Chapter 249 - 149: "Professor Chen

Chapter 249: Chapter 149: "Professor Chen

"Vice Principal Zhou, I’m telling you, there’s no one. The Physics Department has a total of one hundred forty-two faculty and staff on its payroll. Five of them are teachers with the surname Chen, but none of the given names match. He’s definitely not among the professors or associate professors. I even checked the temporary researchers with lab affiliations. Still nothing."

Vice Principal Zhou was stunned.

He held the receiver wedged against his shoulder and glanced at Li Jianming, who was sitting across from him.

"Are you sure?"

"I’m searching the university’s most up-to-date master faculty database. It even includes those on medical retirement. There’s really no such person."

Director Wang’s reply over the phone was crisp and clear.

"Alright, I understand."

Vice Principal Zhou hung up the phone.

He put down his fountain pen and looked at Li Jianming.

"Old Li, the personnel office says there’s no professor in the Physics Department with that name. Not even a teacher."

The paper cup in Li Jianming’s hand trembled, and a few drops of hot water splashed onto the back of his hand, but he didn’t seem to feel it.

"Impossible."

Li Jianming shot to his feet.

He reached across the desk and forcefully slapped the copy of *Discrete Mathematics*.

"It’s printed here in black and white in a top journal! This set of discrete algebra matrices genuinely broke the Physics Department’s wind tunnel deadlock! Fang Shi himself was calling him ’Old Chen’ to my face just half a month ago!"

The furious, bloodshot veins reappeared in Li Jianming’s eyes.

"How can a living, breathing person just not exist? Vice Principal Zhou, this has to be Fang Shi’s doing! To hide him, he must have deliberately had the personnel office pull the file! Or maybe he never even registered Professor Chen with HR in the first place, just keeping him off the books in the lab!"

Listening to Li Jianming’s somewhat wild accusations, Vice Principal Zhou’s brow furrowed even deeper.

’University personnel files aren’t that easy to just pull.’

’Even if Fang Shi was possessive, he wouldn’t go against the entire university’s administrative system for a single project.’

’But Old Li had a point. The paper was right here, and the project was running successfully. It’s not like they were dealing with a ghost.’

Vice Principal Zhou stared at the journal on his desk.

"C. Zhuo, Huake University."

’If he’s from Huake University, as long as he’s breathing on this campus, there has to be a record of him.’

"Old Li, sit down first."

Vice Principal Zhou composed himself and picked up the receiver again.

"If he’s not in the faculty database, then we’ll expand the search."

This time, Vice Principal Zhou called the university’s Network Information Center directly.

Huake University’s network database had only recently been established. While not perfect, the basic information of all faculty, staff, and students had already been entered.

"Hello, is this the Information Center?"

Vice Principal Zhou’s voice turned cold and hard, carrying an authority that brooked no argument.

"This is Zhou Qiping. Grant me access to the university-wide master database. I don’t care if he’s faculty, support staff, a temporary worker, or even a janitor. Search the entire Keda system by name for me."

Vice Principal Zhou looked at the journal on his desk.

"Search for Chen Zhuo. Spelled C-h-e-n, Z-h-u-o."

Vice Principal Zhou paused for a moment.

"When you find him, fax his student record or personnel file directly to me."

He hung up.

The office fell silent.

Li Jianming didn’t sit down. He stood in front of the desk, his eyes fixed on the white fax machine in the corner by the wall.

The cold air from the air conditioner blew against his back, but he felt like his whole body was on fire.

’All he could think about now was Fang Shi’s smug face.’

’He’d like to see how Fang Shi would explain away the lie about ’recuperating back in his hometown’ once the file was faxed over and the truth was laid out in black and white.’

Time ticked by, second by second.

「Three minutes later.」

The white fax machine in the corner suddenly emitted a soft BEEP.

Immediately after, a WHIRRING sound of gears turning came from inside the machine.

Li Jianming’s eyes lit up.

’They found him! So he is at the university!’

With a series of faint printing noises, a thin sheet of thermal fax paper slowly emerged from the output tray.

Vice Principal Zhou stood up, walked over to the fax machine, and tore off the sheet.

He only glanced at it.

Just one glance.

The hand with which Vice Principal Zhou was holding the fax paper suddenly froze in mid-air.

His gaze was glued to the page. His tightly knitted brow instantly relaxed, and then his eyes slowly widened.

The expression on his face shifted from confusion to bewilderment, and finally to utter disbelief.

He even picked up his reading glasses, put them back on, and brought the paper closer, meticulously examining the official seal and the date of birth.

"This..."

Vice Principal Zhou opened his mouth, letting out a single, meaningless syllable.

He slowly turned his head to look at Li Jianming, who was standing eagerly before the desk.

The look in Vice Principal Zhou’s eyes was now extremely peculiar.

He wasn’t looking at Li Jianming like a respected professor of mathematics, but like a deranged lunatic.

"Vice Principal Zhou, that’s him, right?"

Li Jianming, completely oblivious to the vice principal’s strange demeanor, asked urgently.

"Which research office is he in?"

Vice Principal Zhou didn’t speak.

He took a deep breath, walked slowly back to his desk with the fax paper in hand.

Instead of handing the paper to Li Jianming, he placed it flat on the desktop and tapped his finger on the black-and-white, front-facing ID photo.

"Old Li."

Vice Principal Zhou’s voice was faint, sounding almost surreal.

"Just now, you were slamming my desk, accusing Fang Shi of monopolizing academic talent."

Vice Principal Zhou pointed at the photo on the paper.

"This person you’ve been turning the world upside down to borrow, the Professor Chen who wrote the discrete algebra matrix... this is him?"

Li Jianming lowered his head.

His gaze fell upon the fax paper.

In the top right corner of the paper was a one-inch, black-and-white ID photo.

The boy in the photo had neat, short hair, and his features were handsome and refined, giving off a gentle and peaceful air. It was an extremely young face.

Li Jianming’s eyes slowly moved down.

Name: Chen Zhuo.

Gender: Male.

Date of Birth: October 1991.

Department: Junior Class.

Year: Sophomore.

Li Jianming stood there like a statue that had suddenly lost power.

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

The cold air from the AC swirled across the desk.

Li Jianming stared at the word "Sophomore," his brain shutting down completely in that instant.

All his thoughts, his anger, his anxiety—all were crushed to dust by this single, flimsy sheet of fax paper.

His face, haggard from many sleepless nights, visibly flushed crimson.

The C. Zhuo who wrote the matrix that cut through the combinatorial explosion.

The academic titan he had revered as a savior.

The one he had repeatedly called "Professor Chen," the one he had stormed the vice principal’s office and slammed the desk just to meet.

Was a twelve-year-old sophomore?

And he wasn’t even a math student!

Scenes of what Fang Shi had told him on the sofa half a month ago flashed uncontrollably through Li Jianming’s mind.

Fang Shi, holding a teacup with a grave expression, saying, "Old Chen is a recluse. He hates being disturbed more than anything."

Fang Shi, saying in all seriousness, "Old Chen is currently in lockdown in the lab, tuning the model."

And just this morning, Fang Shi, standing in the hallway, saying with a look of deep distress, "Old Chen... he’s getting on in years. The mental strain was too much. He could barely stand. We had to send him back to his hometown."

Li Jianming’s whole body began to tremble uncontrollably.

The hand that had held chalk his entire life was now gripping the edge of the fax paper, his knuckles turning white from the force.

’Fang Shi hadn’t lied.’

’Chen Zhuo really was tuning the model. He really wasn’t on the official payroll.’

’But Fang Shi, that goddamn bastard, had actually called a twelve-year-old sophomore undergraduate "Old Chen" over and over again!’

’Fang Shi had played along with his misunderstanding, packaging a sophomore as some kind of hidden master, and had watched with a clear conscience as he, an old professor from the Math Department, was led around like a fool for an entire month!’

’He’d cheated him out of a month of anxiety, half a month of tears, and the dignity he’d lost by coming here to the administration building and causing a scene today!’

"Fang Shi..."

Li Jianming gritted his teeth, the name squeezed out from between them, laced with ultimate absurdity and humiliation.

He snapped his head up, his bloodshot eyes wide and round, and let out a piercing roar of fury that filled the spacious vice principal’s office.

"FANG SHI!!! YOU GODDAMN SON OF A BITCH!!! I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU!!!"

Vice Principal Zhou sat in his chair, watching Li Jianming—who was trembling with such rage he looked like he might have a stroke at any second—and then glanced back at the student file of the twelve-year-old sophomore on his desk.

He felt that this whole affair was so absurd that not even a movie would dare to have a plot like this.

Vice Principal Zhou took a deep breath.

He picked up the phone’s receiver once again and dialed a number.

The call connected.

"This is Zhou Qiping."

Vice Principal Zhou’s voice echoed in the office.

"Call the Physics Department immediately. Tell Fang Shi to get to my office. Right now!"