From child prodigy to chief scientist

Xu Xiao really wanted to find a topic to talk to her about, but he didn't know how to start.

He couldn't very well ask directly, "Pan Hong, do you know that you will solve the Kakeya conjecture in the future and become a Fields Medal candidate?"

After a while, Pan Hong broke the silence.

"Xu Xiao, you'll probably choose the Mathematics Department at Yenching University too, right?"

"Hmm...that's exactly what I think, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, it should be settled."

Xu Xiao no longer hid anything from Pan Hong.

"From now on, we'll be classmates."

"Yes, I still have a lot to learn from you in the future."

"You're quite modest. It's not certain who will learn from whom."

Pan Hong felt that Xu Xiao's mathematical talent was unfathomable, and the previous CMO should have been far from reaching Xu Xiao's limit.

Xu Xiao had a similar view of Pan Hong; at least compared to the fully realized Pan Hong of his previous life, he was still far inferior in his current state.

The male and female dormitories for the math competition training team were not in the same building. When they reached the fork in the road, Xu Xiao took the initiative to say:

"Do you need me to take you home?"

"You're going to give me a ride? There's no need for that."

In Pan Hong's mind, Xu Xiao was just a little brother, and it was already good enough that she didn't have to take him home.

Xu Xiao realized that it was indeed a bit strange for someone in his position to say such a thing, so he parted ways with Pan Hong.

…………

The following day, the national team training camp for math competitions officially began.

During this period, they were generally in a relaxed state.

After all, they have already secured admission to Tsinghua and Yenching Universities through direct admission, and they are no longer burdened by the pressure of the college entrance examination.

This initially made them somewhat unaccustomed to such high-intensity training, giving them a sense of awkwardness due to a long absence from combat.

Xu Xiao, on the other hand, did not feel that way at all. During the previous winter vacation, he spent almost every day doing research on his project, and the difficulty of the problem was much greater than that of the most difficult competition problem.

When faced with this kind of competition problem again, Xu Xiao felt very at ease.

After all, the question types of IMO and CMO are very similar, and in terms of difficulty, IMO is even slightly easier.

After participating in two days of training, Xu Xiao simply stopped following the coach's pace throughout.

After making sure she understood the lesson content, Xu Xiao secretly took out the paper that Yuan Jiyang had given her and began to study it.

On the afternoon of the third day of the training camp, the team organized its first live-fire simulation.

Although the results of the practical simulation will not be linked to the selection exam, everyone is taking this exam quite seriously.

In particular, Ge Xijie has been reflecting on himself since the end of his CMO term and has already started training on his own.

This is by no means an easy thing for a student who has already secured a place in a university.

He really wanted to use this training camp to prove that he was no worse than Xu Xiao and Pan Hong.

After receiving the test papers, everyone started looking at the questions.

The difficulty level of this exam is standard IMO level, which is more difficult than the first day of CMO, but not more difficult than the second day of CMO.

After glancing at the three questions, Ge Xijie felt confident that he should have no problem solving them.

This time, he not only had to get everything right, but also be the first to hand in his paper, so that everyone could see his progress over the past few days.

In just over an hour, Ge Xijie finished the first two questions and started working on the third.

Although this question was the most difficult one, with his current abilities, he could easily solve it in a little over an hour.

Just then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a figure walking past him.

Surprised, Ge Xijie couldn't help but look up.

Xu Xiao had already taken the exam paper to the podium. It was unclear whether she felt there was something wrong with the exam or had already finished and wanted to hand it in early.

Fei Ran was also somewhat puzzled when he saw Xu Xiao coming over.

"Xu Xiao, what's wrong?"

"Professor Fei, I've finished answering the questions. May I hand in my paper now?"

"What... you've already finished answering?"

Fei Ran glanced at Zhong; less than two hours had passed since the exam started.

He knew Xu Xiao was fast at solving problems, but he never imagined she could be this fast.

After taking his test paper and glancing at it briefly, Fei Ran was speechless for a moment.

Although he hadn't looked at it carefully yet, he had only seen some key steps, and he knew that Xu Xiao's solution process was basically without any problems.

In that case, there is indeed no need to keep Xu Xiao in the examination room.

"Okay, you can leave now."

"Thank you, Professor Fei."

Seeing Xu Xiao place the test paper on the podium and leave the classroom, Ge Xijie's expression became somewhat blank.

He had been working so hard during this period, and he was basically able to complete four and a half hours' worth of questions in three hours.

Even so, Xu Xiao was still able to do it faster than him, and the difference was not small.

This made Ge Xijie wonder to himself, "Is Xu Xiao really human?"

Pan Hong, on the other side, was also a little surprised to see Xu Xiao hand in her paper so early.

At this point, she had only completed half of the third question, and it would take at least another ten or twenty minutes to finish it.

As Xu Xiaoxin emerged from the classroom, he remarked that the exam was much simpler than he had imagined.

The difficulty of this set of questions is definitely not as high as the set of questions from the second day of the CMO exam.

The benefits of the flow state further enhanced Xu Xiao's problem-solving efficiency.

He had been thinking about whether he should take a short break during the exam.

However, before he could show any obvious signs of fatigue, he had already finished all the questions, so there was no need for him to rest.

"Take this time and start writing your thesis."

After several days of study, Xu Xiao has gained a certain understanding of thesis writing.

Although he couldn't bring his home computer, it was perfectly fine for him to go to the computer lab to write his thesis.

Unlike internet cafes, school computer labs do not prohibit minors from entering, so there is no need to worry about being caught.

Upon arriving at the computer lab at Tsinghua University, Xu Xiao turned on a machine and began writing her thesis.

Although the computers in the computer lab aren't high-spec, they have a full range of office software, which makes writing papers quite convenient.

At first, Xu Xiao's paper was a bit of a struggle, but as he gradually became more focused, it quickly became easier to write.

In essence, writing a thesis is a process of expressing research content in a specific form.

Xu Xiao was fully aware of the entire research process. As long as she paid more attention to the standardized format of the paper writing, there shouldn't be any major problems.