Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou was sleeping.
However, it was still day time in China.
Today was different from yesterday’s rushed news intervention. Today, CCTV news broadcast spent nearly ten minutes preparing a special report for his Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In this official report, not only did the news anchor talk about Lu Zhou’s life, his achievements, and the problems that he had solved, but they also talked about his international honors.
They even dug up his award speech from the Crafoord Prize.
“Science changes the world; mathematics changes science.”
Now it seemed that Lu Zhou’s inspiring words were true after all.
He did it, and he did it in less than two years.
He used his own knowledge to create a discipline with unlimited potential, and he created a miracle for Chinese scholars as well as a miracle for the human mind.
Despite the Nobel Prize press conference and official website announcement, some people didn’t know about this piece of news. However, once the propaganda machine began, almost everyone knew about this sensational piece of news.
Xiao Tong didn’t like to go on Weibo, but when she was eating lunch at the cafeteria, she saw her brother on the TV inside the cafeteria.
In fact, Lu Zhou wasn’t the first Chinese person to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. There was a Chinese-American before him that won the prize and a Taiwanese before the Chinese-American. However, the Chinese government obviously didn’t want to help spread their news.
Lu Zhou was the first Chinese resident with a Chinese passport to win this prize. Furthermore, he broke the record by being the youngest Nobel Prize winner and became the first person to ever win both the Fields Medal and the Nobel Prize…
Either of the achievement was able to make the entire country proud of him.
When 25-year-old Lawrence Bragg won the Nobel Prize in Physics, in order to commemorate this talented scholar, Australia built a museum for him and his father. They also used the name “Bragg” as the name of the award for the best physics thesis of the year.
In honor of this scholar, Stockholm held a special celebration at the 50th anniversary of his award and invited him to make the first “Nobel lecture” in history.
Lu Zhou was the first Nobel Prize scholar born in China. Therefore, China valued him even more.
Not only did they value him because he hasn’t returned to China yet, but also because rejuvenating the country through science and education was one of the country’s basic strategies.
Building a museum would be too formal, plus it was a bit too early to “commemorate” him.
However, the local tourism bureau already registered his house as a cultural relic. Even if the small town was demolished in the future, that apartment building without elevators would be left alone. Not just that, but it would also be repaired by professionals to maintain its original condition.
Of course, it would be decades until the actual implementation of that.
After all, even though it was registered as a cultural relic, the people living inside the home wouldn’t be kicked out.
The other place that benefited the most was probably Lu Zhou’s high school.
Jiangling High was able to reap benefits when Lu Zhou won the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Award and Cole Prize in Number Theory. The high school had been ranked as a second-rate high school for many years. However, due to Lu Zhou’s effect, the Ministry of Education instantly made Jiangling High a first-rate high school.
Now that Lu Zhou won the Nobel Prize, everything was going to be different.
Not only did this bring a new building and stadium to Jiangling High, but the Party Committee Secretary decided to make this ordinary high school as one of Jiangling’s model education projects.
Lu Zhou heard about these things from his father over the phone.
When he first heard about these things, he was astonished and rendered speechless.
Lu Zhou: “Dad…”
Old Lu was overjoyed when he talked about these things. He smiled and said, “What?”
Lu Zhou said, “Our house is a cultural relic now… It won’t affect your life, right?”
“What effect can it have? They’re just hanging a sign.” Old Lu paused for a second and said with a smile, “Oh yeah, yesterday your high school teacher Mr. Qin, mathematics teacher Mr. Ma, and the school principal came to our house to give your mom and me some gifts. Honestly, it’s been so many years, I didn’t expect those teachers to still remember us.
“I didn’t want to accept those gifts, but they insisted on giving them to us, and I couldn’t stop them. When you come back, remember to bring some gifts to your teachers. We can’t owe them anything; we have to give them something in return.”
Given that he hadn’t even contacted his high school teachers once ever since he graduated, Lu Zhou couldn’t help but feel ashamed when he heard that his teachers actually came to his house and gave his parents some gifts.
“I understand, I’ll visit them when I come back for Chinese New Year… Oh yeah, are they doing well?”
Old Lu smiled and said, “It seems like it. One became a vice-principal, and the other is a special eds teacher and dean.”
Lu Zhou couldn’t help but smile.
One reason was how proud his father was of him.
The other was that he didn’t expect his teachers to be doing so well.
For him, this was probably the biggest surprise.
The Nobel Prize wasn’t the ultimate goal of scientific research, but it was a type of certification and a recognition from the world of scientific research.
In this modern era where everything was becoming internationalized, every country was part of the world.
Whether it was trade, cultural exchange, or scientific research.
Jiangling High wasn’t the only one happy for Lu Zhou.
There wasn’t anyone else more happy than Jin Ling University.
The second day after the winner’s list was announced, a banner with a magnificent headline was hung directly on the gate of the university.
[Congratulations to Lu Zhou, class of 2013 and an honorary professor of our school, for winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry this year!]
A university that could cultivate a Nobel Prize winner was indeed impressive.
Especially when compared to Shuimu and Yan University, the meaning was even more significant.
Of course, if anyone could be happier than Jin Ling University, then it would definitely be the researchers at the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials.
Liu Bo looked at the news on his computer and couldn’t help but say, “Nutty… From now on, we can brag about how our boss is a Nobel Prize laureate.”
Brother Qian smiled and said, “Why don’t you just brag about being friends with the Nobel Prize winner and that you’ve co-written a thesis with him? Isn’t that more brag-worthy?”
Liu Bo scratched his head with an embarrassed expression as he said, “I can do that, but I shouldn’t.”
If he bragged too much, his credibility would go down.
Suddenly, Yang Xu opened the door and walked in. He looked at the people in the office and asked, “What are you guys so excited about?”
Liu Bo: “Our boss won the Nobel Prize, of course we’re excited!”
“You guys knew?” Yang Xu smiled and said, “I was about to give you guys a surprise.”
Liu Hong, who was sitting on the other side of the office writing experiment reports, couldn’t help but feel emotional.
At first, he slightly regretted not having completed his PhD. He thought that he should have just powered through the two years.
But now, it seemed that his choice was undoubtedly correct.
Most people could never do scientific research under a Nobel Prize laureate.
As for his PhD…
With his abilities and his boss’ reputation at Jin Ling University, he could still easily get one.