The Great Worm Lich

In the busiest civil aviation hub in the midwest region of China, in the terminal building Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport, the strong cold wind blowing from the central air-conditioning outlet found up high on the ceiling no longer had any force when it reached the ground, yet it still managed to keep the hot and humid air waves exclusive to the Summer in Western Sichuan outside of the door of the airport terminal.

At the airport’s spacious gate, from time to time, groups of three to five passengers, or even twenty to thirty passengers, would pull their baggages and rush into the airport terminal anxiously, completely drenched in sweat.

When the cold wind hit them, most of them would breathe a long sigh of relief, with their expressions turning calm inadvertently. Of course, a small number of guests who came late for their boarding time would not be like that.

Watching the few passengers hurriedly running around the airport, busy changing their boarding passes and checking the boarding gates of their flights, a slightly fat young man of medium height who had single eyelids yet looked pleasing to the eyes leaned on the bright stainless steel fence on the arrival lane of the airport, and said lazily, “I really don’t understand. I really don’t understand what these uncles and aunties are thinking. Say, they know that it’s very troublesome if they’re late for their flights but why don’t they come to the airport earlier? If I were them, I’d have come to the terminal two hours in advance. Look at how comfortable it is over here! The weather outside is so hot, and if I can just stay here all day for the air-conditioner, I’d be willing to just place a mat and sit on the floor too.”

Beside the man with single eyelids stood a girl wearing a snow-white long dress. Upon hearing her companion’s words, she snapped in annoyance, “Zheng Tianliang, you better watch out for your manners. The first half of your sentence was still quite okay but the second half of your sentence sounded really outrageous. Outside, you’re representing the image of Sichuan University’s Student Union and the guest that we’re picking up is an internationally renowned young scholar. He is a Ph.D. student at Stanford University who has published several papers in Science and Natural Science. Look at yourself! You better stand straight now and push your chest out! Take out the bearing of a top student from Project 985 and 211 of National Key Universities.”

The girl’s eyeliner was slenderly drawn on her delicate facial features. The make-up on her face was light and when she was not talking, she gave off a feeling of a graceful artistic women but right now, her deep frown had completely destroyed this feeling.

“No matter how awesome he is, he has still not arrived yet, hasn’t he? It’s not like he has clairvoyance so don’t tell me that that kid can actually see how I look like all the way from the plane? Ah that’s enough, President Li, there are only the two of us here so why should we pretend to…” As the young man with single eyelid was muttering away, he suddenly stood upright abruptly.

Listening to his interesting words, two girls, who were hugging a tablet while wearing the same brown fitting singlet with a pair of dungarees a few meters away, chuckled out loud as they glanced at him.

When the man with single eyelids noticed that he had attracted the attention of beautiful girls, he became high spirits right away, with his posture suddenly becoming straight and upright, appearing to be particularly tall. However, in the face of the girls who approached him with eagerness, he hesitated and could not seem to be able to move his feet.

“Hey, handsome, how are you? Are you here to pick up your friend too?” When the two slightly tall girls who had curvy bodies saw this clean-looking man wanting to strike up a conversation with them but did not dare to, they asked with a smile instead.

“Hello sis… No, I mean, hello miss. I’m not here to pick up a friend but to…” The man with single eyelids tried to make himself look natural but his tone was very tense as he stammered in his reply. At this moment, a crowd of people just so happened to gush out of the arrival lane.

“‘To’ my ass! Hurry up and lift the sign. can’t you see people are getting off the plane now?” When the girl in white dress saw her companion becoming flushed with excitement, her mood became inexplicably worse. With a grave expression, she smacked his head with force and said.

“Li Mingjin, why did you hit me?! That Dr. Zhang can’t fly out directly when the plane has just touched down anyway! He still needs to go through some process!” The man with single eyelids glared at the girl and howled at him. However, he still raised the card in his hand obediently.

The card was huge. It was written with the words ‘Stanford University’ and “Dr. Zhang Lisheng”. When Li Mingjin saw that Zheng Tianliang raised the sign up according to her orders, she burst out laughing and said in a whisper, “Is it painful? I’m sorry. You don’t know that this Dr. Zhang from Stanford is actually a visiting scholar for the Ministry of Education’s interview project called ‘100 Famous Universities, 1000 International Specialists’. His name is even highlighted on the documents of the Province Department of Education so the leaders in our university has attached great importance to it. If it wasn’t for the reason that the summer holiday is coming soon and all the exchange groups and inspection teams from the government and the high schools are coming in succession, the job of picking him up from the airport would not have fallen to our Student Union. Didn’t you see me answering my phone multiple times before we came? Director Sun from the Studies Affairs Office, Director Wu from the Postgraduate Department, Director Zhang from Science and Technology Department, and Director Li from Laboratory and Equipment Management Office have all called me to say hello, telling me to perform well in playing host to our guest.”

“No way! A visiting scholar whose name is highlighted? I can understand why the Studies Affairs Office and the Postgraduate Department pay a lot of attention to this but what does it have anything to do with the Science and Technology Department and even the Laboratory and Equipment Management Office?” Zheng Tianliang asked in bafflement.

“You didn’t know right? Hasn’t that Dr. Zhang just received his Ph.D. from Stanford? He has so many achievements so if he does his postdoctoral research at our Sichuan University, wouldn’t it be easier for the university to apply for funds to add several large scientific research equipment? Tell me then, is it still unrelated to the Science and Technology Department and even the Laboratory and Equipment Management Office?” the girl asked back with a chuckle.

“But this is just too far-fetched! it’s ridiculous!” Zheng Tianliang’s eyes turned wide as he became baffled right away. “The only permanent national cooperation project of our Sichuan University that is related to the word ‘biology’ is the National Engineering Research Center for Biomaterials but that is to study medical materials and is completely unrelated with traditional biology.”

“Don’t we have a State Key Laboratory of Oral Diseases? Well, humans are a type of biological creature too, so in this way, it’s related, isn’t it?” Li Mingjin smiled and replied. “Don’t be so rigid, Zheng Tianliang! Right now, there are already more than 40 foreign worlds that have been discovered and there are three in China alone. Those Qigong Masters and supernatural beings are starting to appear in greater number too so what can be even more absurd than this? You have to learn to adapt to society, or otherwise, you’ll be eliminated sooner or later.”

Upon hearing his companion’s words, the man with single eyelids was taken aback and had a strange look on his face. “Mingjin, the foreign world and supernatural power has always existed but it’s just that we ordinary people have never sensed it before so this is not absurd! How can it be compared to this strange thing of asking an internationally renowned biologist to study dental diseases?”

“Ah stop complaining, Zheng Tianliang. Our guest is still very young so we can’t say that he has much international fame yet. Can you guess what he looks like? Do you think it’s like that Sheldon from Big Bang Theory or that genius physicist Dr. Dubon who came to Sichuan University last time who excelled in everything?”

“I think he should be like that Dr. Dubon who is smart, fast in learning and doesn’t put things on hold. Otherwise, why would he be a visiting scholar just before summer vacation? It’s apparent that he plans to come to this beautiful and richly endowed great land of Western Sichuan and have his vacation on state expenses!”

“Enough, Zheng Tianliang! Don’t compare your small playful yet lazy heart with an internationally renowned young scholar. So what if it’s summer vacation? You always refuse to participate in the summer activities of our school so you don’t know that the summer vacation life of contemporary college students is always full as there are so many summer lectures in the university. Did you think that Dr. Zhang will come here and spend on state expenses to travel around Western Sichuan?” Li Mingjin studied the passengers walking out from the arrival hall and replied in a whisper.

As she was glancing around, a young man wearing a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt with an ordinary dress-up, who looked unwell due to jet lag strode over when he saw the paper card from afar.

“Dr. Zhang Lisheng?” Although his appearance was quite different from her imagination, his age matched the description. Adding on the fact that Li Mingjin had seen many young foreign lecturers in the universities who would not usually wear suits, she tried to ask in English.

“Yes, and you are?” The young man who was a little pale had his eyes lit up as he answered in English with a smile. When he smiled, he appeared to be emitting radiance with joy.

Upon hearing this, despite knowing that foreigners usually do not care much about the details of the person playing host, Li Mingjin still proceeded to explain enthusiastically, “Hello Dr. Zhang, I’m, Li Mingjin, the vice president of the Student Union of Sichuan University. I came to pick you up on behalf of Sichuan University. Originally, our university’s president wanted to come to pick you up personally but because summer vacation is coming soon, he’s caught up with all sorts of work. For this reason, he can only ask us to do this for him. Where’s your baggage? We can help you…”

“It’s fine. I didn’t bring anything,” Zhang Lisheng shrugged and replied with a smile.

Before he returned to Western Sichuan, he had made a lot of considerations and preparations, including the opening of the branch of LS Group at Chengdu. Of course, it was not to start a slaughtering business but to start a super high quality imported meat sales business instead.

Through some introductions from the political and business celebrities in New York, along with some Chinese Red Children who were operating some businesses in the US, he had forged some connections.

Even though the time was too short for these relationships to be said as strong and deep, as long as he could chat with them, he could use them as an ‘amulet’ when it was necessary by giving luxurious gifts. Not only that, he had even unnecessarily bought a 70-story commercial building in Chengdu City center and modified the top floor into a spacious temporary house. Armored vehicles like the bullet-proof SUV, limousines and helicopters were also prepared too.

However, after everything was ready, the young man chose to return to China in the most low-key method. In the name of ‘Stanford’, he replied to Sichuan University via an official letter and confirmed his return time, to the point where he even asked Sichuan University to arrange for an airport pick-up. All of the previous measures were used as an alternative means of back-up in the case of accidents. With a light travel, he snuck back to the country secretly.

“You didn’t bring anything?” Li Mingjin’s eyes went wide. However, when she recalled the casual nature of the US foreign students, she no longer was surprised by it. “Well then, shall we go to the supermarket to buy a few sets of clothes and toiletries like toothbrush, toothpaste, and facial cleansers for you?”