ATLAS TRANSLATES

At the Mu family residence, in Mu Xianguang’s courtyard.

At eight in the morning, the fragrance of sandalwood drifted through the pearl curtains.

When Mu Yining arrived, a servant was carrying out untouched dishes. Seeing her, he stepped aside and bowed slightly.

Mu Yining lifted the pearl curtain and entered. Inside was dim and smoky.

Passing through the main hall, she walked into a side room.

The small room had no windows, only a dim yellow lamp.

Inside, Mu Xianguang, wearing a gray Buddhist robe, knelt before a Buddha statue with his back to her, chanting softly: “The thirty-two marks, eighty noble characteristics, all complete… able to cause countless beings to all develop…”

Mu Yining, holding an envelope, quietly knelt behind him to his right, hands clasped, looking at the Buddha statue.

After Mu Xianguang finished this section, he gently turned the page of the scripture before him.

When he paused, Mu Yining spoke, “Dad, I saw Uncle’s granddaughter the other day, named Bai Lian. She’s quite lovely.”

Mu Xianguang turned his prayer beads, his voice deep and weathered: “They’ve all returned to Jiangjing? Select some gifts from the storehouse for them.”

“She’s a new student in Jiang University’s Physics Department this year,” Mu Yining looked at the figure before her.

Mu Xianguang continued turning his prayer beads without hesitation, merely nodding.

“She’s from the northern city, took the college entrance exam in Xiangcheng,” Mu Yining looked down at the photo in her hand, “but this year she surpassed the Liang family and became the top scorer in the college entrance exam.”

Most people considered the “Liang” surname to represent the peak of intelligence.

After all, there was Liang Zewen, the teacher of the world.

Mu Xianguang’s hand paused, his clouded eyes fixed on the scripture before him, his voice showing slight emotion: “Top scorer…”

“Dad,” Mu Yining gripped the envelope, “please come out. Zhaozao and all of us are still waiting for you.”

Mu Xianguang had previously been the one to raise the family’s banner. After the family’s disaster, it seemed to have taken him away as well.

“Me?” Mu Xianguang spoke self-mockingly, closing his eyes and tapping the wooden fish drum rhythmically: “Yining, I’m just a useless person now. What benefit can I bring to the family? These young people shouldn’t all be ruined in my hands.”

Mu Yining looked at Mu Xianguang’s back – he never turned around once.

She placed the envelope beside him, then finally stood up, bowed three times to the Buddha statue, and left.

Outside on the small path, Manager Lou was still waiting for Mu Yining. Seeing her emerge, his aged face filled with hope, “How did it go?”

Mu Yining looked up at the rising sun overhead, shook her head, and remained silent.

Manager Lou understood from her expression.

He escorted Mu Yining to the door where Assistant Wang was already waiting.

Manager Lou placed the gift box in the car, “Young miss, drink less alcohol,” then instructed Assistant Wang, “All of you be smart and help block drinks for the young miss.”

Manager Lou stood in place, watching Mu Yining’s car leave.

After they left, Manager Lou turned his head to look at Little Jie beside him, muttering: “Mr. Ji’s niece is the top scorer…”

** Jiang University has eight libraries.

Bai Lian went to the library at the border between the South Mei and Rose districts.

Just after getting off the school bus, she received a voice message from Ye Jianxian.

“Senior?” Bai Lian was still wearing her bluetooth earphones, very politely.

“Junior,” Ye Jianxian’s voice was gentle, “For this year’s welcome party, how about you perform? The Finance Department has a very talented new student who studied at Jiang Music School. Other departments are all preparing their best acts. Counting our department’s new students this year, we only have you and Xu Qian.”

“Senior, I’m a bit busy.” Bai Lian wasn’t making excuses – she had Tongfeng class exams and a mathematical modeling presentation.

“Junior~” Ye Jianxian spoke on the phone, “Just sing a simple song? Our department has always been male-dominated, we haven’t had someone as presentable as you in many years. You’re also our new student representative… never mind, are you in the dorm? I’ll come find you and we can discuss details!”

Bai Lian stood under the camphor tree at the library entrance, looking at the address Tang Ming sent – a small discussion room on the fourth floor. “Senior, I’m at the library, and I have plans this afternoon.”

Library? “You…” Ye Jianxian hadn’t expected her to be at the library on the first day of school. As expected of someone who entered with top scores. “Well then junior, I’ll find you tonight to discuss. Please, junior.”

“Alright.” Bai Lian hung up WeChat, methodically removed a leaf from her arm, and stood waiting in front of the library for a while.

Chen Hong and Xu Wenyao arrived quickly.

“Ah Lian.” Xu Wenyao greeted Bai Lian.

“The junior and her classmates are really hardworking.” Chen Hong needed to refine the presentation PPT and had some questions to discuss with Bai Lian and Xu Wenyao. He greeted Bai Lian and spoke quietly with Xu Wenyao.

In his freshman year, he hadn’t had the same awareness as Bai Lian and her peers. These college years were the best opportunity to break through one’s family background and social class.

** The three entered the library together.

Jiang University had many libraries with no shortage of study spaces – public areas as well as small group discussion rooms and individual study rooms.

The separated individual study rooms were very suitable for group discussions.

Bai Lian went up the spiral staircase. The card reader outside the discussion room was off, indicating the room was already occupied by a small team.

The discussion room wasn’t large, with a rectangular table. Tang Ming sat on the left side, Ning Xiao sat to his right, and Yang Lin sat several seats away from Ning Xiao.

She pushed open the glass door. Tang Ming, who was facing the computer, looked up and spoke softly: “Sister Lian.”

His gaze moved past Bai Lian to Xu Wenyao and Chen Hong, greeting them as well: “Senior Xu, Senior Chen.”

They had all met during summer vacation.

Hearing the voices, Yang Lin also looked up briefly, pushing up her glasses.

She was studying molecular biology, with a chemistry book beside her.

These were both Bai Lian’s weak subjects. She quietly pulled out the chair next to Yang Lin and sat down, removed her bluetooth earphones and set them aside, then took out her canvas bag.

The bag contained her computer and freshly printed documents.

“Which question are you stuck on?” she asked Tang Ming quietly.

Tang Ming directly pushed the problem he was working on to her. Bai Lian looked down – it was a mechanics problem involving parabolic motion, with two small objects fixed by thin rods on a parabolic metal wire.

There were three sub-questions. Tang Ming had answered the first two.

Only the last sub-question about the time for the mouse to climb up remained – he had done most of it but was stuck on the final part.

Bai Lian hadn’t done this problem before either. She took out paper and pen from her canvas bag and calculated step by step. After finishing the problem, she explained to him, “You’re correct to use D as the reference point, this way their moments are zero and you can write out the equilibrium conditions for the thin rod.”

As she spoke, Bai Lian wrote out a beautiful distance formula on the paper, explaining while working it out.

“The previous conditions all satisfy this condition. If we let t be the time it takes to climb up, it turns out to be a periodic function…”

Chen Hong, sitting across from Bai Lian, was working while listening to her quiet explanation, inwardly amazed.

Her explanation was even clearer and easier to understand than when the professor had taught it in class.

Chen Hong looked up from his computer toward the opposite side. Tang Ming, a freshman, had brought out not just basic mechanics problems but also particle energy levels and wave functions.

“…” What were these freshmen doing?

** Compared to everyone else present…

Chen Hong was clearly less focused on his work. While working on his PPT, he kept watching the time in the bottom right corner of his computer.

At 10:58, he stopped what he was doing.

He opened the Boyuan Base website – the award list would be published at eleven.

By this time, the website was already lagging a bit with many people refreshing the page.

“With so many Computer Science students at Jiang University, how are both the academic affairs website and Boyuan website so slow?” Chen Hong complained again. “The railway website handles millions of clicks simultaneously without lagging this badly.”

Xu Wenyao looked up from his book at the computer screen, “If you invest a few billion in the academic affairs website, they’ll have people specifically develop it.”

Every year when Chen Hong tried to register for electives, he would complain about Jiang University’s academic system crashing from heavy traffic.

“Old Xu,” he called Xu Wenyao this when nervous, speaking very quietly: “Do you think we can get first prize in this mathematical modeling competition?”

With just him and Xu Wenyao, even second prize might have been difficult.

He was mainly holding them back, though Bai Lian, despite being a freshman, had solid fundamentals.

“Problem A this year was difficult,” Xu Wenyao considered the difficulty of this modeling competition’s Problem A. Not many would have chosen it. “That gives us an advantage.”

As they spoke, Chen Hong refreshed the page again.

This time the system was slow but finally refreshed to show a banner—

[Boyuan Base International Summer Camp Mathematical Modeling Application List]

Chen Hong clicked in immediately.

The first line showed participating schools, team members, supervising teachers, and award applications.

Chen Hong found his team’s name in the fourth row—

[Participating School: Jiangjing University Team Members: Xu Wenyao, Chen Hong, Bai Lian Supervising Teacher: He Wen Award Application: First Prize]

The Boyuan Base modeling competition was highly regarded, with international students participating to improve their chances of getting into Jiangjing University’s graduate programs.

Chen Hong had thought they would definitely get second prize.

But first prize was another matter entirely – a first prize in the Boyuan modeling competition even added points for graduate school applications.

“Old Xu,” Chen Hong turned his head, “I think, maybe trying for graduate school isn’t impossible?”

Xu Wenyao looked at the first prize in silence, then took out his phone to take a photo and sent it to Bai Lian across the table, as well as Dean Huang.

Chen Hong continued scrolling, looking for Qi Jun and others’ names.

First prizes were all on the first page.

Second and third prizes followed.

He found Qi Jun’s name on the third page. “Second prize isn’t bad either, hehe, but not as good as us.”

Chen Hong was grinning foolishly.

If Ning Xiao, Yang Lin and the others hadn’t been seriously working on problems, Chen Hong would have shouted out loud.

** At eleven-thirty, Chen Hong packed up his things, ready to treat his juniors to lunch outside.

He and Xu Wenyao were happy. Bai Lian didn’t dampen their spirits, picking up her phone and bluetooth earphones, walking behind the group while messaging with Jiang Fuli, who asked where she was having lunch.

In the afternoon, Bai Lian needed to help Lu Xiaohan film videos. Lu Xiaohan had just registered yesterday and would start military training as a freshman, so they wanted to film the videos before training began.

Jiang Fuli would go with her.

Bai Lian listened to English while casually replying: [Chen Hong is treating, don’t know where]

Teacher Jiang: [Send me the location]

Bai Lian wasn’t very familiar with the restaurants around campus.

Chen Hong and Tang Ming walked in front, Chen Hong’s arm around Tang Ming’s shoulders, “You two aren’t in the same major as the junior? How is it, how many girls are in your class?”

“Three,” Tang Ming had seen this discussed in the class group chat, “We really have very few girls in engineering.”

“Right, but this year our department has a junior who’s definitely presentable,” Chen Hong said, then told Tang Ming about treating everyone for the modeling competition success, mentioning how incredible Bai Lian was this time. “Junior is only a freshman, and with this modeling competition’s Problem A about astronomical telescopes, I didn’t even understand it the first time I read it. You’re her classmate, do you know how she got so ridiculously good?”

But Tang Ming wasn’t surprised.

“Ah, you’ll get used to it at Jiang University,” Tang Ming clicked his tongue, “You’re not from our Xiangcheng school, you don’t know, but just a year ago, Sister Lian was studying humanities. She transferred to science in her final year of high school. Do you understand what it means to transfer from humanities to science, start with zero in biology and chemistry, and then become first in our school, first in North City, and finally first in the national college entrance exam?”

“Back in senior year, the humanities teachers must have visited their Class 15 countless times.”