In the early autumn of 1978, the University of Science and Technology of China ushered in a lively new student admission season.
A little boy rolling on an iron ring and playing while looking east and west was led by his parents to the freshman registration office.
This childish boy is Xie Yanbo of the first junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China. At only 11 years old, he became the youngest child in the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China.
Although Xie Yanbo is young, his achievements are great.
He is intellectually superior, at the age of 11 in the field of mathematics and physics the depth of study is comparable to that of college students, he studied graduate school at the age of 15, and was admitted to the doctorate at the age of 18, becoming the first person in China who is expected to obtain a doctorate before the age of 20.
But Xie Yanbo suddenly suffered a turning point in his life during his doctoral studies, and this "genius teenager" who was sought after by countless people disappeared from then on.
44 years on, where has he gone, and what happened to the once little prodigy?
01, a genius teenager who does not like to talk
In 1966, Xie Yanbo fell to the ground in the family hospital of Changsha Medical College, and his parents were Kochi, because they were busy with work, they sent Xie Yanbo, who had just turned 1, to his grandmother's house in the countryside.
The grandparents hurt their grandchildren very much, but the old two are older after all, and they live in the countryside, and they can only barely take care of Xiao Yanbo's basic life.
In terms of education, little attention is paid to Xiao Yanbo.
When he was 5 years old, Xiao Yanbo was taken back to the city by his father, and his mother saw that he was silent and taciturn, and he was very sleepy in communicating with normal people, and was once worried that he would not be able to go to school.
In the campus classroom, Xie Yanbo always sat alone in the corner, facing the teacher's questions, and did not answer them.
None of the classmates in the class had ever heard Xie Yanbo speak, so much so that many of his friends thought that Xie Yanbo was a mute.
After being interviewed by the teacher, Xie Yanbo's parents realized the seriousness of the problem.
One day, my father looked at the silent Yanbo and said, "Do you know why the little puppets in Pinocchio always encounter a lot of trouble?" ”
Xie Yanbo looked at his father and shook his head.
"Because he doesn't like to talk, he doesn't like to ask adult questions."
To the relief of his parents, Xie Yanbo listened to this story, realized the disadvantages of not loving to talk, and slowly began to speak.
Xie Yanbo's learning ability and comprehension in the class were extraordinary, and his father accidentally discovered that Xie Yanbo in the second grade could actually do all the math problems in the fifth grade correctly.
The father was particularly happy, believing that his son was different and a gifted "genius teenager".
Even in the mathematics courses of junior high school and high school, Xie Yanbo was very easy to learn.
While the rest of the class was still learning addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, Xie Yanbo, a fifth-grader, had already begun to study the university's analytic geometry and calculus.
In a physical and chemical competition, Xie Yanbo was discovered by teachers at the University of Science and Technology of China and admitted him to the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China.
So there was the scene at the beginning of the article - Xie Yanbo, who was still a child, rolled in an iron circle and walked into the school gate of the University of Science and Technology of China.
In college, Xie Yanbo was highly sought after and sometimes arrogant, but he was the best in his class.
He was admitted to the master's degree at the age of 15 and began to study for a doctorate at the age of 18, under the tutelage of Academician Zhou Guangzhao, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Many predict that there will soon be a rising star in academia, promising to impact the Nobel Prize.
But later Xie Yanbo, but let everyone begin to disappoint.
02, all the way to hang but become a potential "dangerous person"
The famous American mathematician Wiener once said that "prodigies" and "geniuses" cannot become talents without the right environment and continuous efforts, and even degenerate into mediocrity.
When Xie Yanbo was in the junior class, because the classmates around him were relatively young, he never bothered because of interpersonal interactions, but during his graduate school years, the situation was different.
Because of the large age gap with other students in the division, Xie Yanbo felt that he could not communicate with others normally.
This confusion became particularly pronounced during the PhD. Because Xie Yanbo was not good at interpersonal communication, the relationship with his supervisor was once very tense, and his doctoral dissertation did not progress.
The expectation of getting a doctorate before the age of 20, because Xie Yanbo's "emotional intelligence" is not online, has become far away.
Xie Yanbo was not reconciled and decided to go abroad to study for a doctorate, he did not know that fate had once again thrown him an olive branch, and it was the last time to care for him.
When he arrived at Princeton University in the United States, he found that his mentor was actually an authority in academia, the famous Nobel Laureate in Physics- Philip Anderson.
Xie Yanbo was blessed by misfortune and became a student of Nobel laureate Anderson.
A few years later, when everyone was looking forward to Xie Yanbo's return to China to make a difference, he once again disappointed everyone.
He received a call from the embassy and was quickly repatriated. The reason is not unexpected, Xie Yanbo did not know how to deal with interpersonal relationships, and got into a stalemate with his mentor Anderson.
During his studies with Anderson, Xie Yanbo tried to overthrow his mentor's research theory because he was dissatisfied, which made the arrogant Anderson very dissatisfied.
In order to prove his theory correct, Xie Yanbo often ran to Anderson's house to make noise.
Once, when he was arguing with Anderson's wife, he unconsciously inserted his hand into his pocket, and the master's mother was instantly frightened.
At that time, there had just been a case in the United States in which a Chinese student had shot and killed his mentor, and Xie Yanbo's movement was thought by Anderson's wife to be a gun.
Thinking of Xie Yanbo's paranoid personality and the extreme behavior towards Anderson from time to time, Anderson will send Xie Yanbo back to China no matter what.
In this way, Xie Yanbo was expelled from Anderson's division.
Perhaps it was too smooth since childhood, all the way to the sky, Xie Yanbo, who had almost 0 ability to resist setbacks, has since collapsed.
03, the highlight of the curtain is invisible to everyone
The future is bright and full of hope before going abroad; When he returned to China, he lost his scenery and was depressed, and Xie Yanbo, who was already introverted, became more eccentric and silent.
Fortunately, after Xie Yanbo returned to China, his alma mater remembered that he had a rich knowledge reserve and hired him as a physics teacher.
The adult Xie Yanbo got married and had children and lived his life step by step.
When the aura of prodigy and genius faded, Xie Yanbo, who had calmed down, realized that he was just an ordinary person.
How high it used to be held, how heavy it is now. But Xie Yanbo was very distressed, and he couldn't get out of this trough of life.
When Xie Yanbo was teaching at the University of Science and Technology of China, his clothes were torn and his behavior was strange, like a "mental illness".
He was dressed strangely, always wearing an oil-stained, dirty shiny jacket and an old red bag stuffed with unknown things, no different from a beggar on the street.
Not only does he appear out of the circle, but his behavior is also very strange, and he always feels that the people around him will blame or target him for discovering his ulterior secrets.
Once, Xie Yanbo had a calculation error on his computer, and he was sure that no one knew about this error.
The next day, he walked on the campus of the University of Science and Technology of China, passing by the person opposite, who just spat on the side of the road and did not have any communication with him.
He went crazy, almost paranoid that the other party was clearly blaming himself in this way.
In class, Xie Yanbo often laughed inexplicably, often turning his head suddenly when wiping the blackboard, and looking at the students under the stage with a strange smile that made people wonder.
Xie Yanbo's students also had different evaluations of his "Mona Lisa-style" weird smile.
Many students said, "Teacher Xie's spirit is not normal, he can't communicate normally at all, he is just relying on his former glory to teach at his alma mater." “
Other students disagreed, believing that Xie Yanbo was a genius and that his strange behavior was only because he did not despise the vulgar generation.
During his teaching at the University of Science and Technology of China, although Xie Yanbo behaved in circles and was not good at communicating with people, his academic achievements were still very deep, and he published a paper on the evolution mechanism of adaptive dynamics in the "Science Bulletin" and a research result on the limited size effect in the EZ model in the "Acta Physica".
Perhaps because of the chickens and dogs that are not good at interpersonal relations, teaching for nearly 20 years, Xie Yanbo was promoted to associate professor in the year of near no confusion, compared with Xie Yanbo's highlight moments when he was a child and a young scholar who was a rising star, Xie Yanbo's later academic path took some twists and turns, and it also seemed a little "invisible to everyone".
At present, Xie Yanbo, in addition to arithmetic, has only one hobby - playing Go, and he hardly communicates with others.
In an interview with reporters, Xie Yanbo was asked how to view the repatriation incident that year, and Xie Yanbo said bluntly:
"They (Anderson) are all gods, they want that result, maybe they have another purpose... If there is a person who is particularly capable and has to calculate that many things of the immortals are wrong, then the immortals cannot do whatever they want, so they are not happy. ”
Paranoia and closure have made the legend of the junior class of the University of Science and Technology of China go through the trough and disappear until it is forgotten.
04. Conclusion
There is a saying in "Hurt Zhongyong" that "the hour is over, and the big is not necessarily better." “
"Geniuses" who, if not properly cultivated in virtue, will eventually become adults.
With a super high IQ, he has walked very fast on the academic road; But without extraordinary emotional intelligence, he can't go too far on the road of life.
-END-
【Wen | Smoke and Water Cold】
【Edit | Valley】