Chapter 43 - 40: Aptitude Test
Time flew. It was 3:16 PM on Friday, May 30th.
In a private study room on the third floor of the library, Chen Lin finished reviewing the PowerPoint slides for another lecture.
He closed his laptop and stretched long and hard, his joints letting out a series of faint pops.
Leaning back in his chair, he thought about the past week, and a satisfied smile graced his lips.
He’d made gratifying progress.
He had already taken notes on all the key points his professors had covered for the finals in his three major courses, and he had a rough framework in his mind.
With the remaining month, as long as he systematically worked through and mastered these concepts, getting good grades wouldn’t be a problem.
And he hadn’t fallen behind on his personal projects, either.
He had finished the remaining Chapters—five, six, and seven—of the book *Python Mathematical Programming*, reading and coding along with the examples.
Although he was still at the level of a "code monkey," at least he had grasped the basic skills of programming.
Chen Lin had already made up his mind. During summer break, the next time he got a request from a design institute or other casual clients, he would try to use his newfound programming skills to write simple Python scripts for the optimization algorithms.
This way, he could practice his skills while providing additional value-added services to his clients—killing two birds with one stone.
And ever since he’d raised the all-powerful shield of "studying for finals," neither Shen Yan nor Yunqing had come to bother him.
Shen Yan had only sent him a WeChat message on Wednesday night. She told him succinctly that Professor Gu was very satisfied with the progress she had submitted for her graduate research topic, and she once again solemnly thanked Chen Lin for his earlier consultation.
Yunqing, on the other hand, would occasionally send him some cute cat sticker packs, as a sort of daily check-in.
Chen Lin recognized at a glance that the background in several of them was the bookshelf in the art section of the library where they had first met, and the cat in the picture was that same fat orange tabby.
Chen Lin snapped back to reality and glanced at the bright sunshine still streaming through the window.
’A balance of work and rest is the only way to last in the long run.’
Thinking about the epic gaming brawl he had planned with his three dorm brothers for that night, he decided to give himself a short break. He’d head back to the dorm for a nap to recharge his batteries.
...
「A dozen or so minutes later, in Dorm Room 406.」
Chen Lin pushed open the door and found only Li the Monkey inside.
The guy was staring at his laptop, his brow furrowed into a knot. With a miserable expression, he was scratching his head, muttering something under his breath.
Chen Lin changed into his slippers, tiptoed up behind him, and peeked at the screen.
On the screen was a math problem:
[Person A and Person B start at the same point on a circular track and jog at constant speeds in opposite directions. B’s speed is half of A’s. They meet for the first time after 3 minutes. Afterward, B speeds up and runs exactly half a lap before meeting A for the second time. How much time passed between their first and second meeting?]
Chen Lin glanced at the scratch paper next to Li the Monkey’s hand. Damn, more than half the page was densely covered in calculations.
Amused for some reason, he blurted out:
"Two minutes and fifteen seconds."
"HOLY SHIT!" The sudden voice made Li the Monkey jump, nearly sending the pen in his hand flying.
He whipped his head around. Seeing it was Chen Lin, he patted his chest and let out a sigh of relief. "Brother Lin, it’s you. You scared me to death."
Then, it dawned on him, and he asked doubtfully, "What did you just say?"
"I said, two minutes and fifteen seconds," Chen Lin repeated, pointing at the problem on the screen. "The answer to this question."
"For real?" Dubious, Li the Monkey moved the mouse to scroll to the answer key.
The next second, his eyes went wide.
There, in the answer section, it read: [B. 2 minutes, 15 seconds]
"The hell! Brother Lin," Li the Monkey said, staring at Chen Lin in shock. "Are you also studying for the civil service exam? Have you done this practice question before?"
"No," Chen Lin said, shaking his head. He spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, "I just know how to do math problems."
"..."
Li the Monkey was momentarily choked by his casual, show-off tone, but his suspicion still won out. His eyes darted around, and, refusing to believe it, he pulled up another question.
"What about this one, then? Take a look."
[Wang plans to self-study two online courses, A and B, during a 7-day vacation. Each course requires 2 consecutive full days of study. If one arrangement is chosen at random from all possible arrangements, what is the probability that none of the 3 free days are adjacent?]
Chen Lin glanced at it, and the answer instantly appeared in his mind.
"One-tenth."
Li the Monkey’s hand trembled, and he nearly dropped the mouse. He shakily scrolled to the answer, and sure enough, it was "1/10."
Still not giving up, he quickly flipped to another question.
[A container consists of an inverted cone with a height of 12 cm as its lower part and a cylinder as its upper part. The radii of the cone’s base and the cylinder’s base are equal. Water is poured into the container at a constant rate. After 1 minute, the water level is 6 cm high. After another 30 minutes, the container is full. What is the total height of the container in centimeters?]
"23.5 centimeters."
This time, Chen Lin’s answer was again nearly instantaneous.
Li the Monkey stared at the correct answer on the screen, completely dumbfounded. His mouth hung open, and he couldn’t close it for a long while.
The main thing was, he hadn’t touched math in over half a year. If he had been given some time, he was confident he could have solved these problems too.
But Chen Lin solving every problem instantly and getting them all right... what the hell was that?
He stared blankly at Chen Lin as the scene from their late-night dorm chat last Sunday flashed through his mind.
So what Chen Lin had said last week was true.
Originally, he, Fatty Zhao, and Wang Tao had only been half-convinced because the clothes Chen Lin was wearing that day matched the clothes of the guy in the photo from that online post.
But now, Li the Monkey believed it.
He completely believed it!
It turned out that when Chen Lin said he was going to discuss mathematical modeling with Shen Yan, he wasn’t bullshitting—it was real!
"Brother Lin," Li the Monkey swallowed hard, looking at Chen Lin as if he were an alien. "How... how did your math suddenly get so ridiculously good? I remember during the Advanced Math final in our freshman year, weren’t we brothers in misfortune, both struggling like crazy just to pass?"
Chen Lin recited the story he had prepared, his face showing just the right amount of wistful reminiscence.
"Sigh, it’s kind of a bizarre story. During the summer after freshman year, I don’t know what wire got crossed in my head, but I suddenly became incredibly interested in math. So, for that whole summer and through the first semester of sophomore year, I spent all my free time in the library, teaching myself with all sorts of math books. I just kept at it, and... well, here I am."
Li the Monkey listened, completely baffled but deeply impressed.
’Self-taught? Is this what they call a legendary genius? How terrifyingly talented!’
Chen Lin rubbed his nose, thinking to himself.
’It seems that for most ordinary people, the ’sudden enlightenment of a genius’ storyline, while a bit far-fetched, isn’t entirely unacceptable.’
He suddenly recalled a piece of news that had caused a huge stir online a while back: a girl from a vocational high school had supposedly won first prize in a top global math competition. At least initially, the entire internet was singing her praises, and many people believed it was true.
’Although that incident was later exposed as fake, my "Little Mathematician" title is the real deal.’
’This is perfect. I won’t have to worry about arousing suspicion when I apply to change my major.’
’If even a roommate like Li the Monkey, who knows me inside and out, can accept my story, won’t it be even easier to explain things to the university and department leadership?’
Bringing his thoughts back to the present, Chen Lin looked at Li the Monkey curiously.
"What’s up with you? It’s only the second semester of our sophomore year. Why are you already grinding practice questions for the civil service exam? Isn’t it a bit too early?"
At the mention of this, Li the Monkey’s miserable expression returned. He sighed and said glumly, "It’s all your fault."
"Huh?"
"Look at you! You’ve been like a different person lately, leaving early and coming back late, holing up in the library every day. Your notes for our major courses are more diligent than anyone’s, and now your math is just freakishly good," Li the Monkey said, counting off on his fingers. "You’re the only one in the dorm grinding this hard. How could we not feel the pressure?"
Chen Lin nodded at his words.
He had actually sensed this as well.
It wasn’t just Li the Monkey. Even Fatty Zhao, the laziest guy in the dorm and the one who loved to sleep in the most, had been gone several times this week when Chen Lin woke up after nine in the morning.
’Looks like my sudden diligence has given the bros a major sense of crisis.’
’This must be that legendary saying: ’You’re scared your bro is living a hard life, but you’re also scared he’s driving a Land Rover.’’
"Our Chinese Language and Literature major has narrow career prospects to begin with," Li the Monkey continued his analysis. "If you want to find a decent job that isn’t a sales position where you just have to grind endlessly, there are basically only two main paths: either grad school or the civil service exam."
"With my grades, grad school is a lost cause. So my only option is to start preparing for the civil service exam early."
Chen Lin nodded in understanding. Li the Monkey’s choice was indeed a true reflection of the path taken by most average students in their major.
He patted Li the Monkey’s shoulder comfortingly, then turned to climb into his own bunk for a good nap.
However, just as he turned, someone grabbed the corner of his shirt.
"Brother Lin! Don’t go!" Li the Monkey sidled up to him with a fawning expression, holding the densely filled sheets of scratch paper.
"Could you walk me through the solutions for these problems?"