He was outscored after scoring 520 points, but his status as a prodigy can't be hidden.

Next to it was a trash can filled with wads of waste paper.

He clutched the black ballpoint pen in his hand. His gaze lingered on the white paper in front of him, covered with calculations.

This was a reward question that Professor Chen had secretly given him that afternoon.

It is said to be a boundary convergence problem of a mathematical physics equation that several top professors from the mathematics and physics departments of Tsinghua and Peking Universities debated for three years. Professor Chen carried it with him, using it as a touchstone to test the most outstanding geniuses.

In fact, Professor Chen didn't expect any high school student to be able to solve it; he just wanted to see how far Lin Yu's problem-solving approach could go.

Lin Yu stopped writing.

He stared at the last line of equations on the paper.

"Singular perturbation problem of nonlinear partial differential equations".

Lin Yu uttered a single word softly.

He pulled over a new sheet of white paper.

The pen tip touched the paper, making an extremely rapid and continuous scratching sound. There was no pause.

He didn't need to try and fail at all. The answer had already been deduced in his mind within the second he saw the question.

Five minutes later.

Lin Yu threw down his pen.

The blank sheet of paper contained three extremely concise equation transformation formulas and a defined region of convergence.

This was a century-old problem that had perplexed top scholars in China for three years. A high school student, sitting next to a trash can in his dormitory, wrote down the ultimate solution in just five minutes.

Lin Yu casually folded the paper twice and stuffed it into his pocket.

He stood up and walked to the window, gazing at the brightly lit auditorium in the distance.

"It's time to end this boring game of make-believe."

9:30 PM. Main building of the camp, expert suite.

The thick carpet in the hallway absorbed the sound of footsteps. Zhao Tianyu stood outside suite 302, took a deep breath, and straightened his suit collar. Li Hao followed half a step behind him, holding a beautifully bound document entirely in English.

"Senior Zhao, Professor Chen will definitely be amazed after reading your paper."

Li Hao lowered his voice, his tone full of flattery, "In previous years, high school students who could produce papers of this caliber could directly sign agreements with Tsinghua and Peking Universities with reduced admission scores."

A confident smile curved Zhao Tianyu's lips.

"I spent half a year polishing this paper on boundary layer theory in fluid mechanics. The numerical solution of the partial differential equations in it was guided by a professor from the provincial university. Even among undergraduates, it is of excellent quality."

He raised his hand and knocked on the door three times in a very proper manner.

"Enter."

Professor Chen's slightly irritated voice came from inside the door.

Zhao Tianyu pushed open the door and entered, adopting a humble and gentle expression: "Hello, Professor Chen, I am Zhao Tianyu from the Provincial Capital No. 1 High School. Just now at the exchange meeting..."

I didn't listen to the speeches at the exchange meeting.

Professor Chen sat behind his large desk without even looking up. He wore reading glasses and was holding a pencil in his hand, frantically scribbling something on a piece of scrap paper. Seven or eight scrap papers covered with complicated formulas were scattered on the table.

Zhao Tianyu's expression froze for a moment, but he quickly returned to normal.

"Professor Chen, this is a paper I wrote on fluid mechanics, which uses a simplified model of the Navier-Stokes equations. I would like to ask you for some guidance."

Li Hao quickly stepped forward and handed the paper to the edge of the desk with both hands.

Professor Chen finally put down his pen. He glanced at the beautifully bound thesis, then at Zhao Tianyu, his brow furrowed.

"Navier-Stokes equations? It's quite impressive that a high school student can understand tensor calculus."

He took it perfunctorily, casually flipping to the first page, "But I don't have time to look at this right now. I'm stuck on the convergence region of one of my equations."

Zhao Tianyu's eyes lit up, and he immediately stepped forward: "Professor, if you encounter difficulties in numerical analysis, perhaps I can offer a small suggestion. I've been studying nonlinear partial differential equations recently."

This was nothing short of an arrogant attempt to curry favor. Professor Chen sneered and was about to kick him out.

The suite door wasn't closed properly and was suddenly pushed open from the outside.

Lin Yu, wearing the oversized school uniform that was still unzipped, and carrying a deflated backpack over one shoulder, slowly walked in.

The air in the room froze instantly.

Li Hao's face immediately darkened: "Lin Yu? What are you doing here? This is a Tsinghua/Peking University professor's room, not some playground for your Jiangcheng No. 1 High School!"

Zhao Tianyu frowned, his eyes cold: "You didn't have any lab equipment this afternoon, so you're trying to get the professor to pull strings and beg for your life? Lin Yu, I advise you to save some face."

Lin Yu didn't even glance at them. He walked straight to the desk, took a crumpled piece of white paper from his pocket, and casually tossed it onto Professor Chen's thick pile of drafts like trash.

"The answer you're looking for."

Lin Yu's voice was completely flat.

Zhao Tianyu and Li Hao were stunned.

Professor Chen's gaze fell on the crumpled piece of paper. He was initially taken aback, then suddenly picked it up and held it up to the lamp.

He only looked for three seconds. Professor Chen's breathing suddenly stopped.

He suddenly stood up, the movement so forceful that the leather chair behind him was knocked over.

"This...this is..."

Professor Chen's hands trembled violently as he stared intently at the three lines of equation transformations on the paper. "Forced dimensionality reduction using topological metrics? Skipping the singularity and directly finding the region of convergence in the complex plane?!"

He ripped off his reading glasses and looked at Lin Yu with the eyes of someone staring at a monster: "You... how long did it take you?"

Five minutes.

Lin Yu pulled up a chair, sat down, and crossed his legs. "It should have taken me three minutes to finish writing. The pen ran out of ink, so I changed the refill."

Professor Chen gasped. The century-old problem that had baffled top scholars for three years—he solved it in just five minutes? This was beyond genius.

Watching this scene unfold, Zhao Tianyu felt a sudden and intense unease rising within him.

He couldn't help but speak up: "Professor Chen, it's just a draft paper; it's bound to be full of logical flaws. Don't be fooled by this attention-seeking trick. He doesn't even dare to do experiments; what profound theories could he possibly understand?"

Lin Yu finally turned his head and gave Zhao Tianyu a look of pity.

"You really enjoy talking about logic."

Lin Yu extended a finger and pointed to Zhao Tianyu's paper on the edge of the desk. "Your paper on boundary layers in fluid mechanics, first page, third paragraph."

Zhao Tianyu's heart skipped a beat.

"You assumed that the fluid was an incompressible Newtonian fluid within the boundary layer and applied a simplified version of the Navier-Stokes equations."

Lin Yu leaned back in his chair, speaking slowly but with sharp, cutting words: "But in the Reynolds number calculation on the fourth page, you forcibly introduced a turbulence model for a high Reynolds number environment in order to make the data look better."

Zhao Tianyu's face turned pale instantly.