Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Once someone was caught cheating, they were bound to receive a zero. There was no room for negotiation.

The students that laughed in the exam room were scolded by the other invigilator.

The final exams finished on December 30th. The Jin Ling University staff members could finally relax a little.

Even though He Changwen escaped from being the invigilator because of his food poisoning, he couldn’t escape the exam marking job.

He Changwen had a pile of exam papers on his desk. Lu Zhou looked at him and laughed in his heart.

You think you can stand me up?

This is what you get!

He Changwen looked at the terrifying stack of papers, and he knew that his New Year’s holiday was over. He frowned and asked.

“Professor, can you… ask someone to help me…”

“No,” Lu Zhou said without any hesitation. “Reviewing basic content will help you understand the more esoteric and difficult things. This is good practice… Oh yeah, finish marking the exams before New Year’s Day. This year’s schedule is a little tight, and everything has to be done before the 22nd semester week.”

Then why don’t you get someone to help me?!

Faced with Academician Lu’s orders, He Changwen nodded and spoke.

“Okay, professor.”

Lu Zhou was worried that this guy was going to do a bad job, so he said, “Mark it seriously. I will be checking.”

“Yes, sir…”

He totally gave up on his holiday plans…

…

The day before New Year’s Eve.

Luo Wenxuan wanted to return to his hometown for the holiday. He just received his paycheck, so he decided to buy Lu Zhou food at the grilled fish shop near the school.

Speaking of which, this grilled fish restaurant had been there for a long time. Lu Zhou often came there when he was still doing his bachelor’s degree, eating and drinking with his roommates.

And now, his roommates were getting married, doing Phds, and starting businesses… He was the only one who still stayed in Jinling.

The shop owner recognized Lu Zhou, so he gave them two bottles of beer for free as a show of thanks for regularly bringing him business.

Thanks to Lu Zhou’s frequent visits here, the business was booming, and the owner was about to start a second shop.

After chatting with Lu Zhou for a while, the owner went into the kitchen. The owner’s daughter walked into the restaurant with a backpack.

A few years ago, this kid was tiny, and she would sit on a little bench in front of the restaurant and do her homework every night. But now, she was already in high school.

She instantly recognized Lu Zhou and smiled.

“Hello, Uncle!”

Lu Zhou: “… Ah, hello.”

Lu Zhou’s mood was ruined by the word “uncle”.

Lu Zhou put on a fake smile until the girl disappeared. He looked at Luo Wenxuan and spoke.

“Don’t laugh, I’m at least a millennial. Laugh at me again, and I’ll call you uncle.”

Luo Wenxuan coughed and said, “Come on, that’s ruthless… Wait a second, uncle doesn’t sound that bad… Okay, call me uncle then.”

This guy… is ridiculous.

Lu Zhou pondered for a second before asking seriously, “Do I look old?”

“Old? No…” Luo Wenxuan stared at Lu Zhou for a while and said, “Actually, I always find it funny how you’ve looked the same since I first saw you. You don’t look like a mathematician at all… Seriously, are you getting treatments?”

Lu Zhou sighed and said, “You might not believe it, but just like my looks, my hair is all natural.”

“F*ck off… Wait a second, I found it,” Luo Wenxuan said as he looked down at his phone.

Lu Zhou glanced at him and curiously asked, “Found what?”

“The photos from when we first met… Look!” Luo Wenxuan looked at Lu Zhou, then at his phone. “It’s true, you haven’t changed at all in the past few years.”

The picture on the phone was taken in the Princeton lecture hall.

Lu Zhou was standing on the lecture hall podium, giving his first-ever academic report to professors and students. The whiteboard was filled with his proof of the twin prime number theorem.

Lu Zhou could never forget this event; this was the starting journey of his academic career, one of the best moments in his life.

What surprised him the most was the photo of himself.

He wasn’t bragging, but…

Like Luo Wenxuan had said, he hadn’t changed at all over the past few years.

It was almost like he time traveled seven years…

When Luo Wenxuan saw that Lu Zhou was speechless, he suddenly spoke with a strange expression on his face.

“This reminds me of a story.”

Lu Zhou: “… About Riemann’s hypothesis?”

Luo Wenxuan looked at Lu Zhou with a surprised expression.

“You’ve heard of it?”

“According to legends, whoever proves Riemann’s hypothesis will live forever… I’ve obviously heard about it, but I’m surprised that you have,” Lu Zhou gave Luo Wenxuan the phone back and said, “Don’t believe this urban legend, we’re scientific researchers, it’s a bit ridiculous.”

Maybe the systems’ metabolic capacity increase also delayed my aging?

Or is it because of other factors?

Regardless, Lu Zhou hadn’t changed much ever since puberty. If it weren’t for Luo Wenxuan’s photo, he wouldn’t even have noticed.

“Yeah.” Luo Wenxuan smiled and looked at the fish on the table as he said, “How was the exam? I saw on my friends’ news feed that something happened?”

Lu Zhou sighed and grabbed a piece of fish into his mouth. He shook his head and spoke.

“Don’t mention it, I swear that was my last time invigilating an exam.”

“Met a creative student?”

Lu Zhou: “You could say so.”

After the exam, the girl went to find Lu Zhou again, hoping to get the cheating incident off her permanent record.

In the end, Lu Zhou caved in, and he promised that he would talk with the academic affairs office.

But, if she was caught cheating again, then she would be expelled. If she could study hard and graduate smoothly, she might be able to wipe it off her record.

“Really? But that was your first time invigilating…” Luo Wenxuan stared at Lu Zhou and said, “This is just the tip of the iceberg.”

Lu Zhou paused for a second and put down his chopsticks.

“There are even more creative ones?”

Luo Wenxuan laughed.

“Of course! I caught one yesterday, and this girl wore a skirt in winter and wrote down her notes on her thigh.”

Lu Zhou: “…”

Jesus!

If I were the one who noticed her, I wouldn’t even expose her.

It’s not like I can lift up her skirt, right?

Forget about lifting up anyone’s skirt, some teacher would be too embarrassed to even look at the girl’s thigh.

Luo Wenxuan took a sip of beer and ate some fish. He continued speaking, “There are also more male teachers in the physics department, and the other invigilator in the exam room was also a male. That girl was ruthless.”

Lu Zhou: “So you just let her go?”

Luo Wenxuan smirked and said, “Of course not, I would not bow down to the devil.”

Lu Zhou: “… So who exposed her?”

Luo Wenxuan: “Me.”

Lu Zhou: “…”

Lu Zhou didn’t know why, but he felt like Luo Wenxuan was proud to be the one exposing her…