Super God-Level Top Student

...

"Mm," Qiao Ze nodded and acknowledged with a word.

His gaze followed Su Mucheng as she hopped and skipped over to him, and quite inspiringly, Qiao Ze, mimicking what Li Jian Gao had done to him, lifted his hand and patted Su Mucheng on the shoulder. In Qiao Ze's view, this was probably a way to express affection.

Summer in Xilin was still very hot; in fact, it was the hottest city in the northwest of Huaxia during summer. Su Mucheng was wearing a cute white T-shirt with a thin strap over the shoulder, perfectly revealing her pretty shoulders and collarbone.

When Qiao Ze nonchalantly completed the entire set of motions, Su Mucheng first froze, then her face broke into a sweet smile, and she naturally latched onto Qiao Ze's arm, which had just patted her shoulder.

"Thank you, Qiao, I'm so happy!"

Chen Yiwen watched this scene, dumbfounded, and subconsciously glanced at the man following behind Su Mucheng. He then keenly noticed that the man had already diverted his gaze elsewhere.
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At this moment, Chen Yiwen once again admired Qiao Ze to the point of adoration.

How could he act so intimately with someone's daughter right in front of her own father?

And he hadn't even greeted her father yet.

Was he treating Su Lixing like a delivery boy?

"Cough cough..." An awkward cough forcefully inserted itself.

Qiao Ze finally looked up at Su Lixing, then greeted as usual with a quiet nod, calling out, "Uncle Su."

"Mm," Su Lixing responded but didn't know what else to say.

Su Mucheng then turned her head to look at her father whom she thought was a bit unreliable and proudly lifted her chin.

Just when the atmosphere turned slightly awkward, Chen Yiwen snapped back to reality, quickly stepped forward, and said enthusiastically, "Uncle Su, you must be tired from the trip. I am Chen Yiwen, Qiao Ze and Su Mucheng's classmate. You remember me, right? This must be Uncle Zhang, let me help you with the luggage. Uncle, I've already called a car, it's waiting outside, a large seven-seater SUV.

Should we head back to school first? Ah, you guys don't know, but there are a bunch of leaders still in the office waiting for Qiao Ze. They've made several calls already. Once we settle you in, Qiao Ze is going to be taken away."

"Ah? Qiao Ze, what did you do? Why is the school watching you again?" Before Su Lixing could speak, Su Mucheng curiously asked, then naturally walked toward the station exit with Qiao Ze.

"Published two papers," Qiao Ze explained.

"The ones from the previous project?" Su Mucheng inquired.

"No," Qiao Ze shook his head.

"Ah... Mucheng, you don't know, it's those things I suggested to Qiao Ze before. About the papers on photolithography machines and chips. Professor Li hadn't even thought about publishing the previous papers yet, but who would have thought that Qiao Ze would write two more and directly submit them to 'Science'? Just one thing, I feel Qiao didn't do me right; he didn't leave me the second authorship."

"Are you sure you want to be the second author?" Qiao Ze looked sideways at Chen Yiwen.

"Ha, I'm just kidding. You guys talk, well, Uncle Su, are you guys going straight to the hotel later, or are you coming to the project group with us first?"

"Let's go to the school first to settle Mucheng down," Su Lixing considered for a moment and replied.

"Alright then."

Originally, Su Lixing had planned to take his secretary straight to the hotel.

Although he knew that was just Qiao Ze's way—acknowledging him with a nod and a greeting was probably already very polite—but it still felt uncomfortable; it was better out of sight, out of mind.

However, the recent conversation among the kids had piqued his curiosity.

What kind of papers had shaken up all the school leaders?

He felt it was necessary to go take a look.

...

Xilin University of Technology, South Court, former Group Wisdom Project Group Workshop.

Liu Chenfeng had already served tea to the leaders sitting in the living room for the third time.

At that moment, like a little housewife, he perched on the edge of a chair that had been moved from the workspace, ready to answer the leaders' sporadic questions at any moment.

Honestly, he had been in the school for so many years, but the pressure had never been as great as it was today.

There was no helping it; now sitting around the table used for the team meeting in the living room were bigwigs he wouldn't normally get to see.

The president, vice presidents, provost, and three other individuals who were introduced as leaders and academicians of the Huaxia Science Academy's Western Forest Branch...

Even his advisor, Dean Xu Dajiang, could only smile and sit humbly at the end of the table, let alone himself.

Damn Tan Jingrong, saying he was busy with engineering coordination with the Group Wisdom department at Youwei Group and couldn't get away. Hiding in the workspace without showing his face, the pressure was all concentrated on him.

Those bigwigs were unusually curious about the daily work of the project group, asking all kinds of messy questions from time to time—how was he supposed to answer them?

What was his role in the project group, after all? Just a jack-of-all-trades, right?

His daily tasks were to search for papers, read abstracts, and if he felt they were relevant to the questions raised by Qiao Ze, he would save the papers.

His interactions with Qiao Ze were probably limited to occasionally asking questions and having limited discussions about some points raised in the papers.

As for when Qiao Ze published papers... how could he possibly know?

Was he supposed to have Qiao Ze report everything he did to him?

While he was inwardly ranting, he still had to appear honest and respectful—so annoying!

...

"Hey, Liu, you just mentioned that Qiao Ze had you go to the library to borrow a lot of books on photolithography and chip technology and also had you download many related papers, right? Did he have any communication with outsiders, do you know?"

"Uh... Mr. Zhang, I'm really not too sure about that. Because Qiao Ze usually works on his own at his desk. We need a quiet and independent environment to work on mathematics projects, so unless he asks questions on his own, I try not to disturb him."

"Oh, it's fine, it's fine, haha, don't be too nervous, I was just asking casually. Chen, we might have given the kids a bit too much pressure by coming here unannounced."

"Thank you, Mr. Zhang, I'm not nervous." Liu Chenfeng quickly replied.

If his voice hadn't trembled slightly while speaking, perhaps everyone would have believed him.

Everyone at the table smiled kindly, and finally, the atmosphere wasn't so serious.

But as Liu Chenfeng looked up, he caught his dear advisor's gaze and felt embarrassed again...

Just as Dr. Liu felt every second was an eternity, suddenly a loud "bang" resounded; the door of the project group was pushed open with force, followed by a loud voice: "Tan, Liu, come out quickly to greet... greet... hello to the dean, hello to the president..."

...

When Chen Yiwen, carrying his luggage, pushed open the door with his shoulder, and realized that the living room was full of people with all eyes on him, his mind went blank.

Especially seeing Liu Chenfeng spring up from his chair like a coiled spring, with a look of relief on his face directed at him, Chen Yiwen immediately felt the pressure.

What's going on?

Why had this group come straight to the project group?

Hadn't they agreed over the phone to contact them after Qiao Ze's return?

Luckily, Chen Yiwen was quick to react; he changed his tone, took a couple of quick steps forward, then sidestepped to stand against the wall, revealing Qiao Ze and Su Mucheng, who were behind him.

It's fine, the bigwigs would forget about a minor character like him after a glance; they weren't here for him, anyway.

"Qiao Ze, you're finally back. Oh, Su Mucheng is back too, very good, very good, and Mr. Su, Mr. Zhang, please come in. Let me introduce everyone, Qiao Ze, Su Mucheng, both are the most outstanding students of our School of Mathematics..."

Dean Xu Dajiang, noticing Su Mucheng still holding onto Qiao Ze's hands, hesitated a bit, but considering their youth, he braved on: "They are also very close partners. Everyone knows the Group Wisdom project, right? It's a collaboration between our School of Mathematics's outstanding student Su Mucheng's father, Su Lixing, representing our two excellent students and Youwei Group..."