Madman!

Professor Zhou took a deep breath, forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, and turned to Qi Hao.

"Qi Hao, what do you think of this plan to split the team?"

Qi Hao was all for it, of course, but he remained expressionless and replied concisely, "You're very experienced, Professor Zhou. You can make the decision."

Qi Hao's flattery took much of the sting out of Professor Zhou's anger.

He gave Qi Hao an appreciative look and continued, "Since we're splitting in two, and our group originally had four people, Xiao Zheng will lead one team and you'll be in charge of the second. You can choose between Wu Xue and Zhao Ping as a teammate. If you're still short of people, I'll arrange for someone from the College for Exceptional Talents."

Qi Hao's eyes hadn't been idle. Wu Xue was capable, but if Zheng Qiang told her to go east, she'd never go west. If Zheng Qiang so much as frowned, she got more nervous than he did.

She was the very picture of a love-brained fool!

What would it mean to team up with someone like that?

It would be like running a dungeon while your teammate pretended to deal damage, all the while frantically healing the boss of the team next door in a cutesy voice.

You'd be out front pulling mobs until you were about to cough up blood, and she'd turn around and trade all your equipment to the boss, then sweetly ask, "Boss, are you tired?"

Even Buddha wouldn't save a dumbass. He wasn't taking a love-brained fool with him!

Qi Hao silently crossed Wu Xue off the list.

As for Zhao Ping...

Yesterday, Zhao Ping hadn't seemed to have much to do with the other two, and he'd gone out of his way to remind Qi Hao to learn about programming languages. His character was probably fine.

Besides, Zhao Ping had won awards for his UI design. Someone like him wouldn't hold Qi Hao back, at least.

Before he'd finished considering it, Zhao Ping could no longer contain himself. "Qi Hao, um... I'm actually pretty interested in drones. I've loved things that fly ever since I was a kid. How about we team up?"

"Can you code?"

Zhao Ping answered honestly, "I've learned a little C and Java, but to be honest... I might not be as skilled as Wu Xue."

Qi Hao selectively turned a deaf ear to the second half of that sentence.

"Sure, you're in."

Zhao Ping froze for a moment. Once he recovered, he hurriedly suppressed his excitement and tried to look composed. "No problem!"

Professor Zhou looked at Wu Xue. "What about you, Xiao Wu?"

Qi Hao added mildly from the side, "Senior Wu probably wants to be on Senior Zheng's team. I won't force her to do otherwise."

He said it casually, but everyone present had probably understood what he meant.

Wu Xue's face reddened slightly. She glanced at Zheng Qiang and said quietly, "Mm, I... I'll join Senior Zheng's team."

Professor Zhou looked helpless, frustrated that she wouldn't live up to her potential. "All right, then it's settled. Go back and get ready. I'll let you know once I've contacted your faculty advisers."

Zheng Qiang looked as though he'd been granted a pardon, but he was also a little uneasy. He asked tentatively, "Professor Zhou, will you still be advising us?"

Professor Zhou picked up his thermos without even looking up. "We'll see."

"You can go back and wait for news."

Those two sentences stopped all the things Zheng Qiang had prepared to say in their tracks.

Zheng Qiang had no choice but to get up and leave, taking Wu Xue with him.

Only Qi Hao, Zhao Ping and the two professors remained in the meeting room.

Professor Zhou turned to Qi Hao, considerably warmer than before. "Qi Hao, what are you looking for in the rest of your teammates? Would you like me to find a couple more for you? There are a few promising talents at the College for Exceptional Talents."

Qi Hao thought for a moment but didn't answer. Instead, he asked, "Professor Zhou, what's the minimum team size for the Imagine Cup?"

"Two people."

"Then that's enough. Zhao Ping and I will manage with just the two of us."

Professor Wang frowned slightly when he heard that.

What did the Imagine Cup involve?

Modeling, a paper, code, a PPT presentation and an oral defense-five mountains to climb.

Teams in previous years typically had three or four members. How could two people manage?

"Qi Hao," Professor Wang couldn't help saying, "the Imagine Cup isn't that easy. With more people, it's easier to divide the work."

Qi Hao had his own little calculation behind this plan.

A new teammate was Schrodinger's liability: until you opened the box and checked, you never knew whether you'd get Ultraman or a little monster. If he ended up with Zheng Qiang Plus, it would be too late to run.

Besides, even an elementary schooler knew which gave you a bigger share of a cake: splitting it between two people or three.

When it came to prize money, the smaller the denominator, the higher the happiness index.

Of course, he would never say that out loud.

Qi Hao merely added, "More hands make light work isn't necessarily true in engineering."

"I'll handle the modeling and the paper."

"I've also been learning to code lately, so I can work on that with Zhao Ping. We'll leave the UI and PPT to him; he's more skilled at those."

"So I don't think there's any need to add more people for now. If we really can't manage, there'll still be time to find someone to handle the programming."

Zhao Ping listened in a daze. He'd thought Qi Hao wouldn't place much importance on him and had prepared himself to work like an ox and a horse. He hadn't expected Qi Hao to value him so highly!

Zhao Ping felt a rush of hot blood and unconsciously sat up straight.

Professor Zhou pondered for a few seconds, then suddenly spoke. "Having one person handle both the modeling and the paper is a very good idea."

"On a team, the modeling and the paper have to be handled by the same person or by two people working in close coordination. Otherwise, the paper comes out as two separate skins: one set of ideas for the model and another for the conclusions. An experienced judge can spot the problem at a glance."

"You taking both on yourself is actually the best choice."

"As for the code, the programming portion of the Imagine Cup isn't as scary as you imagine. The framework, the algorithms, debugging-I'll personally guide you through them when the time comes. If you want to do it, go ahead."

Professor Wang paused, glancing at Professor Zhou out of the corner of his eye. Alarm bells began clanging in his head.

What bad idea are you cooking up, you old codger?

You're a vice dean of the Experimental College for Exceptional Talents, and you're paying this much attention to an undergraduate from the mathematics department?

You're even going to guide him personally?

Are you fucking trying to poach him?

Professor Wang made a snap decision and cleared his throat. "I think Qi Hao's plan is quite good. Don't worry about the modeling. With me here, you can follow your own ideas and come to me whenever you run into a problem."

*?*

Wait, in the normal course of things, shouldn't the two professors be earnestly advising me that "young people shouldn't rush in recklessly" and "teamwork is important"?

Why is each one more supportive than the other?

Forget it.

Free top-tier labor... no, faculty advisers. I'd be a fool to turn them down.

Qi Hao answered readily, "With you two backing me up, I'm even more confident."

"Haha, that's the spirit!" Professor Zhou nodded repeatedly in satisfaction. "We'll leave it at that for today. You two go back and work out the basic ideas for the drone and put together a draft project proposal. Tomorrow afternoon, in this same classroom, we'll settle on the final topic and start training."

With that, he left first.

After they came out of the meeting room, Professor Wang and Qi Hao walked side by side down the corridor, while Zhao Ping tactfully hurried away.

Remembering what had happened earlier, Professor Wang asked as they walked, "Qi Hao, what have you been reading lately? How did you come to understand Lie algebras?"

Qi Hao answered honestly, "I've developed an interest in the Jacobian Conjecture, so I've been reading books in related fields."

Professor Wang's steps faltered slightly.

The Jacobian Conjecture.

That great mountain that had loomed over algebraic geometry for decades, where countless great minds had broken their spears and sunk into the sand.

He instinctively wanted to say, "Young people shouldn't aim too high," but as the words reached his lips, he pictured Zheng Qiang's timidity in the meeting room just now.

By comparison... forget it.

A freshman who dared to tackle the Jacobian Conjecture, even if he ended up battered and bloodied, had a hundred times more spirit than a second-year graduate student who didn't even dare touch a drone.

Professor Wang asked instead, "Which books have you read?"

"Introduction to Algebra and Lectures on Linear Algebra and Multilinear Algebra."

"They're enough to build a foundation, but if you want to go deeper, those two aren't enough."

"Come to my office. I have a few books there you can borrow."

Qi Hao followed Professor Wang into his office.

Professor Wang rummaged through his bookcase for a while and pulled out five books.

"Start with these. Once you've finished them, you should have a grasp of the core tools of modern algebraic geometry. There's also Birational Geometry of Algebraic Varieties, but it's only available in the original English. I don't have a copy, so you'll have to find it yourself."

"With your current English proficiency, you should be able to understand it."

"Thank you, Professor Wang."

Professor Wang waved a hand. "Study them carefully. These are all advanced algebra, and they aren't that easy. Come to me if there's anything you don't understand."

Qi Hao took the books and suddenly had a strange feeling.

It was an indescribable hunger and thirst.

Perhaps it was an abnormal effect of the drug. To outsiders, these thick volumes were dry and tedious, but in Qi Hao's eyes, they were no impenetrable tomes. They were plates of delicacies from mountains and seas, fresh from the pan and giving off a tempting aroma!

He couldn't even wait to leave the office. He went straight to the sofa and sat down, put the other books beside him, and opened the one on top right then and there.

Professor Wang, who had been about to see him out, froze on the spot.

He stared, dumbfounded, at Qi Hao, who was already completely absorbed and had even begun unconsciously tracing formulas on the sofa armrest with his finger.

"You, honestly..."

When other people saw these advanced algebraic geometry books, they acted as though they'd seen a ghost and couldn't get away fast enough.

But this boy was something else. The moment he got the books, he looked like a man who hadn't eaten for three days and had just seen a plate of braised pork. He dug right in on the spot, oblivious to everyone around him!

At a university, it wasn't the high-IQ academic geniuses you had to fear. It was the ones who not only had cheat-level IQs but also studied like fucking madmen who played by no rules!