Chapter 297 - 229: Special Correspondent

Chapter 297: Chapter 229: Special Correspondent

Four in the afternoon.

In the office area of Yanhai Company, the sound of keyboards clacking rose and fell without cease. Bai Qian and Pan Si were leading their teams in wrapping up the training for the 1.5B model and making the final preparations for the 30B model.

Chen Lin sat at his workstation, watching a set of test data run on his screen, feeling quite pleased.

The small 1.5B model was performing beyond expectations, the large 30B model was ready to go, and the project funds from the solid-state battery venture were just around the corner.

Everything was heading in the right direction.

Just then, the phone sitting on the corner of his desk suddenly started to vibrate.

Chen Lin picked it up and saw it was an unfamiliar number.

The caller ID showed its origin: Jinmen.

Chen Lin raised an eyebrow slightly.

Ever since his name had gone viral online, he had been answering fewer of these unknown calls.

Most of them were sales calls, or people who had gotten his number from somewhere and wanted to ride his coattails.

However, seeing that it was a local Jinmen number, Chen Lin hesitated for a moment before pressing the answer button.

"Hello, who is this?"

A woman’s voice came from the other end of the line.

Her voice was sweet, with a unique magnetic quality. It also sounded like she had a slight, non-standard accent—the kind a foreigner might have when speaking Chinese. But it wasn’t stiff; instead, it exuded an exotic, intellectual charm.

"Hello, may I ask if this is Chen Lin, Professor Chen?"

Chen Lin’s fingers tapped lightly on the desk. His tone was level. "This is he. And you are?"

"Hello, Professor Chen. I apologize for the intrusion."

The female voice said with a laugh, her tone extremely professional and polite:

"My name is Natasha, and I’m a special correspondent for the Asia-Pacific region of *Nature* magazine."

"Our editorial department has taken note of your recent outstanding contributions in the fields of mathematics and artificial intelligence, especially your paper published in JAMS and your groundbreaking achievements in controlling AI hallucinations."

"Therefore, we would like to conduct an in-depth interview with you. During this interview, we also hope to discuss some of your recent thoughts on interdisciplinary collaborations—for instance, in the field of materials science."

’*Nature* magazine?’

’A special correspondent?’

When Chen Lin heard these two phrases, the fingers tapping on his desk came to a sudden halt.

His first reaction wasn’t delight, but—

’Something’s wrong.’

’If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.’

Chen Lin’s mind began to race.

A few days ago, during a video conference with Tang Xuebing and Gongtan, they had indeed mentioned publishing a paper in *Nature Energy*.

But at that time, Professor Tang and Chen Lin had agreed that two doctoral students from the project team would write the first draft. Chen Lin would then be brought in to polish and approve the parts involving the mathematical model.

As of now, Professor Tang’s side hadn’t even sent over the first draft. The paper hadn’t even been submitted yet.

Even if *Nature* had the best intel, it was impossible for them to send a reporter to interview him about his "new thoughts on materials science" when the paper wasn’t even a ghost of a draft, right?

’Unless... they’re referring to my open-source AI algorithm?’

But that algorithm was published in JAMS (the Journal of the American Mathematical Society). While both it and *Nature* are top-tier journals, they’re not affiliated.

Of course, given his current popularity, it wasn’t entirely out of the question that *Nature* might want to piggyback on the hype and score an interview.

However, as a modern university student who grew up surrounded by online anti-scam campaigns, and especially after the incident with the "fake Stanford Ph.D.," Chen Lin’s guard was already up.

"Oh, so you’re a reporter from *Nature*."

Chen Lin’s tone remained flat, showing no hint of being flattered or starstruck.

"Do you have proof of employment? Or, what is your work email address?"

Natasha, on the other end of the line, seemed to be taken aback for a moment.

Most young scholars, upon hearing that a journal of *Nature*’s caliber wanted to interview them, would be ecstatic, or at the very least, extremely enthusiastic.

’But this Chen Lin... Why is he treating me like a thief?’

However, she recovered quickly, her voice remaining sweet and smooth:

"Of course, that’s perfectly reasonable. My work email is [email protected]."

"You can verify it at any time."

Chen Lin casually grabbed a sticky note and jotted down the email address.

nature-apac.com...

’It does look like the official domain suffix for *Nature* Asia-Pacific.’

"Okay, I’ve got it down," Chen Lin said. "How about this, Ms. Natasha, I still have some work to finish up right now."

"Why don’t you send the interview outline to my work email first. After I’ve had a look, I’ll decide whether to accept the interview."

It was a very standard, business-like response.

He neither refused outright nor agreed immediately, leaving himself time for verification.

However, Natasha on the other end of the line seemed unwilling to give Chen Lin this buffer time.

"Of course, Professor Chen. I’ll send you the outline shortly."

Natasha’s voice held a trace of urgency, which, though well-concealed, was still keenly detected by Chen Lin.

"However, Professor Chen, I happen to be in Jinmen on a business trip right now, staying at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel downtown."

"If you’re free this afternoon or evening, we could meet and talk in person."

"As you know, face-to-face communication is far more efficient than email. Plus, I can show you my press credentials and relevant authorization documents in person."

"If you would grace me with your presence, I could treat you to a cup of coffee, or we could have dinner together."

Her words were, it could be said, flawless.

She demonstrated sincerity, offered a reasonable justification, and even included the subtle allure of an invitation from an attractive woman.

If it were an ordinary tech nerd, hearing a sweet-voiced, beautiful foreign reporter invite him to dinner, he probably would have agreed in a heartbeat, even if just for the sake of his vanity.

But who was Chen Lin?

With a net worth over a hundred million and surrounded by stunning beauties like Shen Yan and Yunqing, his resistance to such "sugar-coated bullets" was remarkably high.

More importantly—

’She’s too desperate.’

’The other party is too eager to meet.’

This, in turn, deepened Chen Lin’s suspicions.

"I’m sorry, Ms. Natasha."

Chen Lin leaned back in his chair, his tone becoming somewhat lazy, but his rejection was firm and decisive.

"I’m extremely busy these next couple of days. As you probably know from your research for the interview, I’m currently juggling company management and research tasks, so my time isn’t my own."

"Besides, I have to go to the Imperial Capital next Monday for a very important meeting, and I’ll be spending the rest of this week preparing materials for it. I really can’t get away."

"If you truly want to interview me, you can wait until I get back from the Imperial Capital next week, and we can schedule a time then."

There were two seconds of silence on the other end of the line.

Then, Natasha’s voice sounded again, tinged with regret but still maintaining perfect composure:

"Ah... that’s a real shame."

"But no matter, work comes first. I won’t disturb you any further, then. I’ll send the outline to your email and look forward to hearing from you."

"Alright. Goodbye."

Chen Lin hung up the phone, and the expression on his face instantly turned cold.

He tossed his phone onto the desk, immediately turned to his computer, and opened a browser.

"Dr. Bai! Dr. Pan!"