Genius Girl

"Professor Jiang, I can get back by myself. You don't need to see me home."

Wu Chen declined.

Seeing that Jiang Nan still wanted to insist, he had no choice but to purse his lips. "If you're going to take me home without coming upstairs for a visit, don't bother."

On the drive home, Jiang Nan felt a breath trapped in her chest, unable to spit it out or swallow it down.

As a great beauty, she had heard her share of dirty jokes.

Whenever it happened before, she would fire back without hesitation.

But when faced with Wu Chen's teasing just now, she had been at a loss for words and could only leave in silence.

How on earth had he said something so open to misunderstanding with such a straight face?!

She raced home like the wind, but her parents still hadn't returned.

Thinking about what had been happening at the factory lately, she couldn't help worrying a little and wanted to go take a look.

But when she took out her phone, she saw a text her mother had just sent.

"Nannan, be more welcoming when you have dinner with Professor Wu Chen tonight!"

Jiang Nan tossed her phone aside, speechless.

Her investment of 1.7 million was no small matter, so she had discussed it with her parents.

It was somewhat different from her father Jiang Hong.

After hearing about Wu Chen, her mother, Lai Shuxian, had shown a deep interest in him despite never having met him and had suggested that Jiang Nan spend more time getting to know him.

In her words, Wu Chen would rather give up his degree than sacrifice his dignity, which meant he was a man of spirit and someone a woman could rely on in marriage!

If she hadn't been tied up with something today, Lai Shuxian would have wanted to go with Jiang Nan herself.

Since they didn't seem to be in any trouble, Jiang Nan put down her phone, took a nice, comfortable bath, and then made herself a simple dinner.

Only after eating did she sit down at her computer, log into QQ, and find her best friend Chen Beitao.

Jiang Jiang: [Taotao, my company's registered now. Come take a look when you have time. Here's the information on our product too.]

The avatar on the other end was blacked out, but Jiang Nan knew Chen Beitao had to be online.

Sure enough, a reply came immediately.

Beibei: [Baby Jiang Jiang, let me take a look first. Miss you, meow~]

Jiang Nan rolled her eyes at the computer, speechless.

Her best friend was clearly both brilliant and accomplished. At only twenty-five, she had become a specially appointed associate research fellow at Peking University—a genius among geniuses.

Yet she had been thoroughly poisoned by the two-dimensional world and never spoke properly all day long.

Still, Chen Beitao was reliable when it came to serious business. After receiving the files, she went quiet.

Jiang Nan waited fifteen minutes without a reply, then got up to do the laundry and clean.

In particular, the pair of stockings she had worn that morning had been sitting in her bag all day.

But when she came back almost an hour later, Chen Beitao still hadn't replied.

Did it take that long to look through them?

Jiang Nan was a little puzzled. The last time she had shown her the information on Little Jiang No. 1, Chen Beitao had replied quickly.

Just as she was about to send another message to ask, Chen Beitao's avatar suddenly started flashing, followed by a barrage of messages.

Beibei: [Baby, did your colleague really make this?!]

Beibei: [Quick, give me his contact details!]

Beibei: [If it's real, I'm going to recommend him to Peking University!]

Looking at the messages filling her screen, Jiang Nan was a little stunned.

She had read the information several times already. Though she didn't understand it, hadn't they just added a lightweight CNN algorithm?

It didn't seem to be any particularly new technology, did it?

Jiang Nan sent over Wu Chen's QQ number, then couldn't resist typing: [Is it really that amazing?]

Beibei: [Of course it is!!!]

Beibei: [The way he fused heterogeneous computing with the visual detection algorithm is incredible. And the key thing is, it can even work with domestic hardware. His engineering skills are amazing!!!]

Beibei: [Baby, hurry up and marry him so he can churn out papers for me in the future!!!]

Beibei: [I want to be the queen of academia, aaaaah!!!!!!]

Whenever Chen Beitao got excited, she liked to go wild with exclamation marks.

Jiang Nan could tell she was genuinely excited and could even picture her bouncing up and down like a puppy.

While Jiang Nan was chatting with Chen Beitao, Wu Chen was still on his way home.

He hadn't expected the traffic to be so bad today. It took him nearly three whole hours to get back to Xiaohe Mountain from Binjiang!

Zhijiang Bridge, Caihong Expressway, Zizhi Tunnel, Qiantang Expressway...

Wu Chen silently longed for the infrastructure of more than a decade later.

Although he had spent half the day stuck in traffic every day, after experiencing Huaxia's flourishing era beyond 2025, he really wasn't used to being back in 2008.

Luckily, he hadn't transmigrated to ancient times, or he would have had to spend half the day worrying about how to wipe his ass.

Finally home, Wu Chen enjoyed a cold shower, then switched on Dawn No. 1.

As soon as he logged on, he saw Ali Wangwang flashing nonstop in the lower-right corner.

Now that there was a plan to mass-produce Little Jiang No. 2, Wu Chen really didn't want to waste time on the small fry of sixty-nine yuan for restoring old photos.

Even so, he clicked it open for a look.

To his surprise, it wasn't a new order, but a message packed with exclamation marks.

Beibei: [Fine, forget cooperating. Do you know you've missed a chance to make a hundred million!!!!!!!!]

Beibei: [I'm going to find someone else to work with!!!!!!!!]

Beibei: [You blind trash fish, stay in your garbage dump and wail over your stolen technology!!!!!!!!]

What the hell was wrong with this person?

Speechless, Wu Chen closed Wangwang and double-clicked QQ, intending to see whether the academic affairs office had pulled any more tricks.

But as soon as he logged in, he received a friend request.

Beibei: [Hello, big shot. I'm Chen Beitao from Peking University. You can call me Xiaotao. I'd like to ask you about some technical questions, hehe~]

Another Beibei?

Looking at the familiar avatar and nickname, Wu Chen almost thought he had opened the wrong software.

He reopened Ali Wangwang and took a look.

Whoa, they really were the same!

Still, there was quite a contrast between the humble Xiaotao in the QQ verification message and the person spouting wild boasts on Wangwang.

Wu Chen opened his chat with Jiang Nan and sent her a message.

[What's the name of your best friend at Peking University?]

Jiang Jiang: [Chen Beitao. I sent her your QQ and the product information. Did she add you?]

[Yeah. How old is she?]

This time, Jiang Nan took a few seconds to reply.

Jiang Jiang: [Twenty-five. Why?]

[What's her professional title?]

Jiang Jiang: [She's a specially appointed associate research fellow. Why are you asking?]

[No reason, just curious.]

Wu Chen closed the chat window, speechless for a moment.

He searched online for information about Chen Beitao.

She had attended the gifted youth program at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, gained admission by recommendation to Peking University's computer science department at sixteen, entered a direct doctoral program at the Peking University Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and undertaken joint doctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She had five first-author papers in top journals, covering computer vision, parallel computing, and interdisciplinary research in bioinformatics.

No wonder. Heh.

Damn it.

A twenty-five-year-old associate research fellow at Peking University.

Among people her age, never mind an academic cheerleader like him, who would have to start out as a teaching assistant.

Even a heaven-blessed daughter like Jiang Nan, who had earned her doctorate at twenty-five, was like a mayfly gazing up at the blue sky before her.

In his previous life, he would never have had a chance to meet a big shot like her.

But.

Who told him to be reborn?

Wu Chen accepted the friend request and sent a neutral message.

[Hello.]

Beibei: [Hello, hello! Big shot, you finally accepted my request, hehe~]

[I'm not a big shot. Just call me Wu Chen or Professor Wu.]

Beibei: [Hehe, you'll be a big shot soon!]

[Why?]

Wu Chen was puzzled.

Even if she had read the information on Little Jiang No. 2 and recognized the advantages of its architecture and algorithms, she shouldn't have been this humble.

After all, it was only an integration of existing frameworks and an improvement one step ahead of the times.

If she had achieved so much by twenty-five, she must have met plenty of geniuses. Wu Chen's current achievements could hardly be called earth-shattering.

Chen Beitao didn't reply immediately. After several dozen seconds, she sent a message along with an image of someone prostrating themselves.

Beibei: [Big shot, your three papers submitted to ICIP, the Journal of Software, and the Chinese Journal of Computers are about to be published!]

Wu Chen was startled at first, but quickly caught on.

Could it be such a coincidence that Chen Beitao was his reviewer?

After considering his words, Wu Chen typed: [Was ICIP you too?]

Beibei: [Puppy nodding.jpg]

Neither of them said it outright, since the confidentiality principle of the review process was at stake.

But they both knew the answer.

All three journals used single-blind peer review, meaning the paper's author was identified, but the reviewer remained anonymous.

In other words, Chen Beitao could see that the author of the papers was Wu Chen.

Why couldn't she have mistaken him for someone else?

Because submissions also required the author's institution.

And there was only one person named Wu Chen at Xiaoheshan University of Technology.

[I understand.]

Wu Chen sent the message.

Although, relying on his level-one intelligence memory, he had made sure there would be no problems with the papers he had submitted earlier.

He still breathed a sigh of relief at getting inside information.

Chen Beitao replied with another image that said everything without words, then eagerly sent another message.

Beibei: [Big shot, big shot, can you tell me about the technology in Little Jiang No. 2, meow?]

Beibei: [PS, I understand the name. Big shot, I'll give you all the help I can to win Jiang Jiang over. Charge!]

Wu Chen ignored her second message and fell into thought.

Since Jiang Nan had already planned to make her a partner, he could give her a hand.

It just so happened that he was sorely in need of a research assistant.

This genius girl was a perfect fit!

Considering that Chen Beitao had already seen the three papers on algorithms, Wu Chen sent her the paper submitted to IPDPS, "A Novel System Architecture for Heterogeneous Computing."

If she could understand this paper, then, with the equipment available, Chen Beitao should be able to make progress in her research.

Chen Beitao received it in a second.

Though she spoke like an idiot, she really did have genuine talent and knowledge.

After just a few glances, she understood what Wu Chen meant.

Beibei: [!!!!!!]

Beibei: [No wonder you could achieve such amazing results, big shot. Your weapons are different from ours!!!]

Wu Chen chuckled.

Before OpenCL was officially released, his theory was a pair of jokers.

It was like how people in the past could only fight beasts with spears.

But with the OpenCL architecture, it was like switching to an automatic rifle, an overwhelming leap in efficiency.

Read carefully and study hard. There's plenty more from the next decade and beyond!

Wu Chen said this to Chen Beitao in his mind, then stretched, ready to take a break.

To his surprise, Chen Beitao sent another message.

Beibei: [Big shot, big shot, what direction are you planning to research next? Could you take me along?]

[You want more?]

Wu Chen was surprised.

Bite off more than you can chew, and you won't be able to swallow it. If Chen Beitao could understand these papers of his, she would already be able to take another step forward, yet she still wanted to squeeze him dry.

Beibei: [Hehe, I know you'll be busy next, big shot, so I'm asking early to prepare. I don't want to fall behind your pace~]

[You should...]

Wu Chen had intended to tell her to take some time to absorb what she had learned before thinking about the future, but after some thought, he deleted the words he had half typed.

He was just a mere mortal; it was better not to presume to guess at a great master's capacity for learning.

Besides, he already needed a high-level academic laborer to help him research theories he knew about but didn't understand the reasoning behind.

So he typed again: [What direction are you planning to research?]

Beibei: [SNN, meow~]

A spiking neural network?

The corner of Wu Chen's mouth twitched.

This thing was a pitfall, and a trap he had prepared for Wang Hongfa and Lavrov. As things stood, it had no future at all.

No wonder he had never heard Chen Beitao's name in the cutting-edge field of artificial intelligence in his previous life.

So she had jumped into a bottomless pit.

After considering the direction he needed to research, Wu Chen decisively assigned her a task.

[Look into shortcut connections in deep networks.]

This was one of the key ideas for solving the problem of training ultra-deep models. In his previous life, Wu Chen had never dug deeply into its early origins.

He could have Chen Beitao fill in that gap, then come along and pick the peaches himself.

He had thought Chen Beitao would have a lot of questions when she saw this direction.

To his surprise, she replied immediately.

Beibei: [Big shot, I happen to have some thoughts on that. You can take a look, hehe~]

With that, she sent him a document.

Beibei: ["A Thought Experiment on Introducing Cross-Layer Connections into Deep Neural Networks"]

Wait.

When Wu Chen saw the title, he was completely dumbfounded.

What was going on?

He clicked it open and took a look, unable to believe it.

Then he was astonished all over again.

It really was a residual network!

He distinctly remembered that this thing hadn't appeared until seven or eight years later.