You Seem Pretty Experienced at This?

Seeing Jiang Nan's speechless expression, Wang Hongfa laughed. "Teacher Jiang, I was just as surprised as you were at the time, but that's where foreign countries are ahead of us."

"Mm."

Jiang Nan couldn't help cursing him inwardly as a foreign-worshipping sycophant.

During an earlier conversation, she had heard Wu Chen complain that a group of people at Chinese universities, especially the old fossils in the humanities and social sciences, were utterly infatuated with foreign things.

She hadn't expected Wang Hongfa, the dean of a science and engineering school, to be the same.

Wang Hongfa, meanwhile, thought he had convinced Jiang Nan. He was just about to press his advantage when she interrupted him.

"Dean Wang, although I also greatly admire the craftsmanship abroad, Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory still can't put up the money first for this collaboration. We can only sign a sales agreement."

"Well..."

Wang Hongfa nearly swore.

But he kept his patience and asked, "What are the specific terms of the agreement?"

"If the product passes technical acceptance, I can promise to place orders worth at least ten million next year, and double that the year after."

Jiang Nan said.

The terms were a bit like trying to catch a white wolf with bare hands.

But after a great deal of hesitation, Wang Hongfa still agreed.

He had to produce sufficient results to secure the position of dean when the two schools merged next year.

So he decided to take a gamble.

The final cooperation agreement was therefore as follows:

Jiang Nan would contribute 500,000 in the name of Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory to establish a research institute with Xiaoheshan University of Technology. Wang Hongfa would contribute four million in startup funds on behalf of the School of Information Engineering, along with three PhDs and seven master's graduates to handle product development.

To pass acceptance, the product had to operate continuously and reliably for one month under actual working conditions, with a machine detection rate of at least 95 percent.

Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory, for its part, had to guarantee total sales of 30 million within three years after the technology passed development and acceptance, with a gross profit margin of no less than twenty percent.

Papers and patents produced during product development would be shared by the School of Information Engineering and Carnegie Mellon University, while Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory would receive lifetime usage rights.

"Teacher Jiang, your factory has worked with the university for many years, but this is your first time working with us at Information Engineering. You could say we've opened up a new track."

After the agreement was settled, Wang Hongfa spoke with a broad smile.

If the collaboration went well, his chances of becoming dean of the future School of Computer Science would be one hundred percent.

After all, this was a model case of cooperation bringing together a private enterprise and universities both at home and abroad. It was well worth boasting about!

"Let's get the agreement approved first."

Jiang Nan spoke coolly.

"Don't worry about that. I'll smooth things over with the university. I guarantee there won't be a problem."

Wang Hongfa patted his chest.

Seeing that there was nothing else, Jiang Nan prepared to take her leave.

Wang Hongfa rose to see her out, but then seemed to remember something. He chose his words carefully before speaking.

"Teacher Jiang, although you and Wu Chen from our school aren't dating yet, there's something I still have to tell you."

"What is it?"

Jiang Nan asked.

Wang Hongfa hurriedly opened his computer and showed her the trending searches on Weibo.

"I'll deal with the matter of Yang Yuanjing today, but the Science and Public Policy Institute is a British organization. What they say is quite credible, so I'm not trying to stir up trouble, but Teacher Jiang, you should still keep your guard up when dealing with Wu Chen in the future..."

He sighed as he spoke, rather like an elder trying to counsel a younger person who had lost her way.

Jiang Nan ignored him and looked through several of the related trending searches instead.

Then she said, "Dean Wang, six of the papers Wu Chen published were published abroad. Surely their reviewers couldn't all have helped him falsify them?"

Although Wu Chen had previously told her she could just join Wang Hongfa in criticizing him, Jiang Nan still couldn't bring herself to do it.

Wang Hongfa smiled awkwardly. "Well... paving roads isn't the same as doing academic research. There's a lot to it, especially when it comes to computers..."

He rattled off a long string of incomprehensible nonsense.

He claimed that algorithm optimization was just reskinning foreign open-source code, and that architectural innovations were cobbled together from other people's unrealized concepts, praising Wu Chen to his face while putting him down behind the praise.

But Jiang Nan no longer had the heart to keep up the act with him. The agreement had been settled, and her task was complete.

So she walked straight out of the office.

This damned girl really does trust Wu Chen. She must be blind!

Watching her slender figure disappear into the elevator, Wang Hongfa couldn't help feeling a trace of jealousy and wanted to call Liu Ping over to let off some steam.

But he had more important things to do right now.

First, he had to inform the university president, Xu Jianping, about the cooperation.

Second, he had to expel Yang Yuanjing immediately and distance himself from her personally.

So he called Yang Yuanjing first and warned her not to say too much and affect the university.

Then he organized the materials and headed straight for the president's office.

Meanwhile, after Jiang Nan came out of Wang Hongfa's office, she had intended to head straight back.

But when she checked the time, she saw that class was almost over, so she went to the classroom where Wu Chen was teaching, intending to tell him about the trending searches she had just seen.

She figured Wu Chen was so busy that he probably didn't know about it yet.

When she reached the multimedia classroom on the third floor, she remembered interrupting his class last time, so she waited by the stairs.

She had only been standing there for a few minutes when she heard two girls whispering as they approached from the direction of the restroom.

"Linlin, do you really want to publicly show your support for Teacher Wu?"

"Mm... do you think I look pretty today?"

"You do, but what does that have to do with supporting him? You're not really going to confess to him, are you?"

"No, I can't do that. It would affect him. I just need to let him know how I feel, hehe."

"Wow, girl, you're so brave! I bet... ah!"

One of the girls was halfway through speaking when she suddenly turned and saw Jiang Nan standing quietly there. She couldn't help letting out a startled cry.

They had never expected someone to be lying in wait there during class, and panic immediately appeared on their faces at having their secret feelings discovered.

Then the two exchanged a glance and, without another word, hurried into the classroom.

Jiang Nan calmly smoothed her hair.

More than ten minutes later, the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

The corridor, which had been empty moments ago, was suddenly packed with a rush of students.

After the crowd dispersed, she was just about to go look for Wu Chen when she saw that he was already walking toward her.

"Teacher Jiang, were you waiting for me?"

"How did you know?"

Jiang Nan asked in surprise.

Wu Chen sounded a little helpless. "Two students went to the restroom just now. They saw you here and told me."

Understanding dawned on Jiang Nan.

When students were in high school, they could hold it in all morning.

But once they got to university, they couldn't wait a single minute. In almost every class, there were students who ran out halfway through to take a dump.

If there weren't, the teacher ought to wonder whether his lecture was so bad that everyone had fallen dead asleep.

The lights in the teaching building had not yet been turned on.

The last rays of evening slanted through the classroom windows, bathing the empty corridor, the mottled walls, and the fine dust floating in the air in a warm, tranquil orange-gold.

Jiang Nan and Wu Chen walked side by side at just the right distance from each other. The setting sun stretched their shadows long behind them; every now and then, the shadows overlapped at a corner of the wall before separating again with their steps.

A long-lost sense of peace and ease from her student days quietly enveloped her.

She turned to look at Wu Chen's profile and saw that, after hearing about the trending searches, he showed no sign of surprise.

"That Yang Yuanjing is talking nonsense. Aren't you angry?"

Jiang Nan couldn't help asking.

Wu Chen smiled. "I wouldn't say I'm angry. It's just really disgusting, like having a toad stuck to my foot."

Jiang Nan hated soft-bodied animals. When she pictured the scene, she couldn't help frowning.

"Then what are you going to do?"

She asked.

"Call the police. They've already gone to see President Xu, and I need to go over there too."

Wu Chen shrugged.

Jiang Nan opened her mouth in surprise.

"Is something wrong?"

Wu Chen glanced at her curiously.

"I thought you'd go easy on her because she's a student."

Jiang Nan voiced what she had been thinking.

She also found public incidents troublesome, especially now that the internet was so widespread. After every public opinion storm, the people involved had to submit a huge pile of documents.

While checking assignments that morning, she had also received a confession email from a sophomore boy in her class. She was still wondering whether to warn him privately or report it to the school.

If she reported it, the boy would certainly be affected, and he would definitely have no chance of getting recommended for graduate school in the future.

"Throw one punch now, and you won't have to face a hundred later."

"Oh."

Jiang Nan nodded and asked, "You seem pretty experienced at this?"

Thanks, everyone, for the monthly votes, and thanks to brother qzhqwq for the tip. I'm going to have some barbecue later, hhh.

As for extra chapters, apparently they can affect the numbers during a new book's run, although this book can hardly be said to have numbers, and there's no hope of it taking off anymore. So I'll release a burst of chapters when it goes premium. I do have a stockpile.

PS: I still can't resist saying it: I never, ever expected this book to have the worst new-book-period numbers of any book I've written, when I put so much care into preparing it T.T