Lin Zhaoxi thought, what was she thinking before seeing this piece of paper
If now is a time cutoff.
Before this cut-off point, the dragonfly spread its wings at low altitude, Lao Lin refused to answer, Manager Zhang finished telling his story, and on the road outside the window, a gray car was driving away from the street.
Everything seemed to be coming to an end.
Yes, before seeing this piece of paper, probably even she herself really felt that everything had come to an end.
But actually
In fact, Lin Zhaoxi didn't intend to look carefully at the content on the paper, but she suddenly noticed a word that she quickly became familiar with in the past few hours—graph isomorphism (graph isomorphism).
She took another look before she was sure it was a typed copy of an email.
The email is all in English, it looks like a formulaic template, and the header is—dear lin.
And the signature...
Signature is editorial office.
Lin Zhaoxi frowned, sat down on Lao Lin's office chair, and read carefully.
Her English is fairly good, and it is not difficult to read a simple reply letter, but once, twice, three times, when she read it three times, she felt that the blood in her whole body was rushing to the heart, her limbs were cold, and she couldn't even hold the paper. His hands trembled slightly.
Manager Zhang was still sitting in the sofa chair. Seeing her strange expression, he leaned over to look at the things in her hand.
"Reply by email, I thought you found Lao Lin's medical certificate."
Lin Zhaoxi shivered, realizing that this was another joke. If it was a traditional plot, what she accidentally saw would be a diagnosis report of a serious illness that Lao Lin concealed from her, but in fact, the letter in her hand is probably more desperate than all the serious illness reports.
After a short shock, Lin Zhaoxi calmed down. She has experienced a lot of storms and waves today, which is not bad.
"Can I borrow the computer?" she asked Manager Zhang.
"There is a power-on password, I will find someone to ask you, there should be a record..."
"I'll try it first." Lin Zhaoxi got permission, and directly turned on the computer in Lao Lin's office. The screen lit up. She entered a series of numbers and pressed the Enter key, and the computer was unlocked.
Manager Zhang was speechless: "Father and daughter are of the same heart."
Lin Zhaoxi explained: "It's easy to guess, his favorite number is this string."
Lin Zhaoxi began to search for the editorial office in the signature. Later, she found out that she was stupid. This is a top-level mathematics academic journal, and many world-renowned mathematics researches have been published in it. Lin Zhaoxi became more serious.
The email was sent several months ago, and the entire email reply said three things.
1. Thanks to Lao Lin for his response.
2. Professor Feng's thesis manuscript is still in the process of being reviewed by reviewers. The editorial department attaches great importance to the academic misconduct reported by Lao Lin and hopes that Lao Lin will submit more evidence.
3. The deadline is June 30.
June 30th is circled in red pen.
The exact time is displayed in the lower right corner of the computer.
14:11 6/30
Lin Zhaoxi froze in front of the computer.
Her first reaction was to ask what happened to Lao Lin, but she had indeed experienced a lot today, and she instinctively knew that she should not call now, but should sort out the clues.
Several important information can be deduced from this letter.
First, Professor Feng's paper on graph isomorphism is indeed related to Lao Lin.
First, Lao Lin believed that Professor Feng had committed academic misconduct in the thesis design, and he had already sent a letter to the editorial department.
Third, due to manuscript review and many other reasons, the editorial department gave Lao Lin the deadline to submit evidence today.
Lin Zhaoxi saw Lao Lin's back when he left the noodle shop, and there was light mist on the glass door, and he just left without saying a word.
She knew for sure that Lao Lin gave up.
He did not submit any so-called evidence, would not make more statements on this matter, and was even unwilling to tell her any stories behind this matter.
He didn't go any further.
But why
If he just couldn't submit supplementary evidence, Lao Lin wouldn't have turned around and left. He has experienced so much in his life, and he has always been frank and frank. He even wrote a letter, but gave up at the last moment.
So, what's going on
Lin Zhaoxi pursed her lips, remembering that in the evening not long ago, under the fiery red sunset, she once stood beside Pei Zhi, watching the boy copy a few pages of paper.
At that time, she was still immersed in the excitement of just finishing the modeling competition, and even after being warned by the three words "academic circle" by the boys, she was even more confused.
Back home that night, Lao Lin was watching the girl idol talent show in the yard, and she even asked Lao Lin about the "academic circle". Thinking about it now, she could still recall Lao Lin's understatement.
— Not as good as you think, and not as bad as you think.
That's what Lao Lin said. With a little quiet contemplation, but still relaxed and peaceful.
There is a very light cicada chirping in the yard, and the breath is honeysuckle. It really hasn't been a few days. But now that I think about it, it feels like a dream.
In the dream, she took those few pieces of paper with her own hands, but she never thought that one day she would walk out of the dream and encounter such a reality.
She placed the mobile phone on Lao Lin's desk casually. Lin Zhaoxi picked up the phone with a trembling hand, but she could control herself very well.
There are several missed calls on the screen, they are from Lao Lin, and there are many unread messages. But she didn't open WeChat, nor did she dial back to Lao Lin, but directly pressed another string of numbers.
If Lao Lin had written to the editorial department, it was also possible that he had written to someone else.
The "beep" sound lasted for a long time.
It was so long that she felt numb in her fingers, as if she was in the extremely quiet depths of the universe.
Until someone answered the phone and gave a soft "Hello".
The background sound exploded, the magnificent school gymnasium was full of voices, and the students were shouting excitedly.
Mingming was very noisy, but Lin Zhaoxi felt that in the huge world, it seemed that there were only her and the person on the other end of the phone.
They stood facing each other, surrounded by darkness, as if there was no one else and nothing more important. She can hold the letter paper and ask him questions without hindrance, without any foreshadowing: "I want to ask a question."
"good."
"I know that you are following the principle of confidentiality, so you only need to answer me 'yes' or 'no', if it is not convenient for you to answer, please don't speak."
"I will."
"The day the modeling competition ended, I went to the office to find you. At that time, I was stuffed with a few pages to make a photocopy. It was an important material related to the graph isomorphism paper that Professor Feng was going to publish, right?"
"yes."
"It's a letter, addressed to Professor Zeng?"
"right."
"The letter was received by Professor Zeng recently, less than a month?"
"That's right."
"That letter exposed Professor Feng's academic misconduct?" Lin Zhaoxi asked.
The phone fell silent.
"Can't this be answered?"
"No." Pei Zhi's voice sounded faintly.
"I do not understand."
"No, that letter did not expose the academic misconduct of Professor Feng Deming as you said." Pei Zhi said, "From the beginning to the end of Zeng's letter, he explained the problems that appeared in Professor Feng's proof paper."
"what is the problem?"
"Although Professor Feng has completed the proof, it is a pity that exact graph isomorphism should not be an npc problem." Pei Zhi paused. Although they were very far away, Lin Zhaoxi heard Pei Zhi clearly say, "Then The anonymous author of the letter hopes that Professor Zeng will relay this view on his behalf, that is, the proof is wrong."
Pei Zhi's expression couldn't be clearer, the receiver was still filled with noisy background sounds, but it was quieter. Lin Zhaoxi was stunned for a while before she understood what was going on.
It was indeed not a hallucination that she heard "proving the frame is wrong" outside the door panel that day.
All her guesses were completely overturned, but everything had the best explanation.