Concentric Circles

Song He's thoughts had been waiting for this moment for a long time. In an instant, they lunged toward the flashing numbers, like a sniper firing thunderously at a target that had just exposed itself!

Hit!

The numbers in his mind lit up across a vast area. Wild, unparalleled lightning pierced through everything, and in an instant, a massive set of concentric circles suddenly took shape!

Nearly a hundred thousand numbers rapidly formed six layers of concentric circles. Each layer was connected by different calculation rules. No wonder the pattern couldn't be seen by looking directly at the file. The numbers in the file hadn't formed any shape at all. They had merely been laid out line by line, harmless as could be, arranged more neatly than corpses.

Now all the numbers had finally come back to life. They lined up actively into a great circle and began rotating grandly!

Drenched in sweat, Song He launched into the final sprint and began calculating the concentric circles!

The six layers of concentric circles merged adjacent numbers, combining them in pairs on each layer. The resulting large circles underwent the same process repeatedly, eliminating them one by one until only a single eight-digit number remained.

Song He's head throbbed as if it were splitting apart. The scale of the calculation was unimaginably huge. Some branches kept reaching zero and disappearing, but hundreds or thousands of others continued advancing.

He couldn't make a single mistake. One wrong number, and the entire game was lost!

The giant circle formed by the numbers shrank step by step. The sight was spectacular, like a star collapsing. Song He's skull hurt so badly he was nearly crying out, and sweat gushed from him like a gate had been opened!

"Last minute!" Li Kui suddenly shouted, though his voice sounded weak this time.

"88631002!" Song He abruptly stood up and roared.

The entire room fell silent. Everyone froze, while Li Kui stared at him in disbelief.

"88631002!!" Song He roared again.

After shouting, his brain was completely starved of oxygen. His vision went black, and he collapsed back into his chair. Luckily, he didn't pass out, though his eyes blurred as countless stars spun above his head.

Li Kui swiftly pulled out his radio and shouted the numbers back. "Eight-eight-six-three-zero-zero-two!"

On the giant screen, the countdown strikingly hit zero!

Song He's brain had partially shut down. When he heard Li Kui repeat the numbers, he suddenly felt a chill and thought, He got the last four digits wrong.

It took him several seconds to realize that some numbers were pronounced differently in the military. In the early days, artillery units often had to report numerical coordinates during combat. The soldiers came from all over the country, and different accents made certain numbers easy to mishear, so their pronunciations had been standardized.

The room was utterly silent. Everyone looked at Song He with curiosity and awe.

"Was it right?" Song He asked Li Kui.

"We don't know yet. I'll tell you when we hear anything." Li Kui looked worried. "You calculated it?"

"Yes, but I didn't have time to verify it." Song He nodded.

The next morning, at breakfast.

Song He and Lao Zhao sat at the same table, eating steamed buns, fried dough sticks, and tofu pudding.

"Sweet tofu pudding really isn't disgusting?" Song He asked. "The savory kind tastes better!"

"What do you know?" Lao Zhao snorted.

Both of them had good appetites and ate heartily. Although they disagreed over sweet and savory tofu pudding, they tacitly set the argument aside. After all, Song He would be leaving after this meal. He hadn't come for anything important this time—he had merely stopped by to see Lao Zhao.

"About calling you over to help yesterday—how did it go?" Lao Zhao remembered.

"Don't bring it up." Song He's expression fell. "I was nearly exhausted to the point of passing out! They gave us nearly a hundred thousand numbers without explaining the rules and asked us to find an eight-digit number. Who the hell would know how to calculate that? And there was a countdown. It started at twenty-four hours, suddenly shrank to twelve, and finally dropped to just one hour!"

"So you failed? You couldn't solve it?" Lao Zhao asked.

"No. Although it nearly killed me, I still solved it."

"You solved it?" Lao Zhao froze and pointed his artificial eyeball at him. "How?"

"I memorized everything from beginning to end, found the pattern, and discovered that it involved constructing concentric circles. Then I ran the calculations tens of thousands of times and got the result." Song He explained.

Lao Zhao laughed. "At least make up something more believable."

"I'm serious! How could I be making it up?" Song He said indistinctly around the fried dough stick in his mouth.

"How long did it take?"

"The countdown kept changing, so I'm not sure. Less than two hours, I guess."

"Two hours to memorize and mentally calculate a hundred thousand numbers?" Lao Zhao laughed. "If you really had that ability, you'd be cultivating to become an immortal! Why are you still eating breakfast? You should be fasting!"

"Memorizing and calculating a hundred thousand numbers by brute force would certainly be difficult, but once you classify them according to their patterns, it isn't hard. There are tricks to fast mental calculation and memory. This is simply the skill we mathematicians rely on to make a living." Song He explained calmly.

"Was the final result correct?"

"I don't know. They haven't notified me yet."

"I have a bad feeling about it... Like you said, how could you possibly calculate a hundred thousand numbers in two hours and still be accurate?" Lao Zhao sounded pessimistic.

"You'd better pray that I got it right. The soldier who called me over said that if the final answer was wrong, someone might die." Song He's expression grew serious.

"Is that so?" Lao Zhao became serious as well. "Then I'll pray that you got it right!"

Song He silently gnawed on his fried dough stick, his mind filled with wild thoughts. After giving the answer yesterday, he had asked Li Kui for details, wanting to know whose life or death his answer would determine, but Li Kui had refused him on the grounds that it was classified.

Actually, it was better not to know. If he found out who it was, and if he really had calculated it wrong, his guilt might become overwhelming. Knowing nothing would make the guilt a little easier to bear.

Song He hadn't verified the result again. First, recalculating it would have been unbearably exhausting—he still hadn't recovered even after sleeping. Second, he didn't dare calculate it again, fearing that he would get a different result. What would be the point? There was no way to fix anything now anyway.

Bzz! Bzz! The phone on the table vibrated.

Lao Zhao picked up the phone, answered it, and held it to his ear. After listening for a couple of seconds, he nodded repeatedly. "Good! That's good!"

After hanging up, he let out a long breath. "Little Song, you've done something meritorious!"

"They notified you?" Song He's eyes widened.

"Your result was correct. None of our people died, and we also obtained some extremely valuable things." Lao Zhao said. "They've recorded your merit internally, but it won't be made public for now, since they're afraid someone might target you because of it. Besides the honor, there's also a bonus of six hundred thousand yuan. It'll be transferred to you within two working days."

Song He nodded and picked up a steamed bun to gnaw on.

"You're pretty calm." Lao Zhao laughed.

"How am I calm? I nearly couldn't sleep last night." Song He said. "There's no need to jump up and cheer, though. I'm actually very happy."

"Do you like working here?" Lao Zhao asked.

"No, the pressure's too great. My heart nearly exploded yesterday!" Song He shook his head vigorously, then remembered that Lao Zhao couldn't see and stopped. "I'm fine with taking my time and doing some research and development, but missions like yesterday's, with a ticking time bomb hanging over me, are truly torturous!"

Lao Zhao chuckled like a seasoned veteran mocking a new recruit. As he laughed, he suddenly remembered something, and his expression grew complicated.

"I'm finished." Song He tossed the disposable chopsticks into the trash. "Lao Zhao, just rest easy and wait for your surgery. Once your sight is restored, we'll get together again!"

"Okay." Lao Zhao nodded. "Where are you headed next? Do you need me to make arrangements?"

"No need. I'm going back home! The college entrance examination results will be released in a few days, so I'm going back to watch my old friends check their scores." Song He smiled.