A male student from the Computer Science College expounded grandly: “Lin Zhixia finished her undergraduate degree in three years and her doctorate in two. That’s too intense. If she’s this harsh on herself, what about her students? Damn, taking her course would be a disaster. This semester, I still need to manage an internship, study for the TOEFL and GRE—how would I have enough time?”

His roommate still hesitated: “But Professor Lin… is so beautiful, so beautiful.”

Today, Lin Zhixia wore a black suit skirt with a tightly cinched waistline and a knee-length hem, appearing quite graceful and charming. Standing quietly in the corridor with her back to the students in the classroom, she evoked idioms like “standing gracefully like jade” and “beauty like flowers and moon.” Several students passing by couldn’t help but turn their heads to look at her.

Dropping Lin Zhixia’s course…

It was truly a difficult decision!

Some students in the lecture hall gathered to discuss for a moment.

Although Lin Zhixia was a responsible teacher with genuine knowledge and skills, the difficulty of assignments and exams made students retreat. The male student from the Computer Science College advised everyone: “If you want to see Professor Lin, just come to the classroom to audit. Visit her office on Friday for face-to-face discussions, which is better than struggling with this course.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he shouldered his backpack and waved to everyone: “I’m going to the library to study, and I’ll drop ‘Quantum Bits and Computers’ along the way.”

He took a group of followers with him.

The back rows of the lecture hall were almost empty.

Almost all the male students from the Computer Science College had left, while many students from the Interdisciplinary College were still struggling to hold on.

Looking across the entire classroom, there were no more than forty students truly interested in this course, with the most enthusiastic being the “God of the Interdisciplinary College”—his full name was Cui Yiming, respectfully called “God Ming” by his classmates.

Cui Yiming pushed up the glasses on his nose bridge, gazed at the notes Lin Zhixia had left on the board, and revealed a chilling smile. He abruptly stood up from his seat, packed his bag, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and hurriedly walked a few steps.

His roommate asked in horror: “God Ming, are you dropping the course?”

“Dropping my ass,” Cui Yiming explained, “There’s an empty seat in the front row. I’m going to sit in the front row.”

*

After the class bell rang, Lin Zhixia entered the lecture hall again.

She was stunned for a few seconds.

Her class had lost half its students.

Why would this happen?

Students Lin Zhixia had taught all praised her highly.

Even today, she still frequently receives emails from Han Guang and Wu Pinyan, both undergraduates she had taught at Cambridge. Currently, one was pursuing a doctorate at MIT and the other at Cambridge, both determined to enter the research field.

Lin Zhixia’s undergraduate roommate, Deng Shasha, sent her a message every Teachers’ Day: “Happy holiday, little Professor Lin! Student Shasha will always love you.”

Lin Zhixia never imagined that the withdrawal rate for “Quantum Bits and Computers” would exceed fifty percent.

“Quantum Bits and Computers” was complemented by a weekly lab class. Lin Zhixia had already written the group arrangements and schedule. Suddenly losing half her students, she experienced her first teaching setback in her life. If too many students withdrew, the course would be suspended by the Academic Affairs Office.

But she had prepared for a long time and invested considerable effort.

Lin Zhixia supported herself against the lectern with her left hand, reflecting on her performance in the previous class. There were no academic mistakes—she had introduced several of the most interesting algorithms in “quantum computing,” and outlined the future development direction of this field. The neighboring Physics Department’s highly difficult courses, like “String Theory” and “Quantum Spin Simulation,” had many students happily attending. Why would Lin Zhixia suffer defeat on the “quantum computing” battlefield?

Countless thoughts flashed through her mind.

She had to admit feeling somewhat dejected and disappointed.

Even though she understood many principles, when negative emotions arose in her heart, she couldn’t quickly resolve them in just a few minutes. She took a deep breath and said in a calm tone: “Alright, let’s continue with our lecture… In the last class, we mentioned entangled states and density matrices. Quantum states are inseparable from probability problems, while also considering Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle—position and momentum cannot be determined simultaneously [1]…”

Hearing this, two students by the window in the fifth row suddenly picked up their bags and tiptoed out of the classroom—one of the male students felt somewhat reluctant, occasionally turning back to look at Lin Zhixia.

Lin Zhixia paused briefly.

“Quantum Bits and Computers” opened course selection channels for six colleges. Compared to the Interdisciplinary College and Physics Department, students from other colleges, such as Software Engineering and Computer Science, probably had little exposure to quantum mechanics concepts. So, even if Lin Zhixia was just introducing simple term definitions, it would frighten off some young people afraid of failing the course.

Lin Zhixia steadied herself and continued teaching.

She deliberately slowed her pace and interspersed two jokes, intentionally adjusting the classroom atmosphere.

Finally, relaxed laughter echoed through the classroom.

A freshman auditing the class cupped his face in both hands, staring at Lin Zhixia without blinking, his pupils shining brightly. Lin Zhixia felt that her teaching approach must have some merit.

*

After class, Lin Zhixia took out her phone, initially wanting to call Jiang Yubai, but then remembered he was busy these days and might not have time to chat with her. So she put her phone back into her backpack.

The “God of the Interdisciplinary College” blocked her path.

She turned around and asked: “Your name is Cui Yiming, right? Hello.”

Cui Yiming raised his eyebrows slightly: “Professor recognizes me?”

Lin Zhixia knew all the students in the Interdisciplinary College. She had seen group photos of the students, with each person’s name corresponding on the back of the photo. Through this method, she had memorized their appearances and names.

She didn’t answer Cui Yiming’s question, instead asking him: “Do you have any research interests?”

Cui Yiming smiled. He said that in his sophomore year, his undergraduate advisor had guided him, and he had published a paper in a tier-two SCI journal. Last summer, he did research at the Max Planck Institute in Germany. He wanted to ask about Lin Zhixia’s strongest theoretical research direction.

Lin Zhixia walked and talked with him.

He closely followed her footsteps, accompanying her to the laboratory.

His roommates all stood in the corridor.

Everyone watched the silhouettes of Lin Zhixia and Cui Yiming, their expressions involuntarily becoming subtle.

*

In the Frontier Quantum Laboratory, only Fang Yiwen and Zhan Rui were present.

The operating room was well-lit. Fang Yiwen, dressed entirely in white, bent her head and wrote furiously. She derived formulas very quickly, her expression extremely focused.

Zhan Rui stood before a whiteboard, holding a marker, organizing the research ideas for a paper on “distributional reinforcement learning.”

Initially, when Zhan Rui first got this paper and saw the title, he thought it was related to “distributed reinforcement learning.” It turned out he was mistaken; these two algorithms were vastly different, with the former having a more innovative implementation process.

Most interestingly, the authors who proposed the “distributional reinforcement learning” algorithm admitted in their paper that they weren’t clear why this new method performed better than traditional methods in game applications.

Zhan Rui fell into deep thought.

At this moment, he heard footsteps.

He turned his head and saw Lin Zhixia and Cui Yiming.

Lin Zhixia introduced Cui Yiming to him, then asked: “Where is Xu Lingbo? Didn’t he come to the lab today?”

Indeed.

Xu Lingbo hadn’t come.

At this moment, Xu Lingbo was lying on his single bed in the dormitory. While playing with his phone and thinking about his senior sister, he also set an alarm, planning to go to the cafeteria early to buy food to bring to the lab for his senior sister’s lunch.

Just then, his senior sister called him.

Xu Lingbo immediately pressed the answer button and heard her say: “Professor Lin wants you to come to the laboratory building. A new guy joined the group to work on a project with Lin Zhixia. We’re having an impromptu group meeting. Come quickly.”

An impromptu group meeting?

What was that?

Xu Lingbo jumped out of bed in a panic, not even fully dressed, and began seeking external help: “Brother Qiang, hey, Brother Qiang, my advisor wants to hold an impromptu meeting. A junior brother has joined the group. What should I do?”

The “Brother Qiang” Xu Lingbo was calling was his master’s degree roommate.

Brother Qiang had strong psychological resilience.

He was reading a book. He turned a page, keeping a straight face: “What to do? Use the graduate student meeting slacking techniques I taught you.”

“Will that work?” Xu Lingbo wasn’t confident.

Brother Qiang turned to look at him, pointing at his pants, indicating he should get dressed first.

But Xu Lingbo misunderstood Brother Qiang’s meaning and had a sudden realization: “Brother Qiang, are you trying to say I should relax and live in the… live in the moment?”

Brother Qiang remained as steady as an old dog: “Little Bo, your advisor just taught a class on ‘Quantum Bits and Computers’ this morning. The new person in your group must be an undergraduate. You’ve been a master’s student for a year, and you’re intimidated by a junior undergraduate? Don’t be ridiculous.”

After hearing Brother Qiang’s analysis, Xu Lingbo straightened his chest. He found notes he had taken last semester in his cabinet, along with several papers he had printed in advance—every page of the papers had dense underlines drawn with colorful highlighters, all deliberately created to give a false impression.

He took these materials and rushed to Lin Zhixia’s laboratory.

*

Lin Zhixia’s laboratory suddenly became lively.

Besides the newly joined Cui Yiming, Tan Qianche happened to visit the Interdisciplinary College building on business.

Tan Qianche’s reserved experimental machine had been mistakenly delivered to the Interdisciplinary College. To retrieve his equipment, he first needed to inform the leaders of the Interdisciplinary College.

After finally finding the leaders and completing his business, Tan Qianche figured it was time for lunch, so he decided to visit Lin Zhixia—Lin Zhixia was his junior colleague from the same academic lineage. His doctoral advisor, Professor Gu Likai, had called him recently, instructing him to conduct good research at the school, carefully guide students, and, if convenient, look after his junior colleague.

Tan Qianche understood Professor Gu’s implied meaning.

Gu Likai believed that Lin Zhixia had a pure heart, had never worked outside academia, had always studied and worked in schools, and had managed to create a quantum technology platform with an internet company in her spare time, which was certainly a good thing. However, Lin Zhixia also needed to be careful not to fall into pitfalls or get involved in commercial disputes, which would damage her academic reputation.

Tan Qianche thought to himself that Professor Gu didn’t know that Lin Zhixia’s company was funded by her boyfriend.

After meeting Lin Zhixia, Tan Qianche tactfully conveyed Professor Gu’s opinions to her. They sat in a meeting room with a group of people, chatting casually, when Xu Lingbo finally arrived late.

He carried a stack of papers, pushed open the meeting room door, and confidently called out: “Professor Lin!”

Before Lin Zhixia could speak, Tan Qianche laughed: “This student of yours is interesting. Papers covered with highlighters—looks like he loves studying. What research direction is he pursuing?”

Lin Zhixia proudly introduced: “His work intersects with your doctoral direction.”

“That’s impressive,” Tan Qianche’s smile deepened, “A master’s student already working on my doctoral topics?”