At two in the afternoon, ten people gathered at the small square in front of the school's administration building.
Principal Zheng, accompanied by the leaders of the school's office of Public Relations and Logistics, and Xu Dajiang, with Professor Zhu and Li Jiangao as representatives, ensured Su Mucheng's presence; Chen Yiwen volunteered to fetch the luggage. Adding in Director Zhuo from the Admissions Office and Qiao Ze, they made exactly ten people.
Considering two more people would join for the return trip, the school directly arranged two large seven-seater Red Flag SUVs.
Xu Dajiang also put some thought into the seating arrangements.
Qiao Ze, Su Mucheng, and Li Jiangao were definitely going to share one car, so Xu Dajiang also put Zheng Luhua and Minister Hong from the Public Relations Department into the first vehicle; the rest would ride in the other.
After all, it would take at least an hour to get to the high-speed rail station without traffic. This hour was a chance to bond with Qiao Ze.
This actually made Xu Dajiang somewhat uneasy.
Although he hadn't interacted much with Qiao Ze and knew the boy was usually quiet, the moment he did speak, he could easily offend people.
This was why he insisted on having Li Jiangao in the first car.
In case Qiao Ze offended the leaders of the school, it was not just him who could smooth things over.
Just as Xu Dajiang expected, once the driver started the car smoothly, Zheng Luhua, sitting in the back row, let down his guard and started to chat with Qiao Ze in a friendly manner.
"Qiao Ze, I haven't had the chance to congratulate you in person for having two papers published in top mathematics journals. Oh, Xu hasn't told you yet? According to school policy, professors who publish in top journals receive a cash reward of three hundred thousand. It has been decided by school research that your papers will also be rewarded according to this policy.
The prize money should be credited to your account this month. You and Professor Li can then distribute it amongst yourselves."
This was a clear gesture of goodwill.
In fact, this was Zheng Luhua's task for today.
Xu Dajiang also breathed a sigh of relief.
Bringing up the reward should prevent the kid from feeling resistant.
But before he could add a word of agreement, he saw Qiao Ze turn his gaze from the window, looking at him with confusion, and Xu's heart suddenly sank. Sure enough, Qiao Ze did not respond with gratitude, but with a question, "Isn't the school out of money?"
"Ah..." Zheng Luhua, who had never interacted with Qiao Ze, was somewhat at a loss for words, not expecting this response.
Xu Dajiang immediately turned to look at Li Jiangao, who was sitting behind Qiao Ze.
Li Jiangao quickly explained, "Qiao Ze, this is different. You can think of this reward as the school's name being listed on your paper, which will contribute to the school's ranking in terms of influence in the future, hence the special reward. This money is not in the same category as research funding."
"Oh," Qiao Ze nodded, indicating understanding.
Sitting next to Qiao Ze, Su Mucheng blinked and said, "So, once our project is over and we publish six papers, we could get a total reward of one million eight hundred thousand from the school. Excluding the red envelope bonus from yesterday, our project's current expenses are roughly one million five hundred and seventy thousand. This..."
Qiao Ze turned to glance at Su Mucheng, seriously reminding her, "Uncle Li just said that money from the school is different from other money."
"Oh!" Su Mucheng stuck out her tongue and fell silent.
The two "Oh's" made the inside of the car suddenly quiet.
The atmosphere became extremely awkward, and shocking...
Xu Dajiang turned to look at Li Jiangao. Six papers? What was that about? He hadn't heard anything about that.
Zheng Luhua looked bewildered.
Hadn't they agreed that only two top-tier papers were published?
How did it become six?
Alright, these details weren't important.
What mattered was if indeed six top-tier papers were published, dispersing one hundred eighty thousand as a school reward would really be a triple irony.
Zheng Luhua felt that Chen might be angered to the point of spitting blood.
Because when the facts were laid out so bluntly, he himself could already feel physically uncomfortable.
Damn, money is not just money.
The pressure instantly focused on Li Jiangao.
He too felt that the situation had developed into something quite absurd.
Li Jiangao could even sense that Su Mucheng had deliberately made those comments. Was this her way of expressing dissatisfaction with the school's previous lack of Read the latest chapters on NovelHub - completely free!
"Cough cough, well, I've reported to Dean Xu before that Qiao Ze is quite efficient at writing papers. Moreover, the project is actually quite large, the foundational theoretical papers were written beforehand, and subsequently as we embedded various modules into the framework, each module not only functioned independently but also brought some novel insights when integrated.
Therefore, we divided it into several additional papers. Essentially, there is just one foundational paper, and the rest are based on that for further evidence and construction."
Li Jiangao said this with sweat nearly breaking out on his forehead.
Qiao Ze casually replied, "If we consider the paper standards published by the college last year, seven to eight more papers could be written, but I don't think that's necessary. Without innovative mathematical tools, even the most beautiful proofs are just gilding the lily.
By the way, does the school also award bonuses for papers mostly in the second-tier SCI journals I saw listed on the college website last year?"
No one answered. It was left to Li Jiangao to bite the bullet and reply, "Yes, second-tier SCI journals have cash rewards ranging from one hundred thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand, depending on the journal's impact factor."