Free Web NovelChapter 55: Chapter 52: Gauss’s Message
「Sunday at noon.」
Old Yang was still at Seventh Middle School grading papers. He looked at the call that had been hung up on him almost instantly and shook his head helplessly.
He put down his phone, went to the restroom, then came back and twisted the lid off his thermos, preparing to take a sip of hot water.
"Teacher Yang! Where’s the money?!"
A slightly breathless voice rang out from the office doorway.
"PFFT—COUGH, COUGH, COUGH!"
Old Yang nearly sprayed out a mouthful of water. He stared wide-eyed at Li Dong in the doorway.
"I just hung up and you’re already here? Doesn’t Sixth Middle School have classes on weekends?"
"We have a half-day off this afternoon," Li Dong said with a grin.
"So... Teacher Yang, about the money?"
Old Yang rolled his eyes in exasperation.
"The money is with Director Zheng."
"However, this money is coming from the ’Special Fund for Top Innovative Talents.’ It’s a rather large amount, and you’re still a minor. Financial regulations require a guardian to be present for the transfer."
Li Dong froze.
"It’s that complicated? My mom’s at the supermarket doing inventory today, even though it’s the weekend. I don’t think she can get away."
"Well, give her a call and ask," Old Yang gestured.
Li Dong immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Li Qin.
The phone rang for a long time before it was finally answered.
"Hello? Xiaodong, Mom’s busy right now! The system is acting up again. If you have something to say, say it quick."
Hearing his mom’s complaints, Li Dong sighed inwardly.
’It’s that outdated inventory management again.’
It reminded him of his uncle, Li Yang, whose hardware factory relied entirely on memory for inventory.
’Looks like I need to get started on my plan to write a lightweight inventory management system in Python right away.’
"Mom, here’s the thing. The school is giving me 20,000 yuan in prize money from the competition, but they need a guardian to be present."
Li Dong tried his best to sound nonchalant.
"Twenty thousand?!" On the other end of the line, Li Qin was clearly taken aback. She knew about the money, but it still felt completely unreal. Their family’s current savings were only a little over 30,000.
"They’re really giving you the money?! But... Mom really can’t get away right now. My supervisor is watching."
Li Dong covered the mouthpiece and looked at Old Yang.
"Teacher Yang, would it work if she authorizes me to sign on her behalf over a video call?"
Old Yang thought for a moment.
"Sure, that’ll work. I’ll screen-record it on my phone for our records. You can sign for her, and then have your mom send over a photo of her ID card later."
After some maneuvering, with Old Yang as a witness, an excited Li Qin completed the informed authorization over the video call.
Afterward, Old Yang took Li Dong to Zheng Hua’s office.
The process of getting the money was surprisingly smooth.
Director Zheng didn’t make any excuses or create obstacles, nor did he look displeased just because Li Dong had transferred to Sixth Middle School.
He very straightforwardly had the finance department transfer the 20,000 yuan into Li Dong’s bank account.
"DING."
Looking at the text message on his phone displaying "Balance: 20,315.00," Li Dong felt an indescribable thrill.
This was the first "huge sum" he had ever earned in his life through his own abilities.
"Li Dong, you’ll be going to Shanghai for the Huaxuan Cup finals soon. Make sure you stay in top form at Sixth Middle School, and don’t bring shame on us at Seventh Middle School."
Zheng Hua patted Li Dong’s shoulder and instructed him in an earnest tone.
"Don’t worry, Director Zheng! You treated me to a massage last time, so I’ll treat you next time!"
’Massage?’
Old Yang slowly turned his head, his gaze fixed on Zheng Hua with extreme hostility.
Zheng Hua shuddered and quickly waved his hands, trying to explain.
"A legitimate one! Old Yang, don’t look at me like that. It was a proper therapeutic massage from a blind masseur! For my neck!"
Old Yang snorted coldly and turned to Li Dong.
"Alright, you should head back and get some rest. The pressure at Sixth Middle School must be pretty high."
’There’s not much pressure at all,’ Li Dong thought, but what he said was,
"Okay! Goodbye, teachers!"
After saying goodbye to the two teachers, Li Dong headed straight for Jiangcheng’s largest electronics mall.
On the bus to the electronics mall, Li Dong started frantically researching and doing his homework.
’The screen quality has to be good. For an OLED screen, the high-frequency PWM dimming needs to be above 1440Hz to be easy on the eyes.’
’As for the camera system, sensor size is king. It needs to be at least on the level of an IMX766.’
’The chip... well, even though she doesn’t play games, the manufacturing process has to be advanced. The power efficiency of 5nm or 7nm is best, so the battery will last longer.’
’And it needs LPDDR5 RAM and UFS 3.1 flash storage... ’
With his head full of these hardcore technical specifications, Li Dong confidently strode into a Hua Wei store.
"Hey, handsome, looking for a phone? Is it for you?"
A young saleswoman greeted him enthusiastically.
"I’m buying it for my mom," Li Dong said.
He then prepared to show off his technical knowledge to avoid being swindled.
"I’m looking for a model with a 5nm process chip, a main camera sensor larger than 1/1.5 inch, and a screen that preferably supports global DC dimming..."
The saleswoman: ??
She stared blankly for two seconds, then decisively ignored Li Dong’s rambling and pulled a phone directly from the counter.
"Handsome, all the aunties love this Hua Wei model! Look how sparkly the back is!"
"And it has tons of storage, so you can save as many photos as you want! The camera is really clear, too. It takes beautiful pictures of flowers and things!"
Li Dong: "..."
He suddenly realized all his research might have been pointless.
"Fine," Li Dong said, not bothering to argue. He resorted to the most down-to-earth tactic.
"This model sells for 3,699 online. Can you match that price here?"
The saleswoman’s eyes lit up.
"Yes! And I can even throw in a tempered glass screen protector!"
Three minutes later, Li Dong walked out of the phone store carrying a bag with a Hua Wei in it.
What he didn’t notice, however, was the CMCC logo printed on the phone box.
Next up was buying a computer.
For this productivity tool that he would use for coding, Li Dong’s thinking was very clear.
’Writing Python and setting up an SQLite database hardly requires any rendering power.’
’But for potential large-scale data processing and multi-threaded operations in the future, I can’t choose a low-voltage U-series CPU with gimped performance. It has to be a standard-voltage one.’
’RAM needs to be 16GB at a minimum.’
Li Dong headed straight for the Lenovo store and decisively chose a ThinkBook 14+.
He paid: 4,599 yuan.
After buying both items, Li Dong looked at the remaining balance of over twelve thousand yuan on his card and, for the first time, felt a sense of security.
Back home, Li Dong placed the Hua Wei phone on the coffee table in the living room, setting a note on top of it.
"Mom, happy early birthday. I bought you this phone with my prize money. From now on, don’t just make do when your old phone gets slow."
"There’s still plenty of money left, so don’t worry about the cost."
After taking care of all this, Li Dong returned to his bedroom.
He opened his new laptop and began installing the Python runtime environment, along with some other everyday software.
’I should log into the PC version of WeChat while I’m at it. It’ll be more convenient for transferring files in the future.’
After the WeChat PC interface popped up, Li Dong was about to minimize it and start familiarizing himself with PyCharm.
Just then, he suddenly noticed a chat window at the top of the PC WeChat interface, marked with a red dot for an unread message.
The ID of this chat window displayed...
John Carl Friedrich Gauss
Ever since Gauss had triggered the group’s rules and was forcibly kicked offline, that private chat window had disappeared.
But on the PC version of WeChat that he had just logged into... the chat window was still there!
’How is this possible? It was erased from the mobile client, but could the initial sync on the PC client have glitched and exploited a logic loophole in the system?’
Li Dong clicked on Gauss’s chat window.
In the chat history, besides the previous message, "Is your world one of the countless worlds proposed by Kant, or the infinite universe of Bruno?" there were actually several subsequent messages!
But for some unknown reason, the text appeared fragmented.
[Gauss]: Little one... I’ve discovered the underlying logic of this [GARBLED]...
[Gauss]: It’s trying to repair [GARBLED]... authority...
[Gauss]: As long as your authority... is raised to... this is the method [GARBLED]... Catch it!
And below this text was a file transfer in progress.
The file’s name was unknown, and even its size was unknown.
[Transfer Progress: 11.2%]
’It’s still transferring?’
’It’s been about 15 days since Gauss last messaged me privately.’
’In 15 days, it’s transferred 11.2%.’
’In other words, it’ll take about another 120 days for this file to finish downloading...’
Four months.
By then, it would be right before the college entrance exams.
Gauss, this unparalleled genius hailed as the "Prince of Mathematics," what exactly had he figured out?
And what was this thing he was forcibly sending him?
