PCJ – Chapter 611 The Battle for Genius Recruitment

“Li Yang! If you dare to lie to me, just watch how I deal with you today!” Fan Yichou charged forward, grabbing Li Yang tightly, afraid he might run off.

“Director, you should first find a pair of shoes for Li Yang,” said Gao Shuya, the academic secretary, hastily. “Look at him—he might get frostbite like this.”

Fan Yichou finally noticed Li Yang’s appearance and was stunned. “Where are your shoes?”

Li Yang shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. Let’s look at the exam paper first—here’s the detailed step-by-step calculation I did using Zhang Jiaohua’s method. I’m not cold at all now. When I called you earlier, Zhang Jiaohua had already gone to take his exam. He even had an even more elegant solution, but didn’t have time to explain it.”

“Xiao Gao, find a clean pair of socks and shoes for Li Yang. Your body is the foundation of the revolution. Young people must know to take care of themselves. President Jiang once said we should aim to work healthily for at least 50 years for our country. You can’t go around like this. Come, let’s head to the conference room—it’s more spacious. Bring more pens and paper from the office!” Fan Yichou took the exam paper from Li Yang and glanced at it. Instantly, he was fully engrossed by the solution.

“Make copies—quick! Lots of copies! Let everyone see it!” Fan Yichou said excitedly.

The professors and PhDs of the Math Department, seeing Fan Yichou’s expression, realized that what Li Yang said was probably true.

“Could Li Yang really have told the truth? Did a freshman actually solve a world-class unsolved problem?”

They had all seen the exam paper Li Yang had prepared. The last question was indeed a globally unsolved math problem. Some had previously thought Li Yang was being reckless—putting a question like that on an exam, especially for non-math majors, seemed absurd. But unexpectedly, this reckless move might have accidentally triggered a world-class breakthrough. If the solution proved correct, then not only was Li Yang not in the wrong—he had made a great contribution.

“Li Yang really lucked out. I was worried about how he’d get through this, but who knew he’d have such incredible luck. If this solution is verified, the school will have to consider awarding him a huge merit.”

Some people, however, thought Li Yang was being foolish. If he had kept quiet and refined the solution himself, the credit would have been his alone. At most, that student could have been listed as a second author. Even if the student knew, he wouldn’t have had grounds to object.

“Li Yang probably won’t have any trouble getting promoted to associate professor now. He already had the skills—just lacked productivity. He hasn’t published a single paper since finishing grad school. Many others less capable than him have published multiple papers.”

“Li Yang has always aimed high. His eyes are only set on world-class research. But such breakthroughs are rare—many researchers spend their whole lives without any major results. Unless, of course, they happen to work with a genius like this.”

These people whispered in the corners, voices low.

“Enough gossip,” Fan Yichou said sternly. “Everyone take a good look. Today, we need to go through this solution thoroughly and confirm it’s flawless. Then we’ll publish it as soon as possible. If another country also happens to solve it around this time, we’ll be in big trouble. And this must be kept confidential for now. No matter what major the student is from, he was taught by our math department. He’s a Tsinghua student. No one is allowed to get any funny ideas!”

Fan Yichou was most worried about leaks. If the solution was leaked, it would cause major losses. With the internet so fast these days, global information spreads almost instantly.

He planned to publish the solution in a top journal immediately after the Math Department experts verified it, to prevent any delays or complications. This achievement must stay in Tsinghua’s hands.

The math experts began to eagerly and rigorously check the calculations. Though they hadn’t created the solution, just witnessing such a breakthrough was thrilling. And even more so because it came from one of their own.

“Director, should we notify the president?” Gao Shuya returned with the shoes and socks—freshly bought. Li Yang was now the department’s hero, and his fortunes were clearly turning. Soon, he’d be one of the most celebrated young lecturers in the Math Department. Promotion, recognition—those were guaranteed. Who would dare underestimate Li Yang now?

Fan Yichou was tempted but cautious. “No rush. Let’s confirm everything first. Go find the student from the Biotechnology Department. Try to bring him here—I can’t leave right now.”

He really wanted to go look for Zhang Jiaohua himself, but couldn’t leave the calculations behind.

Meanwhile, Ma Nanli rushed into Professor Huang Zhongfang’s office at the School of Life Sciences. The moment he saw Huang, he blurted out, “Professor Huang, something terrible happened!”

Startled, Huang dropped the pen he was signing with—his favorite pen, a cherished gift from his wife back when they were dating. But he didn’t even think about that now. Seeing Ma so panicked, he immediately thought something had gone wrong in the lab.

“I’ve told you over and over—lab safety is no joke! If something went wrong, it’s serious. Any room in that lab is filled with expensive equipment. And the graduate students? They’re the best of the best. Every one of them is future top talent.”

“Was anyone hurt?” Huang asked, bracing himself.

“Injured? No, no one got hurt.” Ma looked confused. He didn’t understand why Huang was talking about injuries. Huang looked downright furious, like he was ready to eat someone alive.

“How many instruments were destroyed then?” Huang exhaled in relief—at least there were no injuries.

Ma shook his head. “No instruments were damaged either. The lab’s fine. Nothing’s broken.”

Huang paused. No damage, no injuries—then the lab’s fine? He glanced at his fallen pen with a pang of regret. How would he explain this to his wife, especially now that she was going through menopause?

Glaring at Ma, he demanded, “Then tell me—what’s this big emergency?”

“Professor Huang, bad news! The Math Department wants to steal Zhang Jiaohua!”

“What do they want with Zhang Jiaohua?” Huang was very protective of him.

“He made a big splash in the finals—rumor has it he solved a world-class math problem. A math professor practically stormed our lab like a madman trying to drag Zhang Jiaohua over to their department. I saw how things were going—if we’re not careful, they might actually poach him. So I came to report right away.”

Ma explained everything in one breath. He had seen Huang’s pen before and knew how much he valued it. Now that the pen was destroyed thanks to his alarm, he had to shift Huang’s attention fast—or face the consequences.

Huang really was panicked now. “Where’s Zhang Jiaohua?”

“He went to take his exam. But I think it’s serious—if he really solved a major math problem and the Math Department asks for a transfer, the school might approve it.”

Ma’s distraction strategy worked—Huang’s focus had shifted.

“Transferring Zhang Jiaohua? Not without my approval! If he can solve world-class math problems, he can also conduct Nobel-level biology experiments! No way am I letting him go!” Huang fumed.

“Let’s go find him. Where’s he taking the exam?” he asked.

“Wherever there’s a biotech exam—that’s where he is,” Ma replied.

That was easy to check—the office had the exam schedule. Huang quickly had the academic secretary Guo Shilin find it.

“Building 3. Let’s go!” Huang hurried out with Ma in tow.

Meanwhile, thanks to Li Yang’s overnight calculations, the verification work in the Math Department was progressing quickly. The top expert, Zou Leyun, said, “Xiao Li’s work is solid. We can continue verifying slowly, but the priority now is to bring in that biotech student. Didn’t Li say he had an even more elegant solution? This one is already brilliant—I’d love to see what more he’s got.”

“Gao Shuya, call the School of Life Sciences and ask where Zhang Jiaohua is taking his exam. We’ll go find him,” Fan Yichou instructed.

Gao Shuya made the call but came back with a strange expression. “The Life Sciences folks are acting oddly. I asked Guo Shilin, but he hemmed and hawed, wouldn’t say.”

Fan Yichou frowned. “What are they playing at?”

Gao Shuya smiled. “I’ve heard about Zhang Jiaohua. Apparently, he’s a big deal in Dean Huang’s lab. Even the PhD students listen to him. He’s just a freshman, but already leading his own project.”

“Is Dean Huang worried we’ll poach him?” Fan chuckled.

“Director Fan, we must bring Zhang Jiaohua over. With his talent in math, it’d be a total waste to leave him in Life Sciences. We’ll give him bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD diplomas right here in the Math Department,” Zou Leyun said.

Fan laughed bitterly. “If only it were that simple. We need school approval.”

“Then I’ll go talk to the president. If he won’t agree, I’ll camp outside his office every day,” said Zou.

Fan quickly replied, “This must go through the party committee. We can’t just protest. Don’t worry—we’ll do everything we can to bring that student over. It’s obvious he’s a math genius. Letting a mathematician be a biology lab tech is like burning a lute for cooking—utter waste.”

“Director, I found the exam room. Our department is monitoring it—it’s in Building 3.” Though Guo Shilin wouldn’t tell Gao Shuya directly, a few calls had revealed Zhang Jiaohua’s exam location.

Amusingly, the two groups bumped into each other at the entrance of Building 3.

Huang Zhongfang immediately flared up. “Fan! What are you doing here? Trying to poach someone from our department?”

Fan grinned. “Old Huang, don’t be like that. A math prodigy in your department is like burying a pearl in the sand. In ours, he’ll shine. You wouldn’t want to waste a kid’s future, right? Let’s not fight—we can both benefit. If you agree to let him transfer, I’ll owe you one.”

“Get lost! Do you even know what experiment he’s working on? It’s almost complete—and it’s Nobel-level work. Can your math problem get him a Nobel Prize?” Huang retorted, knowing full well there’s no Nobel Prize for math—he was mocking them on purpose.

“Don’t play word games with me, Huang. What’s ‘almost complete’? Ten days? A few years? Zhang Jiaohua’s math achievement isn’t ‘almost’—it’s done. Solving a world-class problem easily beats your so-called Nobel research in impact,” Fan countered.

“I’m done arguing.” Huang pushed ahead.

Fan refused to fall behind, following closely. The two groups marched into the teaching building, jostling for position.

But when they reached the exam room, they were stunned—Zhang Jiaohua had turned in his paper and left after just 30–40 minutes.

Both camps had geared up for a tug-of-war, only to find the player had already vanished.

Zhang Jiaohua, hearing the commotion from afar, had made a swift exit through the side door.

Zhang Jiaohua gave a wry smile and said, “I really brought this on myself. This time, I’ve really gone too far.”

Zhang Jiaohua mainly wanted to avoid trouble. This situation might force him to spend a lot of time doing things he wasn’t particularly willing to do.

He knew that in the end, he wouldn’t be able to avoid them. With such a big commotion stirred up, there was no way he could escape the consequences.