Super God-Level Top Student

"I think it's great, and I'll definitely be there."

"Thank you, Ronnie."

"No worries, just like you said, it's not only about speaking up for you guys but also for ourselves."

"If possible, try to get us as much support as you can."

"Of course!"

...

"Zhang Liwei, I heard that the school increased your stipend by two hundred a month?"

In the former faculty dormitory buildings in the North District, Zhang Liwei's roommate asked curiously.

Zhang Liwei nodded, answering listlessly, "Yeah, the School of Mathematics is giving an extra two hundred a month. It's said that they canceled the subsidies for international students and gave an extra hundred to master's students and two hundred to doctoral students. It's just a little bit of money but better than nothing, I guess."

Clearly, for him, those two hundred yuan really didn't make much of a difference.

After all, Zhang Liwei truly felt he was incredibly unlucky.

His mentor had been Zhao Guangyao, a very stable professor.

He'd thought that graduating under this professor would be a sure thing.

But then he chose the wrong project at the proposal stage, which resulted in almost all these years going to waste.

That was bad enough.

His boss even promised him that day to help him change his topic and graduate as soon as possible.

Zhang Liwei had come to terms with it: unable to tackle too difficult a problem, with the help of his boss, he would choose a somewhat simpler problem. Relying on his boss's influence from studying in Germany, publishing a couple of papers in mediocre journals shouldn't be a problem. All he had to do was craft his thesis well, and at the very least, getting a diploma wouldn't be a problem.

But who would have thought his mentor, Professor Zhao Guangyao, would suddenly decide to leave for another school at this critical juncture?

Really, if Zhao Guangyao were going to a better university, Zhang Liwei would of course have been willing to follow him.

After all, water flows uphill.

But Zhao Guangyao was actually going to a non-double-first-class university.

Yes, that school was surely eager to have a senior professor like Zhao Guangyao, and the treatment was pretty good, but for him, this freaking related to the issue of which university's diploma he'd get after graduation.

You can't say he struggled so hard to get into a double-first-class university for his postgraduate studies, only to end up with a diploma from a non-double-first-class institution because he followed his mentor, can you?

This situation would be utterly explosive for anyone it happened to.

Who the hell has ever heard of an older mentor, close to retirement, actually taking a step down?

At this age, if someone decides to switch jobs, isn't it supposed to be to a better place?

Really, Zhang Liwei would have rather wished that Zhao Guangyao just got fired. At least then the university would take responsibility and help him sort out the issue with his advisor.

The end result was that out of the more than ten graduate and doctoral students under Zhao Guangyao, only a new junior brother who had just joined decided to follow the advisor, while all the others chose to stay.

Then everyone had to look for an advisor who still had spots available.

There were even some who had to wait until next year for advisors to have new spots available before they could have an official advisor.

Zhang Liwei was one such unfortunate person.

This also directly led to him losing his teaching assistant job.

It truly felt like a kick in the teeth.

The most disgusting part is that when he approached Qiao Ze to discuss his dissertation, it was his closest brush with success.

What sucked was that he perfectly missed it.

Really, if at that time he hadn't been too proud to use a fake name, he would have had the courage to go back to Dorm 408 to look for Qiao Ze, to see if he could somehow pull him up.
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Regrettably, at the time he created a "Wang" persona.

And his scheme was directly exposed when it was revealed that his advisor was Zhao Guangyao.

This directly resulted in him completely losing the courage to go and look for Qiao Ze again.

So, the extra two hundred yuan subsidy the school added was just like chicken ribs to him, tasteless but wasteful to discard.

Who would have thought this would become a point of envy for his roommate.

...

"Fuck, what 'better than nothing?' It's not just about the extra two hundred subsidy; I heard your School of Mathematics doctoral teaching assistant subsidy increased by three hundred. That's six thousand more a year compared to us! It's so infuriating. If only our school could be that assertive."

"Why do these foreigners come to study here, with lower difficulty, not high tuition fees, and yet their subsidies are so damn high? Are we the red-headed stepchildren? I really don't see why enhancing the international ranking is so important. As if getting a job will be easier just because the ranking goes up," the roommate complained bitterly.

There's no helping it, most people in this world don't suffer from scarcity as much as from inequality.

We're all doctoral students in the sciences, and when the School of Mathematics doctoral subsidy is more than the other schools', doctoral students from other schools naturally feel indignant.

However, these words precisely hit a sore spot for Zhang Liwei, so he said irritably, "Cut it out, don't you know? I can't even find a TA position now. Can you be more miserable than me?"

"This is just a temporary situation for you. The problem has to be addressed. It's different for us; many have already reported this issue to the professors, and the school won't even pay attention. It's so annoying. Oh, and I heard that your School of Mathematics is planning to build another doctoral building, those in the Mathematics doctoral program might even get single rooms. I'm really envious."

"They've been talking about building it for a while, but it's for international students to live in."

"No, you don't know the latest? Your School of Mathematics already notified the international students' department. They've reportedly submitted a list of names jointly with international student faculty, and anyone who fails a single course has to vacate the dorms within a certain period.

It seems international students enrolled in consecutive bachelor's, master's, and doctoral programs were hit hard, vacating more than twenty rooms all at once. They even kicked out two exchange doctoral students."

"What? Our school is that bold?" Zhang Liwei scratched his head subconsciously, his mood had been quite closed off recently, and he truly didn't know about this news.

"Yeah, that's why I'm saying your School of Mathematics truly rocks now! Speaking of which, our mechanical engineering department is also a key discipline, with academicians at the helm no less. Why can't we be more assertive? Ugh, I even brought this up during the lab meeting with the boss last time, only to get lectured.

But I also heard that the biology, mechano-electronics, electrical engineering, and the aeronautics and maritime materials folks are planning to write an anonymous letter to the president's mailbox, detailing this issue."

Zhang Liwei glanced at his roommate and said, "Pfft, as if those in mechanical engineering aren't big shots too. I don't believe for a second that if they all write anonymous letters, those in mechanical engineering will sit idly by."

"Heh, writing anonymous letters is too low; our lab leader is planning to stand up to them publically."

"Publicly? How so? Are you planning to sign as well?"

"Of course! What have I got to be afraid of? If our boss takes the lead, why should I be scared? Besides, you guys in mathematics have it easy. A pen and a piece of paper, and you can sit all day long, outputs being hit or miss. We actually have to go down to the factories!

And those in biology and chemistry have it even worse, who doesn't feel like throwing up from washing bottles?"

"So, look, if the school really fires us, do you think those projects can still be completed? And we're not asking for much; we just want the treatment to be on par with the School of Mathematics. That's totally reasonable, right? If they can't even meet this, then what's the point of working?"

"Tch, why don't you mention that the funding for your projects is already more than ours?" Zhang Liwei spat in response.

"Why don't you mention the amount of work we put in! And you're well aware of how much of that funding we can actually get our hands on. Anyway, Zhang, we have to resist to gain fair treatment. Come to think of it, if we succeed this time, it's all thanks to your School of Mathematics for paving the way!"

Zhang Liwei didn't know what to say.

It was just that he couldn't suppress the image of that calm face he saw that day in the dormitory building of the School of Mathematics, and those almost inflectionless tones.

Thank the School of Mathematics?

You guys should just directly thank that kid named Qiao Ze.

The best opportunity had once been right before him, and yet he lost it because of pride!

If he could do it over, he would definitely use his real name to discuss the dissertation with Qiao Ze!

So freaking annoying!