Chapter 119: Interview with a Beautiful University Student
Yang Wendong had already guessed that the real reason he'd been invited over was exactly this, so he smiled and said, "Miss Bai, the inventor of the Rubik's Cube doesn't want to appear publicly, but if you have questions, you can ask me."
It wasn't that Yang Wendong particularly liked staying low-profile, but rather that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to present himself as the inventor of the Rubik's Cube—let alone as the person who had figured out how to solve it.
When it came to things like Post-it notes, mouse traps, or other small inventions that made everyday life easier, he could claim with confidence that he'd invented them. Even if others found it hard to believe, they wouldn't outright deny the possibility. Some people were just naturally gifted in certain areas—it made sense.
But the Rubik's Cube involved intricate mathematical logic. Given his background (which many would eventually come to know), it would be impossible to justify claiming he had invented something of that complexity, much less developed the formulas for solving it.
Either way, in the future, given his status, it wouldn't really matter who was credited with inventing the Rubik's Cube.
"Why won't he appear publicly?" Bai Yujie asked, puzzled. "It's such an interesting invention."
Yang Wendong shrugged. "That's just his choice. I have to respect that, don't you think?"
"Alright then," Bai Yujie considered that for a moment, then asked again, "So does that mean even you don't know how to solve the Rubik's Cube?"
"I do," Yang Wendong said with a light smile. "But it's the same situation—I can't reveal it. It's a trade secret of our company."
The Rubik's Cube was the first product under his brand's push into the toy industry. Once he had the resources, he even planned to offer rewards worldwide to indirectly build up the cube's popularity. At this stage, he absolutely couldn't reveal the method to solve it.
"And that method—was it also created by the same person who invented the Rubik's Cube?" Bai Yujie followed up.
Yang Wendong thought for a second and said, "You could say that."
Historically, the Hungarian professor who invented the cube had been able to solve it in its early days as well, though it was hard to verify to what extent.
Bai Yujie looked a little disappointed and said, "That's a pity. Right now, a lot of students at HKU really like the Rubik's Cube. I'm sure many of them are curious about the genius who invented it."
"Are there a lot of people like that?" Yang Wendong asked, curious.
He had general data about internal campus purchases of the cube, but he didn't know what happened afterward—whether people played with it constantly or just threw it aside after a while.
This was actually important. Even if someone didn't like it, once they'd bought one, they wouldn't buy another. But if they did like it and kept bringing it out to play, it would promote the product naturally and passively—great word-of-mouth marketing.
It was like selling cars: even if someone wasn't going to buy another for the next decade, if they loved it and praised it to others, they'd influence future buyers.
"Not that many," Bai Yujie replied. "But the science and engineering students, especially the ones with stronger logic skills, seem pretty hooked. They fiddle with it constantly.
Most others probably just bought it to see if they could win that ten-thousand-dollar prize."
"Fair enough," Yang Wendong nodded.
The Rubik's Cube wasn't a casual toy—it was a challenge. Its design naturally limited its appeal to a niche audience.
Even in his past life, when it became wildly popular, it was mainly because parents wanted their kids to become more disciplined, using it as a brain-training tool. Others used it for the sense of accomplishment or competition.
Those two motivations—parental expectations and competitive display—would be key to how the Rubik's Cube would be marketed in the future.
"But," Bai Yujie continued, "there are also more and more people starting to think the cube is impossible to solve. They're saying the ten-thousand-dollar prize is just bait, and no one will ever claim it."
Yang Wendong considered that and said, "A Rubik's Cube has six faces, six colors. You mix them up, and the pattern becomes chaotic.
But logically, if you remember every move you made and reverse them step by step, it should be possible to return to the original state, right? That seems reasonable enough?"
After hearing that, Bai Yujie thought it made some sense. "But there are so many possible combinations of color positions…"
Yang Wendong pulled a Rubik's Cube from his bag and started twisting it as he spoke. "Even if there are billions of possible states, every one of them originated from a solved cube.
Which means, in theory, any configuration can be reversed back to its original six-color state."
"Well… when you put it like that…" Bai Yujie hesitated. "But things that are theoretically possible aren't always achievable in reality, right?
Maybe some specific jumbled states could be solved by rotating it enough times, but to say that any configuration can be reversed? That sounds impossible."
She wasn't a math expert, but she did know a bit about exponential functions. The cube had nine squares on each face, six faces total—54 colored tiles. If each tile could be one of six colors, that would be 6 to the 54th power—a mind-boggling number.
Of course, due to color distribution constraints and mechanical limitations, the actual number of permutations was lower than 6^54. But to a regular person, it still seemed like an infinite number—∞.
Yang Wendong smiled and said, "Watch closely. I'll solve one face right now."
As he spoke, his hands moved swiftly. The cube turned in rapid, precise motions.
Bai Yujie kept her eyes locked on the cube. To her astonishment, in less than thirty seconds, one entire face turned yellow.
"You… that fast?" she said in disbelief. It hadn't even been half a minute!
The cube had been completely scrambled just a moment ago. Even her sister—who was obsessed with the puzzle—needed much longer to maybe restore one face, and even then it was still a guessing game.
Yang Wendong smiled again. "Let me do it one more time. Watch carefully."
He started twisting the cube again, this time deliberately mixing it up to a random state. He paused for a moment and showed her the scrambled faces.
Then he resumed, his fingers moving so quickly that they almost blurred. The cube spun in his hands with practiced elegance. Bai Yujie could hardly believe her eyes—how could anyone's hands move so skillfully, so fast?
She had a feeling she was watching something extraordinary.
Five minutes later, the Rubik's Cube had successfully returned to its original solved state—six faces, six colors, each perfectly aligned.
"This… it actually works?" Bai Yujie stared at the cube in disbelief, her eyes wide open. She didn't even know what to say.
Yang Wendong was the first to break the silence, speaking modestly, "I haven't practiced much lately. My hands are a bit out of shape."
"You can do it even faster?" Bai Yujie asked in amazement.
"Of course," Yang Wendong nodded confidently.
The Rubik's Cube in this era was considered a practically unsolvable enigma. But in his past life, many people were already familiar with it.
Professionals could solve any scrambled state of the cube in under a minute. And for those who practiced regularly, completing it within two minutes wasn't out of reach.
Yang Wendong had specifically practiced it in his past life, mostly for fun—like using it to impress girls. While he wasn't a master, he had memorized the solving method.
That's why, after his rebirth in this era, one of the first things he invested in was recreating the Rubik's Cube. If even he didn't know how to solve it, convincing others that it was solvable would've been nearly impossible.
In actual history, the Rubik's Cube gained traction precisely because many intelligent people initially tried and failed to solve it. Then, after the mathematical solution was discovered and publicized, demand skyrocketed. Eventually, with more people learning how to play, competitive events began popping up. Multiple factors converged to make the Rubik's Cube a household name.
So, Yang Wendong's strategy was simple: lure in as many highly educated individuals as possible in the early stages, let them attempt and fail, then once the buzz peaked, release the solving formula—or allow someone to "crack" it publicly. That's how he planned to push the product's popularity, whether now or in the 1960s.
"So…" Bai Yujie pondered aloud, "that ten-thousand-dollar reward isn't really to solve a problem—it's to promote the product?"
"Spot on. No wonder you're a student at HKU," Yang Wendong said with a grin.
If he didn't blow the challenge out of proportion, the Rubik's Cube wouldn't sell at all. Only by getting people to try and fail would it pique the curiosity of others. Revealing the solution too soon would make the whole thing boring.
It was just like romantic pursuits—once you succeed, there might be a burst of excitement, but that quickly fades. Even losing what you gained doesn't always feel that significant. But when you haven't succeeded yet, the passion, the obsession—that's when things are the most intense.
Of course, like anything else, there had to be a time limit. Drag it out too long, and people would lose interest altogether.
Bai Yujie nodded. "I get it now. But there's one problem.
Even though I saw you solve it with my own eyes, I have no way to prove that to anyone. If I publish this in the school newspaper, people probably still won't believe it."
"That's true. But facts are facts," Yang Wendong said with a smile. "What am I supposed to do—go on live television to prove it? The Rubik's Cube hasn't even gained widespread recognition yet."
"Actually, it's already become pretty popular at HKU," Bai Yujie said. "And I've heard it's starting to show up at CUHK too. Seems like your campaign is working. The next step must be rolling it out to all of Hong Kong, right?"
"Why do you want to know?" Yang Wendong asked, half-teasing.
"Just curious," Bai Yujie said with a playful smirk.
Yang Wendong shook his head. "Can't tell you that. The reason I came to see you is to help you write a campus article that'll promote the Rubik's Cube within the university. But company secrets? Those stay with me."
After hearing that, Bai Yujie replied, "Fair enough, I apologize. I probably shouldn't be asking those kinds of questions. It's just… I've always wanted to be a campus newspaper reporter, and I guess I got a little carried away wanting to find stories that would hook readers."
"No worries, you're still young," Yang Wendong said with a chuckle. "You've got a lot left to learn."
Bai Yujie seemed to take his words to heart, falling briefly into thoughtful silence, while Yang Wendong continued eating his meal from the HKU cafeteria. Truth be told—it was actually pretty good.
After a while, Bai Yujie took a few bites of her own food and said, "Mr. Yang, you really never went to college? You seem to know so much."
Yang Wendong laughed. "We're about the same age, right? If I had gone to university, I'd have started before your sister. That doesn't seem likely, does it?
The truth is, society is the best school. You'll understand one day. University is just a training ground—a sandbox—for the children of wealthy families before they enter the real world."
There was a calm but sobering edge to his words.
This was a perspective formed by his past life—by years of hard-earned experience. While others were studying and sheltered, he'd been struggling in the trenches of business, learning lessons no classroom could teach.
And in truth, he wasn't entirely wrong. In this era, most students in universities like HKU came from affluent backgrounds. The average working-class youth rarely had the opportunity to pursue higher education. What education existed was essentially a privilege for the elite.
The government of Hong Kong, especially under British colonial rule, had little interest in providing public welfare or free education to its native citizens. Everything operated under the free-market principle. Even basic social safety nets were underdeveloped compared to the West.
So if you were lucky enough to go to university in this era, it often meant you were already ahead of the game. But for those without that luck, society became their classroom—and those lessons, though harsher, were often more impactful.
And Yang Wendong, having lived through both realities, now stood on the edge of a new industry—bringing with him not only the Rubik's Cube, but an entire vision of how to shape markets, train talent, and rewrite expectations.
The spring wind blew gently outside the cafeteria windows, and the quiet murmur of students filled the background. But at this small corner table, a conversation was taking place that was part interview, part life lesson, and part marketing masterclass.
And all of it was just the beginning.
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