Awakening Elementary School System in University

The slight nervousness and shyness Shen Yan felt quickly subsided once the conversation turned to work.

She returned to her desk, neatly arranged her books and materials, and immersed herself in studying other clients’ files as if no one else was around.

As the company’s business plan became clearer, Chen Lin felt a sense of relief.

He leaned back in his ergonomic chair, stretched, and temporarily cleared his mind of stray thoughts about business.

’Now, for my real work.’

Although the core mathematical proof for his graduation thesis was complete, the remaining tedious but time-consuming writing tasks—the abstract, introduction, literature review, acknowledgments, appendices...—needed to be put on the agenda.

For him, this kind of work required almost no brainpower; it was purely manual labor.

Chen Lin set a small goal for himself: ’I have to get it all done within a week!’

...

...

「Around the same time, thousands of miles away.」

「Guangdong Province, Wancheng.」

Inside an office at the Era Group headquarters.

Tao Wei, the Vice General Manager of the Software R&D Department, had just hung up a call from Sun Yu.

He put down his phone and leaned back in his large executive chair, his fingers drumming lightly on the desk as a thoughtful, playful expression crossed his face.

Standing opposite him was a sharp, capable-looking young man of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. It was his trusted assistant, Luo Qin.

"Luo Qin," Tao Wei began slowly, "that call just now was from Yanhai Company, the one President Peng introduced."

"Oh? What did they say? Did they give up because it was too hard, or are they planning to come and give it a try?" Luo Qin asked curiously.

Tao Wei smiled and said, "Neither. They said they’re willing to solve our test problem, but it’s an independent technical service. We have to sign a contract first, and they’re charging ten thousand yuan."

"What?!"

Hearing this, Luo Qin’s eyebrows shot up and his voice grew several pitches higher. "Ten thousand yuan?! Just to solve a test problem? That’s an outrageous demand! They think way too much of themselves! Do they really think they’re top experts in the country?"

Tao Wei looked at his assistant’s indignant expression but neither agreed nor disagreed.

He just leisurely swiveled his chair halfway around, mused for a moment, and then asked, "Luo Qin, did you happen to see a video that went viral online last month? It was about a Yannan University student who solved a difficult problem at a modeling competition, right in front of a bunch of professors and academicians."

"Doesn’t ring a bell." Luo Qin shook his head. He had been completely absorbed in his project recently and had no time to scroll through short videos.

Tao Wei nodded as if he had expected this. He picked up his phone, opened WeChat, and found a video link in his chat history with Peng Yifeng. Then he handed the phone to Luo Qin.

"Take a look at this first."

Luo Qin took the phone, a little puzzled, and pressed play.

The video quality was a bit shaky, clearly filmed by an audience member on their phone, but the audio was reasonably clear.

When he saw the young man in the video named "Chen Lin" merely glance at the problem on the blackboard, take less than a minute, then pick up a piece of chalk and begin writing out the solution without hesitation, a look of shock appeared for the first time in Luo Qin’s eyes, hidden behind his glasses.

’So fast!’

’That processing speed is almost inhuman!’

Luo Qin himself had been a top student in college; otherwise, he never would have joined a top domestic public company like Era Group right after graduation and been groomed as a core member of the technical team.

Relying on the mathematical knowledge he hadn’t yet completely forgotten from his school days, combined with the explanations from expert netizens in the bullet comments and the analysis in the comment section, he quickly determined that the young man on screen was not just scribbling nonsense for show. On the contrary, every step of the derivation he wrote was concise, elegant, and filled with a logical beauty that cut straight to the core of the problem!

It was a kind of effortless confidence and composure that he had only ever seen in his own mentor, a nationally renowned professor of mathematics!

The video wasn’t long and quickly finished playing.

Luo Qin silently handed the phone back to Tao Wei. His Adam’s apple bobbed unconsciously as he asked in a somewhat uncertain tone, "President Tao, this Chen Lin... he couldn’t be..."

Tao Wei looked at his stunned expression, smiled, and nodded, confirming his suspicion.

"That’s right. When President Peng introduced Yanhai to me, he made it clear that the founder of this company is the same Chen Lin from the video."

*Hiss—*

Luo Qin couldn’t help but suck in a sharp breath. The defiance born from his youthful pride was instantly washed away.

For the first time, he sincerely felt the truth in the saying, "there’s always someone better out there."

He had always thought that someone like him—a graduate from a prestigious university who had quickly made a name for himself in a large corporation at a young age—was already among the best of his peers.

But compared to this college student named Chen Lin in the video, his so-called excellence was practically a joke.

Tao Wei took in Luo Qin’s reaction and slowly began to state his own judgment.

"I don’t know if this Chen Lin can ultimately solve the problem we’re facing. After all, so many top teams in the country have been working in this field for years with very limited progress."

His tone shifted, becoming incredibly certain.

"However, there is one thing I am sure of."

Tao Wei’s gaze grew sharp. Looking at his assistant, he said, word by word, "This Chen Lin has real mathematical talent."

Luo Qin listened and processed the information, but a new question arose in his mind.

He asked, confused, "President Tao, since you’re so sure of his abilities, why are we going through the trouble of making him solve that test problem? Wouldn’t it be more direct to just invite him over to discuss the project in person?"

Hearing this question, Tao Wei’s usual master-strategist expression was replaced by a rare hint of embarrassment. He even subconsciously scratched his head and chuckled.

"Well... it’s mainly because I’m a little curious myself."

"Curious?" Luo Qin was even more bewildered.

"Yes, curious." A fervent glint, unique to tech enthusiasts, shone in Tao Wei’s eyes. "That problem, while not the most difficult thing in the world, was still something I cooked up with a few of our department’s core technical members after brainstorming for the better part of a day."

He leaned forward slightly, his voice filled with anticipation. "I just want to see with my own eyes how a real genius like him approaches a practical problem from our industry, and how their thought process differs from us mere mortals."