Lin Zhixia stepped into the office and politely greeted him: “Hello, Professor Gu, I am Lin Zhixia.”

Professor Gu, with graying temples and a calm expression, nodded to her and invited her to sit on the sofa.

Lin Zhixia immediately sat down, quietly listening to the academic discussion between the professor and the doctoral students.

The two doctoral students present today were collaborating on a paper and disagreed. Professor Gu asked them to summarize their respective methods and write the key points on the whiteboard.

There was a huge whiteboard in Professor Gu’s office.

One of the doctoral students picked up a marker and began writing furiously on the whiteboard when Professor Gu called out to stop him: “Yang Shuwen, no need to write too much. You’re giving us a presentation, use your language to explain the phenomenon.”

Yang Shuwen was a first-year doctoral student. Like Lin Zhixia, he had just arrived in Beijing recently. He was introverted, not good at socializing, and often spent entire days in the library.

Yang Shuwen’s master’s research topic overlapped with the research direction of Gu Likai’s group. He was an excellent student. He had graduated from a key university, with average scores above 90 in both his undergraduate and master’s studies. He was naturally intelligent, diligent, hardworking, and willing to put in effort. The senior students in Gu Likai’s group all admired him.

However, Yang Shuwen felt that Gu Likai was not satisfied with him.

Yang Shuwen pushed up the glasses on his nose and said loudly: “When the number of qubits increases to 4, there are countless types of quantum entanglement… Professor, I’ve read the paper you gave me last week. That article discusses ‘entanglement polytopes,’ which categorize systems of entangled states. I went back and reread ‘Jean-Bernard Zuber and Field Theory’ twice.”

Lin Zhixia raised her right hand, wanting to ask a question.

Professor Gu pointed to Yang Shuwen: “Let’s listen to him finish, then you can ask.”

Lin Zhixia remained quiet, staring at Yang Shuwen.

Yang Shuwen continued his lengthy exposition.

Professor Gu waited until Yang Shuwen had spoken his last word before commenting: “You explained very well, comprehensive in perspective, but those are all other people’s work, like a literature review, and you haven’t summarized your method. Why do you and your senior have different opinions? Your senior’s view is correct. You haven’t yet reached the experimental level. When we first met, I told you that research isn’t about burying yourself in books or working in isolation. We do experimental physics to develop your scientific literacy and hands-on abilities. Papers need to be read, experiments need to be done; there’s a balance point here, a trade-off… You excel at reading, but your experiments must keep up. I’ve been too busy the past two weeks to guide you, but your senior told me you come to the lab, sit at the desk reading books and taking notes, without doing the basic exercises your senior prepared for you.”

The office door was wide open, allowing air to flow freely. Cold wind blew into Yang Shuwen’s collar, making him shudder.

He stood up straight at once and explained clearly: “I’ve been reviewing for the past two weeks… What I’ve learned is easily forgotten.”

Professor Gu opened a drawer, took out a folder, and said calmly: “Review to gain new insights is good, and the same applies to experimental physics. Your eyes, your hippocampus in the brain stores long-term memory, your hands store neuromuscular memory… These are all fundamentals, while inspiration and innovation are your prospects for development.”

Yang Shuwen quickly said: “Yes, that’s right.”

Professor Gu held onto the desk and stood up from his seat: “Books are the medium of learning, not the goal of learning.”

Lin Zhixia nodded repeatedly. She seemed to have grasped a Zen concept and sighed: “That’s right, books are the medium of learning, not the goal of learning. For you, your thoughts are most important.”

Professor Gu handed Lin Zhixia a folder containing several printed academic papers, experiment instructions, and operational procedures. He told Lin Zhixia to take these back, read them carefully, and report to the laboratory next month.

Lin Zhixia held the folder and expressed her gratitude repeatedly.

Yang Shuwen interjected: “Lin Zhixia, did you… want to speak to me just now?”

Lin Zhixia ran up to Yang Shuwen and asked him about the nested issues of “entanglement polytopes.” He was stunned for a moment and asked her to elaborate and speak faster, since Professor Gu had other matters to attend to, and they shouldn’t waste his time.

Yang Shuwen didn’t know that a few minutes earlier, when Professor Gu had said he “had other matters to attend to,” it was because he wanted to help Lin Zhixia determine her specific research direction.

Lin Zhixia hadn’t expected Yang Shuwen to ask her to increase her speaking pace.

With her hands behind her back, she spoke rapidly like a machine gun, delivering a long string of words. Yang Shuwen only understood the phrase “quantum bit photon state.”

Yang Shuwen was dazed for a few seconds, but his senior laughed. That senior stood up, walked over to Lin Zhixia, and told her: “I am Tan Qianche from Provincial No. 1 High School.”

Tan Qianche!

Hearing his name, Lin Zhixia extended her right hand: “I’ve known about you since seventh grade! Senior Tan Qianche! You won a medal in the International Olympiad competition. You are one of the most excellent students ever produced by our Provincial No. 1 High School. Your name is on the list of outstanding alumni in the Provincial No. 1 High School archives.”

Tan Qianche shook hands with Lin Zhixia. He answered several of her questions and then said: “Would you like to find a notebook to write this down?”

Lin Zhixia shook her head: “No, I generally don’t take notes.”

Professor Gu was brewing tea. Hearing Lin Zhixia’s words, he pondered thoughtfully, then smiled: “Oh, Shen Zhaohua mentioned to me that you have an exceptionally good memory.”

As the hot steam evaporated and the tea’s fragrance spread, Professor Gu held his teacup and returned to his seat. He asked Lin Zhixia to stay and determine a general research topic.

The other doctoral students left the office one after another.

Before leaving, Yang Shuwen casually closed the office door, but Professor Gu called out to him: “Yang Shuwen, please open my door…”

Tan Qianche quietly reminded Yang Shuwen: “Professor Gu is very careful about propriety. Whenever students are in his office, he always keeps the door open.”

Yang Shuwen murmured: “What a good professor.” Then added: “Your junior, Lin Zhixia, really came.”

Tan Qianche suddenly reached out and put his arm around Yang Shuwen’s shoulders. They walked side by side down the long corridor that seemed endless.

*

At noon that day, after meeting with Gu Likai, Lin Zhixia happily returned to her dormitory carrying the folder.

The campus scenery seemed more beautiful than usual. Lin Zhixia admired the view while recalling Professor Gu’s words. Professor Gu was knowledgeable, quick-thinking, and even their brief exchange had been immensely beneficial to her.

Years ago, Shen Zhaohua had told Lin Zhixia that “academics require communication, and academic thinking needs practice.” Now, five years later, Lin Zhixia was fourteen years old and finally understood Shen Zhaohua’s deeper meaning.

Lin Zhixia spent several days reading through the materials Professor Gu had given her and found some related monographs online. Throughout September, she studied diligently, preparing for the upcoming experimental work.

When Lin Zhixia was in the provincial city, she had already studied under Shen Zhaohua for three years. Shen Zhaohua was respectfully called “Big Boss” by her students, and there was also a young female teacher with rich academic achievements in the group, whom everyone respectfully called “Little Boss.” This Little Boss, along with senior student Zhu Chan from the group, often guided Lin Zhixia hands-on.

Along this journey, Lin Zhixia had received help from many people.

Lin Zhixia would not disappoint their expectations.

She would carve out her field.

Influenced by her positive mindset, Lin Zhixia’s daily life was extremely regular. She woke up early every day, persisted in physical exercise, completed her learning tasks, called her parents at eight in the evening, called Jiang Yubai at nine, and turned off the lights to sleep before eleven.

One night in late September, Lin Zhixia lay in her dormitory bed, hugging her little penguin toy, covered with a soft blanket, holding her phone and talking with Jiang Yubai.

After chatting for a while, they discussed the upcoming National Day holiday. Jiang Yubai casually asked her: “The National Day holiday is approaching, where would you like to go?”

Lin Zhixia asked in return: “Where would you like to go?”

Jiang Yubai thought for two seconds and answered: “No plans yet.”

“How about we go to the Forbidden City?” Lin Zhixia excitedly suggested. “I’ve never been to the Forbidden City, and I also want to see the Summer Palace.”

Jiang Yubai said, “There are too many tourists during the holiday. We don’t have to wait until October 1st, we can go tomorrow.”

Tomorrow was Saturday. Lin Zhixia had no classes. She happily burrowed under her blanket, covered her head with it, and whispered: “Alright, tomorrow morning, I’ll come to your house, and then we’ll visit the Forbidden City and Summer Palace together.”

Jiang Yubai told her: “Tomorrow morning, from nine to ten, our school has a lecture. After the lecture, I…”

Before Jiang Yubai could finish, Lin Zhixia firmly said: “Okay! Tomorrow morning at ten, I’ll wait for you at your school gate.”

Lin Zhixia waited for a while, but Jiang Yubai remained silent.

The international high school that Jiang Yubai attended had strict management and responsible teachers, but the school didn’t concern itself with students’ “puppy love issues.”

Therefore, among the classmates Jiang Yubai knew, about one-third were dating. In his year and a half at the international high school, he had received subtle or direct expressions of interest from some female classmates, all of which he had refused on the spot.

If Lin Zhixia went to Jiang Yubai’s school gate to wait for him after class… Jiang Yubai suspected that a small number of classmates might misunderstand his relationship with Lin Zhixia. But he couldn’t find it in himself to refuse Lin Zhixia because she sounded so happy, and as Lin Zhixia’s best friend, he should never make her feel disappointed.

So he said: “Alright.”

Lin Zhixia nodded: “Mmm! See you tomorrow!”

Jiang Yubai replied: “See you tomorrow.”

The weather was favorable; Saturday was a bright, sunny day. Around ten in the morning, Lin Zhixia appeared punctually at Jiang Yubai’s school gate. Wearing a backpack, she stood outside the international high school gate, patiently waiting for Jiang Yubai.