Time ticked away second by second, and Old Cai’s fingers hovered over the computer keyboard.

Old Cai was a meticulous person. When writing programs, he pursued perfection. He turned his head to discuss with Little Liang how to improve the program’s efficiency. Lin Zhixia couldn’t find an opportunity to interject, so she could only sit in her seat, quietly listening to Old Cai and Little Liang talking enthusiastically.

Old Cai felt that he had pushed Lin Zhixia outside the team. He felt somewhat guilty. He told a joke to liven up the atmosphere and asked Lin Zhixia to help check his code.

Lin Zhixia glanced at it and confirmed that Old Cai’s program had no problems.

Previously, Lin Zhixia had pointed out that Old Cai’s “binary string shouldn’t shift two bits to the left.” However, now it seemed that Old Cai’s approach was correct. Lin Zhixia apologized to him: “I’m sorry, I was wrong earlier. I didn’t expect you would write it this way. Your solution method is completely different from mine.”

Old Cai adjusted his chair position. While submitting the code, he said to Lin Zhixia: “Hurry up, let’s study the sixth problem. The sixth problem is algebraic geometry…”

Before Old Cai could finish his sentence, Little Liang’s finger tapped the table: “The fifth problem is wrong.”

Old Cai and Lin Zhixia looked up together, staring at the computer screen.

IHSPC was a cruel and strict competition. Each team’s score was updated in real-time and was transparent. When contestants uploaded code for a problem, the backend program would immediately determine the score.

Right or wrong, gaining or losing points, all happened in a thought, in an instant.

Old Cai felt enormous pressure. He held his breath, his voice hoarse: “We got the fifth problem wrong?”

The fifth problem yielded a major error, deducting 7 points, and Provincial No. 1 High School’s overall ranking dropped from sixth place to seventeenth place.

So far, the Russian and Korean teams were far ahead, with several Chinese participating teams following closely. Provincial No. 1 High School had no advantage. Lin Zhixia’s nerves were taut as she quickly checked the backend feedback. She said: “You used a binary string to represent the set in the fifth problem, shifting left two bits represents multiplying by 4, but you missed one case… I was wrong too; I didn’t carefully review each line of your code.”

Old Cai frowned tightly, his face clouded with gloom. He held the mouse, refreshing the page, and the competition rankings updated again—Provincial No. 1 High School had fallen to nineteenth place.

Lin Zhixia had always been first in her grade in every exam; she had never seen a “nineteenth place” score before. She was a bit dazed. Old Cai was still modifying the fifth problem. Little Liang comforted him: “Old Cai, don’t rush, there’s still a chance.”

Old Cai submitted the fifth problem a second time, only to be judged “error” again.

This “error” meant exactly that—error. Provincial No. 1 High School was deducted another 4 points, and their overall ranking continued to slide.

“This is truly terrible,” Old Cai lamented.

Lin Zhixia pushed aside Old Cai’s hand and directly took over the keyboard. She added a new variable based on Old Cai’s program. She clicked the left mouse button and pressed the green confirm button. However, she did not turn the tide. “Error” appeared again, and “Provincial No. 1 High School” sank to forty-third place.

Little Liang criticized her without mercy: “Lin Zhixia, you submitted too quickly. We didn’t get to see your approach.”

At this point, Lin Zhixia finally took out the question paper and reread the fifth problem statement. She told her teammates, “I understand now. We all remembered this problem incorrectly. Two weeks ago, when the teacher was training us, he gave us a problem that was 80% similar to this fifth problem, but the constraints were completely different…”

Before Lin Zhixia could finish, Little Liang and Old Cai were already working together to modify the code.

They unanimously developed a gambler’s mentality.

The more disastrously they lost on the fifth problem, the more they wanted to try, until they got the fifth problem right.

Lin Zhixia pointed at the screen, suggesting: “Let’s delete this function; it’s redundant code.”

“Redundant code” refers to code that doesn’t need to exist.

Little Liang’s fingers flew rapidly over the keyboard, but he didn’t heed Lin Zhixia. Little Liang and Old Cai whispered briefly, earnestly exchanged opinions, and submitted the answer to the fifth problem again—this time, they finally succeeded.

The vast competition hall was filled with conversations in various languages.

The Russian team across from them was chatting cheerfully; they were currently ranked first overall. The Estonian team next to them had solemn expressions as the three teammates drew diagrams while discussing the sixth problem.

Outside the spacious floor-to-ceiling windows floated a patch of damp fog. Misty droplets clung to the windows, and the sky grew increasingly dark and gray. Rows of buildings stood in the distance, reflected against the dark-toned background, like a profound oil painting.

Lin Zhixia’s mind wandered.

Lin Zhixia had only owned her first computer this year, while Old Cai and Little Liang had been learning programming since elementary school. Little Liang’s father and mother were both programmers at a computer company in the provincial capital, so he could be said to come from a “programmer family.” Perhaps Lin Zhixia should adjust her mindset and strive to do good support work.

After deep consideration, Lin Zhixia nodded slightly. She pulled her chair closer to Old Cai.

Old Cai opened the competition’s main page. He saw that Provincial No. 1 High School ranked forty-ninth, with teams behind them showing a significant upward trend. If this situation continued, forget about a gold medal—they wouldn’t even have hope for a bronze.

Lin Zhixia asked in confusion: “Why are we falling further and further behind?”

Old Cai said: “Russia and the United States both sent more than twenty teams. Look at these American high schools, all ranked ahead, even the British schools have overtaken us…”

Lin Zhixia quickly said, “I know how to solve the fourth problem. As long as we get the fourth problem right, Provincial No. 1 High School’s score will come up!”

“How do we solve the fourth problem?” Old Cai asked her. “Still with the method from before?”

Lin Zhixia was very certain: “Yes.”

Old Cai pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose. He still believed Lin Zhixia’s approach was problematic, just as he had written the fifth problem incorrectly. He felt that Lin Zhixia’s view of the fourth problem was mistaken. He suggested that Lin Zhixia first create a set of data on a draft paper, then input this data set into her program to verify whether her method could succeed.

“I’ve verified it in my head,” Lin Zhixia said honestly.

But Old Cai said: “Write it down, write several pages, I want to question you step by step. Earlier, you submitted the fifth problem without letting Little Liang and me check. You made a mistake, and the team lost four points.”

Lin Zhixia placed her hand on the keyboard: “Initially, I thought the fifth problem was a routine problem we’d encountered before… You and I made the same mistake. This is the principle of ‘three men make a tiger’—when three people confirm the same thing, regardless of whether it’s true or false, their first reaction is to follow the crowd.”

Old Cai’s right hand rested on the keyboard. He had been thinking about the sixth problem. But Lin Zhixia’s words made him inexplicably irritated. He took off his glasses, placed them on the table, raised his palm, and vigorously rubbed his face.

Lin Zhixia’s explanations were so systematic that they left Old Cai distressed.

In the IHSPC arena, the most taboo thing was teammates blaming each other—Old Cai had received over two years of training, and both he and Little Liang were well aware of this rule. However, Lin Zhixia seemed not to understand, or perhaps she just felt that stating the facts wasn’t a big deal.

Old Cai held his forehead: “Lin Zhixia, how old are you this year?”

Lin Zhixia moved back an inch: “I’m twelve this year… thirteen by East Asian age reckoning, and I’ll be fourteen soon.”

Old Cai pointed at himself, then at Little Liang: “We’re several years older than you.”

“Our souls are equal,” Lin Zhixia murmured, “Whether I’m twelve or ninety-two, I would treat you with the same attitude.”

Little Liang clicked his tongue: “You’re twelve this year, not ninety-two…”

Lin Zhixia remembered her task at hand: “Time is so tight. Can I use the computer to write the fourth problem first?”

Old Cai couldn’t bear it anymore and exploded: “Can’t you write down the steps? Answering incorrectly will cost us points. You’re human, not a god. When you make a mistake, your teammates have to clean up the mess. Aren’t you old enough at twelve to understand that?”

Lin Zhixia paused for two seconds, then confronted him sharply: “Can you stop attacking my age? Yes, I do make mistakes; everyone makes mistakes. As long as we correct the errors, that experience becomes meaningful.”

Old Cai collapsed: “Don’t spout platitudes at me.”

Lin Zhixia patiently explained: “I can write down the steps for the fourth problem, but the fourth problem is a recursive exponential function. I need to use number theory methods, then apply Fermat’s Little Theorem. I saw that no one was using the keyboard now, so I suggested that I write the program, and then explain to you in detail using the code. This would be clearer to you than what I write by hand. I could also write the program code on paper first, then transcribe it into the compiler… but in that case, you might not be able to check each of my steps, because code is inherently concise and jumpy; you can’t debug by eye.”

“Debug” is programming jargon referring to “resolving program failures.”

Old Cai didn’t respond. His gaze focused on the display screen.

Provincial No. 1 High School’s ranking continued to slide. Even a team from an African country had risen to the position just ahead of Provincial No. 1 High School.

An African team?

In Old Cai’s impression, Africa was an undeveloped region. He had watched a documentary about a city in Africa—the outskirts of that city were African plains, with lions, antelopes, and zebras happily running in the suburbs, which had greatly shocked him.

He was being surpassed by an African team.

Old Cai wasn’t even sure if the African team’s students were safe in their daily lives, whether they would be chased by lions, teased by leopards, or threatened by elephants.

And here he was, receiving training with good food and drink at Provincial No. 1 High School, enjoying the attentive service of the cafeteria chefs, yet he couldn’t match a team from Africa.

A stuffy feeling grew in Old Cai’s chest, neither rising nor falling, blocking his airways. He stated slowly: “You won a gold medal at the Romanian Master Competition, and now you’re participating in informatics competitions. The teacher insisted on putting you in our group, squeezing out our original teammate. That person who was squeezed out had been my good friend for five years of middle school. The teachers kept saying you’re smart, you’re strong, you’re capable, you have talent. Fine, okay, I agreed to let you join the team. Yet you still cost us four points—is this your ability?”

Lin Zhixia sat in her chair, moving back a distance. She didn’t want to hear Old Cai speak anymore.

Especially when Old Cai mentioned that he and the teammate who was squeezed out had been good friends for five years of middle school, Lin Zhixia immediately thought of Jiang Yubai. If someone had squeezed Jiang Yubai out of his position, Lin Zhixia would be very angry.

But the informatics coach hadn’t told Lin Zhixia that Old Cai, Little Liang, and that person were good friends, teammates who had trained together for years.

The coach only said: Old Cai, Little Liang, Lin Zhixia, you three are the most suitable for teaming up. Lin Zhixia, your personality and mindset are very good, and you’ve won a gold medal in an international mathematics competition. If you team up with Old Cai and Little Liang, you’ll surely bring back the IHSPC trophy!

Lin Zhixia’s mood was very low.

Old Cai continued to blame her: “When the fifth problem first reported an error, you said I had overlooked one case, leading me down the wrong path, costing seven points. After these several setbacks, even the African team could overtake us…”

“I’ve already admitted my mistake,” Lin Zhixia looked at the approaching supervisor and consciously lowered her volume, “This itself was an accident. We should share the risk, share the consequences, because we are a team.”

IHSPC regulations stated that contestants could discuss quietly but could not shout.

Old Cai’s voice was slightly too loud, affecting the New Zealand contestant sitting behind him.

The New Zealand contestant reported the situation to the supervisor. The teacher verbally warned the Provincial No. 1 High School team: “Excuse me, could you please lower your voice?”

Lin Zhixia hurriedly apologized: “Sorry, sir, I…”

Before Lin Zhixia could finish, the teacher stopped her: “That is all right.”

With that, the teacher left.

Little Liang, huddled in the corner, hadn’t heard the English questions and answers from this supervisor. He asked Lin Zhixia: “What happened?”

Lin Zhixia relayed: “The teacher asked us to keep our voices down. I said sorry, and the teacher said it’s okay.”

With unexpected situations coming one after another, Lin Zhixia and her teammates were somewhat distracted. Lin Zhixia still wanted to work on the fourth problem, but Little Liang mediated: “Let’s forget it, let’s do the sixth and seventh problems first.”

Old Cai was already writing the sixth problem on the computer. He compiled it several times. Little Liang and Lin Zhixia helped him establish a set of input-output data standards.

Time fled quickly on the competition floor. Provincial No. 1 High School’s ranking rose three times and fell four times. A thin layer of sweat formed on Old Cai’s back. Although the sixth problem was answered correctly, his method took too long, resulting in a low final score. He tried another approach, but the sixth problem became an “error.” Not only did he fail to earn points, but he also caused some loss.

He quickly stabilized his emotions and assigned the remaining problems to his teammates.

Lin Zhixia rested her cheek on one hand and began reading the tenth problem—the tenth problem was the final challenge of this competition, involving complex integral geometry. Integral geometry was originally one of Lin Zhixia’s strongest areas, but by the time she transformed her mathematical thinking into programming language, the Russian team had already solved the tenth problem.

That Russian team happened to be sitting directly across from Lin Zhixia.

The three Russian boys, with smiles on their faces, silently celebrated their victory. They were more than ten points ahead of the second-place Zhejiang team, seemingly destined to take the gold medal of this competition.

The Zhejiang team was locked in a fierce battle with a Korean team. Whenever the Korean team surpassed the Zhejiang team by a few points, the Zhejiang team would frantically catch up. As the competition progressed, the Zhejiang team even bit at the heels of the Russian team, only three points behind.

Lin Zhixia looked at the computer screen, quietly cheering for her compatriots: “Go Zhejiang, go Zhejiang, quickly overtake Russia.”

Old Cai’s mother was from Zhejiang. He somewhat regretted why he wasn’t on the Zhejiang team.

Old Cai futilely refreshed the page; the Zhejiang team’s score frequently changed. Old Cai simply closed the page. He continued discussing problems with his teammates but encountered new disagreements. This time, Old Cai and Lin Zhixia shared the same opinion, but Little Liang had a different view. Little Liang even said: “If Zhou were here, he would be on my side.”

This “Zhou” was the teammate who was unfortunately screened out.

The atmosphere within the team became even more depressed.

By the end of the competition, Provincial No. 1 High School had correctly answered six problems but had many errors. Their final ranking was twenty-fourth place, earning them a participation award.

Initially, Lin Zhixia didn’t feel very sad. Almost from the moment the conflict erupted, she had already anticipated the outcome.

However, on the return journey, Old Cai and Little Liang took all the responsibility in front of the coach. They said that the reason for such a big mistake in this competition was that their condition in the arena was poor. Neither mentioned the mistake Lin Zhixia made on the fifth problem.

Lin Zhixia privately asked Old Cai, and he said, first, he and Little Liang hadn’t maintained their emotions, and second, when he previously partnered with Zhou, he was accustomed to covering for Zhou.

When they returned to Provincial No. 1 High School, the two informatics coaches looked utterly heartbroken. It turned out that this final IHSPC ranking was Provincial No. 1 High School’s worst performance in years.

Last year in the competition, Provincial No. 1 High School won a bronze medal.

But this time, Provincial No. 1 High School only had an insignificant participation award.

Lin Zhixia belatedly realized the situation. Somewhat bewildered, she left the high school section and walked back to the classroom of Class Three (17). Her disastrous experience in Moscow, Russia, had already been reported back to the ninth grade. When the classmates of Class 17 saw her enter, not one made a sound; nobody knew how to comfort her.

Lin Zhixia quietly sat back in her seat.

Jiang Yubai turned his head to look at her: “Lin Zhixia?”

Lin Zhixia’s voice was extremely small. She mumbled to herself: “Don’t call me; let me think alone. Where exactly is the problem? Was my attitude towards the competition not serious enough… but I tried my best. I didn’t dare argue; speaking too loudly would disqualify us from the competition and would also affect our school’s next batch of contestants… I also don’t know what to do. They didn’t believe in my method. I didn’t believe in their method either. Later on, I became more passive, more downcast… During training, everyone was easy to get along with, but during the competition, my mindset also changed…”

“Lin Zhixia,” Jiang Yubai interrupted her, “everyone is influenced by their environment. Don’t blame yourself.”

Lin Zhixia’s eyes welled with tears: “Our school won a bronze medal last year.”

“Our school didn’t allow female students to enroll a hundred years ago,” Jiang Yubai suddenly offered this perspective. He said: “Tradition is not a rule; it cannot remain unchanged. Lin Zhixia, you are an excellent student.”

Just as Jiang Yubai finished speaking, the nearby window was knocked on.

Lin Zhixia’s seat was by the window—she always liked to sit by the window. She looked up towards the outside.

Jin Baihui, holding a notebook, stood outside the classroom of Class 17. Her gaze penetrated the glass, directly meeting Lin Zhixia’s eyes: “You ranked twenty-fourth? That’s the worst ranking I’ve ever heard. You didn’t even try, did you?”