Jiang Yubai had always hoped to gain recognition from his competitors.

Lin Zhixia didn’t hide her feelings or feel embarrassed at all—she simply told him he was amazing, that he was super amazing.

Her praise came suddenly, without any buildup.

Jiang Yubai spent an entire day trying to calm his emotions.

He even told himself that Lin Zhixia wasn’t praising Jiang Yubai the person, but rather the Earth Legion Commander “Jiang Yubai” in the “Exploring the Universe” comic series—that “Jiang Yubai” could lead thousands of troops and bravely venture into the vast beyond.

The scenarios in comics couldn’t happen in real life. When Jiang Yubai was six years old, he would still get excited about Ultraman Tiga. He would mimic Ultraman, crossing his arms, pretending he could shoot cosmic laser beams.

Back then, he was so immature and irrational.

Now, at nine years old, he had become somewhat steadier.

Jiang Yubai knew that to earn others’ respect, he must rely on his efforts.

To leave a deep impression on Lin Zhixia, Jiang Yubai made thorough preparations. He specifically searched online for the definition and concepts of “physical oceanography,” and even downloaded four papers published by Professor Shen Zhaohua this year.

He printed the papers, bound them together, and placed them in a transparent plastic folder. He put on his backpack, dressed neatly, and held the plastic folder in his hand, looking every bit like an emerging scientific talent.

His uncle, Jiang Shaoqi, teased him: “Truly my nephew indeed, so young yet interested in science…”

Jiang Yubai looked up at his uncle: “Do you like science too?”

Of course not.

Jiang Shaoqi would go blank at the sight of mathematics and physics.

As the concertmaster of a top orchestra, Jiang Shaoqi’s lifelong pursuit was only perfect musical artistry. He practiced playing techniques tirelessly, and in his spare time, he would compose music.

Besides the violin, he was also skilled at playing the piano and harp.

He had so many dazzling qualities that they easily covered up his small flaw of getting headaches at the sight of mathematics.

He said to Jiang Yubai: “Little Jiang, today, if I hadn’t come, your father would have had your tutor or bodyguard accompany you to visit the university town. How could they be as talkative and cheerful as me? Now that I mention it, don’t you feel that your uncle is simply the best in the whole world!”

Jiang Yubai only thought he was very confident.

Jiang Shaoqi couldn’t hear Jiang Yubai’s internal grumbling. He hooked his fingers around the car keys and followed Jiang Yubai into the parking lot.

Today, Jiang Shaoqi had brought his car—an utterly ordinary Porsche Cayenne.

Jiang Yubai quickly got in and sat up straight. Only at this moment did he reveal the truth to his uncle: “The person Professor Shen invited… isn’t me. She invited my deskmate, and my deskmate brought me along.”

“What?” Jiang Shaoqi was extremely surprised.

Jiang Yubai also told him: “My deskmate is nine years old this year. She’s a genius with an IQ above 174, so prepare yourself mentally.”

“Are you exaggerating?” Jiang Shaoqi questioned again.

Jiang Yubai seriously told his uncle: “I’m not lying. When you meet her, you’ll understand what I mean.”

Although Jiang Yubai displayed an assured demeanor, Jiang Shaoqi still didn’t quite believe his nephew’s words.

What did an IQ of 174 mean?

The average person’s IQ generally falls between 90 and 110, and anything over 140 was considered genius… over 174, was that even human?

Jiang Shaoqi guessed that the so-called “genius deskmate” was probably just a child who reacted a bit quicker and was somewhat smarter than others.

However, Jiang Yubai’s unsubstantiated boasting did spark Jiang Shaoqi’s interest. He wanted to see what kind of personality this little friend had who was specially invited by Professor Shen Zhaohua.

At 8:30 that morning, Jiang Shaoqi and Jiang Yubai arrived at the university town.

Jiang Shaoqi held Jiang Yubai’s hand as they walked through the university gates.

A thin morning mist enveloped the entire city, with a chilly dampness floating in the air. As Jiang Shaoqi looked around at the scenery of the university town, he suddenly heard a girl call out: “Jiang Yubai, Jiang Yubai, you’re here!”

That voice was soft and sweet, still somewhat childlike, reminiscent of summer’s sweet milk cake.

Jiang Yubai immediately let go of Jiang Shaoqi’s hand, displaying an air of proud independence. Facing the direction from which Lin Zhixia was running, he responded with particular composure: “Good morning, Lin Zhixia.”

Today, Lin Zhixia wore a light pink jacket with a light gray scarf. She came bounding over, and upon seeing Jiang Shaoqi, she politely greeted him: “Hello, my name is Lin Zhixia. The ‘Lin from forest, the ‘Zhi’ from know, and the ‘Xia’ from summer. I’m Jiang Yubai’s classmate and deskmate. I’ve known him for over four months… almost five months. He’s my good friend.”

Jiang Shaoqi looked at the exquisite and pretty little girl before him, his surprise evident.

This was the legendary genius with an IQ above 174?

To be honest…

She didn’t give off any genius vibes at all.

Jiang Shaoqi’s gaze toward Lin Zhixia was filled with inquiry and doubt.

Lin Zhixia’s father gently put an arm around his daughter and politely asked: “Hello, are you Jiang Yubai’s father?”

Jiang Shaoqi was shocked: “Me? I’m only twenty-four years old, how could I have such a grown son? I’m not married and haven’t even had a girlfriend… for the past twenty years, I’ve been accompanied day and night by my violin.”

After a pause, Jiang Shaoqi added: “It’s just that this child, Jiang Yubai, tends to have more in common with me, his elder. Today I’m taking him out, and he prepared early, couldn’t be happier.”

Jiang Yubai somehow felt a bit embarrassed.

His uncle was the concertmaster of an orchestra. Going out with his uncle should be quite impressive. However, as soon as his uncle spoke, Jiang Yubai felt too embarrassed to continue looking at Lin Zhixia.

Jiang Yubai shifted his gaze, looking at the winter sun in the distance, and casually introduced: “He’s my young uncle, my father’s younger brother.”

Lin Zhixia’s father smiled: “Ah, I thought so, your uncle looks very young.”

*

Jiang Shaoqi was indeed very young.

He was tall with long legs, broad shoulders, and a narrow waist, quite handsome and dashing like a young man.

Wearing casual clothes, mingling on the university campus, he looked like a brilliant undergraduate student. He followed Jiang Yubai, Lin Zhixia, and others toward an experimental building of the Physics Department.

Zhu Chan was standing there, quietly waiting for them.

Zhu Chan was Professor Shen Zhaohua’s only female doctoral student. She was twenty-seven this year, about to get married, with a ring on the ring finger of her left hand, and seemed to have a scholarly air about her.

Near the experimental building stood a row of laurel trees, evergreen year-round with lush branches and leaves covered in dewdrops. The transparent dew slid down continuously, landing right on Lin Zhixia’s face.

Zhu Chan handed Lin Zhixia a pack of tissues.

Lin Zhixia looked up at her and said: “Thank you, big sister.”

Zhu Chan’s lips curved upward as she tightened her down jacket. When speaking to Lin Zhixia, her tone became especially gentle: “Your twin ponytail hairstyle is really cute.”

Lin Zhixia humbly replied: “All girls look cute with twin ponytails.”

Then, Lin Zhixia enthusiastically introduced: “This is my father. That boy over there is my classmate Jiang Yubai, and that young man… he is Jiang Yubai’s uncle.”

“Come,” Zhu Chan led the way for them, “follow me, Professor Shen is waiting for you.”

Lin Zhixia and her father walked in front, with Jiang Yubai following behind; only Jiang Shaoqi remained motionless.

Jiang Shaoqi had hardly ever interacted with researchers. He only knew that Professor Shen Zhaohua was very accomplished, with first-class academic standards and international fame. When he met Shen Zhaohua, he would inevitably have to exchange pleasantries, but what should he say? He didn’t even know what “physics” was.

He stood still for a few seconds until his nephew called out: “Uncle, aren’t you coming?”

Only then did Jiang Shaoqi start walking.

On the way, Zhu Chan bent down to tell Lin Zhixia: “Our school’s marine laboratory has an open day every year. Ordinary people can visit the laboratory on the open day by booking via email. Today, we knew you were coming, and we’re even happier than if it were an open day.”

“Really?” Lin Zhixia looked around curiously, “But you don’t know me, do you?”

Zhu Chan revealed: “You left a very deep impression on us. Do you remember Niu Siyuan? His surname is Niu, and his name is Siyuan. That day at the aquarium, Niu Siyuan said he couldn’t make his model work, and you taught him the correct approach. After he returned to school, he kept talking about you.”

After hearing this, Lin Zhixia’s father was both shocked: “Is Niu Siyuan also a PhD? My daughter helped a PhD… build a model?”

“Niu Siyuan is a graduate student,” Zhu Chan smiled slightly, “Niu Siyuan is a graduate student that Professor Shen just recruited this year.”

Zhu Chan stopped at the door of an office.

A golden plaque engraved with the words “Professor Shen Zhaohua” hung in front of the office door. Zhu Chan pushed the door open directly, leading Lin Zhixia and others into the office.

Shen Zhaohua sat at her desk, reviewing a student’s paper. She wore a pair of reading glasses. When she heard Lin Zhixia’s footsteps, she raised her hand to remove her glasses, lifted her eyelids, and her gaze fell on Lin Zhixia.

Lin Zhixia said: “Hello, Professor Shen!”

Shen Zhaohua stood up, supporting herself on the desk: “Hello there.”

The office was quiet for two or three seconds, and Lin Zhixia didn’t speak again. She looked down at Shen Zhaohua’s open notebook.

On Shen Zhaohua’s desk lay a notebook, a stack of papers, and a Lenovo computer.

Shen Zhaohua was a very responsible teacher. She had printed out her students’ papers and was making annotations in the blank spaces with a ballpoint pen, with very detailed notes.

Jiang Shaoqi stepped toward her: “Professor Shen, hello, I’ve long admired your reputation…” Then, he was about to introduce himself and talk about his understanding of “physics.”

However, “physics” was almost non-existent to him.

Jiang Shaoqi couldn’t think of an opening line no matter how hard he tried.

Shen Zhaohua spoke timely: “I have two laboratory introductions here, first give them to the two children.” She pulled open a drawer, found two documents and materials, and handed them to Lin Zhixia and Jiang Yubai, respectively.

Before this, Jiang Yubai had already prepared himself mentally.

He had originally thought that this laboratory introduction would be filled with formulas and theories he couldn’t understand. He slowly opened the first page, only to see the table of contents read: Deep Water Marine Laboratory, Wind-Wave-Flow Multifunctional Tank, Wind-Driven Circulation Tank, High-Performance Computer Cluster Laboratory…

He didn’t finish reading.

He closed the introduction and looked up, just meeting his uncle’s gaze.

He exchanged a glance with his uncle. His uncle silently mouthed: Good nephew, let’s go home.

No.

Jiang Yubai would never give up halfway.

As a growing young man, he would never be defeated by a small setback.

Moreover, Jiang Yubai was well-prepared.

Jiang Yubai unzipped his backpack, took out four papers, and calmly stood beside Lin Zhixia.

Lin Zhixia indeed noticed him and asked in surprise: “Jiang Yubai, have you also read these papers?”

“Yes,” Jiang Yubai answered briefly.

His tutor had taught him a trick.

To read a paper, one didn’t need to browse the entire content; just glancing at the abstract would determine a general direction.

So, he briefly stated: “Professor Shen Zhaohua’s latest paper mainly focuses on… continental shelf circulation.”

“That’s right!” Lin Zhixia naturally continued, “That paper generally simulates the marine shelf circulation of the Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and East China Sea in the twentieth century, and the calculation results produced by the model are consistent with the trend data of actual observations.”

After speaking, she picked up a pen, pointing the tip at a paper awaiting review on the table.

“Can I… write on the paper?” she looked up at Shen Zhaohua.

Shen Zhaohua saw in her eyes a natural yearning for science. When interviewing graduate and doctoral students, Shen Zhaohua always hoped to recruit students like this.

Such students would achieve greatly in the academic field. Or rather, Shen Zhaohua was more willing to cultivate them, to help them achieve greatly.

Every graduate or doctoral student was one of Shen Zhaohua’s life works. She was sixty-seven this year and had already completed at least two-thirds of her life journey. While her eyesight was still good, she wanted to do her utmost to cultivate more successors.

Physical oceanography was an emerging discipline, with a vast unknown world still waiting to be explored.

Shen Zhaohua and her students, as long as they took small steps forward, striving to pass on their knowledge from generation to generation, perhaps someday in the future, they might drive the most significant breakthrough in human maritime science history.

Through a brief academic exchange, Shen Zhaohua noticed Lin Zhixia’s extraordinary talent.

Most importantly, Lin Zhixia was only nine years old this year.

She was so young. To the extent that she could create infinite possibilities.

Besides, even knowing she was different from others, she maintained a humble and calm attitude, concisely and cautiously articulating her thoughts.

Her vigorous thirst for knowledge made her step out of her comfort zone.

She proactively mentioned to Shen Zhaohua: “I want to modify the data model in this article.”

Shen Zhaohua brought her a chair: “Write as much as you want.”

Lin Zhixia sat down without hesitation: “This article constructs a deterministic prediction model for the dynamic concentration change of particles in a specific area of the ocean. There’s one thing I don’t understand—why use a deterministic model here?”

This article was written by Niu Siyuan.

Niu Siyuan was a graduate student newly recruited by Shen Zhaohua this year.

From a common perspective, Niu Siyuan was an active, diligent student who loved academic work.

However, more than two months ago, the question Niu Siyuan raised at the marine aquarium was answered on the spot by Lin Zhixia. For this, Niu Siyuan had a headache for quite a long time.

Niu Siyuan was twenty-three this year, in the prime of his youth, flourishing. He had been selected by the mentor he had long admired, and happily stepped into the world of scientific research, ready to make great strides and prove his abilities…

Then, he was educated by a nine-year-old little girl.

How could this be possible?

Niu Siyuan had always believed that Lin Zhixia’s parents were professors or other high-level intellectuals.

A professor couple chatting at home would inevitably use some technical terms. Those casual words were heard by Lin Zhixia.

Hearing that Lin Zhixia was coming to visit Professor Shen Zhaohua, and would bring her father along, Niu Siyuan couldn’t sleep well last night. He was awake until midnight, barely managed to get up this morning, and rushed to the experimental building of the physical oceanography department without stopping.

Niu Siyuan arrived just in time.

When he pushed the door open to enter, his mentor Shen Zhaohua’s eyes lit up.

Niu Siyuan immediately became happy too. He thought the paper he had just submitted was particularly excellent, perfect, and had earned his teacher’s praise and recognition.

He didn’t notice Lin Zhixia leaning on the edge of the desk. From his angle, Lin Zhixia was hidden behind the desktop computer’s monitor.

He gazed at Shen Zhaohua, his tone hiding expectation: “Professor Shen, have you looked at my paper?”

Contrary to his expectations, Shen Zhaohua replied with a smile: “Not yet.”

Not yet?

Then why did his teacher look so satisfied upon seeing him?

Why was the warm, spring-like smile on his teacher’s face?

Why was his teacher excited as if she had discovered a new meaning in life?

While Niu Siyuan was pondering, suddenly, he heard Lin Zhixia call out: “I’m reading your paper right now! Senior Niu Siyuan, can I chat with you about the content of your paper?”

Niu Siyuan looked closely, and Lin Zhixia just showed half of her face. Her eyes were bright, sparkling with a kind of thirst for knowledge.

She had also tied her hair into twin ponytails with pink strawberry hair ties—in Niu Siyuan’s eyes, those were two horns growing from the head of a little demon from hell.

Lin Zhixia had written a large section of summary and formula derivation in the blank page of that paper.

Without a doubt, this little demon from hell was about to bring a cruel doomsday judgment to Niu Siyuan.

Niu Siyuan’s lips lost their color, as if he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.

Jiang Yubai, who had been observing for a long time, laughed.

Jiang Yubai only laughed once. But his attitude was very obvious. He enjoyed seeing Lin Zhixia give this graduate student a rude awakening—it proved that Lin Zhixia’s strength was robust and powerful. Someday in the future, when Jiang Yubai defeated Lin Zhixia, it would surely be more fulfilling.

And Niu Siyuan finally realized that his mentor, Shen Zhaohua, was delighted because of Lin Zhixia’s presence.

He couldn’t help but straighten his chest, a sense of shame arising in his heart, yet his mouth still stubbornly asked: “Do you have any revision suggestions for my paper?”

“Yes,” Lin Zhixia answered.

Niu Siyuan held his breath: “Where did I write incorrectly?”

Lin Zhixia calmly explained: “I can’t say you wrote incorrectly. It’s just that, according to my understanding, a deterministic model is a special case of a random model. Your data model encompasses the influence of friction wind speed and interfacial waves in stratified media, and it also corrects the positive feedback of water vapor using the Clausius-Clapeyron equation. However, due to the limitations of the deterministic model, this paper cannot predict the probability distribution in a real environment; it ensures consistency between experimental prediction results and experimental samples. So, I think you might reconsider the parameter settings and generalize the entire model to random sample points, making it more universal in a mathematical sense.”

Suddenly, the room fell silent.

“What is she talking about?” Jiang Shaoqi secretly asked his nephew.

Jiang Yubai coolly reminded him: “Before we left this morning, I said Lin Zhixia was a genius, and you didn’t believe me, saying I was exaggerating.”

Jiang Shaoqi covered his mouth. His skin tone was cold white, the curve of his jawline perfect, and he had worn black gloves for years, making the gesture of covering his mouth appear very abrupt—this elegant musician suddenly had an air of rustic simplicity.

Not far away, Lin Zhixia was still arguing with Niu Siyuan.

Debating opposing viewpoints in a paper was like going to war.

Talent was the weapon, perseverance the armor, and courage the golden spears and iron horses.

Niu Siyuan might lose the battle, but not his stance. He held a pen, the tip lightly jabbing the paper: “Little Lin Zhixia, in our discipline, there’s a group of researchers specifically working on deterministic models. What you’re saying seems to erase all the contributions of our predecessors.”

“I don’t mean that… deterministic models are completely useless,” Lin Zhixia tilted her head, looking at him, appearing very confused.

Her communication with Niu Siyuan wasn’t going smoothly.

She felt that Niu Siyuan completely misunderstood her explanation.

Since Niu Siyuan disagreed with her modification suggestions, he should refute her from the perspective of data modeling. What use was it for Niu Siyuan to talk about the contributions of predecessors?

Niu Siyuan held back his frustration and elaborated: “I continued the topic of my undergraduate thesis and expanded the model. From September to December this year, most of my time was spent on data collection and processing.”

Before he finished, his mentor Shen Zhaohua interrupted: “Niu Siyuan, there’s no problem with your intention, topic selection, and overall structure…”

After a pause, Shen Zhaohua finally found Niu Siyuan’s strength: “Your writing style is very good.”

Writing style?

If the only highlight of a paper was its writing style, what a sad thing that would be!

In front of his mentor Shen Zhaohua, senior Zhu Chan, and the little demon Lin Zhixia, Niu Siyuan was about to crumble.

He thought to himself: Could it be that I, a fine young man in my twenties, am no match for a nine-year-old girl?

Fate had dealt him a heavy blow, and his form was tottering.

Steadying himself with one hand on the table, he asked a soul-searching question: “Lin Zhixia, you want to modify my modeling, may I ask how you want to change it? Let’s discuss a few parameters. Can you immediately construct an expression?”

“I think I can?” Lin Zhixia probed.

But Shen Zhaohua left Lin Zhixia an escape route: “Why don’t we start with the simplest model?” She looked toward Zhu Chan.