Outside the Senior Year Department office.
Qin Song, the Grade 2 Director, and Luo Penghua, the homeroom teacher of Class 3 of Grade 2 Science Stream, appeared there.
"Director Qin, did Xiao Yi get himself into some kind of trouble? Did Director Chen Liang tell you anything?"
Luo Penghua asked worriedly.
Qin Song shook his head. "I don't know either. Director Chen only told me to bring you over."
"But don't worry. Xiao Yi is a Grade 2 student, and it's not Chen Liang from Senior Year's place to discipline him. Let's go in and see what he's up to."
Qin Song snorted. They were both Grade Directors—did Chen Liang think a single phone call was enough to summon him over?
If it hadn't involved a student, he would have given Chen Liang a proper earful over the phone.
Hearing Qin Song say that, Luo Penghua relaxed slightly.
But just then, the office door opened, and a burst of hearty laughter came from inside. It was Chen Liang.
"Hahaha, Old Qin, don't be so fired up."
Walking out of the office, Chen Liang patted Qin Song on the shoulder. "I thought there was some great news here and wanted to give you a surprise, so I didn't explain much over the phone."
At Chen Liang's words, Qin Song's displeased expression faded, replaced by confusion.
"Great news? What great news?"
Luo Penghua was puzzled as well. Thinking of Xiao Yi, could this great news possibly have something to do with him?
Chen Liang laughed. "I've discovered a promising talent for the USTC Young Scholars Program for you!"
Qin Song froze at once, his eyes widening. "What? The USTC Young Scholars Program? You're not joking, are you?"
"Come on, I might joke with anyone else, but never with you."
"Xiao Yi?"
"Yes." Chen Liang nodded.
Qin Song carefully recalled the Grade 2 students with good grades. There didn't seem to be anyone named Xiao Yi among them.
Class 3 of Science Stream was a fairly strong class, but Class 1 of Science Stream was the school's elite class. The top students in their grade were basically all from that class.
At best, Xiao Yi was probably somewhere in the top hundred of the grade?
He definitely wasn't in the top fifty, because Qin Song remembered nearly all of those names.
Thinking that, he could not help looking at Luo Penghua.
Luo Penghua was equally dumbfounded. Was Xiao Yi really that impressive?
How had he, Xiao Yi's homeroom teacher, not known?
With that in mind, he asked, "Director Chen, are you sure you mean Xiao Yi from our class?"
Chen Liang smiled and waved a hand. "Forget it. Just come in and see for yourselves."
He then went inside, with Qin Song and Luo Penghua following after him.
Once inside, Luo Penghua spotted Xiao Yi immediately.
After all, he was the only student in uniform in the office. Besides, with that face—since he was Luo Penghua's student, Luo Penghua naturally recognized him at a glance.
Only...
Xiao Yi was currently sitting beside a middle-aged man Luo Penghua had never seen before, who seemed to be a teacher. Was he working on a problem?
"This problem... is interesting. But it should be solvable like this..."
"Using proof by contradiction, first construct a quadratic equation in one variable and let x be the smallest solution..."
"Then use Vieta's Formulas to derive another solution."
"Then use that other solution to derive a contradiction. Therefore, the original equation has no solution, which means the original assumption is invalid."
"Done!"
Xiao Yi put down his pen, his face filled with both interest in the problem and delight at having solved it.
Luo Penghua had no idea what kind of problem Xiao Yi had solved, but he could see that the middle-aged teacher beside him was looking at Xiao Yi as though he were some priceless treasure.
It gave him the strange feeling that...
Someone was coveting his treasure?
Just then, Xiao Yi suddenly turned around, saw them, and immediately called out, "Mr. Luo."
Liu Bin turned around as well, rose to his feet, and smiled.
These two, especially Luo Penghua, were practically Xiao Yi's guardians at school.
So whether Luo Penghua agreed would greatly affect whether Xiao Yi could join their Gifted Class, because Luo Penghua's opinion would surely directly influence Xiao Yi's parents' opinion.
As long as Luo Penghua agreed, there was a high chance that Xiao Yi's parents would agree too.
Liu Bin himself probably had not realized that he had already begun worrying about whether Xiao Yi would be willing to join the Gifted Class.
In the past, it had always been others competing to get into the Gifted Class.
At that point, Chen Liang began introducing Liu Bin to Qin Song and Luo Penghua.
"Come, let me introduce you first. This is Professor Liu Bin from the School of Mathematics at the University of Science and Technology of China. Professor Liu originally came to our Senior Year Department to find students who might have a chance to enter USTC through independent admissions, but he happened to discover a promising talent in Xiao Yi."
"Director Chen, and Mr. Luo, you two have really struck gold!"
Luo Penghua glanced at Xiao Yi before asking first, "So what exactly is going on here?"
"Have a seat. I'll explain it slowly."
Chen Liang pointed at the chairs beside them, signaling everyone to sit down, then began recounting what had happened over the past few days.
By the end of it, Luo Penghua was staring at Xiao Yi strangely.
This kid...
Was he really that good at math?
Sure, Xiao Yi's math scores had always been fairly good in their class, but not so good that he could casually crush Math Olympiad problems, right?
And what was that about solving a problem that had been rejected by the IMO organizing committee because it was too difficult? Wasn't that a little too outrageous?
But then Liu Bin added, "Oh, right. I gave Xiao Yi two more problems just now, and he solved both in no time."
"Especially that last one. It was IMO's Legendary Problem Six. I don't know whether you've heard of it, but even Terence Tao couldn't solve it back then. Yet Xiao Yi managed to derive the method of Vieta Jumping on his own and solve it."
As he spoke, he handed Luo Penghua and Qin Song the scratch paper containing the two problems Xiao Yi had just worked on. At the same time, he continued praising him highly. "All I can say is that Xiao Yi is a born mathematician, and one of the most exceptional geniuses I've seen in all my years in the mathematics world."
"Students in our USTC Young Scholars Program also have the chance to enter the Hua Loo-Keng Class. As long as he gets into that class, the cultivation of Xiao Yi's mathematical ability will absolutely be no worse than at the School of Mathematics of Shangjing University!"
As they listened to Liu Bin's explanation, they examined the two sheets of scratch paper.
However, neither Luo Penghua nor Qin Song taught mathematics, so they truly could not understand the two problems on the paper. Or rather, even math teachers might not necessarily have been able to understand them.
But that did not stop them from guessing that Xiao Yi's talent seemed to have far surpassed anything they had imagined.
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