Chapter 16
Lin Lang glanced at Ji Zhixing and then at Xu Dongyang, took out a piece of paper from the drawer, and handed it to the two of them with both hands.
Xu Dongyang glanced at the title—"A Feasibility Report on 'Physical Means'"—and Ji Zhixing saw the quotation marks. He knew that the "physical means" in this report were definitely up to no good, so he grabbed it and pretended to tear it up.
Lin Lang rushed forward to protect him: "Hey, you guys take a look first. I've thoroughly investigated the layout of Yanda University and Wang Sikai's possible activity areas. Should we try to avoid the surveillance cameras or..."
"Absolutely not!" Ji Zhixing and Xu Dongyang shouted in unison.
Xu Dongyang was even more agitated: "Lin Lang, if participating in the competition makes you feel so burdened, you can withdraw at any time, I have no objection at all. After all, this is my business, and dealing with Wang Sikai doesn't necessarily have to rely on the competition, but breaking the law is absolutely unacceptable!" He couldn't let his friend go astray because of him.
Ji Zhixing also chimed in. In this matter, he and Wang Sikai also had an unresolved conflict, but Lin Lang was a complete outsider. Of course, they couldn't just watch him flirt with breaking the law.
Seeing their serious expressions, Lin Lang felt a little embarrassed: "That's not what I meant... I was just wondering if there was a shortcut..."
Well, everyone has a tendency to be lazy. As his sister puts it, he's "intermittently ambitious, but consistently lazy and complacent." Back in his senior year of high school, his grades improved dramatically thanks to his sister's encouragement—truly encouraging!
Therefore, he really needs a friend who studies with him every day, who talks about taking the postgraduate entrance exam all the time, who invites him out to study at the library, and who slaps him if he doesn't study, leading him to the pinnacle of life.
He actually cherished the opportunity that Ji Zhixing was willing to take him to the competition, but after burning the midnight oil for so many days, he felt he was almost out of breath, and his laziness kicked in, so he inevitably started to mess things up and have ulterior motives. Now, seeing Ji Zhixing and Xu Dongyang's increasingly serious expressions, he finally straightened up once again.
Ji Zhixing and Xu Dongyang repeatedly confirmed Lin Lang's willingness to participate in the competition. Lin Lang burst into tears and swore to the heavens that he would never make the same mistake again. He then tore up the report, which was actually meant to vent his research stress, and flushed it down the toilet.
After washing up and getting into bed, Ji Zhixing opened the system task panel in his mind, intending to choose a set of attention training exercises.
Because he has to research competition projects, the time he can use to complete tasks has recently decreased sharply. In order to continuously improve his learning ability, he makes sure to complete at least two tasks every day.
Creative tasks are a daily necessity. While most people are either on their phones or asleep during general courses like Current Affairs and Policy or Political Economy, Ji Zhixing frantically uses his brain, studying the various tricky and unusual problems provided by the system to hone his creative thinking. To be honest, the experience of racking his brains and finally succeeding is quite satisfying.
As for the tasks in the other four branches, he would choose at least one to do each day. In this way, his learning ability was continuously improved, and he also had a guaranteed income of 400 yuan per day. In the two months before the competition ended, he was still able to earn more than 10,000 yuan per month.
While on internet platforms like Zhihu, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu, an annual salary of one million yuan seems to be the minimum acceptable income, the reality is quite different. According to the "Statistical Communiqué on National Economic and Social Development" released by the government at the beginning of the year, only 1.1% of the total population earns over 10,000 yuan per month. Even those earning between 5,000 and 10,000 yuan per month only account for 4.52%, and many college graduates start with a monthly salary of only 3,000 yuan. Therefore, although he can't earn 10 points from five tasks every day, Ji Zhixing is already quite satisfied with his income.
The next day was a physics lab class. After more than a month of theoretical classes, they had finally transitioned from theory to practice.
Actually, there are physics lab courses in the first year of university, but most of them are basic physics experiments, such as spectrometers, measuring the coefficient of thermal expansion, magnetic hysteresis loops, etc. You can do them by simply copying the textbook and the experience of predecessors.
Back then, he spent half his time working to make a living, and the other half on subjects like calculus, mechanics and thermodynamics, and linear algebra, which were so difficult that he would fail if he didn't spend time reviewing them. As a result, he was quite perfunctory in his physics lab classes. Sometimes he didn't even understand the experimental principles. He just did the experiments, and once the lab report was written and the exam was over, he would forget most of it.
This perfunctory attitude towards learning was a helpless measure taken at that time to balance life and study. Now, Ji Zhixing would certainly not be so superficial. He even took the time to review several experiments he had encountered in his freshman year, to deeply understand their experimental principles and to broaden his thinking and make connections. For example, measuring gravitational acceleration with a simple pendulum, although simple in content, was enough to review experimental techniques and basic ideas from before modern times.
That morning, Ji Zhixing got up early as usual, and Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang also unusually early, wanting to get to the lab as soon as possible to secure a good position. In lab class, being able to get good equipment is absolutely crucial!
Half of those instruments were decades old. Because they were still usable, the school was reluctant to upgrade them. Ji Zhixing had personally seen ammeters that were the same age as him and sliding rheostats that were older than the lab teachers. These experimental instruments, worn down by generations of students, had a high failure rate that was a headache. When using these instruments to conduct experiments, it was impossible to get results, and it was impossible to determine whether the instrument was broken or the brain was broken.
Therefore, if you can get good equipment, there will be fewer malfunctions, the experiment will go smoothly, and you can finish the experiment quickly and leave. If you're unlucky and can only use old equipment, then there will be a million problems, and you might not even be able to finish in four hours.
However, there were clearly many people who shared the same idea. When Ji Zhixing and his group arrived at the lab, the best tables had already been taken by others.
Lin Lang staggered a few steps and fell onto the old platform, wailing and screaming. Ji Zhixing, however, remained calm. The early bird catches the worm; that's only natural.
The physics lab instructor was Professor Yu Minzhong, a well-liked professor, primarily because he didn't make things difficult for his students. For example, lab reports were almost guaranteed a passing grade for anyone who submitted them. Even if someone omitted figures and formulas, copied other people's experimental data, or falsified some results, they would all pass under his guidance.
Since he took over the course, the pass rate for physics experiments has increased dramatically. It's said that in the year before he took over, 160 students took the exam, and 130 had to retake it. In the year he took over, 190 students took the exam, and only 10 had to retake it. Compared to Professor Yan Anjin, who was known as "King of Hell," a more lenient professor like Yu Minzhong was naturally more popular.
The bell rang, and Professor Yu walked to the podium and opened the PowerPoint presentation. He had a clear understanding of his students' preparation and operational skills, so he broke down the experimental steps to a level that even junior high school students could do. He even showed the instrument connection diagram exactly as it was, so everyone could successfully complete the experiment by following the steps.
After Professor Yu finished presenting the PPT, he said he had to leave temporarily and would return two hours later to collect the experimental reports. Before leaving, he assigned Fan Yongjie as his teaching assistant to distribute the experimental materials.
Lin Lang and Xu Dongyang exchanged a glance, both feeling that today was truly an unlucky day.
Fan Yongjie is the kind of person who can use even the smallest thing as an excuse. Last time when they were doing the moment of inertia experiment, Professor Yu asked him to help distribute the materials. What they received for their platform was a pile of building blocks. It's impossible to say that Fan Yongjie didn't have some selfish motives.
Lin Lang was dumbfounded at the time, unable to distinguish which were the experimental subjects and which were the test platform. Fortunately, Ji Zhixing managed to build the test platform successfully in 20 minutes.
Professor Yu was not present at the time, and they did not contact Professor Yu afterwards to report Fan Yongjie's abuse of "power," because it would have been a complete waste of time.
Professor Yu was always known as "Old Fish" on the school forum because his way of dealing with people was as slippery as a fish. Given his behavior, he would not easily hold a colleague's son accountable for a few ordinary students, so even if they complained to Professor Yu, they would at most receive his kind and approachable emotional reassurance.
Fan Yongjie was clearly aware of this, and this time he still selectively divided the materials into high-quality and low-quality ones. He subtly kept the best batch for himself, and the rest were seemingly distributed randomly, but when it came to Ji Zhixing's table, the worst batch was "left".
In front of everyone, Fan Yongjie was still careful to maintain his image as the "fair and impartial" vice president of the student union: "Sorry, you're not very lucky today, these are all you have left. If you don't think they're suitable, see if you can talk to someone else and exchange them."
The three of them were speechless at Fan Yongjie's pretentious act. It was a wonder that he had been so picky, selecting out a pile of junk to distribute to them.
Xu Dongyang rummaged around on the table for a while and realized that the only thing he could use was that rag.
Fan Yongjie pushed up his glasses, gave Ji Zhixing a meaningful look, and left with a flourish.
He had heard that Ji Zhixing had signed up for the CUPT competition, and his first reaction was that it was aimed at him. He was initially annoyed, then a little nervous, and after inquiring about the members of Ji Zhixing's team, he found it laughable. This makeshift team was like flies—not aggressive, but disgusting. He felt provoked, so he figured he had no choice but to retaliate.
Thinking of Ji Zhixing's feigned calmness earlier, Fan Yongjie chuckled inwardly. Last time, Ji Zhixing was lucky because the setup diagram was already in the PPT. This time, facing so much garbage, even he would be helpless, let alone Ji Zhixing.
Little did people know that Ji Zhixing had encountered countless difficulties in his experiments, and the variety of challenges he faced was immense.
A note from the author:
"He really needs a friend who studies with him every day, who talks about taking the postgraduate entrance exam all the time, who invites him out to study at the library, and who slaps him if he doesn't study, and who leads him to the pinnacle of life." Adapted from a famous internet quote.
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