Professor Tan nodded. While MIT’s mathematics program wasn’t necessarily the best, Xue Jiao had always been firm in her convictions, just like when she chose Tsinghua over Peking University and Fudan.

He simply asked, “Have you decided on an advisor?”

Xue Jiao hesitated for a moment, and after some thought, decided to be honest: “Academician Xi recommended a professor to me at Stanford, JAS. He also suggested I apply there. But actually, I have another idea… an MIT professor, but he’s never accepted students before. I don’t know if my application will be successful.”

Never accepted students?

This surprised Professor Tan, and he looked at her questioningly: “Who is it?”

“Nard.”

Professor Tan almost instinctively frowned. He knew of this person, famously a “madman.” In his earlier years, he had been something of a genius, becoming an MIT professor at just thirty. However, after turning thirty, he supposedly abandoned mathematical research and became obsessed with constellations. It had been over twenty years, and he was still the same.

“Conrad no longer does research…”

“No,” Xue Jiao’s voice was resolute. “He’s still researching, just without results yet.”

She had only accidentally discovered news about Conrad on foreign websites. His twenty-plus years of constellation research were mathematics.

The constellation map that Cheng Mingze had given her, which had hung by her bed and accompanied her through all these years—Migalsi’s “Constellation Mathematics.”

That’s what Xue Jiao called it, though she didn’t know what Conrad called it.

Her voice was so certain that it surprised Professor Tan, but this was Xue Jiao’s decision, and he didn’t try to dissuade her.

A teacher is a guide, not a decision-maker.

“Are you sure about this?”

“I’m sure. I want to apply first.” She couldn’t forget that map, the first thing that sparked her interest when entering the world of mathematics.

That’s how life is sometimes; occasionally, you want to follow your heart.

Conrad wasn’t a “madman,” just an “obsessive,” and Xue Jiao wanted to meet him.

Just like back then, when she was determined to study under Professor Tan.

Sometimes she was just that stubborn, but she didn’t want to give up her stubbornness.

Professor Tan didn’t try to persuade her otherwise. After several years, he understood what kind of student she was.

“All right. By the way, what’s your project theme?”

“Celestial geometric analysis problems.”

Professor Tan was startled, and his voice involuntarily rose: “You want to follow Conrad to research some constellation thing?”

Xue Jiao nodded seriously.

Professor Tan: “…”

——

Xue Jiao was essentially chased out by Professor Tan. He usually maintained a teacher’s dignity, but having become familiar with Xue Jiao, he didn’t bother with pretenses anymore.

Like just now, when provoked, he directly drove her out.

Xue Jiao wasn’t upset and left Professor Tan’s office with a playful smile.

But when she thought about how she hadn’t been forthright with Lin Zhihua, her mood sank again.

She didn’t want to go abroad, but it was the best choice. Studying under Professor Conrad for two years was also her new wish.

She already had so little time to accompany Lin Zhihua, and now she would be going abroad for two years. Would he be so angry that he’d stop talking to her?

Xue Jiao was conflicted, walking slowly with her head down.

When she reached the school gate, she remembered she hadn’t sent Lin Zhihua a message.

After sending the message, Xue Jiao sat on a bench inside the campus to wait. She would go out after he arrived.

The weather was still hot, but in a couple of days, military training for the new batch of students would begin.

The bench was in the shade, and in the afternoon, the sun was blocked by the trees. In the distance, the fiery red sunset was setting.

Xue Jiao’s gaze wandered. On the path in front of her, students were walking back and forth, both freshmen and older students.

She didn’t recognize any of them, so she couldn’t tell what year they were in.

Her gaze drifted further. Her project hadn’t officially started yet, but once again, she planned to work alone rather than form a team.

After discussing with her, Academician Xi felt that this project was a major undertaking that required a team.

But that wasn’t the case. Over the past few years, Xue Jiao had occasionally studied that map, researched a lot of materials, and done simple calculations.

She had already developed a certain understanding of celestial geometric problems; what remained was how to establish an analytical framework…

Xue Jiao had analyzed it and knew she could handle this project on her own, so she didn’t form a team.

Speaking of teams, Xue Jiao recalled working on the “Flying Car Theory” project with Zhang Han and others.

Zhang Han had gone abroad to pursue a doctorate, and soon after she left, Yang Zhan followed, attending the same university—one for a PhD, the other for a master’s.

After chasing each other for two years, they finally got together.

Zheng Jiakun also went abroad this year, studying for a master’s at Stanford, which was also why Academician Xi had been recommending that school to Xue Jiao.

But she still preferred MIT’s Professor Conrad.

Chu Sheng was also busy. The last time Xue Jiao sent him a message, he replied a day later.

After completing their flying car theory, he formed a new team of physics students interested in flying cars to continue exploration.

Thinking about these hardworking people, Xue Jiao couldn’t help but smile.

Everyone was outstanding and still striving to become even better.

She was lost in thought and didn’t notice two male students approaching noisily beside her.

“Senior, do you know her?”

“She looks familiar, but I didn’t see her in my sophomore year. Is she in your class?” The person hesitated, but he truly hadn’t seen this person at school before. Someone so beautiful would surely have left an impression…

“Senior… she’s so pretty…”

“I’m not blind… Go talk to her if you want!”

“Ah? Wouldn’t that be inappropriate?”

“What are you afraid of? You’re in college now! Don’t be scared!” The sophomore tried to appear calm while encouraging his freshman roommate, but his hands were nervously adjusting his clothes, and his face showed tension.

The freshman was quite bold. He stepped forward and sat down beside Xue Jiao.

“Hello, are you from our school?”

Xue Jiao came back to her senses and turned her head. Beside her sat a bespectacled boy who looked very young, clearly still quite young.

Behind the boy with glasses stood another boy with a baby face, who gave her a cute smile, revealing two small canine teeth.

She politely replied, “Yes…”

“I’m a freshman in the mathematics department this year, and this is my roommate, a sophomore from the mathematics department. How about you, beautiful?” the young bespectacled boy smiled.

Xue Jiao was a bit surprised to meet junior schoolmates here. She smiled gently: “I’m also from the mathematics department.”

“What a coincidence, are we classmates?” His eyes lit up.

Xue Jiao shook her head. At that moment, her phone vibrated slightly.

Her eyes brightened—Lin Zhihua had arrived!

Xue Jiao stood up and replied, “Junior, I have something to attend to, I need to go.”

With that, she walked away.

Junior???

The bespectacled boy and the baby-faced boy exchanged glances, completely bewildered.

“So she’s a senior? Senior, how could you not have seen such a beautiful senior before?!”

The baby-faced boy rubbed his chin, indeed feeling that she looked increasingly familiar.

A moment later, his pupils contracted as if he’d realized something, and he took out his phone with a shocked expression to open the official website.

“Senior, why aren’t you saying anything?”

The bespectacled boy had just asked when he saw his senior covering his phone, jumping up excitedly yet painfully—

“Ahhhhhh I just saw the Gu Deity! And we even tried to chat her up!! We spoke to her!!!!”

The bespectacled boy was completely confused. After the baby-faced boy calmed down, he directly opened Baidu Encyclopedia’s “Gu Xue Jiao” entry to show him.

A moment later, he began to question his life.

After another moment, he opened his mouth: “Senior… Tsinghua seniors… are they all this awesome?”

He was somewhat doubting his life and beginning to feel like a complete novice.

So from that day on, the legend of the “Gu Deity” began to spread among Tsinghua freshmen.

Of course, Xue Jiao knew nothing about this.

She sat in Lin Zhihua’s car on the way home, and then they planned to cook dinner together—though she was mainly responsible for odd jobs.

“Jiao Jiao, so you won’t be as busy in your senior year?” Lin Zhihua’s eyes brightened slightly.

Xue Jiao nodded: “Mm when I don’t need to be at school, I can go to the company with you.”

She felt somewhat guilty because, after this year, she might be going abroad to study.

Lin Zhihua smiled: “Finally, I won’t have to keep an empty house anymore.”

The last few words were spoken softly and suggestively.

Xue Jiao glared at him, but her cheeks turned slightly red.

Lin Zhihua drove the car into the garage. Xue Jiao opened her mouth, wanting to mention the possibility of going abroad.

But his first action after stopping the car was to unbuckle his seatbelt, turn around, half-covering her body, and gently bite her lips as she was about to speak.

She responded lightly, and Lin Zhihua paused before his attack became more fierce.

After a while, Xue Jiao pushed him away breathlessly, while also pulling his hand out from under her clothes.

“Let’s go, time to make dinner.”

Lin Zhihua licked his upper lip, savoring the moment.

Xue Jiao pushed open the car door with a red face and a pounding heart, clearly having forgotten what she wanted to say.

Afterward, she found several opportunities to mention this matter but was always unintentionally interrupted by Lin Zhihua.

Xue Jiao thought about it and didn’t bring it up again.

She wanted to study under Professor Conrad, but he might not necessarily accept her. She would tell Lin Zhihua later. She could procrastinate for as long as possible…

This waiting continued until February when Xue Jiao completed the first draft of her thesis.

This draft was somewhat rushed, but the IT application deadline was approaching, so she had to finish it and send it along with an email to Professor Conrad.

Xue Jiao took a deep breath, turned, and submitted all her application materials along with recommendation letters from Academician Xi and others.

She would first send a message to Professor Conrad to let him know about her, explaining in the letter her reasons and determination to study under him. Otherwise, she feared that even if she submitted her application, Professor Conrad might not be willing to accept her.

After submitting everything, Xue Jiao began to feel anxious, not just because of the application, but also because… she hadn’t told Lin Zhihua.

Xue Jiao became restless, and during this period, Lin Zhihua became busy. She tried to talk to him about it several times, but he was too occupied, so it kept getting delayed.

Meanwhile, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Conrad angrily shouted at the student beside him: “Idiot! I told you to watch it, what were you doing?! Do you know how important this is to me?! Idiot!”

The white-skinned student lowered his head, staying quiet.

“How could our school admit someone as stupid as you? What’s even more outrageous is that you’re not only stupid but also careless! Do you know that you—”

“Professor!” The student suddenly raised his head.

Conrad was taken aback and looked at the student who was sneering at him.

The student threw what he was holding onto the ground and sneered: “Professor Conrad, twenty-some years, you’ve been doing this for over twenty years. If you could have achieved results, you would have done so long ago. You used to be a genius, but now you’ve lost your ability. Do you think I want to be here? If I hadn’t offended Marl, how could I have been assigned to you? You call me stupid? No, Professor, I think you’re the truly stupid one!”

“You—”

“I’ve had enough. Deduct points if you must, I don’t want to stay here for even one more day. Being here is just a waste of time! The entire mathematics community knows that Professor Conrad has long been washed up…”

With those words, the student walked away, ignoring Conrad who was gasping for air in anger.

Conrad patted his chest, taking a long time to recover.

Then he collapsed to the ground in dejection. How many was this now? It seemed like this one had only lasted about twenty days. Now even these freshmen were starting to mock him.

This student was truly stupid in Conrad’s view. He didn’t expect these people to understand what he had been doing for so many years, but since they were here, they should have a serious attitude, yet this student was both stupid and careless!

He had only asked the student to watch the computer and export the data immediately when it terminated, but this student sat beside him playing games, and an hour after termination, the data had already been invalidated.

Conrad didn’t want anyone to bother him, but recently, the research he had been doing for over twenty years was beginning to show promise. Conrad became anxious and wanted to speed up the process, so he asked the department to assign someone to help.

Who knew they wouldn’t assign someone capable, but instead sent a sophomore who understood nothing?

Conrad felt angry but also helpless. After twenty-some years, even the school had given up on him.

The computer beeped, and the scruffy Conrad immediately stood up and quickly walked over.

To hell with these idiots!

He had been working alone for over twenty years, and he would continue!

Soon, Conrad began redoing the invalidated data.

“Beep beep—” an email notification.

Conrad irritably prepared to close it. Which idiot was contacting him now?

Just as he was about to close it, his eyes inadvertently swept over the subject of the email—

“Migalsi, Constellation Map.”

Conrad froze, frowning as he opened it.

After a while, having read all the contents, he stood up and paced around the room, even more troubled.

He walked around in circles, his frown deepening.

In April, Xue Jiao received her IT offer, accompanied by a single sentence from Professor Conrad—

Hurry up, come over.

Xue Jiao: “…”

For some reason, she vaguely felt that her master’s journey might be… different from what she had imagined.

But now, the most crucial thing was how to tell Lin Zhihua that she was going abroad.

Xue Jiao rubbed her head, feeling like she was losing her hair from stress.

That evening, Xue Jiao first told Cheng Shuo and the others. The three were initially stunned but then smiled.

They would miss her, but this was good for Xue Jiao, and there was no reason to stop her.

“Congratulations, Jiao Jiao, our Jiao Jiao is amazing!” Cheng Shuo’s voice was happy.

Li Sitong was even happier: “Jiao Jiao is so great!”

She would have more to boast about when she went out for beauty treatments with the other ladies.

Everyone was happy for her, but after the initial joy, they began asking when she would leave and giving various advice, turning joy into concern.

They chatted until very late when Cheng Shuo suddenly asked: “Does Lin Zhihua know?”

Xue Jiao fell silent.

“You haven’t told him yet?!” Cheng Shuo’s voice rose.

Xue Jiao nodded: “I don’t know how to bring it up. I feel like I’m letting him down.”

Several times she had mustered the courage to speak but was interrupted. Xue Jiao felt guilty and kept postponing it day by day until now.

Cheng Shuo was silent for a moment, then said: “You still need to tell him in person…”

Xue Jiao bit her lower lip and, after a moment, stood up: “I’ll go to his place.”

With that, she ran out.

Cheng Mingze was stunned and instinctively stood up: “It’s so late, and she’s running to Lin Zhihua’s place…”

Li Sitong held him back, smiling with a meaningful expression: “They’re already committed to each other, they’ll be husband and wife sooner or later. Jiao Jiao isn’t a child anymore; if she wants to stay at Lin Zhihua’s place, let her.”

Cheng Mingze said nothing and sat back down.

Cheng Shuo didn’t say anything either. One year might not reveal someone’s character, but after two, three, or four years, what was there left to see?

Lin Zhihua… was indeed the one who would accompany Xue Jiao for life.

The Cheng family spoke a few more words before going to bed, while on the other side, Xue Jiao knocked on Lin Zhihua’s door.