Liu Chenfeng walked out of Qiao Ze's office in a daze, not heading straight back, but standing in the corridor, staring blankly at the outside view. It took him a while to fully come to his senses.
The good news was that the project was truly finished, and the paper had already been confirmed to be published in "Mathematics Annual".
And given Qiao Ze's personality, the corresponding author and the first author would definitely be Qiao Ze himself, but he would surely still give him a second authorship.
Even though he really hadn't contributed much this time.
The bad news was, carefully pondering Qiao Ze's attitude just now, it seemed highly likely that after this project was finished, the young boss he'd been pining for would probably be too lazy to take him on anymore.
Liu Chenfeng actually could understand, he wouldn't want to mentor someone who couldn't help much, yet had to share the honors.
But he felt helpless about it.
Really, Liu Chenfeng felt like he had been trying very hard to catch up with Qiao Ze's pace.
Ever since the project was confirmed, he had also been studying and thinking desperately...
Even every night before going to sleep, he would still think about the propositions.
But he just couldn't catch up!
Forget him, as a mathematics PhD, although he wasn't part of the mainstream academic circle yet, he understood the normal research rhythm.
But he just couldn't understand Qiao Ze's rhythm, and Liu Chenfeng believed nobody could. It wasn't a question of whether he was trying or not. It was that no matter how much he tried, he could never keep up with this pace.
After lamenting in his heart for a while, Liu Chenfeng reluctantly dialed Xu Dajiang's number.
Before, he thought his own advisor was too useless.
But at times , he still needed the warmth from an advisor.
"Hello, boss, are you busy now?"
"Cut the crap, what's up?"
Xu Dajiang's tone was as curt as ever.
"It's just that the young boss's new project has been completed, and the paper has been accepted by 'Mathematics Annual'. They've already started the proofreading process, and it's going straight to the electronic journal the day after tomorrow."
Liu Chenfeng reluctantly repeated his previous words.
This reaction was predictable.
After a long silence, Xu Dajiang confirmed again, "You mean the new project dealing with the two-dimensional field and its relation to Riemann space?"
"Yes, but I think the young boss has taken it a step further in the paper title. It seems like he's directly established the relation for non-Abel groups."
"Yeah. I saw the reply letter from Dugen, the editor of Mathematics Annual, to the young boss. It mentioned the final title of the young boss's paper."
"If it's that topic, the review alone should take at least ten days to half a month, right? So that means Qiao Ze must have submitted it before the National Day?"
"Aren't you in Qiao Ze's research team?"
"Yes, but I'm still doing the preparatory work."
"Alright, I got it. Go do your own thing." Xu Dajiang's tone suddenly became gentler.
Liu Chenfeng hung up the phone, and his mind finally settled a bit. In the past, he too was a proud and ambitious man. But now, he truly couldn't muster that ambition anymore.
He silently returned to his seat, sat down, glanced at Tan Jingrong next to him still immersed in revising a paper. Hmm, not much to talk about with this guy.
So he turned his attention towards the Austrian female PhD student, who was studying a book, and couldn't help asking, "Hanna, before you came to Huaxia, who did you think was the youngest, most outstanding, most amazing mathematician, one you even admired?"
Hanna, looking perplexed, shifted her gaze from the book and gave the man beside her a puzzled look, then shook her head.
She couldn't possibly say it was herself, right?
After hanging up the phone, Xu Dajiang felt his heart had gone numb.
For a child who kept exceeding the bottom line of his understanding, he could only attribute it to the terrifying accumulation of Qiao Ze's early work.
Besides that, there was simply no other explanation.
It was only mid-October.
For a true freshman, it was just the beginning of their college studies.
But for a certain non-mainstream freshman, his second paper was about to be published in "Mathematics Annual".
The only thing that made Xu Dajiang feel slightly relieved was that Qiao Ze was about to celebrate his nineteenth birthday.
He was a year older, which should make the shock he delivered a tiny bit less severe, right?
But Xu was increasingly feeling unsettled.
If this paper was published, it was likely not just Princeton that would take notice, right?
Could Qiao Ze truly resolve to stay at Xilin?
Really, Xu would much prefer if Qiao Ze's development was slower, it would be better for the School of Mathematics.
This pace was more than his heart could take!
Sitting in the car and calming down for a moment, Xu Dajiang dialed Li Jiangao's number. Once the call connected, he asked with a friendly tone, "Jian Gao, where are you?"
"Dean Xu, I'm out and about, what's up?"
"Nothing much, just wanted to ask how you're getting along with my old classmate's child. Are you still in touch?"
"Oh, since it's the weekend, I'm just accompanying her shopping right now."
"Haha, that's good, that's good. You really should take some time to think about personal matters. At your age, it's about time to settle down. Continue with your shopping. I'll hang up now."
After hanging up, Xu Dajiang's heart finally felt a bit more at ease.
His old classmate only had this one daughter and had long said there was no need for a dowry, but the daughter definitely had to stay in Xilin.
He had to convince his old classmate quickly, to let the couple get married as soon as possible.
Otherwise, it was no good for Li Jian to live alone in such a big house.
In the Capital, He Danchang had actually already finished his interview article about Qiao Ze. The headline was, "Perhaps only the geniuses who can endure solitude can hold onto splendor."