Growing up means learning to choose.
Each different choice may bring different results.
Jiang Yubai spent a few minutes in silence. His mother asked him softly, "Do you want to study economics? Like your father?"
"I do have this tendency." Jiang Yubai answered cautiously.
His mother sat in front of him and had a long talk with him: "You will be going to high school next year, so you should prepare early. In addition, your grandparents plan to stay in Beijing for a year. Your father will also go to Beijing frequently, so you can consider the international high schools in Beijing. Take the time to choose a school, and then tell us the result."
Jiang Yubai agreed without thinking. He attached great importance to his future development and had a rough early plan.
He was once full of fantasies about mathematics and physics. However, in recent years, he found that he was not suitable for long-term exploration in the field of basic science. He was able to maintain a good grade in the competition class of the Provincial No. 1 Middle School because he had a responsible and responsible team of tutors. If he was allowed to rely entirely on his own abilities, he would definitely study very hard, and perhaps study until late at night every night.
Jiang Yubai decided to major in economics in the future. Following his father's old path and exploring the way forward was undoubtedly the safest way.
The next morning, before Jiang Yubai left for school, he told his family, "I've decided on my college choice."
Dad shook his hand and cheered him on.
The uncle said with approval, "Xiao Jiang, you have learned to plan ahead."
Jiang Yubai didn't elaborate. He hadn't decided where he was going to attend high school.
Most of the students in the Grade 3 (17) class want to enter the provincial No. 1 high school competition class. However, Jiang Yubai's interest in competition is declining year by year. He seems to be standing at a crossroads in his life, and many factors can affect his final decision.
During the morning reading class, Jiang Yubai pretended to casually reveal: "I'm choosing a school."
"Choosing a school?" Lin Zhixia repeated unconsciously.
The curtains in the classroom fluttered slightly, touching Lin Zhixia's desk. Lin Zhixia sat by the window, turned around and rolled the curtains together. She guessed, "Jiang Yubai, are you going abroad to study in high school?"
"No," Jiang Yubai explained immediately, "It's too early to go abroad now."
Lin Zhixia smiled and said, "But when you were six years old, you went abroad to study in elementary school."
Jiang Yubai unzipped his schoolbag and took out a Romanian Easter egg. He placed the egg on the desk, rolled the eggshell around, and said, "I might go to an international high school."
Lin Zhixia nodded: "I want to go to Peking University."
They exchanged their plans for the future quite tacitly, without interfering with or influencing each other.
The classroom was filled with the sound of students reading aloud, but the space where Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai were seemed to be suddenly quiet. Even though they were still deskmates, they had already imagined the situation of separation one day in the future.
"I have to participate in the computer science competition this semester..." Lin Zhixia lowered her head, "I can't quit halfway because I have two teammates. If I quit temporarily, their efforts will be in vain."
Jiang Yubai noticed her disappointment and quickly encouraged her: "Don't give up. Life is a process of experience, you have to move forward bravely."
Lin Zhixia lazily lay on the table: "If I move forward, I will be separated from you. There is no way I can go to an international high school."
Jiang Yubai sat up straight: "You should apply to university directly."
"I want to go to Peking University," Lin Zhixia returned to the original topic, "that's Professor Shen Zhaohua's alma mater. Professor Shen's college classmate stayed at the university to teach, and his research direction is quantum computing, which I am very interested in. Professor Shen has greeted him, and he is willing to be my undergraduate advisor."
Before this, Lin Zhixia had never revealed this information to Jiang Yubai.
Oh, it's really hard for her, Jiang Yubai thought. She knew that Jiang Yubai would definitely not be able to get into college now, so she never mentioned her plan.
Lin Zhixia seemed to have grown up a lot. When she was nine years old, she would say whatever she thought. When she was twelve years old, she knew how to take Jiang Yubai's mentality into consideration - but Jiang Yubai had gone through a lot of hardships and had long since let it go. He didn't care how strong Lin Zhixia was or how high her test scores were. He said calmly: "I'm happy for you that you have found a research direction. Captain Lin Zhixia's planetary travel now has a fixed route."
He held the Romanian egg in his hand and said like a great prophet: "You will have an unexpected reward."
"Yeah," Lin Zhixia nodded vigorously, "You too, Jiang Yubai, one day, you will become what you most want to be."
Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia looked forward to each other's future optimistically. Jiang Yubai suddenly remembered another thing: "You called me last night..."
Lin Zhixia slammed the table, and the noise attracted the students in the front row to turn around and look at her.
Tang Tingting, who was sitting in the front row, asked in confusion: "Squad Leader Lin, what's wrong with you?"
"I..." Lin Zhixia said vaguely, "I'm fine. Sorry to bother you. Please continue to recite."
Tang Tingting nodded slightly and immersed herself in the English textbook again.
This morning
The first class was English. The English teacher randomly selected two students from the class to recite the text on the podium. Therefore, all the students in the third grade (17th) class except Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai were reciting the English text seriously.
Lin Zhixia was complaining to Jiang Yubai. Her voice became very soft, and she whispered to him: "Many years ago, my grandfather's family was very poor and could only afford to send one child to school, so my mother stopped going to school and gave the opportunity to study to my uncle. Then, my uncle was admitted to university, and my mother worked to send money to my uncle. My uncle graduated from university and became a lawyer, but he never contacted my parents... My brother has congenital heart disease and needs surgery. My mother asked my uncle to borrow money, and my uncle completely cut off contact with our family. Later, my brother's surgery was successful and he recovered, and my uncle was willing to contact my mother."
"Why?" Jiang Yubai asked doubtfully.
"Listen to me," Lin Zhixia narrated in detail, "My uncle and aunt came to our house last night. He saw my brother's ranking in the high school entrance examination in the newspaper and saw that I won the gold medal in the competition. He wanted to take me to his home and live with his son. When I was celebrating the New Year in my hometown in the countryside, my uncle laughed at my father in public, and I never wanted to talk to him again... What do you think my uncle is like?"
"A beast in human form." Jiang Yubai commented.
These were the most serious words Jiang Yubai could say.
He usually uses the word "mentally ill" to express his dissatisfaction. Lin Zhixia has never heard him call anyone a "beast in human form".
Jiang Yubai earnestly advised Lin Zhixia: "Don't go to your uncle's house."
"I will definitely not go!" Lin Zhixia declared.
Jiang Yubai nodded and analyzed for her: "Your uncle is not a good person. He puts his own interests first. My grandfather said that such people don't care about rules and reputation. You must be very careful when interacting with them."
Lin Zhixia said in a serious tone: "Yes, your grandfather is right."
Jiang Yubai continued to criticize: "Your uncle asked you to live in his house with your cousin... They didn't consider the boundaries between men and women. They are basically strangers to you."
"Yes," Lin Zhixia fell into thought, "I know that the proportion of minors under the age of fourteen being abused is higher than that of adults over the age of eighteen, and 70% of the perpetrators are acquaintances. I don't believe that my uncle will protect my safety."
"He only protects himself." Jiang Yubai said decisively.
Afterwards, Jiang Yubai couldn't help asking, "Is your cousin studying at the Provincial No. 1 Middle School?"
"No," Lin Zhixia said, "My cousin didn't do well in the entrance exam to junior high school, so he couldn't get into the provincial No. 1 Middle School."
Jiang Yubai speculated: "Your uncle wants you to be a tutor? An unpaid tutor."
"Yeah!" Lin Zhixia was very angry, "That's what he meant."
Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia reached a complete consensus.
At this time, the English teacher happened to walk into the classroom.
Jiang Yubai opened his English textbook and pretended to read.
Perhaps Jiang Yubai acted too well, the English teacher looked at him with satisfaction. The sound of reading in the class gradually weakened, and the English teacher began to call out names: "Jiang Yubai, Lin Zhixia, you two come to the podium and recite."
In an instant, all the classmates looked at Jiang Yubai and Lin Zhixia.
Lin Zhixia glanced at the text and walked to the podium calmly. She faced the students, spoke clearly and fluently. The English teacher said with great satisfaction: "When you recite the text, just follow Lin Zhixia's example. Recite to her level, read the words properly and connect them together without getting stuck in the middle. I have told you before, right? When speaking English, it sounds impolite if you say one word at a time. That is the authoritative way of speaking..."
The class was silent. The English teacher cleared his throat and said, "Jiang Yubai, it's your turn. Come over and recite."
In the morning reading class today, Jiang Yubai was chatting with Lin Zhixia the whole time. He didn't pay attention to the textbook at all. Although Lin Zhixia just recited the whole article, Jiang Yubai could only remember the first two sentences and the general content of the article.
Jiang Yubai stood in the center of the podium and recited the text from his memory in English. The sentences he spoke were completely different from the textbook. The students in the audience whispered to each other, and the English teacher interrupted and said, "It's okay to recite like this. You should understand the text thoroughly and express it with your own vocabulary. You can apply what you have learned flexibly and practice your English comprehension and application ability."
Jiang Yubai returned to his seat without any surprise. Not long after he sat down, Tang Tingting in the front row turned around and asked, "Jiang Yubai, Lin Zhixia, you two haven't memorized the lessons, right?"
Lin Zhixia admitted quietly: "Yes."
Tang Tingting saw her face blushing slightly, so she asked, "What are you embarrassed about?"
"During the morning reading class, you should read books," Lin Zhixia said, "you shouldn't chat with your deskmate."
However, chatting with my deskmate is really relaxing.
The reason why Lin Zhixia told Jiang Yubai about her uncle was because she wanted to share her secret with her best friend. Lin Zhixia would only tell Jiang Yubai the secret because he was her only best friend.
He is about to enter an international high school.
This is normal, everyone has their own plans.
They were able to sit at the same table for four years in elementary school and junior high school, which was something Lin Zhixia was grateful for. In the next stage, even if she and Jiang Yubai took completely different paths, she would still regard him as her "most important friend".
In the first semester of the third year of junior high school, some students in the competition class were still working hard for the National Junior High School Mathematics League, but Lin Zhixia was preparing for a competition called the "International High School Programming Petition", which can be translated into Chinese as "International High School Programming Competition", usually abbreviated as IHSPC - this is a grand international competition. Each country can send many teams, and each team must have three students.
This year's competition was held in Moscow, the capital of Russia.
At the end of December, the temperature in Moscow was low and the sky was foggy. Lin Zhixia felt a surge of cold air as soon as she came out of the airport. She dragged her suitcase and ran to the teacher who led the team. The teacher asked her, "Are you confident that you can win the gold medal?"
"Yes!" Lin Zhixia replied.
Having said that...
When she went deep into the heart of Russia and came to the lair of Russian players, she felt a little unsure.
Lin Zhixia knew that in the international arena, Russia, Japan, South Korea, the United States, and China were competing fiercely. In recent years, most of the champions of university programming competitions belonged to Russia.
Lin Zhixia spent a year learning programming. She had a solid foundation in mathematics and could recite Data Structure and related algorithms by heart, so she successfully stood out from the provincial team.
However, the IHSPC not only tests the contestants' mathematical and logical thinking, but also requires them to have a certain level of programming skills.
Lin Zhixia places her hopes on her teammates.
This time, Lin Zhixia's teammate is a senior from the Provincial No. 1 High School and a leader in the information science competition.
One of the teammates was named Cai. Although he was very young, he had a lot of white hair, so everyone called him "Old Cai".
Another teammate's last name was Liang. He looked younger, so everyone called him "Xiao Liang".
Before the IHSPC competition began, Lao Cai joked: "The three of us in this group have the characters 'Cai', 'Liang', and 'Xia' in our names. We are green, cold, and blind. All in one."
Lin Zhixia was shocked by what Lao Cai said.
What shocked her even more was that they were completely surrounded by Eastern European players.
Near their seats were the Russian team, the Belarusian team, the Estonian team, and the Latvian team. Every student in these teams had a very stable temperament, which reminded Lin Zhixia of Alexandrov in the Romanian Masters.
Lin Zhixia sat up straight, ready to go.
In Lin Zhixia's team, Xiao Liang has the best programming skills. Xiao Liang is responsible for writing programs. Lin Zhixia has the strongest math skills. She is responsible for analyzing questions.
They solved the first three problems successfully, but encountered obstacles in the fourth problem. This problem sets a nested exponential function with base 2. The function has been operated M times to obtain a value N. Now given an X as input, find the result after N is modulo X.
This question is very clever, as Lao Cai and Lin Zhixia hold opposite opinions.
Lin Zhixia insisted on using the recursive power reduction formula until the modulus equals 1. Lao Cai thought that power reduction was not the key to this problem. Lao Cai had seen a similar problem before, but he suddenly couldn't remember it. He and Lin Zhixia argued quietly, and Xiao Liang interrupted: "Lao Cai, Xiao Lin, how do we do it? Give us a definite answer."
Lin Zhixia grabbed the keyboard and said, "Seize the time and follow my method."
"Wait," Lao Cai stopped him, "If you submit an error code once, all our previous work will be in vain."
Yes, the IHSPC competition rules are very strict.
If a contestant answers correctly, he or she may not get points, but if a contestant answers incorrectly, he or she will definitely be deducted points.
After Old Cai finished speaking, Lin Zhixia's movements became slow. She reorganized the logic and ran the program in her mind again. Old Cai temporarily put the fourth question aside and began to discuss the solution to the fifth question with Xiao Liang.
Lin Zhixia looked down at question 5 and recalled the teacher's advice: IHSPC questions often set traps for contestants. Many times, you think you have figured it out, but you haven't. You think you have the right answer, but you have missed the key information. IHSPC always hides some specific tricks.
If this were an individual competition, Lin Zhixia could answer the questions as she pleased. But she was in a group, so she had to be careful. She asked Lao Cai what he thought about question 4, while Lao Cai was typing away on his keyboard, writing the answer to question 5.
Lin Zhixia asked him: "If we don't use Fermat-Euler's Theorem for the fourth problem, what other method can we use?"
Old Cai stared at the screen intently: "Wait for me to finish question 5."
"What do you want to do with the fifth question?" Lin Zhixia asked him again.
Old Cai wore a pair of gold-framed glasses, his face was round like a silver plate, and he looked rich. Old Cai was not like an ordinary science and engineering nerd, he was quite smart - this was how Xiao Liang evaluated Old Cai.
Xiao Liang and Lao Cai have been working together as teammates in the information science competition for more than two years. Originally, they had another teammate, but that teammate's programming ability was weak, so the coach temporarily transferred Lin Zhixia to Lao Cai's team and let Lin Zhixia represent the Provincial No. 1 High School in this year's International High School Programming Competition.
The cooperation between Lao Cai and Lin Zhixia was not pleasant.
Lin Zhixia's constant questioning interrupted Lao Cai's train of thought. Lao Cai sighed deeply, and Lin Zhixia was still observing him: "There seems to be a mistake in your 17th line of code. The binary string should not be shifted left by two bits here..."
Lao Cai said, "I wrote it like this on purpose."
Xiao Liang also said, "Xiao Lin, let Lao Cai finish writing."
Lin Zhixia sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere. She immediately shut up and dared not say a word.
This game was very long, lasting from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. At around 1 p.m., Lin Zhixia felt very sleepy. She forced herself to stay awake, staring at her teammates typing on the keyboard, the cursor moving on the screen, she thought to herself, C++ is really a concise and fast language, although the fixed static structure is the biggest disadvantage of C++, but she still likes C++, because C++ is a powerful tool for the underlying computer architecture.
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