Chapter 585: Thank You For Saving Me

In addition to a PhD student, two other master’s students stayed behind. The other four students left.

Honestly, the quality of this cohort was average, at least in Lu Zhou’s opinion.

However, this was none other than his fault. After all, he spent the entirety of last year on the controllable fusion energy project. He didn’t have time to cater to his university work, and he waited until the end of the year to post on the student admissions website.

As usual, the higher quality students were already taken by other professors during the summer.

Among the master’s students group, except for Han Mengqi, who was in computational materials, and another mathematics genius called Feng Jin, most of them had no previous scientific research experience.

For example, Liu Siyuan, who was standing here, was another master’s student in computational materials. Even though his fourth-year undergraduate scores from Zhi University were pretty good, his research experience was almost zero.

However, that didn’t matter too much. After all, other than undergraduate experimental classes, unless someone had a special relationship with a teacher or were lucky enough to be selected into a talent training program, they wouldn’t have any chance of participating in a research project.

“You used to be from Aurora?”

Wu Shuimu: “Yes.”

Lu Zhou: “Who was your supervisor?”

Wu Shuimu said, “Professor Liu Xianglong. I was in the functions analysis field.”

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and didn’t recognize this name, so he changed the subject.

“Have you had any experience with materials science before?”

Wu Shuimu scratched his head and said awkwardly, “I have a bit of experience since our professors in the chemistry department did a project on the mechanical dispersion of single-walled carbon nanotubes. I helped them to collect data and did a mathematical model.”

Lu Zhou raised his eyebrows with interest. “This is the reason why you chose computational materials science?”

“Kind of.” Wu Shuimu smiled and said, “I feel like I have reached the ceiling of functions analysis. It’s very difficult to create any new innovative theories. Therefore, my supervisor recommended me to switch from theory to application. Back then, I watched your Crafoord Prize award-winning speech. From then on, I made up my mind and decided to go into the computational materials science field!”

There was almost a sense of purpose in his voice.

Liu Siyuan looked at this guy with admiration while thinking about how invincible this guy was.

Han Mengqi’s eyebrows twitched. She couldn’t help but look away.

Lu Zhou smiled.

Is he kissing my a*s?

Who cares, it sounds nice.

Lu Zhou cleared his throat and spoke.

“Since you already have your own goals, then work toward them. Also, listening to what you said, you should have a fairly basic understanding of computational materials. Therefore, I will try to allocate some more appropriate tasks for you.”

After that, he looked at Lin Yuxiang, whose desk was closest to him.

“Give me my marker.”

“Let me try to find it…”

Lin Yuxiang went through the drawer and quickly found a black marker. She happily handed it to him.

“Here.”

“Thank you.”

Lu Zhou took the pen from her and walked next to the whiteboard in his office. He looked at the black whiteboard for a bit before he began to write.

[Ψ(r1,r2,…,rn)= ∏Ψt(rt).]

[{pi2/2m+V(ri)+1/4πε0∑∫drf|Ψj(rj)|2e2/|ri-rj|}Ψi(ri)=EiΨi(ri)]

[…]

Wu Shuimu looked at the formulas on the whiteboard and said, “This is…”

“The Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure.” Lu Zhou wrote down the last line of the equation and smiled as he said, “You should know about it.”

Wu Shuimu coughed and said, “Professor, you must be joking… Anyone in the field of computational chemistry knows about the Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure.”

On one hand, there was the first principle calculation. On the other, there was the “Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure”. These two were the pillars of modern computational materials science.

When he was studying in Aurora, his supervisor, Professor Liu Xianglong, highly praised the theoretical model. He said that this model was able to apply functional analysis to the extreme extent.

Even though with his current knowledge level, he didn’t know what was so “extreme” about this model, but when he looked at Lu Zhou writing down the equations, he still felt quite emotional.

Even if he had written the thesis himself, he wouldn’t be able to recite every word, at most he would remember the final conclusion.

Actually, he believed that there was no way Lu Zhou could recite his thesis either.

Therefore, it was likely that Lu Zhou was deriving these equations on the spot…

The two master’s students looked at the PhD student and professor communicating, and they felt that they were out of their elements.

Even Han Mengqi, who worked part-time for two years at the Institute of Computational Materials, wasn’t able to understand what they were discussing. Even though she had participated in several research projects, the researchers obviously didn’t give an undergraduate student too much responsibility.

Stuff like the “Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure” was obviously a bit too advanced for her.

“Actually, this model is far from perfect. Actually, there is a lot of room for improvement. For example, the multi-body wave function can be configured to have different levels of correlation. The clustering method and the accuracy of the calculations can also be improved.

“What I need you to do is to improve on the Theoretical Model of Electrochemical Interface Structure. Even though this might seem insignificant, like modifying a window on an already complete building, but this is still important. After all, with your current ability, you are not able to build a new floor on top of this building.”

Wu Shuimu nodded seriously and said, “I understand, I will do as you say.”

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Lu Zhou nodded with satisfaction.

Not bad, this kid’s quite obedient.

“Try your best, if you really dive deep into this field, you might be able to write two JACS theses before you graduate.”

Two publications!

That’s enough to get into the Thousand Talents Program!

When Wu Shuimu heard this, he smiled and said, “Okay, I will try my best!”

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded. He then looked at the two master’s students.

“As for your mission, it is to understand the things I wrote on the whiteboard.

“Once you guys have understood these basic things, I will arrange more specific scientific research tasks for you guys. If you encounter something you don’t understand, feel free to ask Wu Shuimu. If he can’t explain it, then ask me.”

How is this basic at all…

Even though Liu Siyuan and Han Mengqi wanted to complain, they still forced themselves to nod.

Liu Siyuan had it even worse.

He was only an average genius student. Even though his grades were pretty good, he had no additional talents outside of academic results.

Even though he had some mental preparation before this, he didn’t expect to suddenly feel a sense of struggle.

As expected, it was not easy to study under a Nobel Prize winner.

Since he didn’t have Lu Zhou’s extraordinary talent, the only way to keep up was to start grinding…

…

After Lu Zhou handed out the tasks, he put down the marker and announced that they could leave.

When they were leaving, Han Mengqi purposely slowed down her footsteps and stayed at the end.

After everyone else left, she looked at the door before turning back to look at Lu Zhou. She quietly whispered, “Teacher.”

Lu Zhou looked at her nervous face and smiled as he asked, “What’s wrong?”

Han Mengqi twirled her fingers and looked down. She then said quietly, “Um… I did it.”

Even though she had a lot of words to say, she didn’t know why, but she froze.

Lu Zhou: “Yeah, congratulations!”

Han Mengqi stared at the floor and couldn’t help but pout.

“Do you not have anything else to say?”

Lu Zhou thought for a bit and said, “Honestly, I’m quite surprised.”

Han Mengqi: “Surprised?”

Lu Zhou said, “Yeah, remember what I told you before? If you can get into Jin Ling University, I promise to become your supervisor… I didn’t expect you to actually be able to do it.”

Seeing how Lu Zhou underestimated her, Han Mengqi said unhappily, “What do you mean? I used to be your student, of course I can do it.”

“Getting into Jin Ling University is no easy feat.” Lu Zhou coughed and said, “Of course, what surprised me wasn’t you getting into Jin Ling University four years ago, it was that four years later, you are still standing here.”

Han Mengqi was a little confused; she didn’t know what he was saying.

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, “I have always thought that time can change a person. Not just a person, but it can change everything, including the fundamental particles that make up the universe.

“Time can theoretically solve any problem… And you! You gave me another perspective.”

Han Mengqi tilted her head and said, “Another perspective?”

Lu Zhou nodded and said, “Yeah, which is that there are some things that time can’t change. Just like how you told me that you liked mathematics, I didn’t take that seriously back then, I thought you were just joking around. I didn’t expect you to persist until now and to become my master’s student… Honestly, I am shocked.”

Lu Zhou was filled with complex emotions.

If there are things that even time can’t change…

Then the concept of allowing time to solve a problem is flawed.

“Actually, it’s not only mathematics…” Han Mengqi scratched her cheeks awkwardly and looked at her shoes. She said, “I’m also interested in chemistry.”

Lu Zhou had an unnatural smile on his face.

“Yeah, scientific research is also a very interesting thing, I hope you will continue to like it.”

“I definitely will!” Han Mengqi looked up at Lu Zhou and nodded. She looked up at the ceiling and said, “Um, there’s one more thing I want to tell you…”

Lu Zhou said, “What?”

Han Mengqi: “In August last year, my parents divorced…”

Han Mengqi looked at Lu Zhou’s look of concern and smirked.

Even though she didn’t want to talk about this sad topic, she still continued, “If this were before, I would probably cry my eyes out. I definitely wouldn’t be able to leave my room, and I would miss out on a lot of interesting things…”

Her face burst into a cheerful smile.

“Even though this might be four years late… I still want to…

“I still want to say thank you!”

Thank you for saving me…

Han Mengqi turned around and quickly ran out of the office.

Lu Zhou looked at her leave and paused for a second. He shook his head, and he felt a lot better.

He didn’t expect that helping others would be such a joyful feeling.

Honestly, when he was still tutoring her, he didn’t think about this aspect at all…