Awakening Elementary School System in University
Chapter 5: A Great Judge of Character

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: A Great Judge of Character

CREAK.

Chen Lin, panting, pushed open the door to dorm room 406, just making it back before curfew.

He felt incredibly sleepy. His body wasn’t too tired, but his mind was groggy, and all he wanted was to dive headfirst onto his bed.

"Yo! Brother Lin is back? How was the battle today? Which girl at the bar was so charming that you stayed out high on life until just before lights out?"

The speaker was Fatty Zhao, who slept on the top bunk by the door. He was in the middle of a crucial team fight in his game and teased Chen Lin without even looking up.

"Yeah, exactly! You look tired as a dog. How’s your back holding up, Brother Lin?" From the opposite bunk, Li the Monkey was scrolling through short videos. Hearing the conversation, he poked his head out and gave a suggestive wink.

The only one who was halfway decent was the dorm leader, Wang Tao. He had just returned from the washroom and was wiping his face with a towel. He also looked at Chen Lin with a smile. "Went to the back street again? How was the singing today? Any luck?"

Chen Lin shoved his box of snacks under his desk. He didn’t even have the energy to wash up. He just flopped onto his bed and mumbled wearily, "Sing my ass. I didn’t go to the bar."

"Didn’t go?" Fatty Zhao’s hands didn’t stop moving on his game, and his mouth didn’t stop running either. "Then what the hell were you doing all night? To get this exhausted? You couldn’t have actually gone to the library to grind, could you? That’s not like you, Brother Lin!"

"Hah," Chen Lin said, sprawled on his bed, too lazy to even open his eyes. "Something more exciting than that. I spent the whole night doing mathematical modeling with Shen Yan from the math department."

The dorm room fell instantly silent.

Fatty Zhao’s character on the screen let out a cry and died, but he was so stunned he forgot to curse.

Li the Monkey hadn’t turned off the viral DJ track playing on his phone, and the sound suddenly seemed deafeningly loud.

Wang Tao, with the towel still pressed to his face, froze completely.

Six eyeballs, like searchlights, all swiveled to fix on Chen Lin. Their gazes clearly read, ’Are you fucking kidding me?’

"Who?!" Fatty Zhao’s voice cracked. "The math department? Shen Yan?! You mean... the legendary beautiful genius who supposedly has messy hair but heaven-defying looks, and only has eyes for formulas?"

"Mhm," Chen Lin grunted through his nose, eyes still closed.

"You?!" Li the Monkey pointed at him, looking like he’d seen a ghost. "With her? Doing mathematical modeling all night?"

"Mhm," Chen Lin grunted again.

Wang Tao flung his towel aside, walked over to Chen Lin’s bed with a stern face, and pressed a hand to his forehead. "Linzi, you delirious with a fever? Or did you drink some bootleg liquor and start hallucinating? Shen Yan? Discussing math with you? And you discussed it until fucking lights out?!"

Chen Lin swatted his hand away. "Believe it or not. I’m dead tired, stop shouting..."

"Holy shit!" Fatty Zhao snapped back to his senses with a strange cry. "What a humblebrag! I’ve gotta hand it to you, that’s a top-tier flex! Brothers, hold him down! Discussing math with Shen Yan? Why don’t you just claim you debated relativity with Einstein?!"

"Exactly!" Li the Monkey also jumped off his bed, a mixture of grief and indignation on his face. "Brother Lin, at least use your brain when you’re making up lies! Who are you trying to fool? Fess up! Which girl was it really? The one in the JK uniform from last time, or the one who does jazz dance?"

"I think he’s just trying to change the subject!" Wang Tao joined the siege. "Shen Yan? Do you have any idea what her status is in the math department? To her, everything besides math is just thin air! You think she’d waste a whole night on modeling with a second-year Chinese lit major like you? Who are you kidding!"

"Right, right, right! Bragging is free!"

"He’s getting nervous! Brothers, time for torture! Tickle him!"

"Grab his potato chips! Let’s see if he talks then!"

The dorm room instantly erupted into chaos, filled with howls and shrieks—the sound of single guys denouncing a "traitor."

The racket gave Chen Lin a splitting headache. He wanted to curse back at them, but he couldn’t even muster the energy to open his mouth.

Overwhelming waves of drowsiness washed over him, and Chen Lin’s vision went black.

"So noisy... noisy my ass..." he mumbled indistinctly, one last thought flashing through his mind: ’Why am I so damn sleepy today...’

The next second, his head lolled to the side, and he was dead asleep.

He didn’t hear a single word of his roommates’ subsequent "interrogation by torture."

In dorm room 406, three guys were left staring at each other, then at Chen Lin, who had passed out in an instant and was even starting to snore softly.

...

...

Chen Lin struggled to open his eyes.

The first thing that entered his vision was the familiar water stain on the dorm room ceiling, shaped a bit like a map of Australia.

"What time is it..."

His throat felt incredibly dry.

He propped himself up on the bed board, his head feeling woozy.

He shook his head and glanced around.

The dorm room was empty.

Fatty Zhao’s gaming chair, slightly warped from his weight, was empty. Li the Monkey and Wang Tao weren’t in the room either.

Outside, the light was no longer the bright white of morning or the harsh glare of noon, but a warm, lazy orange-red.

The afterglow of the sunset streamed through the window, casting long shadows on the concrete floor. Motes of dust, clearly visible in the pillar of light, swirled slowly in the air.

From a distance, a faint clamor drifted from the direction of the sports field, a mix of male and female voices.

Chen Lin suddenly felt a sense of peace.

Chen Lin fumbled for his phone at the head of the bed and pressed the button to light up the screen.

5:23 PM.

Date: May 15th, Sunday.

"Holy shit!"

Chen Lin jolted, suddenly wide awake.

It was only then that he realized.

He had returned to the dorm a little after ten last night, and now it was almost five-thirty in the afternoon the next day... He had actually slept for nearly twenty hours straight?!

This was a first for him in his entire life.

He climbed down the ladder, walked to the window, and pushed it open. The warm, early summer evening breeze blew in, finally clearing his muddled head a little.

He began to recall what happened last night.

’Went to the study room, met Shen Yan, explained an optimization plan for the model to her...’

’The problem was right there!’

Chen Lin recalled that while explaining things to Shen Yan, he hadn’t felt much of a drain.

But not long after he finished, he felt incredibly sleepy.

’Looks like... the "Little Mathematician" ability has its limits?’

Chen Lin walked to his desk, poured a large glass of water, and GULP GULP GULPed it down in one go. Only then did he feel like he had come back to life.

He pulled out his chair, sat down, and began to analyze the situation seriously.

’The title "Little Mathematician" has the effect: "When faced with any mathematical problem, you will always be able to find the most correct answer." It sounds like a rule-based ability, totally overpowered. But using this "rule" requires me to be the vessel.’

Chen Lin stroked his chin, his thoughts becoming clearer.

’For example, using it for simple arithmetic probably consumes about as much energy as a phone on standby; I could probably do it all day and not feel a thing. But the computational optimization for yesterday’s mathematical model involved a completely different magnitude of variables and calculations. The processing power my brain used completely drained my energy.’

Thinking of this, Chen Lin couldn’t help but feel a little scared in hindsight.

’So what if, on a whim, I recklessly decided to think about something like the Goldbach Conjecture or the Riemann Hypothesis? Wouldn’t I pass out the moment I had my first inkling of an idea?’

HISS—

Chen Lin sucked in a sharp breath of cold air and made a silent resolution.

’From now on, I have to be more careful when using the "Little Mathematician" ability. At the very least, I need to assess the difficulty of the problem first.’

To be honest, Chen Lin wasn’t completely against the idea of passing out, as long as the reward was high enough.

The problem was that Chen Lin couldn’t be sure what kind of side effects being completely drained of energy would have on his body.

And Chen Lin had absolutely no intention of using his own body as a test subject.

Having figured out the issue with his body, Chen Lin picked up his phone and unlocked the screen.

A pile of unread messages popped up on the screen.

One of them was from his mom, sent at noon today.

Mom: [Did you go out this weekend? The weather forecast says it’s going to get cooler in a couple of days, so remember not to put away all your long-sleeved shirts. Eat your meals on time, and don’t always eat takeout, it’s unhealthy.]

A warm feeling spread through Chen Lin’s chest as he read it, and his fingers flew as he typed a reply.

Chen Lin: [Got it, Mom, don’t worry. I’m in the dorm, about to go out to eat.]

He closed the chat with his mom. Below it was a long string of messages from the same person.

It was Shen Yan.

The first two were sent a little after four in the morning.

Shen Yan: [Chen, I stayed up all night and did a preliminary verification of your solution. The results are amazing, so much better than what we had before!]

Shen Yan: [The prediction curve has an over 93% match with the actual reported cases! Seriously, thank you so much!]

Then another one from eight in the morning.

Shen Yan: [We’re writing the report based on your framework, but some of the concepts are too advanced. We’ve looked up a lot of materials but still only have a vague understanding. We might need to ask for your help again. Do you have time?]

Noon.

Shen Yan: [Chen, are you busy? We’ve finished the code and the report and are getting ready to submit.]

Shen Yan: [Our advising professor saw our model and report and asked if we hired a professor-level expert for outside help...]

Three in the afternoon.

Shen Yan: [Are you still busy? There’s something I wanted to talk to you about?]

The last one was from just now, five minutes ago.

Shen Yan: [Chen, could you reply when you see this?]

Shen Yan: [There are some follow-up matters regarding the competition that I’d like to discuss with you in person. When are you free?]

Looking at the long string of messages, Chen Lin rubbed his temples.

Just as he was pondering how to reply, another message popped up. It was from Li Zihan.

Li Zihan: [Chen, can you bring us some food? Same place, the study room in the department’s small building.]

Li Zihan: [Same as usual, one meat dish and one vegetable dish for each person, one serving of rice, and one meal with no spice.]

Chen Lin: [Sorry, Li Tongxue. I take Sundays off, no service today, ha.]

Li Zihan: [Nooo, don’t do this to us. Yanyan dragged us all here early this morning. We’ve been working all day and are about to starve to death.]

Li Zihan: [puppy_dog_eyes.jpg]

Chen Lin wasn’t falling for that.

Chen Lin: [Sorry, I have to go out for something right now, I really don’t have time.]

Li Zihan: [Chen wouldn’t just watch us starve, right?]

Li Zihan: [hungry_need_food.jpg]

Li Zihan: [I’ll add more money! An extra 10 yuan delivery fee for each meal!]

’Damn, a rich girl!’

Chen Lin: [you_read_people_so_well.jpg]