They're already in university, and the primary school system is only just starting out?

Gu Ming fully understood Chang Kai's profound meaning. He slowly inhaled and then slowly exhaled.

He stopped talking, but picked up the cup of tea that had gone cold and silently took a sip.

Chang Kai noticed the hint of dejection in his mood. After all, Gu was a protégé he had personally promoted. He softened his tone and said, "Gu, the next round of subject evaluations is about to begin."

Gu Ming suddenly looked up, a hint of realization in his eyes: "Principal, you...you've planned all this, hoping that Academician Liang can help our school during the discipline evaluation?"

Chang Kai shook his head, denying his guess: "Professor Liang and Director Chu of the Academic Affairs Center do have a very good relationship. But, Xiao Gu, you have to understand that compared to the transfer of a single student like Shen Yan, the scope and depth of interests involved in academic evaluation are far greater."

He sighed and said frankly, "It's very possible that we'll release Shen Yan in the end, but won't get any substantial rewards in other aspects. Of course," Chang Kai changed the subject, "your mathematics department shouldn't have too much of a problem this time. With your achievements over the past two years, there's still a good chance you can maintain an A-level discipline."

Gu Ming was completely baffled. Since it was highly likely to be a waste of time and effort, why would the principal go to all this trouble to do this favor? He couldn't help but ask, "Then why..."

Chang Kai looked at Gu Ming, who seemed to be stuck in a rut, and smiled meaningfully.

"Little Gu, you must remember," he held up a finger and tapped it lightly in the air, "Many times, we do a hundred things, and in the end, only one or two things may pay off. But in order to seize those one or two rewarding things, we cannot skip any of those hundred things."

These words shocked Gu Ming.

He nodded, seemingly understanding but not quite.

Chang Kai glanced at him, then at the clock on the wall, and picked up his teacup. "Alright, that's enough for today. In the next couple of days, find some time to talk to Shen Yan and tell her that we'll be going to the event to cheer on the team. But don't reveal anything more, so as not to put pressure on her and affect her performance."

"Okay, Principal." Gu Ming nodded, stood up, and prepared to leave.

"Oh, right," Chang Kai called out to him as if suddenly remembering something, "there's something else. I glanced at the list of people going to the capital this time, and there's a student named Chen Lin on it. The note says that Shen Yan specifically requested that he be added. Do you know anything about this Chen Lin?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Ming replied, "I asked Shen Yan about this. She said that Chen Lin helped their team optimize the core algorithm and made a significant contribution to the paper, so he should actually be considered a member of the team. However, since the deadline for submitting the list had passed, it couldn't be changed anymore, so they wanted to bring him to the offline exchange meeting in this way."

"The algorithm was optimized?" Chang Kai's brows furrowed subconsciously. He had specifically asked the academic affairs office to check beforehand. "But I remember, this Chen Lin is a student in the Chinese Language and Literature Department, right? This..."

Gu Ming nodded, a wry smile on his face: "Yes, I also found it strange at first. Then I thought, is there perhaps another explanation..."

He looked like he wanted to say something but hesitated.

Chang Kai was taken aback at first, but then he saw Gu Ming's expression that said, "I understand, but I'm too embarrassed to say it out loud," and instantly understood.

Students from the Chinese Language and Literature Department optimizing the core algorithm for the mathematical modeling team? Who would believe that?!

So this young couple used the guise of a school activity to go on a paid trip to Beijing for a date!

Having figured this out, Chang Kai shook his head with a wry smile.

These young people these days... they really know how to have fun.

......

That same afternoon, in Jiangdu.

Chen Lin was sitting in his bedroom, intently studying the open-source code of the Transformer architecture.

He discovered that he seemed to have genuinely found enjoyment in learning programming. The feeling was wonderful, especially when the algorithms he conceived in his mind were visualized in the real world through lines of code, and finally successfully ran on the computer to produce the expected results. A solid sense of accomplishment would arise spontaneously.

Just then, the screen of his phone, which he had casually placed on the table, suddenly lit up; it was a WeChat message notification.

Chen Lin picked up his phone and unlocked the screen.

It turned out to be the matter that Shen Yan had mentioned before—she had already added her to a newly created WeChat group.

The group name is [0714 Mathematical Modeling Competition Offline Exchange].

He clicked in and saw that there were already six people in the group, including himself. Besides Shen Yan and Li Zihan, whom he knew, he vaguely remembered the other two girls—Zhang Rong and Sun Jing—as they seemed to be Shen Yan's roommates.

There was another person on WeChat named "Dafeng" whose profile picture was a landscape photo. It seemed to be the competition instructor sent by the school to lead the team.

Not long after I joined the group, the teacher named "Dafeng" sent out a detailed schedule.

Da Feng: [@Attention all members, the itinerary for this trip to Beijing is as follows: Starting at 12:00 noon on the 13th (Sunday), you can check into the hotel arranged by Tsinghua University. Before 7:00 AM on the 14th (Monday), everyone must gather in the hotel lobby; we will proceed together to the offline exchange venue at Tsinghua University.]

Upon seeing the message, Chen Lin, like everyone else in the group, replied with "Received".

He silently considered his options. Although the notice said he could check in by noon on Sunday, he didn't want to get up early to catch the high-speed train just for that.

With that in mind, he skillfully opened the 12306 app and started operating it with lightning speed.

Soon, a train ticket was successfully booked.

13号下午12:53从江都出发，中间在金陵中转一次，傍晚18:35準时到达帝都。

Just as he finished booking the tickets, a new message popped up in the group chat, sent by Shen Yan.

Shen Yan: [@All members, Professor Gu Ming just informed me that he and Principal Chang Kai will be at the offline exchange to cheer us on.]

The group chat immediately buzzed with excitement after the message was posted.

Zhang Rong: 【!! The principal is coming?! Oh my god, I'm suddenly so nervous!】

Sun Jing: [+1, I'm under immense pressure [shivering]]

Li Zihan: [Don't be afraid, don't be afraid. When it's time for Shen Yan to speak on stage, we'll just be responsible for clapping and shouting "666" from below. [cheering][cheering] @ShenYan]

Chen Lin looked at the chat history on the screen, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Are the principal and Professor Gu Ming coming too?

He was worried about how to find an opportunity to mention to the school leaders that he wanted to change his major after the start of the semester, but he never expected that the opportunity would come to him on its own.

Not bad, not bad.

He happily typed a line in the chat box and sent it.

Chen Lin: [@Shen Yanyan, keep going!]