Chapter 49: I Lost Out!

Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

“I lost out!”

Lu Zhou logged into the school website to take a look. He did not even know there was an announcement.

Who would have thought that one could make money off writing theses?

It was all because of the meeting.

The reward rules were announced on the website.

[Reward amount = (IF +1)*5000 yuan]

IF was the impact factor of the journal.

For example, the impact factor of the [ International Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics] was 3.310. He published two mathematics theses, so the school would give him a total of 41,300 yuan. Also, according to Professor Tang, this bonus would be paid in the form of scientific research grants. According to Article 4 of the income tax law, it was tax free!

The other nine theses were not eligible for the rewards. Even though they counted as SCI theses, they were published in the general journal.

Lu Zhou saw this and was heartbroken.

From a CEO’s evaluation, his nine theses were undoubtedly valuable. He screwed himself over a small payment of 150 yuan.

There was no use being regretful.

However, if one were to think about it clearly, it would be hard to say whether it was a loss or a profit.

If it was never published in the general journal, it would have been reviewed by a more professional academic reviewer. His theses might not have stood out from other theses or passed the review so quickly.

The reason why he was able to get an S+ evaluation and unlocked the reward mission was largely due to the speed of the general journal’s review process.

Regardless, he could probably have enough money for the server?

“Zhou, what are you looking at?”

Liu Rui saw that Lu Zhou did not go to the library to study. instead, he was staring at the computer screen. Out of curiosity, he finally asked.

Liu Rui had finally stopped sucking up to Lu Zhou.

It seems that all the pandering came to an end…

“It’s fine,” sighed Lu Zhou. He said, “I’m just sad that I lost a bit of money.”

“What money… Sci theses reward? F*ck me, you’re too good…” said Liu Rui as his eyes widened. He shouted, “How much did you get?”

“Probably ten or twenty thousand.”

Lu Zhou wanted to be modest and said a lower number.

He had not expected for Liu Rui to be shocked by it.

Liu Rui was silent for a while.

After a long time, he sighed and said expressionlessly, “Zhou, how about you buy dinner for us tonight?”

Lu Zhou thought about it. It made sense.

After all, he said that they should never forget each other and they should buy each other meals when they got rich.

Although he valued money, he was not selfish.

Therefore, he took Liu Rui to the food street near the school and found a spicy hotpot place…

…

The spicy hotpot was delivered to their table. Liu Rui normally did not drink but he ordered two beers.

Each of them opened a beer.

Suddenly, Liu Rui asked, “How’s staying in school for the summer?”

Lu Zhou was eating a tofu stick when he replied, “It’s okay? Pretty fulfilling.”

“I’m so jealous of you,” sighed Liu Rui. He then added, “I feel like I’m getting stupider. I can’t take in any new knowledge.”

He seriously regretted entering the mathematical modeling competition.

Once he passed the first round of school selection, he was given teammates and a teacher. However, once the real training started, he realized just how far behind he was from the real geniuses.

For example, the third year student in his team had already won the second prize twice. He entered this competition before his graduation with the hope of getting the first prize. Liu Rui compared himself to him and felt like he was a little brother who was holding the older brother’s leg.

However, a person like him still modestly said that he was uneducated.

Later, Liu Rui heard from the other teams that the school organized that the various departments had organized a “super team”. It was the real golden team. Those people would not even train with people like him.

Liu Rui finally understood that the team Lu Zhou was in was the legendary super team.

After hearing the news, he was confused and in distraught.

As the gap was too big, he even started to think if he should become jealous of his roommate, who suddenly rose to success.

Lu Zhou tapped his beer against Liu Rui’s as he said, “You are making yourself too tired, I think.”

“There’s no other way. There are people who are better than me while working harder than me. I’ve got to work hard,” said Liu Rui. He slammed the beer down and sighed. It was like he was trying to blow the depression out of his body and let it drift away into the night sky.

Lu Zhou was slightly drunk and could not understand why Liu Rui was depressed.

When people are drunk, they liked to talk obscenely.

“I remember… I shouldn’t say it.”

Liu Rui paused. He thought that Lu Zhou had good advice and so, he could not help but ask, “What?”

Lu Zhou burped before saying, “If there are people better than you and working harder than you, then what’s the point of you working hard?”

Liu Rui: “…”

The pair finished seven beers, five of which was consumed by Liu Rui himself.

…

Liu Rui was not the type that could handle alcohol and he would stay quiet when he was drunk. After drinking the last bottle, he slammed his head on the table and it scared Lu Zhou. Even the spicy hotpot manager was shocked as he thought Liu Rui was poisoned.

After that, the kid flipped over and started to talk nonsense. The manager and Lu Zhou was relieved to see that.

Once Lu Zhou paid the bills, he carried the drunk Liu Rui back into his dorm. Lu Zhou did not have the strength to carry him up the ladder. So, he pulled out a mat from his cabinet and made Liu Rui sleep on the floor.

He waited for him to lie on the mat before giving Liu Rui a blanket.

No one else would have helped their friend like this.

Lu Zhou turned on the air conditioner and sat in the chair before taking a sip of water. He sighed in relief.

He was tired.

Liu Rui did not feel tired at all. Instead, he laid down and started to snore.

“You’ll get a massive headache tomorrow morning.”

Lu Zhou shook his head and opened the computer. He logged onto an online shopping site and started to search for an appropriate server.

According to Professor Tang, the school would transfer the money to him latest by tomorrow. He would find a server today and order it after he received the money tomorrow.

If possible, he wanted to buy a good quality server.

It was not entirely for his ticket-buying app, but also in preparation of the “artificial intelligence level 0” mission reward.

What would happen once I upgraded artificial intelligence from level 0 to level 1?

It would be the first technology branch he would ever unlock.

Therefore, Lu Zhou was excited.

Of course, after he saw the price of the server, his face turned blue.

“Dell… Rackmount chassis 2U, 56 cores 112 threads 256GB RAM, comes with twelve 8TB hard drives, 270,000 yuan! No way.”

“Lenovo IBM, dual controller storage array. Uses Storwize real-time compression technology, 64GB RAM, 8 8GB fiber connections, 24 3.5 inch hard drives! Price, 40,000! That seems okay… Wait! I missed a zero… I can’t afford this!”

He scrolled through another page but they were all equally expensive.

Goddamn it!

Why is it so expensive!

Lu Zhou sorted by price and found some cheaper servers. However, he did not know if they could handle his operation needs. He could not possibly spend all his money on buying the server.

Maintaining the operation of the server also costs money!

Lu Zhou could not decide. Suddenly, he remembered about the computer science genius in his team.

Oh yeah, why don’t I ask him?

As it was still early, Lu Zhou took out his phone and gave him a call.

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