Drinking Mountain Spring Water to Calm Nerves

Shen Qi walked up to the two-meter-tall man and squatted down to watch him perform circular motion.

The two-meter-tall man played by himself, ignoring Shen Qi.

Eventually, Shen Qi spoke first, humbly asking, "Senior, may I ask what experiment you are conducting?"

The two-meter-tall man looked straight ahead, "I am measuring the angular velocity of the Earth's rotation."

"Oh, have you measured it?" Shen Qi's physics knowledge base did not contain any information about experimental instruments made from women's hair and randomly picked branches that could measure the Earth's rotational angular velocity.

"This simple Bravais pendulum can't measure the precise value, of course," the two-meter-tall man said indifferently.

Oh, Bravais pendulum. Shen Qi silently noted this technical term, planning to use it to show off later. There were plenty of girls with long hair in his high school.

The two-meter-tall man stopped the circular motion of the Bravais pendulum, his gaze drifting into the distance with a hint of dejection, and he fell silent again.

"Senior, I am a high school student. I came to Shuimu University for the National Mathematics Competition and happened to meet you. Your extraordinary style deeply impressed me. I want to ask, is it difficult to get into Shuimu?" Shen Qi asked.

"When I was in high school, I searched online and found that the top university in the world was Harvard. I applied to Harvard, but I failed the exam and couldn't go to the US. So, I casually chose a domestic university to apply to, and I was admitted to Shuimu. My life is just like this, an ordinary person, not extraordinary at all." The two-meter-tall man recalled the past, appearing even more dispirited.

Shen Qi remained expressionless, "Oh, you got into Shuimu University only after failing your exam. That must feel so helpless and desperate."

At this moment, the female college student who had lent her hair to the two-meter-tall man completed a lap around the lake and ran back.

"Hey, beautiful, wait up," the two-meter-tall man called out.

The girl stopped running and glanced at the simple Bravais pendulum in the two-meter-tall man's hand. She said, "Handsome, you're using a branch as the pendulum bob. You can't correct for thermal expansion."

"That's not the point," the two-meter-tall man shook his head and asked the girl, "Why did you choose to study at Shuimu back then?"

The girl gave a wry smile, "What else could I do? Do you think I wanted to? I've taken IQ tests, and I got scores of 172, 179, and 183. My lowest IQ score is above 170. With my IQ, studying at Shuimu... Sigh, I won't say anymore. The more I talk, the more tears I cry."

"You should continue running. Running with the wind, freedom is your direction," the two-meter-tall man said to the girl, feeling a sense of shared misfortune. He pointed into the distance.

"Let's go to Gongti tonight, I'll treat you to a drink. 138XXXXXXXX," the girl gave her phone number.

"See you tonight," the two-meter-tall man nodded, presumably having memorized the phone number.

The young lady, who claimed to have an IQ above 170, continued to run around the lake, faster and faster, as if releasing excess hormones.

"Little brother, you see, this is how we all ended up studying at Shuimu," the two-meter-tall man said to Shen Qi, his tone melancholic and wistful.

Damn it, I heard Hawking's IQ was only 160. Shen Qi couldn't take it anymore. "Big brother, may I ask who is the biggest show-off in Shuimu Garden? Is it you and that young lady?"

The two-meter-tall man chuckled, "Show-offs? They don't exist. If you consider me and her show-offs, then half the students in Shuimu Garden are show-offs."

"I see," Shen Qi felt a critical hit. This was the first time he had felt this way in months. He asked again, "Big brother, I'd like to know what your major is."

"School of Life Sciences."

"You're in biology, so why are you studying the Earth's angular velocity?"

"I've also studied projective geometry. You can find my mathematical papers published in 'Journal of Mathematical Physics.' In my sophomore year, I thought patents were interesting, so I applied for three national patents for self-leveling cement, which is related to materials science and inorganic chemistry. I was already 1.9 meters tall in high school. During the summer after the college entrance examination, I trained high jump for two months. In my freshman year, I represented Tsinghua in the Universiade and won the high jump championship. Do you have any other questions?"

"I was ignorant, I apologize." Shen Qi's perception was constantly being refreshed by the two-meter-tall man in a short period.

"Show-off, hehe, show-off. Honestly, if there really were show-offs in the world, I would follow them for a lifetime and be at their beck and call." The two-meter-tall man stood up.

"My goodness, you're so tall," Shen Qi, still squatting, looked up at the multi-talented prodigy. "Senior, what are your criteria for a show-off?"

"In any of the fields mentioned above, if someone can do better than me, they are a show-off," the two-meter-tall man said and strode away, casting a long, slender shadow.

Studying biology, conducting physics experiments, publishing mathematical papers, obtaining national patents in chemistry, and being a Universiade sports champion... Doing better than all of that is the standard for a show-off.

An accidental stroll allowed Shen Qi to witness the style of Shuimu Garden. Merely mastering one skill here made you a low-life. Anyone with an IQ below 170 wouldn't even dare to go drinking at a nightclub with the young ladies from Shuimu. They showed off so smoothly, elevating the mundane in their melancholy, creating thunder in silence – this was the demeanor of a prestigious school.

Shen Qi had a sudden realization and felt deeply enlightened. Sometimes, people's circles were truly different. Why did so many people rack their brains to get into prestigious schools? Different stages cultivated different talents, different fireworks bloomed with different brilliance, and different environments fostered different kinds of show-offs.

That evening, Teacher Tian kept his word and treated all the team members to a grand meal as a send-off.

The next two days, the six team members would continue their battle. Shuimu Garden never lacked miracles; this time, who would create one?

The night passed without incident.

On the morning of July 5th, at the same Lecture Building 2, the first half of the National Final was about to begin.

The National Final was divided into two halves. Today, from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM, these 4.5 hours constituted the first half.

Tomorrow, from 9:00 AM to 1:30 PM, would be the second half.

Each National Final contestant would solve 3 problems in each half, for a total of 6 problems. Each problem was worth seven points, for a maximum score of 42 points.

After the routine checks, the first half of the National Final began.

Shen Qi looked at the exam paper and only saw the first question. He chuckled. The people from the Chinese Mathematical Society had no bottom line when it came to setting questions. I FING C you, thank goodness I learned Go when I was a kid. Although my Go skills were terrible, I understood the basic rules.

Even if I understand the rules of Go, I still want to FING C you. Damn it, I'm so angry. Why am I suddenly so irritable? Shen Qi took a sip of Nongfu Spring water to calm his nerves and ate a piece of Bear Cookie to soothe his anger, trying to calm himself down.

The National Final arena allowed contestants to bring their own food and drinks. How could they survive 4.5 hours of exam time without eating or drinking?

The first question of the first half of the National Final was:

"Emperor Taizu of Ming Zhu Yuanzhang enjoyed playing Go, but his skills were mediocre. His founding general, Xu Da, was a master of the game and was often invited by Zhu Yuanzhang to play."

"Every time they played, Xu Da would deliberately let him win. He never won a single game against Zhu Yuanzhang."

"One day, Zhu Yuanzhang said to Xu Da, 'My dear Xu, you don't need to hide your strength. Playing chess is about state of mind, not victory or defeat. If you can win one game against me, I will bestow upon you this Mochou Lake before us.'"

"Xu Da knew he could no longer deliberately lose, so he played with all his might against Zhu Yuanzhang and won by a large margin."

"Zhu Yuanzhang is a man of unpredictable moods. After losing the chess match, he flew into a rage and shouted, 'What kind of behavior is this!'"

"Xu Da quickly knelt and cried out, 'Your Majesty, please look closely at the chessboard!'"

Zhu Yuanzhang focused his gaze and saw that the black and white pieces on the chessboard had formed the characters 'Long Live'. His anger turned to joy, and he bestowed Mochou Lake upon Xu Da, renaming the pavilion by the lake 'Shengqi Tower'.

Up to this point, Shen Qi felt a sense of illusion, wondering if this was a math problem or a history question.

The divine twist began below:

"Regardless of the authenticity of this anecdote, let us assume it to be true. Please calculate the probability of the characters '万岁' being cleverly formed by Xu Da using the chess pieces, and provide your reasoning. Appendix: Chess Notation. Please refer to the image below."