The Decaying Dream of America: I Assemble Corpses and Confront Madness

Professor Finch's office has a huge floor-to-ceiling window on one side and connects to the old, dusty archives of the university library on the other.

Outside the window, the spires of Gothic buildings pierced the gray sky, and leaden clouds hung low.

The old archives are perpetually shrouded in dim light, and the air is filled with a unique odor, a mixture of decaying paper, dust, and some indescribable musty smell.

This place is piled high with the professor's research materials from the past decades: manuscripts, printed copies, clippings of newspapers, thick academic journals, and various conference minutes.

They were haphazardly piled on iron racks, on the ground, and even up to the ceiling, forming small, precarious mountains.

Lin Zheng was granted permission to enter.

His first task was to clean up a corner piled with outdated social psychology theoretical literature.

Professor Finch complained that archiving these paper documents was inefficient and time-consuming, and he was particularly insistent on reforming the "old knowledge management system".

This was a clue he had obtained from an interview with the professor's old school newspaper.

Lin Zheng began his work without complaint, only making dull noises.

He first spent two whole days moving all the materials from the ground to the office door and roughly classifying them.

He incorporated the year, theme, and even the color of some annotations into his classification criteria.

This is a huge task, and he needs to be able to endure loneliness.

Whenever he couldn't bear it anymore, he would start to recite the texts that he had been forced to memorize before. Those texts, which he didn't understand at the time but now deeply resonate with, have profoundly influenced and shaped him into who he is today.

Therefore, when Heaven is about to entrust a great task to someone, it will first test their will, strain their muscles and bones, starve their body, leave them destitute, and thwart their endeavors, so as to strengthen their resolve, temper their character, and increase their abilities.

Therefore, without accumulating small steps, one cannot reach a thousand miles; without accumulating small streams, one cannot form a great river or sea. A fine steed cannot leap ten steps in one bound; a slow horse, if it perseveres, can travel ten times the distance. If you chisel and then give up, even rotten wood will not break; if you chisel without giving up, even metal and stone can be carved.

I got the job done just by reciting the text, and the pain of memorizing the text back then lessened the loneliness of organizing the materials now.

The documents contained various discarded sticky notes, fallen glasses, and even a few expired movie tickets, revealing moments of the professor's busyness and occasional relaxation.

Lin Zheng noticed that some manuscripts had yellowed edges, illegible handwriting, and ink seeping through the back of the paper, perhaps traces of writing late into the night.

Other printed copies were clean and neat, clearly having been recently organized by an assistant.

These subtle details, these silent messages, outline the professor's work habits.

Lin Zheng reclassified thousands of paper documents, books, and periodicals, a process akin to disassembling a massive, intricate machine and then reassembling it according to a more precise and efficient logic.

He used the barcode scanner provided by the library and the digital record management system developed by the school to enter every document into the computer.

He meticulously entered the title, author, publication year, journal, and even page number of each paper.

This task demands a great deal of patience and attention to detail.

He even created simple PDF scans of some old materials that did not yet have electronic versions, and added keyword tags so that professors could easily access them through simple searches in the future.

A few days later, when Professor Finch stepped into the archives again, he was stunned.

The previously chaotic and daunting pile of documents has now disappeared.

Instead, there are rows of neatly arranged file boxes, labeled and arranged in order of year and subject.

The dust in the air seemed to have lessened somewhat, although the musty smell remained stubbornly persistent.

What shocked the professor even more was that Lin Zheng had also organized the several old cases he had complained about in a clear and organized manner, and even drew up a social relationship map of the key figures involved.

These diagrams are marked with different colored inks, making them easy to understand at a glance.

Professor Finch wore gold-rimmed glasses and had a slight smile on his lips.

He picked up a file box and pulled out a page of information.

The edges of the document had been carefully repaired, clearly Lin Zheng's work.

He pointed to the label on the box.

"Lin, have you filed all of these?"

"Yes, Professor. This is part of my understanding of your working philosophy; traditional paper-based document management is indeed inefficient."

Lin Zheng lowered his head and spoke calmly, without deliberately emphasizing his hard work.

The professor tapped his fingers lightly on the document.

"These numerical indexes are very well done."

The professor's voice was devoid of any emotion.

"Thanks to the university library's system."

Lin Zheng responded softly.

He knew that the more he demonstrated his "instrumental" nature at this moment, the more he could dispel the professor's doubts.

Professor Finch didn't say anything more; he simply walked around the archives and then returned to his office.

Lin Zheng continued to bury himself in his work, quietly turning like a tireless gear.

From that day on, Professor Finch began assigning Lin Zheng more work.

From grading undergraduate students' basic assignments to helping prepare complex lecture notes, and sometimes even needing Lin Zheng to help print personal letters.

Lin Zheng practically became Professor Finch's full-time assistant, shuttling between the office and the archives day after day.

During coffee time, Professor Finch would sometimes call out to Lin Zheng and hand him a steaming cup of coffee.

He started chatting about trivial everyday things, like the weather or some gossip from school.

Lin Zheng always listened attentively and responded appropriately, neither appearing obsequious nor cold.

The professor's attitude did become much more approachable, a kind of intimacy that a superior shows to a capable subordinate, mixed with a little exploitation, but at least it was recognition.

Lin Zheng knew that he had successfully taken the first step.

In their daily coffee chats, Lin Zheng began to subtly mention Professor Finch's interests and hobbies.

He would always pretend to have seen news reports about ocean fishing casually, or show just the right amount of curiosity about deep-sea creatures.

On one occasion, Lin Zheng mentioned that he had heard that the professor's favorite student, his nominal "senior brother" Ryan Burt, seemed to have a lot of experience in deep-sea fishing.

Professor Finch's eyes lit up upon hearing this. He told Lin Zheng that Lane Bert was his most highly regarded junior in academia, and immediately gave Lin Zheng Lane Bert's contact information, hoping that the two could exchange ideas more often. After receiving the contact information, Lin Zheng quickly got in touch with Lane Bert.

After exchanging pleasantries, Ryan Burt jokingly revealed to Lin Zheng that the professor holds a quarterly sea fishing friendship tournament with several old friends every year. Although the professor is very enthusiastic, he is always unlucky and loses repeatedly, which makes him complain to them quite a bit.

"If the professor could win just once, he'd probably be happy for a long time," Ryan Burt said with a hint of amusement.

Lin Zheng's heart stirred; this was the opportunity he had been waiting for.

He hinted to Ryan Burt that he might be able to help the professor "turn the tide." Ryan Burt understood, but reminded Lin Zheng to be careful not to embarrass the professor's friends.

These small steps eventually led to an opportunity.