167: Chapter 167 The Unexpected Arrival of Principal Zhou

She leaned back against the chair, her long, slender legs crossed, the black silk stockings rubbing against each other, creating a faint rustling sound in the quiet room.

"I watched the live broadcast of your press conference this afternoon."

Li Yan continued to change the subject, trying to lighten the atmosphere in the room, looking at Zhao Yang with a smile.

"When you said those things on stage, I saw the faces of the school leaders in the audience turn green. Now the internet is full of discussions about you."

Zhao Yang put down his water glass and picked up a piece of celtuce with his chopsticks.

"The internet only has a memory of three days; once the next hot topic comes out, they will turn their attention to other things."

"But now, regardless of your status or position, it is destined that your life can never be as peaceful as it was before."

Li Yan looked at Zhao Yang, a flash of curiosity in her eyes. She was genuinely curious about what was really going on in the mind of the boy in front of her.

At an age easily intoxicated by flowers and applause, the almost inhuman calmness he displayed felt truly unreal.

"Peace is determined by strength, not by the external environment."

Zhao Yang smiled slightly and said calmly.

The two chatted idly at the dining table.

Li Yan asked about Zhao Yang's daily life at school, while Zhao Yang briefly asked about Li Yan's upcoming class management work.

After the meal, Zhao Yang did not stay for long.

"I'm heading back to the dormitory; I still have some things to do."

Saying this, Zhao Yang stood up and walked to the door to change his shoes.

Li Yan followed him to the door.

"Zhao Yang."

Just as Zhao Yang gripped the doorknob, Li Yan suddenly called out to him.

Zhao Yang turned back to look at Li Yan.

Li Yan stood less than half a meter away from him. The light from the hallway filtered in through the small vent above the security door, illuminating her face.

A faint fragrance wafted from Li Yan, which, combined with her somewhat exaggerated body proportions, made one's heart skip a beat.

She looked at Zhao Yang, her lips moving slightly. In truth, she didn't even know what she wanted to say by calling him back; perhaps she wanted to apologize again for the earlier accident, or perhaps it was some indescribable, special emotion deep in her heart.

But in the end, when she met Zhao Yang's clear and rational eyes, all her impulses receded.

She lowered her head slightly and said softly:

"Take it slow on the way back."

"Mm."

Zhao Yang pressed the doorknob, pushed the door open, and walked out of Dorm Room 402.

The security door emitted a dull metallic thud behind him as it locked.

The sensor light in the hallway turned on.

With his hands in his jacket pockets, Zhao Yang walked down the concrete stairs.

Inside the room.

Li Yan leaned against the closed security door, listening to the fading footsteps outside.

She returned to the sofa, sat down, and hugged her knees, feeling restless.

In her mind, she replayed the moment she had fallen into Zhao Yang's arms.

That strong arm, and the burning heat from his palm, had almost completely scorched away the reserved demeanor she had always deliberately maintained as a teacher.

That feeling of her heart skipping a beat was something she had never experienced in her twenty-plus years of life, amidst the chaotic life and the quagmire of her original family.

"I am his teacher, and he is still a student... I am several years older than him..."

Li Yan buried her face in her knees and muttered to herself.

She clearly knew that this kind of thing was not allowed; not only did it violate professional ethics, but it also seemed absurd in the face of their realistic status gap. But reason was one thing, while emotions were another.

Li Yan could not help but control the thoughts in her mind; that side profile, calm to the point of being cold, had truly taken root in her heart.

...

Returning to Dorm Room 302.

Zhao Yang did not think much more about Li Yan.

The brief, ambiguous contact just now had indeed caused a ripple in his state of mind.

But the moment he stepped out of the dormitory building, his strong self-control had completely purged these superfluous emotions.

His attention was now entirely focused on the code in his computer.

He took off his jacket, hung it on the bed frame, pulled out the chair, and sat down in front of the computer.

He woke the screen.

The code in the editor remained on the interface as it was before he left.

He continued running the simulation for that Informatics paper.

After several days of starting over, modifying the underlying logic, and optimizing the algorithms, this was now the fourth version of the test architecture.

In this version, Zhao Yang completely abandoned the traditional synchronization lock mechanism and introduced an asynchronous gradient descent model based on timestamp penalties.

"Start distributed node simulation."

Zhao Yang pressed the Enter key on the keyboard.

The laptop began to run the data with difficulty.

Zhao Yang furrowed his brows, watched the speed at which the data was running, and sighed slightly.

The first three times, although the speed was slow, Zhao Yang could barely tolerate it, but this time, as the curve smoothed out, the further it went, the slower it got!

This computer really wouldn't cut it anymore; he had to configure a better one. It wasn't just for his current use; later, once his Informatics level increased to Lv5, his primary artificial intelligence would also need a carrier!

Just as Zhao Yang was thinking about changing computers.

"Knock, knock, knock."

The dormitory door was knocked.

Today was the weekend; Li Tianqi and the other were at an internet cafe for an all-nighter and hadn't returned yet, Sun Xu was working in the cafeteria, so he was the only one in the dormitory.

Zhao Yang stood up, walked over, and opened the door.

Standing outside the door was the president of Beijing Forestry University, Zhou Limin.

Zhao Yang looked at Principal Zhou with some surprise. For the dignified head of a university to come to an undergraduate dormitory to knock on the door alone, without notifying the Counselor or accompanying department leaders, was an absurdly high level of protocol.

"Principal Zhou." Zhao Yang stepped aside.

"I'm not interrupting your research, am I?"

Zhou Limin walked into Dorm Room 302 with a smile on his face, his eyes sweeping across the crowded, slightly cluttered four-person dormitory.

"No, I just finished running a test."

Zhao Yang pulled over a clean chair.

"Please, have a seat."

"I won't sit; I'll just say a few words and leave." Zhou Limin waved his hand, took a brass key with an access card from his jacket pocket, and placed it on Zhao Yang's desk.

"This is the key to the newly built Young Teacher Apartment in the school's staff residential area No. 2."

Zhou Limin pointed at the key and explained in a gentle tone: "Your status is different now, and with your usual research and paper writing, this kind of four-person undergraduate dormitory, where schedules interfere with each other, is really not suitable for your current research environment. The school's logistics department cleared out a single-occupancy apartment overnight yesterday; this was specially approved for you."

Zhao Yang picked up the key from the desk. Without standing on ceremony with Principal Zhou, he nodded and said, "Thank you, Principal, I really do need a quiet environment."

"Don't mention it; this is the hardware support the school should provide."

Zhou Limin smiled and continued: "Since it's the weekend, if you are free, I will take you over to see the place. By the way, I can also discuss the student status alignment for the joint training program with Peking University."

"Alright, just a moment."

Zhao Yang closed his computer and followed Zhou Limin out of the dormitory building.