Super God-Level Top Student
Chapter 940 - 356: Double Rewards Approach_2

The situation at Xilin University of Technology is right there for everyone to see.

In a sense, Huaqing has already fallen behind in the competition. For Luo, the president of Huaqing, the pressure is naturally immense.

Yang Xuanqing's nomination for the Nobel Prize this time is undoubtedly a strong booster shot. At least, the university has gained a Nobel Prize-winning professor. As for Yanbei University next door, though it has deeper collaborations with Xilin University of Technology, it hasn't gained any significant benefits from this event.

"Well, President Luo, I actually haven't decided whether to accept this award or not. You know, Qiao Ze has already publicly stated that he'd never accept any awards granted by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. If I were to really go..."

Yang Xuanqing didn't finish his sentence, but he believed the person on the other end of the line understood what he meant.

As he mentioned earlier, ninety percent of the credit for him winning the Nobel Prize belonged to Qiao Ze, while the remaining ten percent had to be divided between him and Professor Edward Witten. Whether Professor Witten attends the ceremony or not hardly matters; after all, he's a scientist from the United States. But for Yang, the considerations are far more complex.

If Qiao Ze hadn't established the Qiaoze Natural Science Award and officially announced his rejection of any awards from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Yang wouldn't see an issue in attending the ceremony.

However, under current circumstances, if he were to attend the award ceremony while Qiao Ze abstains, it would truly put him in an awkward position upon his return.

"I understand. But I think you don't need to worry about that right now. Whether you attend the ceremony or not doesn't really matter. What's important is that you won the award. I'm sure you get what I mean."

Those words over the phone immediately lifted Yang Xuanqing's spirits.

Indeed, whether he attends or not truly doesn't matter.

Dividing the one-million-dollar prize among the three laureates leaves each with just over 300,000 dollars. Though the sum is substantial, the biggest perks of being a Nobel laureate have never been about the cash prize.

For example, getting an expert residence at Huaqing, valued far above that prize money.

"Thank you for your understanding."

"Haha, congratulations once again, Professor Yang. Once you're done with all your current commitments and return home, we'll throw a celebration for you."

"..."

After hanging up the phone, Yang Xuanqing only felt that life was extraordinarily surreal...

...

Xilin University of Technology.

Upon hearing the news, Xu Dajiang jumped up in excitement.

His prediction had been spot on.

It turned out to be Qiao Ze and Edward Witten winning the prize together.

If not for the addition of Yang Xuanqing, it would've been even better.

Though he could understand.

After all, the justification for awarding Edward Witten this time was not for his contributions to M-theory, but for discovering evidence indicating the existence of gravitational waves. That particular paper happened to be co-authored by him and Yang Xuanqing.

Going by the usual rules for awarding Nobel Prizes, they tend to include both authors.

One could only say Professor Yang's luck was extraordinary.

That said, the issue wasn't significant.

In any case, Huaqing was already in its twilight years, merely offering a brief glimmer of resurgence. More importantly, the whole world knew these two winners owed their success this year to Qiao Ze.

If, at the time, Qiao Ze hadn't posted his research findings on Weibo but had instead sought independent verification, then the other two wouldn't even have been involved.

On the other hand, Xilin University of Technology really didn't have substantial resources connected to CERN. Certain restrictions prevented their professors from accessing its equipment and data.

Of course, these were minor issues now.

If Xu Dajiang hadn't already tested the waters regarding Qiao Ze's stance, he might have rushed over to the Xilin Mathematics Research Institute for a celebratory banquet by now.

Meanwhile, Li Jiangao naturally felt immensely happy for Qiao Ze.

But what left him both amused and exasperated was that, despite Qiao Ze winning the award, it was his own WeChat feed that exploded.

Professors in his social circle weren't congratulating Qiao; instead, they flooded him with congratulations.

"The youngest Nobel laureate is here! As his mentor, shouldn't you host a grand feast soon?"

"Li, you might as well lie flat. If you don't lie flat, the rest of us can't go on living."

"Already a Nobel Prize? Jiangao, you've really got to pull yourself together. Otherwise, you'll fall further and further behind your students. Can you handle the pressure? If not, I'll help you shoulder some of it!"

"The more I think about it, the angrier I get. Back then, I should've just knocked Qiao Ze out and dragged him over to Jiangcheng. That Yu Chenggong completely ruined it for me! Jiangao, do you think if Yu hadn't come by that day, Qiao Ze would've ended up as my student?"

The last comment, posted by Zhang Chunlei from Jiangcheng University, even included a historically dramatic chest-thumping meme.

That particular remark left Li Jiangao feeling slightly guilty.

In hindsight, he truly intended to introduce Qiao Ze to Zhang Chunlei back then.

At the time, Jiangcheng University's School of Mathematics undoubtedly outclassed Xilin University of Technology. Plus, Zhang Chunlei, as a Yangtze River Scholar, would've been able to secure far more resources for Qiao Ze. Looking back now, Li Jiangao realized he had underestimated Qiao Ze back then.

This kid didn't need any resources at all—not even the two million Yuan invested by Su Mucheng during what seemed like a timely rescue back then. In hindsight, even that monetary support wasn't necessary. The funds were mainly used to rent servers for verification.

Thinking back, it wasn't even necessary to go through such a hassle. A smaller server could have sufficed for demonstrating the program's superiority, followed by pursuing school-enterprise collaborations to quickly secure computational resources. Even his own five thousand Yuan would have been enough.

Some people simply don't require platforms, and it just so happened he encountered such a student.

In short, Qiao Ze's Nobel Prize in Physics had once again spurred a wave of envy and amazement among the mathematicians in Li Jiangao's WeChat circle.

If even the mathematicians felt like this, it goes without saying how the online spectators could hardly contain their excitement.

Although Dou Dou hadn't posted an official announcement on Weibo regarding the news, other media outlets were relentlessly reposting it. Even the video of the president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences announcing this year's Physics Nobel Prize winners was already circulating all over Huaxia's internet.

Titles like "Youngest Nobel Winner in History" or "First True Huaxia Nobel Laureate" were popping up in viral clips across various video platforms. Meanwhile, science communicators and self-media personalities scrambled to follow up, delivering quick explanations to the public about the reasons behind these three laureates' awards.

Given it was the National Day holiday period, the comment sections were predictably lively—a sentiment akin to celebrating a festival.

Soon, "Qiao Ze Wins Nobel Prize in Physics" shot straight to the top of the trending keywords, followed closely by "Two Huaxia Scientists Win This Year's Nobel Prize."

The next day, before the online buzz surrounding Qiao Ze's Nobel Prize in Physics had a chance to die down, another piece of news crossed the ocean from Sweden to Huaxia. Once again, it was CCTV that delivered the video announcement first.

"To express our gratitude for Qiao Ze's groundbreaking contributions to computational material modeling, we hereby award him the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry."

The statement was brief but powerful.

It perfectly adhered to the principle of "the fewer the words, the bigger the impact" when it comes to internet virality.

After all, this appeared to be the first occurrence in Nobel history where someone outright won two different Nobel Prizes in the same year.

The comment section for the video announcement quickly erupted, with most people's initial reactions being particularly simple and consistent—their expressiveness often boiled down to two words.

"Holy crap!" or "Amazing!"

To netizens, such language might seem overly simplistic.

It wasn't that they couldn't come up with more creative reactions; it was simply that the situation was too mind-boggling.

Although people enjoyed joking about how "the internet has no memory," the condition is that both parties involved aren't constantly dominating the headlines.

Just over two months ago, Qiao Ze had a public dispute with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences over the Crafoord Prize, with both sides essentially tearing into each other. To top it off, Dou Dou publicly declared for Qiao Ze that he wouldn't acknowledge any awards granted by the Academy. Who could've foreseen that, two months later, they would go ahead and grant him not one but two prizes...

Like a sulking child.

On the other hand, Huaxia's computational material modeling truly did shake up the world, influencing many aspects of ordinary life. Winning a Nobel Prize for it was undoubtedly well-deserved.

The almighty internet, following the Royal Swedish Academy's wishes, latched onto Qiao Ze's headline-grabbing achievements in material modeling. Meanwhile, a clip from a recent Pennsylvania Avenue 1600 banquet reappeared from the depths of cyberspace, retrieved by countless users.

This time, the clip had been edited down, focusing sharply on the dialogue box that popped up on the monitor and the sequence immediately thereafter, featuring the accompanying voiceovers.

"Your free trial has reached its maximum duration. To continue using, please enter the activation code."

"Turn it off, quick, turn it off."

"Sorry..."

What an absurd world!

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