A Decision You'll Regret Years Later (Two Chapters in One)

After the group left, Lin Fangxin finally had a chance to speak with Yan Xiao.

She showered Yan Xiao in effusive praise.

Then, before Yan Xiao could feel embarrassed, she mentioned that the blacklight lamp had already been found.

"Really? That's great, it saves so much trouble. Sorry for the trouble," Yan Xiao said, sounding very pleased.

"It's nothing. Actually, you could have finished the thesis group project just as well without me anyway. Come to think of it, I'm the one basking in your reflected glory," Lin Fangxin replied politely.

After the two of them discussed it, Lin Fangxin made a call to the manufacturer of the blacklight lamp.

The person who answered the phone was the sales supervisor at the factory, named Wan Jingwei.

Originally he was supposed to take a day off today, but as a result, while he was fast asleep this morning, a phone call from the factory director woke him right up.

At first, he was quite annoyed and somewhat resentful.

The moment he learned that the person he needed to receive was Lin Wushu's daughter, however, his resentment vanished like smoke.

She was, after all, the daughter of Azure Huaxia's greatest scientist.

She deserved this kind of attention.

Since he was already up, he washed up, changed his clothes, and went to the company.

After waiting all morning and taking quite a few calls-including telemarketers, scammers, and hostesses-there was simply no call from Lin Wushu's daughter.

By four o'clock in the afternoon, Wan Jingwei figured there probably wouldn't be any calls today and was just getting ready to head home when the phone rang.

"Hello, I'm Lin Wushu's daughter, Lin Fangxin. My father asked me to contact you. You're Uncle Wan, right?"

"It's me. I've been waiting for your call. I heard you need to use tanning equipment for research, am I right?"

"Right. Actually, it's not strictly that we have to use a tanning bed, we just need to study the ultraviolet lamps used in tanning beds," Lin Fangxin explained, though she didn't go into detail about what specific research the equipment was for.

This was because she had to keep it confidential before the paper was published.

It was a matter of professional ethics.

Wan Jingwei was clearly someone who knew his stuff and didn't pry further.

"Alright, I've already had the warehouse pull out a newer model. Where would you like me to have it delivered?"

"We can just go haul it ourselves." Lin Fangxin was too embarrassed to have someone make a delivery.

"No need, just name a place and I'll have it delivered to you then," Wan Jingwei said, his tone exceptionally courteous.

"Well, thank you, Uncle Wan. Please send it to the campus for me, and I'll send you the address in a moment." Lin Fangxin didn't refuse the other person's good intentions any further.

"Will do."

After hanging up the phone, Lin Fangxin immediately sent the school address to Wan Jingwei.

Putting down her phone, she turned to Yan Xiao and said, "We should probably get the pest control equipment ready now, right?"

"Yeah, let's get it ready today," Yan Xiao said, pulling out the laptop the teacher had 'gifted' him and placing an order on Taobao for six high-pressure rat-catching devices.

Then he bought several bundles of iron wire and dozens of sheets of stainless-steel window screening.

Along with a set of oversized toolboxes.

Once the purchasing was done, the two of them started designing the outline of the thesis.

Because almost all the content was entirely new, it was hard to find much existing reference material.

Therefore, when designing the paper, citations were not the important part.

What mattered was the rationality of the experimental design.

As the two of them discussed back and forth, it was already past eight o'clock in the evening.

"Shall we eat? We can talk about the rest tomorrow. Anyway, it'll still take two days for the tools to arrive. What do you think?" Feeling that his workload for today had slightly exceeded the limit, Yan Xiao took the initiative to suggest a break.

"Mhm, what to eat?" Lin Fangxin asked a deeply philosophical question.

"Hot pot?" Yan Xiao asked hesitatingly.

"Anything's fine with me."

"How about skewers?"

"That works too."

"Then let's do skewers. Do you know any recommended places?" Since Yan Xiao wasn't familiar with the area after all, he took the initiative to ask.

"Not far from here, West Gate Roast Wings. It's run by Jida University students, and the chicken wings are especially good," Lin Fangxin recommended.

"Let's go." Yan Xiao looked decisive, but actually didn't hold much expectation for West Gate Roast Wings.

He always felt places like this would be much like the ones in his memories.

Besides, in an environment of highly developed information,

things that were both long-reputed and truly deserving of it only belonged to the past; famous restaurants later on were all just hype.

As the two of them stepped out of the faculty building, Chu Yang just happened to be coming down the stairs.

Seeing Yan Xiao and Lin Fangxin, he greeted them with great familiarity: "Have you guys eaten? Care to grab a drink together?"

Lin Fangxin, on the other hand, pretended not to see Chu Yang, grabbed Yan Xiao, and bolted down the stairs.

After sprinting out of the school, the two of them ran quite a distance further before Yan Xiao asked with a puzzled look: "How come you seem so terrified of him?"

Panting for breath, Lin Fangxin said, "How could I not be? That guy especially loves telling disgusting jokes while eating. I just can't take it."

Yan Xiao chuckled, recalling his experience on the second-floor laboratory during his very first day at school yesterday, and felt a profound sense of agreement with Lin Fangxin's decision.

After catching her breath for a moment, Lin Fangxin was just about to lead Yan Xiao toward West Gate Roast Wings when she suddenly realized she was still firmly holding onto Yan Xiao's hand...

Thump...

Her face flushed crimson all at once, burning right down to the roots of her ears.

"Sorry, I wasn't paying attention..."

"It's fine, it's quite soft."

Lin Fangxin: "???"

The two of them walked for another ten minutes or so before arriving at the entrance of West Gate Roast Wings.

Unlike what was in his memories,

this skewer joint looked a great deal more upscale overall.

Just from the exterior alone, it resembled Youth Skewer Bar from his past life.

Just as Yan Xiao was about to walk inside, his phone rang.

Glancing at the caller ID, he saw it was a call from Shang Hong'an.

Did the reward arrive so fast? Yan Xiao was quite pleased and decided he would splurge a bit on the food later.

He even felt like experiencing the feeling of eating one skewer and throwing one away.

Answering the phone,

"Dean Shang, were you looking for me?"

"Yes, I wanted to discuss something with you."

"Go ahead." Yan Xiao's tone was calm and unruffled, though he kept his guard up inside.

Could it be that he wants me to stay in the Department of Ancient Literature and not leave?

"It's like this, I want to apply for an academic award for you, and it requires a related thesis..."

Hearing that he had to write yet another thesis made Yan Xiao's head instantly swell to twice its size.

Before he could speak, Shang Hong'an continued: "What I wanted to discuss with you is that I have a graduate student who is up for the City's Top Ten Student Cadres award this year. He's lagging behind candidates from other schools a bit when it comes to scientific research.

My thought is, do you think you could give him a corresponding authorship on your thesis?"

"What is a corresponding author?"

"A corresponding author is similar to a contact person. Rest assured, it's not a co-first author, nor is it first, second, or third author.

Once the bonus is paid out, he won't take a single penny of it either. Do you think that works?"

Instead of answering Shang Hong'an's question, Yan Xiao brought up a second question.

"What is a co-author?"

"That would be everyone listed on the paper or the supervising teachers."

After Shang Hong'an finished explaining, Yan Xiao understood. Weighing the gains and losses in his mind, he said, "How about this, Dean? I'll give him second author, you be the corresponding author, and let him take on an additional corresponding authorship as well. How does that sound?"

Yan Xiao agreed so readily that Shang Hong'an thought he was being sarcastic.

Far from being happy, he felt quite awkward.

"No, no, it was presumptuous of me." With that, Shang Hong'an moved to hang up the phone.

Yan Xiao hurriedly stopped him. "Dean Shang, don't rush to hang up. I'm telling you my genuine thoughts; I really don't have the time to write that thesis.

You know I'm about to participate in another competition for the Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

That competition is at a critical juncture,

and I truly can't spare the time to write this paper.

How about this-you have that senior student ghostwrite it for me? If there's anything he doesn't understand, he can just give me a call. How does that sound?"

Yan Xiao's remarks left Shang Hong'an stunned.

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He had already felt extremely embarrassed coming to Yan Xiao to ask for a corresponding authorship in the first place; had it not concerned his beloved disciple's future, he wouldn't have done such a thing if it killed him.

To his surprise, lowering his pride to make the request had yielded such an unexpected windfall.

"Well... let me thank you in advance, then."

"It's nothing, I should be thanking you instead. For me, getting the bonus a bit earlier matters more than anything else."

Hearing Yan Xiao's words, Shang Hong'an immediately understood his old friend Wu Xiaohong's perspective.

This kid truly was a talent who looked at everything purely through the lens of 'money'...

After hanging up the phone, Yan Xiao and Lin Fangxin entered West Gate Roast Wings.

The two of them ordered a fair number of skewers, and Yan Xiao ordered a bottle of beer while getting Lin Fangxin a jug of freshly squeezed apple juice.

Before long, the skewers began to arrive one after another.

The two of them chatted as they ate.

Under Yan Xiao's deliberate guidance, he managed to probe into quite a few inside stories of the academic circle.

By the time they finished eating and headed back, it was already eleven o'clock.

Just as Yan Xiao reached the outside of the hallway, he spotted Guan Zhiyuan sitting on a bicycle by the entrance.

Seeing Yan Xiao, the other couldn't help complaining, "You finally made it back... I thought you'd gotten lost..."

"There was some stuff going on at school today, so I got back late," Yan Xiao explained, and the two of them went upstairs.

Tutoring time once again.

And it was still mathematics.

Compared to the first volume, the progress was much faster this time.

Perhaps because Guan Zhiyuan had grasped the method of studying and had previewed the material himself, the study of the second volume concluded by three o'clock in the morning just the same.

When it was over, it was still Guan Zhiyuan doing practice problems while Yan Xiao went to sleep.

Early the next morning, Li Yanfei took the recording and headed straight to the principal's office.

He had come yesterday as well,

but learned through the secretary in the principal's office that the principal was away on a business trip and would only return today, which was why the matter had dragged on until now.

Knock, knock, knock...

"Yanfei, come, come in, sit down. What brings you here?"

Principal Wang's given name was Wang Shouxue, a renowned expert and scholar in the field of atomic physics.

As he grew older, he realized the importance of cultivating the younger generation.

That was why he had taken the post of principal at Jinghua University.

"Principal Wang, I went yesterday to..." Without any pleasantries, Li Yanfei recounted his encounter with Yan Xiao yesterday.

Hearing it through, Wang Shouxue appeared quite calm.

"Mhm, I roughly understand. But I want to ask you, is this kid really that outstanding?"

"He might be even more outstanding than you can imagine!" Li Yanfei replied without the slightest hesitation.

Then he pulled out the phone with yesterday's recording and began playing the audio of Yan Xiao's interview.

At first, Wang Shouxue had leaned back against his chair, holding his teacup with an air of effortless detachment; however, his brows quickly knitted together.

His body slowly shifted away from the backrest, sitting straighter and straighter.

Once the recording finished playing, it was a long while before Wang Shouxue finally leaned his body back against the chair's backrest again.

"Principal, we need to make a move quickly. I'm afraid that if we're late, Yan Xiao will be snatched away by people from Jida University!" Li Yanfei said anxiously.

Wang Shouxue nodded and uttered a remark that both shocked Li Yanfei out of his wits and made the principal himself regret it deeply years later.

"We aren't competing for him."

"Why?" Li Yanfei completely failed to understand the principal's train of thought.

"Do you know about that incident involving him previously?" Wang Shouxue said slowly.

Li Yanfei knew Wang Shouxue was referring to the 'extortion' incident on the internet earlier. "I know, but hasn't that already been cleared up?"

Wang Shouxue shook his head and said, "We won't investigate what deeper currents might lie behind this matter; let's just look at the surface."

Taking a sip of tea, he continued, "No matter what, the two people who were expelled were both his 'teachers and elders'. It's possible he truly received unfair treatment at the school.

However, his actions reflect a state of being 'uncontrollable'.

Can we dare guarantee we can maintain one-hundred-percent fairness toward him in the future?

What if, in some matter, we handle things strictly by the book, but he feels it's unfair and kicks up another fuss? What then?

This is a dangerous person.

There's no need for us to take the risk of offending our peers just to forcefully poach him over.

It's not worth it."

"Principal! You..." Li Yanfei wanted to argue further, but Wang Shouxue raised a hand to cut him off.

"Alright, say no more. That's settled. You go ahead and get busy with your work; I have work to attend to as well."

Left with no choice, Li Yanfei had no option but to leave the principal's office.

Though he desperately wanted to make private contact with Yan Xiao again, he also knew that without the backing of preferential policies, he had zero chips in his hand to attract Yan Xiao over.

Sighing, Li Yanfei walked out of the school gates and hailed a taxi straight to the Education Reference editorial office.

Even though his identity as a reporter was fake, Li Yanfei well knew the value of this interview.

So he decided to help bring the interview article into existence.

Li Yanfei arrived at the Education Reference editorial department and went straight to find Editor-in-Chief Song Yu, with whom he was well-acquainted.

"I have an interview piece for you. Take a look and see if you can help me get it published as soon as possible," Li Yanfei said straight to the point.

"Whose interview is it?" Song Yu asked.

She needed to know whose interview it was, what the content was like, and whether it was worth publishing.

Although she was the editor-in-chief, precisely because she was the editor-in-chief, she considered things not only from the perspective of personal favors, but more importantly from the value of the manuscript.

If the value wasn't great, it didn't matter how ironclad the personal relationship was.

This was also the foundation of why the relatively neutral Education Reference had always been one of the industry leaders.

"Yan Xiao, the student who got a perfect score on the Xicheng District first mock exam."

"What's the general direction of it?"

"I'll play you the recording, just listen to it."

"Fine."

Song Yu led Li Yanfei into a small meeting room, and after Li Yanfei sat down, he immediately took out his mobile phone and played the recording of his interview with Yan Xiao.

Her process of listening to the recording was simply identical to Wang Shouxue's.

It went from casual to solemn, and even full of praise.

After listening, Song Yu immediately decided that publishing the manuscript was not a problem, and that it could even be arranged for the next issue. In her own words, "Such a good manuscript with such wise answers deserves the front-page headline."

Seeing that the discussion was practically done, Li Yanfei prepared to leave, and Song Yu couldn't help asking, "Did that kid Yan Xiao go to your school?"

"Ah..." After a sigh, Li Yanfei was speechless and left.

Song Yu even saw a sense of loss in Li Yanfei's retreating back.

Shaking her head, she returned to her office and sent a work message to the group chat:

Eleven o'clock, meeting in the office to discuss replacing the headline article.

Eleven o'clock arrived, and Yan Xiao opened his eyes very reluctantly.

Because he hadn't drawn the curtains when he went to sleep, he was woken up by the sunlight.

Getting up, peeing, and washing his face along the way, Yan Xiao was instantly refreshed.

Returning to the living room, Yan Xiao saw the note Guan Zhiyuan had left on the table:

"Big Yan, I finished writing the papers and left them on the table. Take a look later and see if there's anything that can be strengthened.

You sleep your sleep, I'm heading to school first.

To keep myself from waiting three or four hours for you again, and also to prevent the mosquitoes at the entrance of your building's hallway from getting too strong and putting all the other mosquitoes to shame, I took your house key with me.

Use the spare key yourself..."

"Bah..." After reading the note, Yan Xiao was simply speechless.

To actually take someone else's house key with you, he really was unreliable...

However, complaining aside, Yan Xiao knew that the body's predecessor and Guan Zhiyuan had a relationship that was far too tight-knit, to the extent that it influenced him to also harbor good feelings for this brother.

Therefore, he decided that he might as well use the spare key for now.

When you aren't using things, finding them is very convenient.

Once you actually want to use certain things, that's practically a high probability that finding them will be exceptionally difficult.

Looking for the key, Yan Xiao searched until one-thirty in the afternoon before he finally found it.

It turned out to be right inside his schoolbag...

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