wavenovel Chapter 62: Why did they hand in their papers?
Chapter 62: Why did they hand in their papers?
In area A-07, Lu Feng has already finished revising the last paragraph of the paper.
He moved the cursor back to the beginning of the document and read through it from the abstract to the conclusion to make sure nothing was missed.
Export to PDF and upload.
Lu Feng opened the submission system and dragged the final version of the paper, the source code compressed package, and the original data file into the upload box in turn.
The progress bar moved for about ten seconds.
The page refreshed, and a green checkmark popped up.
Submission successful.
Lu Feng leaned back in his chair, unscrewed the bottle of mineral water, and took a sip.
"Is it over?" Chen Jing leaned closer, staring at the green checkmark.
"It's over."
The three programmers almost simultaneously took off their headphones and turned around. Li Hao glanced at the clock on the wall.
The next day at 3:41 PM.
From the start of the competition to submission, the entire process took less than thirty hours.
They completed less than half of the 72-hour race.
"Pack your things, let's go." Lu Feng stood up and threw the mineral water bottle into the trash can.
The six people began tidying up the table.
I closed the notebook, folded the draft paper, and unplugged the charger from the socket.
The movement was small, but it stood out conspicuously in the quiet server room.
The boy with round-framed glasses in the provincial university team A-06 next door is hunched over his keyboard debugging code.
He caught a glimpse of the commotion at Gangcheng University out of the corner of his eye, and his fingers froze in mid-air.
Are they packing their things?
It's only the second day.
The man with round-framed glasses suddenly turned his head and stared intently at area A-07.
The six of them were walking out chatting and laughing, their backpacks slung over their shoulders, their steps as light as college students who had just finished their final exams.
No.
Have you handed in your papers?
Members of the other teams in the computer room looked up, their eyes following the retreating figures of the six people.
"Did the students from Hong Kong City University submit theirs?"
"Submit it the next day? This question?"
"That can't be right, I haven't even chosen the coordinate system for the first question about trajectory optimization..."
Whispers emerged from behind the partitions.
The previously calm atmosphere in the server room was instantly stirred up by an undercurrent of anxiety.
This is the same principle as taking an exam.
In an exam room with 300 people, if even one person hands in their paper early and stands up to leave, the mental state of the remaining 299 people will collectively collapse.
The man with round-framed glasses from the provincial university looked down at the track simulation code on his screen that had been running for ages and was still reporting errors, his temples throbbing.
In the corridor, Lu Feng pushed open the soundproof door to the server room. The afternoon sun of autumn shone on his face, warm and pleasant.
"Lufeng!"
A familiar voice came from the end of the corridor. Ye Guodong, Xu Yun, and Sun Yi were standing at the top of the stairs, each holding a cup of coffee they had bought from a vending machine.
Lu Feng led his team over.
"All done?" Ye Guodong came up to them, looking them over.
"It's done, and I've submitted it."
Ye Guodong nodded, unable to suppress his smile. But he still coughed lightly, trying to appear calm.
"I've looked at this year's competition questions."
He picked up his coffee, took a sip, and shook his head.
"Rocket recovery combined with a gravity slingshot—this research group is truly insane. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to put it at a doctoral dissertation defense in an aerospace engineering institute."
Lu Feng shrugged.
"It's alright, but it's a bit niche. There's not much pure math involved; instead, it's mostly about engineering background knowledge, which isn't very friendly to math majors."
Ye Guodong's lips twitched slightly after hearing this.
good?
You call the six-degree-of-freedom dynamics modeling for rocket recovery "okay"?
He turned to look at Xu Yun and Sun Yi, and their expressions conveyed the same message.
Used to it.
"Alright, all that's left is the defense the day after tomorrow." Ye Guodong patted Lu Feng on the shoulder.
"You have more experience with the defense than I do, so relax and just perform normally."
Lu Feng responded.
The group parted ways downstairs.
Chen Jing and Zhou Xiaoxiao made plans to go to the cafeteria to make up for their late lunch, while the three members of the programming group said they wanted to go back to the dormitory to catch up on sleep.
Lu Feng walked alone, carrying his schoolbag, toward dormitory building number 17.
Inside the computer center building, Wu Heming stood by the window on the third floor, watching the group of people below disperse.
He took out his phone and scrolled to that name in his contacts.
Qian Zhengming, Chairman of the Provincial Mathematical Society.
This time, there was no hesitation.
I pressed the dial button, and after two beeps, the call connected.
"Old Qian, this is Wu Heming."
"Old Wu? What's up?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded a bit lazy.
"About this year's modeling competition." Wu Heming leaned against the window frame, carefully considering his words for two seconds.
"A team from Hong Kong City University submitted their papers the very next day."
There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.
"The second day? This year's question?"
"Yes. The rocket recovery area."
Three seconds of silence followed.
Who are the core modelers?
"A freshman named Lu Feng," Wu Heming paused, then added.
"It's the one about hand-crafting an exoskeleton that was featured in the Mechanical Innovation Competition. It was published independently in a Q1 journal, *Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing*, this October."
There was a rustling sound on the other end of the phone, as if someone had suddenly sat up from the sofa.
"Would you like to come and see the defense the day after tomorrow in person?" Wu Heming asked.
Qian Zhengming's answer was crisp and decisive, without the slightest hesitation.
"I'll go myself."
After hanging up the phone, Wu Heming put his phone back in his pocket and glanced out the window again.
On the tree-lined path downstairs, Lu Feng's figure had already walked far away, leaving only a blurry outline that disappeared into the shadow of the plane trees.
7:30 p.m.
The moment Lu Feng pushed open the dormitory door, a smell mixed with the aroma of braised food and alcohol hit him.
The suitcase card table is set up again.
But this time, instead of playing cards, there was a table full of food.
The braised beef was sliced thinly and arranged on a plate, the pig's ears were mixed with chili oil, the peanuts were fried until golden and crispy, and there was also a dish of smashed cucumber and half a roast chicken.
In the center of the table, four bottles of Snow Beer were lined up, with condensed water droplets still clinging to their surfaces.
Zhang Wei stood with his hands on his hips next to the "card table," his apron still on, and a pair of chopsticks clutched in his hand.
"You're back?"
He grinned and waved his hand.
"This is for your celebration! A beautiful meal between men!"
Lu Feng glanced at the dishes on the table, then looked at the expectant eyes of Zhang Wei's roommates behind him.
"Where did you get the money to buy these?"
"It was crowdfunded!" Another roommate poked his head down from the top bunk. "Each person contributed thirty, it was all raised!"
Zhang Wei opened a bottle of beer, and white foam poured out of the bottle. He quickly caught it with his mouth and took a slurp.
"Old Lu, stop dawdling and sit down!"
He handed the opened beer to Lu Feng and opened another bottle for himself.
"Come on, let's toast to our dorm's only big shot!"
Lu Feng looked at the bottle of cold beer in his hand and a slight twitch of his lips.
He had experienced this scene countless times during his four years of university in his previous life. But back then, he drank cheap liquor and celebrated that he hadn't failed his final exams.
It's different now.
He threw his schoolbag onto the bed, pulled over a chair, sat down, and picked up a beer bottle.
"Let's have a little buzz today."
"good!"
The five bottles collided in mid-air, making a crisp clanging sound.
Zhang Wei downed almost half a bottle in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and then picked up a pig's ear with his chopsticks and stuffed it into his mouth.
"Old Lu, what exactly was the competition you were tested on? I heard the questions were incredibly difficult?"
"Rocket recovery."
Zhang Wei stopped chewing on the pig's ear.
"What the heck?"
"It means that after the rocket launches, it flies back on its own and lands upright."
The dormitory was silent for two seconds.
Then Zhang Wei slammed his chopsticks on the table.
"No way, is this some kind of math competition or a space agency recruitment exam?"
Lu Feng picked up a slice of beef and dipped it in soy sauce.
"almost."
Zhang Wei, holding a beer bottle, looked at the person across from him who was leisurely eating beef with a complicated expression.
He suddenly realized that the distance between himself and Lu Feng was beyond what a galaxy could describe.
It would probably take a universe.
"Forget it, I don't want to think about it anymore." Zhang Wei shook his head and took another swig of wine.
"I can't understand it anyway, so let's just do it!"
He held up the bottle.
"One more!"
As night deepened outside the window, laughter and clinking of glasses drifted intermittently from the dormitory, blending into the cool autumn air.