Bryan walked through the almost empty campus with his eyes down on the screen of his phone which he relied on its help to distract him of the thought of daring to turn his back and walk away from the only girl he ever kissed and the only girl to openly confess her love to him.
'A fucking eunuch would've at least knocked on her door to say that he loves her too! So dumb... So useless.' Bryan thought to himself while making his way up on the stairs of the teaching staff's building.
Once he reached Professor An's office he muted his phone and put it in his pocket before reaching the secretary's desk, "Hello. I'm here for a meeting with Professor An."
The middle-aged woman raised her head from the screen of her computer and didn't seem to be in a good mood after Bryan interrupted her work of typing something on the keyboard, "I'm afraid it'd have to wait since he's in a meeting with the College Dean and Vice-Director at the moment," She said before gesturing towards the waiting area to the side, "Take a seat for now and tell me what's you na-"
"Is Bryan O'Neal here yet? Send him in immediately once he gets here and empty my schedule before lunch time." Professor An's voice was full of nervousness and a bit of anxiety as it reached their ears through the speaker of the secretary's phone.
"That'd be me." Bryan said once he saw the secretary's finger reaching for the button to answer.
"He's here Professor An."
"Great!" Professor An said from the other side of the wall before releasing a sigh then looked towards her two guests and gave them a wide smile, deep inside he was anxious for the moment where he gets to show off in front of them.
*Click*
The man and women twisted their necks to look towards the door and saw the secretary escort the man then take her leave once she received a gesture from Professor An and quickly closed the door behind her.
"Good morning." Bryan greeted them after taking a few steps to stand in the middle of the room.
"Morning." The man who greeted Bryan back was in his te sixties or maybe older but he had this kind smile on his face.
Professor An nodded with a smile on his face.
The woman didn't seem like she heard whatever he said and just sat there studying Bryan with her eyes.
"Take a seat Bryan," Professor An got up from his seat and gestured for his student to take the chair facing his two guests with the tea table separating them while he himself sat on the chair in the middle where he could link between them, "Since there's no need for me to introduce you to College Dean Martin and Vice-Director Elena then please allow me to introduce you instead." After saying that he looked towards Martin and Elena and opened his mouth to add with a hint of pride leaking on his expression : "This is Bryan O'Neal who spent four years attending my csses. I'm ashamed to say that his brilliance went unnoticed until a delightful happenstance yesterday in his final test."
"Hoh! Now I'm curious to hear more." Martin said while looking between Bryan and An.
Elena on the other hand was still focused on this student which didn't seem bothered at all by her staring openly at him!
"Remember my equation?" Professor An got up and walked towards the flipping board next to the window and turned it to reveal his work.
Martin nodded, "Yeah. You've been working on it for five years now but, w-"
"This one is different." Finally Elena spoke once her eyes fell on the white board then got up and moved towards it to get a better look at the numbers.
"Vice-Director Elena's eyes are as sharp as ever... indeed I had to make some changes to improve my Equation after Bryan solved it in his test yesterday and was generous enough to provide a much simpler answer as well... this was all thanks to him." Professor An moved away from the board and politely gave the woman enough space.
"This one is also incomplete." Martin said and Bryan was able to notice how the College Dean was a bit disheartened after Elena rudely interrupted him earlier.
Elena just nodded but her eyes followed the lines of the upgraded equation with deeply hidden admiration while thinking : 'Genius! By repcing the factor X with a cardinal number on the axis while factorizing a binary base on the scar angle of increasing once every three short circles and dropping three times every long cycle then it basically fulfill the first purpose of guaranteeing 85% profit once these numbers are coded into the algorithm.'
Professor An just smiled and stood next to Bryan, "It's a major stop forward nonetheless, all thanks to Bryan right here." The man kept patting his student's shoulder as if saying it wasn't enough and now he needs to show it through his actions which made Bryan feel awkward because he only gave the man an answer to a question which he himself would've answered through his own hard work in a couple months.
"Um... Professor An if I may." Finally Bryan decided he had enough and spoke which made the three people in An's office look at him.
"Go ahead son. Speak your mind." Martin said and An nodded.
Bryan cleared his throat then asked : "What's this about? I thought you asked me to meet today to discuss and choose the topic of my graduation project which would decide my group!"
"Ha!" Professor An gawked.
Martin was left speechless and looked towards An for an answer.
Elena covered her mouth and turned to look at the board to hide her amusement.
"T-this... F-forget about the whole thing, graduation project and graduation ceremony is just there t-"
"Have fun working and interacting with other human beings which would improve the student's social skills and prepare them for the time they leave the safety of the university's perfectly contained environment once they go outside to venture the harsh world and start fending for themselves while chasing their dreams!" Bryan said calmly while remembering the days he spent experiencing just that, he didn't even notice that he was being rude towards Professor An and the words unconsciously left his mouth in a spur of a moment.
Elena was about to say something as well but was shocked by Bryan's perfect answer, if before that moment she was wondering why he's acting so calm in their presence and why is he so mature beyond his age then... now she had her answer.
"Splendid. Indeed that's why there's such events and mandatory obligations on students like yourself with the highest seniority in our campus!" Martin pyed with his short beard while giving Bryan a look of appreciation.
Bryan nodded before opening his mouth to say, "But even if I'm willing to choose the topic of a graduation project today... I'd have to insist on doing so alone. Be that preparing the data or doing the presentation, I can't have others intervening with my work since it'd dey me."
"Ha!" Once again Professor An was forcefully put on the emotional roller-coaster.
Martin held his forehead and gred at Bryan after noticing that this naughty young man was teasing his own Professor right in front of him the College Dean himself!
"Bffft..." Elena finally cracked under the pressure and her ughter was the signal of this internal joke finally ending.
"Y-you... Consider yourself lucky kid." Professor An was embarrassed and blushing from shame but deep down he felt like a complete sucker after falling for his troublemaking student's witty prank.
Elena fixed her clothes and resumed her steady persona then sat back on the sofa next to Martin where she first gave Bryan a warning by looking at him with a pair of stern and serious eyes before patting her long eyeshes at him then twisting her neck to look towards the white board near the window and saying : "Take a look and let's see if you have a solution for this one." The Vice-Director urged him with a faint gesture of her pointy chin.
Bryan merely gnced at the white board then shook his head, "This one is faulty." He said.
"We already know." Martin frowned after said that and deep inside him signs of fear started to come to the surface!
The best scenario he imagined is that Bryan would try and give Professor An more assistance to perfect his equation, second-best scenario is that he'd try and fail, third-best scenario is that he got lucky during the exam but... that wouldn't expin him not only answering the question but improving the answer.
The best-worse scenario is that Bryan would shy away from even giving it a try, and the worst scenario of them all is that Bryan somehow cheated the test.
"What I meant is that the current form of this equation is inherently fwed and has already reached the maximum potential it can ever reach if Professor An keep insisting on using the corretive steps of mutual variables." Bryan expined calmly while mentioning the core issue of the equation.
Elena's eyes suddenly sharpened in understanding after realizing why the final percentage is 85% guaranteed while the aim of the equation is to accurately predict the effect of the stock exchange on certain key products once they're included within a safe bubble, the purpose is the flow the profits from the fluctuating economy to fund the dropping merchandize and stabilize the market during crisis and to strengthen the economy when the market is healthy!
But the problem in this equation is that despite having 85% guaranteed profit with each correct prediction there's also 15% guaranteed loss during the correct actions but once we factor the times of increasing and decreasing in each short and long cycle... these 15% guaranteed loss instantly becomes a behemoth threatening the crash the market in a single session of stock-exchange!
Martin nodded and fell silent once he failed to find an answer to solve this question.
Professor An on the other hand sat there with a pale face and seemed to be devastated by this answer which shattered his dreams.
"However," Bryan's voice ended the heavy silence inside the office and three pairs of eyes with different expressions fell on him, "Could this be considered my graduation project?" He asked while looking at his Professor while having a sly smile on his face.
"What!" Professor An stood up as if someone stepped on his tail.
"You're not joking again are you?" Martin asked while seriously warning Bryan not to do anything that'd waste this precious opportunity.
Elena was deeply amused by the way this kid was maniputing An's emotions like an expert guitarist pying the strings of his instrument.
Bryan shrugged : "I can do it if you agree to give me a pass on my graduation project in exchange for a hint on how to complete this equation but, let me remind you first that once you complete this formu you're going to discover that this is just the first peel of an onion so... you better not bme me for tricking you or anything like that once you get your answer."
Professor An was no longer depressed but excited instead when he pushed Bryan towards the white board and handed him the marker while saying : "Deal. I don't care if it's just a hint... just get writing already!"
Martin shook his head in silence while thinking : 'I understand that this guy is desperate but, can't he at least act a bit more dignified? I'd recommend him to negotiate the terms a bit more or ask the kid to come work for us instead of seeking the employment of some company in the private sector.' However, once the College Dean turned to look towards his Vice-Director to tell her to do something to recruit this young man he found Elena standing up then walking towards the board and standing nearby to watch.
"That's it! How come I was so blinded that I didn't even notice such a gring fw before, and the answer is so simple." An muttered absentmindedly while Bryan wrote the new equation on the board before flipping it from time to time to check his progress and compare the two before continuing to break the old one into a much simir equation with a completely different approach yet the goal of the two equations is the same goal in the end.
"What inspired you to repce the corretive steps and mutual variables here with calcutive steps and random variables? Even without following the direction the equation is heading I can understand that by using the exact same motions you're going to end with an incomplete equation." Elena asked curiously while watching Bryan busily alternate between the two sides of the board.
Of course he was just acting like he needs to keep checking while writing something which he already memorized by heart after working with and using it for years since his abusive bosses kept forcing him to take advantage of it to earn them more money.
"I was just lucky enough to notice a certain detail which kept repeating in history." Bryan answered while making sure to give his Professor no more than a hint and not the full answer or this fellow would certainly spread the news to the whole world which might cause a big wave to change the course of history that Bryan knows.
"History?" Elena frowned, "What do you mean by that?" She asked while staring at Bryan's face and studying him closely with her eyes.
Bryan paused and turned to face the Vice-Director, inwardly he thought this woman successfully managed to somehow keep her youthful looks and beauty almost a more than a decade below her true age which is somewhere past the mark of forty for sure but the most confusing fact about Elena is her cold personality and her mature charm which doesn't really match with her young-look of beauty!
"Even the market and economy of the different nations of today and the ancient empires of yesteryear each and every one of them have a story to tell." Bryan said in an authoritative manner which made him smile inwardly once he noticed Elena's face blush slightly while squinting her eyes a bit.
Martin nodded to agree but these facts don't expin how this kid can solve such a complicated equation to begin with then improve it then now break it apart and assemble a new one from it with the potential to grow and reach higher limits.
An was ignoring the noise and concentrating on making sure this part of the equation doesn't have any fws or holes but so far it's perfectly going just fine.
"The equation's worst fw was trying to control and predict the market which is only possible if you have control over every singe rge or small exchange, but to try to calcute the results of the rise and fall of each small and rge cycle we can all agree that's quite an ambition... achieving that would be a true dream by all means." Bryan said before pointing towards the main cornerstone of the new equation while adding : "Meanwhile this part doesn't control anything and sinks deep into the waters of the market like a fisherman scattering his web on the surface first then giving whatever is hidden from his eyes the opportunity to enter his trap before pulling the line and emptying the prize within the contained environment of his ship, only afterwards can he search through his prize and decide what to keep and what to throw back into the water." He said before asking Elena : "Do you understand my meaning now senior Elene?"
Elena nodded before replying with a question of her own : "Still. What does that have to do with history?"
"It's just a coincidence really so I don't dare take credit for it but, I can remember hearing people much older than me talking about all sorts of confusing topics in the streets and even the teachers of my school privately speaking about the financial situation of the majority of nations in the whole world and using complicated terms like inftion and GDP and many others but, the ones I really understood were the kinds of products people having trouble finding in the stores and the type of products people were desperate to find.
"Food and medicine in rough times are worth their weight in gold so, instead of focusing on some product and protecting it with an economical products why don't we change the equation and give it's core principal enough freedom of motion so that we can change the priority of choices according to our needs just like a fisherman emptying his net.
"But instead of throwing back the fish we don't need at the moment in the ocean, we create our own personal aquarium were we can specifically extract the right kind of profit." Bryan said then smiled before continuing to write on the board.
Elena gawked after realizing the point of his theory which he's basing this equation on and muttered absentmindedly : "The fisherman, his net, and the boat are the calcutive steps and the contained environment while the random variable is the prey within the fish and the ones you're going to need from the aquarium in the future huh!"
*Cp* *Cp*
Martin smiled after seeing the numbers adding up just exactly according the story from Bryan's and their own prediction, "Excellent. It's still rough around the edges and requires a lot of refinement but the framework and the foundation is rock solid, let me be the first to congratute you on a perfect grade in your graduation project... I'm so looking forward to the graduation ceremony in the end of the month where I get to hand you your grade in front of everybody." The old man was so excited since Bryan pulled the best of all scenarios and even taught all of them a valuable lesson of never allowing themselves to narrow their vision.
"Hahaha... Fantastic!" An on the other hand seemed like he's going to take this board to bed and hug it to sleep!
"What's your ultimate aspiration?" Elena asked before quickly adding : "If... there's any."
She no longer seemed cold and distant to Bryan who felt thankful that she's not the only one inside this office with him because after what happened this morning his emotional state is a big fat lump of chaotic mess, now that this mature beauty is acting this way while standing a meter or less away from him... he certainly at least would've lost his composure and embarrassed himself.
Bryan thought about what to say for a moment before deciding to simplify the truth, "I'm going to save the world, I promise you that very soon I'll make it all true."
Elena just frowned, "So childish." After saying that she looked at Martin and added : "I still have a lot of work so I'll be in my office, call me when you need me sir." Then walked away without saying anything else to Bryan and nothing at all to Professor An who was acting weird around the board like some perverted creep!
'I've finally succeeded in emptying my schedule... at least from now until my graduation ceremony at the end of the month I'm free to do whatever I want.' Bryan thought while excusing himself with a polite nod towards Martin then left the office.
Unaware that the College Dean also followed after him quickly as if escaping An's office while cursing under his breath, of course Martin would take the secret to the grave.
