clue
The bell for the physics competition sounded like a stone thrown into a lake, creating ripples in the silent examination room.
Xu Yang sat in the first row by the window. The sunlight shone through the glass onto the draft paper, making the light gray grid lines slightly warm.
He touched the pebble in his school uniform pocket. The rounded shape of the pebble hurt his palm. It was given to him by Lu Jinyu yesterday. He had just returned from the cat's nest. There was some cat litter on his fingertips. He rubbed it on the stone, leaving a few off-white crumbs, which were still embedded in the texture of the stone.
The classmate sitting at the front desk suddenly turned half of his face, and the silver-framed glasses reflected the shadow of the invigilator pacing.
"I heard the last question was beyond the syllabus." The other person lowered his voice, his pencil spinning rapidly between his fingers, the pen making a soft click. "Last year, someone didn't get a recommendation spot because of this, and was sure to make the provincial team."
Xu Yang didn't respond, but drew a small resistor symbol on the edge of the draft paper with his fingertips.
He thought of Lu Jinyu's physics notes, which always had strange doodles next to the formulas: using puppy tails instead of wires and drawing kitten paws as nodes in circuit diagrams.
At this moment, those graffiti seemed to become clues to solving the problem, slowly unfolding in my mind.
When the exam bell rang, he heard the sound of test papers being flipped neatly from next door, separated by a wall, as if separated by a thin layer of cicada wings.
The first question was about mechanical analysis. The small ball in the picture was rolling on a smooth inclined plane. He stared at the black dot for three seconds and suddenly remembered the fat orange dog rolling under the medicine shelf in the pet hospital - its round body knocked over the probiotic capsules, and the orange fur was covered with white medicine powder, like a miniature snowflake.
Xu Yang couldn't help but draw a chubby cat in the corner of the draft paper and gave it a tail curled into a question mark.
Halfway through the exam, clouds gathered outside the window again. The sunlight was blocked by the thick clouds, and the draft paper suddenly darkened.
Xu Yang got stuck when he was solving a big problem in electromagnetism. The tip of his pen was suspended in the air, and he caught a glimpse of the pebble on the corner of the table. Lu Jinyu said that it was picked up from the river and had been polished by the water for three years to become so round.
He suddenly remembered what his physics teacher had said: "Any complex circuit, when broken down, is essentially a series and parallel circuit."
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he began to disassemble the circuit structure on the draft paper, turning the complex network diagram into independent loops.
When the last node was connected, the puppy wires drawn by Lu Jinyu suddenly appeared in my mind. It turned out that those seemingly nonsensical doodles actually contained ideas for simplifying the problem.
When his fingertips started moving again, the formula lit up on the draft paper like a light bulb that suddenly turned on.
The last big question was indeed difficult. The question stem was like a short essay, and the knowledge points involved spanned mechanics and electromagnetism.
When Xu Yang was reading the questions, he heard his own heartbeat mixed with the rustling sound of the pen tip scratching across the paper, like two little animals running side by side.
He drew three schematic diagrams on draft paper until he found a breakthrough after converting the motion trajectory in the question into a curve in the coordinate system.
When he calculated the last number, the bell for submitting the paper rang. He looked at the kitten surrounded by formulas on the draft paper, and suddenly felt that the so-called "out-of-scope" problem might just be because he did not find the right angle to analyze the problem.
When he walked out of the examination room, Lu Jinyu was already waiting for him under the sycamore tree, with his school uniform zipped up high, revealing only half of his face.
"I flunked the test." His shoulders slumped when he saw Xu Yang, a crumpled piece of draft paper in his hand. "I even got the formula for the last question wrong. The direction of the electromagnetic force was reversed, just like when I connected the wires incorrectly in the last lab class."
Xu Yang handed over his draft paper, and the steps for solving the problem were neatly written next to the kitten.
"Try using the law of momentum to convert the Lorentz force in the electromagnetic field into impulse." He watched Lu Jinyu's hand pause as he unfolded the draft paper. There was a bit of red ink on the other's fingertips, probably accidentally, like a sunset glow falling on the paper.
Lu Jinyu's eyes lit up, and his fingertips calculated quickly on the draft paper, without even noticing that the tip of the pen had pierced the paper.
"Right! Why didn't I think of using the law of conservation of momentum..." He suddenly looked up, and the sunlight just happened to leak through the gap in the clouds and fell on his eyelashes. "Your idea is even simpler than the standard answer. If you had had this idea in the last lab class, you wouldn't have blown the fuse."
Xu Yang's ears felt a little hot, and he turned to look at the bulletin board at the school gate.
The newly posted red paper contained a notice about the awards ceremony that afternoon. The ink hadn't dried yet and rustled in the wind.
On the sycamore tree next to the bulletin board, there was still a piece of cloth that had not been blown away by the wind yesterday. It was used by Lu Jinyu to mark the location of the cat's nest. It had a half-faded pattern of a kitten printed on it.
"Are you going to watch the award ceremony?" Xu Yang's voice was very soft, as if he was afraid of disturbing something.
"Go." Lu Jinyu stacked two pieces of draft paper together and tied them into a small roll with a red string. "Even if I don't win the prize, I have to see what the first prize looks like. Maybe I can use it as a target in the future."
The two walked back along the wall. The dandelions at the base of the wall were blown up by the wind and stuck to Lu Jinyu's school uniform.
Xu Yang reached out to pick it, and his fingertips touched the cat's paw print on his back - left by Fat Orange yesterday, which had not been washed clean yet, like a stubborn little plum blossom.
The inside of the wall was newly painted white, with physics formulas written on it in chalk, probably left by a student who arrived early. One of them was a resistor symbol written crookedly, like the handwriting in Lu Jinyu's homework book.
"Oh, by the way, I hid something under the sycamore tree next to the cat bed." Lu Jinyu suddenly stopped and kicked the stones under his feet. "I wanted to show you after the competition, but I'll reveal it now to avoid the boring award ceremony later."
Under the sycamore tree in the community, Lu Jinyu pulled aside half of the weeds, revealing a tin biscuit box with a faded cartoon puppy printed on it.
When he opened it, there was a layer of soft cloth inside, and a copy of "Introduction to Veterinary Medicine" was inside. It was the same copy that I lent him yesterday, except that there were a few more lines of text on the title page: "Kitten Vaccination Schedule", three dates marked in red pen below, and three simple drawings of kittens next to them.
"Yesterday I saw you folded the corner of the vaccine page, so I added the date." Lu Jinyu scratched his head, his ears a little red. "The doctor said the second shot is very important. Don't always forget things like me."
Xu Yang opened the book and found that every page related to kitten care was cuffed with sticky notes, with key points marked with different colored pens. Blue was the feeding amount, and red was the precautions. One of the pages read "Fat Orange has a weak stomach, so probiotics should be crushed and mixed into the cat food," with a small medicine bottle drawn next to it.
He suddenly remembered that Lu Jinyu said he had read for half the night last night, and it turned out that he was not just talking casually.
"Thanks." Xu Yang put the book into his bag, right next to the four candies. "It's clearer than I remember it myself."
Lu Jinyu's eyes widened into crescents as he smiled. "Of course, I remember cat stories better than physics formulas." He kicked the stones under his feet. "But seriously, are you planning on going to the city's key school? My mom called your mom yesterday and said that the recommended students will be going to training camp next week."
Xu Yang paused, the books in his backpack pressing against his back like a heavy reminder.
"...I haven't decided yet." He looked at the black cat running across the wall, its tail drawing a dark arc in the sunlight. "I want to wait for the results of the competition, and also...take a look at the rankings of the physics semi-final."
In fact, what he didn't say was that just now in the examination room, he suddenly realized that the so-called difficult problem was never the knowledge point itself, but how to find clear clues under complex conditions.
Just like choosing the path to the future, what’s important may not be the option itself, but whether you have the courage to break down the problem.
The award ceremony was held in the lecture hall. Lu Jinyu insisted on sitting in the last row, saying that even if he didn't win the award, he could still sneak away to see the kittens at any time.
Xu Yang sat next to him with two sheets of draft paper, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the red rope on the paper roll - that was what Lu Jinyu took off from his schoolbag, saying that this would help him tie together the "inspiration for solving the problem."
While the principal was speaking, Lu Jinyu drew a picture on the back of his draft paper of a puppy holding a certificate, with a kitten next to it secretly gnawing at the edge of the certificate.
"Look, this is the difference between being good at physics and being bad at it." He pushed the paper over and drew a tuft of hair on the puppy's head with the tip of his pen. "But the cat chewing on the certificate is cuter."
Xu Yang couldn't help laughing, and the teacher in the front row turned around and glared at him. He lowered his head and drew a small resistor next to the kitten. The resistance value was exactly the sum of their student numbers - Lu Jinyu's student number was 23, and his was 17, which added up to exactly 40, like the standard resistance value commonly used in physics experiments.
When the first-place winners were announced, Xu Yang heard his own name echoing in the empty classroom. As he stood up, Lu Jinyu suddenly tugged at the corner of his school uniform and stuffed the pebble into his hand: "Take it. Good luck! Maybe you can make the provincial team."
As he stepped onto the podium, sunlight streamed down from the high windows, scorching the gold lettering on the certificate. The moment Xu Yang took the trophy, he glanced down at the audience and saw Lu Jinyu holding up the two pieces of tied-together draft paper, like some impressive banner.
When he left the stage, he didn't return to his seat, but walked straight out of the lecture hall. Sure enough, Lu Jinyu followed him out, still clutching the piece of paper with the puppy and kitten drawings on it.
"I knew you could do it!" His voice was breathless, as if he had just finished an 800-meter run. "So your admission to the city's key university is secure, right? It's time to open that envelope."
Xu Yang shook his head, stuffed the trophy into his arms, and turned to walk towards the school gate. "I'm not going to the training camp." His voice was soft, but it was like a stone dropped into the middle of a lake. "I want to try to take the exam based on my own grades, just like everyone else."
Lu Jinyu stood there in a daze, the trophy in his arms pressing against his ribs, which was a bit painful, but also a bit inexplicably light.
The wind blew up the draft paper in his hand, revealing the side with the resistor drawn on it, which looked like a clear connecting line in the sunlight.
When they walked under the sycamore tree, Xu Yang looked back and found that Lu Jinyu was still standing there, with the trophy in his arms reflecting the light like a pebble warmed by the sun.
He suddenly remembered the unopened envelope, which was probably still lying on the coffee table at home, but he no longer wanted to know what was written inside.
Because the real answer may be hidden in a piece of draft paper filled with formulas, in a book filled with notes, or on the sunny road where two young people walked side by side.
The evening breeze blew up the dandelions again. Xu Yang watched the white fluff floating across Lu Jinyu's shoulders, and suddenly felt that the so-called future was actually like solving a physics problem. The important thing was not to know the answer at the beginning, but to have the courage to break it down step by step and get closer little by little.
Just like those two pieces of draft paper tied together, no matter how many variables there are ahead, there is always a clue that connects them tightly.
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