Obviously, Jiang Fuyue had no intention of clearing things up for him.
Xie Dingyuan also didn’t press the issue to the end—after all, he didn’t yet have that right.
At least he had that bit of self-awareness.
“Sorry, maybe I’ve asked too much. It’s fine if you don’t want to answer. But there’s one thing I can’t understand.”
Jiang Fuyue: “Go ahead.”
“Since you could erase the tea room footage, why leave the segment outside the DNA building? You wanted me to find it, didn’t you?”
“Mm.”
The man’s brow furrowed slightly. “Why?”
“I know you’ve been investigating the founder of the S-SA internal network, ‘I Send My Melancholy,’ and your suspicions have already landed on me.”
“So,” the man’s gaze deepened, enunciating each word, “was it you? Or are you in the know?”
Jiang Fuyue didn’t answer, only said, “Stop investigating. You won’t find anything.”
Xie Dingyuan didn’t affirm or deny it. Suddenly, a faint smile appeared on his lips: “Why don’t you ask me why I’ve been investigating?”
“If I asked, would you tell me?”
Xie Dingyuan nodded. “I would.”
Jiang Fuyue raised her eyebrows and met his gaze—serious, not joking at all: “Alright. Can you tell me why you’re looking for them?”
“It’s not me—it’s my teacher.”
“Old Shen?”
“Mm. Twenty years ago, the BR4 project that my teacher poured all his heart into had hit a deadlock after consuming vast manpower and resources. The team couldn’t break free from their set thinking or find a breakthrough. Just as the project was about to be shut down, he saw a reply from ‘I Send My Melancholy’ on an internal forum thread.”
“That reply gave him a new line of thought and saved the project from being scrapped. Two years later, the paper was published and caused a sensation in the academic world. My teacher even left a spot for ‘I Send My Melancholy’ as a co-author. Sadly, they could never be contacted.”
“For the following eighteen years, until the recent appearance of the ‘Purple Iris,’ there was no sign of ‘I Send My Melancholy.’ That last authorship position has remained empty ever since.”
“My teacher’s greatest wish is to one day, in his lifetime, see that name in the place it rightfully belongs.”
Jiang Fuyue was stunned upon hearing this.
She had no recollection of any of it.
In her previous life, while managing the Lou Corporation, she indeed had a habit of browsing internal forum threads. Occasionally, she’d leave a comment or reply on topics of interest and forget them immediately afterward.
She never imagined someone would remember it for twenty years—and even reserve a co-author credit for her.
This…
For a moment, her emotions were complicated.
Xie Dingyuan: “If you know the whereabouts of ‘I Send My Melancholy,’ please pass on my teacher’s wishes. That would fulfill his decades-long hope.”
Jiang Fuyue: “Okay.”
Xie Dingyuan: “As for the firewall breach today…”
“We’re even.”
You broke into my firewall; I took down your mainframe. We both got each other’s IPs.
The corners of the man’s lips curled. “Deal.”
He lifted his head and drained the remaining tea. Then, Xie Dingyuan stood and prepared to leave.
Before going, he reminded her: “Remember to return to the lab when you have time. Old Bai and Old Jin are waiting on you to complete the model data so they can proceed with finalizing the project.”
“Got it.”
After he left, Jiang Fuyue also left the garden, steps light and brisk.
…
Xu Kaiqing returned to the hotel. The more he thought about it, the more worried he became, so he made a call— “How’d it go? Were you discovered? What did Ah Yuan say?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Relax, it’s all handled.”
“How did you handle it?”
“He didn’t ask much, and I didn’t say much.”
No more, no less.
Xie Dingyuan may have sensed something, but he didn’t force the issue, nor did he try to trick information out of her through clever probing.
Just like his proud personality, his actions were upright and forthright—he disdained playing mind games.
Compared to those aggressive or cunning near-demonic types, he could indeed be called a “gentleman.”
Only, this gentleman had a bit of a temper, a spine of pride, and an icy aura that kept people at arm’s length…
Tsk.
Xu Kaiqing let out a sigh of relief, then frowned in confusion: “Ah Yuan is that easy to deal with? He and Old Shen have been trying to get info on you for ages. Old Shen’s asked me for details more than once…”
They’d chased so hard for so long. Now that they had a solid lead, how could they just give up?
Jiang Fuyue gave a brief explanation.
“…Old Shen never told me that. He’s quite sentimental too… If I’d known, I would’ve passed along his message. Would’ve saved all this drama. Felt like we were acting out Mission: Impossible…”
So ended a heart-racing day.
The next day, Jiang Fuyue continued discussions with Xu Kaiqing and Old Peter on the research topics they brought.
Ming Yu received a call from the institute—he couldn’t stay longer and had to return to the Northwest with Zhong Hao.
Jiang Fuyue went to the airport to see them off.
The man sat in a wheelchair, head slightly tilted back, his pale gray eyes focused intently on her face.
“Yueyue, once I finish my work at the institute, I’ll come find you.”
Even if they couldn’t be together, at least they could live in the same city, breathing the same air.
Jiang Fuyue nodded with a soft smile. “Okay.”
“Let’s go.” Ming Yu motioned to Zhong Hao.
The latter nodded politely at Jiang Fuyue and pushed the wheelchair toward the gate.
…
After the send-off, Jiang Fuyue returned to the teahouse.
Yes, the same teahouse as yesterday.
Xu Kaiqing: “Not afraid Ah Yuan will show up again?”
Jiang Fuyue said confidently, “He won’t.”
Since he promised not to pursue it further, he definitely wouldn’t say one thing to her face and do another behind her back.
Xu Kaiqing grunted: “You trust him that much…?”
Jiang Fuyue paused.
Do I?
The discussion lasted all day. They even had both meals at the teahouse. Only when the moon hung high did Jiang Fuyue finally exhale: “Done.”
Xu Kaiqing had been pulling his hair out over a pile of scribbled calculations.
Hearing this, he snapped his head up, dazed: “Done? Really?! Let me see!”
He lunged over.
Old Peter blinked in surprise, then eagerly joined them.
Five minutes later—
Xu Kaiqing: “Yes! That’s it!”
Old Peter: “The SP3 equation is very similar to the diffusion equation. Before, we directly used the diffusion block method for solving it. But that method usually employs high-order flux and neutron source expansion to fit large block sizes, making it inefficient for Pin-by-Pin calculations…”
Jiang Fuyue nodded and pointed at a circled section: “Since core inhomogeneities mostly occur radially, we can propose a hybrid method combining radial 2D flux expansion with conventional axial block methods to perform 3D Pin-by-Pin SP3 transport calculations.”
Xu Kaiqing had a lightbulb moment: “So it was the wrong method all along—no wonder the results were off. What scheme do we use for block coupling in the three directions?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Net neutron flux coupling.”
Old Peter: “And the next step?”
Jiang Fuyue: “Run it through IAEA 2D/3D benchmark problems and typical transport benchmarks to verify the correctness and feasibility of the method for both diffusion and transport calculations.”
“Oh my God! That’s the logic! Why didn’t I think of it?!”
Old Peter had wrestled with this problem for twenty years!
A whole twenty years!
“Oh! I now fully believe you are Chou! No one but Chou could possess such powerful logical thinking!”
Old Peter spread his arms in habit: “You are a gift from the heavens, a blessing from God to mankind, a gospel for the scientific world…”
Compliments poured out of him like a blooming flower—no, like an entire garden.
You see, Old Peter wasn’t just a renowned physics professor in California—he was also a famous local pastoral poet.
Xu Kaiqing rolled his eyes so hard they nearly flipped: “You think Chou buys into that cr*p? Corny doesn’t mean cute—it’s pathetic!”
In other words, who cares if you know a few flowery lines?
Unexpectedly—
Jiang Fuyue stroked her chin, nodding thoughtfully as she listened: “Actually… not bad.”
Xu Kaiqing: “?”
Chou… you’ve changed.
Old Peter: “!”
She liked it? Delighted!
After providing the approach, Jiang Fuyue saw that it was getting late and took her leave.
Xu Kaiqing and Old Peter carefully collected every single page of notes—especially those Jiang Fuyue had written on. Not even half a sheet was left behind. They brought it all back to the hotel.
They worked through the night and were still energetic and excited the next day.
Due to the complex experimental steps that couldn’t be solved by theory alone, they decided on the spot to fly back to the capital—couldn’t wait a moment longer.
So, by the time Jiang Fuyue got their call, Xu Kaiqing and Old Peter were already at the airport waiting to board…
