked into the deeds of this Math Emperor, so he had come to understand the difficulty of the paper.
Still, no matter what, since it was a topic recommended by Professor Liu Bin, Professor Liu must have had his reasons. Therefore, he would definitely be able to write this paper.
Perhaps Professor Liu had even carefully selected this paper, believing it suited Xiao Yi's current abilities. That was why it could make him feel challenged while still allowing him to keep breaking through.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yi felt even more grateful to Professor Liu and attached even greater importance to the paper.
However, just then, he heard someone knock on the door outside.
Who would come by at a time like this?
Though puzzled, he did not think too much about it or get up to answer the door. Father Xiao and Mother Xiao had not gone to work today and were in the living room, watching Hui Province TV's coverage of the provincial college entrance examination.
The authorities had already issued a notice that today was the day their province's results would be announced. Thinking of the excellent score Xiao Yi might have achieved, Father Xiao and Mother Xiao naturally wanted to witness that moment with their son.
Xiao Yi soon heard footsteps in the living room. It should have been his father going to answer the door.
As the door opened, Father Xiao, Xiao Guohua, spoke. "May I ask who you're looking for?"
"Is this Xiao Yi's home?"
Hearing the question, Xiao Guohua was visibly stunned for a moment before saying, "Yes. May I ask who you are?"
"Haha, you must be Xiao Yi's father, Mr. Xiao Guohua, right? We're teachers from Shangjing University's admissions team. We came especially to offer our congratulations. Congratulations to Xiao Yi for becoming the science-stream top scorer in Hui Province!"
Before the man had even finished speaking, Xiao Yi heard another set of footsteps from the living room. Clearly, his mother, Du Xin, had immediately been unable to contain herself upon hearing "Shangjing University admissions team" and had run straight to the door.
Once the unexpected visitors at the door finished speaking, Father Xiao and Mother Xiao let out sounds of astonishment.
"What?"
"Really?"
Just then, the television broadcast began: "...In this year's provincial college entrance examination results, a total of thirty-seven science-stream students scored above 700, with the highest score being 741. A total of fifteen humanities-stream students scored above 645, with the highest score being 669..."
As the television broadcast reached the doorway, the teacher from Shangjing University's admissions team smiled and said, "See? That score of 741 is Xiao Yi's. Chinese language: 141, Math: 150, English: 150, Science Comprehensive: 300."
"The results should be announced soon, but our admissions team usually receives the information a little early. So as soon as we learned your child's score, we rushed right over."
"We mainly wanted to ask whether Xiao Yi would be willing to apply to Shangjing University."
Just then, another voice came from below the stairs. "Wait! Don't listen to Shangjing University!"
With the thump-thump-thump of people climbing the stairs, it was obvious that several more people had come up.
After a bout of panting, those people said, "Mr. Xiao Guohua, Ms. Du Xin, hello. We're from Tsinghua University's admissions team. Well..."
"Hey, hey, hey, Old Qin, do you understand first come, first served? We agreed on this before, didn't we? Is this how you do things?" The Shangjing University admissions teacher interrupted the Tsinghua admissions teacher, voicing his displeasure first.
The Tsinghua teacher immediately played dumb. "What first come, first served? How come I don't know about that? When did I ever agree to anything with you?"
"You..." The Shangjing University teacher nearly lost it. How could the dignified Tsinghua admissions team be so shameless?!
At that moment, Xiao Guohua and Du Xin finally recovered from their enormous surprise and understood what was happening before them.
The two top institutions in the country, Shangjing University and Tsinghua University, were about to fight over recruiting their child.
They had only ever seen such scenes on the news. They truly had not expected one to happen right in front of them.
For a moment, Du Xin was so excited that her eyes reddened.
The next chapter will be posted at nine.
Before you continue