I'm a scientist, why can't I have faith?

While Li Lei was leading Wang Dong around Xiamen University, another group of people were also busy.

In an office at Xiamen University's School of Artificial Intelligence, Liu Qiang was standing in front of two not-so-big-faced people.

If Wang Dong were standing here, he would recognize Sugiyama Kensuke and Natsuki Yuzu from the University of Tokyo at a glance. The two of them had extremely serious expressions, as if they were discussing something extremely important.

"Mr. Liu, our professor said he hopes you can reconsider his previous conditions."

Xia Muyou handed the letter to Liu Qiang and, in fluent English, advised him to reconsider.

Liu Qiang glanced at the letter placed on the table, thinking that old man Toshio Takeda must have included more sincere conditions in it.

As expected, Takeda Toshio was very sincere this time, and Liu Qiang was somewhat tempted.

But he gave the same answer as before.

"I'm sorry, but please tell Mr. Takeda that I'm not really considering it at the moment..."

In any case, there's no way he could take a position at the University of Tokyo, let alone immigrate.

In his heart, the Great Xia Dynasty always came first.

"It's alright, Mr. Liu."

Xia Muyou seemed to have guessed that Liu Qiang wouldn't change his mind, and her expression didn't change much.

"Professor Takeda welcomes you to the University of Tokyo anytime."

After seeing off the two guests who had come from afar, Liu Qiang slumped into his office chair, completely unlike his resolute demeanor just moments before.

"Reality is still so harsh..."

This is the third invitation he has received in recent days.

These guys somehow found out about my humiliation at Xiamen University, and they're all scrambling to poach my talent.

As someone who doesn't meet the standards of a top talent in Great Xia, even though he was Professor Kieran Burns's prized student at MIT during his doctoral studies, it would still be difficult for him to compete and survive in Great Xia.

Since joining Xiamen University, Liu Qiang has not published a single article to meet the requirements for becoming a full-time employee.

With his probationary period coming to an end, he is about to face the risk of unemployment.

The main reason is that his research leans towards basic theory. It's unclear whether it's because it's too advanced or too abstract, or it might simply be because he hasn't been officially hired yet.

In any case, his research did not receive strong support from the school and lacked sufficient funding, so his research came to a standstill.

To make matters worse, Liu Qiang's wife was recently diagnosed with cancer and urgently needs funds for treatment, which is extremely difficult for someone like him who has spent his entire life studying.

There's simply no way we can raise that much money. I was hoping that after I got a permanent position, I could use the talent subsidy to get the initial treatment done, but now it seems like that's a long way off.

The heavy burden always weighed on Liu Qiang's shoulders.

He really wanted to accept the invitations from these foreigners, but he didn't have a suitable option.

Either the terms of the contract lacked any humane treatment, or the salary was pitifully low, and the resources were completely insufficient to support his research.

Although the conditions proposed by that old fellow Toshio Takeda met his goals, the other party actually demanded that he immigrate and become a Japanese citizen.

This is something he, a descendant of a red family with impeccable revolutionary credentials, absolutely cannot accept.

You should know that he refused when his mentor asked him to become an American citizen, let alone a small country like Japan.

"I should have stayed in the professor's lab; at least I wouldn't have to worry about money..."

Fortunately, it's not entirely hopeless. As long as Liu Qiang's previous application is approved, there is still a glimmer of hope.

However, reality is cruel. Not long after Xia Muyou and the other person left, a phone call came to Liu Qiang's office from the school.

Unsurprisingly, the application was still not approved.

Does this mean we have no choice but to give in to reality...?

Looking at the invitation from Toshio Takeda on the table, Liu Qiang hesitated.

Just then, someone knocked on his office door.

"Please come in."

There seem to be quite a lot of guests today.

Then a man wearing gold-rimmed glasses walked in. Although he looked a little tired, his eyes were surprisingly bright and piercing.

"Hello Mr. Liu, my name is Su Tiangong. It seems I can help you with your situation..."

When Wang Dong returned to the hotel, it was already evening. However, there were still teams busily working in the answer area. Tonight's midnight was the final deadline, and the competition would be forcibly ended regardless of whether the countdown had reached zero.

Therefore, every second is precious for teams that have not yet submitted their work.

The small library specially built by the competition organizers was packed with people, and many teams were even arguing fiercely over the same document.

Wang Dong knew that many of these were essential items for the interpretability module, and that every team needed to borrow them.

With time so tight right now, everyone naturally wants to be the first team to borrow the code so they can submit it as soon as possible.

Sigh, I really don't know what they were doing all this time. They could have done it simultaneously with the model building, but they had to wait until the very end. Didn't many people just stand by anxiously and unable to help when the model was being built?

In comparison, Wang Dong and his team's strategy was far superior.

Sun Yi was also squeezed into this crowd, and at this moment he was being subjected to intense pressure from the senior next to him.

"There are only four hours left! If we don't submit quickly, we won't get our scores! Hurry up and find Sun Yi!"

He could only silently bear the wrath of his senior. If it weren't for his lack of ability, their team would have handed in their papers long ago.

Wang Dong witnessed all of this.

"I think this person is our class monitor... I remember he used to be quite arrogant. I didn't expect him to be so humble now."

After enjoying the lively scene, Wang Dongmei went back to her room to sleep.

He can go back to Yenching University after tomorrow's awards ceremony. To be honest, it's only been a weekend, but it feels like he's been away from Yenching for a very long time.

On the other side, Japan's representative, Toshio Takeda, was lavishly praising his two students.

"You did a great job this time. You didn't embarrass Japan. You even managed to recruit one of Kieran Burns's star pupils. You'll be rewarded when you get back to school."

Takeda Toshio's face was flushed with excitement. Just a short while ago, he received a reply from Liu Qiang, who said that he had accepted the invitation, with the only condition being that the University of Tokyo must first fulfill its promise to provide free treatment for his wife's cancer.

He will only proceed with the change of nationality after he sees clear results from the treatment.

Takeda Toshio agreed to the condition without even thinking about it. He never expected that Liu-san would be such a loving husband, and he greatly admired this kind of person.

Upon hearing the teacher's praise, Kensuke Sugiyama said somewhat shyly:

"Actually, the teacher who could have gotten first place..."

"It's alright, I've heard about it. It's quite unbelievable that these people from Great Xia didn't choose to rest but finished it all in one go. It seems like they've always been like this."

"I believe that under absolutely fair conditions, you and Xia Mu can definitely defeat them."

"Now, relax a bit. Young people should always be full of laughter."

At the same time, Su Tiangong had just come out of Liu Qiang's office.

He witnessed Liu Qiang personally accepting Toshio Takeda's invitation.