King of Technology: A Fresh Start in 1983

The day before the National Day holiday, Zhou Yuguang called Zhang Wei to his office.

He closed the door and asked directly, "Xiao Zhang, what are your plans for the holiday?"

Zhang Wei shook his head.

Zhou Yuguang got straight to the point, "I'd like to ask you for a personal favor, is that alright?"

"Mr. Zhou, please tell me what's wrong."

"My daughter just started high school and this semester she started learning solid geometry. She's been learning for a month but hasn't really grasped it yet, and her unit test results weren't good."

"Could you perhaps spare some time to tutor her?"

"I've forgotten all the math I learned decades ago... I could manage with junior high algebra, but by high school, I was out of a job as a tutor."

Zhang Wei readily agreed: "No problem, I'm just killing time anyway."

"Their school only teaches one unit, so it won't be anything too profound or complicated."

Zhou Yuguang continued, "I just feel that she might not have grasped the concept yet, so you should try to give her some pointers."

I'll do my best.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Wei asked again, "Engineer Zhou, where would you like to provide tutoring?"

Zhou Yuguang thought for a moment and said, "Let's do it at the company. It's closer to home. After the tutoring session, you and Yuanyuan can come to my house for dinner."

After saying that, Zhou Yuguang immediately asked, "But Xiao Zhang, you seem to live at He Fan's house, right? Isn't it too far from Xuanwumen Street?"

Zhang Wei quickly waved his hand: "Engineer Zhou, please don't be so polite. You don't need to worry about me. I'm on my own, so it's convenient for me no matter what."

...

On the first day of the National Day holiday, Zhang Wei arrived at the company early.

He took out a book titled "Basic Training in Solid Geometry for First-Year High School Students" from his bag, which he had specially bought at the Xinhua Bookstore in Wangfujing.

He had been reading the book for a short while when he heard a soft knock on the door. He then called out, "Come in."

The door was pushed open, and a girl appeared timidly in the doorway.

Zhang Wei stood up. The girl was wearing a red and white tracksuit-style school uniform, and her lips were moving, clearly wanting to address him.

Zhang Wei thought to himself, "Please don't call me uncle!"

Unexpectedly, the girl nodded and greeted, "Hello, Teacher Zhang!"

"No, I call your dad 'teacher.' If you call me 'teacher,' then your dad will become your grandmaster..."

Zhang Wei's joke did not lighten the atmosphere; the girl was even more embarrassed and didn't know what to do.

Zhang Wei muttered, "Your dad is twenty years older than me..."

The girl blurted out, "Then you're ten years older than me."

"Hmm?" Zhang Wei thought for a moment, "Just call me Lao Zhang."

"That wouldn't be polite," the girl thought for a moment. "I'll call you Brother Zhang then."

Zhang Wei thought for a moment, then nodded: "Okay. By the way, what's your name? I've heard your dad mention it, Yuanyuan..."

"Zhou Xiaoyuan".

"Which yuan?"

"The Yuan in Li Yuanyuan's name."

"Which Li, Yuanyuan?"

"She's the most beautiful female lead in the TV series 'Fortress Besieged,' hey, you haven't seen 'Fortress Besieged,' have you?"

Zhang Wei first nodded, then shook his head.

"So, it seems you didn't know the male lead's name was Chen Daoming?"

Zhang Wei shook his head again.

Zhou Xiaoyuan looked at him incredulously, then sighed, "Well, let me put it this way, it's the radical for 'woman,' and the right side looks like 'love,' but it's not really 'love'..."

"Oh, I see, the 'yuan' in 'socialite'."

"Socialite? Why did you think of that word? I don't like it, it sounds so tacky..." Zhou Xiaoyuan said immediately, dissatisfied.

"Oh, but I can't think of any other words." Zhang Wei said somewhat awkwardly.

Zhou Xiaoyuan changed the subject and asked, "So what's your name? My dad only told me your surname is Zhang."

"Zhang Wei, the 'Wei' in 'great.' By the way, from now on, please don't use 'formal' (formal), just use 'you' (person), okay?"

"That's not good, that's very impolite."

Zhang Wei said earnestly, "Politeness is meant to make the other person feel comfortable and at ease. When you use those 'you' and 'you' to me, I feel uncomfortable and uneasy."

Zhou Xiaoyuan nodded thoughtfully, "Alright then!"

Zhang Wei laughed and said, "Alright, let's start discussing solid geometry."

I checked the mistakes in Zhou Xiaoyuan's homework, especially the big question she couldn't solve at the end of the unit test.

Zhang Wei found the root of her problem.

Next, I found several similar questions from the basic skills training and had her do them.

Soon, Zhou Xiaoyuan also realized where the problem lay.

She said discouragedly, "How do I find this auxiliary surface? It's too difficult..."

Zhang Wei asked with a smile, "Don't we often use auxiliary lines in plane geometry?"

"But those auxiliary lines are visible; although they are dotted lines, they are still real."

"But how did you come up with the auxiliary faces for this hexahedron?"

"I can't just find a building block and saw off a corner..." Zhou Xiaoyuan couldn't help but feel anxious.

After a moment of silence, Zhang Wei suddenly said, "By the way, close your eyes."

Zhou Xiaoyuan was taken aback: "What?"

Zhang Wei explained, "I'm asking you, don't you really want to see that auxiliary surface that's actually invisible?"

Zhou Xiaoyuan thought for a while and nodded.

Zhang Wei continued, "Alright! Since we can't see it, why not just close our eyes, not look at it, and imagine it instead?"

Zhou Xiaoyuan was taken aback: "Close your eyes? Imagine it?"

"Yes, for example, this corner of a hexahedron. The more you stare at it, the more it will block your view and interfere with your imagination. You might as well not look at it."

"Hmm, I'll give it a try." Zhou Xiaoyuan seemed to understand but not quite.

"Don't just try it, try thinking about it," Zhang Wei said with a smile.

Zhou Xiaoyuan smiled, then closed her eyes, her brows gradually furrowing.

At that moment, Zhang Wei saw her eyes darting around under her eyelids.

After a while, Zhou Xiaoyuan suddenly opened her eyes and exclaimed excitedly, "I've figured it out! I've finally figured it out!"

"Tell me, what have you come up with?"

"I can imagine drawing a perpendicular line from the vertex opposite this corner to this auxiliary surface!"

Zhang Wei was overjoyed and immediately found a problem in the book: "Try this one again, do it with your eyes closed."

Zhou Xiaoyuan laughed childishly: "What? You have to open your eyes and read the question carefully before closing them and thinking about it, okay?"

After reading the question, she muttered to herself as if summarizing the key points: "Since I can't see it, I might as well not look at it. If I close my eyes, I won't be affected by what's in front of me."

Then he held his breath, focused his mind, and closed his eyelids.

Looking at Zhou Xiaoyuan, who was lost in her imagination, Zhang Wei suddenly felt something.

"Since you can't see it, just don't look. Close your eyes and you won't be affected by what's in front of you."

Yes! Aren't our own prospects, future, and hopes just like this auxiliary surface?

Since we can't see it now, why bother trying to find its signs with our eyes?

What we can't see or imagine right now may very well appear in the future.

Just as the absence of light in the darkness does not mean that dawn will not arrive.

At this moment, a faint smile appeared on Zhang Wei's face.