Li Dong sat down at the table by the window.
He started flipping through the book on top, *Cosmic Rays at Earth*.
This time, he wasn’t trying to thoroughly digest it, but rather to load it into his Memory Palace, so he flipped through it quickly.
After a short while, he closed the book and placed it by his feet.
Then the next one.
At a seat on the other side of the hall, Misha put down her pen.
She had been reading *Foundations of Abstract Algebra*, but a moment ago she had subconsciously glanced across the hall, and now she was frozen in place.
She saw Li Dong, but didn’t have the courage to go over and say, "What a coincidence."
Misha knew exactly when she had lost that courage.
The day she received her acceptance letter from Jinling University, she had told herself, "I will catch up to you." She had been serious at the time.
Back then, she had no idea just how far Li Dong had come in that one year.
During the year she spent cramming for retakes at Jiangcheng Sixth Middle School, she had been completely oblivious to the outside world.
She had locked herself in a cage of studying.
The moment she truly understood the gap between her and Li Dong was the night she received her acceptance letter.
She sat at her desk and went through all the trending topics she had missed over the past year, one by one.
When she finished, she just sat there, motionless.
Her declaration of "I will catch up to you" had turned into a question in her heart: ’Can I... really catch up?’
’I can’t think about this anymore.’
Misha suppressed the complex emotions welling up inside her.
If she kept staring at him, she’d never get through today’s section on group homomorphisms.
She picked up her pen again.
Li Dong remained completely oblivious.
By the time he looked up again, the sky outside the window was completely dark.
He glanced down at his phone.
He rubbed his slightly aching head.
Then, he closed his eyes and entered his Memory Palace.
The "Related Knowledge" bookshelf, which had been empty before, was now crammed with books.
But... the spot that glowed with white light still only showed the outline of a single book.
Li Dong sighed.
’Is it because I haven’t found the right literature, or because I haven’t digested it thoroughly enough?’
For now, he couldn’t tell which it was.
He withdrew from the Memory Palace.
He looked up at the library clock.
’That’s it for today.’
’I’ll figure it out tomorrow.’
He stood up and walked out of the library.
He didn’t notice that at a seat against the wall on the other side of the hall, a girl wearing headphones buried her head even lower the moment he stood up.
For the next few days, Li Dong shuttled back and forth between his apartment and the Jinling University library.
But in his Memory Palace, the spot glowing with white light remained just the outline of a book.
「On Wednesday evening.」
Li Dong had just placed the last book of the day into his Memory Palace when his phone rang.
It was a call from Zhang Wenping.
"Teacher Zhang."
"Li Dong, the national competition defense has been scheduled. It’s this Saturday at 2:00 PM."
"It’ll be in Conference Hall 1 of the Si Yuan Building on Jinling University’s Gulou Campus."
"Make sure you’re there."
Li Dong replied, "Okay."
"I’ll get there early on Saturday."
「Saturday.」
In the Si Yuan Building on Jinling University’s Gulou Campus, several teams were already seated in the small lounge outside Conference Hall 1.
The candidate teams were separated by university, each group occupying a different set of sofas.
Over on the sofas for Hacheng University of Technology.
"Old Ke."
"We actually made it to the defense."
"You think there’s a chance we could actually snag the Higher Education Press Cup this time?"
The student named Ke across from him rolled his eyes.
"What are you dreaming of?"
"See that over there?"
He jutted his chin slightly toward the sofas on the opposite side.
"Yan University."
"The taller one."
He paused.
"Gu Ming."
The student across from him subconsciously glanced over, then quickly snapped his head back.
"The Gu Ming?"
"That’s the one."
"Our homeroom teacher was just talking about him in class not too long ago."
He held up a hand toward his companion and began to count.
"This March, the 10th Qiu Chengtong College Student Mathematics Contest."
"Three gold medals: Geometry and Topology, Probability and Statistics, and Applied and Computational Mathematics."
"A silver in Analysis and Equations."
"He swept four categories all by himself."
He lowered one finger and raised a second.
"Two years ago, during winter break, the finals of the National College Student Mathematics Competition. Grand Prize in the undergraduate division."
A third finger.
"This May, the MCM/ICM. Outstanding Winner, plus the SIAM Award."
With every achievement he listed, the color drained a little more from his companion’s face.
"Old Ke."
"So this time..."
"Aren’t we just cannon fodder?"
Old Ke sighed.
"Pretty much."
"That guy is basically the ceiling for Yan University’s undergraduate School of Mathematics."
Hearing this, his companion instinctively retorted.
"Huh?"
"The undergraduate ceiling... isn’t that supposed to be East God?"
Old Ke rolled his eyes.
"You need to remember something."
"In any ranking of the young people of our generation, you have to kick East God out."
"Because he’s not human."
On the sofas across from them.
Lin Feng heard every word they said.
He subconsciously said to Chen Yue, who was beside him.
"Hey, Chen Yue."
"Did you hear that?"
"That’s the team from Yan University over there."
"Feeling confident?"
Chen Yue didn’t look up, just kept playing on his phone.
Lin Feng couldn’t resist and tugged on Chen Yue’s arm.
"I’m talking to you."
This time, Chen Yue finally put down his phone.
He looked up, his expression unpleasant.
It was the first time Lin Feng had ever seen such a foul look on Chen Yue’s face.

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