My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Nine o'clock sharp.

The first test was in mathematics.

This is what is commonly referred to as the preliminary round.

The test mainly consists of fill-in-the-blank and multiple-choice questions, with a large number of questions covering a wide range of topics. It tests basic skills and typing speed.

For the vast majority of students participating in the competition, this should be a warm-up match.

But the atmosphere this year is a bit off.

Only fifteen minutes have passed since the curls were done.

The air in the examination room had already become silent.

The once uniform, rustling sound of writing has now become sparse and infrequent.

Instead, there was a cacophony of anxious noise.

The boy to my left started frequently pressing the spring of the ballpoint pen.

The girl on the right seemed to be sighing, but it was barely audible.

Chen Zhuo ignored these comments.

He lowered his head, his gaze fixed on the eighth fill-in-the-blank question.

It consists of only two lines of dry text, describing the equation of the trajectory of a moving point between a parabola and a circle.

The conventional approach is to solve a system of equations and then find the derivative, or to use the discriminant.

But that amount of calculation would take half a day even with a computer, let alone now that it can only be done by hand.

This is a trap.

The person who came up with this question must be a psychology master.

He was betting that the test takers wouldn't dare use the special value method.

He was betting on the deep-rooted competitive spirit these top students had learned in school, a spirit that required rigorous proof.

Chen Zhuo twirled his pen.

He did not write out the equation.

He drew a rough sketch on the draft paper, directly taking the extreme position of the vertex of the parabola.

Substitute and calculate.

√2

The process took less than thirty seconds.

He filled in the answer in the parentheses and then moved on to the next question.

The sighs around them grew louder.

The boy who pressed the ballpoint pen had already taken it apart, and the parts were spread all over the table; it looked like it was starting to get messy.

Chen Zhuo turned a page of the exam paper.

The sound of papers turning over was particularly jarring in the quiet classroom.

Several people suddenly looked up, staring at Chen Zhuo in horror.

That look was like looking at a madman sprinting at the very start of a marathon.

Chen Zhuo didn't look at them.

I just felt that the ink smell of this paper was a bit strong, and my nose was a little itchy.

He even had time to think about the hamburger he hadn't finished last night, and the seven or eight packets of ketchup that Liu Kai had brought back to the guesthouse.

This mental wandering did not affect his problem-solving speed.

Compared to the problems he usually studies.

These questions don't even require him to think about; he just needs to draw on the knowledge in his brain.

Those formulas, theorems, and models are like parts neatly stacked in a warehouse; the moment you see the blueprint, your hand will automatically reach for the corresponding part.

10:20.

The bell didn't ring during the first test.

Without a break, they immediately collected the first set of test papers and distributed the second set.

The seamless sense of oppression is a unique form of torture in competition.

The proctor came over and took away the answer sheet that was filled out completely.

The girl who had sighed earlier pressed her hand tightly against the answer sheet, refusing to let go.

"Teacher, just one more minute... just one minute..."

There was a cry in her voice.

The proctor, expressionless, snatched the exam paper away.

"Let go, or it will be treated as cheating."

The moment the test paper left her hand, the girl seemed to have lost all her energy, staring blankly at the ceiling.

Before she could catch her breath, the second test paper had already been handed out.

Thicker and heavier.

Second test.

it has started.

If the first test is a sprint, then it's all about explosive power.

So the second test was a weighted cross-country race, which was really pushing my limits.

Three major questions.

One problem on plane geometry, one on algebraic inequalities, and one on a hodgepodge of number theory and combinatorics.

The examination room fell completely silent.

Even the anxious clicking of the camera and the sound of pens moving disappeared.

Instead, there was a deathly silence.

It's like the suffocating calm on the sea before a storm.

Everyone was staring blankly at the exam paper.

Someone used a compass to draw a circle on a piece of paper, erased it, drew another one, erased it again, drew another one, and erased it again.

The draft paper was finally torn, revealing the black desktop underneath.

Chen Zhuo looked at the second geometric shape.

The diagram is very complex.

Two tangent circles, a secant line, and several triangles embedded in them, intersecting in a chaotic mess.

Prove that the three points are collinear.

This is a classic variation of Menelaus' theorem or Simson's line, but the question setter added countless distracting conditions, disguising the originally elegant geometric figure as a tangled mess.

The conventional method of using auxiliary lines requires a very strong geometric intuition.

You need to find the right thread in that tangled mess.

It's connected.

suddenly see the light.

Unable to connect.

It's like going around in circles in a maze until you crash into a wall and die.

Chen Zhuo stared at the picture for half a minute.

I couldn't find that line.

He is not the kind of genius who relies on inspiration.

He doesn't have the special ability to know how to connect auxiliary lines at a glance.

He sighed.

Put down the compass.

Pick up the ruler.

He drew a huge cross on the graphic.

Let's build a system.

Since we can't find the key to this problem, let's just blast the door open with a cannon!

Analytic geometry.

Transform all points into coordinates (x, y), and transform all lines into the equation Ax + By + C = 0.

Elegant logical reasoning is transformed into direct and brutal algebraic operations.

This is a clumsy approach.

The computational workload is ten or even a hundred times that of the geometric method.

If you miscalculate even one positive or negative sign, you lose everything.

But for Chen Zhuo now...

That would be perfect.

No inspiration is needed, just calculation.

As long as your hands don't shake, your mind doesn't panic, and you haven't memorized the multiplication tables incorrectly, you can calculate the result.

(I don't recommend learning this technique, as it's easy to run out of time to calculate during the exam.)

So Chen Zhuo began to calculate.

The draft paper was instantly filled with dense formulas.

Square roots nested within square roots, fractions stacked upon fractions.

The pen tip flew across the paper, the ink forming lines of numbers.

shhhhh......

shhhhh......

In this deathly silent examination room, that sound was practically a form of mental pollution.

The girl next to him looked up and glanced at Chen Zhuo with red eyes.

Looking at the blank sheet of paper in front of her with only two circles drawn on it, she finally couldn't hold back her tears, which fell onto the test paper with a plop.

A blot of ink spread out.

Chen Zhuo didn't see it.

He was immersed in the torrent of numbers.

For him, this was no longer a math problem, but an engineering problem.

Set points, formulate equations, solve simultaneous equations, eliminate variables, and simplify.

It is a tedious, mechanical process, yet it possesses a peculiar rhythm.

The third page of draft paper was filled with writing.

The last line.

k1=k2.

The slopes are equal.

The three points are collinear.

Q.E.D.

Chen Zhuo let out a long sigh of relief.

My wrists are sore, as if I've just finished a game of badminton.

He glanced at his watch.

11:50.

Just right.

He neatly copied the answers onto the answer sheet.

Then he put down the pen and shook his wrist.

The surroundings remained silent.

only.

The silence was broken by a few suppressed sobs.

That was the sound of a complete mental breakdown.