He Couldn't Possibly Publish Eight Top-Journal Papers in a Row, Could He?

"This had nothing to do with you."

Wu Chen said.

Seeing the worry almost overflowing from Min Xinrou's eyes, Wu Chen added, "I'm looking for the president about something else."

"Oh..."

Min Xinrou was still doubtful.

Wu Chen could tell that she was genuinely worried he would be affected because of her.

As a matter of fact, Wang Hongfa and Yang Yuanjing had joined forces to target him. Min Xinrou had simply been unlucky enough to become their opening.

But he decided not to tell her what was going on behind the scenes for now, lest the young woman worry even more.

Seeing that it was getting late, he said, "You should go back. Just wait for the school's decision."

"Okay..."

In the end, Min Xinrou agreed.

She stood there clutching her backpack, watching Wu Chen and Jiang Nan walk toward the office building.

"Next time you comfort someone, don't sound so harsh. That young woman is very sensitive."

After they had walked some distance, Jiang Nan said that to Wu Chen.

Wu Chen glanced at her. "Didn't you notice the way she was looking at me?"

"What about it?"

Jiang Nan didn't understand.

"I'm afraid that if I'm any gentler, she'll fall in love with me."

Wu Chen said.

Jiang Nan came to a halt.

Then she thought about the way Min Xinrou had looked at him and shook her head. "You're overthinking it. According to my intuition as a woman, she hasn't even considered dating."

Wu Chen clicked his tongue.

"Then maybe I'll accidentally become the man who opens the door to her heart?"

Teacher-student relationships had to be taken seriously.

At universities, teachers might be a little more relaxed about it, but in middle schools, teachers generally went out of their way to make themselves look less attractive at school, precisely to avoid accidents.

Even so, all kinds of scandals still happened every year.

So Wu Chen had to do his best to prevent that sort of thing from happening.

After a few more words of gossip, Jiang Nan returned to the matter at hand.

"...President Xu called you back this afternoon because of your papers, right? Are you going to mention what happened this afternoon?"

Wu Chen thought for a moment. "I'll give him a brief account, but I'd better leave out what happened between Wang Hongfa and Liu Ping, and even what happened between him and Yang Yuanjing."

Jiang Nan was puzzled. "Why?"

"We have no evidence," Wu Chen said.

In fact, the only reason he had managed to bluff Wang Hongfa during the meeting was that he had seized the initiative, gambling that Wang Hongfa didn't know how much evidence he had.

If Wang Hongfa had known that all he had was a muffled recording, he probably wouldn't have backed down so easily.

After Wu Chen explained, Jiang Nan understood as well.

Bringing down a dean was no simple matter. His affair with Liu Ping alone wouldn't be enough.

If they failed to finish him off, the trouble afterward would be endless.

Unless Yang Yuanjing exposed herself and produced conclusive evidence.

While Wu Chen and Jiang Nan walked across campus, President Xu Jianping was in a conference room on the sixth floor of the administration building, looking through a statistical report on each college's research achievements for the year.

When applying for the 2011 Project, one of the major criteria was the number of national research projects and the funding they received.

So, during this year, Xiaoheshan University of Technology had to produce enough results and expand its teaching staff.

Frankly, higher-education resources in Zhe Province were unevenly distributed.

Apart from Zhejiang University, there wasn't a single other 985 or 211 university!

As a result, all the top resources flowed to Zhejiang University, leaving the other schools to pick at the scraps.

Xiaoheshan University of Technology was relatively well off, with two academicians holding down the fort.

But the problem was that both academicians worked in chemistry and materials science.

Their fields had nothing to do with the new national policy's goal of "prioritizing the development of computer science and building a pool of artificial intelligence talent," so they couldn't help at all.

Without some eye-catching progress, Xiaoheshan University of Technology would find it difficult to make the transition from a provincial university to a nationally recognized one.

But Wu Chen's appearance had given Xu Jianping hope.

First author on three computer science papers in top journals within a month—he was a promising talent!

While dining with friends from other universities that evening, he had heard rumors that Zhejiang University was already planning to recruit Wu Chen.

But talent like that had to be kept at their university at all costs!

Just as he was considering what to say to Wu Chen later, his phone suddenly rang. It was Wang Hongfa.

Xu Jianping picked up and said cheerfully, "Old Wang, I was just about to call you."

"What is it, Old Xu?"

Wang Hongfa's voice came through the receiver, with no hint that anything was amiss.

The two had known each other for years, so Xu Jianping didn't think much of it and spoke casually. "There's a teaching assistant named Wu Chen in Information Engineering, right? I seem to remember you had some trouble with him before?"

"It was nothing serious, just a misunderstanding. We've already cleared it up."

"That's good... Actually, I was wondering whether we should promote him. What do you think?"

Wang Hongfa paused for only a moment before promptly answering, "I think that's fine too."

"I knew you were broad-minded enough to sail a boat in a prime minister's belly, Old Wang."

Xu Jianping breathed a sigh of relief as well.

Wu Chen was important, but so was Wang Hongfa. He not only had powerful connections, but had also been a capable researcher in the past and could serve as a discipline leader.

"But Old Xu, what rank are you planning to promote him to?"

"Associate professor. We'll fast-track it and set an example for everyone else."

An associate professor rank meant a tenured position, which had also been Wu Chen's dream in his previous life.

This time, Wang Hongfa was silent for longer. After a few seconds, he said, "In principle, I agree. It would be good for our college to have another associate professor. But something happened today, and I think I should report it to you, President..."

Over the phone, Wang Hongfa gave an account of the afternoon's events, glossing over the serious parts.

He left out the part where Wu Chen had threatened him at the end, saying only that, after discussion, the college had decided to expel Yang Yuanjing.

After hearing him out, Xu Jianping was speechless for a moment.

He was unhappy about expelling a student, because that meant submitting another huge stack of student affairs paperwork.

But he didn't take it too seriously. After all, the university had nearly 5,000 students in each year, and at least a dozen or so delayed their graduation or left the university.

Besides, the little incident at the cafeteria that afternoon was hardly worth mentioning compared with the beheading at Jiahe Cafeteria a few years earlier.

But the key issue was Wu Chen's personal reputation.

When a promotion was fast-tracked, public opinion had to be taken into account.

If people found out that Wu Chen was suspected of having an inappropriate relationship with a female student, it would have an impact even if the suspicion was proven false.

The reason was simple:

Flies don't bite an egg without a crack. Why wasn't anyone else suspected, only you?

"Old Xu, how about promoting him just one rank for now and making him a lecturer?"

Wang Hongfa suggested.

Xu Jianping hesitated, but in the end he nodded in agreement.

The evaluation had reached a critical stage, and everything had to be handled cautiously.

After hanging up, Xu Jianping lit a cigarette and knitted his brows.

After some thought, he called an old friend.

As soon as the call connected, Xu Jianping's voice instantly turned warm.

"Brother Luo, didn't you have three PhDs working in artificial intelligence under you? Send them my way. We can work out their relocation allowances and benefits... No, no, this is an exchange of resources... Hahaha, no problem. We'll definitely share any results. After all, we're brothers, and our institutions are sister institutions too... All right, they'll report for work next month!"

After hanging up, Xu Jianping let out a long sigh and looked at the budget with a headache.

The three PhDs he had just secured were all from the province and had originally wanted to look for opportunities locally.

But he hadn't taken them before, so they had already planned to go to a C9 university in another province.

Now that he was poaching them, it would cost him much more.

But he could only swallow the loss.

He crossed out the funding and laboratory he had originally planned to allocate to Wu Chen, then scraped some more from the budgets of several other young lecturers. At last, he barely managed to put together enough resources.

Xu Jianping's thinking was this:

Wu Chen was certainly impressive for publishing three top-journal papers in a month, but three outstanding PhDs surely wouldn't be any worse than him, would they?

They might not be able to publish three in a month, but if each of them published one, they could still draw even, and the university's teaching staff would look better too.

Unless Wu Chen could publish eight.

Of course, Xu Jianping didn't even dare imagine such a thing.

Just as Xu Jianping was striving to be a master of balance, a knock finally came from outside his office.

"Come in."

The door opened.

Wu Chen walked in.