Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Director Zhang was not the only person whose face turned white.
Wu Yan was sitting inside his hotel room. He was scrolling through Weibo when his face suddenly turned pale.
The University of Auckland sounded like a big deal. After all, it was located in the biggest city in New Zealand. However, the reality was that New Zealand was a small country in the middle of nowhere, and the University of Auckland barely got on the Top 100 list.
The strength of the university was still strong relative to its size. However, it was difficult to get a job in New Zealand.
When Wu Yan was at the University of Auckland, he was the type that could not “get a job”. Not to mention, his major was in mathematics.
The nicknames the fan gave him was fake. He was still studying his PhD, and who knew if he could actually graduate.
That would only be determined in the future.
While overseas, he watched Lu Zhou’s Youtube video. He guessed that most people in China had not seen it yet, and the proof on the conference website was about Zhou’s conjecture, so his heart was filled with greed.
Anyway, it was not like he was publishing in journals anyway, and there was no overlap between the entertainment and academic industry. Therefore, he copied the proof process.
However, the results were out of his expectations.
Within a week, his scheme was defeated.
Someone posted the conference recordings online, with the signature of Mr. Francis, the president of the Federal Mathematics Society.
Even though the production team tried to cover the story up, and even though his crazy fans defended him, at this moment, he was still flustered.
Suddenly, his phone rang.
It was none other than Professor Harris from the University of Auckland.
He picked up the phone.
“Did you submit a thesis recently? Don’t tell me you wrote my name down.”
Wu Yan replied, “I didn’t submit anything.”
Copyright issues were relatively common in the academic circle, but that did not mean the academicians would tolerate it. Plagiarism was intolerable.
Professor Harris’ tone softened, but he was still stern.
All allegations had a reason.
Especially allegations from the Federal Mathematics Society.
Professor Harris’ tone was serious when he said, “Some people accused you of plagiarism, and this accusation came from the Federal Mathematics Society. I hope that you can take this matter seriously.”
Wu Yan’s face turned red and he said, “I didn’t plagiarize, I only participated in a TV show and used some…”
He could not continue.
Professor Harris frowned and asked, “Used what?”
“Some proofs of the twin prime number conjecture which was presented at the Princeton conference…”
The other end of the phone went silent.
The professor spoke.
“Then you checked the conference submission and didn’t find anything, so you copied it? Do you know there’s a conference text recording, in addition to the submissions?”
Wu Yan’s face turned bright red.
He had never presented at a conference, so he did not know about this stuff. The proof process was a simplified version from the Princeton website, and he barely understood it.
Wu Yan knew that there was no point hiding anything, so he tried to argue with his supervisor, “I didn’t publish anything, it only inspired me…”
“You think that just because you didn’t publish anything, this is okay? Anyways, I suggest you fly back to Auckland and sort out your school status.”
Wu Yan froze. When he was trying to figure out what the professor meant, the other end had already hung up.
Beep beep beep…
His face turned pale. Cold sweat was rolling down his back.
He threw his phone on the bed. Wu Yan felt desperate.
Professor Harris had asked him to sort out his student status.
What does that mean?
Am I getting… expelled?
The door was pushed open, and his agent walked in.
When Yang Feng walked in the door and saw Wu Yan’s face, he asked, “What happened to you?”
Wu Yan bitterly said, “My supervisor… might expel me.”
Yang Feng paused for a second before saying, “Who cares about your supervisor? Do you really plan to go back to Auckland? You could just sign an advertisement contract here and make money. Who cares about your academics?”
Wu Yan thought about it. His agent made sense.
Who cares about the University of Auckland?
He took a deep breath and calmed down before asking, “What do we do now?”
He was not about to apologize, but he had nowhere else to retreat to.
He was still considered a genius. If he apologized, it would be a devastating blow to his status.
On the other hand, who would care about his academic title? His acting career had just begun!
“The show has been rectified, and the only person that can save it is you,” said Yang Feng with a stern look. He continued, “Sort out your thesis as soon as possible, then submit it in a domestic journal. Then you can argue that you were the one that came up with the proof… Remember to change his proof process so it doesn’t look like you copied it. You’re the strongest genius student!”
Wu Yan was shocked by this idea. He did not expect his agent to be even crazier than him.
“How do I modify it? The whole premise of the thesis is using the sieve theory of topology. That can’t be avoided…”
Yang Feng said, “Are you dumb! I don’t know about mathematics, don’t ask me! I asked you to change the steps. You can copy his ideas but not exactly. Just change a few letters or something, and we can just claim that it is a coincidence. Who cares about the academic circle anyway! You’re in the entertainment circle!”
Wu Yan was unhappy to be called dumb. After all, it was a lot harder to change the proof process of mathematics theses.
Quite frankly, he had no idea how to modify it.
However, he still had sneaky plans.
He read the thesis published by Professor Zellberg in 1995. If he found a substandard journal and submitted the thesis first, how would anyone prove that he plagiarized?
He could claim that it was a coincidence from two geniuses…
It did not matter if the academic community was convinced. At least he could give his fans a reasonable explanation. Even if the show was canceled, as long as his fans were there, he could still make money.
However, things did not always turn out as expected.
He did not realize the flaws in his plan.
Wu Yan was discussing with his agent when the phone rang.
Yang Feng looked at his phone and stood up. He then walked outside to pick up the call.
“Hey, Director Zhang. How’s the negotiation going with the TV station? They can’t just give up on this investment…”
“Look at the news yourself.”
Yang Feng almost could not recognize his voice as his voice had become so depressed.
He was about to ask what the news was, but Director Zhang hung up on him.