148: Chapter 148 New Life

August 15th, 6:02 AM.

A sliver of pale blue daylight leaked through the gap in the hotel blackout curtains, landing right beside the pillow.

When Jiang Lin opened his eyes, his consciousness was dislocated for half a second.

The scent of vegetation from the night in Bulaotun still seemed to linger at the tip of his nose, but the faint buzzing of traffic from Beijing's morning rush hour was already sounding by his ear.

He sat up, pressing his fingertips between his brows.

He had only stepped through the hotel doors at 2 AM, getting less than four hours of sleep by any count; the fatigue was real, but his brain was exceptionally alert.

The universe was vast and humanity was tiny, yet the image of those signals spanning light-years being caught by his eyes was not washed away by sleep; instead, it was like being soaked in developer fluid, growing sharper and clearer in outline.

Eight o'clock sharp.

His phone vibrated twice.

Liang Zhixia's messages came in right on time, two of them, clear and well-organized.

"Chen Zhi has already arrived at the exhibition hall, and Xu Man and Chen Yan are conducting pre-power checks on the display model."

"The organizing committee's publicity group has come over for the third time, asking to confirm the promotional copy and wanting us to lean our phrasing toward commercial implementation."

Jiang Lin stood in front of the sink, splashing cold water onto his face as the chill drilled inward along his pores.

He wiped his face with a towel and replied to the message with one hand.

"No changes. Arriving at nine."

After sending the reply, he raised his eyes to look at himself in the mirror.

There were faint dark circles under his eyes, but his gaze was very calm.

The person in the mirror and the person standing under the radio antenna last night looking up at the starry sky were one and the same.

One looked up at the boundaries of the universe, while the other looked down to guard the boundaries of engineering.

At 8:57 AM, at the West Gate 3 of the Beijing Yichuang International Exhibition Center.

When Jiang Lin pushed open the door and entered, the exhibition hall was in a kind of pre-eruption hubbub.

With three days left until the official opening of the World Robot Conference, all booths were racing against time for final setup.

The buzzing of forklifts, the sounds of electric drills, and the music from LED screen calibrations mixed together, crashing against the dozen-meters-high dome and bouncing back in a chaotic mess.

The major tech corporate booths on both sides of the main aisle had already taken initial shape, blindingly glossy.

A certain leading robotics company had hung up a three-story-high giant screen, looping promotional videos of humanoid robots running and jumping, with lights as bright as day.

The neighboring industrial robotic arm booth had set up a transparent glass room, where engineers were debugging welding demonstrations, sparks flashing on and off.

Sales teams wearing uniform suits stood about in twos and threes, holding tablets with standard smiles on their faces.

Jiang Lin walked straight ahead without sideways glances, heading down the aisle toward the industrial matchmaking zone.

The further in he went, the simpler the booths became and the fewer people there were.

The Low Entropy Workshop booth was in the furthest side corner, with its back facing the main aisle. It was about twelve square meters and easily missed if one didn't look carefully.

There were no giant screens, no lighting effects, and no welcoming robots.

A matte-gray background board, a folding reception table, and a 1.2-meter-square enclosed terrain box quietly held the G-01 C unit 3 display model that had been transported in advance.

Standing beside it were two black spare parts cases with combination locks, along with a twenty-inch small screen used for state machine visualization.

Compared to the glossy liveliness around it, this place looked like a forgotten utility room.

Liang Zhixia stood in front of the background board, wearing a dark gray suit with her hair tied low at the back of her head, holding a tablet in her hand.

People came and went in the exhibition hall, and the noise was almost enough to drown a person out, yet standing there, she seemed to carry her own soundproofing shield, her expression no different from when she was in the conference room at the Jiangcheng company.

Standing beside her was a middle-aged man wearing an organizing committee work badge, sticking out his belly with a somewhat impatient smile on his face—none other than Team Leader Liu from the publicity group.

"Team Leader Liu, this is our company's boss." Liang Zhixia introduced Jiang Lin.

Team Leader Liu looked as if he had seen his backbone, yet also as if he had seen a tough nut to crack: "Mr. Jiang, you're finally here. Manager Liang here is far too insistent on unnecessary principles; we've already talked for three rounds."

Liang Zhixia handed over the tablet, her fingertips tapping on the screen: "These are their latest revision suggestions."

Jiang Lin lowered his head and glanced at it.

The original sentence of their finalized draft was—

"Early engineering validation platform for unstructured scenarios such as mines, inspections, and frontline rescue reconnaissance"

The organizing committee's suggested draft was marked in red—

"Intelligent robot platform applicable to multiple scenarios such as mine rescue and complex inspections"

The four characters "early engineering validation" were completely swallowed up, and the phrasing leaned entirely toward "mature commercial use" and "general intelligence," feeling weightless and just like the promotional rhetoric of every startup on the market.

"No." Jiang Lin said the two words stiffly, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.

Team Leader Liu was stunned for a moment, then earnestly persuaded: "Mr. Jiang, let me give it to you straight. Among the more than one hundred companies exhibiting this year, which one doesn't write 'intelligent'? The neighboring company making inspection robots isn't even as stable in technology as you are, yet they dare to write 'full-scene adaptive intelligent inspection system.' If you write 'early engineering validation platform,' investors will take one look and turn around to leave, and the media won't even stop; wouldn't this trip be for nothing? A trade fair is all about competing for dissemination and exposure, isn't it?"

"I'm very sorry, but dissemination is actually not our primary goal in attending the exhibition." Jiang Lin said.

The staff member choked for a moment.

He had handled publicity liaison for five exhibitions and had seen anywhere from eight hundred to a thousand startup companies.

Which of them wasn't eager to weld "world-leading" and "industry-first" onto their background boards?

Which of them didn't hype up a laboratory prototype as the entrance to the next industrial revolution?

This company, on the other hand, actively retreated and spoke conservatively, as if afraid someone might think too highly of them.

"B-But 'intelligent robot' is a common industry term, everyone writes it like that." He still wanted to fight for it.

Jiang Lin turned his head sideways to look at the G-01 C beside him.

The unit 3's six legs were folded against both sides of its body in a locked state, its outer shell made of matte black engineering plastic, with even the logo printed in only a tiny size.

It had no emotions and no consciousness; it wouldn't suddenly acquire general decision-making capabilities just because the words "intelligent" were written extra times on the exhibition board.

"Change it to 'state machine response platform.'" He withdrew his gaze, his tone calm yet firm, "What we are demonstrating is state machine logic, not intelligence."

Team Leader Liu was stunned for a full three seconds.

He had seen companies tone down their promotional rhetoric, but this was his first time seeing one tone it down so much that they actively stripped away even the word "intelligent."

This wasn't coming to exhibit; this was coming to put shackles on oneself.

Liang Zhixia was already making rapid edits on the tablet, her fingertips rising and falling crisply and decisively.

The final revised background board text even had an extra line of small-font notes compared to the original draft.

"1. Jiangcheng Low-Entropy Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd."

"2. Non-periodic hexapod mobile platform · State machine response demonstration."

"3. Foot-end abnormality recognition | Speed reduction | Withdrawal | Re-entry."

"4. Early engineering validation platform for unstructured scenarios such as mines, inspections, and frontline rescue reconnaissance."

"5. The content of this demonstration is a state machine response demonstration within an enclosed terrain box, and does not constitute a commitment to applicability in production scenarios."

Those small words were like a cold sluice gate, directly blocking out all over-imagination, over-interpretation, and over-expectations.

Looking at the screen, Team Leader Liu wore an expression as complex as if he had swallowed a sour jujube: "Mr. Jiang, doing this really makes it easy to turn visitors away. People come to browse the exhibition just to see something fresh, and you pour a basin of cold water on them first."

Liang Zhixia raised her eyes, her gaze calm: "Our company values seeking truth from facts."

Her voice wasn't loud, but as it fell into the ears of Chen Zhi, who was lowering her head to check the checklist beside her, it sounded like a string gently plucking.

"The admission materials for the display model are complete." Chen Zhi handed over the last page of the form.

Liang Zhixia caught it and scanned it quickly: "Lithium battery transportation instructions?"

"Right here, the UN number and explosion-proof packaging certificate are both attached."

"Equipment value confirmation letter?"

"Calculated based on material costs plus R&D amortization; the venue insurance side has already verified it."

"On-site electricity receipt?"

"We just had the venue engineering department re-sign it this morning. The rated power, grounding protection, and leakage protection are all clearly marked; it won't trip."

Chen Zhi flipped out a page from the folder, her fingertips pressing on the signature column.

"Additionally, the transparent protective cover, physical emergency stop button, fire blanket, and lithium battery isolation box have also been filed according to the venue's requirements. The emergency stop switch numbers are posted on the right side of the demonstration platform, and Chen Yan and Xu Man each hold a wireless power-cut remote control."

Liang Zhixia nodded, organized all the documents in order, and put them into a document bag.

10:20 AM.

"Power on."

As Jiang Lin's voice fell, Chen Yan pressed the power button of the display model.

With a slight click, the indicator light on the machine body lit up with a pale blue glow.

The G-01 C performed self-checks sequentially, and an extremely faint motor operating sound came from the six-legged joints, which was immediately covered up by the surrounding hubbub to the point of being almost inaudible.

The nearby twenty-inch small screen lit up simultaneously.

Chen Yan logged into the state machine visualization interface.

This was a desensitized version specially made for the exhibition, revised three times back and forth.

On the screen, there was only a horizontal timeline, contact state strips of the six mechanical legs, risk level color blocks, and desensitized response logs scrolling at the bottom.

There was no bottom-layer control chain, no parameter generator, and no core algorithm logs. Even the scene data traces of Hengtai mines were wiped completely clean.

"The risk threshold only displays the level, not specific numerical values." Chen Yan stared at the screen, checking them item by item, "Trigger conditions only display the type, not the combination weights. Foot-end contact status is displayed using icons, without outputting raw pressure waveforms. Withdrawal actions are only timestamped, without displaying control command sequences."

He paused and added, "All logs have undergone secondary desensitization, and the core logic cannot be reverse-engineered from them."

"That's fine." Jiang Lin said.

Chen Yan breathed a sigh of relief inwardly.

Xu Man squatted beside the terrain box, wearing anti-slip gloves, and was re-laying the slope surface with crushed stones.

She arranged the crushed stones according to different particle sizes and pressed several rubber mats simulating a slippery area in the middle section of the slope.

"The slope is adjusted to a maximum of eighteen degrees." She stood up, patted the dust off her hands, and said, "It's far too conservative compared to that thirty-seven-degree crushed stone slope at Hengtai; it's equivalent to a walk in the park."

"An exhibition is not an extreme testing ground." Jiang Lin looked at the terrain box, "We aren't showing off here."

"I know." Xu Man lightly touched the edge of the terrain box with her foot, "I just feel that eighteen degrees looks too mild. People passing by who glance at it will probably think this robot walks slowly and isn't anything impressive."

"It's fine if they think it's nothing."

Jiang Lin's gaze fell onto the G-01 C.

"The focus of this exhibition is not how difficult a slope it can cross. It's about how it walks down without making mistakes under uncertain contact conditions."

"Understood." Xu Man nodded, squatted down, and took out a stone that had originally propped up the height.

The demonstration began.

The G-01 C initiated walking mode, and its six mechanical legs lifted, lowered, supported, and shifted the center of gravity sequentially. The speed was very slow, step by step, as steady as if it were measuring the ground.

Two setup workers carrying a rack passed by nearby, glanced at it, didn't stop their pace, and continued chatting about where to go for dinner tonight.

Not far away, a major tech corporate booth suddenly burst into applause; it seemed a humanoid robot had completed a segment of turning around, waving, and dynamic balance demonstration.

Compared to the explosive effect over there, the walking of the hexapod robot here was as plain as plain water.

But Chen Yan stared at the screen, his expression as focused as if he were watching a rocket launch.

The first section of the flat gravel road surface: passed.

The second section of low obstacles: passed.

The third section: entered the simulated slippery area.

The moment the left middle foot landed, the contact status strip jumped violently.

The friction of the simulated slippery surface was lower than expected, and a 0.3-second slip occurred at the foot end.

The risk level instantly jumped from green to yellow.

The machine did not continue pushing its center of gravity forward.

Almost at the same time, the advancing speed plummeted, and the overall center of gravity was adjusted backward.

The middle-left foot immediately released its supporting force, withdrew half a step along the sliding direction, tapped its toe lightly twice, and re-searched for a stable contact point.

Confirming that the grip had recovered and the risk level had dropped back to green, it continued to cut forward.

The entire process took less than two seconds.

There was no fall, no bump, and not even much change in posture.

If they hadn't been staring at the screen, passersby would not have noticed that an anomaly recognition, a risk decision, and a rollback correction had just occurred.

But as Jiang Lin watched this scene, his gaze was more serious than when seeing any high-speed stunt.

Engineering is never about proving how brave a machine is.

It is about proving that a machine knows when it should not be brave.

At 11:40, the two rounds of low-speed demonstrations were completed, with zero out-of-control incidents, zero shutdowns, and zero manual takeovers.

The display board text was locked, the organizing committee filing was completed, the on-site electricity consumption receipt was archived, and the state machine interface desensitization was confirmed. All matters were listed on a sheet of A4 paper, with a checkmark behind each item.

Liang Zhixia handed the organized checklist to Jiang Lin: "This afternoon I will stay here to watch the final layout, Chen Zhi will handle the subsequent material archiving, and Xu Man and Chen Yan will guard the equipment, conducting a standby inspection every two hours."

"Three industry media outlets have submitted interview applications, and two tech-related self-media want to do a live broadcast."

"Refuse the live broadcast."

"It has already been refused, with the reason that the equipment is in the verification period and does not support public live-streamed demonstrations."

"The interviews will only discuss public parameters and state machine logic."

"I have unified the talking points with them; technical details will not be extended, and no future commitments will be made."

"Do not mention Hengtai's grayscale testing."

"Just say that Low Entropy Workshop is conducting multi-scenario closed verification, without mentioning specific sites, test indicators, or partners." Liang Zhixia replied smoothly, obviously having thought it through long ago.

Jiang Lin nodded.

Liang Zhixia paused for a second and said again: "There is also news from the capital side. The partners of Red Map, Yuanchuan, and Qiming are all in Beijing. They probably want to take the opportunity of the conference to schedule a separate meeting to talk about financing. General Manager Zhang of Red Map also approached me privately, saying they can give the pre-A round a very good valuation."

"Do not schedule separate meetings."

"That's how I replied too." Liang Zhixia's lips curved up imperceptibly, "I said we only exhibit and do not arrange one-on-one financing matchmaking. If they want to understand, they can come to the booth themselves for unified reception."

"An exhibition is not a financing roadshow."

"Understood."

"If they come to look by themselves, receive them as ordinary visitors."

"Understood."

The dialogue was short, the rhythm was extremely fast, and there wasn't a single word of nonsense.

Chen Zhi, listening from the side, suddenly felt it was very wondrous. Back in Jiangcheng, she always felt that Liang Zhixia was a person rational to the point of being aloof, and Jiang Lin was a tech geek who spoke very little. But when these two people came together, even confirming matters was like two precision gears meshing; without saying another half sentence, each knew where the other's bottom line was.

What they wanted was never temporary popularity and valuation, but to walk steadily and go far.

She lowered her head to continue organizing files, and out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a man wearing a dark gray shirt standing by the main aisle for a while.

The man wore black-framed glasses, held no exhibition setup tools in his hand, and wore no organizing committee work badge. He took a photo of their display board, took another of the display machine, typed a few words on his phone with his head lowered, and turned and left.

He didn't look like a passing spectator, nor like a peer engineer.

Chen Zhi frowned, wanting to mention it to Jiang Lin, but then thinking he might just be an attendee scouting the exhibition hall in advance, she didn't speak up, only keeping a bit more of an eye out in her heart.

At 12:15, Jiang Lin left the exhibition hall.

The moment he pushed open the glass door, the midday sunlight poured down, stinging people into instinctively narrowing their eyes.

On the square outside the exhibition hall, the giant promotional sign for the World Robot Conference had already been erected, and the large characters Intelligence Empowers the Future shone brightly in the sunlight.

In the distance, attendees dragging suitcases walked over one after another, media broadcast trucks parked on the side of the square, and workers were doing final reinforcement on the outdoor guide signs.

A few days later, tens of thousands of people would flood in here.

Spectators, media, investors, industrial parties, peers, and competitors would come with all sorts of purposes.

They would see the booth of Low Entropy Workshop, see G-01 C walking, and see the words on the background board.

Some of them would think this machine is powerful, some would find it mediocre, some would read the restraint in that line of small print, and some would feel that this company was making a mystery out of nothing.

Expectations would come, and misunderstandings would come too.

Publicity itself is not a bad thing.

But uncontrollable publicity would destroy a technology that is still growing.

Therefore, the first step of publicity must be narrow enough.

Narrow enough that every word can bear its corresponding responsibility.

Narrow enough that every demonstration action has complete logs that can be traced back.

Narrow enough that all viewers can only see the parts they are supposed to see.

Low Entropy Workshop was still too young, and G-01 was also still too young.

They needed to step into the world, but could not be swallowed prematurely by the world's hustle and bustle.

Jiang Lin withdrew his gaze and turned to walk towards the subway station.

His receding figure quickly blended into the midday crowds.

Returning to the hotel, Jiang Lin simply ate a takeout boxed meal and opened his laptop.

The terminal opened on the left screen, with white characters rolling on a black background.

PFR / Marton v1.0 circulation package second-round cold-start verification is running.

On the right screen was a folder temporarily created in the car last night.

MPS-Compiler.

Inside there was only a README file.

He clicked it open.

The first line was in Chinese, words he had spoken last night on the way back to the city from Bulaotun while looking at the night view outside the window:

[A compiler is not for pursuing performance peaks, but for allowing intelligent agents to preserve computational order in uncontrollable hardware environments]

The second line was in English.

[MPS-Compiler begins as an agent portability problem, not a performance problem]

Jiang Lin's fingertips fell on the keyboard and he continued writing downward.

Initial goals——

1. Establish a unified intermediate representation of MPS-Agent α core operators

2. Establish cost models for different hardware backends, prioritizing universal architectures

3. Retain executable structures where tasks are interruptible, migratable, and rollbackable

4. Prioritize making failure conditions visible rather than pursuing local performance optimality

5. All real-world data inputs must undergo four-level boundary classification of A / B / C / D

When typing the fifth item, he thought of last night, thinking that if a runtime system couldn't even recognize what it shouldn't read and what it shouldn't touch, sooner or later it would commit a mistake more serious than calculating wrongly.

Thus, at the very bottom of the document, he added another line.

6. Hardware backends cannot be assumed to be stable, open, or obtainable.

Chip sanctions are not news headlines, not topics argued back and forth in forums, nor are they talking points for a few young people sitting in a car feeling indignant.

They would fall onto the intermediate representation layer of the compiler, onto the resource scheduling logic of the runtime, and into every adaptation of the operator abstraction layer.

Even more, they would fall into those invisible implicit costs every time a model was deployed, every time data was moved, and every time hardware was replaced.

If the future MPS-Agent α could only run on the most ideal top-tier hardware and could only rely on a stable and open supply chain, then it did not deserve to be called an engineering system at all.

That would only be a laboratory toy.

Jiang Lin stared at that line of words for two seconds and pressed save.

"Di——"

The Lean verification window popped up with a green result prompt.

Second-round cold-start verification: Passed.

Zero errors, zero warnings.

Jiang Lin looked at that trace of green with little expression on his face.

Passing the second round only indicated that the core logic of the v1.0 circulation package was already stable and close to a state where it could be released.

But it still could not be released.

Before official controlled circulation, one final round of read-only image verification, complete hash record generation, and consistency checks of all appendix references were still needed.

The larger the thing, the less one could rush to hand it over right when it turned green.

Cooling down for one more round meant one more layer of insurance.

He opened his schedule.

The night was deep, and the city lights in the distance merged into one piece.

Jiang Lin did not go out; he ordered a light boxed meal for dinner and sat at the desk the whole time after eating.

He was checking the appendix references of the PFR / Marton circulation package item by item to ensure that the notation of each reference was accurate and correct, with no omissions and no over-extrapolations.

The preparatory work for the third verification was all completed.

The hash record script pre-run passed, the checksums were consistent, and the directory structures of all subsidiary files were fully checked and correct.

...

The next day, the 16th.

When the hotel curtains were pulled open, the morning light filled half the desk.

Jiang Lin had already packed his things and prepared to go out.

The backpack on his back contained a 14-inch primary laptop, two encrypted external hard drives, an admission notice and ID card in a sealed bag, and a stack of printed academic certification materials.

At the very bottom was a black hard drive enclosure with a physical dial lock.

Inside it stored the full version of PFR / Marton and the initial drafts of MPS-Compiler.

This was the most core thing among all his current technical accumulations; wherever he went, he brought it, and it never left his body.

Today he had to make a trip to Tsinghua University to check in as a freshman.

The special admission plan he was taking was one that Tsinghua University had formulated for him alone at the end of June and updated once in early August.

At 9:26, the West Gate of Tsinghua University.

Tomorrow was actually the check-in day for freshmen, but today's campus was already as bustling as a market.

Everywhere there were many freshmen and parents who chose to come early to familiarize themselves with the environment.

Human voices mixed with cicada chirps, bustling and noisy.

Jiang Lin walked a few steps along the shade of trees inside the school gate toward the nearby faculty passageway.

Two people were already standing under the tree, looking toward the direction of the intersection, obviously having waited for a while.

The middle-aged man wore thin-rimmed glasses and a light gray short-sleeved shirt with meticulously ironed trousers. He was Teacher Zhou Ming of Qiuzhen College, who had communicated with him via email several times before.

The younger woman beside him wore a dark blue short-sleeved shirt, pinned with a work badge from the Mathematical Sciences Center, and her hair tied into a ponytail, looking very capable. She was Teacher Zhao Lan from the center's office.

Seeing Jiang Lin approaching, the two immediately greeted him.

Teacher Zhou Ming took the lead in extending his hand, with a genuine smile on his face and a tone full of welcome: "Hello, Student Jiang Lin, I am Zhou Ming from Qiuzhen College, and this is Teacher Zhao Lan from the Mathematical Sciences Center. We've been here for ten minutes or so. It's hot, and we were afraid you wouldn't find the place."

Zhao Lan also smiled and nodded, reaching out to help him take his backpack: "You must have been roasted hot all the way here. Is the bag heavy? Let me help you carry it for a bit?"

"No need, no need, I can do it myself. Sorry to trouble the two teachers," Jiang Lin said.

"No trouble, no trouble!" Teacher Zhou waved his hand. "Your situation is special, and both the college and the school attach great importance to it. Being able to come to our Qiuzhen College is our honor."

The three of them walked inward along the shaded path.

The branches and leaves of the sycamore trees blotted out the sun, making it much cooler than outside.

From time to time, students rode bicycles past on the road, their bicycle bells ringing ding-ding.

Walking and talking, Teacher Zhou Ming said: "There are many freshmen today, crowding and wasting time. Let's take this shortcut and go directly to Qiuzhen College. The procedures have all been pre-audited in advance. Today is just to sign and confirm, so you won't have to run around extra."

Zhao Lan added from the side: "The air conditioning in the meeting room was turned on half an hour in advance, and water is also prepared. Go in and catch your breath first."

There were no polite conventional pleasantries, yet thoughtfulness shone through everywhere.

The small meeting room on the second floor of Qiuzhen College.

As the door was pushed open, a wave of coolness carrying a faint fragrance of tea surged out.

A neat stack of documents with neatly printed covers was placed on the long table. Beside them were two bottles of room-temperature mineral water and a plate of sliced watermelon, evidently just prepared.

"Sit, sit down first."

Teacher Zhou Ming pulled over a chair next to the main seat, and only took his own seat after Jiang Lin sat down. "Mr. Qiu originally intended to come in person, but it so happened that he had a temporary international video meeting this morning that he couldn't push back, so he specifically instructed us to host you properly."

As he spoke, he pushed the documents toward Jiang Lin, his tone carrying a smile: "Your situation is special. Qiuzhen College and the Mathematical Sciences Center held three meetings back and forth to comb through the training plan in great detail. Today we will go through it item by item. If you feel anything is inappropriate, just bring it up directly, and we can still adjust it."

The first thing to be confirmed was the student status.

Teacher Zhou Ming opened the topmost document, 《2022 Undergraduate Student Status Confirmation Form》, pointed to the key item, and said in a solemn tone: "Your student status will be entered into the system as an ordinary undergraduate of the 2022 cohort, majoring in Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, with training management centralized under Qiuzhen College."

Jiang Lin nodded, took the pen, and signed his name in the confirmation column.

The second document was 《Description of Personalized Training Records》.

Teacher Zhou Ming explained: "Basic courses are not arranged for large-class study. For these five core basic courses—Mathematical Analysis, Higher Algebra, Analytic Geometry, Probability Theory, and Combinatorics—you can complete credit recognition through three methods: advanced evaluation by the course group, thematic academic reports, and review of published achievements. Each item has a corresponding review group and archival record, all of which are traceable."

"Public compulsory components will be executed according to school regulations. If there are subsequent conflicts with international academic conferences, trans-oceanic review meetings, or corporate engineering affairs, you can go through the filing process in advance to adjust the time, and Qiuzhen College will coordinate uniformly."

Speaking of this, he added with a smile.

"We also know that you have quite a lot of things on your hands, so whatever institutional flexibility we can give, we have given to the fullest."

The procedures for student status and training records were all completed.

Zhao Lan took out a campus card from the document bag, handed it over with both hands, and said with a smile: "The card face is exactly the same as that of ordinary undergraduates, inconspicuous, and convenient for you to carry when going out usually. But the permissions have been opened in advance: the entire building of Qiuzhen College, the access control of the Mathematical Sciences Center, the unit door and dormitory door of building 17 of Zijing Apartment, as well as general access permissions for the library and cafeteria, can be used by swiping right now. The campus network account and office wired network port will be opened uniformly in the afternoon."

Jiang Lin took the card.

The purple-and-white card face was printed with the Tsinghua University emblem, student ID number, and his Gaokao application ID photo. There was no difference whatsoever from the card faces of all undergraduates—ordinary and plain, revealing nothing special.

Yet behind this ordinary card lay an entire institutional system tailored exclusively for him.

He picked up the card and swiped it against the access control of the adjacent meeting room.

With a soft beep, the door lock sprang open.

The real sense of integration carried more weight than any explanation.

At ten forty-two, Mathematical Sciences Center of Tsinghua University.

The off-white building was hidden behind the phoenix trees. It was very quiet inside the building, the corridors were carpeted, and most of the footsteps were swallowed up.

Occasionally, teachers carrying books walked by, nodded to greet Zhao Lan, and curiously glanced at Jiang Lin along the way.

Teacher Zhao led Jiang Lin upstairs to the second floor, walking to the door of an office at the very end of the corridor.

Swiping the card to push the door open and enter, the room was around twenty square meters.

A solid wood desk faced the window, along with an ergonomic chair. An empty three-layer bookcase stood against the wall, the opposite wall was an entire whiteboard, and there was an old-fashioned landline telephone in the corner.

Outside the window were dense phoenix trees, their shadows falling on the desktop, swaying gently with the wind.

It was very simple, but quiet enough and private enough.

"The access control has already been recorded into your campus card, and you can enter 24 hours a day."

Zhao Lan placed a bunch of spare keys on the table, handed over a handover sheet, and said, "We have tested the network cable and power supply in advance, and there is no problem. I put the office supplies in the drawer; there are whiteboard markers, folders, and staplers. If they are not enough, or if you need to add a printer or filing cabinet or anything, just send me a message directly, and I will have someone deliver it the same day."

She added about the network matters, her tone very frank: "However, there is one thing I want to specifically tell you: regarding unpublished academic materials and sensitive project data, it is not recommended to connect to the public network, nor should you use cloud drive synchronization. The public network has a unified security audit, but content protection relies on one's own control."

Coming out of the Mathematical Sciences Center, Zhao Lan did not lead Jiang Lin toward the undergraduate dormitory area, but headed north along Zijing Road.

"Buildings 16 and 17 are the buildings where PhD students and postdoctoral fellows live. They are managed separately from the undergraduate buildings 1 to 13, and are much quieter."

She introduced as they walked, "They are all independent single rooms with en-suite private bathrooms and good soundproofing. When you stay up late reading papers or holding trans-oceanic meetings, you won't disturb others, and it's also convenient for keeping equipment and materials."

She specifically added: "This went through a special accommodation approval process. The reason for application was written as cross-time-zone academic exchanges, custody of unpublished review materials, personal computing equipment security, and schedule management, which was specially approved by the Dormitory Management Center."

Jiang Lin understood her concerns.

This was not preferential treatment, but a reasonable arrangement matching his needs. All arrangements had to have rules to follow and records to check.

Walking into the unit door of Building 17, the hallway was quiet.

The room was on the fourth floor, Room 402.

Zhao Lan swiped the card to open the door, stepping aside to let Jiang Lin in: "We specifically had the dormitory auntie ventilate the room this morning, and the bedding has all been newly replaced."

The room size was about the same as the office.

A single bed, a desk, a wardrobe, and a small bookshelf, with an en-suite private bathroom partitioned inside, equipped with a shower and a washbasin.

The window faced the green belt between the buildings. Closing the door, the cicada chirps outside became much fainter.

A desk lamp and a small pack of facial tissues were even placed on the desk in advance.

"The accommodation confirmation form is here."

Zhao Lan handed over the form. "Take a look, and if there is no problem, sign it. I am giving you two keys: one to carry with you, and one that can be kept in the office as a spare. The dormitory auntie cleans the public areas every day, and you just need to tidy up the inside of the room yourself."

Jiang Lin took the form and glanced over it.

It clearly printed: Zijing Apartment Building 17, single room, en-suite private bathroom, special accommodation filing, not included in the undergraduate buildings 1-13 dormitory zoning management.

The terms were clear and the procedures formal.

Without asking much more, he picked up his pen and signed his name.

By this moment, all three things were completely settled.

When ordinary undergraduate freshmen came to Tsinghua University, what they owned first on their first day was a bed in the dormitory and a seat in the classroom.

As for Jiang Lin, on his first day of enrollment, the three spaces were the first to be confirmed.

In Qiuzhen College, a separately filed and traceable training student status.

In the Mathematical Sciences Center, a research office that could be locked and kept offline.

In Zijing Apartment, a quiet, independent single dormitory capable of keeping equipment safe.

Student status, research, and life—these three lines were combed through clearly in advance by Tsinghua University, all incorporated into formal systems.

At this point, the entire process was completed.

Teacher Zhou Ming still had a meeting, so he returned to the college first. Before leaving, he specifically told Jiang Lin: "If you have any questions in your studies or daily life, feel free to come directly to me or Teacher Zhao, don't be polite."

Zhao Lan also left her mobile phone number and WeChat: "If there is anything regarding the office or the dormitory, call me anytime. I will let you know once I activate the campus network in the afternoon."

After saying goodbye, the two left, and Jiang Lin did not stay in the dormitory.

His luggage was still at the hotel, and this place was currently just an empty room.

At one twenty-five, while eating lunch, his phone vibrated.

Liang Zhixia sent a message.

[G-01 C unit 3 two standby patrols normal. The display boards will be sent for printing this afternoon, according to the final version we decided.]

[Hongtu Capital contacted us again, wanting to schedule a separate meeting tomorrow afternoon. I replied according to our previous talking points: no financing matchmaking will be arranged during the exhibition.]

[In the morning, people from two peer companies came to scout around, walking around the booth for a long time. Chen Zhi replied according to the public talking points.]

Jiang Lin tapped his fingers on the screen to reply quickly.

[According to the established talking points, interviews will only discuss public content, and live streaming is rejected.]

At three twenty-seven in the afternoon, in the hotel room.

Jiang Lin opened his main work computer and started the final round of read-only mirror verification for the PFR / Marton v1.0 circulation package.

In the black terminal window, white characters rolled line by line, verifying files item by item:

- Main thesis: Passed

- Residual spectrum amortization lemma set: Passed

- Marton bridge construction and switching proof: Passed

- Verification guide and review description: Passed

- 47-node formal blueprint: Passed

- Boundary witness appendix No. 38: Passed

- Sanders / Voss 2014 blackboard notes (provisional version): Passed

- README and version notes: Passed

Forty minutes later, a green PASS popped up in the verification window.

The hash logging script ran automatically to generate a unique version fingerprint, all files were set to read-only in batches, and the complete mirror was officially sealed.

Version number: PFR / Marton v1.0 - 20220816.

There would never be temporary modifications again, nor midnight adjustments.

It transformed from Jiang Lin's individual work into an official academic text with a unique number and a hash anchor.

Jiang Lin opened the email draft he had been writing for a long time.

The recipient list was very long, and every single name carried immense weight: Professor Han Yanshan, Ding Jian, Shing-Tung Yau, Terence Tao, Tom Sanders, Heinrich Voss, Freddie Manners, Ben Green, as well as several domestic mathematicians who had already entered the closed-door review chain.

The email title was very simple: PFR / Marton v1.0 circulation package.

The body text was bilingual in Chinese and English, written with restraint and formality, without any emotional expression.

...

Dear all:

Attached to this email are the version notes, hash fingerprint, and review navigation README. The PFR / Marton v1.0 controlled circulation package has been sealed in the read-only mirror repository, and access permissions will be distributed via separate invitations.

The 47-node formal blueprint in the attachment serves as the review navigation map and does not replace the main manuscript proof. Node No. 38 has been incorporated into the third-tier heavy witness route responding to the Voss boundary visibility test, and relevant descriptions can be found in Appendix B.

Tomorrow afternoon at two-thirty, the Mathematical Sciences Center of Tsinghua University will hold a closed-door technical briefing, concurrently conducting core node calibration.

This briefing will focus on on-site calibration by the domestic review group. Overseas reviewers are not required to attend synchronously. Meeting minutes, node indexes, and issue lists will enter the controlled repository after the meeting.

Jiang Lin