lcionline Chapter 17 A Genius
Chapter 17 A Genius
"And while we're at it, teach them what physics looks like in the 21st century."
The wind in the square stopped.
All sounds were silenced by Lin Yu's words at that moment.
The students at the provincial capital's No. 1 High School stared at Lin Yu as if he were a madman. Theoretical deduction? In a physics innovation experiment assessment that emphasizes hands-on skills, abandoning instruments to do pure theory? That was tantamount to suicide.
Zhao Tianyu stared coldly at Lin Yu, his eyes turning completely gloomy.
"I hope you'll still be this stubborn when the report is due this afternoon."
Zhao Tianyu turned around. "Let's go. It's a waste of time to say another word to someone who's just trying to attract attention."
The team from the provincial capital's No. 1 High School strode away with their equipment cases.
Su Qingwan looked at Lin Yu and shook her head.
"Lin Yu, you're being too impulsive. This isn't a place for you to run wild."
She left those words behind and quickly walked after Li Hao and Zhao Tianyu.
The supervising teacher was frantic, rushing to Lin Yu and Xia Zijing: "Are you crazy! Without the equipment, your scores for this afternoon's exam will be zero! Professors from Tsinghua and Peking University's admissions offices will be personally overseeing the exams this afternoon!"
"Teacher Liu, you don't need to worry about it."
Xia Zijing adjusted her glasses. "I'll take responsibility if anything goes wrong."
Lin Yu didn't say anything more, and simply picked up his bag and headed towards the assigned dormitory building.
2 PM. Main building of the camp, experimental center.
In the massive 400-square-meter laboratory, students from the five top universities in the provincial capital occupied the most central experimental tables.
Three high-precision MacPherson interferometers were surrounded by Zhao Tianyu and others. Laser beams projected clear interference fringes in the dark room.
Professor Chen, the director of the admissions office of the Department of Physics at Tsinghua and Peking Universities, was touring the laboratory with several examiners.
Professor Chen was a thin, elderly man in his sixties with gray hair and extremely sharp eyes. He glanced at Zhao Tianyu's group's data records, nodded slightly, and gave them a high score on the evaluation sheet in his hand.
Professor Chen continued walking forward. He reached a lab bench in the far corner.
He stopped in his tracks.
The lab bench was spotless. There were no instruments or equipment whatsoever. Not even the most basic vernier caliper.
A boy and a girl sat at the table. The girl, wearing black-rimmed glasses, was drawing an extremely complex topological diagram on an A3 sheet of paper with a pencil. The boy, wearing a plain black T-shirt and an unzipped school uniform, rested his chin on his hand, staring listlessly at the ceiling.
"Which middle school are you from?"
Professor Chen frowned. "Where's the equipment? Why aren't we doing the experiment?"
When the teacher in charge of the group, Ms. Liu, saw this scene from a distance, her shirt was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
Xia Zijin stopped writing.
Jiangcheng No.1 Middle School.
Xia Zijin replied, "The equipment has been taken over by the No. 1 High School in the provincial capital."
Professor Chen's expression darkened.
"Even without high-precision equipment, basic equipment can still perform optical diffraction. This is not an excuse for you to submit a blank paper."
"We didn't submit a blank paper."
Lin Yu's voice rang out. He remained staring at the ceiling, not even looking down, "We're doing theoretical deductions."
Professor Chen was so angry that he laughed instead.
"High school students, talking about pure theoretical deductions in front of me? Do you know how high the threshold is for theoretical physics research? It requires extremely deep mathematical foundations. What are you deducing? Newton's three laws of motion?"
Lin Yu finally lowered his head.
He picked up the A3 sheet of paper on the table, which was covered with topological diagrams, and handed it to Professor Chen.
"We are working on a modified model of the Casimir effect in high-dimensional space. Incidentally, we are also proving whether the negative pressure generated by quantum vacuum fluctuations under non-diametrical angles will cause a small change in the curvature of spacetime."
Professor Chen's hand, which was about to take the paper, hung suspended in mid-air.
His pupils suddenly contracted.
The Casimir effect. Quantum field theory. Metric tensor. These are terms that high school students wouldn't encounter. Even a typical third-year physics student would be completely baffled by them.
Professor Chen snatched the A3 sheet of paper.
He initially thought it was all just graffiti and nonsense. But when his gaze fell upon the densely packed tensor calculus formulas and Riemannian geometric derivations, his breath caught in his throat.
The formula is extremely rigorous. The derivation logic is impeccable. Several of the boundary condition settings even utilize the latest mathematical tools published just last year in a Nature sub-journal.
"This...this was written by you?"
Professor Chen's voice trembled. He suddenly raised his head and stared intently at Lin Yu.
"She wrote the words. I dictated them."
Lin Yu pointed at Xia Zijin.
Professor Chen held the paper with trembling hands, as if it were a rare treasure.
The commotion drew everyone's attention. Zhao Tianyu stopped adjusting the knob and frowned at the excited professor.
"Genius...no, this is an extremely keen physical intuition!"
Professor Chen muttered to himself. He suddenly turned around and shouted to the examiner behind him, "Take a picture of this manuscript! Send it back to Academician Li at the Institute of Theoretical Physics immediately!"
Professor Chen looked at Lin Yu again, his gaze completely changed. It went from scrutiny to fervor.
"Excuse me, what's your name?"
"Lin Yu."
"There's a welcome meeting at the camp at 8 PM. After the meeting, come to my room. I have a question I'd like you to take a look at."
Professor Chen used the word "please".
The entire room fell silent.
The laser pointer in Zhao Tianyu's hand fell onto the table.
8 PM. Camp auditorium.
The orientation and networking event started on time. This is the perfect stage for talented individuals to showcase themselves and connect with university admissions offices.
Zhao Tianyu, as a student representative, was the first to take the stage.
He was dressed in a well-tailored suit, holding a microphone, standing in front of a large screen. On the screen was playing a short English paper he had written on fluid mechanics.
Zhao Tianyu delivered a ten-minute presentation on the applications of calculus physics in extremely fluent English, even with a London accent.
The high school students in the audience listened with rapt attention, their eyes filled with awe. Most of them couldn't understand the technical English academic vocabulary, but the sheer intellectual superiority made them applaud involuntarily.
Su Qingwan sat in the art student area. She looked at Zhao Tianyu on stage, her hands clasped tightly to her chest. Her eyes brimmed with admiration and longing. This was truly a radiant, chosen one.
The speech ended. Amid thunderous applause, Zhao Tianyu bowed and stepped down from the stage.
As he walked back to his seat, his gaze habitually swept over the area of Jiangcheng No. 1 Middle School. He wanted to see the expression on Lin Yu's face now.
But he couldn't find him. Lin Yu hadn't come to the auditorium at all.
At the same time. Male dormitory room 302.
Only one lamp was on in the room.
Lin Yu sat in a plastic chair. Several ordinary white papers were scattered on the table in front of him.