Super God-Level Top Student

"Especially you, Cai xx, you really opened my eyes. Others at least know to keep a summary, to be aware of what they've done. But you? Still a blank slate to this day, nothing at all? Has the meat filling from the Meiyuan steamed buns conquered your brain cells?..."

"Ah..." Wu Chengze shook his head and sighed.

The kids are really pitiful. Which serious graduate student would expect their advisor to suddenly check on weekly reports?

But an outpouring of firepower like that won't last long.

Sure enough, in the time it took him to eat a meal, he heard the sound of the door opening, followed by a burst of footsteps.

Wu Chengze methodically cleaned up the trash, putting it into a bag, and carefully wiped the corners of his mouth with a napkin, making sure no traces of his feast remained. Then he took the bag of trash to the bin before heading back into Zhang Hongcai's office.

"You haven't left yet?"

Seeing Wu Chengze enter uninvited, Zhang Hongcai was clearly surprised.

"Ah, I was halfway out the door when I suddenly remembered I had something to discuss with you. I got sidetracked by you and haven't talked about the main issue. So I came back. Your group meeting is over right? Feeling any better?"

Zhang Hongcai glanced at Wu Chengze and nodded.

He did indeed feel somewhat refreshed.

With that irritability gone, he could concentrate better.

"But this isn't right either. Haven't you thought about asking that kid why he applied for the expert panel? He's not in a hurry at his age, is he?" Wu Chengze sat down opposite Zhang Hongcai and asked.

Even serious matters had to be approached gradually, otherwise this guy's temper might flare up and that would be the end of the discussion.

"What else is going on? I'll tell you, it's unbelievable! A Xilin University of Technology associate professor submitted a project for a Jieqing evaluation this year; he's the corresponding author of the two papers Qiao Ze previously published. You get it, right? That kid's implication is he's afraid the expert panel might mistakenly reject his project!"

Zhang Hongcai said indignantly.

"This..." Wu Chengze instantly felt a mix of laughter and disbelief, commenting, "That's a bit too much, isn't it? So, what are you planning to do?"

"What else can I do?"

Zhang Hongcai thought for a moment and elaborated, "I plan to send him a letter telling the kid that the associate professor surnamed Li's application will definitely be accepted, so he should stop causing trouble. Is it really necessary to go through all this hassle? I've already looked over the project proposal.

It's a mathematical simulation for constructing world models using a major linguistic framework.

Honestly, it's a very meaningful project, and since their Qunzhi linguistic framework has already been applied on a large scale, proving that this path is indeed viable, it's very likely that it would have been approved anyway! Why did he have to stir up this drama? Who does he not trust?"

"Isn't that a bit superficial?"

Wu Chengze laughed and said, "If it were me, why not just approve it? We'll have a vote, and if everyone thinks it's alright, let him pass. The defense conference is going to be held in the Capital anyway, you might as well make both of them come. If I were you, I'd go the extra mile and even let him critique the associate professor's proposal. Let's see who ends up more embarrassed.

Plus, isn't this a perfect opportunity for the kid to spend a couple of days with us at Yanbei?"

Zhang Hongcai was stunned for a moment, then said gruffly, "Wu, are you trying to add fuel to the fire because you enjoy drama?"

"Haha... I'm just making a suggestion. I'll stay out of you mathematicians' business, alright? But I think, if they're not embarrassed, why should you be?"

Zhang Hongcai went silent for a moment, then said, "Alright, what do you really want from me?"

"This is a project proposal submitted by my doctoral student. I think it has great potential. Take a look. But I'm afraid my few students won't be up to the task. How about you loan out one of your best students to lend a hand..." As he spoke, Wu Chengze took out the material he had prepared earlier and handed it over.

...

Xilin University of Technology, Laboratory Building.

It was already ten o'clock at night, and apart from Tan Jingrong, the rest of the workspaces were empty.

Even Liu Chenfeng and Hanna, who had recently been the most diligent, had left one after another.

But you couldn't blame Tan Jingrong for going above and beyond.

Mainly because his paper was almost finished, in the final stages of revision.

For him, this was his first paper that he could publish independently as the lead author in an international journal. Even if it's only published in a Hua Academy of Sciences second-tier journal, it would greatly benefit his future.

Not to mention that Li Jian Gao had already discussed with him, taking advantage of the recent sales boom for M60P and the fact that the Qunzhi Framework is being thoroughly researched by many institutions, and Qiao Ze's previous papers are also being widely discussed.

So for his paper, having Qiao Ze as the corresponding author, there was a good chance of aiming for a journal at the lower end of the first tier.

This only motivated Tan Jingrong even more.

It wasn't just Li Jian Gao giving false promises; when a certain research direction becomes a hot topic in the academic world, even top journals will lower their standards a bit.

This has to do with influencing factors and the ranking of the journals in the academic community.

This is probably also why some people ridicule recent papers, saying at first glance they are all just 'water'.

Not to mention that Tan Jingrong not only participated in the initial setup of the Qunzhi Framework but also acted as the liaison, interfacing with Youwei's Group Wisdom Framework team.

So, there's genuinely a lot of substantial content in the paper.

Inside Qiao Ze's office, two people were also waiting on a server for a result.

Qiao Ze had thought that upon returning in the evening, he would have received several emails.

However, he waited until he had turned the problem-solving approach into code and began verification on the supercomputer, and still, no one had replied to his emails.

Even Professor Zhang, who had just been discussing eagerly with him, had slacked off.

This was somewhat unexpected for Qiao Ze.

Fortunately, he wouldn't be bored.

During his free time, he could debug his Dou Dou.

As for Su Mucheng on the other side, she was earnestly watching a video to teach herself.

In fact, having gotten used to Qiao Ze's self-study method, Su Mucheng found it quite nice—for instance, being able to pause anytime was very convenient for slacking off.

If she really didn't understand something, she could ask Qiao Ze, who could always explain it in the simplest way.

The only issue might be that the content in the videos was vastly different from the textbooks currently used by their college.

But according to Qiao Ze, that wasn't a big problem.

Because the content of the exams was essentially consistent in principle.

As long as she understood all the concepts, for calculation problems that were too troublesome, she could simply outline the process. No need to arrive at a result; she could still score points.
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Proof-based problems were even simpler.

Well, to be honest, Su Mucheng had never chased after being first in her grade.

...

"Ding..."

The notification sound for a system email signified that the supercomputer had produced a result.

Qiao Ze pulled up the results and took a look—the final output was quite good.

It confirmed the overall direction was correct, but these results were not enough to complete the proof process, so he inputted some more of the code he had prepared earlier.

This time, the computation load was even greater, but once the results were out, they could be directly incorporated into the paper.

After finishing all this, Qiao Ze looked up at Su Mucheng across from him and said, "Shall we go?"

"Alrighty." Su Mucheng agreed cheerfully, then quickly stood up and stretched big time, casually asking, "Qiao, did Professor Zhang get back to you?"

Qiao Ze shook his head.

"Ha ha, he must have realized he can't win against you and decided to surrender," said Su Mucheng lightheartedly.

Qiao Ze shook his head again, saying, "It's nothing about surrendering. It's just a normal academic discussion. I'm not that good at noncommutative geometry, but discussing with him is quite interesting."

Su Mucheng blinked.

Okay, not being good at it yet being able to hold a back-and-forth discussion with a professor.

That left her wondering how to creatively praise her man.

"If you find it so interesting, it must mean that Professor Zhang is quite impressive too."

"Yeah."

"Ding..."

Qiao Ze glanced at the new email popping up on the desktop and casually clicked it open to look.

"He says he'll bring my application up for discussion at a meeting soon."

"Ha, I told you, Qiao, they won't bother with you if you're on the defensive. If you want to get things done, you need to take the initiative."

Qiao Ze thought about it, then nodded.