Super God-Level Top Student

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"And besides, who would have the nerve to gossip? Just consider how many papers your mentoring group has published recently. Especially come October, when Qiao Ze's paper is published in 'Mathematics Annual', who would dare to voice any objections? I'll mention it at the meeting, if their students can also publish in 'Mathematics Annual', I'll help them fight for a full senior title too."

Xu Dajiang said emphatically.

"I..."

Li Jiangao wanted to say something else, but Xu Dajiang forcefully interrupted him.

"Stop beating around the bush. Just think about it, Qiao Ze has been pushing you towards an academician position, and the school here can't be dragging its feet. Look, settling for a full senior title this year when you are still only a level-four professor. Wait until the end of the year when you get the doctoral supervisor qualification, let Qiao Ze follow you through a master's-PhD program.

The two of you as mentor and student work hard, achieve more, and get to a level-two professorship as soon as possible; that's the proper way."

"Otherwise, when it's time for a recommendation for the academician, you're still just a level-four professor. Wouldn't it be embarrassing to write that recommendation letter? Just listen to me, hurry up and stack up your titles, and once you're an academician, that will be the start of our School of Mathematics' rise. Wait a few more years until Qiao Ze also becomes an academician.

Then, when we dig some more people out, it'll be a matter of time before our School of Mathematics becomes the number one in Huaxia."

There was nothing more to say.

There's no stranger adventure in life than this.

Accepting one's mediocrity is useless.

When everyone around you is pushing you upwards, even wanting to stop and rest is not an option.

After all, everyone understands what it means to have an academician at the helm of a secondary institution in a university.

At that moment, Li Jiangao suddenly understood why, in the study of history, subordinates would force influential figures into emperorship - perhaps there really was a sense of helplessness.

Especially when his rise related to the interests of the entire school.

He really would be carried forward by others.

Of course, the decisive factor was Qiao Ze's persistence.

This kid made it clear that he wouldn't rest until he had pushed him to an academician.

In an instant, Li Jiangao remembered the first time he met with Qiao Ze, the day he took Qiao Ze to meet professors like Zhang Chunlei. At the teahouse entrance, Qiao Ze asked an incredibly naïve question.

"Why don't you simply aim for being a Yangtze River Scholar, then go to Jiang University as a professor, and eventually become an academician?"

Back then, he had scoffed internally. Was this not what he wanted?

Who could have guessed that a few months later, apart from the first step being slightly altered and the second step skipped, he was now charging towards the third step.

So now he had to ask himself that question...

Did he truly want to be an academician?

While Li Jiangao was probing his own heart, the two had already entered the laboratory building.

Xu Dajiang glanced at the nearly finished wall and the guardhouse under construction, and sighed, "Next time we come, we'll have to bring entry permits."

"Oh, that's fine," Li Jiangao replied, disinterested.

"What's fine about it, hey, forget it. But it won't be that troublesome after you become an academician. By then, with our sincere cooperation, we will claim the land next to the southeast corner playground of the school and construct an academician building. Both you and Qiao Ze will move your offices there.

Inside, we'll build a large conference room, no, two floors of conference rooms, specifically for hosting academic conferences. Maybe in the future, we might even manage to hold the International Congress of Mathematicians right here in our academician building."

Xu Dajiang again habitually began planning for the future of the School of Mathematics, and it was clear that his plans were becoming more grand.

When Qiao Ze had just arrived, Xu Dajiang was still hoping to secure more research funding through this prodigy, to improve the academic rating of mathematics from B+ to A, simply to attract a higher quality of students. Now, he had begun to envision the school surpassing Yanbei.

After all, hosting the International Congress of Mathematicians at a university was indeed a bit of a lofty dream.

The last time the International Congress of Mathematicians was held in Huaxia, it was at the start of the century, taking place in the Capital. The opening ceremony was in the Great Hall, while the primary meeting location was in the International Conference Center in Yanyun Village.

Li Jiangao was actually still in middle school that year. He knew all these details because his doctoral advisor had attended that congress and often spoke to Li Jiangao about its grandeur.

The reason his advisor kept bringing up that congress to Li Jiangao was that Li Jiangao's teacher had met the Russian Fields Medal laureate Vladimir at that congress. They even exchanged emails.

```

In the following ten or so years, they exchanged a total of seven emails.

As his mentor put it, those seven emails inspired him so much that they helped him gain a foothold in the Huaxia academic community.

When Vladimir passed away in 2017, Li Jian Gao had already graduated and saw the obituary his mentor wrote, over three thousand words long, through social media.

Because of something Xu Dajiang said, Li Jian Gao suddenly had an epiphany about this period of the past.

To his mentor, Vladimir was a benefactor in his life.

To him, Qiao Ze was his benefactor.

Both of them were very fortunate.

"Jian Gao, Jian Gao, what are you thinking about?"

The noisy voices around him pulled Li Jian Gao out of his haze, and that's when he realized that, without noticing, they had arrived at the access control system, which was quite embarrassing as Xu Dajiang's information had not been entered into this system.

"I'm sorry, Dean Xu, I was just thinking about something from the past..."

"No worries, hurry up and open the door."

...

Liu Chenfeng, who had been unable to focus on his problems, subconsciously picked up his cup and hid in the office's pantry upon seeing Li Jian Gao and Xu Dajiang coming together through the glass.

He was so excited today that he began to speak without thinking.

It was only after Xu Dajiang ended the call that he broke out in a cold sweat.

At this moment, all he could do was pray that the big boss wouldn't see him. The dean had a lot of work, and maybe in a couple of days, he would forget his rebellious words, right?

As for going to the dean's office to discuss the graduation thesis in the afternoon, Liu Chenfeng had no intention of going at all; going would make him a fool.

Anyway, he was not in a hurry to start his topic. As long as he didn't bring it up proactively, Liu Chenfeng was certain that by the afternoon, Xu Dajiang would have forgotten about the verbal notice over the phone. At least, during his two years as a Ph.D. student, he had encountered such instances of instructors forgetting what they'd said several times.

Luckily, Xu Dajiang indeed didn't bother with him, his student, and went directly to Qiao Ze's office instead.

This gave Liu Chenfeng a sigh of relief.

On the other hand, Xu Dajiang had indeed forgotten that he had a rebellious student in the office next to Qiao Ze's, choosing instead to follow Li Jian Gao into Qiao Ze's office.

"Qiao Ze, Dean Xu says he has a few pieces of good news for you."

Li Jian Gao could probably understand the dilemma Xu Dajiang faced when meeting with Qiao Ze and knew how to communicate with Qiao Ze; he entered the door and simply said.

"Hmm." Qiao Ze, who was seriously reading a document, put down the book and asked, "Tea?"

"No need, no need, I've already had some in the office."

Xu Dajiang made himself comfortable on the sofa in the office and quickly began, "Here's the thing, Qiao Ze. The school knows your paper is about to be published in 'Mathematics Annual' and has decided to hold a special seminar for you. The plan is to invite professors and researchers in the same field to listen to you explain the paper and then have a discussion about this academic direction.

Is that okay with you?"

With one sentence, Qiao Ze knew Liu Chenfeng had called Xu Dajiang.

Fortunately, Qiao Ze had never said that this matter should be kept secret from the school, so he nodded and replied, "Okay."

Qiao Ze found his exchange with Lotte Roth Dugan today very interesting.

He had just downloaded some articles written by the editor of "Mathematics Annual" and was reading them at the moment. His next research question happened to be an extension of the results in this paper, and it was definitely worthwhile to exchange ideas with others.

Not to mention that Li Jian Gao had been constantly instilling in him the importance of communication.

"There's another thing. Principal Zheng just told me that Apple Inc. is planning to sponsor the school with a twenty million endowment to set up a Qiu Zhi scholarship, but their condition is that if we accept this donation, they want their representatives to meet you. What do you think?"