Associate Professor? A Full Professor!

"What question?"

Shen Jia's interest was instantly piqued. She felt as though she had caught the scent of a juicy scoop.

"I published eight papers in top journals, not seven."

Wu Chen said.

"Is that so?"

Shen Jia had come well prepared, but she had never expected that to be what concerned Wu Chen.

She had graduated from the School of Humanities with a degree in broadcasting and hosting and had gone straight to work after getting her bachelor's degree, so she was a little hazy on what they meant by top journals and SCI.

Wu Chen patiently explained it to her.

"One of my papers, 'Optimization of Semantic Vector Representations Based on Word2Vec and Its Application in Text Semantic Matching,' was published in FCS. It's actually just as important as the paper on the OpenCL architecture."

"Uh, what's FCS? Could you explain?"

"Frontiers of Computer Science. It's an international journal overseen by the Ministry of Education and jointly published by China Higher Education Press and Germany Springer Publishing House."

"I see..."

Shen Jia was still puzzled.

But just then, Wang Hongfa suddenly coughed and cut in. "Xiao Wu, have you remembered wrong? FCS is in Zone 3. It's not a core journal."

"It will be next year."

Wu Chen said calmly.

Actually, he was partly to blame. He hadn't checked carefully when he submitted the paper that day, relying instead on his memories from his previous life.

FCS had been founded in 2007, and in the 2008 SCI rankings, it really wasn't a top journal yet. It was just an ordinary Zone 3 journal.

A year later, however, it would be officially recognized as a top journal.

At the moment, though, his words struck everyone as arrogant and conceited.

A journal's SCI zone was determined by the Journal Citation Reports (JCR), which belonged to Thomson Reuters.[1]

But in any case, who was Wu Chen, a teaching assistant at a university that was neither a 985 nor a 211 institution, to sit here and hold forth on the fate of the world?

Did he cut keys?

Wang Hongfa sneered inwardly, but on the surface he put on a false air of concern as he asked Shen Jia a question.

"Xiao Shen, you can cut this part, right?"

"Of course, Dean Wang. This isn't a live broadcast."

Shen Jia said, struggling to hold back a smile.

Inside, she was practically blooming with delight.

There was no way she was cutting it.

The original footage had to air!

Where would the ratings come from without something outrageous?

At a time like this, forget her alma mater's reputation-even her own mother couldn't stop her!

She had even come up with a headline for Wu Chen.

Main headline: "Wu Chen: Seven Papers in Top Journals in Two Months Isn't My Limit-Eight Is!"

Subheading: "CS Will Be a Top Journal Next Year. I Said So!"

Wait, it didn't seem to be CS. What was that S again?

Whatever, that would do!

And Wu Chen really was handsome. The traffic from this was guaranteed; she was definitely going to land a major story!

Shen Jia happily made her plans as she struck while the iron was hot and pressed on.

"Teacher Wu, let's set the papers aside for now. People online are also very interested in what happened between you and that female student at the university. What do you have to say about it?"

Wu Chen had figured it out: Shen Jia was fanning the flames.

But he didn't care. Instead, he smiled at Wang Hongfa and said, "I can't bear to look, but I don't know how Dean Wang sees it."

He really wanted to say that Wang Hongfa was the one who had eaten the pork, and that it had nothing to do with him.

Unfortunately, there was no solid evidence. The recording was too poor in quality.

Wang Hongfa, who had been happily watching the drama, suddenly panicked.

He had only just managed to calm Yang Yuanjing down, and he had repeatedly warned Shen Jia not to ask about anything related to her. All she had to do was follow the university's official announcement.

Yet Wu Chen had stabbed him in the back on the spot again!

This time, though, he didn't blame Wu Chen. Instead, he stepped forward and said sternly to Shen Jia:

"Reporter Shen, if you keep asking irrelevant questions like that, we'll end the interview!"

"Sorry, Dean Wang. These questions came from my bosses at the station. There's nothing I can do."

Shen Jia offered a false apology.

Wang Hongfa gave her a long, hard look before stepping back to the side.

Shen Jia wasn't actually afraid.

She had graduated already, and Wang Hongfa couldn't scare her.

Besides, her uncle was a department head in the School of Humanities, so she had nothing to fear.

Even so, she put on a serious expression again and pointed the microphone at Wu Chen.

"Teacher Wu, the main subject of discussion this time is actually your paper on computing architecture. According to some foreign media reports, you used results in it that they hadn't published yet. How do you explain that?"

"What's so strange about that? It's perfectly normal for people to come up with the same ideas in scientific research."

"But that idea of yours was the result of work by dozens of top experts abroad, and yet you seem to have completed it on your own. Is that possible?"

"Why wouldn't it be?"

Wu Chen asked in return.

"But those experts abroad are all professors, aren't they? You've only just started working, and you're still just a teaching assistant?"

Shen Jia said.

Wu Chen was just about to speak when Wang Hongfa stepped forward again.

"Reporter Shen, I need to correct you. Teacher Wu is already a lecturer now. He's the pride of our school, and he's about to be considered for promotion to associate professor..."

"Wait!"

This time, before Wang Hongfa could finish, Xu Jianping, who was sitting behind the desk, actually interrupted him.

He pushed up his glasses and said sternly, "What associate professor? He's a full professor!"

"Huh?"

Everyone present was stunned. Even Wu Chen was surprised.

He himself hadn't known about it.

Xu Jianping looked at their expressions before addressing the camera with satisfaction.

"I'll take this opportunity to clarify a few things on the university's behalf. First, Teacher Wu's character is plain for all to see. Second, he is also outstanding in his academic work. Therefore, after an emergency review, the university's academic committee has decided to make an exceptional promotion and appoint him a full professor!

"As for the attempts by certain foreign forces to incite online abuse against Teacher Wu, Xiaoheshan University of Technology will not stand idly by. We must take legal action to safeguard the dignity of every teacher and student!

"We want everyone to know!

"Xiaoheshan University of Technology is not only a source of support for every student at the University of Technology, but also a champion of cutting-edge scientific and technological innovation and a defender of justice!"

His righteous speech immediately changed the atmosphere in the room.

Clap, clap!

A burst of applause rang out in the office.

Everyone turned to see Wang Hongfa clapping vigorously, his expression full of excitement.

"President Xu, that was so well said! It's a perfect embodiment of the words 'cultivate virtue and practice diligently' in our university motto!"

No wonder this old geezer managed to stand firm in the dean's seat in my previous life!

Wu Chen curled his lip inwardly.

If that girl hadn't secretly kept a record back then, there really would have been nothing they could do to him.

But after exchanging a glance, neither he nor Shen Jia applauded. They just felt a little awkward.

Clap, clap, clap!

To their surprise, another round of applause suddenly rang out behind them.

Everyone turned to look.

Yang Yuanjing was clapping vigorously along with Wang Hongfa, tears streaming down her face.

Meeting everyone's gazes, she hurriedly sniffled and said:

"President Xu, I know I was wrong too. Could you stand up for me and give me another chance...?"

Xu Jianping was suddenly as disgusted as if he had swallowed her snot.

He said sharply, "We will never show leniency to criminals!"

Clap, clap.

This time, the moment he finished speaking, Wu Chen started clapping.

At the same time, he didn't forget to remind Wang Hongfa. "Dean Wang, what are you standing there for? Applaud!"

"I..."

The expression on Wang Hongfa's face nearly fell apart, but he gave two token claps as well.

This time, even Shen Jia joined in the applause.

At the sight, Yang Yuanjing finally broke down. With a loud wail, she rushed out of the office.

The two police officers hurried after her.

With them following her, no one else had to worry about anything happening.

Xu Jianping didn't even spare her another glance. Instead, he came over to Wu Chen and patted him on the shoulder.

"Professor Wu, why don't you take this opportunity to tell everyone about the results of your research on camera? That'll shut up those people with ulterior motives!"

[1] Clarivate Analytics acquired Thomson Reuters' intellectual property and science business in 2016. Journal Citation Reports (JCR) has been operated by Clarivate Analytics ever since.