Chapter 464: I Warned You
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
While it was already night time in the city of Stockholm, on the other side of the globe, China’s sky was still s.h.i.+ning as brightly as ever.
The China Central Television set the tone of the n.o.bel Prize. After a night of editing and changes, the final decision was to put it on the six o’clock domestic news broadcast and eight o’clock international news broadcast.
Due to the time zone difference, unlike the European media, CTV didn’t do a live broadcast of the n.o.bel Prize ceremony. However, CTV spent the entire news broadcast session covering this moment worthy of national celebration.
The television screen showed Lu Zhou, who was in his tux, receiving the n.o.bel Prize from Carl XVI and showered by applause.
When the people saw the crowd standing up and applauding, some were excited, and some even began to tear up.
Especially the students from various universities, PhD graduates that recently entered the academic world, and the struggling scientific researchers…
Not only did that see the glory of the n.o.bel Prize on that young man’s body, but they also saw hope.
The Chinese academic community was rising, scholars of China were spread across the world, and the voice of China was redefining science.
What could the people in academia be more excited about?
Unsurprisingly, due to the intense discussion online, Lu Zhou’s name was on trending on Weibo again.
After the CCTV’s Weibo account posted the news broadcast, the comment section instantly blew up.
[Nutty!]
[G.o.d Lu is nutty!]
[F*ck me, 9 million kronor! How much yuan is that?]
[China is the best!]
[My supervisor said the golden stage for a researcher is from 30 to 40 years old. A 24-year-old n.o.bel Prize winner, that’s insane.]
[The scariest part is that even though he’s only 24 years old, he’s able to produce outstanding results every year. Even Einstein only reached his miracle year at age 26. But ever since he was 20 years old, G.o.d Lu hasn’t stopped…]
Of course, even though this was a delightful event, there would inevitably be one or two flies flying around, showing off their sesame sized brains.
Especially on a diverse platform like Weibo, anyone with a keyboard was part of the leaders.h.i.+p team.
The difference was that these people looked at the country’s problems from the perspective of a politician. However, they weren’t cultured at all; they lacked the sophistication of politicians.
These people pretended like they knew everything about socialism and capitalism. When in reality, their knowledge of politics and science came from Red Alert and Age of Empires…
Therefore, in between the waves of blessings, there were some ridiculous comments.
[Tras.h.!.+ It’s just a n.o.bel Prize, who cares about some prize given by white people! Haha, it’s just like that Yang physicist. All he knows is how to write theses, doing pure research all day, what’s the point? Can he make bombs or aircraft? If not, don’t bother coming back to China! Wasting our food and money!]
These types of posts represented the views of a certain group of people.
Fortunately, this group of people wasn’t the majority.
Not only did he not receive any approval, but he was quickly overwhelmed by criticism.
[I’m shocked, did you eat bombs and aircraft growing up? What type of bomb did you use to type this comment?]
[Nine-year compulsory education has a long way to go.]
[Holding the national flag, fighting against the national flag. Obstructing the country in the name of patriotism. These types of r.e.t.a.r.ds are way too common. Also, what gives you the right to judge Old Yang?]
[Now comes the question, what’s your use? Other than wasting the country’s food?]
[User’s mom be like—”I accidentally gave birth to him, I’m… sorry.”]
[…]
At last, the Weibo comment was gone.
It might have been deleted by the administrator, or the original poster saw his comment had caused public outrage and deleted his comment to avoid trouble.
This showed that even if it was something the entire country was overjoyed with, some people wouldn’t like it.
Some people were just venting while being ignorant.
Others were doing it for their own interests.
For example, w.a.n.g Haifeng was probably one of them.
Lu Zhou winning the n.o.bel Prize was basically a piece of horrible news for him.
He would get furious whenever he walked on campus and heard those dumb undergraduate students talked excitedly about the new n.o.bel Prize in Chemistry winner.
However, his emotions didn’t affect the world at all.
Ever since Lu Zhou won the first-level State Natural Science Award, w.a.n.g Haifeng had completely lost his power from going toe to toe with Lu Zhou. Not to mention, Lu Zhou now had the n.o.bel Prize.
In a chemistry laboratory building at Zhi University…
w.a.n.g Haifeng sat in his previous supervisor’s office and looked at the newspaper on the table. He then asked, “Does Lu Zhou have any plans to return to China?”
“What do you mean plan to?” Academician Liu smiled when he heard w.a.n.g Haifeng’s words. He then said, “His family is here, and it’s almost New Year’s, where else is he going to go? Your house?”
w.a.n.g Haifeng: “What are you talking about? I asked if he planned to return to China, not for New Year’s!”
“I know what you’re saying; I’m just lazy to answer your question,” Academician Liu said. He then smiled and asked, “Regardless of whether he’s coming back, it’s his body. Are you’re going to control where he goes?”
w.a.n.g Haifeng was anxious. “But, do you really think it is a good thing for him to come back? You saw it! Back at that meeting on lithium-sulfur batteries, Director Lu almost treated his words as decree!”
Academician Liu looked at w.a.n.g Haifeng calmly.
“Good or bad, it’s not something you or I can decide on.”
The second w.a.n.g Haifeng heard this, he was stunned.
He soon felt a sense of powerlessness in his heart.
Like what Academician Liu had said, there wasn’t anyone other than Lu Zhou that could make this decision.
He couldn’t compare himself to a n.o.bel Prize laureate, whether it was from the influence or connection perspective.
As for w.a.n.g Haifeng’s background…
Who didn’t have a strong background in the circle of C9 schools?
The difference between this guy and the guy that controlled the education world was probably experience and the fact that w.a.n.g Haifeng wasn’t interested in things outside of academia.
Of course, these were all secondary.
Whether it was the academic community or cultural community, as long as this community was in China, nothing w.a.n.g Haifeng could say would defeat Lu Zhou…
“Black cat or white cat, any cat that can catch a mouse is a good cat. The fact is, Lu Zhou actually did it, and this is worthy of recognition,” Academician Liu said while looking at his former student. It was like he suddenly understood something.
He paused for a while before he slowly said, “Oh yeah, let me tell you something.”
w.a.n.g Haifeng said, “What?”
“Have you heard of Ma Changan?”
w.a.n.g Haifeng frowned and carefully thought for a bit, but in the end, he shook his head.
“Nope.”
Academician Liu smiled and said, “It’s normal that you don’t know him since he’s not in our university and not in the materials science field. He’s only a mathematics professor.”
Mathematics professor?
w.a.n.g Haifeng frowned. He seemed to be puzzled as to why Academician Liu suddenly brought up this guy. In any case, the gap between mathematics and materials science was way too big.
Academician Liu looked at w.a.n.g Haifeng, who was frowning. He then spoke.
“A while ago, probably two weeks ago after that International Congress of Mathematicians ended, he ran into some researching funding issues and was quietly removed by Aurora University.”
“Removed because of funding issues?” w.a.n.g Haifeng said, “He must have offended someone, right?”
The management of scientific research funding was quite strict; it was overkill to the point where it would make people furious. The possibility of having funding problems was very small. Unless someone was very poor or extremely sc.u.mmy, otherwise, very few professors would be dumb enough to steal money from the funds.
Unless…
It was something dodgy that happened in the past.
Academician Liu smiled and said, “I don’t know who he offended, and I don’t know what’s going on with Ma Changan right now since I didn’t pay attention. But what’s interesting is that, guess who taught Ma Changan?”
w.a.n.g Haifeng: “I… don’t know.”
Academician Liu smiled as he said, “The old man was a legend among the mathematics community.”
w.a.n.g Haifeng was shocked when he heard this.
The old man?
Even though he didn’t know the mathematics world, he had been in academia for a long time, and he knew the main characters in the mathematics world.
And the old man had to be one of the higher-ups at Aurora University.
Even though he had been away for six years, he still had a ton of influence.
w.a.n.g Haifeng didn’t know about Ma Changan’s connections in Aurora, but anyone that could get rid of Ma Changan so easily had to be at the level of a Fields Medal…
w.a.n.g Haifeng suddenly felt cold sweat dripping down his back.
“I don’t know what the beef is between you and him, but even if you don’t let it go, I hope you don’t do anything stupid,” Academician Liu said as he looked at w.a.n.g Haifeng, who was rendered speechless. He then put down the teacup in his hand and said, “I’m warning you!”