Lu Zhou was shocked by Director Li’s words, and he took a while to react.
ILHCRC headquarters building…
Unveil?
Didn’t we just finish the meeting? How is the building already built? Unless they already started building prior to the meeting… Wait a second!
Lu Zhou suddenly realized something.
That’s not even the most important part!
“The hell is chairman? How come I never heard about this?”
Didn’t we say I was going to be a chief consultant?
When did it change to the chairman?
Lu Zhou was totally confused; he didn’t even know what to say.
“You didn’t hear?” Director Li coughed and said, “… I didn’t get to tell you because you left Beijing too soon! But—”
“Don’t give me buts!” Lu Zhou said, “I want to know what is going on.”
Director Li knew that Lu Zhou was unhappy, he said, “Here’s the thing, we couldn’t wait any longer. This Lunar Hadron Collider project is going to cost US$20 billion, and there are dozens of countries participating. There has to be a face of the project, right?
“We didn’t want to bother you, and we were just going to find some random academician, but the Communist Party of China felt like the Americans won’t be happy with that, not to mention they already took a huge hit on the budget committee. You get what I’m trying to say, right?”
Director Li smiled and said, “You should just power through. Just do this for the first term, and after the term is over, if you’re too tired, you can get someone else to replace you.”
Director Li didn’t know what to say.
If this were anyone else, they would gladly jump at the opportunity of being the chairman of such a huge project. They would immediately go to Shanghai.
After all, that was the headquarters of the International Lunar Hadron Collider!
A project that was going to be more significant than CERN!
It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that when the collider on the Moon was completed, the Shanghai headquarters would become the future of theoretical physics. The ILHCRC leader would be the leader of theoretical physics.
Being able to serve as the chairman of such a powerful international scientific research organization was more valuable than winning a Nobel Prize, but Lu Zhou was being so reluctant…
In fact, Director Li didn’t want to bother Lu Zhou.
However, the problem was that China had never been particularly good at scientific research, especially when it came to the field of theoretical physics.
Sending an academician might not do the job. After all, there were so many Nobel Prize laureates participating in the project, and they wouldn’t respect the academician at all.
More importantly, if the chairman didn’t do a good job, it was likely that the foreign scholars would take control of the newly built ILHCRC facility.
Therefore, Lu Zhou was the only candidate for the chairman.
He was the only person who could take this role without anyone questioning his ability.
Academician Zhang Wenlong, president of the Chinese Physical Society, personally wrote a letter recommending Lu Zhou as the chairman.
After all, Lu Zhou’s “electrostrong interaction” theory was one of the most outstanding theoretical physics achievements of the century.
Lu Zhou was the only person who could serve as the face of China’s physics community…
Lu Zhou could tell that Director Li was being serious, but he was a little flabbergasted.
“That’s not the best idea, right? I still have my own research projects…”
Director Li immediately cut off Lu Zhou.
“What do you mean it’s not a good idea! We’re spending ten billion dollars on this! We can’t just let those Americans send someone as the ILHCRC chairman, right? I don’t care, we have to get someone from our side to serve as the chairman!”
Lu Zhou: “…”
Even though Lu Zhou didn’t want to serve as the chairman, Director Li’s words resonated with him.
All in all, China was investing US$10 billion on this project, so they couldn’t just let someone else control the ILHCRC.
The first few terms of the chairman position had to be served by a Chinese person. They had to take the initiative…
…
Even though Lu Zhou was reluctant, he thought about the big picture and finally agreed to serve as the chairman.
After all, the collider was his idea…
After Lu Zhou got home from the Institute for Advanced Study, he took out his suitcase and began packing the clothes he only recently unpacked from his Beijing trip.
Xiao Ai’s drone flew next to him.
Xiao Ai: [Master, are you going on a trip? (•̀∀•́)]
Lu Zhou looked at the drone and spoke.
“Business trip, why?”
Xiao Ai: [Um, Xiao Ai can’t fly outdoors, so can you let Xiao Ai use external cameras? Xiao Ai will get very lonely if Xiao Ai can’t see Master…]
Jesus Christ, the retardation is back again.
Lu Zhou coughed and said, “I’ll… think about it.”
Xiao Ai: [Yay! Master, you’re the best! (⃔ * `꒳́ *)]
Lu Zhou: “…”
I didn’t even agree.
Isn’t it a bit too early to celebrate?
Also, that emoticon looks a bit weird…
Another message popped up on the drone screen.
Xiao Ai: [Master, Master, you have mail!]
Lu Zhou: “Open it for me.”
Xiao Ai: [Ok! (๑•̀ᄇ•́)و✧]
An email was displayed on the drone screen.
Lu Zhou began to read the email.
It was sent from the editorial department of Annual Mathematics and signed off by Professor Frakes, the new editor-in-chief.
The professor wrote in a sincere manner.
[Dear Professor Lu, we have received your submission.
[After reading your paper, I was surprised by your research results. There is no doubt that this is a prominent research result. Although I do have a suggestion. I hope you consider it seriously.
[Theorem 1.0 in your manuscript is one of the core propositions in manifold topology and differential topology. Considering the mathematical significance of this proposition, we hope that you can submit the theorem as a separate paper instead of passing it as a corollary for the hyperelliptic curve analysis method. This will ease the process of future scholars citing this paper…
[In summary, I suggest you modify the thesis.]
Lu Zhou: “…?”
