"This year’s problems should be finalized in the next day or two,"
Zhang Wenping continued.
"It’s hard to say right now how many teams will choose Problem A,"
Li Dong chimed in.
"Only the most confident teams would pick that one, I imagine."
"Mm-hmm."
Zhang Wenping agreed.
The undergraduate division of the national competition offered three problems to choose from.
Problem A was typically a continuous model, often with a physics or engineering background, and it demanded the most advanced modeling skills.
Problem B was discrete, usually focusing on areas like combinatorial optimization and graph theory.
Problem C was data-driven. In previous years, they’d typically just drop a massive dataset on you and see what kind of commercially viable conclusions you could pull from it.
Following the trend from previous years, teams from average universities tended to flock to Problem C. The barrier to entry was low, the final paper looked impressive, and it guaranteed a decent score.
The teams that picked Problem A were usually from a handful of traditional powerhouses, all aiming for the same thing: the Higher Education Press Cup.
"I wonder which university will take home the Higher Education Press Cup this year..."
Zhang Wenping smiled.
"I’m really looking forward to it."
The Higher Education Press Cup was the highest honor in the National Mathematical Contest in Modeling.
The regional committees first reviewed all the submissions, selected the candidates for national awards, and then forwarded them to the national expert review panel.
The national panel conducted another round of reviews before the final list of national award winners was determined.
And the Higher Education Press Cup designated the true first-place winner among all those national award recipients.
"Teacher Zhang, will we be reviewing the papers together?"
It was Li Dong’s first time as a judge, so he wasn’t very familiar with the procedure.
Zhang Wenping shook his head and said,
"Old Min and I will review the applied mathematics and optimization papers first."
"You, Old Zhou, and Old Wen will handle the pure mathematics and interdisciplinary papers after us."
"As soon as I’m done on my end, I’ll come join you."
"Okay."
Li Dong agreed.
For the next few days, Li Dong settled into a routine in Jinling.
He spent nearly all his days cooped up in that conference room.
The pre-research project had an enormous workload, thanks to the frightening amount of suspected Illusion Peak data that had piled up.
He had to go up the mountain for a visit basically every day or two.
Whenever the research assistants and postdocs on the team encountered an energy band where the criterion coefficient was ambiguously close to the anchor interval, they’d just toss the data his way, unable to make a decision themselves.
Li Dong didn’t waste time.
With a single glance and a few words, he would determine whether that energy band should be designated a forbidden zone.
After making the call, he’d tell them to continue running the analysis.
Zhang Wenping was also there.
The two of them, one after the other, acted as the final gatekeepers for the process.
In the afternoons and evenings, Li Dong started auditing classes...
Jinling University’s School of Physics was already a gold standard in the country, boasting several true titans of the field.
The class he audited most frequently was Mr. Min Naichen’s *Advanced Quantum Field Theory*.
Mr. Min was getting on in years. He was a veteran in the field of condensed matter physics in China and had only stepped back from frontline research a few years prior.
His course was officially intended for master’s and Ph.D. students, but the old professor never said anything when undergraduates showed up to listen in.
The first time Li Dong audited the class, he sat in the back row.
Halfway through writing on the blackboard, Mr. Min suddenly put down his chalk, turned, and glanced toward the back row.
When he saw Li Dong, he paused for a moment, then gave him a smile.
He didn’t say a word and went back to his lecture.
’He’s giving me his tacit approval,’ Li Dong understood.
From that day forward, he made a point of showing up in that small classroom every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon, without fail.
Another class he audited with great enthusiasm was *Selected Topics in High-Energy Astrophysics*, taught by Professor Cheng Hong, one of the School of Physics’s younger-generation faculty.
This course was directly relevant to his pre-research project.
Li Dong paid particularly close attention during Professor Cheng’s lectures on galactic cosmic ray sources.
He would even occasionally follow him to the faculty office after class to ask a few questions that had popped into his head during the lecture.
At first, Professor Cheng just thought the kid was a particularly diligent undergraduate.
This continued until one afternoon, when Li Dong was once again leaving Professor Cheng’s office.
He happened to bump into Shen Che in the hallway, who was approaching with a teacup in hand.
Shen Che nodded at him.
"Back from auditing Old Cheng’s class?"
"Professor Cheng is just such a good lecturer! I can’t help myself, I really can’t,"
Li Dong said with a grin.
Shen Che waved his hand dismissively.
"Alright, alright, Old Cheng can’t hear you. Who are you trying to butter up?"
"Go on, get back to your work. Make sure you get some rest. With how busy things are up on the mountain, you shouldn’t be studying all the time. You’ll wear yourself out."
Li Dong nodded.
"Okay, Teacher Shen."
With that, Li Dong left.
Shen Che, teacup in hand, walked into Professor Cheng’s office.
Cheng Hong was sitting at his desk, head bowed as he flipped through a book.
"Old Cheng."
"You know that guy who just left, right?"
Cheng Hong raised his head.
"You mean that diligent undergraduate?"
"He’s been attending my class for a few days now. His questions keep getting sharper and sharper. I figured he must be a promising talent from someone’s research group..."
He trailed off as he noticed the odd expression on Shen Che’s face.
He fell completely silent. After a three-second pause, he asked tentatively,
"...Old Shen."
"Was that... Li Dong?"
Shen Che, holding his teacup, broke into a huge, mischievous grin.
"Yep."
"The one and only."
Cheng Hong put a hand to his forehead.
"Old Shen, you should’ve told me sooner!"
"I was a bit sloppy with my explanation for that one section. If he took it at face value, I’m screwed."
"Heh heh," Shen Che chuckled.
"Relax, he won’t take it seriously."
And so the days passed, one after another.
Up the mountain, meetings, monitoring the inversion.
Down the mountain, auditing classes, burying his nose in books.
Some evenings, Li Dong would also open his laptop back in his apartment.
He continued to monitor Xiaohai’s status.
The progress bar above Xiaohai’s head had increased to [0.013].
As for the [Join Request] section in the group chat,
the name [Claude Elwood Shannon] was still sitting there.
And the [Accept] button remained unresponsive.

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