The teacher placed a stack of test papers on the table and casually handed them to the people nearby.
Then he glanced at the A4 paper in his hand.
“The previous exam was conducted under the supervision of several subject teachers and surveillance. Suo Wen, without taking a break, completed the papers for six subjects: Chinese, Mathematics, English, Physics, Chemistry, and Biology in one go.
He only wrote outlines for the Chinese and English compositions, without providing detailed written content.
Even so, his scores exceeded last year’s admission cutoff for Beiqing University!”
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole room erupted in an uproar!
The professors discussed the content of the test papers, the logical inconsistencies, and the repeated verifications of the results, leaving this group of teachers completely bewildered.
After a short period of debate, the lecture hall quieted down again.
The professor of astrophysics walked gently to Liu Chaowen’s side and said:
“Suo Wen, you must be tired after a day of tests and exams!”
Liu Chaowen quickly stood up and nodded slightly:
“I’m a little tired, but I can still manage!”
The professor smiled and nodded:
“Child, please sit down! You don’t need to stand up to answer the following questions. The assessment is over, and we don’t need to worry about Maxwell’s equations, Euclidean geometry, or Planck’s constant anymore. We are extremely satisfied and surprised by the results of your test.
We have never seen such an outstanding student before. However, there is one thing we don’t understand, and we would like to ask you. How did you acquire the knowledge you possess now? Can you tell us?”
Everyone’s gaze turned to this young boy.
This question from the professor made Liu Chaowen appear somewhat uneasy.
His eyes kept shifting between Zhou Cheng and the professor.
His posture also changed slightly several times, as if he wanted to speak but hesitated.
The three professors anxiously awaited this young genius to provide them with a convincing answer.
However, the face of this 17-year-old boy was filled with anxiety and fear, and he hesitated to speak.
At this moment, Zhou Cheng started to get anxious. He took out the cigarette he had already placed near his lips and seemed a bit impatient:
“Suo Wen, you can’t just give us the results without telling us the process. It’s hard for us to understand… um.”
As soon as the words came out, Zhou Cheng regretted it. Because he suddenly realized that the derivation process was written on the huge blackboard behind him. He trembled as he lit the cigarette and took a deep drag:
“What I just said was wrong. I mean… um… let me put it this way. It’s like making an atomic bomb. You tell us the critical mass, material concentration, size of the uranium sphere, detonation energy, and all the data.
Then we make the atomic bomb.
But, you have to tell us how you know all this…
I’m confused now and I don’t know if you understood this analogy.”
The professor’s face sank, with a slightly reproachful tone:
“The test is over, my friend! Why are you bringing up these academic matters again?”
Zhou Cheng took a big puff of smoke and explained incoherently:
“I was just giving an analogy, not trying to study the fission process. Oh… I can’t explain it now!”
The professor’s face flashed with anger, about to say something, when Liu Chaowen suddenly spoke up.
“Teacher Zhou’s question is very good! I’m willing to answer it, perhaps this way you will understand what you want to know.”
The entire classroom fell silent, with everyone’s eyes fixed on this sophomore student, waiting for him to give them the answer they wanted to hear:
“Teacher, when you mentioned the fission reaction of U-235, an atomic nucleus model of U-235 appeared in my mind. I subconsciously knew that it has 92 protons and 143 neutrons. The binding energies of neutrons, electrons, and their combinations are also modeled or solidified in my mind.”
As he explained these academic questions, the confident light returned to the eyes of this young boy.
“I intend that those particles are not in the form of electron volts or relative mass. I can’t explain exactly what they are, but I can know all the data by observing the models in my mind.”
His articulate expression made him look radiant.
“I can simulate in my mind the excitation state of U-235 when it is hit by a neutron, and then the fission process that generates krypton, barium, and energy. This process seems to be automatically completed in my mind. I can observe the mass loss, energy conversion, and decay process. And I can derive the process and results using formulas.”
Everyone present, especially Zhou Cheng, was stunned by Liu Chaowen’s explanation.
Liu Chaowen paused for a moment and added, “What I mean is that the results are not calculated by formulas. When I simulate them in my mind, I already know the release of energy, and the fission process, including the number of emitted neutrons and critical reaction density. I just put them into familiar forms. I don’t know if you can understand what I’m saying?”
After hearing the description, everyone’s expressions turned into shock, unable to speak for a while. Zhou Cheng was also dumbfounded.
Only the female professor maintained her inherent elegance.
She sat gracefully beside Chaowen and softly said, “You mean that you know the essence or laws of things and then express the resulting phenomena. Instead of deducing the laws of things based on the resulting phenomena. Am I correct in saying this?”
Liu Chaowen nodded. The female professor continued, “But this essence and laws automatically appear in your mind, and you are not quite sure why you know them.”
The female professor sat next to him, adding a touch of tension to his relaxed state.
He instinctively leaned slightly towards the empty seat beside him and whispered, “Yes… that’s right, Teacher. I feel like those things are naturally in my mind, and I can express the answers in conventional ways. As for the thought process, I can’t describe it accurately. What I mentioned earlier was just an example, and the real process is much more complex. I… I can’t explain it clearly.”
The female professor turned slightly and faced Liu Chaowen directly, saying gently, “In terms of physics and mathematics, I can understand your abilities. I’ve seen a mathematical genius who sees geometric shapes when looking at algebraic symbols and sees algebraic symbols when looking at geometric shapes. This allows him to perceive the mysteries of mathematics from a completely new perspective.”
The female professor’s explanation seemed to make sense to Zhou Cheng and the elderly professor.
“But can you explain your thinking process in the field of linguistics?” the female professor asked.
Liu Chaowen nodded gently.
“In middle school, I was able to classify and summarize several language families. Then I found their commonalities and derived a model similar to mathematics based on these commonalities.”
Liu Chaowen paused for a moment, and something seemed to flash through his eyes.
“Um… what I mean by language classification is not the traditional classification like Sino-Tibetan, Caucasian, Indo-European. It’s my classification method. And the mathematical model I mentioned is not a narrow understanding of models. It’s a transformation form that I can understand. Do you understand what I mean?”
The female professor listened attentively, but her understanding was still vague.
Liu Chaowen continued, “I don’t know how this process is accomplished. But I just know that it seems to be done in my subconscious. And the transformation between different language families is also done subconsciously. When I need to use it, I can express it directly.”
At this point, Zhou Cheng couldn’t care less about the dignified demeanor of a top-tier professor.
He asked with a distorted tone, “Are you saying that you can complete complex derivations from the essence of objects to existing formulas just by brainstorming? And you can derive knowledge across different disciplines, and the results are completely correct?”
The elderly professor beside him appeared much calmer than Zhou Cheng and patted his shoulder gently.
“Young man, calm down.”
Zhou Cheng also realized that he had overreacted and let out a long sigh, sitting down on the nearby chair.
From being a top student in school to his academic career, he had always been known as a prodigy.
