Knock knock—
Jiang Fuyue knocked twice symbolically, then pushed the door open and went straight in.
“You were looking for me…”
Her voice came to an abrupt stop when her gaze landed on the person in front of her.
The man was seated in a wheelchair. His figure was thin, yet his back was ramrod straight.
Hearing the sound from the doorway, he instinctively turned his head, and a familiar face entered Jiang Fuyue’s view.
The man’s cheeks were gaunt, his eyes dull, his pupils a faint bluish gray, like the imperial capital’s sky after smog has swept through, bright yet not quite bright.
Perhaps because he had spent years in the laboratory with little exposure to sunlight, his complexion carried a sickly pallor.
Pale as snow, with bluish-purple veins visible beneath the skin.
“Ming Yu?” Jiang Fuyue’s eyes showed surprise. “Why are you here?”
The man smiled faintly, the corners of his lips lifting. His originally lifeless eyes suddenly lit up, like bluestone under blazing sunlight, dotted with bright flecks.
“I’m here to apply for a job.”
Only then did Xiao Shan react. He stood up and walked over to the desk. “You two know each other?”
Ming Yu nodded. “Mm.”
Jiang Fuyue shrugged. No choice, it really was just that coincidental.
“You’re coming to Ming University to be a professor?”
“Is it welcome?” he asked back with a smile.
Jiang Fuyue: “Of course! But what about the Northwest Research Institute… you’re not handling that anymore?”
“All the projects I was in charge of that could be concluded have been concluded. Those that couldn’t were all handed over to colleagues. Before leaving, all the handover work was completed.”
This was cutting off his retreat entirely, leaving himself no way back.
Jiang Fuyue frowned. “But you stayed there for twenty years…”
All his foundations were in the Northwest. Choosing to leave was no different from giving up everything and starting over from scratch.
Ming Yu lowered his eyes, his voice hoarse. “You… don’t want me to return to the capital?”
“It’s not a matter of wanting or not. I just think it’s a pity to leave like this…”
“Not a pity.” The man raised his eyes. Though his unfocused pupils lacked clarity, they could still accurately find Jiang Fuyue’s position, his gaze locking precisely onto her face.
As long as you’re here, it isn’t a pity at all.
He silently added in his heart.
Just then, Jiang Fuyue also looked toward him.
Their eyes met, and time seemed to flow backward, returning to twenty years ago, when he and she were a young master of the Ming family and a young miss of the Lou family, childhood sweethearts, innocent and carefree.
Perhaps because their relationship was truly too good, the elders of the two families had even reached an unspoken understanding about a marriage alliance, tacitly waiting for the children to grow up.
If the Ming family had not suddenly gone back on it, if she had been able to nod in agreement… by now their children would probably already be in college, right?
No more thinking about it. There is no “if” in this world.
Things being as they are now is already very good. At least she is still alive.
“…Ming Yu? Ming Yu?” Jiang Fuyue called him twice. “What are you thinking about?”
The man shook his head, swallowing the bitterness on the tip of his tongue, and spoke as usual. “I suddenly thought of some work-related matters. What’s wrong?”
“Are you sure you want to come to Ming University? Actually, with your credentials and your standing in the nuclear physics field, you could easily go to the one next door…”
“Yueyue,” he sighed softly, “if I weren’t sure, I wouldn’t be here today.”
Alright then… Jiang Fuyue was momentarily speechless.
Off to the side, Xiao Shan heard Ming Yu call out that completely natural, unguarded “Yueyue” and couldn’t help raising an eyebrow.
And just like that, Ming Yu stayed.
To show sincerity, Xiao Shan gave him the highest-tier professor treatment.
Not only housing and a car were provided, a driver was also arranged for pick-up and drop-off.
“If there’s anything you need, please feel free to say so. Don’t stand on ceremony!”
One had to know that over the years, Ming Yu had always held the front line in the nuclear field, braving the dangers of radiation and conducting life-threatening research. He had never taught at any university, not even as a nominal appointment.
Ming University was the first university where he would teach. Whether for Ming Yu himself or for Ming University, it carried extraordinary significance.
Naturally, Xiao Shan took it very seriously.
After that came the standard hiring process. Once completed, Ming Yu could submit a course application to the university, then wait for approval from the academic affairs office and the opening of the course selection system.
If nothing unexpected happened, in half a month, classes could officially begin.
……
Thanks to Jiang Fuyue’s promotional speech as the award-winning student representative at the “Top Ten Outstanding University Students” awards ceremony, Ming University became a hot topic in the capital’s education circles.
“Ming University? No way, right? The top of the diploma-mill list? Why am I hearing news about it everywhere lately?”
“That’s right, that Ming University! They produced a genius girl, Jiang Fuyue. The whole school got carried along.”
“I say, before long that wild chicken is going to turn into a phoenix!”
“…”
Once there’s more talk, the buzz rises.
As the buzz rises, name recognition follows.
On top of that, Jiang Fuyue’s speech at the time was recorded by a news channel cameraman and broadcast on Capital TV, including that line—
“Ming University is an open, people-oriented institution that fully respects students’ creativity and is willing to generously provide material support.”
Key point: material support!
For research-oriented educators, the appeal was simply enormous.
Doing research costs money everywhere—
From field investigations to project initiation, not to mention renting laboratories and purchasing experimental equipment, expenses often run into hundreds of thousands, even millions.
Add to that team salaries, travel funds, meal expenses, and so on, and it becomes another sizable outlay.
People say university professors are wealthy, but the poorest are also university professors.
Due to tight funding, many research projects are forced to halt, even entire laboratories shut down. For researchers like them, all the early effort goes down the drain, and all their hard work is negated.
That kind of pain is no different from having one’s heart carved out!
Someone is bound to argue: how could there be no money? Universities allocate funds, the state provides grants, and there are even external commercial institutions and large companies offering sponsorships.
Crying poverty like this, aren’t you just pocketing the funds within your research teams?
To such remarks, outsiders just watch the spectacle and stir things up blindly, while insiders can only give a bitter smile mixed with a cold laugh.
Every year, universities roll out new research projects, but institutional funding is limited. Often, if one project is covered, another is neglected.
The cake is only so big. Whether you can grab one or two bites is already uncertain, and you still want to hog the whole cake to yourself?
Dream on!
Moreover, the cake can’t be evenly divided. Key projects take the lion’s share, and the small remainder for non-key projects has to be allocated based on seniority.
By the time it reaches your hands, it might not even be enough to stick between your teeth.
As for national funding, not only is it limited, the application procedures are complicated, and approval is far from guaranteed.
The last route is external sponsorship, which may be relatively easy for professors in business or finance schools.
They do projects and earn money on the side, not only spending nothing, but even bringing funds in.
But for projects with strong disciplinary specificity and little commercial potential, that path is simply not viable.
Companies aren’t fools either. If your project can’t bring them expected returns, they won’t even give you a second glance, let alone sponsor it.
Don’t be ridiculous.
Under such constraints, heaven knows how tempting that condition was.
After all, Ming University is famously “not short of money.”
In short, after the awards ceremony, professors from other universities began contacting Xiao Shan privately, subtly expressing interest in transferring.
As long as Xiao Shan’s side could meet their conditions, deals would likely be struck.
Once the news that Ming Yu had also chosen to teach at Ming University got out, even more people transferred over.
“Ming Yu? Is it the Ming Yu I know?”
“Is there even a second Ming Yu in nuclear physics?”
“Hiss, is it real or not? Hasn’t he always been at the Northwest Research Institute? He rarely even returns to the capital. Why would he suddenly come back to teach?”
“Who knows?”
“Probably Ming University offered extremely generous terms.”
“Tsk tsk, I really can’t imagine just how generous they’d have to be to lure a research maniac like him back from the far Northwest.”
“I heard that the former president of Q University once paid three visits to his door, trying to invite him to serve as the chief professor of Q University’s nuclear physics department, and was rejected every time.”
“Strange… anyone who studies nuclear physics knows that Professor Ming never takes students, let alone opens classes to teach. Could this be a mistake?”
“Kid, go check the good news posted on Ming University’s official homepage. Even the specific course name and start time are listed. How could it be fake?”
“I spent six years in nuclear physics, six years as a radiation guinea pig. In our field, Professor Ming is a legend. You can only see him in books or hear about him from teachers and classmates, but no one has actually met him. I heard he even goes to the front line before test explosions to pick up radiation fragments. That’s a true warrior!”
“I think that’s how his leg got damaged…”
“Ah! It really feels like Ming University is about to take off—no, it already has.”
“More than take off, this speed is basically riding a rocket, okay?”
“No one stop me, I’m going to Ming University!”
“……”
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