How a Top Student Passed the Time!

Qi Hao glanced at his phone and saw that it was getting late, so he decided to head back to the dorm first.

Kolorod's paper was in his system anyway. He could even read it lying down.

In the dorm, Chen Yuan was looking at something on his laptop.

Across from him, Li Hui had presumably finished his date with his girlfriend and was half-reclining on his bed, scrolling through his phone.

"Yo."

Li Hui sat up, drawing out the word.

"Brother Hao, just got back from the library again?"

"Wang Jun told me you've been practically living in the library these past few days, leaving early and coming back late. Why are you acting like a high school senior again?" Li Hui tossed his phone onto his pillow and clasped his hands behind his head.

Qi Hao turned to look at him. "What's wrong with that?"

"I'm telling you, that bookworm routine really isn't in fashion at university anymore."

Li Hui rolled over and sat on the edge of his bed, swinging his legs.

"Do you know how university students in the United States live? That's what you call joyful education! Classes are a breeze, and after class they play and party whenever they want. They throw parties on weekends and go soak up the sun on spring break. They study and have fun too, and their quality of life is insanely high!"

As he spoke, he even pulled out his phone and scrolled through it to show them a video. It showed a university campus in the United States, with sunshine, lawns, and students playing guitar. Everything about it gave off a relaxed vibe.

"Look at them, then look at us." Li Hui clicked his tongue and shook his head, his face full of regret. "What's the point of spending every day in the library and turning yourself into an ascetic? How many years of youth do you even get?"

"Listen to me, don't wear yourself out like that. Stick with me. I've got a get-together planned this weekend. A few of the guys are going to that new lounge bar downtown, and it's packed with beautiful women. Come along and see for yourself. Then you'll really have lived!"

Before Qi Hao could speak, Chen Yuan suddenly chimed in.

"The United States isn't as great as you think."

Hearing someone contradict him, Li Hui said unhappily, "Chen Yuan, what do you mean? Have you ever been to the United States?"

"How is the United States not as great as I think? It's the beacon of human civilization! The world's best universities, most advanced technology, and freest environment are all in the United States! Tell me, where does talent from all over the world go? Isn't it all heading to the United States?"

"If the United States isn't so great, why do they go there?"

Chen Yuan opened his mouth, seemingly about to say something, but Qi Hao didn't give him the chance.

He knew these two too well. If Chen Yuan spoke another word of plain truth, Li Hui could go on grumbling all night.

"All right, all right, Brother Hui has a point too."

"Of course it's good to go abroad and have a look, experience a different education system and academic environment, and broaden your horizons. Once you come back, you'll have a wider perspective."

Li Hui snorted. "You only say that because you've never been to the United States."

"Once you've been there, who'd want to come back?"

As he said this, there was even pity in Li Hui's eyes, as though Qi Hao were a frog at the bottom of a well who had never seen the ocean.

Heh, so you want to run off abroad, huh?

Qi Hao raised an eyebrow and deliberately played along. "Then show me the way. Give me a lead on how to get to the United States, and I'll go broaden my horizons too."

"Well..."

"Um... going to the United States isn't that simple. You need to prepare a lot of paperwork, TOEFL, GRE, recommendation letters and all that. The process is complicated; I can't explain it in a sentence or two..."

Li Hui began to stammer.

Satisfied, Qi Hao didn't press him further.

He knew this kind of person too well.

They talked up the United States as a paradise on earth, but in essence, they were merely peddling a cheap sense of superiority, showing off their knowledge of the United States to create the illusion that their understanding was on a higher level than everyone else's.

But the moment you actually asked them to help make a connection or show you the way, they immediately backed down.

It was as if there were only a handful of tickets to the United States in the whole world, and every extra person who knew the way meant one less chance for him.

Joyful education?

If the American elite really believed in joyful education, did NASA launch its rockets into space by throwing parties?

He remembered that after World War II, the United States had carried out Operation Paperclip, sweeping up over a thousand scientists, engineers, and technicians from the defeated Nazi Germany.

Von Braun and the others were shipped directly to the United States as a package, and later spearheaded the Apollo Moon Landing Program.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, another large wave of top mathematicians, physicists, and materials scientists from the former Soviet Union poured into the United States.

These people entered laboratories and research groups in the United States, bringing with them not just their minds, but also their academic styles and work habits.

Would a professor from the Soviet system allow his graduate students to arrive at the lab at ten in the morning and go surfing at three in the afternoon?

Impossible.

Over time, this high-intensity academic culture would surely influence the United States.

Never mind the United States; influenced by the old Soviet Union, which of the big names doing cutting-edge research back home didn't grind? They even worked harder than the people in the old Soviet Union once had.

Joyful education did exist, but it was meant for ordinary people.

The elite, the academic world, the people truly at the top of the pyramid had never played by the rules of joyful education.

They used the appearance of joyful education to carry out the most ruthless sorting.

If ordinary people wanted to choose happiness, they could go ahead and be happy.

But there would surely be a place for top students on the pyramid.

Did that mean top students were like robots, with no way to entertain themselves?

Of course not.

When true top students grew tired of studying mathematics, they found ways to have a little fun too.

For example, they might study a language or something to relax their minds.

Why did Qi Hao know this so well?

Because that was exactly what he did!

Now, he was planning to pull up the paper in his system and relax by reading some Russian.

The way top students passed the time was often just that simple and unadorned.

How could Li Hui possibly understand his happiness?

Qi Hao had just finished tidying up his desk when someone pushed the dorm door open from outside.

"I don't believe it! Just because I can't solve it doesn't mean my brothers in this dorm can't!"

Wang Jun pulled Zhou Peng in from the neighboring dorm.

"Come on, come on, show us your problem! Let the people in our dorm show you what they're made of!"

Zhou Peng held an advanced mathematics study guide in his hand, looking utterly helpless. "Come on, Jun, forget it. This problem is hard to begin with."

"Cut the crap! Chen, take a look!" Wang Jun snatched the book from Zhou Peng and went over to Chen Yuan's desk by the door.

As it turned out, Wang Jun had gone to hang out in the neighboring dorm and found Zhou Peng struggling with a difficult mathematical analysis problem. Wang Jun was used to playing games and liked to tell people what to do, so he went over, took a couple of looks, and started handing out useless advice. In the end, not only did he fail to solve it, but the guys next door also thoroughly mocked him for being bad at it yet loving to play.

Wang Jun couldn't stand that. He declared on the spot that he had people backing him up, then dragged Zhou Peng back to his dorm to call for reinforcements.

Chen Yuan took the problem and glanced at it. It was a complicated proof involving the limit of a sequence.

The dorm fell quiet, and Wang Jun waited expectantly for Chen Yuan to display his prowess.

After several dozen seconds or so, Chen Yuan looked up and said, "The bounding structure in this problem is very unusual. I've never seen this type of problem before, and I can't think of a way to solve it for now."

"Huh?" Wang Jun was dumbfounded. He hadn't expected even Chen Yuan to be unable to solve it.

Zhou Peng wasn't surprised. He agreed, "That's what I said. This problem is probably a bit beyond the syllabus. Chen Yuan's math grades are among the best in our class, and even he has no idea where to start. Looks like I'll have to go to the office and ask the teacher tomorrow."

Chen Yuan ignored him. He stretched out his arm and handed it to Qi Hao at the next desk. "Qi Hao, you've been working through Demidovich lately. Have you seen a problem like this?"