52: Chapter 52 Your model is too complicated.

Zhou Ming walked to the desk, but unlike Chen Jing, he didn't push the report forward directly.

He first bowed to Consultant Jiang.

He spread the scratch paper, filled with complex flowcharts and mathematical formulas, across the table.

The pages were densely packed with Laplace transforms, Fourier series, and various nonlinear dynamic equations.

"Consultant Jiang." Zhou Ming's voice was a bit dry as he pushed up the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose.

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"Following the Overload Effect Theory you proposed last time, I tried to establish a mathematical model for Cognitive Pollution."

He pointed to a tangled mess of arrows and curves on the scratch paper, "But I failed."

"Too many variables—information transmission paths, differences in individual memory banks, subconscious filtering mechanisms... I took every factor I could think of into account."

A hint of pain appeared on Zhou Ming's face.

"No matter how much I simplify it, the model won't converge. The results from the supercomputer are just pure chaos. It's completely disordered, without any pattern."

Jiang Feng's gaze swept over those formulas that looked like a heavenly script.

He couldn't understand a single one.

But that didn't stop him from putting on an expression of understanding.

He even reached out, picked up a sheet of scratch paper filled with partial differential equations, held it before his eyes, and pretended to study it for a few seconds.

Then, he put the paper back on the table and shook his head.

He didn't speak, but simply gestured with his chin toward the three copper coins on the table.

The meaning was clear.

Cast a hexagram first.

Zhou Ming was stunned for a moment, but he did as he was told.

He had seen how Jiang Feng had made Chen Jing suddenly see the light.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath and, following Chen Jing's example, cupped the three copper coins in his palms. His palms were covered in cold sweat.

Clatter—clatter—

He closed his eyes, thinking not of models or data, but of the three researchers who were still undergoing psychological counseling.

Jiang Feng still used that wolf-hair brush to draw the hexagram on the rice paper.

This time, the hexagram was formed by stacking two three-line "Gen" trigrams on top of each other.

[Gen as Mountain].

The system panel appeared before Jiang Feng's eyes, providing an analysis.

[Hexagram Analysis: Its nature is to stop, being still and steady. Two mountains standing side by side, an image of stillness. The Great Truths are Simple; the solution lies within oneself.]

The Great Truths are Simple.

Jiang Feng put down the brush.

He looked up at the expectant Zhou Ming.

He extended a finger and tapped the pile of complex scratch paper on the table.

"You aren't building a model." Jiang Feng shook his head, his tone flat.

"You are building a maze."

"And the kind where you get yourself so turned around halfway through that you can never get out."

Zhou Ming's face turned pale.

Consultant Jiang's words were always so direct and piercing.

"But..." Zhou Ming grew anxious, trying to defend his research. "But the transmission and infection of information is inherently an extremely complex process! Every person's cognitive structure is a black box; I must consider as many variables as possible to..."

"Who told you that information must be through transmission and infection?" Jiang Feng interrupted him.

Zhou Ming was stunned by the question.

If information isn't through transmission and infection, then what could it be through?

The laboratory fell silent.

Jiang Feng didn't say anything more; he just slowly picked up a transparent glass cup from the table.

The cup contained warm water that Old Chen had just poured for him.

He then picked up the wolf-hair brush he had used to draw the hexagram.

Everyone's eyes, including Qian Li and Professor Sun in the monitoring room, were fixed on his hand.

Jiang Feng took the brush and slowly lowered it vertically into the water cup.

As the brush handle entered the water, the refraction of light made it look as if it were broken.

The wolf hairs at the tip of the brush spread out in the water.

After finishing this action, Jiang Feng looked up at Zhou Ming.

"Look."

"The brush is wet."

Zhou Ming nodded subconsciously.

"But has the water decreased?"

Zhou Ming continued to nod, then suddenly shook his head; he felt like his brain couldn't keep up.

"Did the water actively transmit itself to the brush?"

Jiang Feng's voice wasn't loud, yet it stirred waves in Zhou Ming's mind.

Zhou Ming was dazed.

Transmission... infection...

He had always treated the information pollution on the bamboo slip as something like a virus. A virus needs a host, a transmission route, and an infection process.

That was why his model had become so complex.

He had to consider aerodynamics, contact area, each person's "immune system"...

But what if... what if it wasn't a virus at all?

"It's not a virus; it doesn't need transmission," Jiang Feng said word by word, his voice echoing clearly in the quiet laboratory.

"It's a field."

A field!

This concept, both fundamental and core to physics, coming from Jiang Feng's mouth, made Zhou Ming's entire body shudder.

"The bamboo slip is like this cup of water. By being here, it constitutes a field."

"All of you who come into contact with it have entered the range of this field. You are like this brush." Jiang Feng's finger tapped on the wall of the glass cup, making a crisp sound.

"Passively, infiltration occurred."

"The brush is wet not because the water actively attacked it, but because it entered the water's range."

"Do you understand?"

Zhou Ming stood there, motionless.

Field, infiltration.

These two concepts from physics and materials science were used casually by Jiang Feng in a psychological model.

Yet they were like a key, unlocking all the locks in his mind.

The problem that had plagued him and his entire team for weeks was completely shattered at this moment by a simple action.

So... it was that simple?

It turned out that from the very beginning, they had been walking on the wrong path.

"What you need to study isn't some complex transmission path or a black box model of individual differences." Jiang Feng took the brush out of the water cup, and droplets of water dripped from the handle onto the rice paper, soaking into a small blot of ink.

"What you need to study is the boundary and intensity of this field."

He looked at Zhou Ming and gave the final solution.

"Delete ninety percent of the variables from your model."

"Leave only two."

Jiang Feng held up two fingers.

"Distance."

"And contact time."

"Use these two variables to refit the mental breakdown curves of those three patients. You'll find that everything matches up."

Zhou Ming's mouth opened wider and wider, and the eyes behind his glasses burst with unprecedented light.

Distance and contact time!

Of course!

He suddenly remembered that the first to fall ill, Professor Liu, had directly touched the bamboo slip with his hands and had the longest contact time.

The second to fall ill, Li Hui, was organizing the scans; the distance was medium, and the contact time was second longest.

The third to fall ill, Zhang Yuan, had only looked at it from afar a few times; his contact time was the shortest!

The severity of their illness was perfectly proportional to these two variables proposed by Consultant Jiang!

This simplest linear relationship, which he had always ignored, was actually the final answer!

"I understand..." Zhou Ming muttered to himself, trembling with excitement. "I understand! So that's it! A Field Theory Model... it's a Field Theory Model!"

He stood up abruptly.

He gave Jiang Feng a deep ninety-degree bow.

"Thank you for your guidance, Consultant Jiang!"

With that, he turned and rushed out.

As he ran, he pulled out a pen and paper from his pocket, muttering crazy things like "establish a 2D Gaussian field strength distribution" and "using contact time as the integration variable."

He was going to the supercomputing center right now; he had to build a new model immediately!

Watching the psychology expert rush out of the lab like a madman, Jiang Feng calmly took a sip of water.

In his mind, the system notification arrived late.

[Ding! Effective divination count: 2/3]

Jiang Feng leaned back in his chair, looking toward the laboratory door.

These scientists were quite easy to fool.

He just wondered who the next top student from which field would be.