Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
As time went by, Lu Zhou had basically maintained a constant daily routine while he was waiting for the results from the mathematical modeling competition.
From Monday to Saturday, he would stay in his dorm, classroom, and library. On Sunday, he would go to Chen Yushan’s cousin and tutor her.
Under Lu Zhou’s help, Han Mengqi’s mathematics scores grew at an alarming rate. She was horrible in the beginning, but now she could keep up with the progress of her high school’s curriculum and be able to move forward steadily.
The other thing was the Campus Train app.
Lu Zhou had not been paying attention to his app. If it was not for the occasional bug feedbacks, Lu Zhou would have forgotten that he ran a small company with a half a million yuan loan.
After the peak back-to-school period, the number of users of Campus Train stopped at 2 million. Like a pool of stagnant water, the user growth stopped.
It was normal. What kind of students would buy a train ticket during the semester?
The cost of renting the cloud server every month was several thousand but this was during normal periods. If it was during the months of June, September, December, January or February, the cost of the server would be more than doubled.
Honestly speaking, Lu Zhou did not have an idea as to how to monetize the app. This was his first attempt at starting a business and he was very confused.
His original plan was to increase the number of users of the app and then get some fundings or simply sell it to a big company.
As of now, not a single company was interested in his app. However, a lot of headhunting companies found him.
Although the young userbase was of high quality, the group of users was only “active” at certain times. The value was low… This was what Lu Zhou learned when he tried to contact internet venture capitalists.
As expected, it was too difficult for a person to run a company alone.
He had no experience nor energy.
Lu Zhou was contemplating if he should use the 500,000 yuan to hire a professional manager. However, the problem was what kind of manager would want to work at a place that did not even have an office?
Emm…
This question is still unsolved.
Lu Zhou put aside the company affairs for a while. Anyway, the users were inactive and there was no way to make them active.
Finally, in early October, when Lu Zhou received a presentation reply from Professor Liu, he finally stopped worrying.
Normally, getting a presentation reply meant at least a provincial first level prize, which was also the first level area prize.
According to the rules of the mathematical modeling competition, each competition zone would send the first level prize of the area to the national organizing committee. According to the unified standard, the national organizing committee would hire experts to form the national evaluation committee. The first level and second level national prizes would be selected by that committee.
The first level national prize would also be considered for the special award such as the Higher Education Society Cup or the Matlab Innovation Award.
The Higher Education Society Cup was a very prestigious award.
If the first level national prize added credit towards a master’s entrance, then the Higher Education cup would guarantee a master’s entrance.
Lu Zhou did not care too much about the Higher Education cup. His goal was the first level national prize. If he could not even get that, he was scared that he would have to wait till next year to finish the mission or that he had to use general points and cancel the mission.
Lu Zhou did not waste his time. He opened the notebook, inserted the USB, and started to prepare the presentation powerpoint.
At this moment, a knock came from outside the dorm. Huang Guangming who was playing on his phone stood up and walked over.
It was the class leader Tian Jun. He had a name list in his hand when he asked, “Is Liu Rui in your dorm?”
“Here!” said Liu Rui. He was washing clothes on the balcony and when he hurried back into the dorm, he knocked over Huang Guangming’s feet washing bucket before he hurriedly asked the class leader, “What’s up, what’s up?”
Actually, he already knew what was up.
In the morning, Liu Rui’s teammate mentioned something about a provincial second level prize. Liu Rui did not think much of it as he was only trying to get experience so that he could enter again next year and try to get the national prizes.
“Congratulations,” said the class leader with a smile. He pulled out a certificate and said, “Second level provincial award!”
When Huang Guangming heard him, he stopped playing on his phone and shouted, “Oh sh*t, Liu Rui, you’re nutty.”
Shi Shang followed, “Nutty nutty, second level provincial prize. You almost got the first level!”
“Who else got a prize in our class?” asked Liu Rui as he quickly looked towards Lu Zhou’s direction.
“And Luo Rundong I think. He won the first level provincial prize,” said Tian Jun. He smiled and continued, “The second level prize is very good, much better than us idiot students that didn’t even participate!”
“No, no. I just got lucky. Haha,” replied Liu Rui modestly even though he was happy in his heart.
Although Liu Rui was jealous, he did not talk much with genius Luo, so there was not too much imbalance in Liu Rui’s heart.
What surprised him was that Lu Zhou did not even get a prize!
Number one genius student in the mathematical department only got a participation medal!
What a big upset!
This made Liu Rui happier than the prize made him.
No, I can’t laugh out loud.
Liu Rui cleared his throat and acted as if he cared when he asked the class leader, “What about Zhou? Did you miss his certificate?”
“He’s not on the name list. I’m not sure…”
Tian Jun did not have Lu Zhou on the list. Lu Zhou was a genius student, so he checked a couple more times but still could not find Lu Zhou. He asked Lu Zhou, “Zhou, how about you go and ask the counselor? Maybe my name list is incomplete…”
“Yeah, why isn’t there Zhou’s name on the list. It makes no sense,” said Shi Shang as he nodded.
Although Shi Shang was always infuriated by Lu Zhou’s words, he still respected the man’s talent.
In fact, Tian Jun was right. His list was incomplete.
The list that was given to him by the teacher responsible for training only included the teams that registered through the school’s official website.
Lu Zhou was not managed by the school. He was part of the special training team arranged by the departments. Naturally, his name was not on the list.
“You don’t have to search for it,” said Lu Zhou while he searched for powerpoint material.
His prize would eventually come. He was not in a hurry and he did not know why these people were so anxious to see a piece of paper.
Shi Shang saw Lu Zhou’s dissatisfied face and misunderstood, “No! What if the name list is actually wrong?!”
Huang Guangming agreed and he followed by saying, “Yeah, even Liu Rui got a second level prize. How could you not get one?”
Liu Rui was pissed and he insulted Guangming in his heart.
However, no matter what Liu Rui thought, he still pretended as if he agreed with them.
“It’s really fine,” said Lu Zhou as he shook his head. He added, “That thing will be sent sooner or later.”
Tian Jun was confused and asked, “Sooner or later?”
Lu Zhou replied, “Yeah.” He opened up the browser and clicked on the email as he said, “Professor Liu already notified me of the presentation. The certificate will be sent soon so I’m not in a hurry.”
There seemed to be a deviation in understanding.
The atmosphere in the dorm went quiet for three seconds.
Finally, Shi Shang said in shock, “F*ck me! Lu Zhou, you’re nutty!”
Huang Guangming placed his arm on Lu Zhou’s shoulder and said, “First level provincial prize! You must’ve been entered into the national prize! Buy us dinner, Lu Zhou!”
Lu Zhou slapped his arm like a mosquito. He looked away and said, “Go away, leave me alone. I’m not gay. I have to do my powerpoint. We’ll talk about dinner after I get the prize money!”
Class leader Tian Jun sighed and closed his name list. He smiled and said, “I told you. I knew that Lu Zhou would get the first level prize! I guess Professor Liu has it. Okay then, I’m leaving.”
Liu Rui: “…”
Liu Rui smiled reluctantly even though he actually wanted to cry.
Finally, I felt good about my self for once, but now the feeling is gone…