Chapter 94 - 76: A Stable Cornerstone
Twelve o’clock sharp.
A shrill electric bell once again rang throughout the campus.
"Stand up! Pencils down!"
A cacophony of chairs scraping backward filled the classroom.
The exam papers were collected one by one.
Chen Zhuo stood up.
He picked up his pens and ID, and walked out of the classroom.
He stepped into the hallway.
The silence, suppressed for three hours, was shattered in an instant.
It was like a sealed jar had been suddenly smashed open.
The entire corridor and stairwell were instantly filled with a roar of voices.
"Was the final answer for question three a negative number?"
"I’m screwed. I forgot to include the container’s expansion coefficient for that thermodynamics problem!"
"What was the upper limit of integration for the second-to-last problem? Was it L or 2L?"
The sound of students comparing answers was everywhere.
Some were arguing loudly with their companions in the hallway, their faces flushed and necks red.
Others leaned against the wall, staring blankly while muttering to themselves.
But most just wore drained expressions, dragging their feet down the stairs.
Chen Zhuo followed the stream of people down the stairs.
He walked out the main entrance of the First Academic Building.
The midday sun beat down relentlessly.
It was incredibly blinding.
Heat waves were already starting to rise from the pavement.
Chen Zhuo narrowed his eyes slightly.
He walked over to the large statue of a famous figure in front of the building.
Its shadow covered the area.
Zhou Kai was already standing there.
A patch of his back was soaked with sweat, his T-shirt clinging to his skin.
He was subconsciously tracing circles in the palm of his left hand with his right index finger.
His lips were pressed together tightly, his unfocused gaze fixed on the cracks between the square paving stones on the ground.
Not far from him, a few boys from other provinces were loudly comparing their approaches to the final problem.
One of them called out an extremely complex answer involving a radical.
Zhou Kai’s finger, which had been tracing circles, abruptly stopped.
His brow furrowed deeply.
That boy’s answer differed from the final result he’d calculated on his scratch paper by a coefficient in the denominator.
Zhou Kai’s breathing grew ragged.
His mind began to uncontrollably retrace the last ten minutes of his calculations.
’Did I miss it when I was factoring out the common term from the integral?’
’Or did I substitute the initial boundary conditions incorrectly?’
He lifted his head, about to walk over and ask those boys how they handled the second step of their derivation.
A figure blocked his path.
Chen Zhuo stood in front of Zhou Kai, blocking his view of the other boys.
In his hand, Chen Zhuo held a bottle of ice-cold mineral water he’d bought from a nearby vending machine.
Without a word, he offered the bottle to Zhou Kai, holding it against his chest.
The cool condensation seeped through his shirt.
Zhou Kai froze for a moment, then looked up at Chen Zhuo.
Chen Zhuo didn’t ask him how the exam went, nor did he mention the problem.
"Let’s go."
Chen Zhuo spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, but it was exceptionally clear amidst the surrounding noise.
"To the cafeteria."
Zhou Kai glanced at the water in Chen Zhuo’s hand, then at his eyes.
The frantic heaving of his chest slowly subsided under Chen Zhuo’s unwavering gaze.
He reached out and took the bottle.
The icy touch cooled the heat in his palm.
The slight tremor in his fingers vanished along with it.
"Okay."
Zhou Kai swallowed, turned around, and stopped looking at the group comparing answers.
Soon, He Gui, Miao Shian, Wang Huashao, and Lin Yi also gathered around, one after another.
One look at Wang Huashao and you could tell he was suffering from severe mental exhaustion.
His normally neat hair was now messed up like a bird’s nest.
He walked over and had just opened his mouth to say, "Brother Kai, that third-to-last optics problem..."
Before he could finish.
Chen Zhuo turned his head and casually tossed him another bottle of room-temperature water he was holding.
Wang Huashao caught the bottle reflexively.
"Thanks, Captain..."
He was about to continue with his topic, but when he looked up, he met Chen Zhuo’s calm gaze.
Chen Zhuo didn’t say a word.
He just looked at him.
The physics constant that was on the tip of Wang Huashao’s tongue got stuck in his throat.
He remembered the rule they had set at the noodle shop the night before.
He cleared his throat twice, twisted open the cap, and took a big gulp of water.
Then, he changed the subject with extreme awkwardness.
"Uh... is the cafeteria far? I’m so hungry I could eat a horse."
Chen Zhuo looked away.
"Not far. Five hundred meters east."
The six of them headed toward the cafeteria along a tree-lined path.
All along the way, contestants were gathered in groups of three and five, arguing until they were red in the face over one problem or another.
The atmosphere of anxiety and frustration was so thick it could have set the very air above the campus on fire.
Walking among the crowd, the six members of the Su Province Team maintained an almost eerie silence.
No one talked about the past three hours.
Chen Zhuo walked at the front, like an invisible wall, blocking out all the distractions and noise.
They walked into the Second Cafeteria.
It was already packed, with long lines snaking from the food service windows.
The aroma of braised pork ribs with green beans mingled with the sweet and sour scent of scrambled eggs with tomatoes.
Chen Zhuo found a clean, stainless-steel table in a corner.
They split up to get in line for food.
Before long, six stainless-steel trays piled high with food were placed on the table.
There was no idle chatter.
Only the sound of chopsticks clinking against trays.
Zhou Kai kept his head down, shoveling large mouthfuls of rice into his mouth.
The carbohydrates broke down in his mouth, his chewing motion completely mechanical.
At the next table, four boys were slapping their thighs in frustration over drawing the force analysis diagram for an electricity problem in the wrong direction.