Top Student at Their Peak
Chapter 56 - 56 56 Invitation

56: Chapter 56 Invitation 56: Chapter 56 Invitation Hehe, Teacher Qiao.

Are they asking him to change his last name?

At his age, having to lie by decree, Lan Jie felt quite uncomfortable.

He could only hope that no one would notice Qiao Yu’s score matched with the name of Railway First Middle School, and then come asking him.

But before he even had that hope, another math teacher from the first year walked into the office, excitedly chatting about the topic.

“Hey, Teacher Lan, the Qiao Yu you picked out from the junior high has made it to the finals of the Little Alibaba competition.

That’s impressive!

If I signed up myself, I might not even make it to the finals.”

Hearing this, Lan Jie didn’t feel honored, he just felt a headache.

This competition has grown significantly in influence in math circles over the past five years.

Especially now, the standards for high school teachers are getting higher.

Ten years ago, high schools like Railway First Middle School could hire excellent graduates from education majors, but starting five years ago, hiring teachers required a master’s degree in a related field.

As for those key high schools, while they may require a master’s degree, most actual hires have a PhD.

The Little Alibaba math competition has no entry barriers and doesn’t require a registration fee.

Plus, the competition is held on weekends, giving two whole days, so unless a school explicitly bans faculty members from participating, many math teachers naturally sign up to try.

They may not necessarily aim for the prize money, but participating in such a competition is like competing intellectually with top IQs, which brings a sense of achievement for those into math.

And there’s no fear of embarrassment if you don’t make it to the finals.

Little Alibaba doesn’t post the list of those who didn’t make it.

As long as you keep quiet, no one around will know you signed up.

Even Lan Jie signed up for the last two sessions.

Anyone who registered, whether or not they made it to the finals, will probably take the time to check the list.

For Star City, a junior high starting with Star City would stand out, so Lan Jie didn’t have time to chat with the teacher who walked in, but instead immediately replied in WeChat: “Principal Zhang, just telling me won’t do any good.

Many math teachers across Star City might be paying attention to this competition, including our school.”

Then he smiled wryly and said to the colleague who had already sat down: “Well, Teacher Xu, Principal Zhang just specifically told me not to mention Qiao Yu entering the finals to anyone.

If asked, just say Qiao Yu is a teacher at our school.”

“This…

Oh, maybe to prevent people from poaching!” They were all smart, and with a hint, the colleague on the opposite side understood and realized with a start.

Lan Jie smiled but before he could speak, his phone started vibrating again.

Then he saw a message in the WeChat workgroup: “@everyone, please all homeroom teachers and math teachers report to Meeting Room 607 in the administration building within ten minutes of receiving this message, no excuses allowed.

Please notify each other!”

Principal Zhang is really efficient.

He’s still out there and has already started calling a meeting?!

“Alright, time for a meeting, let’s go!”

…

In Huaxia, Xiao Zhou, the headquarters of Little Alibaba.

Even though Qiao Yu hoped to quietly enter the finals and win the prize money, unfortunately, he still got noticed.

While registering for the Little Alibaba math competition doesn’t require you to fill out your occupation, it does require your birthdate.

This year, Qiao Yu, who just turned fifteen, is among the youngest registrants.

When he made it to the finals, he naturally became the youngest finalist.

Not only that, he ranked 285th in the preliminaries.

There were seven other fifteen-year-old junior high students like him, but Qiao Yu’s ranking was the highest among his age group in the preliminaries.

These junior high students, ahead of a multitude of students from prestigious universities, secured tickets to the finals, and some ranked quite high, naturally catching the attention of the committee bigwigs.

The competition committee includes not only academicians from national academies of sciences but also many professors from the school of mathematics departments of renowned universities.

This kind of subject-specific competition shoulders the responsibility of discovering talent.

In recent years, there have been quite a few very young contestants making it to the finals and winning gold medals.

For example, Zhai Zhenyu from Shuangqing City, who won a gold medal last year in the global Little Alibaba math competition at the age of seventeen and was also the only contestant last year to achieve a perfect score in the finals.

But unlike these junior high students, this bigwig represented Huaxia at the IMO in 2022, at just sixteen, and won a gold medal.

After that, he was directly admitted to the School of Mathematics at Yanbei University.

When he participated in the Little Alibaba math competition last year, even though he was only seventeen, he was already a sophomore at the School of Mathematics at Yanbei University.

Although the junior high students have not yet managed to win a gold medal in the finals, theoretically, they shouldn’t have had the chance to systematically learn advanced mathematics yet.

If they can achieve such rankings purely through self-study, it can only be said that their talent is quite astonishing!

Qiao Yu, being the best performer, along with other teenage geniuses, had their answers scrutinized by many bigwigs who specially downloaded them to review and remembered their names.

But after all, it’s just the preliminaries, with tens of thousands registered and it being held online, it’s hard to implement technical anti-cheating measures.

Often, it really relies on the contestants’ honesty.

So after greeting a few bigwigs, a new email arrived in Qiao Yu’s inbox from the Little Alibaba Global Math Competition committee.

The main idea was a special invitation for Qiao Yu to attend the finals at the headquarters of Little Alibaba in Xiao Zhou.

If Qiao Yu agreed, he only needed to provide his and his guardian’s names and ID numbers, and the committee would arrange the round trip and accommodations.

Though the finals could also be conducted online, it would simply require turning on the camera and microphone for invigilation through technical means.

However, when talents like these catch the interest of the bigwigs, invitations to participate in the finals at the headquarters do happen.

Of course, not only Qiao Yu received such an invitation, but most of the other geniuses his age also got similar emails.

…

While watching a video trying to soak up knowledge, Qiao Yu saw a message pop up in his email.

He clicked to take a look, thought for a moment, walked out of the room, and asked Qiao Xi, who was watching a soap opera on the sofa, “Mom, the Little Alibaba Group invited me to Xiao Zhou to participate in the finals, with travel and accommodation covered.

Are you going?”

“Oh, when is it?” Qiao Xi looked up and asked.

“The finals start on July 14th, but we might need to go there one or two days in advance.”

“Not going.” Qiao Xi rejected him decisively.

“Why?

Is this time not suitable for you?

How about I negotiate with them to change the date?” Qiao Yu said irritably.

“You know I have social anxiety and don’t like dealing with unfamiliar people.” Qiao Xi justified herself confidently.

“Then why did you ask when?”

“I was asking when you are going, not that I want to go.

Besides, you’re fifteen now.

Are you afraid of taking high-speed rail or lacking legs?

Oh, by the way, be more vigilant when traveling far, be less calculative, and more sincere.

If you’re really scared, you can call the good guy.

Right now, he might treasure you more than I do!”

A mother’s love is always so all-encompassing.

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