Unknown Rules

"Did you hear? Li Dong seemed to have signed up for the physics competition."

"Huh? Wasn't he just making up the numbers? What a waste of time."

During the break, several boys gathered in the hallway, their eyes occasionally flicking toward the classroom.

"If he studied properly, getting into a second-tier university wouldn't be a problem. But now he wants to mess around with competitions? I think he's doomed."

The students were all surprised by Li Dong's decision. Everyone was practical, after all. Don't take on porcelain work without a diamond drill.

"Hmph. He got two questions right by chance and thinks he's some kind of top student? Right, Mi Xia?"

Jiang Yizhou spun a pen in his hand and spoke resentfully to Mi Xia in the row ahead.

Ever since he had embarrassed himself in class last time, his hostility toward Li Dong had only grown stronger.

He refused to believe that Li Dong, who had always been an average student, could suddenly become a genius. He must have just gotten lucky and seen the original questions before.

However, Mi Xia had no time to pay attention to him. She was still checking the calculations for that "chain problem" in her scratchbook.

"Still no... This chain problem can't be solved with high school physics."

Mi Xia muttered softly, her brows tightly furrowed.

Two days had passed since Li Dong went to the office to solve the problems.

No one in the class knew how he had done. Even Jiang Yang, the physics teacher, had not mentioned it in class these past two days.

Everyone simply assumed Li Dong had bombed it, and that the teacher had not announced the results to spare his pride.

After all, they had heard Li Dong was solving Olympiad questions. It was normal for him not to be able to solve them.

At that moment, Li Dong paid no attention to the gossip in class.

He sat at his desk, looking at the messages in the "Azure Dragon Study Group."

Another veteran expert who had been lurking for a long time had appeared in the group, and he did not come in peace.

[Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier]: @Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems, I have repeatedly checked the observational accuracy and computational logic behind your Mercury precession data, sir, and I find it difficult to accept.

[Le Verrier]: With current astronomical observation methods, even the Greenwich Observatory's meridian circle suffers from atmospheric disturbances during a single observation, leaving errors fluctuating around one-tenth of an arcsecond. How, then, could you isolate such a precise cumulative residual as "43 arcseconds per century" from such chaotic data?

Furthermore, this set of data contains no annotations regarding its observation span, instrument parameters, or epoch correction coefficients. It looks more like a directly supplied "result" than a conclusion obtained through actual observation and verification.

[Le Verrier]: Why not speak plainly, sir? Where exactly did this data come from? Which observatory's records were used, and what was the method of derivation?

Li Dong's greatest worry had come true.

The experts in the group might start questioning his identity. After all, the knowledge he possessed was a product of the "future" to these ancient people.

Who was Le Verrier? He was the celestial mechanics genius who had calculated Neptune's existence on paper!

An expert of that caliber had an almost terrifying sensitivity to data. He had quickly noticed the many suspicious points in it and raised his doubts.

Just as Li Dong hesitated over whether to come clean,

his phone suddenly vibrated, and a group notification popped up.

[Warning: Group member "Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier" attempted to investigate the causal origin of a different timeline.]

[The study group's defense mechanism has been triggered.]

[This member has been muted for 10 seconds.]

[Notice: As the group owner (intern), please guide group discussions back to purely academic matters. Do not reveal any specific historical developments or technological sources related to the future.]

Li Dong's pupils suddenly contracted.

This group actually had unknown rules!

Le Verrier's question was indeed related to academic discussion, but because it involved the "source of the data"—in other words, future observation technology—he had still been muted.

"Discussion of anything outside academia is forbidden..."

Li Dong felt a chill run down his back.

Could it be that I can't reveal that I'm from the future?

Li Dong thought to himself.

If I reveal it, will this group disband? Or will I receive an even harsher punishment?

He did not dare think about it, nor did he want to test it.

After all, this group was his only chance to change his fate.

About ten seconds later,

Le Verrier's messages popped up in the group again.

[Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier]: @Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems, this Mercury precession data of yours... I find it difficult to accept.

[Urbain Jean Joseph Le Verrier]: This set of data contains no annotations regarding its observation span or epoch correction coefficients. Why not speak plainly, sir? What was the method used to derive this data?

Li Dong looked at the two nearly identical messages. Only the sentence, "Where exactly did this data come from?" was gone.

It was as if God had erased those few seconds just now.

"Whew..."

Li Dong's palms were drenched in sweat.

What he needed to do now was steer the topic back into purely academic territory.

Fortunately, his core attributes had improved over the past few days, and he had also read quite a few university physics books.

In particular, to understand general relativity, he had forced himself to read several astrophysics papers, which happened to include material on correcting astronomical observation errors.

Although his understanding was not yet deep enough, with later scientific conclusions backing him up, bluffing these "ancient people" in the group would not be a problem.

[Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems]: Mr. Le Verrier, your doubts regarding observational precision are precisely the core basis for how I optimized this data.

Indeed, traditional meridian circle observations are affected by atmospheric refraction and the thermal expansion and contraction of instruments, so their errors are relatively large.

However, when consolidating this data, I made two corrections.

First, I used reverse deduction from higher-order stellar precession terms and introduced a many-body perturbation separation model to eliminate the gravitational interference of Venus and Jupiter on Mercury's orbit.

I imagine you understand this better than I do, given that this should be your area of expertise.

Second, I used corrections for the edge of the Sun's apparent disk to offset the optical distortion caused by the solar atmosphere to the observed angle of perihelion.

Therefore, this data is not a direct observational result, but a theoretical extreme derived from existing observational data after separating out the errors.

[Currently Grinding Senior-Year Problems]: If you are interested, you can calculate the higher-order perturbation terms Jupiter exerts on Mercury yourself, then substitute them into this correction approach and see what you get.

That entire combination was packed with technical jargon.

The perturbation separation in particular had scratched Le Verrier right where he itched.

After sending the messages, Li Dong quietly waited for the other party's response.

While Li Dong and Le Verrier sparred in the group, a discussion about him was also taking place in the real world.

The principal's office.

"Principal Wang! Do you know what scoring 360 points on the Olympiad preliminary exam means?!"

Zheng Hua had completely forgotten about rank and hierarchy. His face was flushed an abnormal red as he held Li Dong's test paper.

Principal Wang helplessly stubbed out his cigarette.

"Old Zheng, calm down. Sit and explain it properly."

"You've been rambling in my office all morning, saying No. 7 High School has produced a genius. What exactly happened?"

"Principal Wang, No. 7 High School has... produced a true dragon this time."