Unexpected

Her best friend's family had initially been on roughly the same footing as hers, but the gap widened after her family began venturing into real estate.

The difference in their family backgrounds had subtly placed Lin Jia at the center of their little circle of three best friends. She could vaguely sense that the other two were more proactive about chatting with her.

After Li Xiyin finished speaking, Zhou Yaqi hurriedly said, "Exactly. Lin Jia, you're so lucky. You casually found yourself such a promising catch.

I was stunned when I saw the news. A post-95s genius, the strongest post-95s scientist.

Chen Yuanguang's achievements could probably rank first among Qingbei undergraduates, right? The box office for the movie adapted from his work was about to hit three billion yuan. You practically dug up the brightest diamond with one casual swipe.

Lin Jia, I think it's because you were given such a good name. This Jia means you can take first place in everything."

Lin Jia could not hide the smile on her face when she heard her two best friends praising Chen Yuanguang.

She had never imagined that Chen Yuanguang would make a name for himself so quickly. She had not even expected him to become successful.

Her family was wealthy enough that she had no material needs. If Chen Yuanguang were too outstanding, Lin Jia would instead feel insecure.

Lin Jia said, "When you two came to Jiang University to visit me, I told you Yuanguang was amazing. You just didn't believe me."

Li Xiyin and Zhou Yaqi exchanged a glance. Back then, they had assumed Lin Jia had simply found a handsome guy for a campus romance.

"Lin Jia, calling him Yuanguang is way too intimate," Zhou Yaqi teased.

Li Xiyin asked, "I took a preliminary look at the paper Chen Yuanguang wrote. There are many points in it that even I, as a computer science student, can't figure out. How was he able to take the algorithm that far? He was far too proficient at matrix calculations.

Was he already skilled in algorithms and mathematics when he was in college?"

Lin Jia thought back. "In my impression, he was pretty good. Back in college, whenever I didn't understand the calculations in advanced mathematics, microeconomics, or macroeconomics, he was the one who explained them to me.

As for computer science, he took electives in Python and mathematical modeling, so he should have been decent enough."

Li Xiyin was speechless. She felt that Lin Jia had been blinded by love. The mathematics taught at an undergraduate School of Economics and Management, along with elective algorithms courses, were like the basic sword techniques of a cultivation sect.

Chen Yuanguang's paper, meanwhile, was like splitting open the gates of heaven with a single sword strike. To achieve that after learning only basic sword techniques, he would have had to level those basics up to Lv.999.

Li Xiyin felt that she truly could not understand the world of geniuses.

"He was extremely sensitive to mathematics. For many problems, all I had to do was show them to him once, and he would have an idea. I always thought he should study mathematics rather than chemistry.

He studied chemistry, yet he didn't like going to the lab. I never expected him to find a path in computational chemistry instead," Lin Jia said.

Zhou Yaqi asked, "What about writing? I never heard you mention that Chen Yuanguang had any talent for writing."

At Chen Yuanguang's request, Lin Jia had never told her friends that he was an online novelist.

Chen Yuanguang felt that if people he knew found out he wrote Tokyo romance novels, it would be unbearably embarrassing.

As for why it did not matter that Lin Jia knew, it was because she had found out by accident, and he had simply given up caring after that.

Later, he even began using her as inspiration for the protagonists of his novels.

The four-month vacation had looked long, but it passed in the blink of an eye.

They chose Cuba as their travel destination. First, Cuba was visa-free for Chinese citizens, and Chen Yuanguang had never applied for any overseas visas besides one for America, so Cuba was the most convenient option.

Second, there were plenty of flights between Cuba and New York, which made things especially convenient.

After returning to Boston, 2019 passed in the blink of an eye.

"Yuanguang, given the current situation, even if you finish your novel before March, Goose Factory probably won't push forward with filming plans at this point."

"I heard from my dad that he invested in Zoom. Zoom's valuation has already exceeded ten billion dollars. Capitalists really do make money easily."

"It's unrealistic to aim for the summer release window. Goose Factory hopes to make the National Day release window instead."

"The overall film market will shrink at an unprecedented rate this year. At the very least, it'll shrink by thirty percent."

"Sometimes fortune and misfortune really do go hand in hand. We invested less, so our risk is lower too. This year's film market is far too bleak. Even hugely popular IPs could end up losing money."

"If I stay cooped up at home any longer, I'll go crazy. People in China can already move around freely. Why don't we go back?

We're taking classes remotely anyway."

Columbia University began remote classes in March, so Lin Jia had moved to Boston to live with Chen Yuanguang starting that month. There were fewer people in Boston, and it was less likely that they would catch the virus.

Chen Yuanguang, meanwhile, had begun trying to solve this problem. He attempted to find answers in the future.

"Professor Levitt, I think the approach Pfizer and Moderna proposed during the online conference offers one possible solution."

Levitt only traveled between home and the laboratory. As a top expert in the field of proteins, he also wanted to contribute what he could.

Chen Yuanguang had recently published a paper on simulated viral mutation and evolution, making him a top expert in that field as well.

Levitt hoped that communicating with Chen Yuanguang might bring him some inspiration.

"BioNTech has been researching mRNA cancer vaccines since the project was launched in 2008, but it has not achieved much so far.

"I think you could do some simulated computational work on a small-molecule therapeutic platform and use that to advance the research," Levitt suggested to Chen Yuanguang.

BioNTech's platform primarily combined immunology, cutting-edge treatment platforms, patient analysis, and bioinformatics tools to develop personalized immunotherapies for cancer and other diseases. The mRNA therapy platform was one of its main platforms.

Moderna later adopted BioNTech's platform.

Looks like I'll still have to rely on myself, Chen Yuanguang thought. Being able to go to the future and find technical materials is already enough.

"I'm planning to do some research here and contribute a little toward eliminating the virus. If we go back, I'm not sure whose laboratory we could use.

"The lab equipment here is better," Chen Yuanguang said. He did not really want to return yet.

MIT's laboratories were unquestionably among the best in the world.

Lin Jia sighed. "All right, then I'll stay here with you."

This plotline will be over in two chapters. There's too much I can't write about, and it's driving me crazy. There's only one chapter left.