I was a top student in America.

David couldn't understand it at all.

When it comes to writing papers, it's like I'm constipated, unable to squeeze out more than a few decent lines; but when it's Li Ao's turn, things go incredibly smoothly.

In just half a month, I not only organized the proof process into a short article, but also finished the LaTeX typesetting.

By all accounts, this doesn't seem like someone writing a paper for the first time.

Could it be that someone is guiding him behind the scenes?

The thought, once it popped into David's head, wouldn't leave him.

Before Li Ao had gone far, he chased after him in a few steps, still somewhat unwilling to give up, and called out to him.

"Wait a minute."

Li Ao stopped and turned around, a look of confusion on his face.

"Is there anything else, Mr. David?"

David chuckled twice: "It's nothing, I'm just a little curious. How can you write a paper so quickly for the first time?"

"Is there any trick to it?"

Li Ao thought for a moment and answered naturally.

"It's probably because I spend a lot of time on it every day."

After saying that, without waiting for David to respond, he added:

"This time, I'm mainly following Professor Jensen's instructions, just writing casually as practice. I'll definitely seek your advice more often in the future. If there's nothing else, I'll head to the restaurant for dinner now."

"Go ahead," David waved his hand, but remained standing still.

He originally thought that Li Ao had found outside help, which was why the short article was written so quickly.

If that were the case, he would feel somewhat more at peace with himself.

Judging from Li Ao's frank reaction just now, it's clear that he wrote it down bit by bit on his own.

"I spent a lot of time on it too..."

David muttered a curse under his breath. After calming down a bit, he went back to the podium, packed up his materials, and prepared to leave.

The next second, he suddenly jolted awake and finally remembered the most critical thing.

"Oh no... He has his paper due tomorrow, so what about me...?"

He blurted it out, immediately grabbed his lecture notes, and dashed out of the classroom at breakneck speed.

……

Early the next morning.

As usual, Li Ao was woken up on time by his biological clock.

After washing up, he first went to the library to study, and then went for a morning run along the main lawn.

After having breakfast with his roommates at the Illini Union Restaurant, he set off for the summer camp's temporary office in the mathematics building.

As soon as I reached the corresponding floor, I heard Professor Jensen's voice coming from his office.

"How can you omit the assumptions here? The proof is too disjointed. And the wording is so convoluted and unclear. You're not a newbie writer; how can you use inconsistent symbols?"

……

Li Ao followed the sound to the door and immediately saw David standing next to Professor Jensen with his head down, his forehead covered in sweat, not knowing where to put his hands, looking extremely disheveled, a stark contrast to his usual appearance as a teaching assistant standing on the podium.

Li Ao hesitated for a moment, then raised his hand and knocked on the office door, calling out softly:

"Professor Jensen."

Professor Jensen was furious about his student's flawed revised manuscript early in the morning, and was still fuming when he heard the sound, looked up, and saw Li Ao. His tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

"Leo, come in."

Li Ao walked into the office and closed the door behind him.

As he approached the desk, he noticed two dark circles under David's eyes, and the printed manuscript on the desk was horribly altered with red pen.

He asked instinctively:

"Mr. David, did you stay up late last night?"

David felt utterly exhausted.

He stayed up all night to finish his paper, hoping to hear some words of affirmation from his supervisor, but instead he was criticized for half an hour and given a thorough dressing-down.

Upon seeing Li Ao, David felt as if he had grasped a lifeline. Forgetting to respond to Li Ao's words, he quickly turned to his advisor to report:

"Professor, Leo is here today to show you his paper. He said yesterday that the short paper on the Hermite-Hadamard inequality is finished."

After he finished speaking, he took the opportunity to turn his head to give Li Ao an apologetic look.

Seeing himself being criticized to the point of embarrassment, David could only immediately shift his mentor's anger by dragging an inexperienced novice down with him.

A high school student's first paper, hastily written in half a month, will have far more outrageous flaws in format and logic than any original work.

There's no time to worry about that now; Li Ao will just have to suffer a scolding for now.

Upon hearing David's words, Professor Jensen indeed shifted his attention and looked at Li Ao with some surprise:

"Leo, you really finished that short paper? That's much faster than David's. Did you bring the first draft?"

"Yes, Professor."

Li Ao didn't think too much about it, unzipped his backpack, and handed over the neatly stapled printed manuscript.

Professor Jensen asked Li Ao to write this short paper mainly because he felt that Li Ao's proof on the weighted Hermite-Hadamard two-sided estimation had certain potential applications in areas such as the average value of convex functions.

However, Li Ao was just a high school student who was still participating in summer camp, and it was not easy for him to put together an academic article in a short period of time.

Therefore, the professor did not actively inquire about the progress during this period.

He had thought that it would be good enough if Li Ao could submit a rough draft after the American team finished participating in the International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO).

Unexpectedly, the printed manuscripts were already in front of me when the summer camp was only halfway over.

This unexpected efficiency even dampened his anger that he had just accumulated because of David.

Professor Jensen took the manuscript and casually pushed David's first draft, which was covered in red circles, to the corner of the table.

Seeing this, David secretly breathed a sigh of relief and quickly pulled over a chair from the side: "Leo, sit down and talk."

However, given his heavy dark circles under his eyes, this sudden show of hospitality seemed somewhat comical.

Li Ao sat down and thanked him.

Seeing his mentor put his reading glasses back on and take out the red pen cap to read the manuscript, David subtly took two steps back to create a safe distance and avoid being caught in the crossfire.

"Young man, just think of this as getting used to the research environment in advance."

Working under a mentor, being criticized was inevitable sooner or later; he had already silently mourned for Li Ao in his heart.

Professor Jensen didn't actually have high hopes for this first draft.

For a high school student trying for the first time, it's already quite an achievement if they can even build a basic framework.

He thought he would try to praise some of the good points later, so as not to dampen the enthusiasm of the young people.

But after glancing at the cover, the professor exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? You even formatted it yourself using LaTeX? And you even formatted the references?"

Despite his surprise, he didn't stop what he was doing and continued flipping through the pages.

The title is concise, the summary is clear, and there are no common formatting issues found in beginners.

This made him straighten his posture and look more carefully.

As the focus shifted to the main text, the office fell silent, with only the rustling sound of pages turning.

Professor Jensen leaned forward unconsciously, his gaze almost touching the paper. He reached out to touch the coffee cup on the corner of the table, but his eyes never left the manuscript.

He had previously verified Li Ao's mathematical proof; this time, he mainly examined the writing logic and academic norms.

What alarmed him more and more was that the overall framework was extremely simple, the derivation steps were appropriately detailed, the lemmas were accurately cited, and there wasn't even a single contradictory quantifier symbol in the entire text.

His expressive ability and writing skills were so impressive that he would believe it even if it were a final draft submitted by a senior doctoral student in the group, let alone a high school student.

Compared to David's flawed manuscript next to it, it was like heaven and earth.

After a long while, Professor Jensen finally turned to the last page.

He took off his reading glasses and placed them on the table. When he turned to look at Li Ao, his tone was much gentler: "Leo, have you ever been involved in academic writing before?"

Li Ao shook his head: "But recently, in order to find a way out, I've consulted a lot of mathematics journals and looked at a lot of other people's formats. When I write my own, I just copy them."

Professor Jensen smiled and gently patted the manuscript on the table:

"It seems this year's summer camp is truly full of hidden talents. This short essay doesn't need much editing; I'll polish it a bit and send it to you later."

"To be honest, in all the years I've taught students, this is the first time I've encountered a high school student with such strong communication skills, whose first draft was flawless."

David, standing a few steps away, listened to their conversation, his expression completely frozen, and the drowsiness brought on by staying up all night was instantly dispelled.

Did you hear me wrong?

Instead of getting angry, his mentor gave him such a high evaluation?

Didn't we agree that this was just a casual practice session?

Which high school student could write a paper that even their tutor couldn't find fault with?

David felt that his perception was seriously flawed.

Before he could react, Professor Jensen turned and gave the order:

"David, go to the refrigerator and get a bottle of water for your fellow student."

"OK."

David responded reflexively.

He had just taken half a step when he suddenly stopped.

What word did the professor just use?

Fellow student?

In American university labs, when a professor uses this term to refer to a student, it means that the relationship has moved beyond a simple teacher-student dynamic and that the student is now being treated as a junior researcher in the same research group.

Li Ao could see that David was in very poor condition, so he quickly got up and stopped him:

"I'll take it myself. Mr. David, you look terrible. Why don't you go back and get some sleep?"

David waved his hand, forcing out the words, "I can still hold on."

He slumped back into his seat, his heart filled with mixed emotions.

I'd always heard people say that there were a lot of monsters at the All-American Math Competition summer camp, and today I finally got to see it for myself.

Li Ao had just returned from the refrigerator in the corner when he heard Professor Jensen tap on the table, proactively bringing up the next topic:

"Have you identified any target journals for submitting this short article?"

……