They're already in university, and the primary school system is only just starting out?

Hearing her heartfelt words, Chen Lin's smile became genuine.

"That's quite a coincidence," he said, leaning forward slightly. "I do have something I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"Hmm?" Shen Yan asked curiously, "What kind of busy are you?"

Chen Lin smiled mysteriously, not answering immediately, but instead picking up his chopsticks and pointing to the steaming dishes that the waiter had just brought over.

"No rush, it's a long story." He blinked, his tone relaxed. "Let's talk while we eat."

……

……

Half an hour later.

Chen Lin swallowed the last bite of Wagyu fried rice with satisfaction, savoring the exquisite taste of the rice melting on his tongue, a blend of the aroma of top-quality beef fat and the special sauce. He couldn't help but let out a heartfelt exclamation.

"It's expensive, but there's a reason for the price; the taste is truly excellent."

Sitting across from him, Shen Yan took a small sip of her hot tea before raising her eyes. A thoughtful look appeared in her clear eyes as she asked, "So, you mean... you want me to work for your newly established company?"

"Yes." Chen Lin put down his chopsticks, leaned back in his soft chair, and nodded.

In the past half hour, he had succinctly and completely told Shen Yan about his initial plan to cooperate with Peng Yifeng to establish a technology consulting company, the later proposal by Principal Chang Kai to involve the school, and the preliminary plans for the company's future business.

Upon hearing this, Shen Yan fell into thought.

Looking at her like this, Chen Lin could roughly guess her concerns.

He added, "Of course, I also know that your life plan is to pursue a purely research-oriented career. If you want to continue to graduate school and then a doctorate after your undergraduate degree..."

Before Chen Lin could finish saying, "I completely understand, you don't need to feel any pressure," he was interrupted by a firm voice from the other end.

"I do."

"Huh?" Chen Lin was stunned for a moment, not quite understanding.

Shen Yan raised her head, looked directly at him, and repeated each word clearly.

I said, "I do."

Chen Lin: "?"

He looked at Shen Yan's pretty face, which was full of seriousness, and couldn't help but complain in his heart.

Goodness, those three seemingly random words could easily be mistaken for a marriage proposal by someone who doesn't know the context.

However, despite his complaints, Chen Lin was secretly delighted.

His smile instantly broadened, and his tone became cheerful: "That's wonderful! Don't worry, I'll definitely offer you the highest possible compensation!"

Shen Yan shook her head, her clear eyes remaining completely calm.

"I don't really care about salary or anything like that," she said honestly. "Besides, I'll be a junior when I start the semester, and my major courses are quite demanding, so I have to study hard. Although I've already self-studied a lot of most of the courses in advance, I probably won't be able to free up a lot of time for them until my senior year."

She looked at Chen Lin and earnestly offered her thoughts: "So, before our senior year, I might only be able to help you with some things in my spare time. Once we're seniors, I'll officially start working at your company. At that time, you can just pay me a normal intern salary."

"That won't do!" Chen Lin rejected the idea without even thinking. "Waiting a year is no problem at all, but paying interns a salary is absolutely unacceptable!"

He looked at Shen Yan and said, half-jokingly and half-seriously, "You're the core technology of my future company! For a top-tier talent like you, I'll definitely offer the highest compensation to attract you!"

Shen Yan couldn't help but burst out laughing when she heard his serious nonsense.

Those cool and aloof brows instantly relaxed, like ice and snow melting and spring flowers blooming.

Chen Lin was slightly taken aback when he saw her rare, radiant smile, and then sincerely exclaimed, "You look so beautiful when you smile. You should smile more often."

This compliment was much more sincere than the jokes from before.

A beautiful blush instantly rose on Shen Yan's cheeks, but she quickly regained her composure.

Her crescent-shaped eyes looked at Chen Lin, a faint smile still on her lips, as she brought the conversation back to the present.

"Then you should talk to me more often and make me laugh more."

Chen Lin was stunned again upon hearing this.

He looked into Shen Yan's eyes, and his heart skipped a beat for no reason.

He then realized what was happening and a calm smile appeared on his face.

"it is good."

...

...

……

……

For the next two days, Chen Lin's life entered a regular and fulfilling cycle.

Without fail, from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. every day, he would enter "little mathematician" mode, devoting all his energy to his graduation thesis research on the Monge-Ampère equations.

He divided most of the daytime into two parts.

First, we will continue to work on Hollow Knight.

After the initial painful period of being thoroughly defeated by various bosses, Chen Lin's gaming skills improved rapidly thanks to the help of strategy videos and the superhuman eyesight, reaction speed, and dexterity granted by his "Little Champion" title.

He can now skillfully use the "downward slash" technique to repeatedly jump around on various terrains covered with spikes, and even perform some extreme maneuvers in certain BOSS battles that are difficult for even strategy video creators to do.

He used another part of his time to pick up his long-interrupted learning of large-scale artificial intelligence programming.

He no longer simply found some introductory video tutorials online and followed along with the code, but began to systematically and deeply study those cutting-edge open-source large model frameworks and algorithm papers.

Of course, in between these things, Chen Lin also started chatting with Shen Yan on WeChat regularly, instead of only exchanging a few words when there was something to talk about before.

The two didn't chat very frequently, exchanging only a dozen or so messages a day, but every interaction made Chen Lin feel very comfortable.

That afternoon, Chen Lin had just finished defeating the boss "Morrick the Manic" in Hollow Knight. He was leaning back in his chair, moving his slightly sore fingers, when he casually sent a WeChat message to Shen Yan.

Chen Lin: [Are you busy?]

Shen Yan replied almost instantly: [Just got back from the library]

Chen Lin smiled, his fingers flying across the screen as he began to share his future plans with her.

Chen Lin: [Besides working on my graduation thesis, I've recently started researching large-scale artificial intelligence models again.]

Chen Lin: [My idea is that after our company is established, in addition to providing mathematical consulting services, we also need to set up a dedicated AI department once we have accumulated enough funds. This field will definitely experience a massive boom in the next few years, and we need to plan ahead.]

There was a few seconds of silence on the other end of the screen, as if they were processing his message.

Shen Yan: [This is a great idea.]

Shen Yan: [Actually, when I was a sophomore, I also audited several programming courses in the Computer Science department, such as Data Structures and Introduction to Algorithms.]

Shen Yan: [In my spare time, I also read a lot of books and papers on artificial intelligence.]

Shen Yan: [I completely agree with your assessment. With your mathematical abilities, if you're truly determined to enter the field of artificial intelligence, you're sure to achieve remarkable things.]

Seeing Shen Yan's reply, Chen Lin felt incredibly comforted.

Being recognized, especially by someone you like who is also a true academic achiever, is a really great feeling.

On a whim, he decided to share some of his most important achievements from this period with her.

He picked up his phone, snapped a few photos of the pages of draft paper on his desk covered with complex formulas and derivations, and sent them over.

Chen Lin: [Let me show you the research results of my graduation thesis [smug]]

After the message was sent, the other end fell into a long silence once again.

Five minutes passed, and just when Chen Lin thought she might have put her phone aside and been doing something else, Shen Yan's message finally arrived.

Shen Yan: [...]

Shen Yan: [This is too advanced; I don't understand it at all.]

Chen Lin almost burst out laughing when he saw this line of text.

This effect is far more direct than any amount of praise.

Before he could reply, Shen Yan's next message popped up.

Shen Yan: [However, although I don't understand it, I have confidence in you. I think that with the depth shown in your paper, if it were compiled and published, it would definitely have a chance to be published in the top mathematics journals.]

Upon seeing the word "publish," Chen Lin suddenly remembered something and asked curiously.

Chen Lin: Have you ever written academic papers before?

Shen Yan: [I haven't written anything independently. However, in the first semester of my sophomore year, I assisted a senior in our department who was pursuing a PhD, processing some data. Later, when his paper was published, I was listed as the third author.]

Chen Lin: [What does "three works" mean?]

Shen Yan: [Academic papers can have multiple authors. Generally, the person listed first is called the first author, representing the greatest contribution to the paper. Similarly, the third author is the third author.]

Shen Yan: [By the way, that paper was eventually published in a Q2 SCI journal.]

Chen Lin had a general idea in mind. He thought for a moment and immediately typed a reply.

Chen Lin: [How about we publish this paper together after I finish it? I'll be the first author, and you can be the second author, what do you say?]

In his view, it was just a small favor. He didn't care much about these empty titles anyway, and why not add a nice touch to Shen Yan's resume?

Unexpectedly, Shen Yan rejected his suggestion without hesitation.

Shen Yan: [No need]

Shen Yan: [I've made up my mind. After graduating with my bachelor's degree, I'll go straight to work at your company and don't plan to pursue graduate studies. Being the first or second author of a core journal paper is the most valuable thing for someone who wants to pursue an academic career. For me, it's not very meaningful.]

Chen Lin was about to say something when Shen Yan sent her next message.

Shen Yan: [Furthermore, through that incident in the last modeling competition, I've also realized a lot. It's not enough to rely on someone else to solve every problem.]

Shen Yan: [What I really hope for is to stay by your side, learn from you, and then use what I've learned to truly create something of my own. This is one of the main reasons why I agreed to join your company that night.]

Chen Lin stared blankly at the two messages Shen Yan had sent him on his phone screen.

He silently put down his phone, leaned back in his chair, and felt a surge of indescribable emotion welling up inside him.

He had to admit that girls like Shen Yan were extremely rare.

Despite having a privileged family background, she could easily live the so-called "refined" life that countless girls her age admire.

But she had absolutely no interest in designer bags, luxury goods, or trendy afternoon tea.

She devoted all her energy to the pursuit of knowledge and self-improvement.

What's even more remarkable is her unwavering commitment to truth and principles. She doesn't take shortcuts, doesn't try to be opportunistic, and certainly won't deceive herself because of external temptations.

Chen Lin murmured to himself in a very soft voice, "Don't miss out on a good girl."

.....

.....

Thursday, July 24th, 9:30 AM.

The cicadas outside the window were chirping desperately, and the ground was scorched by the blazing sun, shimmering with waves of heat. The roadside greenery was drooping and listless.

To be honest, if he hadn't made an appointment with Professor Gu in advance, Chen Lin would never have wanted to go out during the day during the hottest time of the year.

Fortunately, the central air conditioning in the math department office building was running very coldly. As soon as I stepped through the door, the cool air that hit me instantly dispelled all the heat and stuffiness.

Chen Lin arrived at Professor Gu Ming's office door with practiced ease and knocked.

"Please come in!"

The voice coming from inside the door was enthusiastic.

Chen Lin pushed open the door and entered, only to see Professor Gu Ming standing up from behind his desk, a bright smile on his face, rushing towards him.

"Chen Lin, you're here! Come in and have a seat!"

Gu Ming's enthusiasm was almost overwhelming for Chen Lin.

"Professor Gu, you're too kind."

"Of course, of course!" Gu Ming shoved the water glass into his hand, plopped down opposite him, and looked at him with admiration and approval in his eyes.

"Chen Lin," Gu Mingqing cleared his throat, trying to make his tone sound calm, "I finished grading those two papers you did yesterday overnight, and like the day before, they were both perfect scores!"

"Oh, okay." Chen Lin smiled calmly and nodded upon hearing this.

This outcome was entirely within his expectations.

Looking at his calm and composed demeanor, Gu Ming was filled with admiration. Look at him! This is the composure and calmness of a true genius!

He calmed himself down and said, "Now you've completed all your required credits for your major courses! Next, once you finish your graduation thesis, we can immediately begin the formal process for early graduation!"

Upon hearing the word "process," Chen Lin seemed unconcerned.

He knew very well that Principal Chang Kai was definitely more enthusiastic about this than he was.

After all, once he graduated, the title of "Yannan University alumnus" was already locked in. Once he made some achievements, it would add another glorious chapter to President Chang's resume.

However, Chen Lin had to take his graduation thesis seriously.

On the one hand, since he had already promised Academician Liang Tianshi, he would still do some scientific research in the future, as long as his energy allowed.

Those academic papers will be the most direct way for him to showcase his research results in the future. He will have to learn this set of standardized methods sooner or later.

On the other hand, after talking with Shen Yan for the past two days, Chen Lin completely gave up the unrealistic idea of ​​finding someone to write for him.

He no longer has any hope that undergraduates or even graduate students can understand his research.

It's better to rely on yourself than on others; you must master this skill yourself.

With this in mind, Chen Lin focused his attention even more intently.