Awakening Elementary School System in University

The office instantly fell silent.

As Guo Qizhi scrolled down with the mouse, his expression began to go through a series of interesting changes.

It started with a casual browse, which turned into a slight frown, and then his gaze grew focused and serious. Finally, he subconsciously leaned in, his face nearly pressing against the screen.

When he reached the final line of the proof, he froze as if hit by an immobilization spell, remaining completely still and lost in thought for several long minutes.

Then, he slowly straightened up, let out a long sigh, and turned to Gu Ming with an incredibly complex look in his eyes.

"Gu, to be honest, I’m quite envious of you."

"Huh?" Gu Ming was confused by Guo Qizhi’s sudden remark. "You’re just reading a paper. Why would that make you envious of me?"

"How could I not be?" Guo Qizhi’s tone was tinged with jealousy. "Tell me, how did you end up monopolizing all the brightest prospects in our math department? An undergraduate like Chen Lin, with obviously limitless potential—Principal Chang handed him directly to you. And now, even your own PhD student is this impressive! This paper... it’s truly a thing of beauty! If you submit this, it’s a lock for one of the top four journals, wouldn’t you say?"

’The more Guo Qizhi thought about it, the more unfair it seemed. Why couldn’t he get the chance to mentor a PhD student of this caliber?’

Hearing this, Gu Ming couldn’t help but chuckle.

The laugh, however, seemed to baffle Guo Qizhi.

’Gu Ming was usually such a serious person. Was something he’d just said that funny?’

Gu Ming waved his hand, unable to stop the smile from spreading across his face. He looked at the stunned Guo Qizhi and explained cheerfully, "A PhD student? Director Guo, you’ve guessed wrong."

He reached out and tapped his finger lightly on the paper’s title on the screen.

"The Chen Lin you were just suggesting should enter the American Competition... he’s the one who wrote this!"

"..."

The expression on Guo Qizhi’s face instantly froze.

Gu Ming then proceeded to explain everything. He told him how Principal Chang Kai, in a bid to keep Chen Lin, had promised him early graduation and even offered to invest in a company for him. He described how Chen Lin, after returning to Jinmen, had effortlessly aced five major courses with perfect scores, and then produced the research for the paper before them in just one week. He even added that Chen Lin was planning to spend the next month or two tackling an even grander topic: "Manifold Boundary and Hallucination Control in Generative Models."

He recounted this series of frankly unbelievable feats to Guo Qizhi, leaving nothing out.

The office once again fell into a dead silence.

Guo Qizhi stood there in a daze. His mouth opened, but not a single word came out. It was as if his brain, overloaded with information, had momentarily crashed.

’Gu Ming looked at his completely shell-shocked expression and remembered feeling much the same a few days prior.’

He took a sip of his coffee and offered his conclusion at a leisurely pace.

"So, Director Guo, that’s why I said your suggestion might be a little difficult."

Gu Ming’s gaze fell back to the screen, his tone filled with admiration and a touch of awe. "Even if it takes Chen Lin longer—even half a year—to make a breakthrough in the broad area he’s targeting, it would still be infinitely more valuable than having him participate in something like the American Competition."

"An Outstanding Winner award in the American Competition might be a huge honor for other students."

"But for Chen Lin," Gu Ming said, shaking his head and enunciating each word, "it’s simply not worth the time anymore."

Guo Qizhi listened, still in a daze. He just stood there, his eyes glued to the computer screen.

’He knew Gu Ming’s personality. He might seem mild-mannered, but when it came to academic matters, he was incredibly rigorous, one might even say inflexible.’

’He would never joke about something like this.’

A good thirty seconds passed before Guo Qizhi seemed to have finally processed the sheer volume of information Gu Ming had just given him.

He let out a long, slow breath and sank back onto the sofa.

He looked up at Gu Ming, his initial shock replaced by an expression of extreme gravity.

"Gu, you did the right thing."

Guo Qizhi’s tone was deadly serious. "For a genius like Chen Lin, we should let him map out his own research direction and set his own pace. We absolutely must not interfere. The university’s job is to provide all necessary assistance whenever he needs it and clear any obstacles from his path!"

He paused, as if considering something, then continued, "Principal Chang certainly has a sharp eye; he acted decisively to keep him. But neither he nor you knew enough about Chen Lin back then. That ’Special Appointed Researcher’ position... I’m afraid it’s no longer sufficient."

Gu Ming was taken aback. He didn’t quite follow. "What do you mean?"

Guo Qizhi looked at him and, enunciating every syllable, said the word.

"Professor."

"What?!"

Gu Ming’s face went pale, and he nearly dropped his coffee cup. "Director Guo, you can’t be serious! An undergraduate, not even twenty-two years old, appointed as a professor? This... I don’t think even Principal Chang could make that decision on his own!"

This was beyond an exceptional promotion; it was pure fantasy!

However, in the face of Gu Ming’s intense reaction, Guo Qizhi remained perfectly calm.

He waved a hand dismissively. "Gu, calm down. You and I are both academics. We know better than anyone that in our world, as long as you can produce results that are convincing enough, nothing else is a problem!"

His gaze sharpened. "What’s more, large-scale AI models are one of the strategic fields the nation is currently prioritizing and investing in the most. As long as Chen Lin can truly produce research of significant value in this area of ’Manifold Boundary and Hallucination Control in Generative Models’—research that can tangibly improve the performance of existing large models..."

A confident smile played on Guo Qizhi’s lips. "At that point, if Principal Chang wants to appoint him as a special professor, there will be no obstacles whatsoever—not in silencing dissent within the university, nor in convincing the leadership at the supervising authorities!"

As Gu Ming listened to Guo Qizhi’s powerful words, the shock in his heart gradually subsided, replaced by deep contemplation.

’Director Guo did have a point.’

’In the end, academia is a world where results do the talking.’

Guo Qizhi looked at him and added with a smile, "It’s for the best that he’s skipping the American Competition. I happen to have another venue in mind, one that’s far more suitable for him."

"Oh?" Gu Ming asked, his curiosity piqued. "And what might that be?"

A smile touched Guo Qizhi’s lips. "When I was in the Imperial Capital for a conference, that fellow Feng Yunhai made a point of telling me that this fall, the government is organizing an extremely high-profile mathematics conference at Yanbei University. Many titans of mathematics, both domestic and international, will be in attendance."

He looked at Gu Ming and said slowly, "Feng Yunhai has given our Yannan University one of the presentation slots."