My IQ has been increasing year by year.

Chapter 318 Waiver Clause

Chen Zhuo was holding a stack of takeout flyers that David had just found.

He merely frowned slightly, looked at this group of old men who represented the highest level of human intelligence, and said a sentence in a calm tone.

"Professors."

Chen Zhuo's voice wasn't loud, but it instantly drowned out all the undercurrents in the living room.

"If you came here today just to argue..."

"Could you please go downstairs and argue?"

Chen Zhuo sighed, a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

"It's almost noon now, and all I want to do is quietly order takeout."

The entire room fell silent.

Richard's mouth was agape.

Kane stood there, stunned.

Pierre and Arthur were also stunned.

Richard was the first to react.

He took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing the urgency and aggression that had been building up outside the door.

Instead of being angry, he looked at Chen Zhuo with a complex and even somewhat awe-inspiring gaze.

"I'm sorry, Chen, we were too abrupt."

Richard kept his voice low, and he even took a half step back, demonstrating the demeanor expected of a top scholar.

"We're not here to argue, of course. You can order takeout, and if you don't mind, MIT can pay all your bills for this restaurant for the next year."

Professor Kane adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and waved his hand, signaling the Harvard scholars behind him to move to the vicinity of the entrance hall so as not to create too much of a sense of oppression in the living room.

"Harvard is also willing to provide you with the best Michelin-starred chefs in Boston, if you're willing."

Kane's tone also softened.

"We just need a little time to sit down and have a purely academic conversation."

Chen Zhuo looked at the two old men who had suddenly become reasonable, nodded noncommittally, and casually handed the takeout order to David next to him.

"Two servings of Kung Pao Chicken, Professor Pierre too. As for the others, you can decide."

David took the takeout order and adjusted his glasses.

"As you wish, sir."

With the order completed, the atmosphere in the apartment finally eased from the tense, almost explosive state.

I didn't go downstairs.

Richard and Kane walked silently into the living room.

David brought two chairs from the restaurant area, and these two bigwigs in academia, whose every move could cause an earthquake, sat down without complaint at the coffee table littered with scraps of paper.

On one side of the coffee table are Pierre and Arthur from Princeton.

On the other side of the coffee table are Richard from MIT and Kane from Harvard.

Chen Zhuo pulled over a high stool and casually sat on the edge of the central island platform, looking down at it as if he were detached from it all.

After a brief silence following the clearing of the battlefield, Richard got straight to the point.

Without beating around the bush, he placed the preprint with Sam's pseudocode printed on it directly on the coffee table.

"Chen, we've reviewed Sam's code and your fifteen-page draft repeatedly on the way here."

Richard stared at Chen Zhuo, offering straightforward terms without any empty promises.

"MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory can immediately set up a brand new, completely independent interdisciplinary laboratory for you, and you can be the director."

"Initial R&D funding starts at ten million US dollars, with no upper limit. You can fill in any amount of supercomputing center quota in the Boston area that you need on the contract."

As soon as Richard finished speaking, Professor Kane, who was sitting next to him, naturally took over the conversation.

"A full professorship at the Harvard Center for High-Dimensional Physics."

Kane's strategy is equally ruthless and impactful.

"You don't need to supervise any undergraduates, you don't need to attend those boring administrative meetings, and Harvard doesn't even require you to personally conduct any physics experiments."

Kane looked at Chen Zhuo.

"You just need to check on the progress of our string membrane topology model weekly or monthly, and Harvard's physics department will provide you with the highest level of lifelong protection."

Two invitations, enough to drive any top scholar in the world mad, were casually placed on this cheap coffee table.

There was no exciting sentimentality, only the most blatant allocation of top-tier resources.

Hearing this, Arthur, who was sitting opposite him, finally couldn't hold back any longer.

As a professor at Princeton, he would never allow these two academic cliques in applied disciplines to poach his students so brazenly.

"Richard, Kane, are you two insane?"

Arthur sneered and retaliated without any politeness.

"Chen Zhuo studies pure mathematics! His destiny lies in Vane House at Princeton, in that pure mathematical ivory tower!"

Arthur pointed at Richard and Kane, his eyes revealing the arrogance of a mathematician.

"You two, one working on low-level code and the other on string field equations in physics, spent such an exorbitant amount of money to hire a mathematician who has never been to your lab, never touched your servers or collider? Are you planning to have him plug in network cables in the server room, or look at data statistics tables next to the collider?"

Richard and Kane were not angry when faced with Arthur's questioning.

On the contrary, their gazes toward Arthur carried a hint of sympathy and an even colder pragmatism.

"Damn this pure mathematics ivory tower!"

Richard met Arthur's gaze without flinching and gave his answer.

"Arthur, do you think computer science today is still the kind of game of stacking transistors that happened decades ago? Let me tell you, pure hardware Moore's Law is nearing its end!"

Richard slammed his knuckles on the coffee table.

"The next era of computing power will not rely on mindlessly increasing the number of chips, but on the dimensional reduction and folding of underlying logic! What computer science lacks most now is no longer genius programmers, but mathematicians who can break through conventional three-dimensional thinking and establish a new order in multi-dimensional business space!"

Richard abruptly turned to look at Chen Zhuo, his eyes burning with an extremely rational fervor.

"MIT doesn't need Chen Zhuo to write a single line of code! He just needs to sit here, throw us the mathematical operators that come to mind, and engineers all over the East Coast will line up and work day and night to complete the engineering translation and code implementation for him!"

Richard's words were forceful and to the point.

Professor Kane, sitting next to him, nodded in agreement and pushed up his glasses.

"Richard is right. With theoretical physics now in eleven dimensions, it has long since become a purely mathematical game."

Kane looked at Arthur.

"Ever since Witten won the Fields Medal for mathematics with string theory, how many years has the entire physics community been stuck with complex mathematical tools? We've put forward countless hypotheses, but each time we encounter a collapse at the continuity singularity."

Kane's gaze fell on the fifteen pages of algebraic manuscript, his eyes filled with awe.

"Arthur, your Princeton team might spend ten years painstakingly proving the continuity and mathematical legitimacy of his discrete truncated base, but we in physics don't need that kind of fastidiousness!"

Kane's voice suddenly rose in pitch.

"We just need to embed this constant at the extreme points! As long as the universe doesn't collapse, and as long as the topological manifold can close on the next grid, it's the truth!"

"We don't need Chen Zhuo to do the experiments! We need a guide who can use the most brute-force mathematical intuition to cut through the dead ends in physics!"

"We need a new Vitten!"

Richard and Kane's words completely shattered Arthur's rebuttal.

They didn't use any fancy words, nor did they preach any grand principles about changing the world.

They were simply keenly aware of the limitations of their own disciplines, and pragmatically and willingly placed this fourteen-year-old mathematician on an irreplaceable throne in their respective fields.

As long as Chen Zhuo's engine continues to run, Harvard and MIT will always be half a step ahead in this sprint of human science.

Pierre, sitting beside him, paused slightly in the hand holding his teacup.

Looking at Richard and Kane, he realized for the first time that these two old men from the applied science school, who had been cornered, possessed astonishing courage.

All eyes once again focused on Chen Zhuo, who was standing at the edge of the central island platform.

The conditions have been set, and the cards have been revealed.

Chen Zhuo listened quietly to Richard and Kane's guiding arguments.

"Director Richard, Professor Kane, it is an honor to offer a small mathematical tool to the computer and physics communities."

Chen Zhuo finally spoke.

He spoke slowly, but every word struck everyone's eardrums clearly.

"I am not opposed to applied science. If needed, I would not mind occasionally looking at the data models you run, or studying a few new algebraic interfaces."

Upon hearing this, Richard and Kane's eyes lit up.

But then Chen Zhuo changed the subject.

"but."

Looking at these top academic figures from North America, Chen Zhuo drew his own bottom line.

"I will not accept any form of full-time employment, I will not accept exclusive binding with an organization, and I will not accept any identity binding involving confidential matters."

"My focus is on mathematics. I don't need to clock in at MIT's computer lab or sit in Harvard's lab. If you need my mathematical expertise, I can provide support as a theoretical consultant."

Chen Zhuo's gaze swept over everyone, finally landing on David.

"But my physical body, my brain, and my research direction must be under my absolute control. I do not belong to MIT, Harvard, or any of the restricted lists of national laws in the United States."

"This is my only condition. If you can accept it, we can talk further; if not, the door is right there."

Richard and Kane were stunned.

David Collin, who had been standing by the side, made a precise and appropriate entry into the battlefield.

"Professors, I believe I have a solution that can perfectly balance the demands of all parties."

David took out several pre-prepared documents from his briefcase and laid them out on the coffee table.

Chen Zhuo's eyelids twitched, and he glanced at David with some surprise.

"This is a completely new model of joint academic advisory services, which is what I call the Pyramid Cooperation Agreement."

David adjusted his gold-rimmed glasses and pointed to the terms on the document.

"First of all, academic ownership, Professor Chen Zhuo's academic record, and the origin of the core theory of this algebraic foundation still belong to Princeton University permanently."

Upon hearing the first point, Arthur's tense expression finally relaxed, and Pierre nodded with a smile.

Princeton preserved the unparalleled glory of the mathematical community and the source of theory.

David turned to look at Richard and Kane.

"Secondly, regarding application licensing, Mr. Chen Zhuo will exclusively license his algebraic foundation to MIT and Harvard as the co-chief theoretical advisor. However, he will not be based in an office and will not undertake any engineering research and development obligations. He will only provide the intellectual interface. In return, MIT and Harvard will pay research and development dividends for the interface and provide the highest level of computing power and resource support."

Richard and Kane exchanged a glance.

While it's impossible to completely confine people to one's own laboratory, this plan is perfectly acceptable as long as exclusive access to that mathematical interface can be obtained!

"Finally, and most importantly."

David tapped the last page of the contract twice with his finger, a glint of light flashing from his glasses.

"Non-exclusivity and territorial exemption clauses".

David's voice became cold and stern.

"Under this agreement, Mr. Chen Zhuo provides purely commercial and intellectual consulting services, not an employment relationship. Therefore, Mr. Chen Zhuo is not bound by any academic unfair terms or non-compete agreements in the United States."

"More importantly, this theoretical collaboration in mathematics does not fall under the jurisdiction of any U.S. federal export control or national security classification regulations. Mr. Chen Zhuo has absolute territorial freedom. He can decide, from anywhere in the world, whether to continue providing you with theoretical updates or to cut off the authorization at any time."

Richard and Kane frowned as they looked at the thick disclaimer.

They were all intelligent people, and they could vaguely sense the uncontrollable danger behind this clause.

But the temptations in front of them were simply too great.

Once they sign, they can immediately establish absolute dominance in academia for at least the next decade.

If we don't sign today, who can guarantee that Chen Zhuo won't sell this consultant title to Stanford or Berkeley tomorrow?

After a two-minute deliberation of the pros and cons.

"I agree."

Richard gritted his teeth and was the first to speak.

"Harvard had no objections either."

Kane took a deep breath and nodded.

Just then, the apartment doorbell rang.

David went over and opened the door.

Standing outside the door was a Chinese deliveryman in a red uniform, sweating profusely, carrying two huge plastic bags.

"Hello, your Kung Pao Chicken and Hawaiian Pizza will cost you $54 in total."

The delivery guy said, panting heavily.

A few minutes later.

A still image, both absurd and epic in its grandeur, unfolded in this ordinary living room.

On the greasy coffee table, David spread out the joint letters of intent that would determine the future direction of computing power and physics.

Richard, the Turing Award-winning computer scientist from MIT.

Kane, a Harvard luminary whose words carry immense weight in the physics community.

Pierre, the Princeton Fields Medal winner with French elegance.

These three old men, whose combined influence could shake half of the scientific community, each held a ballpoint pen that David had pulled out of a drawer and solemnly signed their names on the last page of the agreement.

And at the other end of the coffee table.

Chen Zhuo was sitting in a folding chair, unpacking a plastic takeout box and slowly breaking apart a pair of disposable chopsticks.

He picked up a piece of Kung Pao Chicken, put it in his mouth, and chewed it with complete focus.