Chapter 1142 845: Took a Step Back, but Still Made Progress

At this point, Bi Yanling's voice had completely fallen silent, but in various parts of the corridor, students' voices began to appear. They swarmed over from different directions, yet didn't dare to walk straight toward their actual target.

So they all, as if by prior agreement, pretended to be loitering nearby, walking from one end of the corridor to the other, then back again; the slightly smarter ones hid in the classroom next door; and some came over cautiously to ask Nan Zhubin and the other person what was going on here.

"Hey, classmates, you're also… here because you heard about the proposal defense thing?"

Clearly these students had been called over by the classmates inside the meeting room to watch the drama.

"We just got here too, we don't know anything." Faced with these people, Nan Zhubin saw no need to maintain Absolute Sincerity.

Jie Nianzhou couldn't help letting out a brief laugh.

"Do you think… this time there's any chance Teacher Bi will be let off easy?"

Nan Zhubin glanced at Jie Nianzhou's expression, checking on his emotional state.

The roles they were playing in this conversation had begun to shift, from the semi–Psychological Consultation vibe just now to grad-school gossip between a PhD student and a master's student in the same college.

"Senior, the moment you handed over the recording, she was doomed; it's too late to think about that now." Nan Zhubin sounded almost like he was short on emotional intelligence.

"Of course, even if you hadn't given it, your advisor was definitely done for anyway." Nan Zhubin shrugged.

Jie Nianzhou pressed his lips together and suddenly furrowed his brows again, as if worrying about something.

"But you don't need to worry about what will happen to your project group after this," Nan Zhubin said, like some kind of seer, voicing exactly what was on Jie Nianzhou's mind.

"You might not believe this, but recently we've been doing a lot of homework on your project group's research direction. After you come over to our group, I won't say it'll be completely seamless… but with just a bit of adjustment, you can keep working; no need to pick a whole new direction or anything."

The amount of information packed into that sentence was huge, yet it all sounded entirely reasonable.

Jie Nianzhou stared blankly at Nan Zhubin for a moment, then once again turned his gaze back to the meeting room.

This time, though, his mind was no longer focused on what was happening inside. Even though he was still looking in that direction, it was more like a habitual posture.

"How long do you think it'll take for my illness to get better?" Jie Nianzhou suddenly said. "My former advisor left, my current advisor has collapsed, and everyone in my project group, including me, won't have to suffer as much as before—"

"So does that mean my illness is almost cured?"

"Not sure." Nan Zhubin lazily glanced into the classroom. "What I can tell you is that Bi Yanling is definitely going to break down in there; and if she somehow doesn't, I can go in and add a bit of pressure to make sure she collapses more thoroughly…"

"That I believe." Jie Nianzhou said suddenly.

Nan Zhubin's gaze shifted over.

"These past days… I've been looking up a lot of stuff about you online." Jie Nianzhou lowered his head. "At first I just wanted to see if there was any information about you doing Psychological Consultation, since with some training programs or institutions, they at least have a list—you can more or less see people's credentials."

This was something Jie Nianzhou hadn't told Nan Zhubin before, but it was understandable.

It also partly explained why Jie Nianzhou would choose a master's student from the same college to be his Psychological Consultant. The good experience from that first session alone obviously wasn't enough to dispel a visitor's concerns.

A bit of off-field evidence was still needed.

And this candidness from Jie Nianzhou now also meant that their consultant–visitor relationship had reached a new stage.

Jie Nianzhou looked at Nan Zhubin with bright, intent eyes. Ever since the consultation entered this new phase, this was also the first time he had shown such urgency about healing his illness.

But Nan Zhubin couldn't give him a satisfying answer.

"As for when the illness will be cured—that's the one thing I really can't give you a definite answer on." Nan Zhubin glanced at the meeting room, then back at Jie Nianzhou.

"All I can say is that we've been growing all along, and the progress has been quite encouraging."

Jie Nianzhou was a little disappointed. But even though he hadn't gotten the answer he wanted, seeing Nan Zhubin's calm expression beside him still made a certain confidence rise in him involuntarily.

Just then, the door of the meeting room opened with a click.

The students wandering in every corner of the corridor all reacted to the sound, suddenly becoming busy in meaningless ways like NPCs who had just gained sentience.

Only Jie Nianzhou remained completely unmoved by the noise, merely saying to Nan Zhubin, "Then I'll be counting on you from here on."

"As I should."

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Two days later.

Bai Qinghua's project group.

Inside the office, the project group that had just accomplished something big looked no different from before. The seats of the students away on internships were still empty, and the ones who'd stayed on campus were still wearing noise-canceling headphones at their desks, racing to finish their own projects.

The Outer Disciples hadn't taken part in the Bi Yanling affair. Even when they heard about it afterward, they just marveled a bit and then moved on.

For them, there were much more important papers waiting to be read, more important projects waiting to be done.

Only in Bai Qinghua's office was there something different going on.

"So you're saying, you guys just… finished everything in one go?!" Chonghui said in disbelief.

He still carried the air of a long journey about him; clearly he had returned to campus straight from the airport, and come to the office as soon as he got back.

"You told me we'd wait for me to come back so we could review Teacher Bi Yanling's paper data together, and then you finish everything this fast?"

Chonghui pointed at his own face, where his dark circles were clearly visible.

The sect had given the order to form a raid. While away on a business trip, he had wrapped up his work at top speed, staying up several nights in a row for it.

And now that he was back—the MVP settlement screen had already finished playing?

And on top of that—the advisor had decided to take in most of Bi Yanling's project group students?

"It's not that…" For a moment, Chonghui didn't even know what to say. Were there so many and such huge holes in Bi Yanling's previous research results that they didn't even need particularly detailed analytical work?

"Honestly, thinking back on it now, I also find it a bit incredible." Shi Qianqian lifted her chin slightly. "But last week our work state was really good. Papers, data, everything went by really fast, and we spotted a lot of problems in one go."

"We originally planned to wait for you to come back and tackle it together, but we finished early. Then there just happened to be a suitable re-examination meeting as a backdrop, so we conveniently integrated all the materials and just pushed it through in one wave."

Chonghui opened his mouth but stopped, not sure what to say. Was everyone's enthusiasm just extra high because this task was special?

"Maybe it's because Zhuren and Xiao Kai came—two more people in the mix." Bai Qinghua chuckled. "And everyone's made a lot of progress over this stretch of time."

Chonghui fell silent for a moment, then felt at ease.

Since it involved Nan Zhubin, even if he didn't know how big a role he had played, somehow that alone felt like enough of an explanation.

The Inner Sect Disciples all offered Chonghui brief words of welcome back. Shi Qianqian handed the Senior Brother of Inheritance title back to him, and at the same time handed over a summary of the recent progress of the project group disciples.

Nan Zhubin and Mo Kai stepped out and returned to their own workstations, sat back down, and went back to reading papers.

For first-year master's students, life was basically just classes and wide-ranging literature reading.

"Hey, senior." After a while, Mo Kai suddenly pointed at his computer screen.

On it was an English core-journal article; the authors below were all spelled in pinyin, and the date was very recent—it was clearly the latest work from domestic researchers published in an overseas journal.

"What is it?" Nan Zhubin first went to look at the abstract, wondering what new and interesting research had made Mo Kai call him over on purpose.

With his English reading ability, this was quick.

But that wasn't what Mo Kai wanted Nan Zhubin to notice.

"Senior, look at the name of the first author," Mo Kai said. "Isn't that the teacher who went to the Port District before?"