「October 7th.」
The Global Finals of the Qiu Chengtong Middle School Science Award (Physics Division) officially kicked off at Shuimu University.
In fact, the day before, Li Dong had already submitted a leave request to his advisor, Professor Zhou Qifeng.
When Professor Zhou heard Li Dong’s reason for requesting leave—to attend the defense for the Qiu Prize in physics—he was visibly stunned.
"The Qiu Prize?"
To his recollection, the Qiu Chengtong University Physics Competition was indeed in the works, but the timing was completely off!
Only after asking for details did he realize that the kid was actually participating in the high school-level Qiu Prize!
Professor Zhou was simply speechless.
’Seriously? You’ve already published as the first author in a top-tier journal like *Mathematics Computing*, and now you’re going to compete against a bunch of high school students for a Qiu Prize medal?’
’Even though it’s a different field, nobody would expect Li Dong to fail, right...?’
’So what is this? A max-level pro returning to the Newbie Village to slaughter rookies?’
But on second thought, Professor Zhou realized it wasn’t all that strange.
Over the years, it wasn’t uncommon for students to take advantage of the transition period between high school graduation and university enrollment.
As long as the registration and preliminary review were completed before their student records were transferred from high school, the process was perfectly in line with regulations.
What truly interested Professor Zhou was that after making such big waves in mathematics, Li Dong was now participating in the physics division?
’This kid... when he said his greatest passion was physics, could he have been telling the truth?’
Professor Zhou looked at the clear-eyed student before him and pondered.
’If Li Dong was truly willing to tackle a tough subject like physics, with his talent, his accomplishments in the field would be no less than what he’s achieved in mathematics.’
’When it came to judging character, he, Zhou Qifeng, had never been mistaken.’
Although it was a bit of a shame that it was just a high schooler’s Qiu Prize, Professor Zhou naturally wouldn’t make things difficult for Li Dong and promptly approved his leave.
「8:00 AM.」
Li Dong and Elder Chen arrived at the defense venue at Shuimu University a full forty minutes early.
At this moment, in the judges’ lounge for the global finals, five judges were present. Any one of them was a titan in their respective field.
There’s no need to introduce Mr. Qiu Chengtong and Su Qiwang, as they’ve been mentioned before.
Another was a regular judge, Professor Gao Yunfeng of Shuimu University’s Department of Physics.
And across from Gao Yunfeng sat the Dean of Yan University’s School of Physics, an Academician of the Huaxia Academy of Sciences, and an authority in high-energy physics—Gao Yuanlin.
The final member was an invited foreign judge, Lars Anderson.
This renowned mathematical physicist from Sweden represented the Western scholarly tradition of viewing matters through a purely objective, academic lens.
He was formerly with the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics.
He was highly regarded in the fields of the mathematical foundations of General Relativity and black hole dynamics.
With some time still to go before the defenses began, the academic heavyweights were enjoying some tea.
Professor Gao Yunfeng of Shuimu University set down his teacup. He looked across at Academician Gao Yuanlin with a grin and began to tease him.
"Academician Gao, I hear you guys at Yan University struck gold recently? Produced a math prodigy?"
His question had a bit of a sting to it.
’Asking the Dean of the School of Physics about a math prodigy?’
’It was a jab at his School of Physics for not having any prodigies of its own!’
As the twin pillars of the nation’s higher education, Shuimu and Yan University had always been friendly rivals.
Trading barbs and probing for information was par for the course, but it was all without any real malice.
Academician Gao snorted and retorted bluntly.
"That’s right, he’s in mathematics."
"What about it? Our Yan University’s School of Mathematics has produced a real talent. Have you guys at Shuimu found any promising prospects lately? Anyone who’s made a name for themselves in math we should know about?"
Gao Yunfeng was at a loss for words.
While Shuimu’s engineering programs were the best in the country, it was true that their foundation in pure mathematics had always been a step behind Yan University’s.
Seeing the two bickering, Professor Su Qiwang quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
Whether it was intentional or not, he spoke in English.
"Now, now. They are all students of our Huaxia. Regardless of who makes an achievement, we should all be pleased."
Upon hearing this, the expression of the foreign judge, Lars Anderson, who was sitting at the end, turned a little peculiar.
He turned his head to look at Su Qiwang.
"Su, was that directed at me?"
"I’m not one of those arrogant figures in Western academia who disparaged Li Dong’s paper on the algorithm for non-trivial zeros."
"You don’t need to say that for my benefit. I personally have great admiration for that young man from Huaxia. In fact, if I ever get the chance, I would love to meet him in person to discuss the application of his algorithm to spacetime manifold computations."
Just then, Mr. Qiu Chengtong, who had been resting with his eyes closed, spoke up, his voice tinged with emotion.
"To be honest, Academician Gao, I too would very much like to meet this student from Yan University."
Elder Qiu paused before continuing in a very humble tone.
"I’ve read the algorithm paper he published in *Mathematics Computing*."
"When it comes to algorithmic dimensionality reduction in analytic number theory... this old man... I might truly be no match for that young fellow."
Everyone was rather stunned to hear this.
Admittedly, Mr. Qiu Chengtong’s research wasn’t in analytic number theory, but most people wouldn’t admit something like that so bluntly.
Especially not someone of Elder Qiu’s stature.
If any reporters had been in the lounge to report that statement, Li Dong’s standing in the international academic community would have likely shot up another notch instantly!
Hearing Elder Qiu praise a student from his own university so highly, Academician Gao Yuanlin felt an immense sense of pride.
He smiled and said to Elder Qiu.
"You’re too modest, Mr. Qiu. Once the Qiu Prize finals are over, I’ll personally arrange to bring the young man over and introduce him to you."
In truth, Gao Yuanlin himself had yet to formally meet Li Dong. After all, Li Dong didn’t even attend the general University Physics lectures.
But as the Dean of the School of Physics, it would be a simple matter to meet with a first-year student.
"Excellent. I’ll be looking forward to it, then." Elder Qiu smiled and nodded.
Only ten minutes remained before the defenses were set to begin.
The judges took their seats and picked up the list of today’s finalists and their project abstracts, starting to review them in advance.
"Hmm, this student from Rongcheng Seventh Middle School, Qiao Fan... his project is quite impressive," Professor Gao Yunfeng said.
"His topic is ’A Study of Droplet Bouncing and the Nonlinear Dynamics of Pilot-Waves Based on Faraday Waves.’ He uses macroscopic droplets to simulate the pilot-wave phenomenon from quantum mechanics."
"The theoretical derivations are clean, and the analogy between fluid dynamics and quantum mechanics is quite ingenious. He’s a promising candidate for a career in scientific research."
The other judges nodded in agreement, adding a few comments of their own about the project’s highlights in modeling trajectories in chaotic phase space.
With the sterling reputation of Rongcheng Seventh Middle School and such a solid project, winning an award was practically a sure thing.
Smiling, they turned their attention to the next name on the list.
But when their eyes fell upon the next name...
The smiles on their faces froze.
Su Qiwang looked up, a peculiar expression on his face as he glanced at the others.
"Gentlemen... this name on the list..."
"Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, Li Dong..."
"It must be a different person with the same name, right?"

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