Hu Lei is a postgraduate student in the Department of Architectural Structures at Gongji University. As a typical academic high-achiever, many people assume that his life revolves around his dormitory, library, and his supervisor's studio.

Actually, that's not the case. Top students are also human. They need to live and have relationships. They are not lacking in emotional intelligence. And like most students, top students also lack money.

Hu Lei remained single throughout his four years of university. In his second year of graduate school, he met a junior female student, and Hu Lei, who was not particularly interested in love at first, fell in love at first sight.

However, Hu Lei, who was still emotionally immature, did not dare to confess his feelings directly, and could not even boldly pursue her. He could only take care of his junior sister in the mentor's studio.

However, a few days ago, after receiving a phone call from home while in the studio, junior colleague Bai Xiaojing became completely distracted.

Now, every day at noon when she goes to the cafeteria for lunch, she, who usually likes a mix of meat and vegetables, only gets one vegetable dish and eats it alone in a corner.

Hu Lei, who had been secretly keeping an eye on his junior sister, was quite intelligent and quickly figured out that something must have happened to Bai Xiaojing's family, and they urgently needed money.

Although graduate students can receive a certain salary for working for their "bosses" (i.e., their supervisors), the amount is not much. The better ones get two thousand yuan, while the worse ones only get a little over a thousand yuan, which is just enough to cover their daily expenses.

Hu Lei doesn't usually pay attention to saving money, but when he needed to help his junior sister, he didn't know where to start.

Would he really ask his family for money? He's not that shameless.

Feeling a bit annoyed, I'll go online to relax.

At this moment, Hu Lei was sitting at his computer desk in his dormitory and opened the Zhuchongzhijia website, which he often visited.

This forum has comprehensive resources and many experts. People often share modeling techniques and design experience, making it a must-visit forum for architecture students.

Hu Lei sensed something was wrong as soon as he opened the forum today.

Although the forum has many registered users, as a highly specialized discussion space, it has far fewer spam posts compared to other places.

Who would come here if they wanted to post something? It would be much more convenient to just go to the forum.

Therefore, the number of posts in each section of the forum is generally maintained at around 1,000 per day.

However, when I checked today, I found that almost every section had more than 3,000 posts, with the highest number of posts in the design discussion section reaching 6,000.

What the heck? Did I go to the wrong forum? Hu Lei muttered to himself.

Open the design discussion section.

Almost every page was flooded with the same thing.

The "building insects" are all discussing the theme of "Rational Creative Design Competition - The Manor in the Tree".

What is this thing? Hu Lei had no idea.

After clicking through several spam posts, I finally found out about the amazing post that was pinned to the top of the site.

It's no wonder Hu Lei didn't notice; unless you're a newly registered forum member, who would bother looking at that colorful bunch of pinned posts? Most of them are just forum rules and regulations anyway.

The post that's currently at the top has an incredibly imposing title.

"Rational Creative Design Competition - The Manor in the Trees, 2 Million Yuan Reward"

Of course, all the domineering aura is concentrated in the last few words, "2 million bounty".

Money! Lots of money! Two million!

Hu Lei was thrilled. With two million, any problem could be solved.

However, with such a high reward and so many experts on the forum, the competition must be extremely fierce, no wonder it's called a contest.

Let's do it! What kind of man wouldn't even dare to try?

And so, two hours after Wu You posted the message, the first person to actually start designing appeared.

Click on Wu You's amazing post.

The more Hu Lei looked, the more his brows furrowed. The original poster's conditions and meaning were clearly stated, but the design turned out to be a virtual concept.

Designs that defy reality are very difficult to create, and the biggest challenge in this design is the 3D model requested by the original poster.

After all, the towering trees described in the post were just something the poster imagined.

Although 20 seemingly detailed reference images were left behind, it is still just an idea, and the errors between the images will definitely be very large.

If you try to model and correct the mistakes made by the original poster yourself, it will not only greatly increase the difficulty of modeling, but also increase the time consumption.

And most importantly, the judgment criteria are entirely determined by the poster. Even if you correct the mistakes, what can you do if the poster doesn't agree?

Perhaps that's why no one has commented so far claiming they'll participate.

But Hu Lei is certain that there are quite a few experts who are trying it out in private.

We can't give up, we can only give it a try.

Hu Lei took out instant noodles, sausages, and two cans of Red Bull from his cabinet, ready to work through the night.

Of the other three people in the dormitory, two were already asleep, while the other was holding his phone and lewdly laughing, probably reading a novel.

The man saw Hu Lei taking out instant noodles and hot water, muttering, "Give me a bite of the noodles when they're ready."

Hu Lei gave him the middle finger and then threw himself into the design.

The first step, of course, is to build this tree, which is the foundation of all the design.

He first set up a rough framework based on the floor plan and interior view on the provided drawings.

"Huh, the data is quite accurate. The plan and elevation are even aligned. It seems the person who posted the bounty is quite skilled."

Next, we compared each detailed image with the others and simulated each one.

Hu Lei is very meticulous and focused when he works, just so he won't miss any abstract errors in these 20 images and can easily make corrections.

but.

There are no errors, not a single one.

All views, whether overall or in detail, fit together perfectly according to the coordinate positions scaled to the map.

I can't find anything that needs to be modified.

Hu Lei couldn't help but exclaim, "The author is a genius for creating these drawings using only imagination and sketching!"

"You're crazy, staying up so late." One of my roommates rolled over and went back to sleep.

"Hu Lei, are you going to make some instant noodles or not? I'm hungry." The person reading the novel had their eyes glued to the phone screen, but was reminding Hu Lei to get down to "business."

...

At 6:30 a.m., Hu Lei stared at the prototype model on the screen with bloodshot eyes.

Because it is powerful, it is highly efficient.

The model in the computer is just a rough model of the trunk and branches, without any detailed refinement, leaf veins, or rendering.

Even when this prototype was completed, Hu Lei still felt a profound sense of vicissitude.

My heart was filled with emotion and shock, and I also marveled at the genius of the person who offered the bounty.

If such a tree truly exists, it must be a wondrous tree that defies the laws of nature!