Rebirth 08: A Happy Life Begins in Elementary School

Chapter 114 Capturing a Childhood Genius

Because Li Changlin was going to do business, Zhou Xiaoyun accompanied Li Zhao to New Taipei First Senior High School.

She was very nervous.

He was so nervous that he even suggested, "Son, why don't you go by yourself?"

Then, after being thoroughly criticized by Li Changlin, he deeply reflected on his cowardice and, with a proud attitude, took Li Zhao to New Taipei First Senior High School.

It's still the classic way of taking the bus.

"Son, Mom shouldn't need to say anything later, right?"

"I really don't understand, what's so nerve-wracking about going to New Taipei First High School?"

Zhou Xiaoyun sighed softly, "There are only two families today. The other child is definitely as outstanding as you, and their parents must be outstanding too. When the teachers hold a seminar or something, you won't have any problems, but I really don't know what your mother will say."

"What a stereotypical and embarrassing display of ignorance."

"Oh dear, it's mainly because you've changed so quickly, I didn't have enough expectations! Last semester I was still thinking about whether you could get into the top 100 at Xinbei No.1 High School, and this semester it's suddenly like this." Zhou Xiaoyun lowered her voice, "Mom is also afraid that if I say something bad later, it will affect you."

"You don't need to say anything," Li Zhao said.

"real?"

"Really. I'll do the talking; you just need to keep smiling and nodding, giving positive feedback." Li Zhao looked at Zhou Xiaoyun. "You can't not do that, can you?"

"No problem!"

When someone is anxious, if you don't want to address the root cause of the problem, but simply want them to stop causing trouble and actually making things worse, the solution is very simple:

Leave it to me.

The absolute cure for all anxiety.

This bus route has a stop called Xinbei No.1 Middle School, located in a small square next to the main gate of Xinbei No.1 Middle School. Students living in the old city who take the bus home usually wait in this small square.

To Li Zhao's surprise, Han Xu and Wang Wenzhao were already waiting at the door.

What a grand gesture! And this is Saturday, working overtime!

"Welcome, welcome, Li Zhao and Li Zhao's mother." Han Xu greeted them with a smile.

Wang Wenzhao stood behind him, smiling and nodding.

"The other student arrived two minutes earlier than you, just in time. Let me introduce him first."

Han Xu seemed very happy as he led Li Zhao into the school. Under the banyan tree stood a mother and son. The mother was dressed very well, suggesting a good family background. The son was tall and thin, wearing glasses, and of average build.

"Weisong, and Weisong's mother, this is Li Zhao whom you talked about, and Li Zhao's parents."

"Oh my, this child is truly a handsome young man." The other mother spoke with the air of a seasoned veteran. "Come on, Weisong, say hello to your future good friend."

Then everyone entered into a slightly awkward exchange of pleasantries.

But Li Zhao's mind was racing—Vison?

Wu Weisong? Could it be?

Looking at it this way, it really does look a bit like it. No, wait, isn't this the real deal?

In his previous life, Li Zhao joined Leo Planning and worked his way up to department manager, where he met many impressive people.

Wu Weisong is one of them; he is a native of New Taipei City.

People call him a genius and a child prodigy. He showed extraordinary talent from a young age. He was specially recruited by the computer science department of a university in Linyi, but switched directly to urban design for his postgraduate studies. During his university years, his smart city model won a national gold medal. He then devoted himself to the field of large-scale smart city models and gained a high reputation in his niche at a young age.

Li Zhao was deeply impressed by him because they were about the same age at the time and seemed to admire each other.

Li Zhao admired his scholarly label, but he, in turn, admired Li Zhao's eloquence and versatility.

Later, after getting to know him better, I learned that Wu Weisong was ridiculed as a "bookworm" since childhood because he liked to think deeply. His parents were both business people who were very good at getting things done, and they were quite dissatisfied with their son's taciturn personality, which ultimately made Wu Weisong's entire adolescence very gloomy.

His research was somewhat out of necessity, and it wasn't a complete realization of his talent.

He doesn't like pure mathematics and science, but cares more about "people". His thinking combines humanities and mathematics, so studying computer science alone made him very painful. It wasn't until he started researching smart cities that he found a direction he was willing to fight for.

Therefore, he admired Li Zhao. Beneath the surface of his so-called eloquence and all-powerful war god status lay Li Zhao's expertise in the humanities...

His thinking on urban planning theory is much more vivid than Wu Weisong's.

At a business banquet, Wu Weisong said to Jiang, Li Zhao's boss, "If I had known Li Zhao before, we might have been able to do something amazing together." Jiang replied casually, "It's not too late now."

Actually, it was too late, because Li Zhao and Wu Weisong were already representing two teams. The teams were only concerned with their own interests. The integration of the smart city project with the actual planning was not just a matter between the two teams. The local government in the project area changed its leadership and went from supporting to not supporting, so the project failed.

Wu Weisong went north with his team to conduct collaborative research, reportedly heading towards AI development, while Li Zhao stayed in Linjiang to continue making money.

Until Li Zhao was reborn, the two never crossed paths again.

What a coincidence!

It's also worth considering that with the labels "New Taipei local" and "child prodigy," he is most likely a student at New Taipei First Senior High School. The two are of similar age, so it's perfectly normal for their paths to cross in this life.

It's a wonderful feeling.

Looking at Wu Weisong, who was completely lost in thought and only showed a timid expression when his mother called him occasionally, Li Zhao thought to himself, "No wonder your adolescence is so bleak."

Even stacking up your academic superstar status won't save you.

"This is Wu Weisong, from Xinbei Central Elementary School. He's exceptionally good at math, getting a perfect score in the fifth-grade Qingmiao Cup Math Competition, and representing Linjiang Province in the National Elementary School Math Competition, where he won second prize. And I've heard he's quite good at tinkering with electronic products, right?" Han Xu introduced him to Li Zhao, glancing at Wu Weisong's mother as he spoke.

"Yes, I like to read magazines and tinker with computers in my spare time."

Zhou Xiaoyun really wanted to exclaim how amazing the kid was, but remembering her son's instructions, she simply smiled and nodded calmly.

Wang Wenzhao thought to himself, "No wonder he's in international trade; he's seen the world."

"This is Li Zhao, whom I introduced to you before. He's the first-place winner in the National Primary School English Competition, the only one to get a perfect score. His Chinese composition skills are also very high. From what I've gotten to know him, he's a very mature child with deep thinking and a broad perspective," Han Xu introduced. "Come on, get to know each other. You'll all be classmates from now on."

"Veson, please give me your guidance." Li Zhao extended his hand crisply.

Wu Weisong's mother's eyes lit up immediately.

Wu Weisong seemed a little pressured and slowly extended his hand. Li Zhao stepped forward and shook it. "We're classmates now. You're good at computers, right?"

"I wouldn't call it my forte."

"You're definitely better than me. I just bought a computer; can I ask you for help if I have any problems later?"

"If you have it, that's fine."

"QQ?"

Wu Weisong answered with a string of numbers in a flash, reciting them very quickly.

Dude, you really don't know how to socialize. Who can remember a nine-figure sum?

Li Zhao pulled a stack of sticky notes from his pocket, beckoned to Wang Wenzhao, who understood and handed him a pen. "Read it again?"

Wu Weisong adjusted his glasses and began to read very slowly again.

The two parents and the teacher watched from behind, beaming with joy.

"See? I told you they could become good friends, didn't I?"

The next step was for Han Xu to lead everyone on a tour of Xinbei High School and introduce the campus.

But the two children gradually drifted apart, wandering off the route but remaining within the adults' sight.

This made Han Xu increasingly less confident. The protagonist wouldn't listen, and the two mothers, one observing Li Zhao and the other maintaining a calm smile, offered no response whatsoever.

The key is whether Li Zhao is being observed by Wu Weisong's mother.

Because it was the first time he had seen his son take the initiative to chat with a classmate he had just met, and chat so excitedly.

Does Li Zhao possess some kind of magic?

Of course there was. The two started by chatting about computers with a lot of distance between them, which somehow managed to spark Wu Weisong's desire to express himself. Then, this guy suddenly jumped to a different angle: "Do you think computers can have self-awareness?"

If it were someone else, the conversation would have died.

If a normal person is chatting about computer games, and you say something like this next, they'll most likely be confused and the conversation will end awkwardly. Little Wu Weisong will start to withdraw into himself—and this cycle will continue until he becomes completely silent.

"Artificial intelligence? Like Skynet in Terminator?"

Wu Weisong's eyes lit up immediately, and his glasses seemed to start reflecting light.

Li Zhao, a magical boy who has a knack for illuminating other people's eyes.

"Yes, you know about it?"

"I don't know it very well."

I only know that AI will experience explosive growth in the next twenty years, I only have a basic understanding of how AI works, and I only know what AI can actually do.

Anyway, it should be different from the sci-fi imagination we had back in 08.

"Will there be a machine crisis?"

"I think it definitely won't happen within the next twenty years."

Why?

"This is just my guess. Compared to turning computers into human brains, I think that accumulating big data and fully utilizing the computing power of computers to produce a tool that can learn on its own is a more reliable and feasible approach."

Wu Weisong's mouth was already slightly open. "Self-study?"

"For example, how can you teach a computer to recognize a cat?"

Wu Weisong was clearly very interested, his expression was delighted, "Give him instructions, tell him what a cat is."

"It's about writing down the rules and instilling knowledge in him."

"Hmm, I understand. You mean to cram it with a massive amount of knowledge from the internet?"

Xiao Wu, you have so many questions.

"Knowledge is inexhaustible, and this isn't really learning. Parsing massive amounts of knowledge into instructions is itself extremely difficult," Li Zhao said. "Furthermore, what's the difference between the resulting tool and the internet itself? A faster, more professional search engine?"

Wu Weisong was not at all discouraged by Li Zhao's question; on the contrary, he became even more excited. "So, what's your plan?"

"Directly feed him a massive amount of cat pictures, write an algorithm to let him summarize the patterns in the pictures, and then let him define these patterns as 'cats.' Continue feeding him a massive amount of pictures containing cats or similar cats, let him distinguish them, conduct spot checks and error reporting, and let him continuously optimize the definition. Then, treat the above content as a workflow —"

Wu Weisong stood still, feeling as if he had found a kindred spirit.