Just the thought that she would not finish the task by today, Wang Lili cursed in her heart. 'F*ck this. I'm quitting!'
"Senior, why is your breathing so hurried? What's wrong?" Zhang Yuan scratched his head in embarrassment.
She had called in the middle of the night while being short of breath. Could it be that she was looking for some sort of stimulation?
"What… shortness of breath?" Wang Lili finally recovered her senses and said rudely, "That'll be all. I'm hanging up!"
Zhang Yuan found it puzzling but he was not too bothered by it. He soon entered his dreamland upon closing his eyes.
After confirming that this lifeline was hopeless, Wang Lili could only send an email to her teacher, apologizing that she could not understand the paper due to her inadequacies. Following this, she also consolidated the opinions from some of her seniors and added on saying that she had tried her best.
"Sigh, teacher's impression of me will be reduced to zero soon…"
She released another long sigh.
…
The next day, early in the morning. Lin Wenda arrived at his office and brewed a cup of tea.
The first thing he did every day was to open his email.
On usual days, all sorts of miscellaneous work would take up his time until 10 a.m. However, there were very few emails today.
"Hm? Wang Lili could not understand the paper?" Lin Wenda was slightly surprised. When he saw that the email was sent at 2 a.m, he stopped blaming her.
"It seems like she genuinely did not understand the thesis. Interesting…"
Even though Wang Lili wasn't the most gifted student, she had always been quite reliable with the work he had given to her.
Since the things he needed to handle were slightly lesser than usual, Lin Wenda thought to himself, 'I'll check it myself then.'
He opened the email and carefully browsed through the paper.
In the beginning, he had a frown on his face, but shortly after, he seemed to have been attracted by its content. He quickly focused on reading the text.
A thin layer of sweat soon surfaced on his forehead.
The more he read, the more excited he got. It was to the extent he had goosebumps.
It was a very valuable thesis paper!
"The kinematics of humanoid robots has been clearly described by another new method!"
"No, this is only a framework and a theory. There are tons of details that need to be improved…"
So what did that mean?
It meant that there could be countless follow-up thesis and that the relevant industries might undergo a quantitative change!
What a monster the author was!
He knew deeply the value of this thesis as someone knowledgeable about this field.
In that instant, Lin Wenda even had the thought of making this paper as his own.
The profit that this paper could bring about was very big, extremely big—especially in terms of fame!
He could already foresee a steady stream of awards that he would possibly receive until his hands cramped up.
But very soon, he suppressed this desire.
It was Professor Wang who sent him the paper so how could he possibly dare to make it his own. Wang Zhong was capable of turning him into dust in a second. The capability of an academician was not comparable to an ordinary professor.
Moreover, it was distasteful to commit such academic misconduct—even though these sorts of misconduct happened frequently in the circle as he would hear of such news often.
"It's better to be down-to-earth. There's no need to rob someone else's work. I only have to write some follow-up development papers and it'll be amazing enough."
"Right, there's still tons of follow-up work to do!"
In that short amount of time, Lin Wenda felt that inspiration was rushing down like a waterfall. With so much inspiration, he could easily write a follow-up article.
As for his other projects on hand… those were insignificant compared to writing a follow-up paper!
This was not a thesis paper written for the sake of writing; it was extremely valuable.
*Knock knock!* Someone stood outside the door and knocked before coughing slightly to attract Lin Wenda's attention.
Lin Wenda looked up and saw Lu Junzhe, Director of the School of Mechanical Engineering.
Professor Lu smiled and asked. "Professor Lin, what are you looking at so seriously? There's even a smile on your face. I've been standing here for quite some time…"
Lin Wenda subconsciously wanted to conceal Zhang Yuan's paper. But after thinking about it, he decided to take it out.
"Professor Lu, take a look at this thesis. It's very interesting!"
An interesting thesis?
Li Junzhe curiously walked over and looked through it casually.
"It should be a novice who's writing a thesis for the first time. It's as bad as an undergraduate thesis."
"Indeed, it does look like it."
"Undergraduate graduation thesis is just a mass production of garbage but there's no way to stop them."
Shortly after, he seemed to be attracted by the content of the thesis. He slowly became short of breath.
It's a new method!
His eyes became increasingly bright. As for the value of this paper…
It was inestimable!
After he finished reading the paper, he immediately turned to leave in a hurry.
"Professor Lu, where are you going?" Lin Wenda was at a loss.
"To write down my ideas!" Professor Lu hastily said, "Inspiration is the most valuable thing. It can't be wasted!"
"No, I mean why were you looking for me."
"…"
Professor Lu recalled why he came here and stopped walking away.
He clapped his head and said, "It's nothing much. The annual professional evaluation would be starting and our university did not produce any particularly good work. Our ranking might be reduced again so I came here to discuss this with you. If you have any important articles, you had better publish them as soon as possible. We must maintain our ranking! Otherwise, our funds would be reduced by another notch."
There was competition between different universities and different faculties.
Xisha University's mechanical engineering faculty was one of their best faculties but they had not produced any particularly good work in recent years. Their ranking had been hovering between the 15th, 16th position without going up. As a result, Professor Lu could not help but be anxious about it. As a director, he had to take responsibility for that.
How was the ranking determined?
It involved the academic reputation, employer reputation, paper citation, and all sorts of messy index weightage. In any case, the thesis at hand was now more important than all that nonsense.
Lin Wenda restrained his smile and said, "This paper is written by that… Zhang Yuan, Zhang Qiming's son. He would be boarding the spaceship very soon. He's affiliated with the Deep Space Foundation. Moreover, he has independently completed this thesis so this cannot be considered as our university's work."
"Zhang Yuan? I've heard about him." Professor Lu was stunned for a moment. "Like father, like son. Unfortunately, this is not a work from our university… Sigh, it's a pity."
Lin Wenda laughed out loud and said. "Old Lu, don't be so anxious. Isn't the extension of this thesis still a worthwhile paper? With this as a foundation, we can write at least ten valuable papers! This thesis was just completed and it has yet to be released. No one else has seen it"
"But we've managed to read it first! This is our grand opportunity. If we manage to grab onto it, it would be a big break for us!"
Lu Junzhe's eyes glowed and he immediately slapped his thigh in excitement. "You're right! It's only a framework and there has yet to be any specific usage method. There are still tons of details to explore."
"As for the follow-up, it is impossible for just the both of us to finish it…"
He hastily made a call and informed his assistant. "Little Yuan, quick, gather all the professors. I have a big project for everyone."
…