In Dormitory 408, Qiao Ze had already entered dreamland wearing his eye mask.
His laptop was casually left on his desk, with the screensaver on.
Qiao Ze didn't have the habit of shutting down his computer, and his laptop wasn't password protected either.
Since this was the only computer in the house, Lu Xiuxiu would sometimes use this computer to surf the web during her free time.
Qiao Ze didn't mind this at all, as there really wasn't any secret in his laptop anyway.
Some kids have folders on their D drive labeled "Review Materials," which when clicked, turn out to be unspeakable films one after the other.
The folders in Qiao Ze's D drive labeled as "Study Materials," when opened, are also all videos, but they are all lecture videos from teachers. For the vast majority of people, these videos are not only unlikely to excite, but also serve as a surefire remedy for insomnia, especially best watched before going to sleep.
Zhang Zhou and Gu Zhengliang were both sitting at their respective desks by this time, demoralized to the point of no longer wanting to chat, so the only thing left to do was to sit quietly in their seats and study.
Except for that freak already in bed, what earnest college student goes to bed at 10:30 pm?
Actually, this time is usually when the two of them play games.
It's just that today, neither Zhang Zhou nor Gu Zhengliang had the face to bring up gaming, so naturally their phones were left idle.
Actually, most people enter a state of particular excitement after receiving a special stimulus, which is called "intermittent false ambition." But in reality, in the majority of cases, they are just muddling along, waiting to die.
The current state of Zhang Zhou and Gu Zhengliang could only be described with another two words, which is—loss.
They wanted to work hard but had no direction.
They wanted to lay back, yet they had no shame to do so.
Just then, the dormitory door was pushed open, and a young man, carrying a canvas bag and wearing a plain short-sleeved shirt, entered the dorm.
"Eh, you guys aren't playing games today?"
Zhang Zhou looked towards Chen Yiwen, who had entered, and with a fierce "shh," gestured with his hand and then pointed at Qiao Ze, who was already asleep, whispering, "He's already asleep, don't disturb him!"
"The new student? He's gone to bed so early?" Chen Yiwen frowned.
"It's not early, it's already eleven. Do you think there's a possibility that we have low IQs just because we don't go to bed as early as him? Ah... Old Chen, really, even if he went to sleep at nine, I wouldn't dare to object. I'm giving you a heads up; with him here, you probably won't be able to rank first in our major courses for the next four years."
Gu Zhengliang put down his book, which he hadn't managed to get into at all, and sighed deeply.
At that moment, their mood was purely one of decay that could not be relieved. No pretense needed, just natural performance.
Chen Yiwen stood there dumbfounded and asked, "What do you mean?"
Zhang Zhou grabbed one of Chen Yiwen's arms and said, "Let's go outside to talk, let you also understand the progressively distorted journey of our hearts these past few hours."
Seeing Chen Yiwen being pulled out of the dormitory by Zhang Zhou, Gu Zhengliang also quietly stood up, glanced mournfully at Qiao Ze's bed, and followed them out.
Outside the dormitory, ten minutes later.
Chen Yiwen looked bewildered at the two of them and said, "You guys are kidding, right? Such an impressive high school student, forget about Huaqing or Yanbei, even Harvard or Berkeley would be scrambling to recruit him, right? He didn't go to any of those places and came to our school instead? Is Xilin University of Technology really that attractive?"
"Exactly! I know you won't believe it, I doubt my own eyes whether it's real. I really want to crack open Qiao Ze's head to see, and then have you guys crack open my head too, to see what's the difference!" sighed Zhang Zhou despondently.
Chen Yiwen was silent for a moment and then said, "I can understand everything else, but him reading the professor's published research and thinking there's something wrong with the paper, that point, you guys didn't exaggerate?"
Zhang Zhou and Gu Zhengliang looked at each other.
After all, weren't they all the same?
"Although I don't know whether that professor will reply to Qiao Ze's letter, and I can't quite understand what Qiao Ze actually wrote in it, it's absolutely true that he wrote a letter to Professor Zhao Guangyao. I told you just now, it wasn't just us, the class monitor saw it too."
Chen Yiwen pondered for a moment, then said in a muffled voice, "Could it be that he just wanted to show off in front of Su Mucheng? Maybe the letter was just nonsense?"
Hearing this, Zhang Zhou almost cried out, muttering, "Damn it... haven't you understood yet? When he was sitting there writing that letter to the professor, he had no idea that Su Mucheng would come. It was me, damn it, who stupidly sent a message to Cheng secretly! Who would have thought she would actually come straight to our dorm? Can you imagine the class monitor being so bold usually?!"
Chen Yiwen stopped talking.
Indeed, he didn't know what else to say.
"Forget it, let's go in; we should rest early, we have classes tomorrow." After saying this with a heavy heart, Chen Yiwen pushed the door and walked into the dorm, but his gaze involuntarily shifted to Qiao Ze, who had already gone to bed under the mosquito net.
Curiosity, doubt, and a touch of defiance.
Just at that moment, Qiao Ze's laptop emitted a "ding dong" sound.
Anyone who has used QQ Mail knows that it's the sound of an email reply.
Normally, be it Zhang Zhou, Gu Zhengliang, or Chen Yiwen, they were people with a strong sense of boundaries.
They wouldn't deliberately pry into a roommate's privacy.
That was also key to their relatively harmonious relationship.
But today was truly too unusual...
Receiving a reply at this time, could it actually be a response from Professor Zhao Guangyao of the university?
It shouldn't be, right?
Unable to suppress his curiosity, Chen Yiwen walked up to Qiao Ze's desk and touched the laptop.
It's not password-protected?
And Qiao Ze's email account was open, displaying an unread email from an internal university email address.
Zhang Zhou and Gu Zhengliang silently gathered around.
"This doesn't seem right," Zhang Zhou whispered as a reminder.
"We're just going to see if it's a reply from Professor Zhao, it should be fine. Besides, it's only because Qiao is asleep, if he were awake, he probably wouldn't mind," Gu Zhengliang quietly retorted.
Chen Yiwen ignored their exchange; he simply took out his phone, logged onto the School of Mathematics' official website, found Zhao Guangyao in the list of graduate advisors, and carefully compared the work email listed there with the sender's email.
No mistake, it was indeed Professor Zhao's work email.
Chen Yiwen took a deep breath and then resolutely clicked on the reply.
So considerate, it was a reply in Chinese, no need for translation software to understand it.
"Qiao Ze student: I have received your letter. First of all, thank you very much for your analysis, criticism, and correction of this paper. Because I studied in Germany, I'm accustomed to using this set of mathematical analysis tools, and now, in hindsight, that's probably why my approach to this research was indeed too narrow-minded.
Thank you very much for your suggestions, which provided me with some new ideas and inspiration.
If you don't mind, we could discuss this over a phone call. My number is 188XXXXXXX, and it's the same for WeChat. Additionally, I am very curious to know which advisor has managed to teach a student as outstanding as you. I look forward to the opportunity to share a drink and converse with them, and to learn from their experience in teaching students in person.
Zhao Guangyao, Westwood University of Technology Mathematics Institute."