Chapter 286 - 220: This Is Not Metaphysics

Chapter 286: Chapter 220: This Is Not Metaphysics

Chen Lin stared at the pages in his hand, which were covered in mathematical formulas, his gaze growing profound.

He said very little, nor did he feign deep contemplation.

He simply gave a slight nod, the picture of perfect confidence.

The next moment, he pulled a black gel pen from the holder on the desk and drew a stack of prepared scratch paper toward him.

SCRATCH, SCRATCH, SCRATCH—

The sound of the pen tip meeting the paper’s surface was instantaneous, fluid, and urgent.

Without a moment’s hesitation, the first step of the derivation leaped onto the page.

Standing to the side, Professor Tang Xuebing’s eyes suddenly lit up.

He knew what he was looking at.

As a doctoral advisor at the Science and Technology University, he possessed at least some basic powers of observation.

Just from the way Chen Lin started writing, from that unhesitating confidence, he knew there was a chance!

Tang Xuebing started to speak, but he caught himself and swallowed the words.

He knew all too well that it was taboo to disturb someone in the middle of a burst of inspiration. He quickly turned his head and shot a look at Professor Lu Zhongqi and Yan Lin.

The look was clear: Retreat!

’Don’t disturb Chen Lin.’

Professor Lu understood immediately, and Yan Lin also gave an obedient nod.

The three of them tiptoed out of Room 301, gently closing the door behind them.

Only after they had entered the adjacent Room 302 and shut the door did the tense, suppressed excitement begin to ease.

The three of them each found a chair and sat down.

Unable to contain her curiosity, Yan Lin blinked her wide eyes and was the first to break the silence.

"Professor Tang, Professor Lu, I can’t help but feel... this is going a lot more smoothly than last time, isn’t it?"

She recalled the scene from moments ago, gesturing in confusion.

"Last time Professor Chen—oh, he was still just an undergraduate back then—he and Shen Yan took the data back, and it took them over a full week to send us the fractal geometry model."

"But this time, I saw him pick up a pen and start writing without even thinking about it. He’s so fast, isn’t he?"

Hearing this, the two professors sitting across from her exchanged a glance, their faces showing expressions of both amusement and exasperation.

"Heh, you, young lady," Professor Lu Zhongqi pointed at Yan Lin and shook his head with a smile. "The way you said it ’took them’ a week... that really stings, you know?"

"Huh?" Yan Lin froze.

Professor Lu sighed, his tone a mixture of self-deprecation and genuine feeling. "It ’only’ took him a little over a week to solve a problem that had our entire project team stumped for a full six months."

"If word of that got out, what do you think the master’s and PhD students on our team—the ones who’ve been pulling their hair out over this—would do? They’d probably want to kill themselves out of shame."

Only then did Yan Lin realize what a humblebrag that was. Her face instantly flushed red, and she stuck out her tongue. "I’m sorry, Professor Lu, that’s not what I meant..."

"Alright, alright, Old Lu, stop teasing her," Tang Xuebing said with a wave of his hand, though his expression was serious.

"Yan Lin’s intuition isn’t wrong, though. This time really is going more smoothly—or at least, it’s off to a much faster start."

As he spoke, Tang Xuebing fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a cigarette. Remembering he was in a university building, he sighed and put it back, but not before holding it under his nose for a quick sniff.

"The reason is simple. This time, we did our homework."

"Homework?" Yan Lin asked, her curiosity piqued.

"That’s right." Tang Xuebing nodded. "Last time, we were flying blind. We just dumped all the raw experimental data and material properties for the solid-state battery on Chen Lin."

"To people like us in materials science, that stuff is treasure. But to someone in pure mathematics, it’s nothing but a pile of gibberish!"

Lu Zhongqi nodded in agreement from the side. "That’s exactly right."

"The extra days must have been spent translating the problem," Tang Xuebing continued, his tone tinged with emotion.

"Afterward, I made a point of asking my colleague at the Science and Technology University, Professor Gongtan from the math department."

"Professor Gong gave me the scoop. He said that while Chen Lin is a mathematical genius, he comes from a liberal arts background. His specialized knowledge in STEM fields, especially areas like Physics, chemistry, and materials science, is actually quite limited."

At this, Tang Xuebing gestured toward the room next door.

"So, before we came this time, I specifically asked professors from the math and Physics departments to abstract the additive screening issue into a purely mathematical problem."

"That’s why he was able to start calculating the moment he took the pages."

Yan Lin was dumbfounded.

Even though she was a doctoral candidate, she spent most of her time in the lab with beakers and flasks and had little exposure to this kind of cross-disciplinary thinking.

"Professor Tang," Yan Lin asked, perplexed, "can a field like materials science... which feels so much like a ’dark art’ and relies so heavily on experimental data... really be solved entirely through mathematics?"

"It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel."

Tang Xuebing laughed at her question.

It was a smile tinged with both reminiscence and a hint of melancholy.

"Young lady, this is no science fiction."

Tang Xuebing gently tapped the cigarette he was holding against the table.

"It must have been about three or four years ago. Back then, the Science and Technology University was running a ’Cross-Disciplinary Joint Research Initiative’."

"At the time, I happened to have a project looking for a new type of semiconductor doping material. The situation was a lot like ours now. We were stuck on the material screening phase, sifting through thousands upon thousands of compounds. I ran so many tests I thought I was going to be sick."

"Then, the university administration got involved."

A glint appeared in Tang Xuebing’s eyes.