Free Web NovelChapter 144: Chapter 124: Lu Keke
Chu Bamboo and Yang Qi stared at each other in silence for a good while.
"I understand." Yang Qi nodded, having made his decision. "I can give you Ms. Lu’s address!"
He had originally thought Chu Bamboo was spouting nonsense, but now... Good grief, a mathematical achievement worthy of being on national television?
’This... It might just be possible that some friend of his in the mathematics field really did mention Lu Keke to him.’
’What else was there to doubt? He had made the call himself! And the person on the other end was confirmed to be Teacher Li... Surely Teacher Li wouldn’t conspire with the man in front of him to trick him, right? If that was really the case, well, he’d just have to accept it!’
Yang Qi was speechless. He could only sigh at how surreal the world was. ’How can something that sounds so fake actually be true!’
Yang Qi sat down at his computer desk and began to search. A moment later, he jotted down an address and handed it to Chu Bamboo. "Ms. Lu isn’t at school right now!"
"She already has guaranteed admission, after all... Although she said she still wants to take the college entrance exams, she’s basically studying at home now... Don’t look at me like that! Guaranteed admission is one thing, but that doesn’t mean she can’t still take the exams! It just means that even if she doesn’t get a high enough score, she’s already in."
"Of course," Yang Qi shrugged, "I personally believe Xiaoluo is very confident in her grades across all subjects! Her past performance has consistently been in the top three at our school... Besides, if she wasn’t confident she could test into Huaqing or Yanjing, wouldn’t taking the exams when she already has guaranteed admission be just asking for humiliation?"
"I see." Chu Bamboo nodded pensively.
"Also," Yang Qi hesitated for a moment before continuing, "while Xiaoluo is a genius, geniuses often have their quirks! She’s... extremely quiet, sometimes even a bit dazed. I kind of suspect it has to do with her family environment!"
Family? Chu Bamboo’s expression turned serious.
"She’s from a single-parent family. Her mother is a sanitation worker... Her father died quite young. It was her mother who struggled to raise her all by herself. That might be why she studies so desperately!" Yang Qi’s expression was complicated.
Yang Qi took another sip of tea, then smiled. "But things are looking up, because she’s made everyone proud! She’s won two gold medals in the International Mathematical Olympiad, so she’s received a lot of prize money from both the school and the country. Their living conditions are much better than before."
After a moment of contemplation, Chu Bamboo nodded. "I understand!"
...
「Half an hour later.」
Nanning District.
Chu Bamboo got out of a taxi and followed the address, walking until he soon entered an old tenement building.
He climbed to the third floor. After double-checking the apartment number, he reached out and knocked gently on the door. "Ms. Lu, are you home? I’m Chu Bamboo, the person Teacher Xu mentioned when he contacted you earlier!"
Of course, Chu Bamboo wouldn’t just take an address and show up unannounced. That would be too suspicious!
’Even if she were home, she’d probably pretend she didn’t hear the knock... If I were persistent, she might even call the police.’
So, he had first asked Principal Yang to call Lu Keke’s homeroom teacher, Xu Haiwen, and then had Xu Haiwen call Lu Keke’s home phone to get in touch and confirm she was there. Only then did Chu Bamboo come over.
Suddenly, the door swung open.
Chu Bamboo froze for a second, looking at the reticent girl with a strange expression.
She was wearing a school uniform that had been washed until it was faded—
’Normally, no one wears their school uniform when they aren’t at school, right? And from how faded the clothes are, this girl probably spends most of her time in her uniform...’
’Although I heard from Principal Yang that Ms. Lu’s family isn’t well-off, she’s won prize money several times now, so they shouldn’t be too short on cash. To still be so frugal under these circumstances... perhaps thriftiness has become a habit?’
Lu Keke’s hair was a bit messy, and it was clear she wasn’t skilled at grooming herself. A high school student who didn’t know how to dress up couldn’t be called stunning. But as Chu Bamboo looked her over, he found that her features were actually quite delicate... ’She has good bone structure!’
"Come in." Lu Keke squeezed out two words.
Seeing Chu Bamboo hesitate, she added, "Just come in! We don’t have any guest slippers."
After a moment’s thought, Chu Bamboo glanced at the time on his phone and said, "It’s almost four o’clock! Why don’t I take you out for a meal? Or maybe get some coff—AHEM, is there anything you’d like to eat or drink?"
"No!" Lu Keke shook her head, then stressed again, "Come in."
Since she had put it that way, Chu Bamboo could only oblige.
Lu Keke picked up a small bowl, poured Chu Bamboo a cup of plain water, and then sat down across from him. She sat up straight with a tense expression on her face. "Excuse me, Teacher Chu, what did you want to see me about?"
"You don’t have to call me Teacher... Ah, never mind. Call me whatever you like," Chu Bamboo said with a sudden, wry smile.
He said, "To be honest, I thought a lot about how to talk to you, how to break the ice... But because your situation is rather unique, most of the plans I made went right out the window."
"Originally, I wanted to bring a gift! But Teacher Xu told me not to, that I should just come directly."
And now, this brief meeting made Chu Bamboo realize that she was, just as Principal Yang had said, a person of very few words.
This wasn’t the time for the usual small talk and idle chatter to get acquainted with each other. That was clearly out of the question! After all, trying that in this situation would only make things awkward for both of them.
"Forget it." Chu Bamboo rubbed his cheeks and got straight to the point with a serious expression. "Ms. Lu, on behalf of C Machinery Co., Ltd., I am formally extending an invitation to you! We hope you will join our company as the chief research expert for the superconductor department."
"?"
Lu Keke fell into deep thought. Lu Keke tried to use her mathematical and logical mind to comprehend Chu Bamboo’s true meaning. Lu Keke could not comprehend.
For the first time, a tremor entered her voice, laced with panic. "Are... are you serious?"
"I learned about you from a friend!" Chu Bamboo said with practiced ease. "My friend told me that you’ve been curious about all sorts of science magazines since you were a child!"
"A few years ago, there was news from the Peninsula about some amateur researchers who had developed a room-temperature superconductor... Although it was eventually proven to be fake, I heard that it sparked your curiosity about the subject."
Of course, everything Chu Bamboo was saying came from interview reports he had seen from the future, after Lu Keke had become famous. ’Though, the credibility of those things is probably only about fifty-fifty.’
Besides, he only knew these little anecdotes. For everything else, like Lu Keke’s family situation or her specific home address in this era, the AI had been completely useless.
"Do you think I’m an idiot?" Lu Keke stared at Chu Bamboo, her face expressionless. "Besides, I’m about to go to university! Even if you were really hiring, shouldn’t you wait until after I graduate to recruit me?"
"You’re very suspicious!"
If Teacher Xu hadn’t called earlier, Lu Keke would have already called the police. ’Yes, Chu Bamboo is right. I did become curious about room-temperature superconductors, but the problem is, I’ve never told anyone that! You heard? Who could you have possibly heard it from...’
But, operating under the assumption that Chu Bamboo was credible, and adding in the bizarre attitude he was displaying now, her mind began to spin...
"Ms. Lu, I know what you’re thinking!" Of course, Chu Bamboo didn’t expect to show up, give a little speech, and successfully recruit Lu Keke just like that.
Or rather, even if he did have that ability and actually managed to persuade Lu Keke... her mother would never agree!
This visit was just to leave an impression and establish a connection.
"Soon, you should start hearing news and updates about C Machinery Co., Ltd.! You’ll be able to see the company’s potential from that news," Chu Bamboo stated frankly.
He stared intently at Lu Keke. "Please believe me, we are a company that creates miracles. If, in the future, any company is going to develop a room-temperature superconductor, it can only be ours."
Then, Chu Bamboo took a notebook from his pocket, tore out a sheet of paper, and scribbled down a phone number with a flourish. He pushed it toward Lu Keke.
"If you change your mind in the future, you can call me! I will welcome you with open arms anytime."
Chu Bamboo stood up abruptly. Just as he turned to leave, he heard Lu Keke say unexpectedly, "Is this some new kind of recruitment scam?"
"?" Chu Bamboo froze.
"When Teacher Xu called just now, he told me! You’re from Jinling University." Lu Keke pressed her lips together.
As a math student, her IQ was naturally extremely high. Her previous appearance of not being particularly bright, even earning Principal Yang’s comment about her being "dazed," was simply because she couldn’t be bothered to think.
"So, you’ve confirmed that conventional methods won’t work to poach me from Huaqing University... which is why you came in person?" Lu Keke chose her words carefully.
She did her best to extract useful information from Chu Bamboo’s words. "Hmm, so, in other words, if I choose Jinling University in the future, the university will promise to guarantee me a job? And they’ll fund my research into room-temperature superconductors?"
As she said this, Lu Keke sounded a little uncertain. Although she had deduced this conclusion, thinking about it now, it still felt ridiculous.
No matter how you looked at it, she was still just a high school senior...
Yes, she had some talent and achievements in mathematics. But that was all. Surely she wasn’t worth a university placing such a heavy bet on her, right?
To put it bluntly, forget an Olympiad gold medal; even for next year’s top science scorer in Jiang Province’s college entrance exams, they probably wouldn’t offer such an absurd deal. These terms weren’t for a student at all! What did funding research into room-temperature superconductors even mean?
Offering that to a highly decorated Purple Mountain Talent or even a Changjiang Scholar would be more logical!
"..." Chu Bamboo fell into a brief silence. He really hadn’t expected Lu Keke to connect the dots like that. ’Honestly, I just came here to make an appearance and leave an impression!’
