pertwk Chapter 20 Prepare to feel despair.
Chapter 20 Prepare to feel despair.
"Um……"
Seeing Su Hao's half-dead reaction, Shen Yuxuan's heart skipped a beat, and his grip on the steering wheel tightened involuntarily.
"What's wrong? What happened again?"
These are all multiple-choice questions!
Logically speaking, there shouldn't even be any room for deducting points for illegible handwriting, so what's with this lukewarm, deadpan expression?!
"It's okay. I think I did pretty well on the test."
Su Hao glanced at Shen Yuxuan's nervous expression and gave a perfunctory reply.
Then she looked away, rested her chin on her hand, and quietly gazed at the street scene rushing past the car window.
He gave off an attitude of "I don't want to talk about it, and you shouldn't ask."
"What does 'should' mean?" Shen Yuxuan keenly grasped the key point.
"You never used to say such ambiguous things after finishing your work!"
"I got one wrong." Su Hao sighed, scratching his head casually, "but I don't regret it."
Sizzle—!
Shen Yuxuan's hand trembled, and the luxury car almost made an S-shape.
"What the hell is this all about now?!"
"Well..." Su Hao rested his chin on his hand, his eyes deep, as if he were exploring some philosophical question.
"That question, though wrong, was extremely valuable. It... elevated the soul of the entire exam paper."
"Oh, my ancestors!"
Shen Yuxuan let out a painful howl and slammed his fist on the steering wheel.
But after struggling for three seconds, the "reason" in his mind finally gave in.
He gave off an expression that said, "I knew this would happen, but what else can I do but forgive you?"
"Fine, fine, what's the point of me saying more? You're just a tyrant."
I have no choice but to believe you. Anyway, with your brain, if you deliberately make a mistake, you'll definitely have an irrefutable reason for it.
Su Hao looked at Shen Yuxuan and nodded obediently without any sense of guilt.
It was midday on a weekend, and the sun was shining brightly, so many people were out shopping.
As traffic gradually increased, the sports car managed to create a unique atmosphere reminiscent of a "senior citizen's car."
"If you only get one question wrong, you'll definitely pass the preliminary round."
As for why you deliberately answered a question wrong, that's such a despicable thing, we'll talk about that another time.
Shen Yuxuan sighed and steered the conversation back on track, "How difficult were the questions?"
"Hmm... I guess it's something like that. If it were someone like Lin Shuwan, she could probably barely get a perfect score."
Su Hao provided an extremely accurate reference point.
"Oh, that girl." Shen Yuxuan nodded.
"Although her talent isn't as extraordinary as yours, she's already quite famous in the industry."
If even she could only barely get a perfect score, then it means the difficulty level was just right.
After a pause, Shen Yuxuan brought up another topic:
"Have you heard? There will be a closed training camp after the semi-finals."
Upon hearing the words "intensive training," Su Hao, who had been nonchalant just moments before, instantly fell silent.
Oh no, I'm going to have to part ways with my sister.
This is much more serious than getting ten math problems wrong; she'll definitely cry her heart out at home...
"Closed training camps are the norm; we need to prepare for the national team selection exams."
Before Su Hao could recover from his "sibling separation anxiety," Shen Yuxuan immediately asked another completely unrelated question:
"By the way, how's your English?"
Su Hao was taken aback by this sudden change of topic.
"English? Reading academic papers is no problem, why are you suddenly asking about this?"
The host country for next year's IMO (International Mathematical Olympiad) is the United Kingdom.
At that time, the world's top contestants will all be crammed into the same dormitory building.
Knowing some English makes everything easier.
"I'm not very confident in my spoken English," Su Hao honestly confessed.
"In our remote and impoverished area, the English teachers' level is quite limited..."
But if all else fails, we can always communicate in writing, right?
Even if I speak haltingly, writing the words down on paper should still convey the meaning.
"It's okay. Anyway, most people's native language isn't English. Those bookworms' English level is about the same as ours, so it doesn't matter."
"Hundreds of geniuses from hundreds of countries gathered in one dormitory building..."
Su Hao imagined the scene, and for someone accustomed to attending classes with fewer than twenty students and surrounded by normal people, his eyes lit up.
"That sounds like it would be really interesting."
However, Shen Yuxuan sneered and shook his head with extreme seriousness.
"You really think it would be interesting?"
"Isn't that right?"
"I'm telling you, use your clever brain to think about it."
Which of the athletes who make it to the IMO isn't treated like a rare gem in their own country?
Which one of them wasn't praised as "once in a century" from childhood?
Those guys basically all think, "I'm the best in the world, and everyone else here is trash."
Believe it or not, when you get there, you'll encounter a whole bunch of disgusting things that will make you lose your appetite.
"Hahaha, is it really that exaggerated?" Su Hao laughed heartlessly.
"Don't laugh." Shen Yuxuan's expression was serious.
"Do you think that just because we can't communicate, these monkeys with an excess of male hormones will shut up?"
In that circle, besides trash-talking, there are countless ways to flaunt your intelligence and humiliate others.
"Uh...everyone's just going to take the exam, it doesn't have to go that far, does it?"
"Never underestimate these teenage hormone monsters whose brains are filled with extreme narcissism!"
Shen Yuxuan seemed to recall some painful experience, gritting his teeth.
Then, he turned and glanced at Su Hao beside him.
"But then again, how come you don't have any of these problems at all?"
No, wait...
Perhaps it's not that you lack it, but rather that your self-awareness has become so strong that it has transcended base desires and reached a state of nothingness incomprehensible to ordinary people?
Shen Yuxuan shook his head.
Although he had watched Su Hao grow up since he was a child, he still couldn't fully see through this monstrous student who always took "shocking" things for granted.
"Anyway, you better listen up." Shen Yuxuan pulled himself back to reality.
"Back in the dorm, there will definitely be a bunch of bored guys who will be dragging people around to play all sorts of high-stakes games like mental arithmetic duels, Nim games, grid games, and blindfolded Rubik's Cube solving."
I wonder how many people will line up, with that arrogant, smug look on their faces, to provoke you, with your East Asian features.
"I understand the principles of mental arithmetic and Rubik's Cube, but I've never even heard of the other games."
"The rules are simple. With your brain, you don't even need to practice. Just take a look and play a couple of rounds, and you'll be able to crush them."
However, the real highlight is yet to come!
"What is it?"
"chess."
Su Hao frowned subconsciously:
"This is so unfair. This is a traditional Western activity."
Why not play Chinese chess?
"Who says otherwise? I think so too."
Let alone Chinese chess, even in Go, students from any random East Asian country could crush them to a pulp!
However, there's no way around it; chess is indeed more intuitive, and its rules are the most widely known internationally.
Seeing Shen Yuxuan's indignant expression, Su Hao asked curiously:
"Teacher, did you also experience this when you went to the IMO before?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Yuxuan's face darkened instantly, and he let out a long sigh.
"During the IMO competition, the organizers will hold an informal chess tournament."
I considered myself quite skilled back then, with exceptional calculation abilities.
But in the quarterfinals, I lost to a Russian.
Although that guy ultimately won the championship with ease, I don't have much to complain about losing to him.
But...but!
After he beat me, his arrogant, condescending attitude was absolutely infuriating!
"It's just a game of chess, is it really that big of a deal?" Su Hao couldn't understand this kind of idiotic competitive drive.
"You don't know anything! You'll understand when you get there; the atmosphere is completely different!"
That wasn't some "friendship first, competition second" kind of competition; it was a real, bloodless battle of wits between nations!
In Russia, Eastern Europe, and other parts of Europe, chess is practically a national sport, with countless tournaments and outrageously high prize money.
The bastard who beat me back then was their country's youth champion.
"Oh, in that case, I'll just do what you did back then, teacher, and play casually, just go through the motions and lose."
Su Hao slumped in his chair, looking like a salted fish who thought, "As long as I lie flat enough, no one can touch me."
Looking at Su Hao's listless, self-righteous, and useless demeanor, Shen Yuxuan felt his blood pressure rising.
"No! Absolutely not!!!" Shen Yuxuan rolled his eyes in frustration.
"Looks like I'll have to teach you chess today!"
"Huh? Now? Really?" Su Hao's eyes widened in horror.
"That's right! Think about it!"
Imagine you achieve great success in the future, becoming an outstanding mathematician and even solving the Millennium Prize Problem, astonishing the world!
Just when the whole world was cheering for you, a Russian rascal suddenly appeared on international news television for an interview.
She pursed her lips and said, "Su Hao isn't anything special, is he? He got completely crushed by me at chess, his brain is as stupid as a pig's..."
Shen Yuxuan paused, then asked in a sinister tone, "Can you handle it?!"
Upon hearing this hypothesis, Su Hao's expression finally changed.
He immediately put on a disgusted expression, as if he had swallowed a fly.
"That... is indeed a bit disgusting."
"Right? Absolutely unacceptable!"
Squeak—!
With a screeching sound of tires, Shen Yuxuan wildly turned the steering wheel and made a U-turn in the middle of the road that looked like something out of a Hollywood blockbuster.
A few minutes later, the sports car came to a smooth stop outside a large bookstore in the city.
Shen Yuxuan stormed in and ransacked the place.
He brought home a brick-thick advanced chess tutorial specifically designed for professional players, as well as an extremely expensive set of high-end chess equipment!
"Come on!" As soon as they got in the car, Shen Yuxuan threw the "brick" into Su Hao's arms.
"Try to understand the rules in this book first, and then try to beat me!"
Don't let my pitiful words fool you; I've still received systematic training since I was a child!
My skill level isn't so easily fooled by a newbie like you!
On the way home, the car became quiet.
Bored, Su Hao opened the thick chess tutorial book in the passenger seat.
The light and shadows flashing past the car window flickered on his profile.
Suddenly, a faint smile appeared on his softly shaped face.
"Sicilian Defense: White has a 52% chance of winning, Black has a 27% chance of winning, and a 21% chance of a draw."
What others see as tactics, psychological games, and endless calculations in chess records is, in Su Hao's view, being ruthlessly stripped of all its emotional veneer and deconstructed into the purest data.
This book coldly calculates the probability of all possible responses after each move.
Although it only takes three moves on the chessboard, it can generate tens of millions of possible variations...
But in Su Hao's eyes, the effective moves that can truly influence the final winning percentage are actually an extremely limited set of constants.
What remains is nothing but ineffective garbage and redundancy.
For Su Hao, this was not a game of chess at all.
This is just a finite mathematical problem with known boundary conditions.
Su Hao quietly immersed himself in the vast and cold world of probability in the book.
Shen Yuxuan, who was driving, turned his head and glanced at the passenger seat.
Looking at Su Hao's profile as he got into character, Shen Yuxuan seemed to have already foreseen a certain future and couldn't help but chuckle.
"Hmph, those arrogant foreign geniuses... prepare to experience despair!!"