Chapter 163 The Miserable Scientific Researcher

The door to the Applied Fluid Mechanics Laboratory in the School of Physics was ajar.

Zhang Yuan stared at the flickering monitor in front of him and blinked hard.

His eyes were bloodshot, and his hair was plastered to his forehead, looking like he hadn't washed it for at least three days.

Lin Fang, at the next workstation, wasn't doing much better. Wearing thick-rimmed glasses, she was mechanically stuffing dry soda crackers into her mouth, her eyes glazed over. "Senior Brother Zhang."

Lin Fang swallowed the biscuit, her voice weak and listless.

"The simulation data for the third set of wind resistance pressure has been completed without any errors."

Zhang Yuan wiped his face and sighed.

"If there are no errors, continue with the fourth group. Dean Fang said that as long as the system doesn't crash, all the data from the first phase of the wind tunnel test of the engine head must be ready before the Spring Festival." After Zhang Yuan finished speaking, he turned his head and glanced at Chen Zhuo, who was sitting by the window.

Chen Zhuo was wearing a hooded sweatshirt today. He was neatly folding several documents on the table, putting them into his backpack, and then leisurely zipping it up. "Xiao Zhuo, are you done packing?"

Zhang Yuan couldn't help but ask a question.

Chen Zhuo turned around and smiled at Zhang Yuan.

"Yeah, my train's tomorrow, so I need to go home and rest early today."

Looking at Chen Zhuo's calm and collected face, and then at the rows of green code on his own screen, Zhang Yuan suddenly felt a surge of inexplicable sadness. Just two weeks ago, this lab wasn't like this.

Back then, if the amount of data was even slightly large, the underlying program would crash due to insufficient computing power for continuous partial differential equations. Everyone had to stop and troubleshoot after running for several tens of minutes. The progress was as slow as a snail. Although it was urgent, at least there was time to catch our breath. Dean Fang also knew that the hardware couldn't keep up, so he didn't push too hard. Until Chen Zhuo casually threw in a discrete algebra matrix.

After the underlying logic of the program was replaced, the system was like it had taken a powerful drug; it never crashed again, and its data processing speed increased dozens of times. Seeing the rapid progress, the strategist immediately made the decision to have everyone work around the clock to produce results before the Lunar New Year.

The result was that the program ran successfully, but the person almost disappeared.

"Your algorithm is too robust."

Zhang Yuan picked up the cold coffee on the table and took a sip.

"The way Dean Fang looks at us now is like a landlord looking at a mule he just bought."

Lin Fang chuckled beside her, but soon yawned from exhaustion.

"I want to go home too."

Lin Fang lay face down on the table.

"My mom called yesterday to ask when I was going to buy the tickets, and I said I'd probably have to wait until New Year's Eve. She scolded me for it."

Chen Zhuo pushed the chair back under the table and slung his backpack over one shoulder.

"Thank you for your hard work, senior brothers and sisters."

Chen Zhuoyu spoke in a gentle tone.

"I've set the error tolerance for these data sets. As long as the hardware doesn't burn out, you basically don't need any manual intervention. You just need to keep an eye on the progress bar." Zhang Yuan looked at him with a wry smile.

"Xiao Zhuo, are you going to continue deriving those topological formulas when you go back for the New Year? Your brain probably won't be idle even during the holidays, right?" In Zhang Yuan's eyes, a genius who can easily rewrite the underlying architecture must have nothing else in his life but mathematics and physics.

Chen Zhuo stood at the door and shook his head seriously upon hearing this.

"I'm not pushing it anymore; my brain needs a break too."

He reached out and touched the strap of his backpack, a glint of light flashing in his eyes.

"My mom called yesterday and said she made braised beef at home and was just waiting for me to come back and cut it. Also, my childhood friend went to the arcade last week to check it out. He said they just got a new 'King of Fighters '97' machine and insisted on dragging me there to practice combos with him."

The laboratory fell silent for a moment.

Zhang Yuan and Lin Fang stared, unsure of what to say next.

Braised beef.

Arcade.

The King of Fighters '97.

These words, brimming with the everyday charm and naivety of a middle school student, sounded strangely out of place coming from Chen Zhuo, who had just been discussing dimensionality reduction with them. Zhang Yuan, looking at Chen Zhuo's still somewhat childish face, suddenly realized what was going on.

The big shot in front of them, who had completely dominated this group of twenty-something master's and doctoral students and single-handedly accelerated the progress of the entire national project, was actually a twelve-year-old kid who still had to go home to set off firecrackers and ask for lucky money during the Chinese New Year.

"Alright."

Zhang Yuan waved his hand weakly.

"You'd better get out of here before I get so jealous I want to unplug the internet."

"Happy New Year in advance, senior brothers and sisters!"

Chen Zhuo waved with a smile, turned around and walked out of the laboratory.

The moment the door closed, Zhang Yuan turned to look at Lin Fang.

What were you doing when you were twelve?

"Playing in the mud."

Lin Fang answered expressionlessly, then turned her gaze back to the screen.

"Get to work, mule."

Leaving the physics building, Chen Zhuo walked towards the math department's office building, his feet sinking into the thin snow.

The Department of Mathematical Sciences received a separate payment for their work, so they had to say goodbye to Professor Li Jianming before leaving.

The math department's office building always felt a bit cold and damp in winter. Chen Zhuo went up to the third floor, familiar with the layout, and arrived at Li Jianming's office. The door was open.

The office was filled with a strong smell of chalk dust and smoke.

A huge movable blackboard occupied half the room, covered with various distorted integral symbols and homology group mapping formulas. Professor Li Jianming, with a half-smoked cigarette between his fingers, his brows furrowed, stared intently at the upper right corner of the blackboard.

Doctoral student Wu Tao stood in front of the blackboard, holding half a piece of chalk in his hand, his hair as messy as a bird's nest.

He held the eraser, erasing one line, writing another, then erasing it again, his whole being on the verge of collapse.

"No, no."

Li Jianming shook his head repeatedly.

"After substituting the imaginary time variable, the Jacobian determinant here is not zero, the space is still distorted, and it cannot be reduced to three dimensions." Wu Tao's hands were trembling.

"Teacher, I've tried four times already, but I'm stuck here. Is there a problem with the boundary conditions I set earlier?"

"The boundary is fine."

Li Jianming said it with absolute certainty, but his eyes were also somewhat glazed over as he looked at the blackboard.

Chen Zhuo stood at the door without speaking immediately. He looked at the derivation process on the blackboard for a while.

That was a follow-up proof of the homology group mapping theory that he had left behind. He had given the theoretical direction, but Li Jianming hadn't let him handle the specific rigorous proof process, intending to have Wu Tao work through it on their own. Now it seemed they were struggling to get it right.

Chen Zhuo reached out and knocked on the open door.

"Professor Li, Senior Brother Wu."

Li Jianming turned around abruptly, and the moment he saw Chen Zhuo, his previously worried face instantly lit up with light.

"Xiao Zhuo! You've come at the perfect time!"

Li Jianming shoved his cigarette butt into the ashtray, strode over, grabbed Chen Zhuo's arm, and pulled him towards the blackboard. "Quick, take a look. That idea you mentioned earlier about introducing imaginary time dynamic compensation—Wu Tao just can't close it when he expands it in the third step. Come and see what's wrong with this determinant!" Wu Tao, as if grasping at a straw, looked at Chen Zhuo expectantly, even thoughtfully handing him half a piece of chalk. Chen Zhuo didn't take the chalk.

He followed Li Jianming's lead to the blackboard, stood still, and glanced at the formulas.

"Professor Li, the idea is correct, but a non-linear term was missed during the expansion."

Chen Zhuo spoke in a gentle tone, without any hint of being bossy.

"Which one?" Li Jianming asked, leaning closer.

"The points in parentheses in the second column of the third row."

Chen Zhuo pointed.

"That term can be ignored in low dimensions, but when mapped to high-dimensional topological space, it acts as a constant amplifier. Adding it flattens the determinant." Wu Tao paused, his gaze following Chen Zhuo's pointing finger. He quickly went through the details in his mind, then suddenly slapped his thigh. "Right! Right! How could I have ignored that compensation term as a minimum!"

Wu Tao was so excited that he danced around and turned around to start making changes on the blackboard.

Li Jianming let out a long sigh of relief, his gaze towards Chen Zhuo becoming even more ardent.

"Little Zhuo."

Li Jianming rubbed his hands together, his smile becoming somewhat like that of a fox trying to lure a child.

"See, you can see right through the problem. It would be such a waste to leave it at this stage."

Chen Zhuo stood there with his hands behind his back, a harmless smile on his face, listening quietly.

"It's gotten colder in Huizhou these past few days, and the roads are blocked by heavy snow. The trains are so crowded during the Spring Festival travel rush."

Li Jianming began to patiently guide him.

"Why don't you stay at USTC for the Lunar New Year instead of going back home during winter break? I'll talk to the logistics department and the cafeteria will prepare special meals for you. You can eat whatever you want." Li Jianming pointed to the blackboard.

"Let's take advantage of this month-long winter break to definitively confirm this conjecture! If we publish it, the entire mathematics community will be shaken. What do you think?" Chen Zhuo looked at Li Jianming's expectant eyes, and his smile deepened.

"Professor Li, I appreciate your kind offer."

Chen Zhuo's voice wasn't loud, but it carried an unwavering determination that left no room for negotiation.

"But I've already bought my ticket, for tomorrow morning."

Li Jianming refused to give up.

"You can get a refund for the ticket! Academic inspiration waits for no one. It would be such a waste if you left at this time and your train of thought was interrupted."

Chen Zhuo sighed, his expression turning somewhat helpless, yet also tinged with a hint of cunning.

"It's really not possible. There's an emergency back home, and I have to rush back to help."

"What urgent matter could be more important than what's on this blackboard?"

Li Jianming pointed at the blackboard and raised his voice.

Wu Tao also stopped writing with chalk and turned his head curiously.

Chen Zhuo looked at the two of them.

"I have a brother, we grew up together."

Chen Zhuo said slowly and deliberately.

"He's in the second year of junior high this year. As you know, the second year of junior high is a watershed moment in life, when people are most likely to go astray."

Li Jianming was stunned.

"This kid's gotten a bit cocky lately; he's not focused on his studies."

Chen Zhuo continued, his tone carrying a heavy sense of disappointment and frustration.

"If I don't go back during winter break and keep an eye on him, if I don't keep his mind glued to his desk, he'll definitely have a hard time getting into the high school entrance exam the year after next, and he won't even be able to get into a regular high school." Wu Tao's mouth opened slightly, and the chalk in his hand fell to the ground with a clatter and broke in two.

Chen Zhuochong and Li Jianming bowed slightly.

"Whether the conjecture on this blackboard is solved a month earlier or a month later, it will still be there and won't go away. But my brother's future will be ruined for life. I have to go back and treat him. See you when school starts." After saying that, Chen Zhuo turned around and walked out of the office before Li Jianming could react.

His light footsteps echoed in the corridor.

The office was eerily quiet.

Li Jianming stared at the empty doorway, unable to come to his senses for a long time.

He, a leading figure in the mathematics department, holding a conjecture that could potentially shock the mathematical world, actually lost to a junior high school student's final exam tutoring under various forms of coercion and enticement? Wu Tao bent down and picked up the half-burnt chalk from the ground.

He stared at the terrifying formulas on the blackboard that only Chen Zhuo could instantly decipher, then thought about his bloodshot eyes and bald head from staying up all night. A wave of bitter tears, typical of an academic worker, almost welled up in his eyes.

In Chen Zhuo's heart, this PhD student in mathematics at the University of Science and Technology of China was actually less important than that junior high school student from his hometown who could barely get into a regular high school. "Teacher."

Wu Tao sniffed, his voice trembling.

"Stop talking nonsense."

Li Jianming waved his hand irritably.

"Add the nonlinear term and keep calculating! People who are twelve years old know how to worry about their brothers' high school entrance exams, and you're twenty-five and can't even unfold a matrix. Aren't you ashamed!" Wu Tao lowered his head, gritted his teeth, and slammed the chalk hard on the blackboard.

Chen Zhuo walked out of the Faculty of Science building.

The snow outside was falling even more heavily, and the wind, carrying snowflakes, blew against my face, bringing a dry, cool sensation.

He flipped his hat up over his head and put his hands in his pockets.

After walking a dozen steps, Chen Zhuo stopped and turned around.

In the basement of the physics building, the fluid mechanics lab was still brightly lit, and Chen Zhuo could vaguely hear low-frequency vibrations coming from the computer room. Zhang Yuan and Lin Fang were probably going to be pulling an all-nighter again. On the third floor of the mathematics building, the light in Li Jianming's office was also on, and through the window, Chen Zhuo could see the silhouette of Wu Tao waving his arms in front of the blackboard. Looking at those windows where people were struggling to meet deadlines, Chen Zhuo couldn't help but smile.

He felt no guilt whatsoever.

Academic pursuits are endless, but twelve-year-olds need a winter break.

Chen Zhuo wrapped his clothes tighter, turned around, and walked briskly towards the dormitory building, stepping through the snow.

Back to dormitory 215.

The room was empty.

Chu Ge went to the internet cafe to pursue his grand internet endeavors, Wang Dayong boarded the train back to Northeast China carrying fertilizer bags he'd somehow acquired, and Lu Jia secluded himself in the room across the street. Tomorrow morning, he'd return to that small town filled with the sounds of firecrackers and the aroma of meat, carrying with him the fruits of his labor for the past semester and a bellyful of wicked quirks.