As the star pupil of Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, Qin Yan had always been a very proud person.
In his eyes, while his schoolmates were also outstanding, they were never his true rivals.
His true imagined enemies were the freaks at Beijing’s Renmin University High School who entered national key laboratories as freshmen, and the madmen at the top schools in Shanghai who could hand-build models of particle accelerators.
So, when he heard that a student from Seventh Middle School named Li Dong had transferred into the honors class, Qin Yan wasn’t concerned in the slightest. He didn’t even bother to remember Li Dong’s name.
First place in the national Huaxuan Cup? Won a million in prize money?
Admittedly, that was impressive. He had shot to fame in the field of applied engineering.
But in Qin Yan’s view, no matter how legendary the Huaxuan Cup was, it was ultimately a commercial competition. The opponents there weren’t the strongest cohort in the country.
He hadn’t participated, so he didn’t feel he was any worse than Li Dong.
「Until a few days ago.」
Qin Yan had gone to Elder Chen’s office to hand in a mock exam for the Physics Bowl and inadvertently saw a few of Li Dong’s draft papers on the desk.
On them was a diagram of a "spinning hoop-small ball" dynamical system.
Beside it were several lines of a concise Lagrangian derivation and a mathematical model that perfectly analogized macroscopic mechanics with thermodynamic phase transitions.
In that moment, Qin Yan was lost in thought.
If this project were his, could he solve it?
Qin Yan ran through the problem in his head dozens of times, and the conclusion he reached was: Yes!
His mathematical tools and physics foundation were absolutely sufficient to support him in solving this model.
But...
There were two sticking points.
The first was, would he have ever thought of this angle of attack?
To use the spontaneous symmetry breaking of a macroscopic mechanical system as an equivalent for the extremely abstract phase transitions in condensed matter physics?
It sounds simple now, doesn’t it? That’s because the secret is out, which makes it seem easy.
If the secret was still under wraps, you could spend a lifetime fumbling at the door.
Qin Yan asked himself honestly, if no one had prompted him, could he have thought of it?
Most likely not.
The second sticking point was that even if he had thought of it, and his line of reasoning was the same as Li Dong’s...
He would have to consult a massive amount of literature, establish non-linear differential equations, and solve for the jump in the elliptic integral.
He would also need to design an experimental apparatus with an eccentric rotating shaft to finally derive the Hysteresis Loop...
How long would that take him?
Focusing solely on this, it would take half a year—no, maybe even a full year...
But what about Li Dong?
How long had he been working on it? Three months?
And Qin Yan had even heard a rumor that this Li Dong kid was constantly running over to Zhejiang University, supposedly advancing a biology project at the same time!
’Dual-specializing in physics and biology? And he completely solved the physics model for the Qiu Chengtong Middle School Science Award in such a short time?’
’What the hell, is he even human?’
「In the Sixth Middle School library.」
Qin Yan looked at the figure completely immersed in his own world, placed the book in his hand back on the shelf, and, pretending to be casually searching for materials, slowly circled around to Li Dong’s side and back.
He glanced at the screen from a distance.
’Hm? It’s all in English?’
’Is he aiming for the global finals?’
Qin Yan’s heart skipped a beat.
Displayed on the screen was the complete paper: *"Phase Transition" in Mechanical Systems: Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking and Hysteresis Loop Induced by Rotation*!
Qin Yan narrowed his eyes and began to read the paper’s contents.
"The competition between centrifugal potential energy (etc.)..."
The competition between centrifugal and gravitational potential energy corresponded to the evolution of the order parameter in a phase transition...
Qin Yan could understand every step of Li Dong’s derivation.
He followed the equations on the screen one by one.
’The logic is sound, and the use of mathematical tools is beautiful. Especially the introduction of the eccentric perturbation parameter—it’s a stroke of genius.’
But the more he understood, the more intense his feeling of powerlessness became.
It was a suffocating feeling!
It was like having a difficult problem in front of you that you just couldn’t solve.
But when someone threw the answer in your face, you looked and saw that all the formulas and theorems were things you had already learned.
’Ah, so that’s how you solve it. I could have done it, too.’
But could you really? Without that answer, you would never have reached the finish line!
"If this project had been given to me, could I really have done it?" Qin Yan asked himself bitterly.
At that moment, Li Dong, completely in a flow state, had no idea of the psychological turmoil Qin Yan was experiencing behind him.
He automatically filtered out everything in the outside world that was unrelated to his paper.
An unknown amount of time passed.
The tapping of the keyboard finally slowed. Li Dong was finishing the core section of the paper: its application prospects and conclusion.
Specific implementable industrial scenarios include:
1. High-sensitivity rotational speed sensor: By tuning the system near its critical rotational speed, minute fluctuations will cause dramatic changes in the ball’s deflection angle. Compared to traditional high-precision photoelectric sensors, this reduces costs by over 90% and can be directly applied to monitor rotational speeds in small motors, drones, and harsh industrial environments.
2. High-sensitivity vibration/acceleration sensor: The system’s equilibrium state is extremely sensitive to acceleration and can be applied to structural health monitoring for bridges and high-rise buildings, as well as vibration alarms in smart homes, with a sensitivity far exceeding traditional piezoelectric sensors.
3. High-reliability threshold switch and protection device: The characteristic of abrupt state changes, combined with the Hysteresis Loop, makes it a naturally perfect mechanical threshold switch...
Li Dong let out a long sigh and saved the document.
"Ah... I’m starving..."
Maintaining such a high intensity of logical deduction and writing entirely in English not only made his head buzz, but his stomach was protesting as well.
His spirits, however, were soaring, because...
’I did it!’
’I solved something even Newton couldn’t.’
He thought shamelessly.
’And I even found a real-world application for it that will completely disrupt the industrial sensor market!’
The ever-so-smug Li Dong nodded to himself incessantly.
Just as he was reveling in the extreme ego trip of ’I’ve surpassed Newton,’
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ.
The phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated.
He pulled it out, and when he saw the notification, his energy surged once more!
*John Carl Friedrich Gauss*.
The unknown file that had been stuck at 63.2% was now...
*Transfer: 100%*
*File parsing complete. Click to view.*
’It’s downloaded?’
Without even stopping to think about the logic behind it, Li Dong was about to tap the file that could "increase his authority."
SLAP!
Suddenly, a hand clapped down on his shoulder.
"There you are, kid, hiding in a corner! How’s it going? Is the first draft done?"
Li Dong’s hand trembled in shock.
He turned his head to see Elder Chen, who had somehow appeared behind him, looking at his computer screen with an expectant expression.
"Uh... Teacher Chen."
Li Dong quickly flipped his phone screen-down and shoved it back into his pocket.
"It’s done. I just finished the conclusion and application scenarios."
"Really? Let’s go to my office then."
Elder Chen was still quite surprised. This kid was truly fast.
GRRROWL...
Li Dong’s stomach let out a few uncooperative growls.
"Oh, right. It’s dinnertime," Elder Chen laughed.
"Come on, my treat. What do you want to eat?"

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