Super God-Level Top Student

The next morning, in the residential area near Yanbei University.

Like always, Zhang Hongcai got up punctually at 6:30 a.m., picked up his phone, and saw there were already 5 missed calls.

Qian Yuhai had made three calls, and Lu Changzheng had made two, which put Zhang Hongcai in a rather good mood.

Last night, out of the blue, he felt spirited enough to set his phone to Do Not Disturb mode, successfully screening out two bored individuals who kept odd hours and didn't rest at night.

They weren't always this obsessed.

But ever since that big shot from Princeton launched the watermark challenge, these two had fallen into a frenzy.

He suggested perhaps they should just call Xilin University of Technology and ask, but both of them vehemently rejected the idea! They claimed that results achieved through cheating were meaningless.

They were definitely both bonkers.

Especially since the first call Qian Yuhai made was at 4 o'clock in the morning.

It wasn't just craziness; it was nearly grinding down his humanity.

As Zhang Hongcai was pondering whether to call them back or not, another call came through—again from Qian Yuhai.

Oh well, better give some face to an old colleague. He decided to answer.

He casually pressed the answer button, and before he could speak, an excited voice started bombarding his ear: "Why didn't you answer your phone just now?"

"Don't you know what time it is? Don't people need to sleep?" Zhang Hongcai retorted immediately.

"Sleep? How can you still sleep? Lu and I have been up all night! Anyway... would you believe it? Qiao Ze has published another paper in 'SIAM Review', another top-tier journal!

The authors are the same few people! He arrived at Xilin University of Technology in May, and now at the end of June, two top mathematics journals in one month! Even my students wanting to churn out papers for their graduation certificates didn't have this much efficiency!"

"Huh?! Another publication? That's..." Zhang Hongcai was a bit flabbergasted.

"What do you mean 'that's'? Last night the math community was about to explode. Two successive heavyweight papers, although they're both about group theory and establishing a self-supervised framework, how could they get so much data in just a year and a half? And that's with the foreigners not knowing Qiao Ze had only been at Xilin for just over a month. If they knew that, what then?

People are already starting to doubt the authenticity of their paper output! Thankfully, Qiao Ze's watermarks are holding up!"

Qian Yuhai's voice was growing increasingly excited.

"Also, now even Xilin University of Technology is getting popular abroad. Last night alone, no fewer than twenty foreign professors emailed me asking about Xilin University of Technology, and they wanted to know how Xilin University of Technology School of Mathematics compares to our research institute. Can you believe that? I mean, how am I supposed to answer?

Go ahead and check your email too when you have time, I bet people have been asking you as well."

Zhang Hongcai felt his brain getting fuzzy.

No help for it, he had just awoken, and this fellow had called. His brain wasn't exactly running at full capacity, and the influx of jumbled information made it easy for his system to crash.

But one thing he did understand.

The reputation of the Xilin University of Technology School of Mathematics had soared internationally because of Qiao Ze's two papers.

This was quite an unusual reversal.

For a secondary college within a university to have a reputation abroad that surpasses its reputation at home, even if just for a short time, its impact was quite startling.

Of course, Sumant Jair played an indispensable role in promoting Xilin University of Technology.

If not for the online flame war he stirred up that lasted more than ten hours, Qiao Ze and Li Jiangao's papers wouldn't have had such a quick and massive impact, and they wouldn't have grabbed everyone's attention so swiftly.

But these coincidences combined made it quite difficult to answer those straightforward questions from our foreign friends.

Cultural backgrounds differ, and sometimes it's really hard to tell if these kids, grown up under different cultural influences, are truly trying to pick a fight with such questions.

"What's so hard to answer about that? Just reply honestly," Zhang Hongcai said in a muffled voice. "What? Is the Xilin University of Technology School of Mathematics going to surpass us?"

"Easy for you to say, but we haven't published in a top journal for a year and a half, have we? Even if they don't say it out loud, it's embarrassing to think about ourselves. And it's not like I'm blaming you, but when you dragged me and Lu to Xilin, why did we come back empty-handed? Couldn't you have been more decisive back then? Maybe we could have snatched him up, huh?"

This remark tickled Zhang Hongcai to no end, and he replied sarcastically, "Oh, who was it that said Qiao Ze didn't have the right temperament and was unlikely to achieve greatness? You said it yourself, then, and now you're blaming me?"

"Yes, I said it. But I was just tagging along, how to poach someone was your call, wasn't it, Director Zhang? If it weren't for you giving up, would I and Lu have followed you back?"

His ability to deflect responsibility was flawless.

Zhang Hongcai couldn't be bothered with this madman anymore and said directly, "I don't want to waste words with you anymore. Is there anything else, or can I get up now?"

"Wait a second... there is something else. Just think about it, Zhang. The kid's undergraduate studies at Xilin are one thing, but what about his master's degree? With his current capabilities, just going through the motions would suffice for his undergrad. I'm thinking, the way Xilin plays that public opinion game is quite shameless.

I don't believe Qiao Ze is so smart that he can't feel it. Why don't we try to show some goodwill first and see if we can collaborate?"

Zhang Hongcai, who had already moved the phone away from his ear, put it back, "Hmm, that's worth considering. You must have some idea after not sleeping all night, let's hear it."

"Now, with all the buzz about Qiao Ze online, should we let the graduate school figure out a way to take a stance, calling on everyone to calm down and give the kid a quiet research environment? Anyway, that request wouldn't be embarrassing, and it would seem considerate. After all, pushing a kid not even twenty years old into the limelight is something those folks are capable of."