Riding the wind of rebirth

The truth is that Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao did not know each other beforehand, nor could they have known each other, since their life trajectories had no intersection before Mai Xiaomiao jumped out of the window at Suihuaxuan.

This proves that although Zhou Zhi's efforts seem to perfectly align with Mai Xiaomiao's professional research, it cannot be assumed that everything Zhou Zhi did before was not for Mai Xiaomiao's sake. Similarly, it proves that Zhou Zhi's previous preparations and promotion of industrial development cannot be interpreted as entirely his deliberate act. To outsiders, it should be interpreted as keen intuition, correct direction, and a perfect fit with industrial development.

That's all. Therefore, Zhou Zhi is not a deity. That concludes the explanation.

Upon hearing Zhou Zhi's words, Mai Mingdong breathed a sigh of relief. Mai Xiaomiao's research was currently a niche field worldwide, and even those within the field knew very little about it. To say that the two knew each other beforehand was truly a pipe dream.

Mai Xiaomiao was indeed a pleasant surprise for Zhou Zhi. His original plan did not include the nonlinear supercomputing matrix. His plan did include development in storage and computing units, but it was all based on his understanding of the concept of "computing centers" in the future. According to normal planning, it was something he dared not think about for twenty years to come.

In his previous life, there was no such person as Mai Xiaomiao. According to Zhou Zhi's conversation with Mai Xiaomiao, if she hadn't met him, Mai Xiaomiao would have traveled around China and then run back to the United States because she was dissatisfied with the relationship between her grandfather and her nanny. She would have continued to do neuron-like mathematical research with her mentor, or switched to statistics to help her father.

Perhaps Mai Xiaomiao did just that in her previous life, eventually becoming a scholar deeply involved in the field of mathematics. No wonder Zhou Zhi had never heard of her in her previous life.

The fact that the two of them can come together in life and work together as a perfect match can only be described as an arrangement by God.

The words spoken casually by her lover were the most beautiful words of love from the bottom of his heart: "Meeting Xiaomiao is my greatest luck." Mai Xiaomiao's heart melted upon hearing this, and she couldn't suppress the smile on her lips.

"After dinner, we should still visit Professor Gu," Mai Mingdong said. "Your new idea might prolong Dr. Xiu's time, so you should report it to him."

"The principle of our sect has always been to strive for perfection." Relying on Elder Gu's favor towards him, Zhou Zhi could be said to do whatever he wanted: "Elder Gu will definitely agree."

After the meal, Zhou Zhi packed the selected steamed pork essence in a lunchbox and took Mai Xiaomiao to visit Old Gu in Peach Blossom Village.

The faculty dormitory area on campus hasn't actually changed much, but there seem to be more moving carts and tricycles, all of which are piled high with books.

The dormitories here are too old and have been included in the demolition plan. The teachers here will move to an apartment building with elevators in Hongqi Village.

Everyone has already heard the school's message, and many teachers have even started renting apartments and moving out of the school. This is part of the school's plan; those who move out before the elevator apartment building is completed will receive a rental subsidy.

Mr. Gu was among the last to move, mainly because there were too many documents in the room that needed to be organized first to prevent them from being lost during the move.

The elderly person was tidying up while also attending to academic matters, which made the process even slower.

However, this major reorganization also brought the old man a lot of surprises. The Koo family is known for being cautious in academic pursuits. Many articles are written but shelved and not published. Over time, they are forgotten about them. This reorganization also unearthed many previously unpublished manuscripts.

"Is it finally time for my teacher's 'Collected Rhymes Annotated Edition' to be published?"

This work represents four generations of the Gu family's hard work, spanning sixty years. It was originally intended for publication after the third draft was proofread, but Zhou Zhi obtained a copy from the Weng family's collection in the United States. Thus, the professor began the fourth round of textual research. By the time the fourth round was completed, Zhou Zhi had just finished his research on the relationship between dialectal phonology and ancient text phonology indexes. The professor decided to utilize these two new tools for the fifth round of textual research, both to review the research findings and to verify Zhou Zhi's results, providing academic support for his subsequent work. Universities are not ivory towers; academia is also full of interpersonal relationships. Even with such resources available now, Zhou Zhi is not so aloof or fastidious as to abandon them.

Moreover, his academic relationship with the Gu family was not purely academic research; there was also a mentor-student relationship involved.

"I heard it's already been submitted." Old Gu was delighted to see Zhou Zhi and Mai Xiaomiao walk in hand in hand: "Zhouzi didn't bully Xiaomiao, did he?"

"No way, Grandmaster, we're back." Mai Xiaomiao said with a smile, "We brought you steamed pork with rice flour, made with pork knuckle."

"Good, good." Old Gu smiled and asked, "Have you finished the project in Lianhe Township?"

"The two major production bases have started producing this year, and Lianhe Township has merged with several surrounding townships to form a town. The road leading to Wazu Station will also be completed soon." Mai Xiaomiao listed them off as if they were her own treasures: "Lianhe Town will soon have another railway transport line, and our mission can be considered basically completed."

"That's really good." Old Gu smiled and said, "The requirements for ancient scholars were self-cultivation, family harmony, good governance, and peace. Scholarship doesn't necessarily have to be done in a study. In this respect, you have done a better job than us."

“Grandpa can come with us if he likes,” Mai Xiaomiao said. “There are beautiful hot springs there, perfect for health and wellness.”

“This idea isn’t very good.” Zhou Zhi put the steamed pork into the refrigerator, then went to check the kitchen and found that the supplies were adequate. He then came out satisfied: “Grandpa is too old to travel. If we’re going to go for health and wellness, we can go to the vicinity of Chengdu, Dayi, or Dujiangyan. The conditions in Lianhe Town are too harsh, and it would be too hard for the old man to travel there.”

"Yes, Grandpa probably can't travel that far anymore." Old Gu laughed. "The 'Collated Rhyme Dictionary' is one of the most influential phonological achievements in recent years. Why don't you make a trip to the capital for me?"

"I haven't thought about that yet. I wish I hadn't refused Dean Mai."

"Oh? Does he need you to go somewhere?"

"The UNICOODE organization is going to hold a press conference to announce the latest character encoding to the world. The encoding is named 8-bit Unicode Transformation Format, abbreviated as UTF-8. This encoding will be given priority for adoption in Windows, Apple OS, UNIX, email, web pages and other applications that store or transmit text."

"Is this related to the Han character library?"

"Well, after all, Chinese characters are the most numerous in the UNICODE character set. Or, to put it another way, it is precisely because the UNICODE character set integrates Chinese character encoding that it has become the most influential character encoding in the world today. So it is not unreasonable for them to hold the press conference in our capital."

“You should attend this press conference,” said Mr. Gu. “In this way, the influence of this encoding will be greater, and everyone can use a unified Chinese character encoding.”

"Actually, it's already unified now," Zhou Zhi said with a smile. "It's just that some regions have issued explicit decrees requiring its official use, while others haven't made a clear statement yet, but are just quietly tacitly acquiescing."

The Chinese translation of Unicode is "统一码" (Tongyima), which, although a standard translation, still caused some forces to break down their defenses and refuse to grant it official status. (End of Chapter)