A genius? I just love studying.

Chapter 205 Two Negotiations
seven in the morning,

Chen Hui took Tian Yang out of the school and came to Guangfutun Street. They randomly found a snack shop and went in to sit down.

Tian Yang had entertained Chen Hui so many times in the capital, and now that he had come to Jiangcheng, Chen Hui naturally had to reciprocate the hospitality of a host.

Unexpectedly, the other members of the Yanbei University delegation also came over when they saw this.

"Eight bowls of thick rice noodle soup, one bowl without scallions, the rest with all the scallions, and eight fried dough sticks."

After saying something to the boss, Chen Hui turned to Tian Yang and said, "Grandmaster, Jiangcheng has a wide variety of delicious food, but my favorite is still this thick soup noodles. You must try it."

"Oh? Wasn't yesterday's Wuchang fish the best dish?"

Tian Yang asked curiously.

"Wuchang fish is certainly a specialty. Even the teacher left behind the line, 'Having just drunk the water of Changsha, I then ate Wuchang fish.' But this thick soup noodles offer a different experience from Wuchang fish. In Wuhan, there has always been the saying 'have breakfast.' Breakfast and snacks are equally unique to Wuhan, comparable to those in Chengdu. You'll find out soon enough."

Hearing Chen Hui say this, everyone else looked curiously at the cook.

This small shop doesn't have a dedicated kitchen; instead, they set up a shed at the entrance and placed several large buckets for cooking noodles, allowing everyone to see what the owner is doing.

The chef cut the fresh fish into small pieces, put them in a large pot, added scallions, ginger, garlic, cooking wine and other seasonings, and cooked them over high heat until the fish soup was thick. Then, he put rice noodles into boiling water to cook them, took them out and put them in a bowl, poured the hot fish soup on top, and sprinkled scallions, cilantro, pepper and other seasonings on top before serving it to Chen Hui and his group.

Zhang Zhifei swallowed hard. He had never seen anything like this in Beijing, a veritable culinary wasteland. Just looking at it made him feel very hungry.

Heave-ho...

Soon, the rice noodle soup was served, and everyone began to enjoy it.

This thick fish soup is as creamy as milk and incredibly delicious, with a subtle peppery aroma. It's perfect for dipping crispy fried dough sticks into the soup. The rice noodles are smooth and chewy, and the fried dough sticks are crispy, absorbing the savory flavor of the fish soup for a rich and satisfying taste experience.

After finishing their meal, the professors from Beijing all ordered another bowl, as they couldn't find such delicious food in the capital.

……

Jiangcheng University, Administration Building Conference Room
There were no fewer than thirty people sitting in the conference room, which was about fifty square meters in size. Everyone looked serious, as if they were going to war rather than attending a meeting. Surprisingly, no one was whispering to each other.

It is said that large meetings decide small matters, while small meetings decide big matters.

Today's meeting is significant, and the decisions made are equally important.

Wang Qiming and Zhang Pingwen entered the conference room one after the other, took their seats, and the conference room door finally closed.

Because of the arrival of the delegation from Yanbei University, Chen Hui did not attend the meeting with Wang Qiming.

Everyone looked at Wang Qiming. These days, Wang Qiming had been running around the school, and they had all heard some rumors about him.

"Alright, everyone's here, let's begin."

Zhang Pingwen clapped his hands.

Today's meeting is about the resource allocation for the Jiangcheng University Supercomputing Center over the next year. Those in the meeting room are either heads of various colleges or leaders of research teams.

In principle, everyone should apply for supercomputing resources in advance, and the school will allocate them according to the students' research projects.

However, there are too many monks and not enough porridge. Even if the supercomputing center were split in two, the resources needed by everyone would not be enough for everyone to share.

So the purpose of today's meeting is very simple: to coordinate with all parties to make the total number of days everyone applies for ≤365.

The meeting room was silent; no one spoke.

Wang Qiming looked around, stood up, and said, "Since everyone is being so polite, I'll go first."

"As you all probably know, our School of Mathematical Sciences has a major project recently that requires a lot of supercomputing resources. I don't need much, just three months. I've already coordinated with other teachers and teams in our school. The university only needs to give our School of Mathematical Sciences access for three months. As for the rest, we can allocate it internally."

"Three months?"

"Why don't you just move the supercomputing center to your mathematics department?"

Before Zhang Pingwen could speak, He Jun, the dean of the School of Physics sitting opposite Wang Qiming, made a sarcastic remark.

"Does the research in your mathematics department matter, but the research in other departments doesn't?"

Wei Xiong, the vice dean of the School of Computer Science, also retorted to Wang Qiming with dissatisfaction.

They probably knew what major projects Wang Qiming was talking about, but no one's project is inherently noble, and no one's project doesn't boast wildly about changing the world when submitting a research grant application.

But if the final product reaches the international forefront, that would be a very good result.

They couldn't understand the specifics of Chen Hui's project, but they didn't believe in the prospects Chen Hui described in his grant application. So, to them, Chen Hui's project was no different from those of his competitors.

The three-month restriction, in particular, seemed absurd to them, naturally generating a lot of dissatisfaction.

Modern scientific research is almost inseparable from supercomputing, especially in certain fields of physics, computer science, chemistry, and biology. Even some very ordinary projects can be published in quite good journals if they can be run on a supercomputing machine.

Therefore, for them, the time allotted for supercomputing access means academic achievements, papers, performance, professional titles, and academic status, all of which are closely related to it.

They certainly wouldn't back down easily.

"As you all probably know, Yanbei University has sent a delegation to our Jiangcheng University."

Wang Qiming looked at his two colleagues who had spoken out in rebuttal and said sternly, "You probably know why they came."

"If Jiangcheng University can't meet this requirement, then Yanbei University might poach our students."

"You can go and have fun on your own then."

The conference room fell silent again.

Everyone knows that Wang Qiming is not exaggerating, and they all know what a talent like Chen Hui means to Jiangcheng University.

Especially the School of Physics. He Jun certainly knew about Chen Hui's collaboration with Professor Xiao Meng. When the results were achieved, their School of Physics would also be able to get a share of the profits.

People still have high expectations for a genius mathematician who can prove the existence of the Yang-Mills equation. Following him, there is a high probability that we can achieve some results. When that happens, Chen Hui will reap the rewards, and they will also be able to gnaw on the bones.

As for the other colleges, everyone has something to look forward to.

This time it's the School of Physics, who knows if next time it will be the School of Chemistry or the School of Computer Science?

Even if Chen Hui doesn't have any projects, if the mountain won't come to me, can't I go to the mountain?
If Chen Hui finds a project that interests him, he can actively seek cooperation, which will be very promising.

They certainly understood what benefits it would bring to have such a great figure in the school.

If Chen Hui goes to Yanbei University, they won't have the chance to curry favor with him. How could Yanbei University's physics and computer science be worse than Jiangcheng University's?

“Our physics department can spare ten days.”

After a long silence, He Jun took the initiative to speak.

After all, he's an adult. After carefully considering the gains and losses, he managed to control his emotions and took the initiative to compromise.

He Jun's willingness to offer an extra ten days of access, on the premise of accepting the school's assignment, shows his sincerity.

"The Computer Science Department will send five days."

Wei Xiong said reluctantly.

"The Chemistry Department will provide three days of training..."

Wang Qiming felt a little relieved. He had been worried that people wouldn't accept it, since Chen Hui was only a potential benefit in the future, while supercomputing was a tangible benefit in the present.

But he was still not very optimistic.

Sure enough, when the meeting room fell silent again, Wang Qiming's heart sank once more. Adding the one and a half months of access originally allocated to the School of Mathematics, all the resources he now had were barely enough for less than two months and ten days.

Chen Hui's team will need at least two months. The remaining ten days will be divided among all the other teams in the School of Mathematics. Many teams can only use one day or half a day a year, which is probably hard to convince the public.

Wang Qiming looked at Zhang Pingwen and said, "Principal Zhang, shouldn't the school give us some more subsidies?"

……

School of Physics, third floor of the experimental building
After breakfast, Chen Hui led Academician E Weinan and the Yanbei delegation to the experimental building and entered Professor Xiao Meng's laboratory.

After completing his previous thermoelectric materials project, Professor Xiao Meng is currently conducting research on semiconductors.

The collaboration between Chen Hui and Xiao Meng will not affect their original research. They only need to provide the relevant data, and after the model is trained, Professor Xiao Meng will conduct experiments to verify it.

Although Chen Hui studied this model to synthesize high-temperature, or even room-temperature, superconducting materials, the synthesis of superconducting materials is extremely difficult. Chen Hui did not intend to conduct such a difficult experiment right away, and Schultz was already doing it.

He planned to proceed step by step, starting with simple materials. Professor Xiao Meng's research on new semiconductors was in line with Chen Hui's.

Semiconductors have important applications in many fields such as communications, new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence, industrial automation, and medical electronics. If breakthroughs can be made, it will undoubtedly lead to the upgrading of the industrial chain and reshape the competitive landscape of industries such as communications, automobiles, and artificial intelligence.

Its impact on ordinary people in a short period of time may even be greater than that of superconductivity.

When will our supercomputer arrive?

After touring the laboratory, E Weinan asked impatiently, "I can't wait to train the model!"

"We'll have to wait a little longer."

"It just so happens that the model encoding will take some time."

Chen Hui wasn't in a hurry.

"How does this work?"

E Weinan's face was serious. "If the coding is completed but the supercomputing resources are not in place, wouldn't that be a complete waste of time?"

"Here's what we'll do: come with me to Yanbei University, and I guarantee that if we apply now, the supercomputing resources will be in place within three days!"

See the picture poorly.

E Weinan's desire to train the model quickly is genuine, but his intention to poach talent is also real.

The other members of the Yanbei University delegation exchanged glances. They had been wondering how to bring up the topic of poaching people, but unexpectedly, E Weinan found a perfect reason.

"I can guarantee that!"

Tian Yang spoke.

Cheng Taiyue had already made a promise to them before they arrived.

Even if Chen Hui makes some more unreasonable demands, they are not against considering them.

Yuan Xinyi stood to the side.

However, he did not speak this time.

His own research doesn't require much supercomputing resources, so he doesn't care much about it. He is also grateful to Jiangcheng University for recognizing his talent, so he won't leave easily.

However, Chen Hui does indeed need the strong support of Yanbei University now, so sending Chen Hui to Yanbei University is not a bad idea.

"If we can really achieve results in semiconductors, we might even be able to use the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer to train models in the future!"

"I'm excited," E Weinan said.

"The Divine Might Taihu Light?"

Chen Hui exclaimed in surprise, "We can use it too?"

He had certainly heard of this national treasure.

"Why can't it be used?"

"Supercomputers are built to support scientific research. As long as we can produce results, of course we can apply for one!"

E Weinan stated unequivocally that, as an academician, he had a lot of authority to speak on the matter.

Tian Yang, who was standing next to Chen Hui, nodded in agreement with E Weinan's words.

"And now, the most advanced supercomputer in our country is no longer TaihuLight."

E Weinan said smugly, "In the past, we were not strong enough, so we flexed our muscles everywhere to show our strength, deter the villains, and at the same time give our people confidence."

"But not anymore!"

He didn't say much, but Chen Hui already understood.

The Sunway TaihuLight was the world's number one supercomputer six years ago, but it is now only the sixth largest. There has been no news of China building any new supercomputers.

It now appears that there was construction underway, but rather that it wasn't announced.

Chen Hui couldn't help but feel a little fascinated. If the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer could be used to train the model, the entire training and optimization process might only take a week, and superconductivity wouldn't be so far away.

"I'll think about it again."

However, Chen Hui did not immediately accept Academician E Weinan's invitation.

Wang Qiming had promised him that he could help him apply for supercomputing access within a week, so he didn't need to rush to make a decision.

……

In the conference room,

Everyone looked at Zhang Pingwen, especially Wang Qiming, whose share was still far from three months' worth.

By now, everyone has offered roughly the same amount of benefit. Even if we continue the discussion, we won't be able to squeeze out any more advantages. Now we're just waiting for the person who can make the decision to take the final step.

"Since everyone is so mindful of the big picture, the school can't be lenient either."

Zhang Pingwen said, "Then the school will grant Chen Hui another month's worth of access."

Upon hearing this, many people in the meeting room hung their heads in dejection.

There's only one supercomputing center. The school only gives them one month's worth of data, which is just a way of squeezing money out of them. They've simply reduced the total amount allocated to them from twelve months to eleven months.

However, they didn't say anything more; they still had to give the principal that much face.

Of course, if that kid fails to produce results in the end, they will hold a grudge and demand back many times over what they lost today.

Wang Qiming breathed a sigh of relief, his face glowing with health.

We have finally fulfilled our mission!
But he didn't feel too relieved; on the contrary, he felt the burden on his shoulders was even heavier.

If Chen Hui fails to produce convincing results after obtaining supercomputing resources, his tenure as vice dean will likely be over.

But he believed in Chen Hui!

Zhang Pingwen glanced at Wang Qiming, then stopped thinking about it; this was undoubtedly a high-stakes gamble.

Hopefully, that little guy Chen Hui won't let him down!

(End of this chapter)