I control the AI ​​empire thanks to the geniuses in my group.

Su Zhou opened the group chat; there were already 99+ messages.

He quickly scrolled up and roughly figured out what had happened.

Leibniz is bothering Newton again.

Leibniz: Mr. Newton, you are acquainted with the Falconer, could you introduce me to him? I have some mathematical questions I would like to ask him.

[Leibniz: Mr. Newton?]

The message disappeared without a trace, and it wasn't until a full half hour later that Newton finally resurfaced.

[Newton: Oh, you mean him? He is indeed very busy. After all, truly talented people are always busy, unlike some people who just take other people's work and then go around bragging about it!]

Su Zhou almost burst out laughing.

Good heavens, this level of sarcastic and unsettling tone has remained unchanged for three hundred years.

The dispute over the invention of calculus between these two scientific giants lasted for half a century, with the British and continental European mathematical communities completely at odds. Unexpectedly, this animosity has crossed time and space to spread into a group chat.

Leibniz was clearly taken aback, but he was quite composed and held back his anger, continuing to relentlessly press for answers.

[Leibniz: Mr. Newton, I sincerely seek your guidance. I have recently been studying a new way of counting, using only the two digits 0 and 1 to represent all numbers, but I am now somewhat confused... I am not sure if this thing has any practical use other than mathematical interest.]

[Newton: Useless, just like your calculus.]

Descartes: ...

Shannon: I suggest tagging @EagleWarrior directly.

Leibniz: I tagged him, but he didn't reply.

Newton: Hmph.

Su Zhou's lips twitched slightly when he saw this.

He never gets tired of watching these gods argue.

He continued scrolling up and, sure enough, saw that Leibniz had sent him a long message, detailing his research and confusion about binary.

The core issue boils down to one question: is binary actually useful?

Su Zhou leaned against the wall, his thumb rapidly swiping across the screen.

To be honest, he understood Leibniz's feelings all too well.

In 1703, when the paper on binary systems was first published, the general reaction of the European academic community was, "Oh, that's interesting, but then what?"

Nobody thought this thing had any practical value; even Leibniz himself began to waver.

But Su Zhou knew that three hundred years later, the entire digital world of human civilization would be built upon these two numbers.

He thought for a moment, and instead of replying to Leibniz directly, he opened his browser and searched for a few minutes before copying and pasting a picture and a piece of text into the group chat.

That was a square and round diagram of the sixty-four hexagrams of the Fuxi Pre-Heaven Bagua.

[Eagle Warrior: Mr. Leibniz, what you're saying about binary is certainly useful, and very useful indeed. But before I tell you how useful it is, I'd like to show you something first.]

【Eagle Warrior】: This is the Fuxi Pre-Heaven Bagua and the Sixty-Four Hexagrams from China. Yin lines represent 0 and Yang lines represent 1. From Kun hexagram 000000 to Qian hexagram 111111, it corresponds exactly to the binary numbers 0 to 63.

【Eagle Warrior】: In other words, thousands of years ago, the ancient Chinese philosophers were already using what you call binary.

Leibniz: What?!

Leibniz: That's impossible! You mean, ancient Eastern philosophers, thousands of years ago, already...?

[Turing: Wait, let me look at this picture... Good heavens, this arrangement...]

Gödel: Interesting, very interesting. From a purely mathematical point of view, this coding system is indeed a complete binary representation.

Newton: The things from this great Eastern power are indeed exquisite!

[Leibniz: Falcon Warrior! Please, please tell me the complete details of this system! This is extremely important!]

Su Zhou watched as Leibniz sent seven or eight messages in a row, each ending with an increasing number of exclamation marks, and shook his head with a smile.

Historically, Leibniz did indeed solidify his belief in binary systems only after coming into contact with the Eight Trigrams. However, in the original timeline, this information was brought back from China by the French missionary Joachim Bouvet. Now, well... the information channel has changed.

[Eagle Warrior: You can't truly appreciate the subtleties of the Eight Trigrams just by looking at pictures. Here's a plan for you; follow it for a more intuitive experience.]

[The Falcon Warrior: Find 24 people, each holding a black flag and a white flag. Arrange these 24 people in a specific formation, with the black side facing up representing 0 and the white side facing up representing 1.]

He quickly typed out a long paragraph, briefly outlining the basic logic gate demonstration scheme for a human computer, using a person manually raising a flag to simulate the basic operations of "AND gate", "OR gate", and "NOT gate".

The core idea of ​​this scheme is very simple: each person decides whether to flip the flag to white or black based on the flag status of the two people next to them. Once the rules are fixed, the array of 24 people can complete the most basic binary logic operations.

The scheme was short, but it was enough for Leibniz to see firsthand that the two simple numbers 0 and 1, after being combined and constrained by the rules of operation, could actually be used to calculate something.

[Eagle Warrior: Try this solution once, and you'll see that binary isn't just a mathematical game; it's a practically functional computing system. As for its future potential... believe me, it will exceed your imagination.]

After the message was sent, there was a long silence on the other end.

Then Leibniz sent a message.

Leibniz: I'll go find someone to do this experiment right away! My God, I'm so excited!

[Newton: Haha, it's all thanks to the brave eagle hunter who managed to solve it.]

Leibniz: When did I say I was trying to steal the credit?!

[Newton: Need I say more? Isn't this your standard procedure?]

Uh, these two are arguing again.

Forget it, there's no point in trying to persuade them.

Su Zhou turned off his phone, and Old Li called out, "Su Zhou, come here for a second!"

Old Li said excitedly, "Principal Ma just called me and asked me to take you to the senior high school section right now to find Teacher Zhou, the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Grade 1."

Su Zhou raised an eyebrow slightly: "So fast?"

"Yes! Principal Ma means that with your level, staying in the first year of junior high is a complete waste of time. He also heard Coach Zhang's evaluation today. He thinks you should at least go to the senior high school to adapt and get on track for competition training as soon as possible."

As he spoke, Old Li tidied up the things on the table with remarkable efficiency: "Come on, come on, I'll take you there."

The teachers who remained in the office wore expressions of envy.

The senior high school building is located on the east side of the campus, separated from the junior high school building by a playground.

As Su Zhou followed Lao Li across the playground, it was the end of the high school term. Groups of students poured out of the teaching building, and a few high school students glanced at him and Lao Li curiously as they passed by.

The homeroom teacher's office for Class 3, Grade 1 is at the end of the third floor.

Old Li led Su Zhou inside after knocking on the door.

Inside the room, several teachers were quietly writing something, ignoring them.

A middle-aged man in his early forties sat behind a desk, holding a red pen, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, with a slightly balding head and furrowed brows, looking at them.

Ms. Zhou is the homeroom teacher of Class 3, Grade 11, and teaches mathematics.

The first-year high school group was known for its strictness. The class he taught was the top class in the entire grade, the best of the best, with a 60% first-tier university admission rate every year. In the words of the high school teachers in private, Mr. Zhou valued the class's performance more than his own life.

Moreover, there were two math competition students in their class, so Teacher Zhou wasn't particularly enthusiastic about Su Zhou.

"Old Zhou!" Old Li greeted him with a smile, "Principal Ma told you, right?"

Teacher Zhou put down the red pen, took off his glasses and wiped them, and said in a less than enthusiastic tone, "I told you, please sit down."

After Lao Li and Su Zhou sat down, Teacher Zhou put his glasses back on and went straight to the point: "You're Su Zhou?"

"Um."

How old are you this year?

"Thirteen."

Teacher Zhou's lips twitched, and he said, "Old Li, let me make myself clear first."

"I can't say anything about Principal Ma's arrangements, but I have one request: that they not affect our class's grades."

"this……"

"Class 3 is a top class with 42 students, each of whom was among the top 200 in the city's high school entrance exam. The class's learning pace and atmosphere have just stabilized since the start of the semester."

"You suddenly throw a seventh-grade student in here, how am I supposed to manage him, Lao Li?"

Old Li opened his mouth as if to say something, but Teacher Zhou raised his hand to signal him not to rush.

"I'm not targeting this kid specifically. Zhang Hengyuan recommended him, which shows that he's really good at math, and I acknowledge that."

"But high school isn't just about math. Zhao Zixuan and Song Yuhan are in our class, and they've excelled in Chinese, English, physics, chemistry, biology, politics, history, and geography. You're just a seventh grader who hasn't even attended many middle school classes and hasn't even memorized the most basic periodic table of elements. How are you going to compete with the kids in our class?"

"What if you fall behind in your other subjects and your monthly exam scores drag down the class average? How will I explain that to your parents? How will I explain it to the grade level committee when the school is evaluating students for awards?"

Teacher Zhou has seen far too many cases like this.

Our class's goal for the monthly exams this semester is to get first place.

Teacher Zhou's gaze at Old Li was very clear.

It's easy for you to squeeze people in, but if something goes wrong later, are you going to take responsibility?

Old Li was a bit embarrassed by the rebuttal. Although he knew that Su Zhou was good at math competitions, what Teacher Zhou said was true. He really had no idea what level Su Zhou was at in other subjects.

Just as Lao Li was about to speak up to smooth things over, Su Zhou spoke up.

"Teacher Zhou."

Teacher Zhou and Lao Li both looked at him.

Su Zhou sat upright in the chair, his face showing none of the timidity or nervousness commonly seen in thirteen-year-olds.

"I understand your concerns, but I can guarantee one thing."

"What is it?"

"Whether it's a monthly exam or a final exam, I won't let Class 3 down."

"Do you know how difficult the first year of high school courses are?" Teacher Zhou didn't mean to be sarcastic; he just wanted Su Zhou to face the facts.

"Take English for example. The reading comprehension and cloze tests in the first year of high school are on a completely different level from those in junior high. The vocabulary is three or four thousand words less. And chemistry, you haven't even learned the basics of the third year of junior high. Do you know how to balance equations? Have you learned how to name organic compounds?"

Old Li listened from the side, feeling a surge of tension.

He looked at Su Zhou, half worried and half curious, wondering how this kid was going to respond to that.

But Su Zhou's expression remained unchanged.

"Teacher Zhou, words are not enough. How about this?" Su Zhou looked at Teacher Zhou.

"Give me a test."

Teacher Zhou laughed, thinking to himself, "You probably thought I'd give you a math test, but hey, I'm not going to do what you expect."

He said to a stylishly dressed teacher next to him, "Ms. Qi, you teach English, why don't you test him?"

Teacher Qi had been listening to the commotion over here. When she heard Teacher Zhou's words, she looked Su Zhou up and down and a smile of interest appeared on her lips.

She didn't even take the test paper; instead, she leaned against the desk, parted her red lips, and blurted out in rapid-fire American English: "Alright, boy. Since you're so confident, let's skip the boring grammar test. Tell me, why do you think you can handle the pressure of high school? And please, no simple words."

(Okay, boy, since you're so confident, let's skip the boring grammar test and tell me what makes you think you can handle the pressure of high school? Please don't use simple vocabulary.)

This sentence is full of connected speech and weak forms. Let alone a junior high student who just jumped up, even a top high school student would probably have their brain freeze for a few seconds before they could react.

Teacher Zhou picked up the thermos and slowly blew on the floating leaves, preparing to see the boy's embarrassed state of blushing and stammering. Old Li was also sweating bullets beside him.

However, Su Zhou didn't stammer for even half a second.

He looked at Teacher Qi quietly, his eyes showing no emotion.

Immediately afterwards, a clear, fluent British accent rang out in the office: "To be entirely frank, Ms. Qi, the perceived chasm between junior and senior curricula is merely an illusion created by inefficient learning methods."

(To be honest, Mr. Qi, the so-called gap between junior high and high school is just an illusion created by inefficient learning methods.)

Teacher Zhou almost choked on the goji berry water she had just drunk.

Old Li's eyes widened in disbelief.

It wasn't because Su Zhou understood, nor because he spoke very fast.

It's because of... this accent.

There is not a trace of the stiffness that comes from the assembly line of exam-oriented education. The fullness of every vowel, the plosiveness of the consonants, and even the elegant and restrained falling tone at the end of the sentence are just like those of a foreigner!

Teacher Qi's face turned slightly red.

Because she discovered that Su Zhou was speaking with a pure British accent!

You know, it's already very difficult for the average student to master an American accent, and the other person was speaking with a perfect British accent!

As an outstanding teacher with a TEM-8 (Test for English Majors-Band 8) and who has taught advanced classes every year, she knows all too well the value of this kind of spoken English.

In comparison, her proud American pronunciation just now seemed like a nouveau riche showing off her skills in front of this authentic London accent.

In the world of accents, the British accent is considered more sophisticated than the American accent!

This is the hierarchy of contempt!

Ignoring their shocked looks, Su Zhou continued in her calm and elegant voice: "Vocabulary is essentially a structural mapping. Once you grasp the roots, affixes, and their historical derivation, memorizing three thousand words is no more difficult than assembling Lego bricks. Any other questions?"

(Vocabulary is essentially a structural mapping. Once you grasp word roots, affixes, and their historical evolution, memorizing three thousand words is no harder than building Lego sets. Any other questions?)

"Or, if you find linguistics a bit dry, we could certainly delve into something more fascinating."

(Or, if you find linguistics a bit dry, we can certainly delve into some more interesting topics.)

"For instance, the historical evolution of the British Empire, or perhaps Sir Isaac Newton's legendary years at Trinity College, Cambridge, including his profound obsession with calculus... and of course, alchemy. I am more than happy to discuss any of these with you."

(For example, the history of the British Empire, or Sir Isaac Newton's legendary years at Trinity College, Cambridge, including his calculus... and of course, his deep fascination with alchemy; I would be happy to discuss these with you.)

With a pure London accent, authentic connected speech, and advanced vocabulary and complex sentences at the GRE level, Su Zhou remained completely unfazed.

Let's chat, isn't it you who wants to chat?

I know Newton very well!

Su Zhou remained completely calm.

Teacher Qi was stunned.

She had no idea that Su Zhou knew so much!

The key is that Su Zhou knows things related to Newton, but she doesn't. How can they talk about that?

When Teacher Zhou saw that Teacher Qi was speechless, he knew that his move had backfired.

He coughed, adopting the authority of an excellent teacher, and tried to smooth things over, saying, "I have to admit, your English is very standard, but what about your other subjects? The college entrance exam won't just test English."

Su Zhou calmly said, "Give me a chance. If my total score doesn't rank in the top ten of the class in next month's monthly exam, I'll leave on my own without you having to tell me."

The office fell silent for a moment.

Old Li's eyes widened.

Top ten? ?