At 8 o’clock in the morning, the examination room of the Faculty of Mathematics’ compulsory course <Prime Numbers Maze> had opened.
The four of them were instantly pulled into a strange maze. The maze room had a square structure with six walls painted with a special black paint and decorated with stars, as if they were in a dark, deep cosmic starry sky, with those ‘stars’ emitting a faint light to illuminate the room.
Each of the four walls had a door with four numbered cards attached to it in white fluorescent characters that shone like the point cards from the <Cross-Country Orienteering> course that could be taken down and collected.
Additional Question: Collect all Twin Prime Numbers
They should take down all the ‘twin prime number’ cards pasted on the wall in order to complete the additional question.
Yue Xingwen’s eyes quickly swept around. The four numbers in the first room were very simple, 4, 5, 6, and 7.
Single digit prime numbers were easy to find, 5 and 7 were twin prime numbers.
Yue Xingwen glanced at Jiang Pingce, “A 3-credit maze class shouldn’t be too easy, right?”
Jiang Pingce frowned for a few seconds, saying, “Each room has 4 doors. If there is a path behind each door, then the number of doors in this maze is 4 to the power of n(4^n). The difficulty is not finding the twin primes, it’s finding the correct path. We need to walk through the maze while mapping and judging the directions clearly.”
Ke Shaobin quickly took out his laptop. “I can write a code to quickly figure out which are the prime numbers, and build a maze model map by the way… Wait, it seems that my laptop can’t be turned on?”
Liu Zhaoqing leaned over and looked at it, “It’s not broken, right?”
Ke Shaobin put his fingerprint on the boot button and pressed it along the way, wondering, “Is the laptop not allowed to be used?”
Yue Xingwen helplessly supported his forehead, “It seems that we can’t use the laptop to help us calculate, we have to calculate it ourselves.” He looked up at the countdown to the upper right corner of his eyes, “The exam time is 4 hours. If there are many forks, should we slowly check it?”
Liu Zhaoqing spread his hands. “I haven’t touched math for years ah. My brain will be muddled if you let me calculate the division. For this class, just think of me as a mobile accessory, and I’ll follow you quietly.”
Yue Xingwen laughed. “I’m pretty much the same.”
Jiang Pingce suddenly said seriously, “For the fastest time to pass this exam, we’d better split up and explore the path.”
Ke Shaobin and Liu Zhaoqing glanced at each other and spoke in unison, “Split up?”
He must be on the same team as Yue Xingwen. Could the remaining two of them do it?
Ke Shaobin adjusted his glasses embarrassedly, and his ears were slightly red. “Although I’m a science student, but I… I’ve been used to using computers to solve all calculation problems since I was a freshman, and I haven’t done math myself in a long time.”
Jiang Pingce said, “It’s not divided into two teams.”
He turned his head to look at his teammates and said word by word, “It’s divided into four teams, one person for each team.”
Three people: “……”
Are you kidding? Liu Zhaoqing looked horrified, “I really can’t do math ah!”
Yue Xingwen quickly understood his train of thought, “You mean, the four of us will split up to explore the way separately and leave the calculations all to you? Do you want to calculate the prime numbers of four paths at once by yourself?!”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Qtfc tf rjlv jybea vlnlvlcu atf afjwr, atfs atbeuta la kbeiv yf rqila lcab akb rwjii afjwr. Cr j gfreia, Aljcu Ulcumf kjr fnfc wbgf geatifrr atjc fnfgsbcf atbeuta—— Vqila eq vlgfmais lcab obeg afjwr! Ccv tf kbeiv mjimeijaf obg atf obeg qjatr ja bcmf ys tlwrfio!
Apparently, he had enough confidence in his computing skills.
Jiang Pingce looked at Yue Xingwen, and said seriously, “We can send messages in the Research Group’s chat channel during the exam. For every maze room you enter, tell me the number on the door on the Research Group’s chat channel, and I will calculate it and give the correct answer.”
Yue Xingwen tried to post a line on the Research Group’s chat channel, “Can you see it?”
The four people saw the message in the transparent hover box in the upper left corner.
Yue Xingwen’s eyes lit up, “That’s an awesome method ah! The four people splitting up and moving forward in four ways will greatly save time exploring the maze, and there will be fewer trips back and forth if we encounter the wrong path.” He paused and then looked at Jiang Pingce with some concern, “But then you’ll be under a lot of pressure, right? Four roads, can you tell which way to go in case you get it wrong in the back?”
If Jiang Pingce’s judgment was correct, and there were four doors and four paths within each maze room, then there were as many correct paths as 4^n. Could he remember the exponential increase in the path?
Jiang Pingce looked at Yue Xingwen, and his black eyes were full of seriousness. “Trust me.”
Meeting his gaze, Yue Xingwen simply nodded his head, “Okay, I trust you, just do as you say!”
Jiang Pingce said, “First, take out your dictionary and tear some paper for me, I’ll draw the map of the maze path.”
Yue Xingwen did as he was told, taking a pen out of his pocket and handing it to Jiang Pingce in the process.
Jiang Pingce walked to the wall where the number [5] was pasted and pushed the door open. The next room was indeed exactly the same as this room, it also had four walls, and four numbers were pasted.
Jiang Pingce tried to push open the other three doors of [4] [6] [7] and reached the same conclusion.
This proved that his reasoning was correct—— There were four doors and four exits in each room. The later room would definitely become a dead end. Trying to find the correct exit to this maze, if the four of them were together and slowly lined up room by room, they could certainly make it out in four hours, but they certainly could not use this stupid method if they wanted to get a high score in this course.
Jiang Pingce quickly drew a few squares on the paper, explaining, “You won’t remember the direction after you guys walk too much. For example, the current room number 4, 5, 6, and 7, after pushing the door that says [5], you will enter the next room, and remember what the number is in the other door connected to [5]. When you type the number, start with this door you walked through and type it clockwise, you know what I mean?”
Yue Xingwen watched him draw five consecutive rooms next to each other on the paper, all square, with a number on each side. As he said, once there were more paths behind, the sense of direction or whatever became a floating cloud. They would not be able to distinguish the East, West, North, and South, not to mention, all the walls inside this maze were painted into the starry sky, it was strange not to be dizzy.
To locate the exact direction, they would have to use the previous room.
For example, the door in front of room A was attached to [5], which was regarded as [Door 5], and after pushing open this door, it was room B, because room B was also square, two squares joined together would share a common side, which meant that one of the four walls of room B must have a door directly connected to [Door 5] in room A.
The logic used by Jiang Pingce was that ‘two rooms share a door with different numbers on the front and back’. Then, starting from the first room and continuously going over to the next room, you could deduce the complete map of the maze.
This kind of method did not need to care about East, West, North, South. As long as every room was not wrong, his map could not be wrong.
Jiang Pingce looked at his three teammates and instructed them once again, “Be sure to remember the number on the door that you pushed open, and immediately look at the number on the back of the same door after entering the next room. Then report the number to me clockwise, don’t make a mistake. If we make one mistake, there will be a series of mistakes in the future, do you understand?”
The three people looked at each other and nodded in unison, “Understood!”
They could not tell the difference between East, West, North, and South, but they could still distinguish between clockwise and counter-clockwise!
Jiang Pingce said, “Prepare to divide the team. Young Ke, you take no. 4 door, I’ll take no. 5, Xingwen no. 6, and senior brother Liu no. 7.”
Yue Xingwen took the initiative to stretch out his hand. “Come, let’s cheer for the top student.”
Liu Zhaoqing and Ke Shaobin consciously put their hands on it. Jiang Pingce glanced at Yue Xingwen and also cooperated by putting his hand on it. Yue Xingwen gently covered the back of his hand with his other hand and smiled brightly, “Fighting! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself, we can just pass, there’s no need to go for the first place, you know?”
Jiang Pingce’s heart warmed and he nodded towards him, “En. You guys don’t take the wrong card. If we want to get the points from the additional question, we must collect all the twin primes cards and points will be deducted if we take the wrong ones.”
Four people glanced at each other and walked into the four doors separately, and the next room once again came up in numbers.
It was double digits this time.
Yue Xingwen’s room was 11, 12, 13, 14; Ke Shaobin’s room was 16, 17, 18, 19; Liu Zhaoqing’s room was 28, 29, 30, 31; and Jiang Pingce’s room was 40, 41, 42, 43.
The double digits were easy enough for everyone to figure out on their own, but for the convenience of Jiang Pingce’s map, the three of them followed the rules he said and reported the numbers clockwise from the door they entered.
Jiang Pingce gave instructions: “Take down the twin prime number cards, Xingwen, you can go to no. 13, Young Ke no. 18, senior brother no. 30.”
He picked all the paths that were directly in front of them, going straight first, retreating back when they hit a dead end and going right, then left, so it did not get messed up.
The four quickly moved on to the next room. This time the number became three digits.
Jiang Pingce: “Senior brother, take no. 107 and 109, and go to the door no. 111.”
Liu Zhaoqing took two number cards according to his instructions and continued to move forward.
The Research Group’s chat channel kept popping up with messages from Jiang Pingce: “Xingwen, take no. 137 and 139, go to no. 133.”
“Young Ke, take no. 179 and 181, and walked through the door no. 181.”
In the next room, the prime numbers increased once again and became four digits.
Everyone could still calculate for the two and three digits. After four digits, the three people simply gave up thinking. If they had that time to slowly go calculate themselves, they might as well quickly type and wait for the Jiang Pingce’s calculation.
Jiang Pingce’s brain speed was amazing, he could actually give an answer in seconds by counting four paths at the same time!
“4019，4021” “8969，8971” “9281，9283……”
“4019, 4021” “8969, 8971” “9281, 9283…”
Walking into another room, the numbers had risen to five digits.
“16829，16831” “31541，31543……”
“16829, 16831” “31541, 31543…”
But for Jiang Pingce, five digits was not difficult, and pairs of twin prime numbers were quickly and accurately reported by him.
The team was collecting more and more prime number cards in their hands. Jiang Pingce was not only calculating the twin prime numbers of the four paths at the same time, but also had to draw a maze map while walking to ensure that the direction of his teammates was not wrong…
In this maze full of numbers, while others were in the dark and did not know where to go, Jiang Pingce was like a fish in water—— These numbers were his closest companions growing up. He went to the National Mathematics Competition in high school. He genuinely loved math and the wonderful, rich, yet rigorous world made up of numbers.
He was like an innate king in the world of Mathematics, while others feared numbers, he could control them.
The numbers in the room were getting more and more complex, and the amount of calculation was increasing wildly.
Jiang Pingce was like a computer with a high-speed processor. He calculated while gradually drawing the map of the maze in his mind, and as soon as his teammates type out the numbers, he could always give the correct answer immediately.
Yue Xingwen: “The room ahead is a dead end, there’s no door.”
Jiang Pingce instructed: “Go back one room and take the door no. 8861.”
Ke Shaobin quickly chimed in: “I also met a dead end.”
Jiang Pingce: “Go back, and go through the door no. 9657.”
“Senior brother, go back and go to the door no. 9861.”
Under Jiang Pingce’s command, everyone explored the path over and over again, and the entire mathematical maze was explored, with the forks that were almost uncountable. Yue Xingwen alone took eight forks, so it was hard to imagine that Jiang Pingce actually did not make any mistakes.
They thought that if they continued probing like this, they would soon be able to explore all the forks. However, just as the twin prime number cards collected in Yue Xingwen’s hand reached 30, a message from Liu Zhaoqing suddenly appeared on the Research Group’s chat channel: “Holy shit, an elevator appeared in the room I entered, along with buttons to go up and down.”
A few seconds later, Ke Shaobin also sent a message: “I entered the door no. 24189, and there is also an elevator inside.”
An elevator that could go up and down?
Yue Xingwen said: “Could it be that this maze has at least three levels?”
Jiang Pingce said: “I already expected it. The course description says it’s a three-dimensional maze. No matter how many forks in the flat maze, it’s not difficult to make marks and slowly explore. A three-dimensional maze’s difficulty will be doubled.”
Yue Xingwen was worried: “A three-dimensional maze, will it doubled the calculations too?”
Jiang Pingce said: “It’s alright, come back first. We will collect the twin prime numbers on this floor and then go upstairs.”
If they wanted to do the additional question and collect all the twin prime numbers, they had to explore all the rooms of the maze. The three people had long been dizzy, unable to tell North from South, but Jiang Pingce’s calm, clear command gave them complete confidence.
In this vast maze of numbers like a starry sky, not only did he has to calculate four paths at the same time for his teammates to quickly find the twin prime numbers in this densely packed numbers, but he also had to make sure that he did not let his teammates get lost during the repeated pushing the doors, explorations, and return process.
Such a high level command that other teams, perhaps, would not even dare to think about it.
But Yue Xingwen believed—— Jiang Pingce could definitely do it.
Wow, Math God!
I would’ve cried if I went there •́ ‿ ,•̀
Thx for the chapter!
Same! I once got lost in a small garden maze when I was 9 or 10, and I never want to go in one again😭
Wow I might have done well completing the maze ,but not the additional questions Definitely Not!
Thank you for the chapter!
I don’t understand anything T_T
Is it just me? 😭
^ you’re not alone! I returned all my knowledge of math to my teachers the minute I finished my GE req. and this whole chapter has just been one huge question mark to me other than cheering on the MLs bad*ssery lol
You’re not alone… The moment I saw the numbers, my mind automatically ignored it hahaha
Wow, my sociological brain was broken
Thank you for your translation 🤍
Haha same! My brain has long been finetuned for the soft sciences and anything to do with higher-level math or physics has me super lost
Me: I don’t understand anything but it seems impressive!
I’ll just accept my death if ever I got pilled into this, tbh.
jiang pingce, so cool!
thanks for the chapter!
Reading this chapter made me feel so dumb lol. My sociology/english brain doesn’t understand. All I know is our ml is badass.
Math student here, if the doors they find are always four consecutive numbers, choosing the number should take no effort at all because it’ll always be the two odd ones haha
I’d still be so lost though, my spacial awareness is 0
Haha same!! I’m the same way with directions AND I’m also terrible with math so I’d be double screwed here
I just understand the prime number part and nothing else lol I would die immediately in this course😭
I would just curl up into a ball on the ground in some corner at that point and wait for death (ㆆᴗㆆ)
I like maths but I can’t calculate that fast 😭👍
haha, I don’t understand anything