What a Great Thesis!

Chapter 41: What a Great Paper!

Thinking that there was no way to finish the task today, Wang Lili cursed inwardly: "You damn monkey, this princess is done with this!"

"Senior, why is your breathing so heavy? What's wrong?" Zhang Yuan scratched his head, feeling a bit awkward.

It was the middle of the night, she was breathing heavily, and she had called him—she wasn't looking for some kind of thrill, was she?

"What... heavy?" Wang Lili finally regained her composure and said quite bluntly, "Let's just leave it at that, I'm hanging up!"

Zhang Yuan felt a bit baffled, but he couldn't be bothered to overthink it. He simply closed his eyes and soon drifted off to sleep.

After confirming that she couldn't find a workaround, Wang Lili had no choice but to send an email to her teacher, stating that her abilities were insufficient and that she was "sorry, I couldn't understand it." She even dragged in the opinions of a few senior students as backup, claiming she had already tried her best.

"My impression score is going to be wiped out..."

She let out a long sigh.

The next morning, Lin Wenda arrived at his office and brewed a cup of green tea.

The first thing he did every day was open his inbox.

He usually spent until ten o'clock dealing with all sorts of miscellaneous work. However, there were very few emails today, only a handful.

"Huh, Wang Lili didn't understand the article?" Lin Wenda was slightly surprised. Seeing that the timestamp was two in the morning, he decided not to blame his student.

"It seems she really couldn't understand it. This is interesting..."

Wang Lili, while not the most brilliant student, had always been quite reliable when it came to getting things done.

Since there was little work to handle anyway, Lin Wenda thought to himself: I might as well take a look at it myself.

He clicked on the email and began to read it carefully.

At first, his brow was tightly furrowed, but soon after, he seemed to be drawn in by the content and began reading with intense focus.

A fine layer of sweat began to seep from his forehead.

His expression grew more and more excited, so much so that his hair seemed to stand on end.

An incredibly valuable paper!

"Human-mimicking robot kinematics, described clearly by a new method!"

"No, this is still just a framework, a grand theory. There are still many details to be perfected later on..."

What did this mean?

It meant countless follow-up papers, and it meant that related industries could potentially be upgraded further!

A groundbreaking masterpiece!

As an insider, he deeply understood the value of this paper.

In that instant, Lin Wenda had a fleeting thought of wanting to claim this paper as his own.

The benefits brought by this paper were simply too great, far too great, especially in terms of prestige!

He could already foresee a constant stream of awards; he could practically get them until his hands cramped.

However, he quickly suppressed this desire.

The paper had been sent by Professor Wang. If he, Lin Wenda, dared to claim it as his own, given Old Wang's influence, he would be reduced to dust in the next second... The power of an academician was not something an ordinary professor like him could compare to.

Besides, he wasn't so low as to commit such academic misconduct, even if he had heard plenty of rumors about such rot within the circle.

"Better to stay grounded. There's no need to steal someone else's work. Even if I just write some follow-up expansion papers, that would already be quite remarkable."

"Right, there is still so much follow-up work to be done!"

While lost in thought, Lin Wenda felt his inspiration flowing like a mighty river; he could write a paper at the drop of a hat.

As for the projects currently on his desk... compared to writing these papers, they were worth nothing!

These weren't just filler papers; they were all highly valuable.

"Knock, knock, knock!" Someone stood outside the door, knocked, and then cleared their throat.

Lin Wenda looked up; it was Lu Junzhe, the dean of the School of Mechanical Engineering.

Professor Lu asked with a smile: "Professor Lin, what are you looking at? You're so focused, and you were even chuckling to yourself. I've been standing here for quite a while..."

Lin Wenda instinctively wanted to hide Zhang Yuan's paper, but after a moment's thought, he took it out instead.

"Professor Lu, take a look at this paper. It's very interesting!"

An interesting paper?

Lu Junzhe walked over skeptically and took a casual glance.

"A novice writing their first paper, I see. It's as poorly done as an undergraduate thesis."

"It does look a bit like one."

"...Undergraduate theses are just mass-produced garbage, but there's nothing to be done about it."

Immediately after, he too seemed to be drawn in by something, and his breathing began to grow heavy.

A new method!

His eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Its value...

Is immeasurable!

He finished reading the entire paper and immediately turned around to leave, in such a hurry he could barely contain himself.

"Professor Lu, where are you going?" Lin Wenda was a bit confused.

"Back to write something!" Professor Lu said hurriedly, "...Inspiration is the most valuable thing; it cannot be wasted!"

"No, what did you come to see me for?"

"..."

Professor Lu remembered his purpose and stopped again.

He slapped his forehead: "Actually, it's nothing much. The annual professional evaluation is about to start again. Last year, our department didn't produce any particularly outstanding work, and we might drop in the rankings again. I came to talk to you about this—if there are any important papers, publish them as soon as possible. We must protect our ranking! Otherwise, everyone's funding will be cut by a tier."

There is competition between universities, and there are also rankings between departments.

Mechanical Engineering at Xisha University is a flagship major, but in recent years, there hasn't been any particularly good work, and it has been hovering around 15th or 16th in the country, unable to move up. It is no wonder Professor Lu is anxious. As the director of teaching, he has to take responsibility.

How are rankings determined?

Academic reputation, employer reputation, paper citations, and all sorts of messy index weights. Regardless, papers are definitely the top priority.

Lin Wenda restrained the smile on his face: "This paper was written by that... Zhang Yuan, Zhang Qiming's son. He is about to board the spaceship and belongs to the Deep Space Foundation. Moreover, he completed it independently, so it cannot be counted toward our department."

"Zhang Yuan? I've heard of him." Professor Lu was stunned: "Like father, like son. It's a pity it's not an achievement from our department... Sigh, what a pity."

Lin Wenda laughed out loud: "Old Lu, don't be anxious. Is the extension of this paper not good work? Based on it, we can write at least ten more highly valuable articles!"

"...The paper has just come out and hasn't been published yet; no one else has seen it."

"We saw it first, so it's our opportunity. If we grab hold of it, we can milk it for all it's worth!"

Lu Junzhe's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh: "You're right! It's just a grand framework; it can't be applied specifically yet, and there are still a large number of details to be explored."

"The expansions involved are too much for just the two of us to handle..."

He hurriedly made a phone call to notify his assistant: "Xiao Yuan, quickly, hurry and gather all the professors. There is a major task to assign to everyone."