Bao Xiaomeng's life became a routine of going between the garage, the Internet cafe, and the milk tea shop. In the hot summer, she stood on the roadside handing out flyers, with a piece of paper always stuffed in the pocket of her uniform apron.
It might be an English text or an ancient Chinese poem. Whenever she handed something out, she would mutter something to herself.
After seeing this scene, Lin Chaoxi never stopped her again.
Time keeps moving forward.
For Lin Chaoxi, she finished reading the entire Numerical Methods Engineering with Python, which seemed like a divine book, and successfully ran the last comprehensive question in the book; she finished the after-book exercises of Probability Theory twice; and she classified the machine learning theory and organized the formulas and algorithms to be used on a piece of paper by hand.
And the final examination of the summer camp finally arrived.
——
The sun was blazing outside the window, the trees on the university campus were lush and beautiful, and the light was like thin threads pulled out of sticky sugar liquid.
"This is the last exam, I hope everyone will take it seriously."
Lin Zhaoxi looked towards the podium where William Chang was standing.
In fact, it hasn’t been that long, and the elementary school summer camp is still vivid in my mind.
She could still recall her hot breath as she rushed up the stairs, standing in William Chang's office, mustering up all her courage to say those words to him.
And now, the last exam of the training team is about to begin, and her mood seems to be completely different from that time.
She neither felt it was difficult nor easy, and she did not think she had to get first place or surpass others. The mountain she wanted to climb was never called William Chang.
The test papers were handed out like snowflakes, the electric fans were whirring, and the test papers were flying all over the place.
Lin Chaoxi took the test paper, took out his automatic pencil and clicked twice.
If she wanted to find something every time she came here, she seemed to be still a long way from finding that thing now.
After all, before she went back to primary school, she had clearly foreseen the moment she would leave. But now she didn't, and she didn't know when she would leave.
But it doesn’t matter, just be more patient and work harder.
——
The final exam had only five questions, but it lasted the entire day.
After all, this is a high school Olympiad-level test, with a myriad of different solutions, and it's hard to simply measure it with a standard answer. There won't be a situation like in elementary school where you finish the test in one class and the results are handed out an hour later.
The next day, William Chang and Jie Ran appeared in the classroom with dark circles under their eyes.
Lao Zhang threw the test paper onto the table, shaking the whole classroom.
"Today is the last day of the summer training. I'll finish explaining this test, and you can pack up and go home in the afternoon."
After he finished speaking, he picked up the chalk and spread out the test paper: "The first question is about trigonometric functions, which are familiar to everyone. Some students have solved it, and some have not. But it doesn't matter. In your answers, I saw an unconventional solution. Let's ask A Guang to talk about it."
Ah Guang sat in his seat and did not rush to the stage excitedly. Instead, he looked at Zhang Shuping dully. Most of the other students in the classroom had the same reaction.
"What's wrong?"
"Teacher, why... don't you hand out the test papers?"
"You won't report the score?"
"What are the results?"
"Are grades important?" asked William Chang.
Everyone in the class gasped. The naughty Lao Wang asked directly: "Who are you? Give Lao Zhang back to us?!"
Lin Chaoxi lowered her head and smiled, writing a proof of the convergence of the EM algorithm. In her free time, she usually did similar derivations. The more times she wrote the same thing, the more she would gain.
Zhang Shuping's voice rang out: "Lin Zhaoxi, are grades important?"
Shocked, Lin Chaoxi looked up, not understanding why William Chang suddenly called her.
"Is...Is everything okay?" she said.
"Answer my questions carefully."
When Zhang Shuping was serious, the pressure was very strong. Lin Chaoxi couldn't help but stand up.
The whole class was silent.
Lin Chaoxi thought for a moment: "I used to think it was very important, for example, when I was in primary school, because if I couldn't pass the exams better than others, you would kick me out..."
"Now?"
"Now I feel really good."
"Why is it okay?"
"Maybe because I couldn't get first place?" she joked.
The students below all laughed at the right time, and the atmosphere became relaxed and harmonious again.
"But you got first place this time." Zhang Shuping spoke slowly. His voice was not loud, but it suppressed all his smiles.
Lin Chaoxi was stunned for a moment.
Zhang Shuping looked at her and said, "Strict arguments and impeccable answers. You are the only one in the class who got full marks on the five questions."
The middle-aged man was calm and serious as always, but the whole classroom fell into an unprecedented silence.
"Is there anything you want to say?" asked William Chang.
Lin Chaoxi didn't know what to say.
Once at the toilet door, she said to Guang, "I'll try harder to surpass you next time."
But now that she has really done it, thinking back on it, she seems to have nothing to say.
It feels quite difficult; this is the only thought she has.
She shook her head and smiled calmly.
"Come up and get the test paper." said William Chang.
The classmates around him moved aside, but Lin Chaoxi was still sweating profusely. A little breeze blew in from the window.
She stood there for a while, wiped the sweat off her face with the back of her hand, and walked away.
——
Just like she did before the last training session, she went to the library to borrow books that afternoon.
She carried a pile of books out of the reading room and put them on the circulation desk. The teacher scanned the barcodes of each book, scanned her campus card, and finally put the card in the pile of books and returned them to her.
"Thank you, teacher."
Lin Chaoxi took out the card and put it in her pocket. When she was about to pick up the book, she suddenly saw a worn-out copy of "Probability and Mathematical Statistics" among the pile of newly returned books behind the borrowing desk.
Her heart skipped a beat: "Teacher, can I see that book?" she said, pointing.
The teachers in the library were all very cool. They took out the book and threw it to her without saying a word.
The worn cover and curled inner pages make it look very old.
She had checked on the library computer many times before, and found that the book "Probability Theory" on Lao Lin's book list was always on loan.
It's such a coincidence that he shows up just before she leaves.
She casually flipped through a few pages and found Lao Lin's handwriting on them.
"Teacher, I want to borrow this book again." She said with a smile.
——
Hongzhang New Village, resident database.
At 9 o'clock in the evening, Bao Xiaomeng got home from get off work and Lin Chaoxi was reading the book he had just borrowed.
Bao Xiaomeng was holding a small bag and placed it directly in front of her.
I looked down and saw that there was a cup of milk tea with half sugar and pearls.
"A token of love." Lin Chaoxi pulled out the straw, broke the seal, and took two deep sips.
"Don't drink it all, let's drink it together, and the remaining half is mine."
Bao Xiaomeng picked up another straw with great pain.
She was quick to pull out the straw in her hand and replace it with the previous test paper.
"Hurry up and do the papers. I won't give you a drink until you score 80 points on the math simulation paper."
"It's so difficult." Bao Xiaomeng immediately dropped her face.
"Hurry up, hurry up."
"All right."
The girl took off her uniform jacket and picked up a pencil.
The room became peaceful and quiet again.
She happened to see an interesting part. The blank spaces in the book were filled with densely written derivation processes, as if several top students were discussing the probability formula for winning gambling.
——How can you always make money and never lose money when gambling?
At first, I didn’t know who asked this question.
Lin Zhaoxi remembered what he had asked Pei Zhi that day, his heart shuddered, and he continued reading.
Next, someone derived a new formula for the probability of winning and simplified the complex problem of doubling the odds by analyzing it using coin tossing.
After substituting the numbers into the public notice, we found that if we bet 10 yuan on the heads or tails of a coin, the probability of doubling the amount and the probability of going bankrupt are 50-50.
This is very easy to understand.
Once you do something with the coin to increase the probability of landing on the front side by 3%, the probability of winning will immediately increase from 50% to an astonishing 77%.
Lin Chaoxi fell silent.
On the other side of the page, someone had written a few lines of words, but they looked very dim due to the long time.
——The probability of winning at 21 for an average player is about p=0.495. If you remember your cards, your chances of winning increase to p=0.51.
——And then, it just increases the chances of winning a little bit?
——Are you stupid? This is gambling, yes, if you substitute it into the formula, as long as you increase the chance of winning a little bit, the probability of doubling your bet will immediately become 99.75%. That means you will win for sure.
It was still Lao Lin's handwriting, with the playful tone she was used to. She was already very familiar with the knowledge in the entire book, but this passage made her seem to sense something.
I don't know how much time has passed.
"I'm done!" Bao Xiaomeng shouted.
Lin Chaoxi turned the page of the book and came back to his senses from the world of probability.
She changed to a red pen, took the test paper, pressed it on the book, and started to mark it briefly.
From filling in the blanks to selecting, from calculation to proof.
Check, check, and check again. She pointed her finger at the last conclusion. It was absolutely correct, so she made the final check.
She was stunned for a moment before turning to the front and saw a red "100" written after the initial score.
Bao Xiaomeng was extremely surprised. "I was right about everything?"
"Yes." Lin Zhaoxi opened the test paper and handed it back.
The moment the scroll was moved away, she saw the two lines of dialogue, old and new, on the withered pages.
——Then it’s the same if you work hard every day, increasing the probability a little bit, you will double your bet without realizing it and become a winner in life?
——A life of consistent efforts and perseverance. The small accumulation of each day will determine the final result. This is the answer.
It was an extremely small moment. The lamp was dim and outside the house was filled with the noise of the street market.
She seemed to be back in the vegetable market as the sun was setting. She stood there and asked Pei Zhi: How can an ordinary person achieve this probability of living in extreme poverty all his life?
"I don't know, but it should be possible. But if you know the answer one day, please tell me."
Pei Zhi clearly said so.
But the last sentence.
The ink is still very bright and the handwriting is so familiar.
Lin Chaoxi couldn't help but shiver slightly. This line of words was not written by Old Lin, it was clearly written by Pei Zhi.
She couldn't guess when Pei Zhi wrote this sentence, maybe during the first training session, or maybe before leaving for the last time.
But this line of words clearly proved that Pei Zhi already knew the answer, but at that moment, he chose to lie to her.
Yeah, how could you not know?
A bicycle ran over the road.
Many scenes came one after another.
The desk at home, the lights in the classroom, the cold floor tiles in the library, the stuffy summer night in the rental house, she fell asleep in the telephone booth and woke up with pimples all over her face.
From running around in the summer camp in elementary school to the moment she opened the Chinese textbook and recited in the junior high school classroom, there were so many sad days, moments of constantly encouraging herself, and difficult situations where she needed the support of Bao Xiaomeng to persevere.
I didn’t think much of it at the time, but looking back now, it’s so painful that my throat is choking.
When I looked down again, the page was still on the table.
A life of consistent effort and no slacking off.
It was a joke.
So light, yet so heavy.
But it comes from a true genius.
"What's wrong with you? I got 100 points on the test. Aren't you happy?"
Bao Xiaomeng has a very low voice.
Lin Chaoxi looked at the girl in front of her and the simple 100 points she had just graded on her math test.
I couldn't help crying.
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