Chapter 151 See you

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Qiping did not say anything.

He leaned back in the large black leather chair, his fingers holding the thin fax paper, his gaze lingering on it for a long time.

Li Jianming stood opposite the desk, his chest heaving violently.

No one spoke in the room; only the ticking of the clock on the wall echoed in the quiet air.

Zhou Qiping's gaze slowly shifted from the black-and-white one-inch photo on the fax paper to the few lines of text below.

Special Class for Gifted Youngsters.

As the vice president in charge of scientific research and personnel, Zhou Qiping is naturally quite intelligent.

After the initial sense of absurdity and bewilderment subsided, his keen intuition honed through years of administrative work allowed him to instantly grasp the true nature of the matter. Princeton Dean's special thanks.

The set of algebraic matrices in Discrete Mathematics that single-handedly tackled the problem of computational power.

Any one of these experiences, taken individually, would be enough for an adult scholar to establish themselves at USTC.

But now, all these astonishing results have been concentrated in a twelve-year-old child.

This isn't some bright student who just happened to solve a problem by sheer luck.

This is a prodigy with an extremely rare interdisciplinary intuition.

Zhou Qiping picked up the cup of green tea on the table, which had cooled down a bit, took a sip, and found the tea somewhat astringent. As he swallowed it, he felt an unprecedented clarity in his mind. He suddenly understood the sorcerer's scheme.

Why would Fang Shi, that cunning old fox who's made his mark in academia, keep such a secret? Why would he risk offending the entire mathematics department by spreading such an easily debunked lie as being sick and returning to his hometown? Because Chen Zhuo is a sophomore.

The rules for the USTC Junior Class are that the first two years are for general education to build a foundation, without specializing in any particular major.

In their third year, students choose their future major based on their interests and their experience rotating through the lab over the past two years. The sorcerer wasn't simply borrowing people.

He's acquiring land.

He snatched the job before the math department students could react.

Fang Shi used a national-level fluid mechanics wind tunnel project, utilizing the top research resources of the physics department, to forcefully pair this child with it. He allowed a twelve-year-old to experience a key national project.

The sorcerer was using this method to firmly tether this genius to the chariot of the physics department.

When it comes time to choose a major next year, Chen Zhuo will naturally write down Physics when filling out his college application form.

By then, the deed will be done, and even if the mathematics department were to create a huge mess, they wouldn't be able to steal him away.

Zhou Qiping put down his teacup, a complex emotion flashing in his eyes.

If Li Jianming hadn't stormed into the administration building today, eyes red with anger, to overturn the table for his graph theory project, Fang Shi's deceptive scheme might have actually succeeded. Footsteps echoed from outside the corridor.

Li Jianming suddenly turned his head.

The doorknob was turned, making a soft click.

The sorcerer pushed open the door and walked in.

He carried a neatly bound blue folder in his hand. When he entered, Fang Shi's expression was calm, his brows slightly relaxed, showing the ease of successfully completing the project. In fact, Fang Shi had already made up his mind when he watched Li Jianming leave angrily in the corridor.

He knew that Old Li must have come to the administration building to complain.

As the vice dean of the physics department, he certainly couldn't sit in his office waiting to be summoned; he had to take the initiative, and he had to have leverage. That leverage was the mid-term review report he held, which represented a major breakthrough in a national-level project.

He had already prepared a flawless explanation.

Old Li accused him of monopolizing academic resources, so he used Old Chen's health condition as an excuse, and if that didn't work, he brought up the confidentiality of key national projects. As long as he could thwart Old Li's idea of ​​borrowing someone, and once the storm had passed and Chen Zhuo chose the physics department in his junior year, the matter would be completely settled. "President Zhou, you wanted to see me."

The Taoist priest closed the door behind him and glanced around the room.

When Fang Shi saw Li Jianming standing in front of the desk, his eyes bloodshot, he didn't even stop walking, as if everything was within his expectations. "Old Li's here too."

The Taoist priest smiled slightly, his tone revealing a hint of feigned concern.

"You're moving fast. I just went back to my office to get the review report, and you're already having tea with Principal Zhou? What's wrong? Still upset about that computing power issue in your math department?" Li Jianming didn't say anything.

Seeing that Li Jianming didn't respond, Fang Shi wasn't embarrassed. He strode to the desk and handed the blue folder in his hand to Zhou Qiping. "Principal Zhou, the interim report on the wind tunnel model is out. The data is very solid, and the error is far below the engineering red line. Please take a look." Zhou Qiping sat in his chair without reaching out to take the heavy report.

He looked at the sorcerer, his expression as calm as a stagnant pool.

"Old Fang, let's put the report aside for now."

Zhou Qiping extended his right index finger and tapped it twice on the desk.

His fingertips were pressing on the curled-up thermal fax paper.

"Take a look at this first."

The sorcerer's smile faltered for a moment.

He suddenly sensed that something was off about the atmosphere in the office.

Zhou Qiping's attitude was too cold, so cold that it didn't seem like he was treating a project leader who had just made a great contribution to the school.

The ominous premonition in the alchemist's heart instantly intensified.

He wiped the smile from his face, placed the blue folder on the corner of the table, lowered his head, and looked in the direction Zhou Qiping was pointing.

That was a fax copy of a student record.

Just one glance.

The sorcerer's pupils suddenly contracted.

In the black and white photo in the upper right corner, Chen Zhuo's gentle and refined face is clearly visible, smiling peacefully at the camera. Let's look further down.

Date of birth: October 1992.

Grade: Junior Class, sophomore.

The Taoist priest felt as if he had been hit on the back of the head with a club, and his ears rang.

He had calculated everything, anticipating that Li Jianming would complain and that Zhou Qiping would try to smooth things over, but he never expected that Zhou Qiping would actually use the entire school's database to expose Chen Zhuo's dirty secrets! The Taoist priest stood frozen in place.

A full five seconds passed, and he didn't utter a single word.

"Old Fang."

Zhou Qiping placed his hands on his stomach, his tone calm, yet carrying a heavy sense of pressure.

"Old Li came to my place today and slammed his fist on the table, saying that you're monopolizing academic work, that your physics department is hiding a Professor Chen who can publish 'Discrete Mathematics,' and that you're using him as a tool for computing power, and then making up lies to deceive him after you've used him." Zhou Qiping pointed to the photo on the paper.

"Explain to me, what's going on with this twelve-year-old Professor Chen?"

The office was eerily quiet.

Li Jianming clenched his fists, staring at the sorcerer. He wanted to hear what this old bastard could still spout now that the evidence was irrefutable. The sorcerer stared at the fax paper, his Adam's apple bobbing.

Suddenly, he sighed.

There was no panic, no blushing or embarrassment after the lie was exposed.

Having spent most of his life navigating the official and academic circles, the Taoist priest had long since developed an impenetrable thick skin.

He straightened up, pulled out a wooden chair next to him, and slowly sat down, placing the blue folder in his hand flat on his lap. "Principal Zhou, Old Li."

The sorcerer raised his head, his expression as innocent as could be.

"What are you doing? A joint trial?"

The Taoist priest reached out and patted the folder.

"I admit that Chen Zhuo is indeed a sophomore, twelve years old this year, but what's wrong with that?"

According to school regulations, students in the gifted youth program are allowed to rotate through the laboratories of various departments. He chose our fluid mechanics laboratory, and he was happy staying with me. I nurtured him with national-level projects, allowing him to access cutting-edge physical models.

This is called individualized instruction, this is called cultivating good students for our USTC, how come in your mouth, Li Jianming, it becomes academic monopoly?

Li Jianming was stunned.

He'd seen shameless people before, but never anyone this shameless.

"You're talking nonsense!"

Li Jianming slammed his hand heavily on the desk, making the teacup vibrate loudly.

"Stop using rotational learning as a pretext! You're not training him, you're just using him as a laborer! You can't calculate the wind tunnel parameters, you're using his brain to fill in the gaps for you!" Li Jianming pointed at Fang Shi's nose, his voice cracking with anger.

"And what did you say to me in the hallway this morning? You said Old Chen was withdrawn! You said Old Chen was mentally exhausted and couldn't stand up! And you actually called a twelve-year-old child 'Old Chen'?! Fang Shi, do you even have any shame?!"

Faced with Li Jianming's spittle, the Taoist priest leaned back in his chair, his expression unchanged.

"Old Li, put your hand on your heart and tell me, which of my words was a lie?"

The Taoist priest spread his hands, his tone even revealing a hint of self-righteous grievance.

"A twelve-year-old kid, locked in the lab calculating matrices all day, never playing ball or going out to play, and can't even hang out with you old men, what else can you call that but a recluse?" Fang Shi paused, meeting Li Jianming's murderous gaze before continuing.

"As for being unable to stand due to mental exhaustion, isn't that a fact? He's only twelve years old and still growing!"

For the past two weeks, he's been working on that nonlinear compensation matrix for me, calculating on scrap paper every day. He's not getting enough nutrition, he's calcium deficient, and his legs are weak. I told him to go back to his dorm, drink some milk, and get some sleep. Isn't his dorm his home at school? What's wrong with telling him to go back to his hometown to recuperate?" Li Jianming stared blankly at Fang Shi.

His mind was buzzing, and for a moment he couldn't find the words to refute it.

The sorcerer managed to make his illogical, deceptive logic sound perfectly plausible. Each sentence, taken individually, seemed plausible, but put together, it sounded like blatant thuggery. "You..."

Li Jianming pointed at the sorcerer, unable to utter a coherent sentence for a long time.

Zhou Qiping sat behind his desk, watching the two professors, whose combined age was nearly 120, argue irrationally. He picked up his teacup to hide the smile on his lips. "Alright."

Zhou Qiping put down his teacup and tapped the table lightly.

"Old Fang, don't you know what kind of temper Old Li has? He's been working so hard on that graph theory conjecture that he's almost gone blind. Since you know Chen Zhuo has this ability, even just taking a look for him and pointing him in the right direction would be good. You've kept him so tightly under wraps, not even willing to tell him the truth. That's really not kind of you."

The sorcerer turned his head and looked at Zhou Qiping.

"Principal Zhou, it's not that I'm being unfair."

The Taoist priest's tone became serious. He glanced at Li Jianming, his eyes filled with a wary look, as if he were guarding against a thief.

"Do you know what kind of temper those people in the math department have? They're a bunch of lunatics. As long as they see a promising student, they don't care if the student is growing or sleeping. They want to keep that person tied to the blackboard 24/7 to work out formulas."

The sorcerer reached out and pointed to the photo on the fax paper.

"Chen Zhuo also has exceptional talent in physics. That discrete algebraic matrix is ​​not only a mathematical representation but also a concrete manifestation of physical intuition. He can use this method to solve fluid dynamics problems, proving that he is fully capable of becoming a top-notch theoretical physicist. I told him to rest well because I was afraid that Lao Li and his group would disturb his normal physics studies!" As soon as these words came out, the atmosphere in the office changed instantly.

If before it was just two old men arguing over a lie, now, the sorcerer's words are a real declaration of war. Disrupting normal physics learning.

Li Jianming is not stupid.

The anger in his eyes completely cooled the moment he heard those words.

Instead, there was an unprecedented sense of crisis and heartache.

He finally understood what kind of tricks the sorcerer was up to.

Choose a major in your third year of university.

The sorcerer is trying to make the impossible possible.

Li Jianming slowly straightened up. He didn't slam his hand on the table again, but instead put his hands behind his back and looked coldly at the sorcerer sitting in the chair. "Sorcerer."

Li Jianming's voice became unusually calm.

"You're saying he's talented in physics? You're saying he's suited for fluid mechanics?"

Li Jianming sneered and shook his head.

"Stop deceiving yourself. You know better than I do that there's no physical intuition in that discrete algebraic matrix. It's pure theoretical mathematics, without any impurities." Li Jianming took a step forward and stared intently at the sorcerer.

"He conjured up a high-dimensional topological mapping out of thin air, forcibly severing the continuous variables in your physics. What is this? This is mathematics cleaning up your physics mess! It's covering up the mess left by your crappy computers with insufficient computing power!"

The sorcerer's expression was rather unpleasant, but he gritted his teeth and did not refute.

"A brain of this caliber."

Li Jianming's voice began to tremble, a mixture of excitement and heartache.

"This kind of brain, capable of manually creating algebraic matrices, publishing in 'Discrete Mathematics,' and potentially establishing a new school of thought, you want him to calculate the engineering parameters of a wind tunnel? You want him to work on approximations of scrap metal?" Li Jianming's voice suddenly rose, booming in the empty office.

"That's an insult to mathematics! That's a waste of its talent!"

Li Jianming turned around, looked at Zhou Qiping, and spoke with a resolute tone.

"President Zhou, there's no room for discussion today. This Chen Zhuo must come to our School of Mathematics! This one-in-a-million pure mathematics talent absolutely cannot be ruined in the engineering-focused physics department. I'm going to talk to the dean of the gifted youth program right now; I need to see his background!"

Upon hearing this, the Taoist priest jumped up from his chair, dropping the blue folder in his hand without even bothering to pick it up.

"Li Jianming, are you being reasonable? He's doing just fine in our lab, why should you let him go to the math department just because you say so? Don't you understand the concept of mutual selection? Chen Zhuo wants to stay in the physics department!" "What does a twelve-year-old know about mutual selection? You've fooled him!"

Li Jianming roared back without backing down.

Just as the two old men were about to start arguing heatedly in the office, Zhou Qiping coughed heavily.

"Sit down, all of you!"

Vice Principal Zhou's voice wasn't loud, but it carried a great deal of authority.

The sorcerer glanced at Zhou Qiping, then angrily sat back down in his chair. Li Jianming also stood there with a cold face, his chest heaving violently. Zhou Qiping rubbed his temples.

Events unfolded exactly as he had guessed.

It's a blessing for USTC to have such a promising talent; the fiercer the competition, the more precious this talent is.

"What's all the noise about?"

Zhou Qiping picked up the pen on the table and twirled it in his hand a couple of times.

"Choosing a major is something for next year. According to the school's regulations, we respect the students' own wishes. What's the point of you arguing here now?" Zhou Qiping looked at Li Jianming.

"Old Li, didn't you come here today for that complicated network topology project? Now that we've found the person, they're right here at the university. Are you still not done with your problem?" These words brought Li Jianming back to reality.

Yes.

Snatching the talent was a matter for later. Right now, on his desk, there was a Laplace expansion that he couldn't figure out, a national-level conjecture that had been stuck for five months, still in a dead end. Li Jianming took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed the urge to snatch the talent from his heart.

They may argue, they may make a fuss.

As long as he could find the general formula and solve the problem, Li Jianming would accept it, even if Chen Zhuo was a twelve-year-old boy or a bedwetting child. Li Jianming turned to look at the Taoist priest.

"The alchemist."

Li Jianming stared at him and said, word by word.

"I'm not going to talk to you about which department he's in right now. Since he's not an old professor, but a twelve-year-old student, that makes things much easier. He knows graph theory and he knows about matrices." Li Jianming held up a finger and pointed to the internal phone next to Fang Shi.

"You, right now, immediately, bring this little monster over here. My eighth-order Laplace expansion is still missing a boundary compensation term. Today I'm waiting for him to figure out how to do it!" The sorcerer sat there, his brows furrowed into a knot.

He had planned everything perfectly, but he hadn't expected Old Li to go to such lengths, actually lowering his voice to confront a twelve-year-old child as if he were seeking instruction. He turned to Zhou Qiping, hoping Principal Zhou could step in and intervene.

"Old Fang."

Zhou Qiping leaned back in his chair, meeting the alchemist's gaze with a gentle tone but a firm attitude.

"Call him over. I also want to meet this mysterious young man from our school, C. Zhuo, and see what kind of person he is." The principal spoke up, and Old Li blocked the doorway.

The Taoist priest knew that he couldn't avoid this matter today.

He sighed helplessly, reached for the black landline receiver on his desk, and dialed the internal number of his laboratory.

The phone rang twice before being answered.

"Hello, is this Zhang Yuan?" Fang Shi's tone was somewhat displeased. "Is Chen Zhuo in the lab?"

What did the person on the other end of the phone say?

"Okay, tell him to put down what he's doing right now and come to the vice principal's office on the third floor of the administration building."

After the Taoist priest finished speaking, he slammed down the phone.

The office fell silent once again.

This silence, however, was no longer due to anger, but rather to an intense, tense anticipation.

Li Jianming stared intently at the mahogany door, his breathing becoming heavy.

He wanted to see for himself what kind of little monster that could construct high-dimensional mappings out of thin air on paper and make them, these old bones, squirm. Zhou Qiping held his teacup, his gaze also falling on the doorknob.

The Taoist priest sat in his chair, bent down to pick up the blue folder that had fallen to the ground, dusted it off, and pondered how to protect his precious possession in front of these two ravenous men. Time passed slowly.

Footsteps gradually approached the vice principal's office from the end of the corridor.

One step, two steps.

The footsteps stopped outside the door.