Chapter 62: The First Early Morning Class of University

"It really hasn't been easy. I've finally managed to finish this paper, and now all that's left is to translate it into English."

September 17th, weekend.

In the evening, Xu Ming sat in his dorm, looking at the thirty-page manuscript displayed on his computer screen and murmuring to himself.

He crossed his hands and stretched lazily, a look of satisfaction and relief washing over his eyes.

After days of hard work, the paper regarding the new inequalities of the weighted Gram matrix was finally complete. Fortunately, he still remembered some standard paper formatting guidelines; otherwise, he would have had to ask Senior Liu for guidance and delayed his progress.

However, because his English proficiency was still at Level 1, he chose not to write the paper directly in English.

Consequently, he still needed to spend some effort on the translation.

Worth mentioning, a few days ago their dorm had collectively set up computer and internet access.

Jiang Xu, just like him, had bought a laptop that was convenient to carry to the library, while Ni Mingjie preferred a desktop.

According to Ni Mingjie's own words, even if he were trapped in a "madhouse," he would absolutely never give up playing Warcraft.

Staying up all night harms the body, but playing in moderation is good for the spirit.

As for Zhu Zhixun, considering his family's financial situation, he decided to temporarily continue relying on the faculty's computer lab.

Although Xu Ming had spent several thousand yuan, the thought that the prize money from the department after the paper's publication would easily cover the cost made his psychological pressure vanish instantly. As soon as he got online, he signed into his long-unused QQ account.

He saw messages left by quite a few high school classmates, including Qian Hong, his old desk mate who had gone to Jincheng.

Judging from Qian Hong's boastful tone, his meeting with his female netizen seemed to have gone quite successfully, with a subtle trend toward officially establishing a romantic relationship.

It seemed this fellow had really landed something good.

Of course, Xu Ming and Chen Lu had also kept in touch. Although they were both busy with their respective department affairs and lacked opportunities to meet in person, they still shared interesting daily anecdotes via text messages—though recently, they had switched to communicating through QQ.

Thinking that it was still early before the dorm's lights-out time, Xu Ming simply decided to start the translation right then and there.

"Tight Determinantal Inequalities for..."

...

As the words were typed out one by one, his English subject experience points, which had remained stagnant for some time, began to change.

[Through diligent study, your [English] proficiency has increased. You have gained 5 experience points.]

[Through...]

After translating two pages of content, he stopped what he was doing and checked his experience points in English.

[English: Lv1 (163/500)]

"Once classes officially start tomorrow, I should be able to reach Level 2 very soon."

Among the compulsory courses for freshmen in the School of Mathematical Sciences was College English. According to the plan, they would take the CET-4 exam next semester, so he needed to allocate some time for English review.

***

Just as this thought crossed his mind, he suddenly sensed something unusual behind him and subconsciously turned his head.

Ni Mingjie's figure immediately came into view.

The other had been staring at the screen for God knows how long, his eyes filled with utter bewilderment.

"I can't understand a single word of this."

Eventually, Ni Mingjie shook his head and muttered to himself, quickly losing interest and shifting his gaze toward Zhu Zhixun and Jiang Xu.

Ever since everyone in the dorm learned that Xu Ming had already started writing a paper, the entire atmosphere had turned somewhat strange.

First, their wake-up times were advanced significantly, and then the frequency of trips to the library and study rooms noticeably increased. Even Ni Mingjie—who talked about transferring departments ten times a day—would occasionally peer at what the others were doing while in the dorm.

Often, just as he was about to start a game of Warcraft, he would be influenced by the intense study atmosphere and forced to pull out his Advanced Algebra textbook.

Although everyone knew that Peking University, as the supreme temple of mathematics in the country, would never lack formidable geniuses, and that being dealt blows by others was only a matter of time, no one who made it here was willing to admit they were inferior—even facing a chasm-like gap, they still wanted to close the distance as much as possible.

"What the heck?"

At that moment, Ni Mingjie's exclamation rang out in the dorm, instantly drawing the attention of both Xu Ming and Zhu Zhixun.

"Jiang Xu, why are you also writing a paper?"

Subconsciously looking over, they saw Jiang Xu flusteredly rushing to close an open document.

A look of awkwardness flooded his face.

"I'm just writing casually, treating it as getting familiar with graduation theses in advance," he forced a smile and replied embarrassedly.

Hearing this, Ni Mingjie immediately patted Jiang Xu on the shoulder, speaking with earnest sincerity.

"There's no rush to do that until junior year. Having one mathematical freak like Xu Ming in our dorm is already enough."

Having been transferred into Peking University's "madhouse," Ni Mingjie had given himself massive amounts of psychological counseling just to keep from dropping out and spending another year retaking the college entrance exams. He had thought that being assigned to a regular class would slightly lighten the pressure.

As it turned out, the "craziest" one was right here in the dorm.

After listening to their conversation, Xu Ming didn't quite know what to say. For a freshman, solidifying their foundation was absolute priority number one.

The fact that his paper came to be was a stroke of serendipity and not part of his original study plan.

However, Jiang Xu needed to figure this out on his own; it was hard for outsiders to persuade him otherwise.

Just as Jiang Xu went back to working on his mathematical analysis problems, Zhu Zhixun—who had been silent the whole time—turned around somewhat timidly and called out softly:

"Xu Ming."

"Could you explain a problem to me?"

"No problem." Xu Ming readily agreed and walked over.

Stepping closer and casting his gaze downward, he saw it was a limit-proving problem, and the solution pathway instantly popped into his mind.

"The core testing points of this problem involve two aspects."

"The first is the flexible application of equivalent infinitesimals, and the second is the conditions for the continuous application of L'Hôpital's rule."

"First verify the indeterminate form, then apply L'Hôpital's rule to take the derivative, and finally simplify by rigorously substituting equivalent infinitesimals."

As he spoke, he took the pen from Zhu Zhixun's hand and worked out the complete proof steps on a blank piece of draft paper.

Even Ni Mingjie stood nearby, listening with rapt attention.

In contrast, a flash of dimness crossed Jiang Xu's expression as he remembered how, at the very beginning of the semester, it was he who used to tutor Zhu Zhixun and Ni Mingjie.

However, this was only natural. After all, Xu Ming had already self-studied all the compulsory mathematics content for the freshman year and had even scored a perfect score on the diagnostic exam. Needless to say, Zhu Zhixun and Ni Mingjie now loved coming to Xu Ming for help with problems, and he was no exception to this habit.

***

The next day.

Eight o'clock in the morning, the first mathematical analysis class of the semester.

For Dormitory 203, with a involution king like Xu Ming around, they had no idea what the word "late" even meant.

Passing by the triangular plaza, they saw quite a few student clubs setting up booths to recruit new members one after another.

Xu Ming didn't plan to waste time on this, but Ni Mingjie showed considerable interest and intended to come back at noon after class to check it out in detail.

Since Ni Mingjie and Zhu Zhixun had been sorted into regular classes, they wouldn't be having class in the same classroom as the advanced class.

The group entered the Science Teaching Building and parted ways in pairs.

The advanced class's mathematical analysis was taught by Professor Zhang Luping, with a total class size of around thirty students.

Since most of them were math competition students, the classroom inevitably stirred with a commotion as Xu Ming, the top-scoring provincial scholar, walked in.

Everyone had already learned through various channels that among this year's freshmen, only Xu Ming and Lu Mingzhe had achieved perfect scores on the diagnostic test.

"So he's Xu Ming. It's hard to imagine a regular gaokao candidate getting a perfect score, but it's a pity he didn't participate in the math competitions."

"Who do you think is stronger, him or Lu Mingzhe?"

"That goes without saying. Lu Mingzhe certainly didn't hand in his test paper early."

"Is Lu Mingzhe's score even a perfect one? Why did he go to the playground for military posture training afterward while Xu Ming didn't even show his face?"

...