My IQ has been increasing year by year.

The dormitory building for the gifted youth program.

The hallway was filled with a strong, somewhat pungent smell of 84 disinfectant.

The ground was a little wet; the dormitory supervisor had just sprayed water from one end of the corridor to the other with a spray bottle.

Fang Yuanming arrived at the door of dormitory 215.

The door wasn't closed properly; there was a crack.

Fang Yuanming reached out and pushed open the door.

The air in the dormitory was slightly better than in the corridor. The window was a crack open, and a cold breeze blew in through the crack, dispersing much of the stuffy smell. Wang Dayong was holding a washed, damp rag, bending over and wiping dust off the floor.

Chu Ge, from apartment 216 across the hall, dragged a chair over from the opposite side and brazenly placed it across the aisle between the two tables.

He held an old, gray calculator in his hand, his thumb rapidly pressing the keys, his brow furrowed, muttering to himself. Chen Zhuo sat at his neatly tidy desk.

He didn't look at those thick foreign language textbooks, nor did he derive any formulas.

He was holding a small pair of scissors that he usually used to cut draft paper.

The dorm had forgotten to buy a mirror, so Chen Zhuo could only tilt his head slightly, carefully trimming the slightly long stray hairs around his ears, looking at the blurry reflection in the windowpane. "Snap."

A small tuft of black hair fell onto his shoulder. Chen Zhuo lowered his hand and brushed the hair away.

Upon seeing Fang Yuanming enter, Chen Zhuo stopped what he was doing and turned around.

"Teacher Fang."

Chen Zhuo placed the scissors on the table.

"You cut your own hair?"

Fang Yuanming walked in, his gaze falling on Chen Zhuo's somewhat uneven sideburns.

"Um."

Chen Zhuo reached out and touched the area above his ear.

"The school has been under lockdown for several days, and the barbershops outside are closed. My hair is too long and it's poking my ears."

Fang Yuanming looked at him.

The image of the ten-year-old college freshman cutting his own hair with paper cutters overlapped with the image of the reclusive, shrewd scholar Zhou Zhenhua had described on the phone in the office, who was solving a century-old problem.

This stark contrast left Fang Yuanming momentarily at a loss for what expression to wear.

"Teacher Fang, the temperature charts were handed in this morning."

Wang Dayong straightened up, threw the rag into the plastic basin at his feet, and a layer of gray foam floated on the surface of the water.

"The four of us were tested, and none of us had a fever."

"Okay, remember to open the windows for ventilation, don't cover up." Fang Yuanming nodded.

He walked to Chen Zhuo's table and looked down.

Apart from the scissors and a few broken hairs, there was only a piece of draft paper covered with numbers and symbols on the table.

"What does that even mean?"

Fang Yuanming asked casually.

Chen Zhuo followed Fang Yuanming's gaze and glanced at the paper.

"Settle the accounts."

Chen Zhuo answered very frankly.

"Settle the accounts?"

"Um."

Chen Zhuo pointed to Chu Ge, who was holding a calculator and looking bitter and resentful.

"During these few days of school closure, the cafeteria has had fewer dishes, and the supplies brought in have been limited, with even less meat and vegetables. Chu Ge took on an outsourced project, and everyone is working late into the night to catch up, so we get hungry easily." Chen Zhuo reached out and picked up the draft paper, handing it to Fang Yuanming.

Fang Yuanming reached out and took it, then looked down at it.

"Pickled cabbage and beef noodles, buy a whole case, cost 1.2 yuan per pack."

Shuanghui ham sausage, a bag of ten sausages, average price 0.8 yuan per sausage.

Braised eggs cost 1.5 yuan each in the cafeteria, but you can get them for 1 yuan each if you buy them in bulk at the school supermarket...

Below this detailed price list is a row of formulas written using simple queuing theory and probability.

The last line circled a number in red pen; it represented the optimal purchasing plan they could achieve with their scraped-to-own living expenses during the school lockdown. Fang Yuanming held the mathematical model, speechless for a long time.

"You're setting up these equations and building this model just to calculate the most cost-effective way to buy instant noodles?"

Fang Yuanming waved the paper in his hand and looked at Chen Zhuo.

"The economic base determines the superstructure."

Chen Zhuo smiled gently and pulled out a chair to sit down.

"We don't know when the school lockdown will end, so we have to be careful with our living expenses. Da Yong and the others eat a lot and do physical labor." (I know, but I hope I won't get arrested for saying this out loud.)

Wang Dayong scratched his head sheepishly and chuckled twice.

Chu Ge threw the calculator in his hand on the table and sighed.

"Teacher Fang, you have no idea."

Chu Ge leaned back in his chair and began to pour out his grievances.

"Now, the sausages and pickled vegetables in the school supermarket are almost sold out. If you go late, you can't even find a single package."

Chen Zhuo ignored Chu Ge's banter.

He opened the drawer and took out a white meal card from the very back.

"Professor Fang, are you going to the physics building later?"

Chen Zhuo stood up and handed over his meal card.

"If you happen to be passing by the first floor of the cafeteria, could you please top up my meal card for me?"

Fang Yuanming didn't answer, but looked at him.

"The top-up machine seems to be broken these past two days; I can't top up my account."

Chen Zhuo explained.

"You have to queue at the manual counter; there are too many people there."

Fang Yuanming took a deep breath and reached out to take the slightly worn meal card.

The entire Chinese physics community, from Beijing to Nanjing, from Tsinghua University to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Everyone is pulling out all the stops, searching the world for C. Zhuo, the one who can use discrete algebra to break through the singularity boundary. This person is imagined by outsiders to be a highly protected, state-level talent.

Right now, I'm in a double dorm room filled with the smell of disinfectant, cutting my hair.

Furthermore, they meticulously built a mathematical model to account for the cost difference between several boxes of instant noodles and sausages.

Now, his biggest request is for his teacher to help him queue up at the cafeteria's manual window to top up his meal card.

"The outside world is in an uproar because of Derian's paper."

Fang Yuanming put his meal card into his jacket pocket.

He looked at Chen Zhuo, his tone somewhat complicated.

"The phone in Beijing has been ringing off the hook with calls all morning from Dean Fangshi; everyone's looking for you."

Chen Zhuo reached out and gathered the stray hairs on the table together, sweeping them into the trash can next to him.

Upon hearing Fang Yuanming's words, he did not pause in his movements, nor did his expression change.

"What do you want from me?"

Chen Zhuo patted the dust off his hands.

"What else can we do? We can ask you in person about the derivation of that discrete matrix and explore the physical meaning of the universe's collapse state."

Fang Yuanming looked at him.

"If the alchemist were to hand you over now, you'd probably be able to roam freely in the domestic academic circle immediately, at least for a while." After listening, Chen Zhuo looked at the withered tree branches outside the window and thought about it seriously for two seconds.

Then, he spoke in his usual unhurried tone.

"Professor Fang, discussing the collapse of the universe is a good idea."

Chen Zhuo pointed in the direction of the dormitory building's main entrance.

"But if they really come, the auntie will have to stop them all when they get downstairs to have their temperature checked. Right now, no outsiders are allowed to enter the school, no matter who comes." Chen Zhuo turned his head and smiled at Fang Yuanming.

"Besides, I only know a few steps of the derivation of discrete matrices. If we really sit down and discuss it, I'm afraid I'll just embarrass USTC by being completely clueless." Fang Yuanming was taken aback by his words.

He looked at Chen Zhuo's expressionless face, and then couldn't help but laugh.

"Alright, Dean Fang has deflected it for you. The official line is that you are conducting classified basic research."

Fang Yuanming pointed at him.

"Just stay in your dorm and calculate your instant noodle bill. Should you top up your meal card with fifty or a hundred?"

"One hundred," Chen Zhuo said. "I'll have to add a chicken leg tonight."

Fang Yuanming waved his hand, turned around and left the dormitory, closing the door behind him.

The smell of disinfectant in the corridor was still pungent.

But Fang Yuanming felt that the smell was much more pleasant now.

He reached into his pocket and touched the meal card.

Let him continue to stay quietly in this closed campus, for the sake of chicken legs and cheap sausages tonight.

In the dormitory.

As soon as the door closed, Chu Ge turned his chair around and looked at Chen Zhuo.

"Brother Zhuo," Chu Ge said, somewhat puzzled, "Professor Fang was talking about some paper, something about the collapse of the universe, was he looking for you?"

Wang Dayong also lifted his hand out of the basin, shook off the water, and looked over curiously.

Chen Zhuo picked up the small scissors on the table again and carefully cut off the last stray hair that was sticking out by his ear, using the reflection from the window.

"It's nothing."

Chen Zhuo put the scissors back into the drawer.

"The misunderstanding about having the same name was just a joke between Teacher Fang and me."

He pulled out a chair, sat down, and took the draft paper.

"Where were we in the calculation?"

Chen Zhuo picked up a red pen and steered the conversation back on track.

"If I buy a whole case of Master Kong instant noodles, the supermarket owner will give me two braised eggs for free, right?"

"Yes, yes, yes."

Chu Ge immediately turned his attention back and nodded vigorously.

"The boss said buy one case and get two free."

Chu Ge reached for the calculator, glanced at the numbers on the screen, and then looked up at the closed door of dormitory 216 across the street. "Oh, right."

Chu Ge smacked his lips.

"That stubborn Lu Jia, he spent the whole morning across the street working on that queuing theory matrix you drew yesterday, without even moving an inch. I went to check on him just now, and his eyes were all red from staying up so long." Chu Ge, holding his pen, casually reached over and crossed out the number of sausages on Chen Zhuo's draft paper, changing the number to something else. "This work is too brain-draining."

After Chu Ge finished correcting the numbers, he tapped the paper with the tip of his pen.

"We need to add two extra sausages to his instant noodles tonight, and give him the braised egg that came with it too. We'll adjust the portions for the three of us down a bit, and eat more sparingly." Chen Zhuo nodded as he looked at the numbers Chu Ge had changed.

"Okay, I'll buy it the way you changed it."

Chen Zhuo picked up a red pen and put a checkmark next to the modified number.

Outside the window, a few fearless sparrows landed on the bare branches, chirped a couple of times, and then fluttered their wings and flew away.