Chapter 200 - 150: A Quirky American Competition Problem
Shen Yan froze when she heard him, her beautiful eyes widening slightly. She blurted out instinctively, "Huh? That... that’s not a good idea, is it?"
Seeing her adorable, slightly dazed look, Chen Lin suddenly felt a thrill, like he had just pulled off a successful prank.
’This feeling... how should I put it?’ he thought. ’It’s like being a good-for-nothing slacker from school who successfully convinced the prim and proper campus belle to skip class with him to go play games at an internet cafe.’
He immediately pressed his advantage, continuing to coax her. "Hey, it’s fine. The opening ceremony, to be frank, is just leaders getting on stage to give speeches. It’s a formality with no real substance."
"The academic presentations over the next two days are the main event. We can go to whichever ones you want to hear then. We definitely won’t miss anything important."
Shen Yan listened to Chen Lin’s specious reasoning, her delicate brows furrowing slightly as she seemed to still be torn.
Seeing this, Chen Lin added, "Besides, I know one of the organizers of this conference, Director Feng Yunhai from Yanbei University. I’ll just let him know. It’s no big deal."
Hearing that, Shen Yan’s conflicted expression finally softened a bit. She thought for a moment, seeming to find some sense in what Chen Lin said, and then hesitantly gave a slight nod in reluctant agreement.
Chen Lin immediately took out his phone, opened his WeChat chat with Professor Gongtan, and sent him a message.
𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺
Chen Lin: [Professor Gong, could I trouble you to send me Director Feng’s WeChat contact card?]
Professor Gongtan replied almost instantly, sending over a contact card.
Chen Lin quickly added Director Feng Yunhai on WeChat. As soon as his friend request was accepted, he immediately typed out and sent a message.
Chen Lin: [Hello, Director Feng. This is Chen Lin. The thing is, the classmate who came with me and I have a personal matter to attend to this afternoon, so we might not make it to the opening ceremony.]
[Once the ceremony is over, we’ll head straight over to meet up with you and Academician Liang. Would that be alright?]
Director Feng Yunhai also replied quickly, his message coming across as brisk and straightforward.
Feng Yunhai: [No problem! It’s a small matter. I’ll just give the volunteers at the sign-in desk a heads-up and have them check you in.]
Immediately after, he sent over a campus map of Yanbei University with a location clearly marked by a red line.
Feng Yunhai: [We’ll be in Room 203 of Building 79 at the Imperial Capital International Mathematics Research Center this afternoon. You can just come straight here then.]
Chen Lin: [Okay, Director Feng. Thank you so much!]
With everything settled, Chen Lin put away his phone with satisfaction and snapped his fingers at Shen Yan. "Come on, let’s go get something to eat!"
The two found a nearby KFC for a quick lunch, then headed straight for Yuanming Garden.
Chen Lin had done some basic research before they came out.
Yuanming Garden covers an area about five times the size of the Forbidden City. However, he’d watched a number of videos from travel vloggers online and found that most of them complained that if you tried to see the whole place on foot, you’d get the depressing feeling that "there were sights everywhere, yet nothing to see."
This was because most of the original structures were now nothing but foundations.
So, Chen Lin readily took the netizens’ advice and chose the tour route that took them by boat directly to the ruins of the Xiyang Building.
When the two of them got off the boat, the first thing they saw were the broken walls and ruins they had already seen countless times in history textbooks and documentaries.
The iconic archway of the Grand Waterfall, the original location of the Twelve Zodiac Animal Head Fountains...
According to the videos Chen Lin had watched, during Yuanming Garden’s heyday, the buildings in the Xiyang Building area weren’t even considered top-tier among the vast and magnificent complex of royal gardens.
Unfortunately, the more exquisite parts had been burned to the ground during that well-known period of history. In contrast, this area was one of the few places where there was still something left to see.
Chen Lin noticed that Shen Yan, beside him, had become noticeably downcast during the visit. She remained silent, just quietly observing everything before her.
To be honest, Chen Lin felt a little heavy-hearted himself.
’Then again,’ he thought, ’perhaps the very purpose of preserving this place in its current desolate, dilapidated state is to evoke this same complex emotion I’m feeling now in every future generation that comes to visit.’
After leaving Yuanming Garden, Chen Lin glanced at the time. It was just past two-thirty in the afternoon—perfect timing.
So, he and Shen Yan hailed a cab and went directly to Yanbei University.
The Imperial Capital International Mathematics Research Center was located on the north side of the Yanbei University campus. They entered through the east gate and had to cross most of the campus to get there.
Along the way, the pleasant scenery of the Yanbei University campus helped lift their previously heavy spirits considerably.
When they finally found Building 79 according to the map Director Feng had sent, Chen Lin looked up at the building number to confirm it was the right one. Then, he led Shen Yan quietly up to the second floor.
Arriving at the door of Room 203, Chen Lin peered through the small glass window and saw that there were far more people inside than he had expected.
At the front of the room, Director Feng Yunhai was facing a PowerPoint presentation, seemingly giving a lecture to the students.
Meanwhile, Academician Liang Tianshi and Professor Gongtan were sitting leisurely in the last row of the classroom, occasionally whispering a few words to each other.
Chen Lin and Shen Yan exchanged a look, then pushed open the back door of the classroom. They tiptoed inside and sat down in the empty seats in the last row.