Cosmic Love Affair

Chapter 2: The Kuiper Belt II

Song Yi once mentioned he had admired someone for a long time.

At that time, when Xie Li asked about the photo on the computer's lock screen, Song Yi casually introduced him. This person has the surname Tan and the given name Ke, a senior from their university who went to Princeton after graduating from undergraduate studies and is now in Wall Street, America.

Song Yi's attitude was natural and unforced, and Xie Li never thought of any other possibilities.

Xie Li was late to realize his feelings, only understanding that he was attracted to the same s*x when he was about to graduate from undergraduate studies.

The first time he saw Song Yi was at the welcome event for doctoral students in his department, where Song Yi was the keynote speaker.

The handsome young man stood tall and upright at the podium in the multimedia classroom, talking eloquently. Among a group of indistinguishable male students in plaid shirts, he stood out.

That day, after the welcome event, other new students were taken away by their senior students, but Xie Li's senior had something urgent and couldn't come, leaving him standing alone at the door of the multimedia classroom, unsure of where to go.

Song Yi locked the classroom door, walked up to Xie Li, and kindly and gently suggested taking him to see the dormitory.

Xie Li was naturally captivated by this face, as if a small celestial body would naturally be attracted and captured when passing by a large planet.

However, during the month of dating Song Yi, there was no intimacy between lovers, nor any sweet words.

Song Yi was as pure as a statue, with a gentle and polite exterior like the hard and thick ice layer of Titan.

But Xie Li naturally thought that Song Yi was just this kind of character, needing time to melt bit by bit.

Until yesterday.

It turned out that Song Yi was not a statue. Under his always courteous appearance, there was another side that was only shown in front of a certain person - he would take the initiative to hold someone's hand, show a pitiful look, and whisper to plead and act coquettishly.

On the way to the hospital, Song Yi sadly told the other person that he felt unwell, and when entering the emergency room, he held the other person's sleeve and begged them not to leave.

And Xie Li was like a lump of air, left aside.

Song Yi didn't even look at him, without blame, doubt, or explanation.

The only anger was when Song Yi heard the conversation between the two people outside the emergency room. When the man said "no intention of getting involved," Song Yi became anxious.

Xie Li was so smart that in just a few seconds, he was enough to connect all the things together.

The old photo on the lock screen, the affection Song Yi showed in front of the other person, everything pointed to an obvious fact.

This is not admiration, Xie Li thought, this is f*****g unrequited love.

Song Yi has been secretly in love with someone for many years.

But he was secretly in love with someone else and still accepted Xie Li's love.

What is this about?

The whole morning, Xie Li was like a wandering soul, muddled through a high-energy physics class, and then swayed back to the office.

His senior, Cheng Guang, was typing code in the office, and as soon as he saw him, he rushed over: "The boss's face was green last night."

Xie Li casually lied: "I was not feeling well yesterday and accidentally overslept."

Cheng Guang actually believed it, pulling Xie Li to look around: "Li, the papers haven't been published enough, the revolution is not yet completed, the body is important."

Xie Li and Song Yi's relationship was too short, and it was not in time to leave traces in front of others.

This is a good thing, at least now no one will associate his embarrassment with heartbreak.

Xie Li didn't want to talk about this anymore, so he changed the subject, pointing to the code on his senior's screen: "By the way, you said last week that the array index integer overflow should still be a problem with Fortran 90. The whole module can't be called, and if there are too many compilation errors, maintenance is meaningless. So I simply re-did the algorithm part of the module with C++, replacing the solution with perturbation theory. The code is on the server, and you can try it later."

Cheng Guang was so excited that he was almost in tears and almost fainted on the spot.

He has been doing a dark matter evolution simulation on the scale of galaxy clusters for half a year. But the original module used a programming language from twenty years ago. Cheng Guang has been maintaining it for half a year, but it is still full of bugs and can't produce a decent result.

Cheng Guang has considered rewriting the original module, but on the one hand, it takes too much time, and on the other hand, Cheng Guang is actually very doubtful whether he has the ability to rewrite the original module. Changing a programming language is equivalent to changing an algorithm architecture, which is not a joke.

He has thought about giving up this simulation several times, but the tutor disagrees, insisting that he must produce something, and even sent a new disciple to help.

Unexpectedly, Xie Li went back that day after watching the code and quietly found another way to solve it.

Cheng Guang hugged his beloved younger brother, and his mood was indescribable, almost kissing him: "Li, the boss took you in, really has a keen eye. When the paper is published, the senior brother will give you the second author!"

Xie Li is young and looks young, wearing a school uniform to go out, and some people believe he is a high school student.

He is the youngest doctoral student in the history of the Physics Department of Lan Da, only twenty years old. He was spotted by his tutor during his undergraduate studies, and as soon as he graduated, he was deceived into reading a direct doctorate under his tutor.

There are also a male and a female disciple under the tutor, and at first, they all regarded Xie Li as a younger brother to cover. But it didn't take long to find out that the younger brother doesn't need to be covered at all, and he can occasionally turn back to cover his own senior brothers and sisters.

Cheng Guang was excited and hugged his beloved younger brother and sighed: "Even if this thing can be made, it may not be right. There are so many people doing dark matter evolution, and no one has seen any movement so far. It's difficult."

Xie Li comforted his senior brother: "At worst, we will write an article about why we can't do it later, to avoid the wrong path for future generations, which is also a contribution to the scientific cause."

Cheng Guang was amused by Xie Li's idea of making the best of a bad situation, and before he could say anything, a cold male voice floated in from the door of the office -

"Xie Li, come out."

The ambient temperature in the office immediately dropped by several degrees, and the air conditioner on the head started to operate in a panic.

Xie Li and his senior brother were facing away from the office door and shivered together.

I saw a man standing outside the office door, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, a white shirt that reflected light, a thin waist tucked into trousers, and he was a noble young master with a dragon-like appearance.

It was Xie Li's tutor, who topped the blacklist of Lan Da doctoral supervisors.

Generally speaking, young and handsome teachers are very popular in universities. Not to mention that this teacher is a male teacher who became a professor and doctoral tutor in his early thirties, with several projects in his hands, and a young and handsome male teacher.

But Xie Li's tutor, Shen Zhichuan, is obviously not in this "general."

Because this person is ruthless in failing students, does not outline key points or review at the end of the term, and often hurts the fragile hearts of students with papers and random quizzes. In addition, he once sent his doctoral student to take a college math course again, so some people lamented, how can a beautiful person have a heart like a snake and scorpion.

So Lan Da Forum gave Shen Zhichuan a nickname, Shen Beauty.

Cheng Guang slowly retracted his hand around his brother's shoulder, and his tone was tragic: "Go, next year today, senior brother will take your favorite peach oolong to see you."

Xie Li walked out with a bitter face, dragging his feet, wishing there was a black hole that could stretch this road infinitely far.

He walked out and saw his tutor Shen Zhichuan with his hands in his pockets, standing by the laboratory door. The white shirt fit the curve of broad shoulders and narrow waist, and the shirt was buttoned up to the collarbone, with an exquisite brooch on the collar.

He was extremely elegant, like a green pine on a snow mountain, full of ascetic beauty.

Yan Gou Xie Li couldn't forget to secretly peek at his boss's beauty before he died, and quietly swallowed his saliva.

"I don't care which grave you went to mourn last night." Shen Zhichuan's gaze stopped on the swollen goldfish eyes of the little apprentice for a second, "But people go to the grave once a year, how many times do you plan to go?"

Xie Li dared not look at Shen Zhichuan's face, shook his head like a rattle drum, and said "I'm sorry, teacher, there will be no next time," but in his heart he thought today was strange, Shen Beauty was actually so gentle.

But he regretted it the next second.

Because he heard Shen Zhichuan say: "Come to my office at twelve o'clock, come with me to meet people, and bring me the English version of your last simulation results to have a look. If there are more than ten grammatical errors, you will go to the undergraduate department to retake college English next semester."

Xie Li was petrified on the spot.

Cheng Guang listened and there was no sound outside, turned his head, and Xie Li was standing behind his chair, looking resentful: "Senior brother, I heard that sister-in-law is a master of English..."

Although with the help of his sister-in-law, Xie Li's English report barely passed, only three word errors were found by Shen Zhichuan, but the matter of Cheng Guang's wife correcting Xie Li's report was still seen through by Shen Zhichuan.

Shen Zhichuan smiled with a knife: "Xie Li, did you pay your sister-in-law for correcting your report?"

Xie Li sat in the passenger seat, shaking his head in confusion: "No."

Shen Zhichuan was driving, and he took the time to glance at him, teaching earnestly: "Your article will also bear my name when it is published, and in name, it is working for me. Your sister-in-law corrected your report for free, and later people will all count it on me. When people say that I not only enslave students but also enslave students' wives, do you say that the teacher's face is still needed?"

Xie Li shook his head like a rattle drum and blurted out: "Teacher, I'm wrong, I dare not do it next time."

Shen Zhichuan smiled: "So what will you do next time? Who will you find to correct it?"

Xie Li shivered: "I, I will correct it myself."

Shen Zhichuan smiled even more happily: "It doesn't matter, next time you bring it over, the teacher will correct it for you personally. I am a Princeton Ph.D., and my English level is much higher than your sister-in-law's."

So Xie Li shivered even more.

After scaring his little apprentice, Shen Zhichuan was in a very good mood, even reminiscing about the youthful years when he got drunk and jumped into the Carnegie Lake in Princeton for a nude swim.

Professor Shen hummed a tune, a graceful swing tail, and parked the black Jaguar steadily in the hotel parking space, reaching out to pull out the little apprentice who was still shivering in the passenger seat: "Put away this poor look, today I will take you to meet the golden master, be more festive on your face."

Xie Li looked up, his face full of sorrow: "I, I'm still young..."

Shen Zhichuan showed a kind father's face, straightened the T-shirt that was skewed to one side for the little apprentice, and said: "Do you know about the Hou Xue Scholarship?"

Xie Li nodded.

The Hou Xue Scholarship was established last month by the Physics Department of Lan Da and a financial company, aiming to promote the development of China's physical astronomy career and talents.

In layman's terms, the Physics Department has attracted a new father, the new golden master is kind-hearted and rich, and is willing to be a long-term meal ticket, giving money to poor students.

It is said that the partner of this investment company is a local tyrant alumnus of Lan Da.

At the end of last year, the local tyrant alumnus also donated a one-point-eight-meter aperture optical astronomical telescope to the observation laboratory under the Physics Department of Lan Da.

A one-point-two-six-meter aperture astronomical telescope, although it doesn't sound big, is actually very big and very expensive.

The body cost, transportation, base construction, installation and other items add up, and in the end, it also has to be eight digits, not to mention the maintenance, inspection, and maintenance costs each year later.

Ordinary city planetariums, if they have a one-meter aperture telescope, it is already very good.

The Physics Department has been longing for its own large astronomical telescope for a long time, and every time the dean goes to see someone else's telescope, tears and saliva can be left on the ground. But Lan Da is poor and has always been unable to afford this money.

Last year, a local tyrant alumnus funded the funds in one breath, and it is said that even the maintenance costs in the future are included.

The Physics Department quickly took out the drawings that were made a hundred and eighty years ago, and started construction as soon as possible, fearing that the money in hand would fly away again.

The entire project was completed two months ago, and it also caught up with the 60th anniversary of Lan Da, and the dean of the Physics Department was simply elated, even the baldness was cured.

Shen Zhichuan patted the little apprentice's face: "Today's cold meal is hosted by the Hou Xue Foundation, inviting the leaders of the department and the golden master father, perform well."

Xie Li continued to be confused, what to perform? Is he really going to be sent to dedicate himself to science?