Rong Yu was called out by Min Shenyan's student.
"Just how is your brain wired? Being brilliant at math is one thing, but winning a gold medal in physics too? Are you trying to leave no room for others?" Min Shenyan sighed deeply. He had been just one step too late—merely one step—and missed the chance to mentor a prodigy.
But no matter whose student she was, she represented the future of China's mathematics community.
He said, "Your mentor, Yun Xiaoyuan, went abroad for a symposium and specifically called me to look after you. There’s a dinner gathering tonight, so I’ll take you along to meet some people."
Rong Yu nodded obediently.
She followed Min Shenyan into a car, which stopped in front of a private dining restaurant resembling a traditional courtyard house. A server led them inside.
Passing through a small courtyard with a flowing stream, they arrived at an elegant private room where about eight people were seated, the air thick with an academic atmosphere.
"Apologies for being late," Min Shenyan said with a smile. "Let me introduce this young lady—she’s Yun Xiaoyuan’s newly taken student."
The moment he said this, all eight pairs of eyes in the room turned to Rong Yu.
They had all heard Yun Xiaoyuan had taken on a new student and were curious, but they hadn’t had the chance to meet her. To their surprise, it was a girl, and so young at that.
"Rong Yu, let me introduce you. This is Academician Tian, specializing in differential geometry. This is Academician Lin, an expert in computational mathematics..."
All eight people present were members of the Mathematics Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Rong Yu had read related materials. Since the founding of the country, the Mathematics Division had elected around seventy to eighty academicians, but fewer than twenty were still alive. And here, eight of them were sitting together.
She greeted them one by one with a smile. "Academician Tian, Academician Lin... Hello, everyone. My name is Rong Yu. You can call me Xiao Yu."
"Come, take a seat," Min Shenyan said to the group. "You know what? I just picked her up from the national physics finals—she won the gold medal. Impressive, isn’t it?"
Academician Tian snorted. "Impressive indeed, but she’s not your student. Why are you so smug?"
"Where there’s a will, there’s a way," Min Shenyan said, pouring himself a drink. "Yun Xiaoyuan has no experience mentoring students. Look at Lin Rang—after all these years under her, he’s still just a university professor."
Rong Yu smiled faintly. "But Academician Min, out of your thirty-some students, more than twenty aren’t even professors yet."
Min Shenyan: "..."
This girl really knew how to hit where it hurt.
The others in the room burst into laughter.
Academician Lin pulled her aside and asked, "Which school do you attend? Are you majoring in math or physics?"
"I’m a senior at Haicheng No. 1 High School," Rong Yu replied. "I’ll probably choose mathematics as my major in university."
"A high school senior? You’re only in high school?" Academician Tian was stunned. "You must have extraordinary talent in math, otherwise Academician Yun wouldn’t take on a high school student."
Rong Yu said modestly, "My talent is just average—decent, at best."
Academician Lin grew intrigued and asked her, "Then let me test you with a problem: matrix decomposition in a quantum computing environment..."
Min Shenyan rolled his eyes. "Old Lin, that question is as basic as asking what one plus one equals."
Then he dropped a bombshell. "A few days ago, when the U.S. was causing trouble at the space station, do you know who calculated the thrust for the propulsion system at the aerospace institute?"
Academician Lin said, "I only know it was Haicheng’s Fourth Aerospace Institute that provided the solution..."
"It was this girl," Min Shenyan said, taking a sip of his drink. "That’s why I brought her to meet you all. She’s the rising tide—us old waves are about to be washed ashore."
Rong Yu spoke up. "The academicians here aren’t just the old waves—you’re the ones who created the waves. Without the foundations you’ve laid, we young people wouldn’t even have a surfboard to ride on."
"True," Academician Tian said softly. "We old folks also stood on the shoulders of those who came before us. Back then, mathematicians risked their lives returning to China just to lay the groundwork for our country’s mathematical progress..."
"You know, young lady, your name reminds me of someone," Academician Lin said, looking at her. "Another mathematician, with the exact same name—Rong Yu. Everyone called her Professor Rong. She was involved in establishing our country’s first mathematics research division. She could have been among the first batch of academicians in mathematics and physics, but... heaven envied the gifted."
Rong Yu froze.
She truly hadn’t expected anyone besides her family to still remember her.
As the academicians chatted and drank, they began giving Rong Yu problems to solve—like elders at a New Year’s gathering making children recite poems or sing—until her head was spinning.
Just then, Pei Yaru sent her a message, asking her to return to the hotel for an awards banquet.
After excusing herself from the academicians, she stepped outside—only to hear a voice call out behind her, "Xiao Yu! What are you doing here?"
She turned and saw Rong Wangtian.
He frowned at her. "Wasn’t today the physics finals? Why are you at a place like this?"
"Mr. Rong, have you checked the time?" Rong Yu said with a faint smile. "The competition ended almost two hours ago."
Rong Wangtian glanced at his watch—it was already past six in the evening.
He had been swamped all day, meeting clients in the morning and afternoon. Then, in the evening, Shen Lin called, insisting he meet Academician Lin because this year’s Olympiad math problems were under his supervision.
After some digging, he learned Academician Lin was dining at this restaurant.
He rushed over but couldn’t get in. He had been waiting outside for nearly an hour, yet instead of Academician Lin, he ran into Rong Yu.
He said coldly, "Even if the competition ended, you shouldn’t be wandering around alone. What if something happened?"
As soon as he finished speaking, his phone buzzed. It was Pei Yaru.
He answered immediately. "Professor Pei, what’s the matter?... What? A gold medal? Rong Yu won a gold medal? That... that can’t be right..."
"Rong Yu is outstanding, and this honor is well-deserved," Pei Yaru said. "The organizing committee is holding a celebration for the winners, and parents are welcome to attend. Mr. Rong, feel free to join if you have time."
After hanging up, Rong Wangtian’s expression completely changed.
A national gold medal in the Olympiad—only six students in the entire country received one, and Rong Yu was among them? It was unbelievable!
He had always thought Song Huai was exceptional, but now, this daughter of his had won the exact same award.
His other daughter, Yaoyao, was about to compete in the math Olympiad. Shen Lin had urged him to meet Academician Lin, hoping to get insider information on this year’s test questions.
Shen Lin believed there was no shame in securing an Olympiad medal through connections.
But Rong Yu didn’t need any connections at all!
He didn’t know whether physics or math was harder, but he knew the prestige of a national gold medal—it meant a guaranteed admission to Tsinghua or Peking University!
That daughter raised in the countryside, the one who scored barely over a hundred in her last mock exams—was now qualified for Tsinghua or Peking?
It was... too incredible to believe.
