Chapter 3 Boy Genius

On the plane from Leningrad to Washington, a group of teenagers wearing custom-made suits embroidered with the Soviet Union emblem sat in the front row of the plane. They passed the selection this time and were sent to Washington, the capital of the United States, to participate in the 22nd International Math Olympiad science competition team members. And Seryozha also went there as a staff member of the participating delegation.

Seryozha was only arranged to come in three days before departure. When the head of the delegation introduced him to these children, these children could hardly believe their eyes. Children of this age are at the time of worshiping heroes, and Seryozha is a hero who is always mentioned on TV recently, and these children soon became friends with him. But there are exceptions. A skinny teenager doesn't seem to be very interested in him. From the moment he got on the plane, he has been busy with his own affairs, writing and drawing on paper. And sitting next to him was Seryozha, and they hadn't spoken to each other for so long.

Sergey, who was bored, pressed the pager on the seat. After a while, a sweet stewardess came over. When she saw Sergey, she asked in surprise, "Are you the combat hero who came back from Afghanistan?"

"Yes, it is me, it is my honor to be remembered by such a beautiful lady as you!" Seryozha said with a smile.

"Ah! It's incredible. You must take a photo with me when you get off the plane. What do you need now?" The stewardess asked gently with a sweet smile on her face.

"A glass of vodka, and a glass of yoghurt for the man next to me!" Seryozha replied. After the stewardess confirmed all the needs of Seryozha, two glasses of drinks were served within a short while. Seryozha put the yogurt by the boy's hand, and then picked up the glass and took a sip of the wine.

The boy was taken aback by the yogurt that appeared in front of him. He raised his head to look at Seryozha, said thank you, and then continued to bury his head in the matter at hand. Seryozha squinted at the manuscript on his desk, which showed areas delineated by grid lines and diagonal lines. There are also some letters and formulas written on it. Seryozha stared at it for a long time but couldn't understand it, so he couldn't help asking: "Are you doing geometry problems?"

The young man raised his head again, took a sip of yogurt, and then replied, "It's not too bad!"

"Can you tell me something about it?" Seryozha asked with feigned interest. The boy became cheerful as if a switch had been pressed. He put the manuscript on the table in front of Seryozha, and began to explain to him what he was doing. At first Seryozha could understand it, but later he began to feel that he was listening to heavenly scriptures. He could only roughly tell from his university knowledge that what the young man was doing belonged to the category of topology and graph theory.

After the young man excitedly finished talking about the problems he was studying, he asked Sergey Sha a few more questions, but Sergey Shale couldn't answer any of them. The boy finally realized that Seryozha was pretending to understand, so he asked angrily, "Are you a mathematician?"

"To be precise, I once dreamed of becoming an engineer. I only know some knowledge of engineering mathematics. If you are willing to discuss with me about harmonic analysis (application of engineering mathematics), I can still tell you a thing or two." Seryozha said with some shame that although he was once a top student who was admitted to Moscow University, in front of such a real genius, Seryozha was instantly turned into a scumbag.

"Then why are you going with us?" the young man asked sincerely, and Seryozha observed his eyes carefully, and there was no contempt in his eyes. It seemed that he simply didn't know himself, so Seryozha responded: "I'm here to serve you, to make sure you have a good time in America!"

The boy drank all the yogurt and wanted to concentrate on the problem, but was stopped by Sergey. Seryozha didn't want to have no one to talk to along the way,

Even a nerd is better than nothing. He took out a deck of poker from his pocket, and asked the boy, "Are you interested in playing two hands with me?"

Seryozha thought he would be rejected, but unexpectedly the young man agreed, and warned Seryozha: "You can't beat me at any game!"

"Will it be at 21 o'clock? We can bet on something. If you win and come to the United States, how about I treat you to a hamburger and ice cream?" Seryozha actually likes fighting the landlord the most, but the two of them obviously can't play. So I thought of blackjack. If I were the banker myself, I would have a greater chance of winning.

"Can you tell me the rules of the game?" the boy asked with a puzzled expression.

So Seriosha briefly outlined the rules of blackjack, A can be used as one point or eleven points, 2-10 can be used as the points of the card, and J, Q, and K can be used as 10 points. One card can be added each time until the player explodes or no more cards are needed. Afterwards, everyone needs to show all the cards, and the banker must continue to draw cards if the banker is less than 17 points. Finally, if the banker exceeds 21 points, the banker loses, otherwise the player loses. Five Dragons, Straight Flush, and other bet doubling rules.

The young man memorized everything Seryozha said after only listening to it once. Seryozha took apart the poker and began to shuffle the cards skillfully. After the first hidden card was dealt, Seryozha began to wait for the boy to play. Note up.

"Don't follow!" The boy threw the card on the table without even looking at it. Seeing that it was an ace, Seryozha hurriedly said, "Don't you think about what if it is (exactly 21 o'clock)?" He replied unhurriedly: "The probability is too small, shall we continue?"

So Seryozha continued to deal the cards. In the first few rounds, the boy didn't want any cards at all. The chips in front of Seryozha gradually increased, but he could only earn a little each time. As the game progressed, the boy no longer folded his cards in the first round, but slowly began to bet. A straight flush and a five-dragon were drawn one after another, and Xie Liaosha's chips dropped by more than half , After two more rounds, Xie Liaosha has already begun to owe the boy chips.

"I lost!" After a few rounds, Xie Liaosha had to take the initiative to admit defeat, because he didn't know when Xie Liaosha hadn't won. This contest on the gambling table has become a mathematical game for this young man. The young man can tell how much he has won in each hand. Even the people sitting in front and behind can't help but pay attention to Sergei Sha's game . It's really embarrassing for an adult to be crushed by a middle school student.

"God of Gamblers! May I ask what your name is?" Seryozha stretched out his hand to the boy and asked with embarrassment.

"Grigory Yakov Levi Perelman, what's your name?" The boy stretched out his hand to hold Seryozha's hand while reporting himself and asked.

"Sergey Ivanovich Ulyanov, nice to meet you, you can call me Sergey!" Sergey introduced himself.