ATLAS TRANSLATES

Bai Lian was the one who enlightened Jiang Fuli on modern mathematical logic.

However, Jiang Fuli’s approach to solving problems was very direct and forceful. When he could see the answer at a glance, he rarely spent time meticulously working through the problem. Bai Lian was different – she excelled at analysis.

Through these written answers, the professor seemed to see a gentle and humble student speaking to him through the words.

In all his years of teaching, the professor had never experienced such a peculiar feeling.

He flipped through the exam paper to find the student’s name — Bai Lian. Just as he had expected.

“Oh, this student got 182 in mathematics?” Another professor pushed up his glasses as he finished grading the last question, quite surprised. “Let me see who it is… Ning Xiao?”

Upon hearing Ning Xiao’s name, Zhou Wenqing walked over immediately.

During lunch, he had already asked HR to look up information about Ning Xiao and Tang Ming. Both were from Xiangcheng. While Tang Ming’s scores weren’t particularly noteworthy, Ning Xiao had placed in the top ten nationally, which he somewhat remembered.

“And this person also got 170 – Tang Ming?”

Another unfamiliar name.

The quiet physics department office suddenly became lively.

—

At Shanhai Apartments. Room 303.

Ning Xiao and Tang Ming were in the study, receiving a mental workout from Young Master Jiang.

“If you write the Galois group as an inverse limit, with L ranging over all finite extensions of k, Gk becomes a disconnected Hausdorff space…” Jiang Fuli leaned against the desk, speaking while looking at Bai Lian’s desk.

Her desk was quite crowded.

Directly facing him was a large building block set, hiding the small pendulum balls behind it.

Jiang Fuli paused. He reached out and unhurriedly moved the large water wheel building block to the back, then slowly brought his pendulum balls to the front.

Tang Ming was frantically recording everything on his phone.

—

Outside. In the living room.

When Zhang Shize came down after putting away his luggage, Lu Xiaohan had already gotten Yan Lu’s autographed photo. Yang Lin was playing Five-in-a-Row with Yan Lu on the jade chess board on the balcony.

Jiang He was curled up alone on Bai Lian’s sofa, leisurely turning a new Rubik’s cube in his hands.

Zhang Shize hadn’t seen Jiang He in a long time.

Looking down, he noticed that Jiang He’s Rubik’s cube had changed – it was no longer the spherical 3×5 cube, but rather a very small cubic one.

“Bro, you finally changed to a different difficulty level?” Zhang Shize smiled when he saw Jiang He’s cube was no longer so extravagant but rather the same size as a regular 3×3 cube.

The TV was still on.

Hearing this, Jiang He only glanced up at Zhang Shize without saying anything.

Tang Ming came out from the study and, hearing Zhang Shize’s presumptuous comment, crouched beside Jiang He. “Bird Bro, let him try the cube.”

Zhang Shize took the cube.

Just as he was about to casually turn it, he found he couldn’t.

He paused and looked down —

Though it was the same size as a 3×3 cube, why did the small pieces have squares, rectangles, and even… triangles?

Was this really a proper Rubik’s cube?

“This is an SQ1, good brother,” Tang Ming patted Zhang Shize’s shoulder.

SQ1?

Zhang Shize didn’t know what an SQ1 was. He only felt like he was holding his IQ in his hands.

Tang Ming returned the cube to Jiang He and had Zhang Shize sit at the table nearby. “The genius still has one problem he doesn’t understand. Let me first see how well you’re learning.”

—

Bai Lian was on the phone with Ye Jianxian.

“Junior, Xu Qian has already agreed,” Ye Jianxian had found classroom 407 empty and called Bai Lian directly. “We can’t lose face! Junior~ I haven’t even asked you to join the student union.”

As the external relations director of the college student union, Ye Jianxian was skilled at persistence. “The performance list needs to be submitted this week…”

Bai Lian’s right hand rested on the balcony, a red ribbon hanging down. Her jade-like wrist in the light and ribbon looked like plum blossoms in snow. “Alright then.”

Ye Jianxian was still talking.

Suddenly hearing Bai Lian agree, she exclaimed, “Ah? Junior, you agreed? Good, good, good,” her voice became gentle, “we’ll just sing a simple song, just make an appearance…”

Downstairs, Shen Qing washed two large plates of purple grapes and grabbed a bag of cherries, preparing to head out.

The building manager actually knew Bai Lian had just returned, but since Ji Heng hadn’t come up, he couldn’t find an excuse to go upstairs.

Seeing Shen Qing leaving, he grabbed his cane and joined her. “Where are you going?”

“Bringing them some fruit,” Shen Qing was still reserved with the building manager. “I’m taking some fruit to them.”

The building manager nodded and followed her to the elevator. “I’ll go with you to take a look.”

Shen Qing found the building manager’s attitude strange today but didn’t ask anything.

This was the building manager’s second visit to room 303.

This time there were quite a few people in 303, with people in both the living room and on the balcony.

The building manager’s gaze went straight to the balcony, passing over the chess board identical to the one downstairs, landing on Bai Lian who was half-leaning against the balcony.

Her right hand rested on the half-open windowsill, her slender figure slightly tilted, red ribbon flying in the wind, her back view as always showing neither mountain nor water.

Seeming to sense the scrutiny, Bai Lian unhurriedly turned her head.

Her dark almond eyes swept over the building manager, with a very casual and relaxed feeling.

Without subjective emotion, the building manager finally sensed the spirit behind that relaxation.

“You’re still studying?” Shen Qing wasn’t clear about Zhang Shize’s situation, she just put the fruit on the table and softened her voice. “Have some fruit first, and little Tang, come down with Ning Xiao later for some soup. The exam must have been tiring today.”

“There was an exam today?” Zhang Shize thanked Shen Qing, then asked Tang Ming. “Is Jiang University this intense?”

“Not really,” Tang Ming took a cherry and bit into it. “It was just the second round of recruitment for the Tongfeng class. The questions were really brutal though.”

“If you say it’s brutal, then it must really be brutal.”

Shen Qing put down the fruit, took a few cherries to Jiang He who was wrestling with the Rubik’s cube on the sofa, then left without disturbing the students further.

At the doorway, the building manager followed Shen Qing out.

The door to room 303 closed, and Shen Qing pressed the elevator button.

“Ding—”

As the elevator arrived, the building manager finally came back to his senses. “Are Miss Bai’s friends also at Jiang University?”

“Yes,” Shen Qing nodded. “Little Tang, Ning Xiao, and little Lin are all at Jiang University.”

The building manager entered the elevator, his gaze still fixed on room 303’s door until the elevator doors closed.

First floor.

Little Jie was waiting for the building manager at the elevator. Seeing him come out, he walked over. “Building Manager.”

The building manager walked with him towards the exit. “Let’s head back first.”

Little Jie held the car keys and hearing the building manager’s somewhat heavy tone, asked, “What’s wrong, Building Manager? Didn’t you see Miss Bai?”

“No, that’s not it.” The building manager shook his head.

He had heard that Bai Lian had participated in the Tongfeng class exam this morning.

—

Sunday. Evening.

Kong Wei and Yu Simin had piggybacked on their two other roommates and joined the college student union. The student union recruitment was basically over, and now they were busy with the month-end welcome party.

School Auditorium.

When Kong Wei and Yu Simin arrived, they saw people gathered in a circle in the middle.

Kong Wei could vaguely see Bai Shaoqi’s figure through the crowd. “Hey, what are they doing?”

Beside them was Lu Jing, the class monitor of the theoretical physics class, who had also joined the student union. “I just got here, not sure what’s going on.”

Speaking of which, he secretly looked back, searching for Bai Lian: “Kong Wei, I heard Bai Lian will participate in the welcome party?”

Bai Lian had been a hot topic on Jiang University’s forum these past few days.

Everyone was waiting for next week’s Tongfeng class roster.

“Yes, I think she’s going to sing,” Kong Wei explained, then saw Ye Jianxian coming from backstage and called out to her: “Senior, what’s happening up front?”

“That new student Song Min just got a big sponsorship for the Finance College’s external relations department,” Ye Jianxian was more informed than them. “You know how Bai Shaoqi has a teacher at Jiang Music Academy? This morning when she went to class there, she saw Yan Lu, and these people are all asking about Yan Lu.”

Yan Lu had returned to Jiang City this weekend, though not for official business.

But when she went to Jiang Music Academy for the start of classes, fans immediately spotted her. Now “Yan Lu appears at Jiang Music” was trending on various video platforms.

“Yan Lu!” When Kong Wei and Yu Simin heard Yan Lu’s name, their attention “whoosh” focused on the group in the middle.

In the crowd, Bai Shaoqi hugged her guzheng and bid farewell to them. “If I get another chance to see Yan Lu at Jiang Music Academy, I’ll definitely take more photos for you all.”

She left with Song Min.

Passing by Kong Wei’s group, she stopped, remembering these were Bai Lian’s roommates. “Hello, we’re having dinner tonight with people from the Finance Department and your Physics Department student union. Would you like to join?”

“No thanks,” Kong Wei remembered there seemed to be some tension between her and Bai Lian last time, and they coincidentally shared the same surname. She was cautious: “I still have work to do later.”

“Oh well.” Bai Shaoqi was somewhat disappointed. “We’ll have another chance then.”

After Bai Shaoqi left, Yu Simin and Lu Jing looked at Kong Wei, especially Yu Simin: “Kong Wei, are you stupid? Such a good opportunity, and you won’t go? You might meet some big shots.”

Song Min had secured such a big deal right after arriving – this joint dinner clearly wasn’t simple.

“I heard our president will be there too.” Ye Jianxian rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“None of that matters, there’s Yan Lu…” Yu Simin silently looked at Kong Wei.

As they were talking, Kong Wei’s phone rang.

It was Bai Lian.

As soon as the call connected, they heard Bai Lian’s somewhat lazy voice: “I won’t be coming back tonight. Had someone bring milk tea for you and Yu Simin, made by my aunt, but you’re not in the dorm?”

“I’m at the auditorium.” Kong Wei replied.

“Oh, alright, I’ll have them deliver it to the auditorium.” Bai Lian said casually.

Deliver to the auditorium?

“What milk tea? Getting delivered?” Ye Jianxian looked at the two of them. “Your junior is really nice to you, but does the school have delivery service to the auditorium?”

Kong Wei and Yu Simin didn’t know either.

The dorm wasn’t very far from the auditorium.

Five minutes later, Kong Wei and Yu Simin received a message from Bai Lian. They exchanged glances and walked out of the auditorium.

Outside the auditorium, a black car was parked at the entrance.

Next to the car stood a tall, cold man in a black T-shirt, holding two white plastic bags.

Passersby didn’t dare approach him.

His piercing gaze swept over everyone until he identified Kong Wei and Yu Simin, then strode over and handed them the bags. “Students, Miss Bai asked me to give these to you.”

Kong Wei and Yu Simin were still wondering if cars could freely enter Jiang University when this person startled them.

She took the bag and found not only milk tea inside but what seemed to be a postcard as well.