Don't Be Like Schrödinger

"Ladies, let me introduce you to a new colleague, Yang Ding Tian, a physics PhD student at our center." Shen Qi introduced Yang Ding Tian to the four female employees.

Three of the four female employees were in their twenties and unmarried, while the other was in her forties and married. They welcomed Yang Ding Tian.

"Thank you," Yang Ding Tian said, neither humble nor arrogant, neither cold nor warm.

"Take out your bank card and ID card," Shen Qi said to Yang Ding Tian.

Yang Ding Tian handed his bank card and ID card to Shen Qi, Shen Qi then passed them to Cui Xiaoyi: "Make copies of these. Yang Ding Tian's lab subsidies will be deposited into this card from now on."

Cui Xiaoyi quickly made copies for her records and returned the documents and bank cards to Yang Ding Tian: "Dr. Yang, you didn't say much. Was our welcome not warm enough?"

Yang Ding Tian nodded. "Warm greetings, thank you."

"Dingtian, you can go back to your work now." Shen Qi told Yang Ding Tian to go back to the lab. He stayed in the general affairs office to give instructions on some routine tasks and told Cui Xiaoyi to transfer 5,000 yuan to Yang Ding Tian's bank card every month. The first lab subsidy would be transferred to Yang Ding Tian today.

"I have to say, this PhD student seems pretty arrogant. He didn't react at all to the Four Great Beauties," Cui Xiaoyi said.

"Yang Ding Tian, a famous ascetic academic genius at Yenching University." Sang Tian seemed to have heard of Yang Ding Tian; she studied Chinese Literature at Yenching University for her undergraduate degree.

Shen Qi asked, "When I was an undergraduate at Yenching University, I saw many girls pursuing Yang Ding Tian. Is he really abstinent?"

"I create some ascetic male characters in my novels, but such men are almost nonexistent in real life. Many girls pursue Yang Ding Tian, but he has never had a serious girlfriend and always acts aloof and unapproachable," Sang Tian continued, revealing inside information.

"Could he be...?" Shen Qi curled his finger.

Sang Tian shook her head and said, "No, the ascetic group is straight in terms of sexual orientation; they try their best to suppress their desires."

"I see. Female writers certainly have a broad knowledge base." Shen Qi quite enjoyed chatting with his female employees, whose lack of knowledge in math and physics made the conversations more relaxed.

"Director Shen, won't it cause some problems if you hand over the lab to the abstinent guy?" Sang Tian looked towards the office door and pointed to her temple. "I've heard that his thought processes here are rather peculiar."

"He's a normal person in the lab, but he becomes a bit strange once he leaves." Shen Qi isn't afraid of madmen, but he is afraid of mediocre people.

Just then, a cold wind blew in, and the lightly slatted office door opened automatically. Yang Ding Tian stood in the doorway, silent.

"Ah!" The girls were startled. Yang Ding Tian appeared and disappeared without a trace, like a wandering ghost.

Oh my god, that kid Yang Ding Tian was eavesdropping outside the door... Shen Qi calmly walked up to Yang Ding Tian and asked, "What's wrong?"

Yang Ding Tian handed Shen Qi a China Merchants Bank card. "Please deposit the lab subsidy into my China Merchants Bank card. The one I just photocopied is a China Construction Bank card."

Shen Qi asked, "Is there a problem with China Construction Bank?"

Yang Ding Tian: "My China Construction Bank card's online banking security token has expired."

"Oh, this is a problem worth taking seriously." Shen Qi instructed Cui Xiaoyi to finish the rest.

A few hours later, 5,000 yuan arrived in Yang Ding Tian's China Merchants Bank account. He greeted Shen Qi and said he was going out to run some errands.

"Go wherever you want, no need to tell me, just lock the lab door." Shen Qi gave instructions while working at his desk.

Then Yang Ding Tian disappeared for three days and didn't come to the center.

Shen Qi has told all the researchers, including Yang Ding Tian, that there are no attendance restrictions for the frontline researchers at our center. You can come to the center if you want, or do your research at home if you don't. What I, Shen Qi, want are outputs, papers, high-quality academic works, and research results that are worthy of my conscience.

There are only 12 people in the center, all working on the same floor. Shen Qi knows who comes and who doesn't, and everyone else can see it too.

"That Yang Ding Tian, could he have absconded with the money?" Shen Qi was still somewhat displeased that Yang Ding Tian.

After all, Yang Ding Tian is different from Mathematical Research; his main task at this stage is to conduct physics experiments, which can only be carried out in the laboratory.

Shen Qi was worried. He had just recruited a physics doctoral student as a mentor, and Yang Ding Tian had vanished without a trace. If word got out, Shen Qi would lose face.

Most importantly, Yang Ding Tian's personal safety is paramount. He is Shen Qi's student, and if he really disappears, Shen Qi will have to report it to the police station.

Shen Qi called Yang Ding Tian, and a cell phone rang outside the Director's Office. Shen Qi went out to see what was going on and found that Yang Ding Tian had returned.

Yang Ding Tian opened the laboratory door with one hand and held a cat in his other arm.

This cat doesn't have much of a background; it's probably just a hybrid of an orange tabby.

The cat is furtively observing its surroundings, appearing quite alert.

"Yang Ding Tian, you've been gone for three days, catching cats?" Shen Qi knew that there were many stray cats on the Yanda campus. Some of these cats were not afraid of people, especially the academic cats, who often sneaked into classrooms to audit undergraduates' professional courses.

"It's Laplace, and its activity area is mainly near the Physics Department." Yang Ding Tian opened the laboratory door and led the cat inside.

Shen Qi followed him inside and reached out to tease the cat, "So Laplace is your academic assistant?"

"Meow!" The cat roared angrily, slapping Shen Qi with its paw and biting him at the same time.

"Damn it!" Shen Qi Reaction quickly, swiftly withdrawing his hand to dodge the cat's sneak attack, and scolded the cat, "You monster, how dare you harm me!"

"Meow." The cat licked its paws, looking at Shen Qi with disdain.

"Laplace was sick, and I took it to the vet for injections and vaccinations over the past three days. Now it has recovered. Director Shen, I hope the center can take Laplace in. It is a healthy cat, a smart cat, and a cat with ambition," Yang Ding Tian said earnestly.

Shen Qi: "I didn't realize you were so kind-hearted. The cats that often hang out near the Physics Department are academic cats. I don't object to you keeping an academic cat, but you should take it out of the lab after work, just in case it causes trouble."

"Meow." The academic cat Laplace once again looked down on Shen Qi.

"Although this cat has an eccentric personality, I hope you can treat it kindly and not act like Schrödinger."

Shen Qi suddenly stroked the cat's head and said to it, "If you dare to scratch me, bite me, or mock me again, I'll lock you in a box, and your companion will be radium."

The cat stopped meowing, scratching, and biting. It stared at Shen Qi with wide, shocked eyes, as if he were a demon.

"This cat is quite intelligent, Laplace Demon." Shen Qi tamed the cat with a single sentence and then left the laboratory.

For a period of time afterward, Yang Ding Tian brought his cat in and out of the laboratory every day, and the experiment progressed very smoothly.

The interim experimental data provided by Yang Ding Tian enabled Shen Qi to proceed to the theoretical definition stage of "Extending the Application of Defect Topology Research in Condensed Matter".