He Killed Me

"Yes, especially in the field of artificial intelligence. We're at least thirty years behind those advanced Western countries like the American imperialists!"

This time, Wang Hongfa answered quickly, but the moment he opened his mouth, he took everyone back to the early days of reform and opening up.

"I don't think that's necessarily true."

Jiang Nan paid no heed to Wang Hongfa's dignity. She stood and said to everyone, "We did fall behind once, but aren't we catching up bit by bit now? Why must we belittle ourselves?"

She opened the computer beside her and brought up a set of Taobao chat records for everyone to see.

"This is a shop I found last week that restores old photos. The owner took less than an hour to restore a badly damaged photo of my grandmother. Although he didn't say so outright, I consulted other people and found that it couldn't possibly have been done by hand. He used advanced image-processing technology!"

Wang Hongfa had been confronted out of nowhere, but he could only force a smile and lean over to look at the screen.

As an artificial intelligence researcher, he quickly drew a conclusion from the timestamps and a comparison of the photos before and after restoration.

It really did seem to have been done with an intelligent algorithm, and the result was noticeably different from manual Photoshop work.

"My grandparents both studied in the Soviet Union. They always respected foreign technology and maintained a humble attitude toward learning from it."

Jiang Nan glanced at Lavrov. "But at the same time, they never stopped striving to better themselves, hoping that one day they could catch up with and surpass foreign technology.

"But at her memorial service, Dean Wang, you kept praising foreign technology, as though they were invincible and impossible to catch up with.

"You even joined a lecherous American in belittling your own country.

"I think what you've done is wrong. You've let down all of us diligent researchers!"

After Jiang Nan finished speaking, the atmosphere in the room turned awkward for a moment.

In 2008, public intellectuals still ran rampant.

Back then, loudly proclaiming your patriotism was a very "shameful" thing. Do it on the internet, and people could hound you with hundreds of abusive private messages.

It was as though patriotism were an original sin.

But Jiang Nan was perfectly at ease, without a trace of shame on her face.

Wang Hongfa was having trouble saving face.

Whatever else he was, he counted as Jiang Nan's superior. With her pointing at his nose and lecturing him like this, she had all but called him a traitor.

He wanted to strike back fiercely.

But when he thought of the millions in industry-funded research grants and the pale thighs at the club, he forcibly swallowed his anger.

Industry funding came from businesses and was subject to relatively loose oversight, giving him plenty of freedom. Compared with government- or university-funded grants in particular, the level of scrutiny was worlds apart. He could spend it however he wanted.

But he was unwilling to let it go without fighting back.

Wang Hongfa's eyes darted around, and he suddenly pointed at Wu Chen.

"Teacher Jiang, your specialty is pharmacy, so you might not understand the development of artificial intelligence. This isn't a problem that can be solved with sentiment alone. But Teacher Wu also earned his doctorate abroad, so let's have him tell us whether the gap between us and the advanced Western countries in artificial intelligence is a big one!"

Is this old geezer too embarrassed to go head-to-head with Jiang Nan, so he wants me to step into the ring?

Wu Chen chuckled.

He had originally planned to keep a low profile at Wang Hongfa's side and slowly gather evidence.

But seeing Jiang Nan's courage suddenly stirred something in him.

The longer you spent in the jianghu, the smaller your courage became.

In his previous life, he had lived cautiously so his parents wouldn't have to worry, yet things hadn't ended well for him. He had let these parasites ride on his head and run wild.

Now that he was living a second life, he was still young, and both his parents were doing well. He didn't have to worry about family matters.

When one person ate, the whole family had enough. Why should he keep his head down?

So Wu Chen said directly:

"Overall, we may be a little behind at the moment, but China is definitely ahead in certain areas, and we'll soon take the lead across the board."

He was a reincarnator with a system. Leading China to the forefront across the board really was no empty boast!

Wang Hongfa hadn't expected Wu Chen to stab him in the back again.

He had seemed so easy to control before, so why had he suddenly stopped obeying?

His expression darkened. "Then tell us where we're ahead."

"The SNN we're discussing today."

Wu Chen smiled.

"Nonsense. That's the result of my work with Professor Lavrov. How did it become China's..."

Wang Hongfa retorted instinctively.

Wu Chen chuckled.

"Dean Wang, it's one thing to fool other people, but how did you end up fooling yourself too? Is that your work? Which did you do, the paper or the sample?"

"Huh?"

How dare this brat!

Isn't he afraid I'll make him lose his job?!

When Wang Hongfa heard Wu Chen expose the truth in public, his head buzzed, his blood rushed to his head, and everything went black. He fainted on the spot.

Lavrov, standing nearby, was dumbfounded too.

Wang Hongfa had assured him that Wu Chen would definitely swallow the insult for the sake of getting a faculty position!

So all this time, he and Wang Hongfa had been using Wu Chen's work to swagger about and deceive people.

Besides Jiangdong Pharmaceutical Factory, they had met quite a few other peers, treating the paper and sample entirely as their own.

If the truth came out, his academic reputation would suffer too!

Fortunately, after Wang Hongfa fainted, the meeting came to an end, sparing Lavrov further embarrassment.

Everyone hurriedly carried him to a car and took him to the nearby Xixi Hospital.

After staying in the hospital room for a while, Wu Chen left the hospital, intending to go home.

When he reached the hospital entrance, he was just about to hail a taxi when he heard a red Mercedes-Benz C200 at the roadside honk twice.

He looked toward the sound. The window slowly rolled down, revealing Jiang Nan's face, beautiful enough to topple a kingdom with only a light touch of makeup.

"Teacher Wu, let me drive you home."

"Then thank you."

Wu Chen didn't stand on ceremony. He went straight to Jiang Nan's car and got into the passenger seat.

As soon as he got in, he felt as though he were sitting by West Lake in October, surrounded by the faint fragrance of osmanthus.

In his previous life, he had heard that plenty of men wanted a ride in Jiang Nan's car but never got their wish. He hadn't expected to get in so easily himself.

Unlike other women's cars, Jiang Nan's had no unnecessary ornaments, and the steering wheel wasn't covered in densely packed rhinestones. It was clean and understated, just like her.

"Teacher Wu, where do you live? In the school apartments?"

"No. I applied for a faculty apartment when I joined, but Wang Hongfa didn't approve it, so I rent a place outside. Go west along Liuhe Road, to Xiaohe Mountain Apartments at the end."

Jiang Nan nodded and started the car.

It was the evening rush hour, and the roads were crowded, but the red Mercedes darted through the torrent like a nimble fish.

Even while speeding along, Jiang Nan could still chat with Wu Chen.

"Is Dean Wang all right?"

"He's fine. He actually woke up ages ago, but he was too embarrassed to get up. As soon as I left, he ran to the bathroom."

Wu Chen said.

The old geezer already had prostate trouble. Wasn't he afraid holding it in would make him sick?

Jiang Nan seemed to give a quiet laugh too.

After a while, she asked, "You spoke to him like that today. Aren't you afraid he'll retaliate?"

"No."

Wu Chen spoke nonchalantly.

"Did you really make the prototype for that Prometheus No. 1?"

"Yes, but I call it Vengeance No. 1."

"Why?"

"Because he killed me."