Genius Playground

"That’s true."

Jiang Ran nodded.

He was surprised to find that his Roommate #4 was actually somewhat reliable. At the very least, the guy had a clear understanding of himself.

"If you want to gamble on winning an award, you have to think about probability. It’s just like buying a lottery ticket. Tell me, which is harder: winning the Qiu Tongcheng Award or the grand prize in the lottery?"

Roommate #4 continued his sermon:

"In terms of difficulty of study, the Qiu Tongcheng Award is definitely harder. But from a probability standpoint, the lottery grand prize has much lower odds, making it harder to get. Don’t you agree?"

"It is."

Jiang Ran nodded again.

This roommate’s logic was surprisingly clear, and his manner of speaking didn’t seem like that of an ordinary person.

"So, your tactic, your brilliant idea is?" Jiang Ran was getting impatient.

"Increase the probability!"

Roommate #4’s eyes were serious.

"If I guess on a multiple-choice question by myself, my accuracy is only one-fourth, or 25%."

"But if it’s a team competition, and the five of us guess together, the accuracy rate reaches an astonishing 75%!"

BOOM!

Jiang Ran was practically petrified.

"Are you... are you Yu Beichen? Is that how probability works?"

"Wait, no."

Jiang Ran discovered an even more horrifying flaw in the logic.

"If we were using Yu Beichen’s missile interception algorithm, the five of you guessing together should have an accuracy of 125%. The test is out of 100, so Academician Qiu would owe you 25 points."

"But you’re saying five people give you a 75% accuracy rate. How did you even calculate that number?"

At this point, Jiang Ran no longer cared about any math problems. He couldn’t even be bothered to remind Roommate #4 that the Qiu Tongcheng math competition didn’t have any multiple-choice questions at all.

He was genuinely curious how he’d arrived at 75%. He desperately wanted to know the derivation!

"Are you for real or are you just stupid?"

Roommate #4 looked at Jiang Ran as if he were an idiot.

"How can the accuracy rate go over 100%? The max is 100%! Besides, there are only four options, A, B, C, and D. If five people are guessing, there’s bound to be a duplicate choice, so you have to subtract one 25%... You get it?"

"Okay, okay."

Jiang Ran didn’t even understand the first step of the reasoning and decisively gave up his desire for knowledge.

He patted Roommate #4’s shoulder.

"Get some sleep, Math Prince."

"The Math Prince is Gauss," Roommate #4 reminded him.

"Then you can be the Math King."

Jiang Ran sat back down on his own bed.

"A problem that even Gauss couldn’t figure out, you can figure... out..."

At that moment, Jiang Ran’s words caught in his throat, and he sat bolt upright.

A problem that even Gauss couldn’t figure out...

A problem he couldn’t figure out...

A problem...

Problem...

The echo resounded in his mind.

’Goldbach’s Conjecture.’

It was a moment of sudden enlightenment for Jiang Ran.

He picked up his phone and looked again at the special recommendation policy for graduate students—

For students with "outstanding academic expertise or special potential," a joint recommendation from three or more university professors, upon review and approval, could grant them direct admission, exempting them from the unified entrance exam.

Outstanding.

Academic.

Special.

Potential.

Was there any problem more persuasive, more valuable, than proving Goldbach’s Conjecture?!

It was the most brilliant jewel in the crown of mathematics.

The ultimate puzzle that had stumped countless mathematical geniuses for three centuries.

He had learned from the 2045 version of Teacher Zhang Yang that a 20-year-old Lu Yu had earned global acclaim with this very proof, hailed as a peerless genius worshiped by all.

So, if he could prove Goldbach’s Conjecture...

With such an indisputable, top-tier academic achievement, why worry about getting a joint recommendation from three academicians? He could probably get thirty to recommend him without any issue!

He immediately opened WeChat on his phone and sent a message to Chi Xiaoguo.

...

「The next morning, at the Film Club.」

"Okay, I’m starting the countdown!"

Chi Xiaoguo held her phone and dialed Jiang Ran’s number.

"5! 4! 3! 2! 1! 0!"

The Positron Cannon hummed to life, glowing with blue light, as Jiang Ran pressed the answer button right on time—

VMMMM!

VMMMM!

VMMMM!

The familiar dizziness and vertigo washed over him.

Two seconds later...

"Sang Biao!"

Jiang Ran shouted the moment he landed.

"What the fuck!"

Sang Biao, in the next cell, jumped in fright.

"Cell 3, wha—"

"Open the door!"

A few minutes later, all the cell doors were opened.

Jiang Ran made a beeline for Cell 4 across the way and grabbed the hand of the Bookworm—who was also the elderly Teacher Zhang Yang from 2045.

"Teacher Zhang."

Jiang Ran’s eyes were clear.

"You once said that Lu Yu was your student."

"Yes."

Zhang Yang was startled by his intensity and grew a little nervous.

"But he was just a student in my general education course. He asked me a few questions in class, but we didn’t interact much..."

"Then do you know about Goldbach’s Conjecture?"

Jiang Ran looked at his only hope in this prison, in this year 2045, in this entire Future World.

"Can you prove Goldbach’s Conjecture, the one Lu Yu solved?"

Hearing this question, the elderly Zhang Yang let out a sigh of relief for some reason.

"Sheesh, you scared me. I thought it was something serious. It’s just Goldbach’s Conjecture."

"You know how?!" Jiang Ran couldn’t contain his excitement.

"What’s so difficult about it?"

The elderly Zhang Yang smiled.

"It’s like the law of universal gravitation or Newton’s three laws... These things are very difficult to discover and summarize, but once they’re solved, it’s much simpler for later generations to understand them with the answer already known."

"Besides, Lu Yu’s method of proof was exceptionally clever. The derivations are as elegant as poetry. As long as you have a university-level understanding of advanced mathematics and study some other related theories, it’s not hard to grasp."

"Of course, when I say it’s simple, I’m speaking from my level. If you were to try and explain it to someone without a foundation in advanced mathematics... well, that would still be like casting pearls before swine. It’d be impossible."

After hearing this, Jiang Ran smiled faintly.

Advanced mathematics.

’I’m decent at it.’

Besides, he could always learn the things and theories he didn’t know.

Jiang Ran considered himself a decent learner.

Since Zhang Yang said this kind of "working backward from the answer" learning wasn’t difficult...

...that meant...

...there was a good chance for him.

’I can take the derivation proving Goldbach’s Conjecture back to 2025!’

"Teacher Zhang Yang, I want to learn the method for proving Goldbach’s Conjecture."

Jiang Ran gripped the other man’s hand tightly.

"Can you... teach me?"