At the exit of Jinling Airport.
Professor Rudy Davik stood beside the railing in a suit, repeatedly straightening his tie as he glanced anxiously around.
Although Western faces were hardly a rarity in this international city, the way he stood outside the airport looking in every direction still drew some attention.
In the past half hour alone, at least two airport employees had approached him to ask whether he needed help.
"Oh, God..." Professor Daivik checked his watch for the umpteenth time and muttered in broken Chinese, "How much longer will Professor Lu take? I haven't got it wrong, have I? He's supposed to be returning today, isn't he?"
After receiving Lu Zhou's email last time, he had been ecstatic and immediately rushed to share the good news with his collaborator, Professor Wei Hong of the Hua Academy of Sciences' High-Energy Physics Research Institute.
Upon learning that their research had attracted the attention of the IMCRC's most authoritative scholar, neither of them hesitated. Following Academician Lu's instructions in the email, they immediately prepared a presentation on the Z Particle's gravitational anomaly, scheduled it for the fourth day after the Nobel Prize award ceremony, and notified Academician Lu of the time.
However, just as the two excitedly imagined their academic careers taking flight and making them famous overnight, Academician Lu failed to appear at their presentation.
Not only that, hardly anyone attended. The event had been a complete flop.
Only after asking around did he learn that Lu Zhou had postponed his return by several days. Instead of heading straight back to Shanghai as originally planned, he had made a detour to Copenhagen to attend the climate summit being held that month.
Well, that was not really a problem. At worst, they could simply hold another presentation.
What unsettled Daivik, however,