My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Chapter 230 Arrival at School

The spring breeze in Huizhou is still cold.

Chen Zhuo pushed open the security door of dormitory 215.

With a bang.

He placed the huge suitcase on the ground.

Chu Ge, who lived across the hall, poked his head out and walked over, his slippers dangling.

"What's so heavy? Did you bring Zeyang's bricks?"

Chu Ge leaned closer to take a look.

Wang Dayong was washing his face in the bathroom when he heard the noise and came out with a towel.

"It was an experiment my mom made."

Chen Zhuo squatted down and unzipped the suitcase.

Inside were several wads of old thermal underwear.

Chen Zhuo peeled off the layers of the thermal underwear, revealing three glass jars inside. The caps were screwed on tightly and wrapped with two layers of transparent tape.

"Why is it wrapped up like this?"

"I can't believe it," Da Yong asked innocently.

"A rehearsal for going abroad."

Chen Zhuo patted the glass bottle.

"My dear mother wants to see if the bottle breaks or the cap leaks after the bumpy journey from Zeyang to Huizhou. If it doesn't break, she plans to send it to the United States in the second half of the year, using the same method."

Chu Ge laughed, squatted down, picked up a bottle and looked at it; it was filled to the brim with beef sauce.

"It's not broken, and it's not leaking."

Chu Ge handed the bottle to Dayong.

"Dayong, plug in your electric kettle and cook the noodles."

The water boiled quickly.

Dayong ate three instant noodle cakes without adding the seasoning packet.

Chu Ge took a pair of scissors, cut the tape on the glass bottle, and with a flick of his wrist, unscrewed the cap.

A rich aroma of soy sauce wafted out.

The three people each held a lunchbox and used chopsticks to pick out a large piece of beef sauce from the bottle and mix it into the instant noodles.

"After spending the Lunar New Year at home, I felt so tired that my bones were about to give way."

Chu Ge slurped up his noodles and mumbled indistinctly.

"Your county doesn't have internet?" Dayong asked.

"There are internet cafes, but the internet is bad."

Chu Ge rolled his eyes.

"I went to write some code and download a library file, and the connection dropped three times in ten minutes. My second uncle insisted on dragging me to fix his old Pentium 3 computer, even though it was just a loose plug on the back of the case. It's better to go back to the dorm; at least the internet speed doesn't lag my brain."

Just then, footsteps echoed down the corridor.

Lu Jia pushed open the door and walked in, with two huge dark circles under her eyes.

There's still some in the pot.

Chu Ge pointed to the electric kettle with his chopsticks.

"Want some or not?"

Lu Jia looked at the layer of red oil on the beef sauce.

She turned around decisively and went back to 216, took out her lunchbox from her cabinet, and filled a bowl with noodles with a generous amount of beef sauce.

My face turned red after just one bite.

He took a deep breath and went to Chen Zhuo's table to get some water.

"You went to work in the coal mines during the Chinese New Year? What happened to you?"

Chu Ge looked at Lu Jia's dark circles.

Lu Jia took a sip of water, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

He straightened the books on the table, aligning the edges.

"I don't want to go home."

Lu Jia sighed, her voice trembling slightly.

"I'm more tired during the Chinese New Year than during final exams."

"What's going on?" Chu Ge asked.

Lu Jia pushed up his glasses.

"On New Year's Eve, after we finished eating dumplings, my parents took out my advanced algebra exam paper from last semester."

The dormitory fell silent for a moment.

"Why are you taking the test paper? Didn't you get a 98?" Dayong looked up.

"right."

Lu Jia's brows furrowed.

"They pulled me aside and reviewed the situation for three whole hours, just to analyze whether the two points I lost were due to a lack of logical rigor, careless calculation, or an improper attitude."

Chu Ge's chopsticks, which were holding noodles, stopped in mid-air.

Chen Zhuo glanced at Lu Jia but didn't say anything.

"They said that if it's two points short of a perfect score, it means there's a flaw in the model."

Lu Jia's eyes were a little red.

"On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, I did three sets of practice papers in my study."

"I'd rather go back to the dorm."

Lu Jia lowered her head and took a bite of noodles.

"At least here you can catch your breath."

Da Yong patted Lu Jia on the shoulder.

After finishing her noodles, Lu Jia wiped her mouth with a tissue.

He turned around and turned on the power to Chen Zhuo's computer.

The computer case emitted a buzzing startup sound.

"What are you doing? You're reading literature as soon as you get back?" Chu Ge asked.

"No, I haven't read any literature."

Lu Jia's face suddenly turned red again, even redder than when she ate the chili peppers.

He took out a thick notebook from his neatly packed backpack, opened it, and found it filled with dense mathematical models and formulas.

"My family won't let me use the internet during the Chinese New Year."

Lu Jia's stuttering became even worse.

"I sent a New Year's greeting text message to my senior on the first night of the Lunar New Year."

"And then? Did you reply?"

Chu Ge perked up.

"Didn't reply."

Lu Jia stared intently at the computer screen.

"Doesn't this mean it's hopeless?"

Chu Ge ruthlessly exposed him.

"no!!!"

Lu Jia flipped through the notebook in her hand.

"I derived it using behavioral models and Nash equilibrium."

Lu Jia pointed to a parabola on the notebook.

"During the Spring Festival, the frequency of visiting relatives and friends, coupled with the latency of text messages, and taking into account the variables of the senior student's usual social habits..."

He swallowed hard.

"I calculated that there is a 73.5% chance that she will reply to my message between 8 pm and 10 pm on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year."

Chu Ge and Da Yong looked at him as if he were a monster.

The computer has booted up successfully.

Lu Jia tapped the constantly flashing penguin icon in the bottom right corner of the screen.

I logged into my QQ account.

The login screen scrolled around a few times.

"Beep beep beep".

A message notification sounded.

Lu Jia stared at the screen and took a deep breath.

"Yes."

Lu Jia turned her head, her eyes shining brightly.

"At 9:15 pm on the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, she said: Happy New Year, I've been too busy lately and forgot to reply."

Chu Ge was stunned for a long time before finally managing to utter a sentence.

"Your brain is a waste if you use it for dating."

Lu Jia ignored him, placed her fingers on the keyboard, and began to seriously consider the strategy for her next reply.

After finishing his noodles, Chen Zhuo took the lunchbox to the bathroom to wash it clean.

He rummaged through his suitcase.

He took out a small box containing glutinous rice meatballs fried in Zeyang's hometown.

I also took a packet of local tea wrapped in newspaper.

I'm going out for a bit.

Chen Zhuo took the item in his hand.

"Looking for a teacher?" Dayong asked.

"Um.

Chen Zhuo walked out of the dormitory.

The hallway was a bit deserted; not many students had returned to school at this time.

The wind outside was blowing on my face, carrying a bit of moisture.

I walked into the office building.

Chen Zhuo knocked on the door next to Li Jianming's office.

"Enter."

Li Jianming was wearing reading glasses and looking at emails on his computer.

Chen Zhuo walked over and placed the glutinous rice balls and tea leaves on the table.

"My mom fried it herself," Chen Zhuo said.

Li Jianming looked up, took off his reading glasses, and placed them on the table.

"Please thank your mother for me."

Li Jianming smiled and pointed to the chair opposite the table.

He then opened the drawer on the right and took out a stack of fax papers.

The edges of the paper were already curled up from being repeatedly turned over.

Li Jianming pushed the stack of papers in front of Chen Zhuo.

Chen Zhuo glanced down at it.

On the first sheet of paper was a partial differential equation that was half-solved, with a huge question mark drawn next to it.

The second sheet was filled with the derivation process written in French, but in the last few lines, the handwriting became somewhat anxious and messy, and was crossed out with a thick horizontal line.

The third sheet of paper contained only a short French sentence.

"The New Year is over, and we've had our fill of food."

Li Jianming leaned back in his chair, looking at Chen Zhuo.

"Time to get to work."

"This old man started sending faxes to my office on the second day of the Lunar New Year."

Li Jianming sighed.

"Pierre hasn't published any research for several years. Now you have someone to discuss things with. He's hit a bottleneck in his derivation; the topological continuity is completely broken. If you don't reply to him soon, he'll probably buy a plane ticket to Huizhou to come and yell at you."

Chen Zhuo didn't say anything, but folded the stack of fax papers and put them in his pocket.

"I'll go and investigate my cheap teacher to see where he is now."

"Go."

Chen Zhuo turned and walked out of the office.

The sky outside remained overcast, and the wind blew against my face.

Spring always arrives slowly in Huizhou.

Chen Zhuo followed the path on campus toward the old library.

I pushed open the door and went up to the third floor.

There was no one in the long corridor.

Chen Zhuo walked to the innermost door.

The room was very quiet.

Most of the wall was occupied by a huge whiteboard, which now had no space above it.