bookmarkrole Chapter 13 The Wall of Sighs
Chapter 13 The Wall of Sighs
In the back seat.
Lin Shuwan's eyes were sharp as she quickly scanned the exam paper.
The pitfalls and key concepts of each question are clearly visible.
All of them were problems she could solve, and the difficulty was even lower than she had expected.
"Very good."
A sense of relief, like surviving a disaster, welled up inside me.
But in just a moment, her brows furrowed sharply, and a question arose in her mind that even she found absurd.
Why do I feel at ease?
I, a genius, was actually congratulating myself on being able to solve such a basic problem?!
For her, who used to look down on her peers, exams were a stage for her to unilaterally slaughter ordinary people, a grand feast worth looking forward to!
Because she knew that as soon as the bell rang, she would definitely be the only queen.
The praise and envious glances of those mediocre people will inevitably arrive as expected.
But now?
She didn't know when it started, perhaps it was from the moment she was mercilessly crushed by that monster, but a strange, dark emotion began to take hold of the deepest pride in her heart.
That's a feeling of frustration.
It was an inferiority complex that even she herself dared not admit...
Lin Shuwan shook her head vigorously, a ruthless glint flashing in her eyes.
"No. I can't possibly be afraid of something like that!"
Lin Shuwan knew herself very well.
Those setbacks are nothing compared to what's to come.
I am definitely not a weakling!
Even if you're knocked to the bottom, you can still laugh as you get back up and tear your opponent to shreds!
But... what truly suffocated her in despair was that deep down she had subconsciously admitted:
Compared to that elementary school student, I am probably just a pathetic mortal!
Ever since she lost to that elementary school student for the first time, her whole world has changed.
Even though this was a crucial moment that required absolute concentration, her mind was a jumbled mess.
"Lin Shuwan, when did you start liking math? And why?"
Someone asked her that question.
The answer was outrageously harsh: because it's difficult.
She couldn't help but scoff inwardly.
That's right, she doesn't like math at all.
What she likes is the version of herself that can easily overcome things that others find more difficult than climbing to heaven.
Of course, she was even more obsessed with the crazy praise that followed.
Dad, Mom...
On the surface, they always pretended to earnestly advise her not to overwork herself, but she knew better than anyone the barely suppressed arrogance in their eyes whenever they talked about themselves with outsiders.
They are actually prouder of themselves than anyone else in the world!
Lin Shuwan suppressed her thoughts and looked at the first question.
[For real numbers a, b, c > 0, when a + b + c = 3, prove that the inequality sqrt{a^2 + 1} + sqrt{b^2 + 1} + sqrt{c^2 + 1} ≥ 3sqrt{2} holds.]
She glanced at it, and the standard answer popped into her mind.
This is an easy question that can be solved by using the Lagrange multiplier method to construct an auxiliary function, or by directly applying the AM-GM inequality with slight modifications.
But Lin Shuwan's hand remained frozen in mid-air, hesitant to fall.
She could sense it just by looking at the back of that figure in front of her.
This elementary school student is immersed in some grand thoughts that are beyond the reach of ordinary people.
His arm was waving the pen with an exciting, frightening rhythm and absolute confidence.
The rustling sound of writing continued without pause, leaving no time for thought!
Lin Shuwan clenched her teeth tightly, a faint taste of blood filling her mouth.
He must be using an extraordinary method to solve the problem...
Me, I can do it too!
Never choose a mediocre and safe path!
Simply copying that dogmatic standard answer and using an ordinary person's solution will not result in a true perfect score, let alone a victory over him!
Lin Shuwan stared intently at the question again, as if trying to see through the paper.
The form sqrt{a^2 + 1}... can seemingly be forcibly interpreted as the norm of a vector.
"Wait, should I try using Minkowski's inequality?"
The crazy idea startled even herself.
This is as absurd as requesting the deployment of an orbital planet destroyer just to kill a mosquito.
In this examination hall filled with ordinary people, probably no one would have thought of using such advanced functional analysis to solve a simple elementary algebra problem!
But that's exactly the kind of shock she wanted!
rustling.
Lin Shuwan's pen began to move busily, and formulas spread out line by line on the paper.
However, time passed by, second by second.
Twenty minutes have passed.
No matter how she continued to deduce and calculate, the logical chain that should have been closed always contained fatal errors.
Was the symbol written incorrectly? Or was there a calculation error somewhere in the middle?
No, neither.
The direction was wrong from the very beginning.
By forcibly constructing a vector space for the Minkowski inequality, it was discovered that the scaling dimensions were misaligned, and the conditions for the equality to hold completely collapsed!
"Focus, Lin Shuwan! You can do it!"
Lin Shuwan suddenly raised her hand and slapped her cheeks hard, trying to clear her mind.
The crisp sound of the slap was somewhat abrupt in the quiet examination room, but she didn't care.
Take a deep breath and start from the beginning.
Be more cautious and proceed step by step.
Tick, tick.
The sound of the clock struck her nerves like a heavy hammer.
"Why?! Why can't I solve it?! Why is this happening?!"
Normally, even using the most tedious and inefficient method, a problem of this difficulty would take less than ten minutes!
"How about... we take a step back and use the original Lagrange method? At least we can get the points."
No! Absolutely not!!
The thought had barely crossed her mind when she extinguished it in terror.
Once she backs down, once she uses a mediocre solution, she will forever be able to only look up at Su Hao's back, even until her death!
She was going to deliver a stunning answer that would make all the judges fall off their chairs in shock!
Just like when the school teachers saw Su Hao's answer sheet, they reacted as if they had seen God!
But things backfired.
The brain is like a rusty machine; the more you try to keep it running, the more uncontrollably it wanders into all sorts of random thoughts.
What am I lacking?
knowledge?
Are you kidding me!
As the youngest member of the national math Olympiad team in recent years, how could his knowledge base be inferior to that of the elementary school student in front of him?
Skill?
She has absolute confidence that she knows the patterns and variations of all the past Olympiad questions by heart and can recite them backwards.
experience?
She dares to assert that no one among her peers has experienced more high-pressure competition than she has!
So what exactly is it?!
What exactly was that stood between her and the monster in front of her, forming an insurmountable wall of sighs?!
A cruel, desperate possibility was subtly emerging in her mind:
talent.
That's God's unreasonable favoritism.
But she was immediately struck dumb and rejected it entirely!
No, absolutely not!
The problem is that now, time no longer allows her to indulge in wild thoughts.
Cold sweat slid down her forehead and soaked her temples.
She thought that as long as she adjusted her mindset, she could solve the problem, but all her calculations seemed to lead her into a dead end with no solution.
That inequality, which had seemed so simple, now appeared like a towering wall blocking her way, making it hard for her to breathe.
The pen tip poured out countless ornate formulas, densely filling the entire draft paper, but the actual proof was nowhere to be found.
Tick, tick.
Time flowed relentlessly, like a dull knife cutting into her flesh.
"There are 30 minutes left until the end of the exam."
The invigilator's calm, mechanical voice echoed in the examination room.
This seemingly casual remark instantly shattered Lin Shuwan's psychological defenses.
What does this sentence mean?
This means that she spent a full two and a half hours struggling with just the first question like an idiot!
In that instant, an overwhelming sense of exhaustion washed over me.
Lin Shuwan felt an extremely strong desire:
Give up. Just use your usual basic solutions, finish everything like an autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and leave happily, escaping this suffocating hellish battlefield.
But at the same time, a sense of fatalistic despair overwhelmed her:
If she backs down, she'll never be able to beat that monster named Su Hao in her entire life!
"Perfect score? Screw perfect score!"
Lin Shuwan's eyes were bloodshot, and like a gambler betting their last life, she frantically poured all her remaining time and energy into proving the first question!
From the age of three, Lin Shuwan was hailed as a "mathematical prodigy" and was pampered and cherished by everyone as she grew up.
Given the same age and circumstances, she was absolutely certain that she could win first place in the International Olympiad and crush everyone else.
Moreover, this was already part of her plan, which she was gradually implementing.
But now, that plan has been torn to shreds by the person in front of him with such nonchalance.
rustling.
The sounds of other candidates turning over their exam papers and finishing their writing could be heard from all around.
Everyone was doing a final check on their answers.
However, Lin Shuwan's hand holding the pen froze in mid-air, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
pat.
A drop of scalding water landed heavily on the exam paper.
pat, pat.
Tears streamed down her face, falling in large drops.
The mathematical formulas she had painstakingly written down began to blur and become tangled in her bitter tears.
Until the very last second, Lin Shuwan was unable to complete the proof of the first question using her proud method.
"Time's up. Everyone stop writing. Remain seated and wait for the papers to be collected."
Lin Shuwan raised her head blankly, looking ahead, her face covered in tears, her mind a complete blank.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew in through the window in early winter, swirling up a fallen leaf that seemed to have come from nowhere.
One inside, one outside; one in motion, one still.
This extreme use of blank space weighed heavily on Lin Shuwan's heart.
The person in front of her, the elementary school student who had stolen all her pride, was calmly organizing her test papers.
That figure appeared unusually calm, exuding a detached and aloof air that seemed to belong to another world.
He moved his hand gently and placed a pen into the pencil case.
On the pen tip, the little yellow duck pendant with a smug expression swayed with his movements, as if grinning down at the ants beneath his feet.
"Damn ducks..."
Lin Shuwan's eyes were red, and she bit her lip and muttered something in a low voice.
Watching him sling his bag over his shoulder, preparing to leave, a thought struck her like lightning:
If we just let him go like this, who knows when we'll see each other again.
Perhaps, he will leave me far behind, and I won't even be able to see his back anymore!
My chest felt like it was being crushed by a mountain, and even breathing was a tearing pain!
After handing in his exam paper, Su Hao turned around and walked out.
Swish.
"Wait a moment!"
Just as they brushed past each other, Lin Shuwan seemed to lose control of her body and instinctively reached out and grabbed Su Hao's wrist tightly.