Chapter 64 - 48: Lin Yi
The presentation for the first-prize winners was over.
The students on stage walked off, clutching their certificates.
But the stage was not yet empty.
The emcee held the microphone, his voice turning solemn.
"Esteemed teachers, fellow students."
"This year’s Provincial Middle School Mathematics League was exceptionally competitive. It has brought to light a group of truly outstanding talents in the sciences."
"After a rigorous selection process by the provincial competition committee, and taking into account the final exam scores, we have chosen six students to represent our province at the national finals!"
"Will the students whose names I call please come to the stage!"
The atmosphere backstage instantly shifted.
The students who hadn’t left yet all stopped in their tracks.
A coordinator walked over and beckoned to Chen Zhuo.
"Chen Zhuo, come here. You’re first in line."
She then beckoned to Lin Yi.
"Lin Yi, you’re second."
Next was a tall boy.
Zhou Kai from the Provincial Experimental Middle School.
He was very tall, around five-foot-nine, with metal-framed glasses and an air of arrogance. But when he saw Chen Zhuo and Lin Yi, that arrogance subsided, replaced by a complex expression.
Following them were two boys and a girl, all over five-foot-three.
The six of them were lined up in a single file.
At the head of the line was Chen Zhuo.
Behind him was Lin Yi, who stood half a head taller.
The rest were arranged in order.
"Go!"
Chen Zhuo stepped forward.
He stepped out from behind the curtain and into a blaze of blinding light.
He showed no stage fright, nor did he glance around.
His pace was steady and unhurried.
Lin Yi followed behind him, still with that boneless slouch of hers, but her pace wasn’t slow.
The two boys after her followed closely.
The six of them came to a stop in the center of the stage.
They arranged themselves in a U-shape based on height.
Chen Zhuo stood in the very middle.
Lin Yi was on his left.
Zhou Kai was on his right.
It was a striking image.
Three tall, burly third-year middle school boys.
Framing two... children who hadn’t had their growth spurt.
Especially Chen Zhuo.
Standing there, the top of his head barely reached below the shoulder of Zhou Kai next to him.
He was like a Hobbit who had stumbled into a land of giants.
The buzz from the audience instantly grew louder.
"Who is that?"
"Why’s he so little?"
"Did they make a mistake? He looks like an elementary schooler!"
The emcee opened the red folder in his hands.
His voice boomed, echoing through the auditorium.
"First place! Provincial team captain! City No.1 Middle School, Chen Zhuo!"
The emcee paused, seeming to double-check the list, and then announced with a trace of unconcealable surprise in his voice:
"First year of middle school, age ten!"
The crowd reacted as if a ladle of cold water had been thrown into a wok of hot oil.
It exploded.
The low buzz instantly transformed into gasps of astonishment.
"Ten years old?!"
"Holy shit! A first-year?"
"I couldn’t even figure out linear functions in my first year of middle school, and this kid’s already on the provincial team?"
Sitting in the second row, Old Zhao’s posture was now as ramrod straight as a javelin.
As he listened to the gasps of amazement around him, his expression was a mixture of strained composure and unconcealed pride.
He said to Old Sun next to him:
"Oh dear, the boy is just so young. I worry he won’t even know how to buy a train ticket when he goes to the Capital City. It’s so worrisome."
Old Sun turned his head stiffly and gave Old Zhao a look, utterly speechless.
「Onstage.」
When Zhou Kai heard the boy’s age, even though he already knew, he still felt like he’d taken an arrow to the knee.
He tilted his head slightly, looking at the little boy next to him whose voice hadn’t even broken yet.
Chen Zhuo was expressionless, and even squinted slightly because the lights were too bright.
A bitter feeling welled up inside Zhou Kai.
He glanced down at his own five-foot-nine frame and long legs, then back at Chen Zhuo.
’Is intelligence inversely proportional to height?’
"Second place! Provincial Experimental Middle School, Lin Yi!"
"Second year of middle school, age twelve!"
Another wave of gasps went through the audience.
"Twelve? And she’s a girl?"
"Looks like Provincial Experimental is churning out monsters of their own."
"Third place, Provincial Experimental Middle School, Zhou Kai, third year, age fifteen..."
The applause was scattered.
Zhou Kai remained expressionless.
’I’m just part of the background,’ he knew.
’A mediocre, oversized prop to make the two geniuses ahead of me look even better.’
The certificates were handed out.
Large, red certificates.
Chen Zhuo accepted his.
Because of his small stature, the certificate, when held in both hands, nearly covered his entire chin.
He had to raise his hands a little higher.
The six of them hadn’t had a chance to leave the stage yet.
The emcee’s voice rang out again.
"Next, we will announce the first-prize winners and provincial team members for the National Middle School Applied Physics Competition!"
Following that, several more students walked onto the stage.
However, three of the six students already on stage didn’t move.
Chen Zhuo didn’t move.
Lin Yi didn’t move.
Zhou Kai didn’t move either.
They remained in place, watching as a staff member brought them new certificates.
"The provincial team members!"
The emcee announced once more.
"First place! City No.1 Middle School, Chen Zhuo!"
"Perfect scores in both subjects! First place in both subjects!"
This time, the applause wasn’t just an explosion of sound, but a thunderous, heartfelt roar.
It was the sound of complete and total respect.
Once could be luck. Twice is absolute dominance.
A ten-year-old kid had simultaneously crushed the top third-year students from across the province in both mathematics and physics.
At this point, "prodigy" was no longer a strong enough word.
"Second place! Provincial Experimental Middle School, Lin Yi!"
Lin Yi accepted the physics certificate.
She sighed.
Holding two large certificates, one stacked on the other, was a bit heavy, and they were slippery.
She muttered under her breath.
’What a pain. Couldn’t they just give us a trophy? It’d be easier to hold.’
"Third place! Provincial Experimental Middle School, Zhou Kai!"
Zhou Kai took his certificate.
He was truly numb.
’Eternally number three.’
Whether at school or at the provincial level.
He was always being overshadowed by these two who were several years younger than him.
As he watched the backs of Chen Zhuo and Lin Yi, he was struck by a bleak, tragic feeling. ’If Heaven made them, why did it also have to make me?’
"Fourth place, Wang Huashao..."
"Fifth place..."
"Sixth place..."
Three new boys walked onto the stage, completing the lineup for the physics provincial team.
A photographer shouted from below the stage:
"Alright, everyone! Look at the camera!"
"The kid in the middle... ahem, Chen Zhuo, hold your certificates apart! That’s right, one in each hand! Let’s see your face!"
With a sigh of resignation, Chen Zhuo held one certificate in each hand, looking as if he were holding up two shields.
Lin Yi, beside him, was leaning languidly, also holding her two certificates.
The other seven or eight tall boys surrounded them.
A camera flash lit up the stage.
CLICK.
The moment was frozen in time.
The summer of 2002.
The youngest, shortest, but also most terrifying champion and runner-up duo in the history of the provincial competition.
...
The awards ceremony ended.
The crowd began to disperse.
Old Zhao rushed backstage, scooped Chen Zhuo right up into his arms, and spun him around twice.
"That’s my boy! That’s my boy!"
Old Zhao was laughing so hard he was crying. "The provincial team for both subjects! City No.1 Middle School has really made a name for ourselves this time!"
Chen Zhuo was being squeezed so hard he could barely breathe, and he almost dropped his certificates.
Just then, an elderly, white-haired professor wearing glasses walked over.
Professor Wang.
The head of the provincial competition committee.
"Teacher Zhao, congratulations."
Professor Wang looked at Chen Zhuo, his eyes crinkling in a smile.
"This one’s a fine prospect."
Old Zhao quickly put Chen Zhuo down and straightened his clothes for him.
"Professor Wang, you’re too kind."
Professor Wang’s gaze shifted from Chen Zhuo to Lin Yi, who was standing a short distance away and getting ready to slip off, and then to Zhou Kai with his complicated expression.
"Chen Zhuo, Lin Yi, Zhou Kai, could you three come over here?"
Professor Wang beckoned.
The students gathered around him.
Professor Wang got straight to the point.
"Once you’re on the provincial team, you’re not representing your school anymore. You’re representing our province."
"The training camp next month will be very demanding."
He looked at Chen Zhuo.
"Chen Zhuo, you may be the youngest, but you placed first in both competitions. Your scores speak for themselves."
"For this training camp, I’d like you to act as the team’s liaison. In other words, the captain."
"If anyone has any academic questions, they can discuss them with you first."
Zhou Kai and the other boys were taken aback.
’Make a ten-year-old the captain?’
But they looked at the two perfect-score certificates in Chen Zhuo’s hands, and no one dared to make a peep.
Beside them, Lin Yi snickered.
"Works for me."
She looked at Chen Zhuo.
"Well, Captain, I guess processing the data for our physics experiments and writing those lab reports—all several dozen pages of them—is all on you now."
"I’ll handle the practical work. I don’t do paperwork."
Chen Zhuo pushed up his glasses.
He glanced at Lin Yi, then at the team members around him who were all a good head taller than him.
He didn’t refuse.
"Fine."
He pointed at Zhou Kai.
"Zhou Kai, from now on in the lab, you’ll be in charge of the manual labor—moving instruments, setting up equipment, that sort of thing."
Zhou Kai straightened up out of pure reflex.
"...Right."
It was only after he agreed that he realized, ’Why am I taking orders from a ten-year-old?’
But seeing Professor Wang’s approving gaze, he had no choice but to accept it.
"Alright, all of you head back and get ready."
Professor Wang waved his hand.
"See you all at Shida Affiliated Middle School next month."
Holding his two certificates, Chen Zhuo turned and headed out.
Wang Yang, Zhao Chen, and their friends had been waiting at the door for a while.
The moment they saw Chen Zhuo emerge, the group swarmed him.
"Leader! Let me touch them! I need some of your good luck to rub off on me!"
"Perfect scores in both subjects! Leader, are you a god in human form or something?"
The group crowded around the small figure, their boisterous chatter fading as they walked off into the distance.