One was a leading pure mathematics professor from Princeton, and an author of the universality paper.
’Interview these two?’
Professor Wang had never heard such a thing in his life.
He said hurriedly.
"You two don’t need an interview..."
He hadn’t even finished his sentence when Liu Ruochuan cut him off.
"Old Wang, stick to the process. No exceptions."
"It doesn’t matter how deep their qualifications run; everything needs to be done by the book."
Professor Wang: ...
In truth, Liu Ruochuan and Penrose were only here to back Li Dong up.
As the Dean of the School of Mathematics, he was naturally aware of the recent rumors.
That’s what led to today’s little spectacle.
’As for joining the group?’
’Would Li Dong dare refuse him entry?’
’Wouldn’t that be a betrayal of his own mentor?’
Out in the hallway, the two professors by the window could no longer remain still.
Liu Ruochuan and Penrose had both gone in.
The two of them...
Should they go in or not?
If they didn’t go in... well, Liu Ruochuan had already signed up. It would look pretty pathetic for them to keep pretending to "leave the opportunities for the younger generation."
But if they did go in, he had just said "at my age" right in front of a few students.
It would be a huge loss of face.
Old Chen turned his head to look at the man beside him.
The other man was staring back at him expectantly.
The two men locked eyes for three seconds.
In the end, it was Old Chen who bit the bullet first.
"Ahem, I’m going to the restroom."
He planned to go sign up later when there were fewer people around.
The other professor watched his retreating back.
He froze for half a second, then hurried after him.
"I need to take a leak, too."
Of course, Li Dong knew nothing about all this.
At that moment, he was heading toward Zhang Lufang’s office.
When he pushed the door open, he found Zhang Lufang sitting behind her desk.
Across the desk from her sat a middle-aged man in a dark gray shirt.
"Old Wu."
Zhang Lufang pointed at Li Dong.
"This is Li Dong."
"If he doesn’t perform well after joining your group, just kick him out."
Li Dong: ...
’Professor, couldn’t you have picked a different opening line?’
’Most people would say, "Please look after him."’
’But you? The first words out of your mouth are "kick him out."’
As if that wasn’t enough, Zhang Lufang turned her head and glanced at Li Dong.
"I’m laying my cards on the table, kid."
"I recommended you for Old Wu’s group, but not so you could just be a guest."
"You’re expected to pull your own weight."
"Got it?"
"Got it!"
Li Dong quickly answered.
Wu Kai laughed out loud.
"Sister Zhang, you must be joking."
"If I dared to kick out Yan University’s own East God, wouldn’t Professor Tian come after me?"
Zhang Lufang scoffed.
"Go ahead."
"If you kick him out, Tian Gang won’t just not give you trouble—he’ll be ecstatic. You believe me?"
The few people in the office shared a laugh.
After the laughter died down, Wu Kai turned to Li Dong.
"Li Dong, come on over. Introduce yourself."
"I’m Wu Kai, from the School of Chemistry."
"For the next little while, you’ll be working with me."
Li Dong quickly nodded and greeted him.
"Hello, Teacher Wu."
Wu Kai waved his hand, a broad smile on his face.
"Don’t call me Teacher Wu. Just ’Teacher’ is fine."
"Otherwise, it sounds like ’No Teacher.’"
Li Dong: ...
’Teacher Wu, do you have any idea how lame that pun was?’
The elderly Zhang Lufang wasn’t surprised. She was all too familiar with Wu Kai’s brand of merciless humor; it always gave her a headache.
At this moment, Wu Kai turned his head to look at another person standing next to him.
"Li Dong, this is Su Yanqing."
He was a man in his early forties with a gentle, scholarly air, a Yan University employee badge hanging from his neck.
Su Yanqing was one of Wu Kai’s former students. After earning his doctorate, he had stayed on to work on projects with Wu Kai and now held the title of associate researcher at the Yan University College of Chemistry.
"Hello, Teacher Su," Li Dong said, taking the initiative.
Su Yanqing said with a smile.
"Ah, Li Dong. I’m not that much older than you. Just call me Brother Su. We’ll be fighting side-by-side from now on."
Li Dong: ???
’Not much older? Does studying chemistry age you that fast?’
Before the look of astonishment could fade from Li Dong’s face,
Wu Kai had already picked up a printout from the table.
"Li Dong, you’re joining my group."
"I don’t know what your foundational knowledge is like."
"For some of the initial prep work, you’ll follow Xiaosu’s lead."
"A lot of things..."
Wu Kai paused for a moment and said seriously.
"You must go through them step by step yourself."
"Don’t complain that it’s tiring or tedious."
"Our field isn’t like yours in mathematics."
"In math, if you make a mistake, you just cross it out and start over."
"In our line of work, one mistake during the prep stage means hundreds of thousands down the drain."
Li Dong listened very seriously.
He was always humble when it came to fields he wasn’t familiar with.
He’d save the showboating for when he had truly mastered everything.
"Teacher, I’ll follow your instructions."
He smiled at Su Yanqing.
"Brother Su, I’ll be counting on you then."
"Oh, no, no."
Su Yanqing quickly waved his hands.
"Li Dong, don’t be so polite."
"I’m just here to do the odd jobs."
"To really push this project forward, we have to rely on core members like you."
He said it without a hint of awkwardness.
And it was true.
Li Dong had joined Wu Kai’s group, nominally "to learn," but in reality, he was there to solve the mathematical problem that was blocking everyone’s path...
...to create a probe tip—something generally thought to be impossible—that had the atomic-level resolution of an STM while simultaneously possessing the energy resolution of a synchrotron light source.
That wasn’t something a Ph.D. in chemistry could tackle.
That required using mathematical structures to pin down the physical limits.
The job for everyone else in the group, including Su Yanqing himself, was to meticulously build all the "peripheral" systems around this probe.
Vacuum, cryogenics, electronics, optical paths, shielding, control systems, data acquisition...
These weren’t the problems Li Dong was here to solve, but they were the prerequisites for implementing the solution he would eventually find.
When Su Yanqing said he was just "doing the odd jobs," he wasn’t being modest—it was a statement of fact.
Seeing Su Yanqing’s sincere, down-to-earth attitude, Li Dong nodded.
Seeing that the two had connected, Wu Kai spoke up.
"Alright, that’s it for today."
"Xiaosu, take Li Dong to see the setup in the basement tomorrow."
"Show him the ropes first."
"Understood, Teacher."

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