After finishing the letter.
Su Wen opened his phone to check the latest posts on the World Wide Web:
The trending news concerning Transcendents was all publicly accessible:
A series of explosions suddenly occurred in Brooklyn, in the southeast of New York Manhattan Island.
The police suspected the vicious incident had been caused by 'Zero-Sum Game—Bishop.'
Stowaways had appeared at the Saint Petersburg Abyss Border, and the initial phase of the international joint investigation had concluded.
Due to an Inari God ritual in Hokkaido, the Red Maple Village Ruins had opened further.
After Hurricane 'Ewiniar' passed through the Jiangnan Area, vegetation in unaffected regions began blooming out of season.
The Great Library reportedly called this a 'gift of disaster.'
Just as he was about to tap into the news for more details.
A message notification lit up.
It was from Jiang Menghan:
"Su Wen, Father knows that you saved me and about the paper we submitted together.
He wants you to participate as a special guest in the lecture he'll soon be giving at Coastal University."
???
Seeing this highly informative message and its familiar tone.
Su Wen was certain.
The beautiful girl who had sent it had probably not been replaced by an imposter.
He replied:
"Why would Professor Jiang invite me?"
Three seconds after he sent the question.
Miss Jiang replied with an adorable cat-face sticker:
"He wants to find a Transcendent with insight into both social issues and the future direction of scientific development."
"So you sold me out, didn't you?"
"At first, I suggested he choose someone from the Transcendents traveling with the Globetrotter."
"What about the crew?"
"More than half of them followed Captain Spring-Fal toward Detroit Bay and Windsor Harbor.
The remaining few were on extended leave, and no one knew where they had gone.
Besides, that was only one factor. Father is very rigorous when selecting special guests."
Jiang Menghan sat at her desk in autumn loungewear.
Her smooth long hair cascaded down her back.
At that moment.
She looked at the notification on her phone.
A faint smile inevitably appeared in her eyes.
The girl had always believed meaningless conversations were a waste of life.
But for some reason.
If Su Wen was the person she was chatting with.
Then.
Occasionally wasting a little time to improve her mood did not seem so bad.
"Looks like I can't turn down this assignment."
Su Wen disliked trouble.
But he was not particularly opposed to this sort of thing.
So he casually asked another question:
"Are you free these next few days?"
"Emm~ I'll be reading papers in the morning. I haven't decided about the afternoon yet."
"I heard the Great Library classified the Jiangnan Area's out-of-season flowering as a 'gift of disaster.' It might be worth seeing."
A day later.
Su Wen and Jiang Menghan took a short sightseeing trip around the area.
The Great Library had not made the underlying principle clear.
But the scenery before them was indeed beautiful.
Green mountains and clear waters blurred into a hazy expanse beneath the slanting glow of the setting sun, draping Jiangnan in a misty radiance.
As for the fragrant osmanthus blossoms stretching ten miles along the shore.
They truly deserved to be called a gift of nature.
He had actually considered projecting the Blue Margarita race car midway through the trip.
Then taking the beautiful girl for a carefree drive down the highway.
But they would most likely be detained by traffic control for driving without a license.
Not only that, the Night Watch would investigate them too.
After thinking it over.
He ultimately chose the old bicycle that came with its own voice-over.
Five days later.
Jiang Xiuyuan, a world-class theoretical physicist, was about to give a lecture at Coastal University.
Its topic was:
Science After the Origin Era.
As soon as news of it spread.
It immediately caused a sensation throughout the entire coastal region.
After all, he was not only a top scientist, but also a 'witness of Lighthouse 43.'
After watching that survival livestream of humanity battling a superstorm disaster, Professor Jiang had likely gained an indelible air of legend.
Students throughout Coastal University crowded the ticketing website, praying that luck would be on their side.
Even so.
The number of people who managed to get tickets was very small.
At 1:50 in the afternoon.
Inside Coastal University's highest-spec ceremonial hall.
After the ticket inspectors checked each ticket one by one.
Most of those qualified to attend the lecture had already taken their seats.
Two students who knew each other chatted quietly:
"Did you know? I only got this ticket because I went through Teacher Zhang."
"You're already lucky. I bought mine from a scalper—don't even ask how expensive it was."
Just then.
Su Wen, dressed casually, entered through the Side Gate.
The boy seated near the edge said to him:
"Hey, there aren't any seats left up front. Did you come in through the wrong entrance, classmate?"
Hearing the reminder.
Su Wen smiled.
He answered:
"I'm not an attendee."
Not an attendee?
The two people seated in the back rows were a little confused.
But then.
They watched Su Wen walk straight down the stepped aisle of the ceremonial hall toward the main podium.
This sight.
Shocked many students and teachers who had participated in physics competitions and had met Su Wen before.
At this moment, Jiang Xiuyuan was already seated at the main speaker's desk.
And Su Wen sat opposite him.
Ten minutes later.
The lecture began as scheduled.
The entire audience fell silent.
Jiang Xiuyuan said gently:
"This special guest beside me may be unfamiliar to some of you.
But if I mention the first author of the model-space structural analysis on Lighthouse 43's stress load: Su Wen.
You will probably understand."
As the behind-the-scenes restorer of Lighthouse 43.
Su Wen had also used spacetime tools to conduct multiple reality simulations in the Future Timeline. There was probably no one else in the world who understood Lighthouse 43's wind-load structure better than he did.
As a subject concerning super-hurricane disasters that humanity had never conquered before the Origin Era.
This paper truly caused a tremendous sensation in academic circles as soon as it was published.
And to avoid drawing the Night Watch's attention.
He had used theoretical logic to analyze the formulas throughout. Apart from the publicly available data from the Coastal Research Institute, he had not revealed a single scrap of data-related information.
Therefore.
After Professor Jiang's brief introduction.
The entire hall erupted in applause.
Everyone in the hall deeply remembered this handsome young scholar.
As for the two Coastal University students who had just 'kindly reminded' him.
They were now utterly dumbfounded.
Forty minutes into the lecture.
Professor Jiang finally gently raised the question everyone cared about most:
"Su Wen, in your view, what exactly is the future of the Origin Era?"
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