Award Ceremony

First love only happened once; it existed only in memory.

No one ever experienced a second age when the scent of the opposite sex alone could make their heart race.

Zhang Yuan sighed. Time was a terrifying killer. It could blur even the memories of first love, making people forget all the unpleasant parts until everything seemed perfect...

If they boarded the spaceship, everything on Earth would surely grow old with time, too.

All their memories would become beautiful.

Just like that day when he climbed a mountain in the sweltering heat and watched the sunset. The whole experience had been hot and miserable. But decades later, most of the unpleasantness would be forgotten, leaving only that red sun that had refused to set for so long...

"Twenty light-years away... That's already another space-time, isn't it?"

With a long sigh, Zhang Yuan walked out of the supermarket.

The Galaxy Award ceremony would be held at one o'clock that afternoon.

Zhang Yuan arrived at the venue early. All the decorations and festive trimmings had lent the grand auditorium an exceptionally dignified air.

The Galaxy Award was held every two years. Founded jointly by the Deep Space Foundation and the National Science and Technology Association, it recognized those who had made outstanding contributions to the aerospace industry. It had a history of more than eighty years.

This national award offered generous prize money. First-place winners received ten million yuan, second-place winners five million, and even third-place winners two million. It was also the highest-paying science and technology award in the country, and major media outlets were broadcasting the ceremony live.

In short, the organizers had made no effort to hide how deep their pockets were.

"They're already making it obvious they'll be broke in the future, and they're still handing out prize money like this..."

Zhang Yuan couldn't stop grumbling to himself.

But there was nothing to be done about it. People who made outstanding contributions deserved to be rewarded. No matter how poor they got, they couldn't let the scientists go without.

It was still early, and the ceremony hadn't officially started. Zhang Yuan had already run into many familiar faces, including Professor Wang Zhong, Xu Yunjing, Wang Lili, and some of his father's former colleagues. They all gave him warm, friendly looks.

"Nervous?"

"Not really. I'm only accepting the award on someone else's behalf, anyway..."

Professor Wang smiled. "One day, you should take the stage on your own merits."

Zhang Yuan nodded, then had a thought. "Professor Wang, I wrote a paper recently. Could you take a look at it?"

Hearing that Zhang Yuan had actually written a paper put Professor Wang Zhong in a good mood. "Oh? What's the title? If you've just padded it out with nonsense, I'll have to criticize you. Research papers aren't undergraduate dissertations. If you write one and can't get it published, it's not much use..."

Zhang Yuan quickly replied, "I definitely didn't pad it out! It's called Kinematic Analysis of High-Degree-of-Freedom Robots Based on Geometric Group Theory and Topology. I'll email it to you."

"Geometric group theory? All right, I'll take a look when I get back." Professor Wang glanced over the title. "I'm not very knowledgeable about robotics, though. I can only check whether the mathematical reasoning is logically sound. If it looks good, I'll pass it on to some other professors for their opinions."

Zhang Yuan said happily, "Thank you, Professor Wang!"

Reviewing a paper was exhausting work, and it brought no author credit. Only professors with a good relationship with you would be willing to help like that.

Without a professor willing to recommend an article, the odds of getting it published dropped considerably. Professional reviewers rarely wanted to look at unknown submissions. If they saw that the author was just an undergraduate with no big name backing him, they might reject the paper outright.

After all, there were so many amateur researchers in the world, with people claiming every day that they had invented a "perpetual motion machine" or proved "Goldbach's conjecture." If you read every nonsensical paper that came along, you wouldn't have time for anything else.

This was Zhang Yuan's first time writing a serious, full-length paper. With Professor Wang reviewing it, he could fix any details that didn't meet the standard.

Just then, Xu Yunjing quietly came over and patted Zhang Yuan on the shoulder.

Seeing him in casual clothes, she looked very unhappy. "Why are you dressed like that? No, no, you need to change into something else."

Zhang Yuan asked, baffled, "What else am I supposed to wear?"

"Didn't I tell you to dress more formally?"

"I don't have anything. I never wear that kind of..."

"Wang Lili, go borrow your boyfriend's suit for him!"

"Oh, okay." Wang Lili dashed out of the venue.

More than ten minutes later, Wang Lili came hurrying back, out of breath. "Hurry up and put it on!"

Zhang Yuan was getting a headache just thinking about changing clothes—especially into someone else's.

"Senior, you're all over me like this. Your boyfriend's going to get jealous."

Wang Lili grinned. "Jealous of a junior? He'd have to be incredibly petty... You're about to ascend to the heavens. Do you think he'd still get jealous of you?"

"Come on, I'm a volunteer. I have to help run the whole event! If I get scolded afterward, you'll have to take responsibility!"

"How am I supposed to do that? Marry you?"

Wang Lili fixed him with a stare. "You've got some nerve, teasing your senior now! If you're willing to stay, I might consider it..."

"Of course I'm not!"

With no other choice, Zhang Yuan went to the restroom and changed into the suit.

People said clothes made the man, and even the Buddha needed gold. One change of clothes made him seem like a completely different person.

"I didn't expect you to look so handsome... If my boyfriend saw you, he might really get jealous," Wang Lili said with a coy smile.

A group of other female volunteers gathered around, chattering as they watched this "first-place winner." Their noise made Zhang Yuan blush slightly.

Ladies, I'm not the one winning the award...

"All right, the ceremony's about to start. Sit here quietly and wait. Just go up to accept the award when you hear your name. You've already thought about what you're going to say, right? You don't need to say much—three thank-yous, two or three minutes, and the reporters won't give you a hard time."

Zhang Yuan nodded.

Music started playing, and everyone who was still standing returned to their seats.

First came speeches from the various leaders, interspersed with artistic performances. The whole thing was so dull that Zhang Yuan was on the verge of falling asleep.

But for everyone else with an agenda, it was a great opportunity to network.

The Galaxy Award was, after all, one of the country's major awards. Those attending the ceremony were big names from every field: leaders, Fortune 500 CEOs, leading academics, and more.

Some students were probably just there for the excitement, or perhaps they'd been assigned by the student union to fill seats.

Others hoped to make themselves familiar to the people here. With so many big names around, a familiar face might give them an opportunity somewhere down the road.

Some industry leaders were discussing developments in their fields, using so much technical jargon that anyone listening could barely follow.