Chapter 274: Chapter 116: The Dispirited Youths_4

Zhou Liang nodded, a smile spreading across his face: “I see, all right, then I’ll make the arrangements. We’ll set up a game tournament at this year’s IMO too, I’m sure everyone will enjoy it. Westerners love this sort of thing more than we do.”

Qiao Yu nodded, assuring him: “Don’t worry, Professor Zhou, I promise I won’t let you down. I must bring glory to Huaxia.”

…

The training sessions ended at 9:30 PM every day during this phase, and it was almost 10 PM by the time I returned to the dorm after chatting with team leader Professor Zhou.

But no one in the dorm was asleep; everyone sat there with frowns on their faces, chatting until they saw Qiao Yu come in, and then they fell silent again.

“Boss…” Yu Yongjun greeted proactively as usual.

The others couldn’t quite bring themselves to call him “Boss” most of the time, but Yu Yongjun had no such psychological burden.

So far, Qiao Yu hadn’t managed to figure out the limits of this chubby guy yet.

But today, Qiao Yu still replied: “Don’t call me Boss anymore, we’re all classmates.”

Yu Yongjun blinked, looked at Qiao Yu, and asked: “Boss, are you saying this because I’m definitely going to get the pre-admission notice from Yanbei University?”

Qiao Yu rolled his eyes, too lazy to respond to this guy.

Whether or not you get the pre-admission notice, and from which university, all depends on your interview results. As long as you’re in the top sixty and have no other plans like going abroad, you can always have a choice between Huaqing and Yanbei.

Right now, Qiao Yu thought both schools were pretty good, whichever one you choose would have a promising future.

So after thinking for a bit, he suddenly suggested: “Alright, why don’t we hit the bed early today and just lie down and chat?”

The three roommates, after a moment of surprise, agreed with Qiao Yu’s idea and then started to wash up and get to bed.

If it was in the past, no matter how Yu Yongjun or Gong Jiatao would choose, at least Yu Wei wouldn’t bother with this kind of suggestion, might even retort sarcastically: “Since when do you get to decide when I sleep?”

The training manual only suggested lights out and sleep by eleven, and it was just a few minutes to ten now.

This time, he didn’t say a word and silently followed the other three to wash up and climb into bed. Yu Wei probably hadn’t realized this was a form of submission, or perhaps he realized it but just wouldn’t admit it.

Anyway, in a world full of soft hearts and hard mouths, there’s certainly no shortage of people like Yu Wei.

Getting into bed early, closing the door, and turning off the lights, the night suddenly felt different.

The surroundings were filled with all sorts of noises typical of communal living.

If we were actually trying to sleep, it would definitely trigger various complaints, but fortunately, none of the four had any intention of sleeping.

“Hey, what exactly are you watching these days?” Yu Yongjun, who was responsible for closing the door and turning off the lights today, didn’t let the chat session that Qiao Yu initiated fall silent. As soon as he got into a comfortable position, he asked.

He had secretly peeked at what Qiao Yu was reading.

But Qiao Yu’s papers, based on his own progress, had neither a head nor a tail, and were all in English, so he genuinely couldn’t make them out.

“Some papers downloaded from ArXiv, about the Geometric Langlands Conjecture. I’ve recently developed a strong interest in this area of research.” Qiao Yu replied straightforwardly.

However, he knew this topic probably wouldn’t spark much discussion. In fact, forget high school, even at the beginning of undergraduate studies, you wouldn’t touch on Langlands Program content.

This stuff’s not for talking about, so he continued: “My situation is different from yours, don’t compare with me. I’m attending the IMO mainly to complete a task. Once the IMO task is done, even if next year you guys get directly admitted to Yanbei University’s talent class, we most likely won’t be classmates, so it’s meaningless to compete with me.”

This was Qiao Yu’s way of comforting people, by stating the facts and making everyone aware of the gap, usually alleviates their burdens. If they still couldn’t let it go, then their mental resilience was too poor, and they wouldn’t perform well in international competitions either.

Yu Wei couldn’t bear it anymore and said: “How is your situation different from ours?”

Qiao Yu lay flat there, staring at the ceiling in the slight twilight sneaking in from the window, and asked indifferently: “You all have dads, don’t you?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Who doesn’t have a dad at home?” Gong Jiatao quickly replied and then immediately realized something was wrong.

As expected, Qiao Yu said in a flat tone: “Yeah, you all do, I don’t. See, so we are different, right?”

“No way, man, what happened to your dad? How could you not have one?” Yu Yongjun asked.

Qiao Yu calmly recounted: “He died before I was born. Because of some things, you can understand that my mom went through a phase of severe social anxiety, so she wasn’t suitable to go out to work. After my grandpa died in fifth grade, I decided to start taking care of the family.

If I don’t work hard, my mom will have to live a hard life with me, even having trouble putting food on the table. You guys haven’t faced this kind of survival pressure, you just need to study well, but I’m different, I need to not only study well but also be exceptional.

That’s where we’re different. Without experiencing survival pressure, it’s natural you can’t have my capabilities. In elementary school, I was a game booster, making money while playing games and doing homework to please the teachers, so what do you have to compare with me?