Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

[Liu Rui: Mathematics is so hard! I completely didn’t understand the fifth fill in the blanks question and the last multi-choice. In the end, I had to guess the answer. Ah, I screwed up. I’ll need to do the supplementary exam T.T]

“…”

Lu Zhou was scrolling through his friends’ news feed when he saw Liu Rui’s post. He twitched his mouth and was about to like the post when he stopped himself.

[The fifth fill in the blanks answer is… The last multi-choice answer is B]

It was difficult to type mathematical symbols on a phone!

He finished typing it and pressed send.

How comfortable!

Lu Zhou was about to put his phone back into his pocket and wanted to continue to eat. Suddenly his phone vibrated. He looked at the notification and saw Liu Rui’s reply.

What? How did this guy reply so fast?

Lu Zhou felt slightly surprised and opened up his news feed.

[Liu Rui: … Wasn’t it A?]

Lu Zhou laughed and shook his head as he recalled the choices of that question. He took out a draft paper from his backpack and started to write down the steps of the question. He then picked a good lighting angle, took a photo, and sent it.

[Lu Zhou: [Photo] ]

This time Liu Rui’s reply was slow.

After a while, Lu Zhou saw that there was no reply. So, he decided to continue to eat his noodles.

He had delayed eating for so long. The noodles would soon become soft if he did not start to eat them.

However, just as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket, his phone vibrated again. This time, it was a phone call.

“F*ck me? This guy must be crazy to call me?”

Lu Zhou hurried and took out his phone. It turned out that the call was not from Liu Rui. It was from Wu Dahai.

Speaking of which, it was him that sent Lu Zhou to the hospital when he had a heat stroke.

Lu Zhou felt apologetic as he did not even get a chance to thank him properly.

After the phone rang for a while, Lu Zhou pressed the answer button.

“Hello?”

“It’s me, Dahai,” said Fat Wu. He said with a clear voice, “How are you? Are you feeling better?”

“I’m okay. Thanks for last time…” said Lu Zhou. He felt apologetic.

“No need to thank me! I’m just glad that nothing serious happened to you, ” interrupted Wu Dahai. He continued to ask, “Are you free tonight?”

“I’m free… What are we doing?” asked Lu Zhou.

“Sorting packages for Shengtong express. 100 yuan for the night, you coming?” asked Wu Dahai.

Lu Zhou immediately asked, “Where?”

Wu Dahai, “There’s a car outside the school. It leaves at seven. Hurry up and come if you want. I still need two people. After that, I’ll leave.”

“I’ll come right now!”

Lu Zhou hung up the call and quickly slurped up his noodles. He brought his empty bowl to the counter and quickly left the cafeteria. He called his roommate Shi Shang while he rushed towards the school gate.

“Hello? Zhou, what’s up?” answered a deep voice.

“I’ve some stuff to do tonight. I can’t come.”

“What stuff? What’s going on?” An exciting gossipy voice came from the phone.

Lu Zhou said impatiently, “F*ck off! What are you on? I’m working.”

“…”

The other end of the phone went silent for a second. Just as Lu Zhou was about to hang up, Shi Shang suddenly sighed and said with a deep voice, “Lu Zhou, I know that your family is in a tough situation. You can tell me anything. Let’s discuss it. You don’t have to do this kind of stuff… Anyway, where are you? Is it a guy or a girl?”

Lu Zhou: ? ? ?

Lu Zhou did not respond so Shi Shang was even more worried: “F*ck me! Brother, please tell me that you’re thinking this through. You’ll regret this for the rest of your life! How… How will you ever face your future wife? Don’t hang up, I’m warning you! If you dare to hang up, I’ll call the counselor.”

Lu Zhou: “… What the hell are you saying?”

Shi Shang paused for a second and felt something was wrong. He said awkwardly with a quiet voice, “… What else could you be doing working at night? I’m convincing you not to go down this path…”

“I’m sorting packages. F*ck off.”

That piercing cold voice shocked Shi Shang and before he realized, Lu Zhou had already hung up.

…

The van was parked outside the school. Lu Zhou walked towards the gate and Wu Dahai waved at him from the distant.

Lu Zhou opened up the van’s door and sat on a small stool. He looked around the car and other than himself, there were 10 other people packed in the van. They were all students from the University of Jin Ling and they were all male.

Obviously, a girl would not work this type of physically demanding job at night.

Of course, it actually was not that physically demanding as Lu Zhou had done it twice. At least it was a lot easier than passing out flyers. The only bad side was that he had to stay up all night.

However, when Lu Zhou thought about the 100 yuan pay, he decided to stick through with it.

He had to as he only had three thousand left in his bank account. Not to mention, he would have to pay a layout and review fee for the SCI journal. He did not want to be more of a burden for his family or asked them for more money.

Submitting in other magazines had a remuneration. However, for this type of academic journals, there was no remuneration. He might even have to pay for the journal himself.

“A hundred a night and I’ll pay you the day after tomorrow. Remember to give me your Alipay account number. Listen to instructions when you arrived at the sorting center. The actions required are very simple. You just have to move the stuff from the truck onto the warehouse’s conveyor belt. There is an hour break in the middle and you can play pool in the break room if you wish. I don’t suggest you playing against the regular workers as they play for money and could sink three balls in a single round.”

“Moving stuff? Isn’t that very tiring?” asked a small guy.

Wu Dahai patiently explained, “Relax, you don’t have to move it yourself. You know how to play football, right? Two people drag the stuff out of the car and the rest can just kick it along. The path between the unloading point and conveyor belt is easy. Other than large items such as refrigerators or televisions, it should be very easy.”

Another guy yelled, “F*ck me, kick? What if it breaks?”

Wu Dahai looked at him and said, “Do whatever you want. It’s not like you’re paying for it so why worry? Anyway, relax. The distributors usually have strict packing regulations and they would pack a lot of foam in there. Even if you kicked as hard as you could, you could not break it. I’ll send you to the national football team if you actually break anything.”

The guy laughed and did not say much. He thought, “I want to go to the national team. It’s not like you could send me there.”

As they chatted, they finally arrived. The van stopped at the entrance of the warehouse. Wu Dahai paid the driver with his phone and called the students to come out.

The warehouse was very large. It looked like it was at least 2000 square meters. There were a couple of trucks parked outside. The regular staff was already working inside the warehouse. A middle-aged guy wearing a blue uniform stood outside the gate and looked around. When he saw Wu Dahai, he waved for him to come over.

“Everyone’s here? Do you need to count?” said the man. When he smiled, his yellow teeth showed.

“There’s only a few people, so no need to count. Let’s start,” said Wu Dahai. He then swiftly gave the middle-aged guy a cigarette.

The man laughed, took the cigarette and said, “Okay, come with me.”

He turned around and started to walk towards the workshop.