The night before the college entrance exam results were released, I redeemed my Peking University ad

After the leaders and teachers finished speaking to Ji Bai, Director Zhou of Fucheng TV finally got his chance.

He immediately rushed up with the female host.

The female host's name is He Qing. She just turned thirty this year and is the leading lady of Fucheng TV Station. She started by hosting local news and later moved to the prime-time slot.

The typhoon is steady yet approachable, making it very popular with local viewers in Fucheng.

But at this moment, facing an eighteen-year-old boy who had just proven Goldbach's conjecture, her hand holding the microphone trembled slightly.

She's been a host for ten years; what storms hasn't she weathered?

She had never seen anything like this before.

"Dear viewers, we are now in the auditorium of No. 99 Middle School. This is Ji Bai, a student next to me."

"Over the past three hours, Ji Bai has written a mathematical proof on the blackboard that is twenty pages long. The object of this proof is Goldbach's Conjecture, which has puzzled mathematicians around the world for nearly three hundred years."

"Ji Bai, thank you for your hard work! Please say hello to our audience."

She handed the microphone to Ji Bai.

Ji Bai lowered his head slightly and smiled at the camera.

The smile was faint but clean, and against the backdrop of the school uniform and chalk dust, it exuded an unadorned youthful charm.

"Hello everyone, I'm Ji Bai."

He Qing put the microphone away, her gaze lingering for a second on Ji Bai's still somewhat childish face, before asking her first question.

"Ji Bai, I know many of you might be wondering this: before you even started writing on the first blackboard, were you already certain you could complete the proof? Or did you gradually see the finish line as you wrote?"

Ji Bai thought for a moment and gave an answer that made everyone present shudder: "Before I picked up the chalk, I already knew what to write on the last line of the last blackboard."

He Qing was slightly taken aback, but her professionalism allowed her to quickly follow up: "So, you mean that the entire proof path, the derivation spanning twenty blackboards, already existed completely in your mind before you even put pen to paper?"

"You could say that."

He Qing took a deep breath, her voice filled with genuine amazement: "This is unbelievable!"

Then, He Qing asked some of the same old questions, and Ji Bai answered them in a standard and conventional way.

Finally, He Qing posed the question that everyone was curious about.

"Ji Bai, the entire internet has been questioning you, wondering how a relatively ordinary high school like No. 99 Middle School could possibly produce a top scorer. What's your opinion on that?"

What do you think?

Ji Bai smiled, then slowly spoke:

"Only when there are discerning judges of horses can one recognize a fine horse; fine horses are common, but discerning judges of horses are rare!"

Therefore, even the finest horses are disgraced in the hands of slaves, dying side by side in their stalls, and are never known for their ability to travel a thousand miles!

"If you don't train them properly, you can't feed them to their full potential, you can't understand their cries, and if you stand before them with the whip, you'll say, 'There are no horses in the world!'"

"Alas! Is it truly that there are no horses? Or is it that they truly do not know horses!"

……

He Qing was stunned!

Dude, what are you saying?

Why can't I understand a single word?

What "Bole" (a legendary horse connoisseur), what "thousand-mile horse" (a fine horse), what "stable" (a stable), what "holding the whip and approaching it" (a metaphor for being ready to serve)...

After ten years as a host and interviewing countless people, she experienced self-doubt for the first time in front of the camera, wondering if she was illiterate.

The live stream chat exploded.

"Holy crap!!! No wonder he's the top scholar! His words flow like poetry!"

"Wait, what was Ji Bai muttering just now? Did he secretly curse at me?"

"Hahahaha, it's not just two sentences, every single one is an insult!"

"What? What did Ji Bai say? I'm so anxious! Can anyone tell me?!"

"What else can we criticize? Of course, we should criticize those blind, arrogant intellectuals!"

"They clearly lack the ability to discover geniuses, yet they insist that there are no geniuses in this world!"

"It's terrifying how cultured people can swear! They can insult you from head to toe without using a single swear word, and you have to look it up in the dictionary to understand!"

"Why do I feel so good about being insulted???"

"Something's wrong upstairs. I suggest you go see an OB/GYN!"

……

Ji Bai is gone.

No more.

Writing proofs on 20 blackboards in a row felt more tiring than firing three shots.

My body feels completely drained.

A group of leaders, teachers, and staff surrounded Ji Bai, escorting him across the playground and out of the school gate as if he were a national treasure.

The streetlights at the school gate cast a dim yellow light.

The June night breeze blew in from the street corner, carrying a hint of coolness, and touched Ji Bai's sweaty forehead, making him a little more awake.

Then, as if no one else was around, he mounted his bicycle, which made noise everywhere except for the bell.

The prefect's lips twitched violently as he watched this scene.

The live stream is still going on!

The top science student in Fucheng, the prover of Goldbach's Conjecture, and a rising star in China's mathematics community, rode home on a broken bicycle that no one would even pick up if it was left on the roadside.

If this scene gets out, where will the Fucheng Municipal Party Committee put its face?

"Ji Bai, it's so late, let's not exercise."

"Come on, get in my car, I'll take you home."

Ji Bai shook his head, pointed to his bicycle, and said seriously, "No. I'm worried it will be stolen if I leave it here overnight."

Principal Wang stood there for a while, finally unable to hold back any longer: "You're worried someone will steal your car? Nobody would want it if you just left it on the roadside, would they?"

Everyone present nodded in unison.

This included Prefect Liu, County Magistrate Ma, leaders at all levels in the city and district, as well as all the police officers and onlookers present.

Even if you sell this broken car as scrap metal, you'd have to remove three pounds of rust first.

Steal it? Thieves would be too ashamed!

Ji Bai turned around and glared at Principal Wang: "Who said nobody would want it if I threw it on the roadside? Where do you think I came from?"

Principal Wang: "..."

Prefect Liu: "..."

Magistrate Ma: "..."

Police officer: "..."

Onlookers: "..."

Viewers in the live stream were laughing so hard they cried.

"Hahahaha, this is hilarious!"

"Where do you think I came from? Hahahaha!"

"So you picked this car up from the roadside?"

"Could it have been stolen?"

"How can something done by a scholar be called stealing?"

"For some reason, looking at that beat-up car and his faded school uniform, my nose suddenly felt a little sore!"

"I'm so sad!"

"Everyone else drives Mercedes-Benz, BMW, or Audi, while Ji Bai drives a bicycle he found. Isn't this just like in novels where other geniuses ride dragons or phoenixes, while the protagonist rides a donkey, and the donkey is actually an ancient mythical beast?"

"Hey you, the one who mentioned donkeys, don't run away! I can already picture it!"

"That bicycle will probably be written into the history of No. 99 Middle School! 'In 2026 AD, the holy son Ji Bai rode this bicycle to the school and attained enlightenment like Goldbach!'"

……

Finally, the prefect could no longer stand it.

It's like making a major administrative decision, a decision that goes against the ancestors' wishes.

"How about this, you ride in my car, and the bicycle...can be put in the trunk!"

Secretary Xiao Zhou was stunned for a moment, thinking she had misheard.

A car with the city license plate number 001 had a rusty, broken bicycle in its trunk.

He glanced at the prefect's expression, confirmed that his superior was not joking, and quickly ran over to press the trunk release.

The trunk lid slowly rose, revealing a neat gray velvet lining and a case of unopened bottled water.

Ji Bai glanced at the spotless, reflective trunk, then at his own battered, chipped bicycle, and hesitated for a moment.

"Drive slowly on the road, don't break my car."

"After all, this is one of the few things I have left."