Tricky Chemistry

In the classroom of Senior Three Class 1, Li Dong stood at the podium, drawing the final magnetic field line on the blackboard with the chalk in his hand.

This was a classic advanced electromagnetic induction problem model.

[The motion of two metal rods on rails in a uniform magnetic field, with one rod connected to a capacitor.]

"Actually, there's no need for everyone to be intimidated by this changing current."

Li Dong pointed at capacitor C.

"I know that when many of you see a capacitor connected in series in a circuit, your first thought is that it's an open circuit, so there's no current, right?"

"But you've overlooked one thing. This is a dynamic process. The capacitor is charging, and charging definitely means there's current."

"In this model, what is the current i? It's the derivative of charge q with respect to time t."

Li Dong casually wrote on the blackboard.

i = dq/dt = d(CU)/dt = C dU/dt.

"And the induced electromotive force is U = BLv, so dU/dt = BL dv/dt = BLa."

"If we substitute that into the Ampere force formula... F_Ampere = BiL..."

Li Dong spread his hands.

"As long as you connect the current to acceleration a, this problem is essentially a variation of Newton's Second Law: F_external - C*B^2*L^2*a = m*a."

"After rearranging it, you get an identity involving acceleration. What was originally complicated variable-acceleration motion instantly becomes uniformly accelerated linear motion with an 'effective mass' of (m + C*B^2*L^2)."

"There's no need to integrate at all. Just directly use the uniform acceleration formula, v^2 = 2ax, and you get the answer."

The students of Class 1 looked at one another.

As if they were asking, what had come out? The answer?

"Does everyone understand?" Li Dong asked the class politely.

"Y-yes, we understand."

Chen Yue was the only one in the class who nodded with a somewhat pale face.

Zheng Hua, seated in the back row of the classroom, nodded at Chen Yue approvingly when he saw this.

"Mm, not bad. Chen Yue truly is our school's best student. He can actually keep up with Li Dong's pace. He's got potential."

At this moment, Director Zheng had clearly completely forgotten that Li Dong was also a student of No. 7 High School.

Ring-ring-ring!

The dismissal bell finally rang. For most students, it was a release.

It wasn't that what Li Dong taught was difficult.

On the contrary, they felt that Li Dong's explanations were easier to understand than Zheng Hua's, and he would even slip in some extra tricks from time to time. That was enormously helpful to them.

It was just that Li Dong was their peer, and the pressure was too great.

Li Dong gathered up the papers on the podium. Just as he was about to leave the classroom, Chen Yue threw an arm around his shoulders.

"Dongzi! What the hell happened to you?"

Chen Yue lowered his voice.

"How did you suddenly become so damn amazing? That 'effective mass' move just now was deeper than anything Old Zheng usually teaches!"

As he spoke, Chen Yue suddenly seemed to remember something.

"Holy shit! I heard some gossip before. They said the top scorer in the Huaxuan Cup preliminaries was called Li Dong. I thought it was just someone with the same name. Don't tell me it was really you?"

Seeing that Chen Yue had heard of his legend, Li Dong felt secretly pleased, but he did not want to crush Chen Yue's confidence.

After all, during their first and second years of high school, Chen Yue had been one of the few friends who did not look down on him for his poor grades and was willing to lend him notes.

"Luck. It was all luck."

Li Dong waved his hand.

"You have no idea how miserable these past two days have been for me."

"Ever since I signed up for the Huaxuan Cup, Teacher Zheng and Old Yang have been locking me in the office every day for intensive training."

"I trained from morning until night, so that's why I finally got a bit of a feel for physics."

"That problem just now happened to be similar to one Teacher Zheng explained to me the day before yesterday."

Li Dong explained in great detail, doing his best to attribute it all to guidance from famous teachers.

After hearing this, Chen Yue felt somewhat relieved.

However, he did not feel jealous or dissatisfied because of Li Dong's sudden rise.

Chen Yue was simply that kind of person. His mentality was exceptionally steady.

If you did well, that meant you were awesome. I would just focus on myself.

He had a clear goal of his own—getting into Sichuan University.

"Not bad, Dongzi! Looks like No. 7 High School is finally going to produce a real dragon this time."

Chen Yue punched Li Dong lightly in the chest.

"Since you're so good at physics now, I'm coming to you whenever I get stuck on a problem. Don't hold out on me."

"Of course. What are friends for?" Li Dong agreed with a smile.

"I'm not chatting with you anymore. I need to head back for the next chemistry class."

At the mention of chemistry, Li Dong immediately felt annoyed.

That bearded Dmitri Mendeleev had confidently said something about a "generous reward" in the group chat, yet several days had passed and there had not even been a peep!

The blueprints had been sent, and the principles had been explained. At least give him some feedback!

Why couldn't he learn from Newton? Whenever Newton felt like it, he sent Focus, and sometimes it even dropped without Li Dong having to fleece him!

Ah... forget it. Better rely on myself than on anyone else.

Li Dong said goodbye to Zheng Hua and Chen Yue, then turned and returned to Senior Three Class 2.

The moment he entered the classroom, it fell silent.

The silence lasted two or three seconds before everyone went back to what they had been doing.

However, once Li Dong returned to his seat, he could feel everyone sneaking glances at him from time to time.

Especially Mi Xia!!

So this was... how top students were treated?

But such treatment was inevitably accompanied by a sense of distance.

Even Liu Liang, whom he had once been quite close with, barely spoke to him now.

At some schools with particularly bad environments, this might even develop into isolation.

But Li Dong did not care.

He opened his chemistry textbook and shook his head.

"Top students fear isolation the least, because... I will isolate everyone."

Ring-ring-ring!

The class bell rang again.

The chemistry teacher, Su Yuhua, entered the classroom.

She was a veteran chemistry teacher at No. 7 High School. She was usually serious in class and quite responsible toward her students, but she was rather rigid and never expanded on related knowledge for them.

For a school like No. 7 High School, where the student intake was fairly average, this teaching method was actually the safest.

As long as they followed her and memorized the material, passing chemistry would absolutely not be a problem. But standing out was difficult.

"Take out your monthly exam papers. We'll first look at Question 26 in the fill-in section, organic deduction."

Teacher Su opened the test paper at the podium.

Li Dong looked at the chemistry paper on which he had scored 88 points and took a deep breath.

Even without Newton's red packet, his own Focus was now at 0.2.

Combined with [Logic: 0.1] and [Memory: 0.1].

Li Dong tried to analyze chemistry using Joule's "deconstruction method," just as he had done with physics and mathematics.

"A is an aromatic hydrocarbon with molecular formula C8H10, so it's either ethylbenzene or xylene."

"Oxidation produces benzoic acid, so that means side-chain oxidation."

He really could immerse himself in it. The equations and reaction conditions in the textbook only needed to be read once for him to remember them.

But...

Li Dong quickly noticed that something was off.

In mathematics and physics, once he grasped the core axioms, he could logically derive many related conclusions from them.

But chemistry did not work that way.

"Why does this reaction work one way under acidic conditions, then turn into something else with a different catalyst?"

He did not want to force himself to memorize it, but he could not understand it.

He even tried to force an explanation using the microscopic logic of physics, such as analyzing it through orbital hybridization theory.

But he soon realized that chemistry was full of all kinds of exceptions.

He lacked something.

Chemical Intuition.

This was not mystical nonsense, but the accumulation of experience.

When chemistry masters saw a structural formula, they could immediately imagine its spatial configuration and reactive sites.

But Li Dong could not do that yet.

"Could he only rely on rote memorization?"

That left Li Dong somewhat helpless.

Although he could still score highly through brute-force memorization with 0.1 Memory, that learning experience without a sense of "control" made him, someone already used to God's perspective, feel extremely stifled.

When the dismissal bell rang, Li Dong closed his book and let out a long sigh.

"What the hell is that bearded Dmitri Mendeleev doing?"

Li Dong could not help complaining inwardly.

I already sent you an airplane, and that still wasn't enough?

Did I have to send you a carnival?

The more Li Dong thought about it, the angrier he became. He could not help taking out his phone and opening the "Azure Dragon Study Group."

He decided to pretend he was merely asking whether that bearded guy had run into some trouble and whether he needed help.

But just as he was about to @ Dmitri Mendeleev—

A new message suddenly popped up.

[Dmitri Mendeleev]: SOS!!!!!!