My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Chapter 140 Snatching People

The mathematics department's office building was built a long time ago, and its red brick exterior is covered with ivy.

In a private office at the far end of the second floor, the wind blew across the desk piled high with draft papers, causing the edges of several sheets to curl slightly.

Li Jianming sat behind a large wooden table. The water in the teacup had turned a dark brown. He took a sip, swallowed the bitter tea, and it refreshed him, but it couldn't suppress the restlessness in his heart.

He is a senior professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, who has spent half his life dealing with graph theory and complex networks.

This spring, he took the lead on a key research project on large-scale network topology. The theoretical framework was progressing smoothly, but the entire project team got stuck when it came to the most crucial node redundancy calculation.

For three consecutive months, they tried various algorithms.

As the number of network nodes increased, the amount of computation exploded exponentially. The two microcomputers in the lab ran day and night, and eventually, they ran out of memory and crashed.

The road led into a dead end.

No matter how you try to find a way around it, you can't avoid the enormous computational power consumption. If you don't solve the bottleneck of this underlying algorithm, this project will be completely ruined.

Footsteps sounded outside the door, and a graduate student wearing glasses pushed the door open and walked in, carrying a stack of letters and journals.

"Teacher Li, here are today's emails and this issue of the foreign journal that just arrived."

The student placed his things on the corner of the table, glanced at the dense formulas on the blackboard, and, not daring to disturb him further, quietly slipped out.

Li Jianming put down his teacup, rubbed his throbbing temples, and casually flipped through the stack of emails, his gaze landing on the top glossy paper journal.

Discrete Mathematics, Fall Issue.

This is a leading journal in the fields of graph theory and discrete mathematics.

Li Jianming habitually picked it up, casually tore open the outer plastic packaging, flipped through the catalog, and quickly scanned the dense English titles, hoping to find some inspiration from the latest research of his colleagues.

His gaze followed the contents of the table of contents downwards, stopping in the middle.

The title of an article caught his attention.

The title is brief, discussing node connectivity and matrix dimensionality reduction in complex graph theory.

This type of question is common in Discrete Mathematics, but what really caught Li Jianming's attention was the author's signature at the end.

"C. Zhuo, Huazhong University of Science and Technology."

Li Jianming was stunned for a moment.

USTC?

In the Department of Mathematical Sciences, he could count on his eyes the number of people who could publish a single article in a journal of this caliber.

C.Zhuo?

Is his surname Chen? Cheng? Or Cao?

Regardless of their surname, there is absolutely no professor or young scholar in the School of Mathematical Sciences whose name has the same initials as this.

With a hint of curiosity, Li Jianming flipped directly to the corresponding page in the journal.

The article is short, only five pages including the beginning and end.

He had only intended to casually glance at this article produced by his own school, but after reading the first paragraph of the summary, his brows involuntarily furrowed.

He opened the drawer, took out a pair of reading glasses, put them on, leaned forward slightly, and focused his gaze intently on the pages.

Without lengthy literature reviews or fancy theoretical groundwork, the author directly presents a matrix model starting from the second page.

Li Jianming's breathing gradually became heavy.

He has a good eye for quality.

The matrix dimensionality reduction technique in this article has an extremely simple and straightforward logic.

The complex nodes that originally required an infinite number of iterations were forcibly cut off, and then a strongly fault-tolerant algebraic matrix was used to lock them back in place.

Li Jianming picked up a pencil from the table, pulled out a blank sheet of draft paper, and, following the matrix in the book, plugged in a set of deadlock data from his research project.

One line, two lines.

In less than ten minutes, Li Jianming calculated the final step.

pass.

The massive, redundant computation that had plagued their entire research group for three months, causing the microcomputer to crash, was completely cut clean under the crushing force of this matrix model, just like tofu meeting a sharp knife.

Although a very small amount of precision is sacrificed at the theoretical level, the computational cost is reduced exponentially in return.

In practical engineering and network applications, this tiny loss of precision is completely negligible!

Li Jianming took off his reading glasses and stared at C. Zhuo on the page, lost in thought.

When did HKUST discover this hidden master named Chen?

The Department of Mathematics definitely doesn't have it; if it did, he couldn't possibly not know.

Computer science? Not really, this is purely based on algebraic graph theory.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through Li Jianming's mind.

More than half a year ago.

At the time, the top physics journal Physical Review Letters published a groundbreaking paper by Derian's team at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton on the boundaries of topological singularities.

Li Jianming also read that article at the time.

He remembers clearly that in the acknowledgments section at the end of that article, there was a line that read: "Thanks to C. Zhuo of Huaguo University of Science and Technology for the breakthrough in discrete grids."

The two lines instantly connected in Ji Jianming's mind.

The Princeton paper was published in theoretical physics, where Professor Chen provided them with physical boundary models. Now, he has published this groundbreaking graph theory paper in discrete mathematics, which solves the problem of computational deadlock.

It's quite obvious where they are.

School of Physics!

This is definitely a hidden expert in theoretical physics and interdisciplinary fields from the physics department!

Li Jianming could no longer sit still.

The project he was working on had been dragging on for far too long. The higher-ups were pressing him hard, and the students were all exhausted and barely recognizable.

The key to breaking the deadlock is right in front of him, and the person is in the physics department of the same university. How could he possibly let this opportunity slip by?

He stuffed his reading glasses into his shirt pocket, grabbed the book "Discrete Mathematics" from the table, and without even drinking the tea in the enamel mug, he pushed open the door and strode out.

Li Jianming walked quickly, his mind filled with how to discuss the details of that matrix with the reclusive Professor Chen.

A dozen minutes later, he climbed up to the third floor of the physics building, panting, and arrived at the office of Vice Dean Fang Shi, familiar with the place.

The door wasn't closed properly; there was a crack.

Li Jianming didn't knock; he simply pushed the door open and went inside.

In the office, Fang Shi was sitting on a single sofa next to the coffee table, drinking tea with Fang Yuanming from the admissions office. On the table was a newly opened autumn issue of "Discrete Mathematics".

"Old Li? What brings you here?"

The Taoist priest looked up when he heard the noise and was taken aback when he saw Ji Jianming's hurried and sweaty appearance.

Li Jianming walked over, pulled out the chair opposite the Taoist priest, sat down, and put the book "Discrete Mathematics" that he had been carrying under his arm on the coffee table.

"Old Fang, I need your help today, it's a life-saving matter."

Li Jianming, still catching his breath, spoke directly.

The Taoist priest glanced at the journal on the table, then at Li Jianming, and vaguely guessed what was going on. He picked up the kettle, took a clean cup, poured a glass of water, and pushed it over.

"Take a sip of water and speak slowly. What's the matter that needs saving?"

Li Jianming picked up his cup, took a big gulp, and casually wiped his mouth.

"You should know about the complex network topology project I'm working on. It's been stuck on a bottleneck for almost a few months. The computational power consumption of redundant calculations is too high, and I just can't get around it."

Li Jianming pointed to the journals on the table.

"This book just arrived this morning. When I opened it, I found an article inside that uses matrix dimensionality reduction to solve connectivity issues."

Li Jianming's eyes shone brightly as he looked at the sorcerer.

"Old Fang, this idea is brilliant! It's like a magic axe that can cleave mountains! I just checked my data in the office, and it works perfectly!"

The Taoist priest leaned back in his chair and nodded imperceptibly.

"That's a good thing, we've found a way to break the deadlock."

"It's a good thing, but the author of this article is C. Zhuo from our USTC."

Li Jianming leaned forward slightly, his voice tinged with excitement.

"At first I was puzzled, there wasn't a Professor Chen in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, but then it suddenly occurred to me that his name was also in the acknowledgments of that top physics journal from Princeton more than half a year ago!"

Li Jianming slapped his thigh.

"Old Fang, we've known each other for so many years, don't keep it from me. This Professor Chen must be a reclusive genius in your physics department who's involved in interdisciplinary research, right? I should have noticed him back at Princeton."

When the Taoist priest heard the name Professor Chen, his hand holding the teacup paused slightly.

He glanced at Fang Yuanming beside him out of the corner of his eye. Fang Yuanming was drinking tea with his head down, his shoulders trembling slightly.

The sorcerer's mind immediately went into high alert.

Of course he knew who C. Zhuo was.

If Li Jianming knew that the author of this masterpiece on graph theory was a sophomore, given the obsession the math department had with mathematical geniuses, they might just move Chen Zhuo, along with his belongings, to the math department the very next day.

Even more critically, the national key project on extreme fluid mechanics that Fang Shi himself was working on is now stuck at the critical point of the continuity equation in its derivation model.

He had already made up his mind when he reviewed the paper last night, and was preparing to bring Chen Zhuo into his lab to use this matrix algorithm to patch the model.

How could we possibly let go of such a rare talent?

The Taoist priest put down his teacup, his expression turning serious, even showing a hint of embarrassment.

"Old Fang, please introduce me to this Professor Chen."

Li Jianming was completely oblivious to the Taoist priest's strange behavior, his tone filled with urgency.

"My project is in dire need of help. If he could just take a look at my model and give me some pointers on how to apply the dimensionality reduction matrix to nonlinear boundaries, my project would be saved! I owe him a huge favor."

The Taoist priest sighed softly, leaned forward, and adopted a sincere and open-hearted demeanor.

"Old Li, it's really not that I don't want to help you with this."

The sorcerer slowed his voice down a bit.

"This old Chen... well, how should I put it, he's rather withdrawn. He hates being disturbed by outsiders the most. When he's doing research, he hardly ever sees anyone from our institute."

Li Jianming was stunned for a moment, then became somewhat anxious.

"I'm not going to bother him, I'm going to seek academic advice! We're all in the same field, we can discuss the issues, and if there are any results, I'll definitely add his name to the list."

"I know you're going there to discuss some issues."

The Taoist priest pressed his hand down, signaling Li Jianming to calm down.

"But that's not the main reason. The main reason is that he is currently deeply involved in the national-level fluid mechanics project that I'm working on."

The sorcerer paused, his tone becoming serious.

"You know how important that project is. The amount of data he generates every day is terrifyingly large. He's currently completely locked up in the lab debugging the model and is so busy that he can't get away at all. If you ask me to make an introduction, not only will he not be able to see you, but even if he does, he doesn't have the energy to help you look at the code for the topology structure."

Li Jianming frowned deeply.

It seemed rather inappropriate for him to interfere when others were tackling a critical national project, even though he was anxiously waiting for something to happen.

He leaned back in his chair, let out a long sigh, and looked utterly dejected.

"Is it really impossible to find even a single spare moment?"

Li Jianming was still somewhat unwilling to give up.

"I really can't get it out."

The sorcerer said with absolute certainty.

"Once this busy period is over, and my project is finished, and he has a bit more free time, I'll find an opportunity to see if I can arrange for you two to meet and have some tea together."

Li Jianming glanced at the journals on the table and nodded helplessly.

"Alright, Lao Fang, you have to remember this. When he has some free time, you must introduce me to him. My research project is really counting on his approach to break through this bottleneck."

"Don't worry, I won't forget."

The sorcerer smiled and agreed.

Li Jianming stood up, picked up the book "Discrete Mathematics" from the table and tucked it back under his arm. He waved to Fang Shi with a thoughtful expression, then turned and walked out of the office.

Only when he heard the footsteps in the corridor fade away did the Taoist priest's calm and helpless expression vanish instantly.

He let out a long sigh, reached for a tissue on the table, and wiped his forehead.

Fang Yuanming, who had been sitting silently to the side, put down his teacup and finally couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Your Tai Chi is really good. You've created a Professor Chen with a reclusive personality out of thin air, and even put him in complete isolation to adjust the model. You've really fooled Old Li."

The sorcerer glared at him irritably and threw the tissue he had used to wipe his sweat into the trash can.

"You're still laughing! Don't you know Old Li? He's willing to turn USTC upside down for a groundbreaking algorithm. Today I used a national-level project to shut him down, but if he wants to find out about Chen Zhuo, this student in the gifted youth program, sooner or later."

The sorcerer stood up and paced back and forth behind his desk.

In academia, the competition for talent is all about first impressions.

Once Chen Zhuo officially joins his core laboratory and becomes a legitimate member of the project team, even if Lao Li discovers the truth and tries to poach him, it would be considered a cross-departmental attempt to steal a core member.

Old Li is a man who cares about his reputation, so he probably wouldn't do something like that... right?

But the prerequisite is that we need to solidify this relationship as soon as possible.

The Taoist priest stopped in his tracks, grabbed the phone from his desk, and dialed Xue Boyong's number.

The phone rang twice before being answered.

"Feed? Is this Elder Xue? I am a Taoist priest."

The sorcerer's tone became very decisive.

"Could you please ask if Chen Zhuo is in his dorm right now? If he is, could you please have him come to my office immediately? Yes, no need to wait until this afternoon, come right now."

After hanging up the phone, Fang Shi sat back down in his chair.

He looked at another book on the table, "Discrete Mathematics," which he hadn't opened yet, and tapped his fingers lightly on the cover.