"I don't think these media outlets have distorted the facts. Isn't this the style of the internet age?" Mu Rong laughed, then said seriously, "Shen Qi, dress smartly. We're going to the awards ceremony."
The multi-functional banquet hall at the headquarters of the Chinese Physics Association.
This year's CPhO is coming to a close, with the awards ceremony being the last event.
Relevant leaders from the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Chinese Physics Association visited the site to provide guidance.
The awards ceremony officially began at approximately 3:00 PM.
Tsinghua University and Yenching University are close by, so relevant leaders, professors, and admissions officers from both universities also came to the multi-functional banquet hall of the Chinese Physics Association. Their goal was to recruit as many of the 40 athletes for the national physics competition training team as they could.
Of course, Yenching University has an advantage now, while Shuimu University is at a disadvantage in the field of physics.
The policy has now been adjusted, and high school students who only win a gold medal in the CPhO National Final are unlikely to receive a guaranteed admission spot to Tsinghua University or Yenching University.
However, high school students selected for the National Training Team will be highly sought after by top universities like Tsinghua and Yenching.
Therefore, the top 40 out of the 50 gold medalists are lucky, as the cutoff score for the National Training Team is set at the top 40.
The ten gold medalists ranked 41-50 are in a rather unfortunate situation. Oh well, what can they do? If they had scored a few more points on the exam, their lives could have been changed.
In the audience seats.
"Old Sun, what's going on? Why is your star pupil Shen Qi trying to steal our jobs?" said a professor from the Physics Department of Yan University. His surname was Fu, and he was accompanied by a 200-pound fat man named Sun Erxiong.
"This isn't about stealing jobs, it's fair competition. Who says Olympic Math champion can't participate in physics competitions?" Sun Erxiong rolled his eyes at Professor Fu, clearly annoyed. "Back then Xu Xiaoyu won a perfect score gold medal in the CMO and was pre-admitted to our Mathematics Department. You, Professor Fu, are really dishonest, stealing her away and tricking Xu Xiaoyu into going to the Physics Department."
"Xu Xiaoyu is just suited for physics; that's his talent. My attempt was not wrong. Xu Xiaoyu later won the IPhO gold medal, the first among gold medalists, the world's number one." Professor Fu retorted sharply, snatching Xu Xiaoyu from Lao Sun's hands was his proudest move.
Sun Erxiong: "In the end, he still went to Princeton."
"Everyone has their own ambitions." Professor Fu seemed magnanimous, but there was actually a hint of sourness in his words.
"So, Lao Fu, your personal charm and emotional intelligence are still worrying. If Xu Xiaoyu were in my hands, coming to my Golden Autumn Camp or Winter Camp, he would definitely stay at Peking University, at least for his undergraduate studies." Actually, Sun Erxiong wasn't very kind either; his subtle jabs were the most lethal.
"You son of a bitch..." Professor Fu was furious; even a cultured professor wanted to curse.
"Old Sun, Old Fu, can you say a few less words? Shen Qi is going on stage," said a refined-looking school leader.
"Okay, okay, Principal Mo, we won't say anything more." Old Sun and Old Fu immediately shut up. Principal Mo was the Vice Principal in charge of admissions.
Yenching University attaches great importance to the CPhO National Final awards ceremony, and the Vice Principal in charge of admissions personally came to select candidates.
The Vice Principal of Yenching University holds a high administrative rank. Few of the relevant leaders from the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology present at the meeting held a higher rank than Vice Principal Mo. Furthermore, the Ministry of Education has no jurisdiction over Yenching University, which is directly under the central government.
In fact, the No.1 in this year's CPhO National Final had already been pre-recruited by Yanda University last year. Vice Principal Mo, who is extremely busy, had never seen Shen Qi in person before, and today was the first time.
Sun Erxiong shouldn't have attended the awards ceremony for the physics competition; he's a mathematics professor.
But there was no way around it; Sun Erxiong's prized student Shen Qi, had done something amazing—he had to be there. Anyway, it was only a ten-minute walk from Yenching University, and he even bought two jin of pork and scallion buns on the way.
"Next, please welcome Shen Qi, the gold medalist of this year's National High School Physics Competition, to the stage to give his acceptance speech!" The host from the Chinese Physics Association enthusiastically invited Shen Qi to the stage. This is a tradition; the overall number one scorer in each national finals must give a speech as a formality.
The No. 1 finisher usually receives the "Best Player Award" from the Chinese Physics Association, and this year's Best Player Award was given to Shen Qi.
Shen Qi looked quite handsome today. Mu Rong had picked out a black suit for him and he even wore a blue tie, which made him look very dignified.
"Shen Qi, handsome young man!" Sun Erxiong gave him a thumbs up.
"I think Shen Qi is actually quite suited to studying physics," Professor Fu said sincerely.
"Go to hell with Fu Bingsen!" Sun Erxiong cursed. "Stop daydreaming. Enough is enough. Give up on your idea of poaching our Mathematics Department's students. If you have even the slightest improper thought about Shen Qi, believe me, I'll demolish your School of Physics!"
"You, a mere theorist in mathematics, think you can outmaneuver our School of Physics?" Professor Fu sneered dismissively, then added, "It's better to guide than to suppress; everyone has their own ambitions."
"Can you two just shut up for a bit?" Principal Mo, sitting in the next seat, said unhappily.
Sun Erxiong and Professor Fu fell silent again, and then both looked intently at the stage.
Shen Qi went on stage, bowed, and then began his acceptance speech. "First of all, I would like to thank the Chinese Physics Association awarding me this Best Competitor Award. I have received Best Competitor Awards in other fields, but the CPhO Best Competitor Award has a different meaning for me."
Sun Erxiong smiled silently. "Shen Qi, you're showing off as soon as you get on stage. Well done."
Other fields, of course, refer to the field of mathematics, to which Sun Erxiong expressed his satisfaction.
Shen Qi hadn't prepared a speech; he just spoke extemporaneously, saying whatever came to mind, "There are some catchy rhymes circulating online, like 'Yanda is alright,' 'My wife isn't beautiful,' etc. I've roughly summarized them. These so-called memes reflect a social phenomenon: successful people who have achieved remarkable success inadvertently reveal certain information, such as 'I'm just an ordinary person,' 'I unintentionally accomplished something,' and so on."
"I'm just a high school student. I don't have much social experience, so I can't judge anything."
"Before attending the awards ceremony, I glanced at the news and saw some comments about me."
"I'm not a casual person. I've put in a lot of hard work and sweat to achieve even a little bit of success."
"It's no exaggeration to say that in the past year or so, the number of professional documents I've read and the academic papers I've researched exceeds that of more than 99% of high school students or even undergraduates," Shen Qi said with great emotion. He continued, "I'm not a smart person, so I had to start early, even if I was a slow bird."
"I don't like hearing people say things like 'Yan University is alright.' How can Yan University be alright? It's clearly very good!"
"If anyone says Yanda is alright, I'll argue with them." Shen Qi couldn't help but laugh at this impromptu remark.
Laughter erupted from the audience.
Vice Principal Mo of Yanda University was also amused by Shen Qi, and Shen Qi's remarks left a deep impression on him.
"I am very happy and grateful to have won the gold medal at CPhO. I would like to thank my physics competition teacher, Teacher Mu. Mu Rong from Nangang Second High School, for her careful guidance." Shen Qi paused for two seconds and looked towards a certain spot in the audience.
Mu Rong, sitting in the audience, felt very gratified and smiled happily.
"Mu Rong went to Nangang Second High School Middle School to become a middle school teacher? Which Mu Rong? Could it be the Mu Rong from our School of Physics?" Professor Fu muttered to himself in confusion.
"He doesn't even know where his own students go after graduation. How can there be such a professor in the world?" Sun Erxiong couldn't help but retort.
Professor Fu ignored Sun Erxiong and muttered to himself, "Why did he go to a high school like Nangang Second High School? That doesn't make sense. A School of Physics should at least go to a decent high school, right?"
On stage, Shen Qi gave a concluding speech. "My deepest gratitude goes to my parents. Mom and Mom, I love you! That concludes my acceptance speech. Thank you. And thank you again to the Chinese Physics Association for this award."
Clap clap clap, applause rang out.
Click, click, click—the reporter takes photos.
Shen Qi's CPhO journey has come to an end.