Chapter 231: Missing Something
For Lin Zhongqing, there were many suspicious points about Lin Ran, but from China’s perspective, Lin Ran was actually very transparent.
During university, he worked on the Apollo Moon Landing.
In America, he went everywhere to collect materials related to the Apollo Moon Landing.
In archives and libraries around New York in America related to NASA, you can find Randolph Lin’s registration.
Including Li Xiaoman’s identity, using the Fabian Society as a pretext, he went to places that Chinese students abroad fundamentally had no permission to access under normal processes to review materials.
China had already investigated all this clearly in the past month or so.
Lin Ran had an obsession with the Apollo Moon Landing, which they saw as a nailed-down fact.
Then it wasn’t strange that he could gather these old timers; it was indeed, as Lin Ran said, re-employment for retired elders.
Someone else might be able to do it too.
The only anomaly on Lin Ran was that he was too much of a genius.
But with China being so vast and having such a long history, are geniuses in short supply?
So from China’s perspective, their attitude toward Lin Ran was to cherish talent: if you want to do a moon landing, we’ll give you some support.
Use achievements to exchange for more support.
Not just for Lin Ran, but for other scientists as well.
Why did Shi Yigong go to Westlake University? Because he had reached the limit in this game; he couldn’t produce more achievements, which meant he couldn’t get more support, so that was it.
So he chose to jump out of the past system and start anew at Westlake University.
China’s investment in Lin Ran wasn’t special in terms of money, but from other aspects, it counted as strong support.
If it were someone else, it would be impossible to give these old timers work visas and let them come to China; the risk was too great.
But Lin Ran’s words just now were the first time they caught Song Nanping off guard.
Time rewinds to five minutes ago.
“Professor, you indeed know the Apollo Moon Landing inside and out in every detail.
I very much agree with your viewpoint.
If it’s just to send people up there, with China’s current industrial strength, it can indeed be fully achieved.
But that doesn’t mean you have no ability; being able to do it for just ten billion takes skill that not everyone has.”
Both sides reached a cooperation agreement.
The current main entity responsible for the moon landing is called Shanghai Chongming Island Apollo Technology Co., Ltd.
Why on Chongming Island.
Because this place has tax exemption policies, registering a company is extremely convenient, and plenty of people above help handle it.
Many small and medium enterprises for tax exemption choose to register a company on Chongming Island.
Of course, after Shanghai Sci-Tech Investment invests, you don’t need to transfer from Chongming Island to another district; Sci-Tech Investment will just follow on with an investment matching the amount invested by Aldrin.
Sci-Tech Investment and Aldrin’s shares are both at 49%, Lin Ran holds 2%, Sci-Tech Investment hands over the voting rights to Lin Ran via contract, equivalent to Lin Ran having control over the company.
In addition, Aldrin agreed to sign another agreement, roughly meaning that if they land on the moon, whether they return or not, these 49% shares will all belong to Lin Ran.
Meaning, as long as his body goes up, even if he dies on the moon, it’s perfect as a legacy, so these 49% shares are all left to Lin Ran.
But Lin Ran didn’t care, because this was just a shell anyway.
After completing the moon landing, he would start anew anyway.
However, the attitude represented by Sci-Tech Investment from China’s side satisfied Lin Ran, thinking that China’s side was as generous as always.
“Professor, is there anything else you need our help with?” Song Nanping asked politely.
Song Nanping was just being polite, but Lin Ran wasn’t:
“Actually, there is.
Don’t you think this replication of the 1960s Apollo Moon Landing is missing something?”
Song Nanping inwardly muttered; he really couldn’t think of what was missing: “Armstrong?”
Cracking a cold joke, you wouldn’t want us to bring back Armstrong’s bones, would you?
Even if we wanted to, we couldn’t; Armstrong was buried at sea, his ashes scattered in the Atlantic Ocean, Song Nanping thought.
Mainly, he felt Lin Ran had special feelings for NASA during the Apollo Moon Landing era.
But Lin Ran had gotten something wrong.
Lin Ran mentioned the number of NASA employees and suppliers in the 1960s.
The employee count was unverifiable, but the supplier count could be checked; it was clearly 70, but Lin Ran said 67.
What he didn’t know was that in Lin Ran’s 1960s, there was an extra company called General Aerospace, and General Aerospace had merged with Glenn Martin.
This butterfly effect led to only 67.
“No, it’s missing the Soviet Union.” Lin Ran said softly.
A familiar name rang in Song Nanping’s ears.
His gaze sharpened for an instant, then softened again.
The Soviet Union, for China, was absolutely the best big brother; they had countless big and small contradictions, but the Soviet Union had used its life to probe the river for you.
Crossing the river by feeling the big brother’s way was never just a joke.
Song Nanping had even received training in the Soviet Union in 1990, so he was someone who had watched the Soviet Union’s final years with his own eyes.
And precisely because of this, he was so sensitive to Lin Ran’s words.
“The Soviet Union?”
“That’s right, the Soviet Union.
A moon landing without the Soviet Union is incomplete.
The Soviet Union needs a representative too.”
“Who?”
“Yelena Gagarin”
The name was unfamiliar, but the surname was very familiar.
“Gagarin’s daughter?” Song Nanping asked after thinking for a moment.
Lin Ran nodded: “That’s right; as Gagarin’s daughter, no one is more suitable than her.”
“What does she do?” Song Nanping asked.
Lin Ran said: “Two duties: head of the canteen and helping record the entire process; the Russian language recording for the subsequent documentary will be handled by her.”
“She agreed?” Song Nanping asked in shock.
Although Song Nanping didn’t know what Yelena Gagarin was doing now, estimating from her age and background, she was probably still in Russia with a good social status.
Come to be a canteen lady?
Recording would take at most a few days.
Canteen lady, that would take at least over a year, and that’s assuming everything goes smoothly.
Lin Ran said matter-of-factly: “Of course; she’s just waiting for China to give her a work visa. It’s really hard for foreigners to come now, otherwise I wouldn’t need to ask you for help.”
“Wait, how did you convince her?” This time Song Nanping really couldn’t hold back.
Since receiving the task, Song Nanping knew he had to stay composed at all times.
But when people can’t hold it together, they really do break down.
As mentioned earlier, Lin Ran was very transparent from China’s perspective.
As someone who had thoroughly reviewed the files, Song Nanping felt everything about Lin Ran could be explained.
But when Yelena appeared, Song Nanping felt things slipping out of his control.
“Re-employment for a retired elder, and doing the moon landing which was her father’s lifelong dream—what reason is there to refuse?” Lin Ran looked at Song Nanping with innocent eyes.
In fact, during the 1960s moon landing collaboration with Gagarin, before he and Gagarin went to New York for a CBS Television Station exclusive interview, he had specifically asked Gagarin if he had recorded any words for his children before the mission.
Then he used those words to break through Yelena’s psychological defenses in one fell swoop.
“Dear Yelena and Karina, I’m very sorry I couldn’t see you one last time before the moon landing, but I love you deeply—please remember that. Continue studying, love history and literature, stay healthy, face life strongly, and contribute to society. I will always be with you in spirit.”
Song Nanping was speechless: “Wait, you speak Russian too?”
Lin Ran replied in Russian: “As a Jiaotong University student, Russian Language is a required course.”
Song Nanping replied in Russian as well: “Professor, happy cooperation.”
It was only after Song Nanping went back and checked the information that he was shocked: Yelena Gagarin wasn’t retired or laid off; at this time, she was still the director of the Kremlin Museum.
He really couldn’t imagine how Lin Ran had convinced Yelena Gagarin.
But he had to admit, Yelena was indeed a very suitable choice.
Besides Russian Language, she was also fluent in English Language and Chinese Language.
From Song Nanping’s experience, she was very suitable for administrative work, especially providing psychological consulting to the engineers.
“I really don’t know what kind of magic Professor Lin has, but I believe I’ll figure it out sooner or later.” Song Nanping thought.
This time it had nothing to do with work; it was purely personal curiosity about how Lin Ran had done it.
Exams permeate a Chinese person’s entire life.
It’s hard to imagine a Chinese person who can avoid exams.
Almost all students who can get into Shanghai Jiaotong University have never believed the saying that you don’t need to work hard once you’re in university.
Especially now in 2020, information has never flowed so freely.
Many students knew before entering school what GPA, internships, laboratories, articles, and social activities meant.
If this is a hexagram, most people’s energy is only enough to max out one or two points.
Entering Lin Ran’s math class means you don’t need to fill the hexagram; just get the GPA out, plus Lin Ran’s recommendation letter, and in almost all universities, it’s like entering unguarded territory.
For undergraduate mathematics, with Lin Ran’s recommendation letter, it absolutely doesn’t mean you’re limited to pure mathematics; the hottest computer science right now, the previously popular finance version, or other science and engineering fields will all open doors for you.
After the Twin Prime Conjecture proof passes, Lin Ran’s status in China’s history of mathematics can be mentioned in the same breath as Shiing-Shen Chern and Shing-Tung Yau.
So, it’s easy to imagine how eager everyone is to apply for Lin Ran’s math class.
The Shing-Tung Yau Mathematics Center has far more students than Lin Ran’s math class.
The more people, the more limited the resource allocation per person, while Lin Ran’s math class has only 20 people.
20 people guarantees at least that everyone has a chance to communicate one-on-one with Lin Ran.
This isn’t a zero-sum game.
Everyone just needs to put in effort, and Professor Lin will naturally notice.
Especially those who unfortunately entered pit majors like civil engineering, construction, biology, environment in the college entrance exam, they are even more eager to use this opportunity to reverse their fate.
In 2020, chemistry and materials were already showing a trend of escaping the biochemistry environmental materials pit.
For those in pit majors, being able to go through Lin Ran’s math class to directly transform from Shudra to Brahmin—and the highest level Brahmin inside Shanghai Jiaotong University at that.
“Wait, isn’t this too despicable? Directly raising the paid consultation threshold to 328?”
Li Yiqing was browsing Zhihu and saw a reply from a well-known blogger in the mathematics field called “Xu Xian,” then clicked in and saw that the other’s single paid consultation had risen from the original 99 yuan to 328.
Even at the original 99 yuan, no one was interested; Li Yiqing remembered clearly that when Xu Xian first enabled this feature, he would check it every few days to calculate how much money his roommate could make from it.
When eating, calculate table turnover rate, average spend per customer, profit margin, then labor costs, utilities and fire safety costs, finally totaling how much the boss makes in a month.
Watching a performance, calculate how much ticket money was sold, how much channels take, how much ends up in the performer’s hands.
Even on a trip, calculate the scenic area’s consumption premium, then secretly curse how black-hearted it is.
Calculating if something makes money is almost instinct for Chinese people.
Li Yiqing was no exception.
At first, he checked every day.
Then weekly, then monthly, and now he hadn’t paid attention for a long time.
Because Zhihu bloggers, especially in the niche pervert field of mathematics, simply don’t make money.
After Xu Xian enabled the feature, it took a year to get one order.
Not even as profitable as tarot cards or emotional consulting.
This made Li Yiqing privately sigh that mathematics just doesn’t make money.
And this time, the 328 paid count shocked him, because only the total was shown, and the other’s total had skyrocketed to over three hundred.
Over three hundred minus one is still over three hundred.
At 328 per consultation, it meant Xu Xian had easily pocketed nearly 100,000 in this wave.
“It’s one willing to hit, one willing to take.
Those who want to bite the hook—I’m not forcing anyone.” Xu Xian laughed, inwardly delighted beyond measure.
“Wait, what are these people asking you? How can so many pay at once?” Li Yiqing couldn’t figure it out. “Asking about Ran Shen’s high school anecdotes?
Even self-media couldn’t have over three hundred self-media interviewing you at once, right?
Shouldn’t everyone just consult once, then other self-media repeatedly plagiarize, polishing the original interview script?
Are self-media this generous?”
He was utterly baffled.
Xu Xian resolved his confusion: “Of course not.
I’m selling my understanding of mathematics, selling my lifelong learning, selling my help in paving a path to heaven in their lives.”
Li Yiqing said helplessly: “Speak human.”
Xu Xian said: “They want to know what Lin Ran will test, want me to give some suggestions on what preparations to make.”
Li Yiqing asked: “Damn, awesome, you really have a way.”
Xu Xian smiled and said: “No way, this is pie from the sky.
Who made me actually from Yenching University Mathematics Department, and actually from the same high school as Ran Shen.
The first on public platforms to jump out and say I’m Ran Shen’s high school classmate?
Now my reply betting Ran Shen can win the Fields is still getting people checking in.
These are all natural traffic.
Then they think, hey, maybe I can ask this Yenching University direct PhD senior who knows Ran Shen?
After I keenly spotted the market demand, I resolutely and decisively raised the price!
If not now, when?
I feel like if I spend sparingly, I can earn four years of PhD living expenses in one wave.”
This time Li Yiqing was really jealous.
Just having a big shot high school classmate like Ran Shen to carry you isn’t jealous yet because it hasn’t happened, but lightly pocketing ten thousand like this is too sour.
“How long do you spend answering one person?” Li Yiqing asked.
Xu Xian said: “Max ten minutes; if it’s a sweet-voiced junior, I’ll give a bit more time.
Add WeChat, check Moments, if the looks are sweet girl too, then a bit more patience.”
“Damn, you’re such a dog.” Li Yiqing cursed angrily: “Hook me up with a few!”
Xu Xian shook his head: “Can’t; they want Ran Shen’s high school classmate, they’re not eyeing my Yenching University current PhD student identity.
Your identity won’t work.”
Li Yiqing pointed at Xu Xian: “Wait, how do you know it won’t work without trying?
Besides, that math of theirs, if you can guide, can’t I?”
Xu Xian said wistfully: “I’m chatting; wait till I screen them first.
I’ve got it all planned: among these girls who’ve passed this fairy’s two rounds of screening, whoever is lucky enough to become a student in Brother Ran’s math class.
Later I can use visiting Ran Shen as an excuse to go meet in person.
See the girl, see Ran Shen, have Ran Shen look after her—perfect.”
Li Yiqing: “You’re too despicable.
Aren’t you afraid Ran Shen will steal your girl?”
Xu Xian shook his head: “Not afraid; Brother Ran not being into women was famous in our high school—he’s just not interested in women.”
Li Yiqing didn’t dwell on that, but asked: “Does your guidance really work? Do you really know what Ran Shen’s math class exam will test?”
Xu Xian said matter-of-factly: “No idea, but that doesn’t stop me from giving them psychological massage to ease their inner tension.
328 for ten minutes of psychological massage—is that price okay?
Equivalent to buying yourself some psychological comfort.”
Li Yiqing was speechless: “You’re such a dog; 328 for ten minutes is okay?”
For the students who bought it, it was actually quite a good deal.
After all, for students willing to spend this money, 328 really wasn’t much.
The selection exam for Lin Ran’s math class was on the weekend.
Right after the exam ended, Xu Xian’s WeChat started buzzing nonstop.
“Wuwuwu.jpg”
“Sigh.jpg”
“Ran Shen being a god himself is one thing, but treating everyone else like gods too.”
“First time seeing such a pervert exam.”
“Tears streaming.jpg”
Different juniors sent different content.
Some sent sticker packs, some sent text.
Xu Xian’s fingers flew on the mobile phone screen, replying first to those who sent text—text means emotionally stable, more rational; leave the sticker pack ones hanging first.
He planned to first get the situation clear from this type of junior, then give psychological massage to the others with sticker packs.
“What happened?”
“Wait, this exam content is really pervert.”
“Was it too hard? That’s how it is; Brother Ran is after all the new domestic Fields Medalist. Considering word of mouth, this batch is all about striving for perfection, otherwise they wouldn’t test freshmen and sophomores together.” Xu Xian unleashed a smooth combo, showing both his familiarity with Lin Ran and his analytical ability.
“No
No one could finish it
Don’t say I couldn’t finish
Anyone else would be the same
Can you imagine
Exam without handing out test papers
Handed out a little booklet
Then the exam questions on it are only fill-in-the-blanks
No process needed
Just the result
Three hundred exam questions
Before the exam the proctor told everyone
Although these three hundred questions are all fill-in-the-blanks
No scores marked on them
But that doesn’t mean all 300 questions have the same score
There are some special ones inside
These special ones will be scored separately
Equivalent to regular points and special points
Final total score is special points times 10 plus regular points
Neither the school nor Professor Lin expects everyone to finish it
Hope everyone treats it as a game and explores it freely
You hear that—is that even human talk?
Hearing that, how could anyone not specially hunt for the special points?”
The junior on the other end wasn’t too emotionally stable either.
Xu Xian felt his estimate was wrong; women being emotionally stable is inherently difficult:
“Okay, that’s normal; after all, you said over two thousand from your whole school signed up for the exam.”
“You don’t need to score high; you just need to beat others.”
“I believe you can definitely do it.”
Xu Xian fired off what he thought was a brilliant three-hit combo.
Then came the fatal question: “Do you know how many I did?”
Xu Xian first typed 20, then deleted it: “10?”
“3”
“Ah this.jpg”
Xu Xian had just found “ah this” from his sticker pack arsenal and sent it when he saw a big exclamation mark; he thought: “Damn, your 3 is double entendre! Did 3 questions and struck me out.
Deleted is deleted; next one is better.”
“Curious.jpg”
For the next one who sent a sticker, he naturally replied with a sticker too; Xu Xian found a cute cat sticker.
“Fist.jpg” A pink little fist appeared in his green chat bubble.
“Wait, 300 questions with special mechanisms—this exam I’ve never seen before, more pervert than graduate exams. I used to think the most pervert math entrance exam was Fudan’s five-subject mix, but what is Ran Shen testing here—luck or strength?” A long string of voice messages came over.
Xu Xian frowned; he liked hearing sweet girl voices sure, but not this long rant of irritable voice messages.
After forcing himself to listen through gritted teeth, he typed: “Actually, I think Brother Ran definitely has his own deep intentions.
After all, we’ve always discussed why China hasn’t produced a Fields Medalist.
Turns out the first Fields Medalist is a self-taught genius; since Brother Ran became a Fields Medalist through self-study, he must have his own methodology. I estimate he designed this exam mode to screen for students suited to his methodology.”
Then a string of voice messages came:
“Wait, that doesn’t mean treat us like Japanese people. Even marking them would be way better—this is purely toying with people, right?”
Hearing this, Xu Xian pressed the voice key and said gently: “Junior, don’t worry; I’ll go ask how Ran Shen thought about it, then tell you.”
He had just sent it when another voice came: “By your logic, Ran Shen was trained by that Indian professor of his; Jiaotong University should poach the Indian professor.”
After the Twin Prime Conjecture passed peer review, Lin Ran’s Indian professor, in a BBC interview, boasted about his merits, from selecting the dark horse to fully unlocking Lin Ran’s potential, sounding like an education expert.
The latest news Lin Ran heard before leaving was that the Indian Institute of Technology planned to recruit him back as dean of the artificial intelligence college.
One person rises, even the dog ascends.
“Awkward.JPG”
Xu Xian looked at the familiar red exclamation mark and could only smile bitterly in helplessness: Ran Shen, you’ve personally buried your bro’s happiness.
