Right after Professor Zhang left, Wang Hao turned to Li Dong and asked, a bit distractedly.
"Brother Dong, you heading back to the dorm? Or going to the library to keep grinding?"
Liu Qiang and Chen Nan, who were sitting nearby, suggested.
"How about we go together this afternoon? The School of Mathematics is holding a lecture on functional analysis by Professor Li. We could go early and grab some seats."
Li Dong shook his head.
"You guys go on ahead. I have to go to the School of Chemistry for a class."
"Go to the School of Chemistry for a class?"
The three of them stared at each other, their faces filled with confusion.
Wang Hao asked tentatively, "Brother Dong... what chemistry class are you going to attend?"
"Structural Chemistry. I’ll also pop into a few sessions of Instrumental Analysis and Physical Chemistry."
Li Dong said it matter-of-factly.
His three roommates, however, did not think it was a matter of fact at all.
’Hold on. You just published a paper in `Mathematics Computing`, and you’re widely considered a top contender for the next Salem Prize.’
’You’re always going on about how much you love physics, and now you’re telling us you’re going to a chemistry lecture?’
’What kind of plot twist is this?’
"Brother Dong, did... did something happen to you?" Chen Nan couldn’t help but mutter.
"Aren’t physics and math enough to keep you busy? What’s chemistry ever done to you?"
Of course, Li Dong couldn’t just tell them it was because he’d been looked down upon by the greats for ’shearing their wool’.
To get his own back and reclaim the wool that was rightfully his, he had to master elemental identification at the single-atom scale, the orientation of molecular orbitals, and the application of quantum tunneling effects in material characterization.
Only then could he beat Mendeleev into submission, forcing him to admit that complex structures exist within atoms.
And for Madam Curie, this system would be the core inspiration to propel her research forward by thirty years.
"You can never have too many skills," Li Dong said casually, without further explanation.
"Alright, I’m in a hurry. I’m heading out."
Just as Li Dong was about to walk out of the classroom door,
a young-looking boy with a few freckles on his face suddenly approached, his face blushing red.
The boy wasn’t tall. He was probably one of the young geniuses specially recruited by Yuanpei College, and his eyes held a look of pure, foolish adoration.
"S-Senior!" the young boy stammered, timidly holding up his phone.
"I saw you solving that problem on the blackboard just now. You were amazing! Can... can I add you on WeChat?"
Li Dong froze in his tracks.
On the surface, he maintained the amiable smile of a friendly senior, looking at the expectant young boy before him.
’What the hell! Is my fate in this life to only attract guys?’
’Lin Xinru, Qiao Fan, Migo...’
’Does being handsome in college only appeal to the same sex?’
Just as Li Dong was slowly taking out his phone, wondering how to find a polite excuse to refuse...
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ.
His phone suddenly started vibrating.
Feeling as if he’d been granted a pardon, Li Dong immediately gave the young boy an apologetic smile.
"Ah, sorry about that, junior. I have to take this call."
With that, he put the phone to his ear and quickly walked out of the classroom.
"Hello?"
The moment the call connected, Elder Chen’s booming voice came through.
"You little rascal! You’ve really done it now!"
"How long have you even been at university? And you’re already making such big waves!"
"The Guangming Daily even published an article praising you by name!"
"And that headline about ’The Western Academic World’s Sleepless Nights’—damn, that felt good to read!"
Li Dong listened as he walked toward the School of Chemistry.
"You have no idea!"
"The president has been ecstatic these past few days! He even had people work overnight to hang your photo on the hallway wall..."
The corner of Li Dong’s mouth twitched.
’A photo on the wall?’
’For legends like Newton, Gauss, and Einstein, having their black-and-white photos on the wall is only natural.’
’But for a freshman like me to have my photo hung on the wall... isn’t that a bit much?’
Nevertheless, Li Dong replied humbly.
"Well, that’s all thanks to you, Teacher Chen. You taught me so well back then and gave me a solid foundation."
"Bullshit!"
Elder Chen cursed with a laugh.
"Stop trying to flatter me! I taught you damn physics! Your achievement is in math!"
"The day you publish a paper in a top physics journal, any kind of breakthrough result, and let me see it! That’s when I, Chen Ke, will be able to stand tall and tell people, ’That’s the student I taught!’"
"But what happens now? All the reporters from the province and the city go and interview Old Cai... you have no idea the smug look on his face, tsk tsk..."
After hearing that, Li Dong almost burst out laughing.
’So, after all that, Elder Chen was just jealous!’
"However, your old math teacher apparently refused the interviews."
Elder Chen suddenly brought up Old Yang.
Li Dong paused for a moment, then said nothing.
He wasn’t a naive kid anymore, and his intelligence was far beyond that of an ordinary person. Even though Old Yang had never said anything, Li Dong basically understood a lot of things.
But he didn’t say more. Some scores would be settled in the future.
His current task was to console the incredibly jealous Elder Chen.
"Oh, Teacher Chen, don’t you worry! Don’t I still have that physics project for the Qiu Prize? You were the one who guided me through that step by step!"
Hearing Li Dong mention the Qiu Prize, Elder Chen huffed on the other end of the line, but his tone softened considerably.
"Hmph. Good that you haven’t forgotten."
"That’s also why I’m calling you today. Your paper has made it to the finals."
"The defense date has been set, too. December 7th, right at Shuimu University!"
"You better prepare properly for the English defense of this physics paper! Don’t you dare screw it up for me!"
"We can’t have news break that a Salem Prize candidate crashed and burned at a high school Qiu Prize competition. Wouldn’t that make us a laughingstock?"
Li Dong laughed at that.
"Don’t you worry, Teacher Chen! I’ll review it. My top priority during this time will be to thoroughly master the underlying logic of the physics project again, to ensure the defense is absolutely foolproof!"
The two exchanged a few more pleasantries before hanging up.
Putting his phone away, Li Dong let out a long sigh of relief.
’The most important task right now is to hurry to the School of Chemistry and grab a front-row seat.’
Elder Chen: ???
Li Dong had no time to worry about that Qiu Prize project, and that’s not even mentioning the matter of the chemistry ’wool’.
The application Gao Wen had submitted for him for an advanced node at the Yan University Supercomputing Center was due to be approved in the next couple of days!
Once the supercomputing node was available, he would have to devote all his energy to the low-level concurrent optimization of that C++ program to calculate the non-trivial zeros of the Riemann Zeta function.
He needed to use the supercomputer cluster to push the zero-point data to its limits, thereby increasing his clearance level within the "Cyan Dragon Study Group."
’Time is tight, and the tasks are many!’
Li Dong pushed open the door to the large lecture hall in the School of Chemistry and, without the slightest hesitation, walked directly to the front row.

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