Chapter 66: National Champion!

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

Winners of the Undergraduate Group Higher Education Society Cup: Lu Zhou, Wang Xiaodong, Lin Yuxiang (University of Jin Ling)!

The rest of the school was not excited but dorm 201 was ecstatic.

“F*ck, Zhou is nutty!”

“I told you, right? Don’t call him Zhou, call him Brother Zhou!”

“Sure, sure…”

Liu Rui looked at Huang Guangming and Shi Shang as he turned his phone off and pretended as if nothing had happened before continuing his physics homework.

Higher Education Society Cup!

Stood out from more than 70,000 college students!

Ah…

Lu Zhou was on another level than Liu Rui.

The dorm room door was pushed open and class leader Tian Jun rushed inside. Following closely behind him was school committee member Li Tao and genius Luo Rundong.

Tian Jun walked in and shouted, “F*ck dude, did you see it? Our school won a Higher Education Society Cup!” He tried to find Lu Zhou but did not see him.

Luo Rundong asked, “Where is Zhou?”

Shi Shang had a cheerful smile as if he had won the prize himself, “He’s in Beijing and he’ll come back tomorrow.”

Li Tao said, “Brother Zhou is too nutty. I wonder if he’s joining the competition next year as well. Maybe he can carry me.”

Li Tao played too much video games last semester and as a result, his grades for advanced algebra at the end of the semester were horrible. If he asked Lu Zhou to carry him in the competition, he would have gotten a guaranteed master’s entry spot.

That is the Higher Education Society Cup!

The University of Jin Ling has won the national first level prize many times, but this is the first time they ever won the championship.

Liu Rui said, “Piss off. Did you support him from the beginning? You don’t have the right to speak. So go and wait aside.”

Huang Guangming said, “Brother Rui, why are you so jealous? Do you need some medicine?”

Liu Rui: “…”

He wanted to fight someone.

…

[…]

[Undergraduate MATLAB Innovation Award winners: Wei Wen, Cui Jing, Yang Wanhong (Yanjing University)]

“How is this possible!”

Wei Wen stood up angrily and stared at the TV.

Runner up…

I got runner up!

In the venue, he scouted out all of the opponents that he thought were strong.

The three-time national first level prize genius from Wudaokou, the original team that won the championship 13 years ago, the student from the University of Jin Ling accused of being academic cancer…

Wei Wen thought Lu Zhou’s thesis were horrible.

Lu Zhou was the most unlikely to win the prize. However, it was HIM that won.

It was not as if Wei Wen disrespected him.

Wei Wen admitted that Lu Zhou was strong and Lu Zhou even managed to surprise the professors from Courant of New York University. Wei Wen was unsure of Lu Zhou’s modeling abilities, but in the field of mathematics, Lu Zhou was stronger than him.

However, mathematical modeling was a group competition – a semi-academic group research competition. It was not even a mathematics exam competition! Modeling, programming, and thesis must be completed in a rigorous division of labor. If one of the division fell below par, the rest would fall.

Wei Wen saw Lu Zhou’s teammates and did not even consider him a threat.

The programmer was an expert, but at most he was a second rated expert, not top of the line. As for the female teammate, she was so useless that he could instantly see through her.

On the surface, it was a 3v3 when it was actually a 3v1.9.

Wei Wen saw their lineup and was sure that the national first level prize was as far as they were going to go.

However…

What happened was exactly the opposite of what he expected.

The championship did not belong to him, or any team that he considered a threat but it landed on that person…

When the news segment ended, Wei Wen’s handsome face was filled with disdain as he bit his lip and sat back in his chair.

Compared to the Higher Education Society Cup, the MATLAB Innovation award was just to comfort the losers. There used to be an IBM-SPSS Innovation award which did the same thing. It basically meant that your programming was good, but your modeling was still slightly worse than the winners. Try better next time…

Most people would be happy with the result.

However, for him, anything other than the championship was meaningless.

The girl with bangs sat next to him and stared at the TV as they both remained silent.

After around ten minutes, Wei Wen suddenly spoke.

“… Xiao Jing, give me the computer.”

“Okay,” said Cui Jing as she nodded. She walked to the desk and took the tablet computer before handing it to her captain.

Wei Wen took the tablet and went on the official website.

The winner’s thesis would be publicly displayed on the website. It would be used as a sample for the others to learn and to tell the losers why they lost. It was also to let the public review the fairness of the game.

Lu Zhou’s thesis was ranked first and Wei Wen found it quickly.

He downloaded the winner’s thesis and opened the PDF file. Wei Wen frowned as he stared at the screen and carefully read from the first word to the appendix.

“…”

He went silent for half an hour before he relaxed and sighed.

“I did lose…”

There was a luck aspect in the mathematical modeling competition. If the thesis was written in the appetite of the review professors, even if the thesis was average, it could still win the second or even the national first level prize.

However, in the selection of the “Higher Education Society Cup”, which symbolized first in the country, luck did not exist. Every nominated thesis would be reviewed by every single judge.

The judge that sat in the middle? He was a former Chinese government chief architect for the lunar exploration project. He personally influenced the design of Chang’e 3. There was no one else who was more educated in aerospace.

Wei Wen finished reading Lu Zhou’s thesis and was sure of one thing.

The programming side was indistinguishable from his own. Maybe his was even better, but he lost the mathematical model side. Without a doubt, he had also lost in the thesis part.

Wei Wei noticed that the mathematical model and the thought process of the thesis was the same.

Therefore, he was sure that Lu Zhou did the modeling and thesis work all by himself.

Although some weaker teams would use the tactic of one person carrying, there had never been a team that won the Higher Education Society Cup by using the one man carry tactic.

The time for the competition was only three days and it contained a high amount of modeling and thesis writing work. If a person just did one of them, they would be exhausted. A person who did both was absolutely insane. That person would have to sacrifice eating and sleeping just to guarantee the quality of the modeling and thesis.

However, the reality was that the guy named Lu Zhou did both.

This guy is a monster…

Wei Wen’s lip went blue from the biting.

It was not because of jealousy.

It was because he felt humiliated by the opponent.

“What are you going to do?” said Cui Jing as she stood behind him.

He went silent for a while.

“I don’t plan on doing anything. It’s only a defeat.”

Wei Wen put the tablet down and stood up.

In his eyes, depression and sadness were swept away. In their place, a burning passion appeared.

Being able to compete with such an opponent is a great thing.

This is only one defeat.

Next time, I will definitely not lose!

Wei Wen paused for a second before he took a deep breath and said calmly, “Don’t forget I still have the US Competition in February!”

Cui Jing stood behind him and smiled softly.

This was the Wei Wen that she knew.

The guy that never gave up.

“Okay.”

…

Lu Zhou received many calls tonight.

Some were from dorm 201, which called him “Brother Zhou, Brother Zhou,” and asked him to buy them dinner.

This was the only time that this group of animals respected Lu Zhou like this.

Dean Zhang called as well to congratulate Lu Zhou. Then he started complimenting himself and said that he was the same when he was younger.

Lu Zhou was dumbfounded when he heard Dean Zhang.

If this guy was not a professor, Lu Zhou would have hung up.

There were people from the school that called as well.

Dean Lu, Professor Tang, and Professor Liu.

Professor Liu did not care about his image and laughed out loud, “Nicely done. Higher Education Society Cup! Our school had had a couple of national first level prizes and a couple of teams managed to go to Beijing. However, this is the first time that we won the Higher Education Society Cup!”

Professor Liu said up until here and sincerely admired Lu Zhou as he said, “You’re pretty strong. I can’t believe that you won without trying that hard. Go get the O award in the US Competition next year.”

The O award was short for Outstanding Winner which was also the grand prize. The F prize was chosen from M prizes (the first level prize), then the global O award was chosen from the F prizes. At most, there were 20 O awards.

The O award also came with awards from associations and companies and so, it was roughly equivalent to the Higher Education Society Cup. Although the titles were similar, the treatment was very different. For example, Double Siegel invested USD10,000 as a bonus for winning the O award. However, it was only for the US teams…

“It wasn’t just me. Without the code from Wang Xiaodong, I wouldn’t have won,” said Lu Zhou as he smiled humbly.

“Oh yeah, for sure,” said Professor Liu. He smiled and continued, “The school is ready to give you a 10,000 yuan bonus. The principal just talked to me on the phone and asked for my opinion. He said that since Captain Lu Zhou did both the modeling and thesis, he should just get the 10,000 yuan by himself. However, from what you’re saying, I guess I should split this $10,000 in half and give it to you and Wang Xiaodong.”

Lu Zhou was unhappy when he heard this.

“Teacher, I’ve thought it about it carefully,” said Lu Zhou. In a serious tone, he said, “Although Wang Xiaodong’s efforts were outstanding, I think that without my delegation and working up to 30 hours continuously, we wouldn’t have won this championship. Therefore…”

“Hahahaha, stop faking,” said Professor Liu. His laughter interrupted Lu Zhou and he said, “Professor Tang was right. You’re quite sneaky.”

Lu Zhou saw that Professor Liu saw through him and so, he coughed and said, “Then… At most give him a third. Half is a bit unfair. I didn’t sleep at all the second night when I was writing the thesis.”

“I’m just kidding. Principal Xu said that this money is all yours so don’t worry,” said Professor Liu with a smile. He added, “If you’re bored with Beijing, come back soon.”

Lu Zhou asked, “I’m going on the train tomorrow. Is there any urgent matter?”

“There’s no urgent matter. I just need to do a photo-shoot of you.”

Photo-shoot?

The photo certificate for the award is also online. Why do I have to take another photo?

Lu Zhou asked suspiciously, “What photo?”

Professor Liu said with a smile, “So we can stick your photo on the trophy on the wall!”

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