Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

Break time.

Qian Zhongming sat on the side of the basketball court. He gasped for air and looked at Lu Zhou, who was sitting next to him.

“I didn’t know you can play basketball.”

“I can do a lot of things.” Lu Zhou smirked and wiped the sweat off his forehead with his collar.

Suddenly, someone handed him a bottle of Gatorade.

Lu Zhou looked over and saw a familiar figure standing there.

“I-I saw you were sweating a lot, so I bought this for you.”

When Han Mengqi looked at Lu Zhou in his basketball clothes, her cheeks felt a little warm.

Up until now, she always thought of him as a trench coat in the winter, t-shirt in the summer kind of guy.

This was her first time seeing him like this.

Without hesitating, Lu Zhou took the bottle of Gatorade from her and said thanks.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” Han Mengqi’s ponytail swung like a squirrel’s tail, and she threw away her strange fantasies as she raised her fist. “You got this, Master!”

“Oh, thanks!”

Seeing how energetic she was, Lu Zhou’s strength recovered quite a bit. He smiled and shouted with her.

But speaking of which, she was in the chemistry department, right?

Is it really fine for her to cheer me on?

While he was thinking about this problem, Han Mengqi already left with a blushing face.

When Lu Zhou placed the half-finished bottle near the basketball hoop, he noticed Brother Qian looking at him thoughtfully. Lu Zhou was feeling kind of suspicious by it.

“What?”

“… Nothing.” Qian Zhongming adjusted his glasses and said, “It’s just a bit surprising, I didn’t expect you to be this popular.”

Lu Zhou: “I’m popular?”

Qian Zhongming asked seriously, “Are you not?”

“… A bit.” Lu Zhou looked at the students cheering him on and scratched his head. He then said awkwardly, “Probably because I’m so handsome.”

Qian Zhongming: “…”

The final competition score was 52:37, the winner was the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study.

Lu Zhou played his heart out in this competition.

The only unfortunate thing was that in the second half of the game, Brother Qian, who was the point guard, didn’t pass him the ball at all.

Is Brother Qian jealous of me?

…

The chemistry department wasn’t the only one that lost.

Over the next three days, the Jinling Institute for Advanced Study overcame all of the obstacles and successfully won the championship.

However, Lu Zhou was carried by his team…

At night, when the sports event ended, several teachers from the sports department gathered at the top floor of Jin Ling University cafeteria. They were giving out award certificates and prizes to the first, second, and third place winners.

The prizes weren’t extravagant; the individual competition gold medalist won a watch worth tens of thousands of yuan, and the silver medalist won a phone worth less than ten thousand yuan. As for the team competition, everyone got their share of the prize money.

The award ceremony was lively. However, Lu Zhou, who was holding a trophy on stage as he represented his teammates, didn’t feel a sense of accomplishment at all.

After all, the Institute for Advanced Study had a huge age advantage. It wasn’t easy for the Jin Ling University departments to assemble a team with an average age of around 35 years old. It wasn’t like they could only send the young school counselors, they had to let the old professors participate as well.

Also, the most important thing was that the prizes were coming out of Lu Zhou’s pocket, which made it even more boring for him.

“The International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference is in Los Angeles next month. Do you plan on going there?”

Professor Yu Jinsong asked Lu Zhou this question when they were at the dinner table.

Professor Yu was one of the few plasma physics professors at the Jin Ling University physics department. He was doing a collaborative research project with the STAR Stellarator Research Institute on plasma reactions inside the stellarator reactor.

Not just that, but he also played the role of a technical adviser for the group of software experts established by Jin Ling University for the STAR machine control scheme and supercomputer equipment.

When Lu Zhou heard him talking about this topic, he smiled and said, “I might be attending, why?”

The International Controllable Nuclear Fusion Conference was regarded as the highest level academic conference in the entire nuclear fusion field.

It was organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which was headquartered in Vienna. The conference aimed to provide a platform for scholars in the field of controlled nuclear fusion, as well as for those greedy industry folks who were interested in commercial fusion reactors… Actually “greedy” would be the wrong adjective. It should be those who were “brave” enough to embrace the future and provide investment for research and development.

After all, any great cause couldn’t be carried out without money.

Lu Zhou obviously didn’t want to miss an opportunity to communicate with his peers.

Also, he could use this opportunity to put an end to his work at Princeton.

Professor Yu Jinsong smiled and said, “Here’s the thing, two of my students signed up for this conference. However, I’m caught up in some matters, so I can’t go. If you’re not busy, I’m wondering if you could take care of them?”

This didn’t sound like a big deal, therefore Lu Zhou agreed to it.

“Sure, they can come with me.”

Professor Yu toasted Lu Zhou and said, “Then thank you so much.”

…

The dinner lasted until nine o’clock at night.

Lu Zhou was fed quite a lot of alcohol. Even though his alcohol tolerance was pretty good, thanks to the system strengthening his metabolic capacity, he still stumbled a little when he walked outside.

Wang Peng was standing outside next to a car with their national flag when he saw Lu Zhou stumbling out of the main cafeteria entrance. He just finished smoking his cigarette, so he threw the cigarette butt into the trash can.

He had driven Lu Zhou for a long time, so he knew Lu Zhou didn’t like the smell of cigarettes. Every time he had a craving for a cigarette, he would smoke when Lu Zhou wasn’t around.

Lu Zhou sat in the passenger seat and put on his seatbelt before he casually asked a question, “Did you eat?”

Wang Peng smiled and said, “I already did. Where to?”

“Zhongshan International.”

“Ok.”

He started the car engine, and soon, they were on the way out of the university campus.

Lu Zhou, who was sitting in the passenger seat, pinched his eyebrows. He felt his phone in his pocket vibrate, so he took it out and glanced at his screen.

Unsurprisingly, Xiao Ai was harassing him again.

Xiao Ai: [Master, you have a new mail. Are you buying a supercomputer? I’m so happy! (/≧▽≦)/♡]

Lu Zhou resisted the urge to fall asleep. He yawned and typed.

[You read my email?]

Xiao Ai: [Hey! Didn’t you say Xiao Ai can read it? (°△°|||)]

Actually, I think I did say that.

After all, this thing feeds on information, and it won’t grow without eating.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and typed.

[I do have plans on buying a supercomputer… But that thing is very expensive, and it’s for the fusion machine, so don’t even think about it.]

Xiao Ai: [But I can help you. (o_o)]

Lu Zhou’s fingers rested on the screen. He then typed hesitantly.

[You can help me?]

Xiao Ai: [Yeah! I don’t know what exactly I should do, but my learning abilities are very strong! (^.^)]

Lu Zhou looked at the stupid emojis and wasn’t convinced at all.

However, keeping Xiao Ai on standby wasn’t a good idea either.

If it was possible, he’d rather find a way to utilize Xiao Ai.

Lu Zhou looked down and thought for a bit.

“… I’ll think about it.”

Wang Peng, who was holding the steering wheel, suddenly heard this come out of nowhere.

“… Think about what?”

“Oh, nothing…”

Lu Zhou burped, and it smelled like alcohol. He leaned back in his seat, closed his eyes, and began to think.

Should I do it?

It’s worth considering.