Super God-Level Top Student

Chapter 140: Chapter 99: How Heartbreaking It Is to Lose 660,000_2

Li Jiangao subconsciously glanced at the box in the corner of the living room that belonged to Tan Jingrong, and thinking of how Tan had struggled to move it, he suddenly felt a bit overwhelmed.

"How many papers are in there?"

"Not many, just a hundred."

Li Jiangao: "..."

At that moment, Li Jiangao couldn't help but be flooded with the fear that once dominated him in high school, caused by endless assignments.

This guy is seriously playing for keeps!

...

"Tan Jingrong, over here."

As soon as Tan Jingrong had reached the third floor of the cafeteria, he heard Zuo Jie's enthusiastic greeting. Turning towards the voice, he saw that Zuo had already ordered and was sitting at a prime spot right across from the stair entrance, waiting for him.

Tan Jingrong hurriedly quickened his pace, went over, and sat down across from Zuo Jie.

"Why are you so late? A lot going on in the project group, huh?" Zuo Jie asked with a smile plastered on his face.

"Yeah, sort of. Li just came by, so I got held up for a bit," Tan Jingrong honestly replied.

"Li was there today? Did you ask him for me?" Zuo Jie asked earnestly.

...

Indeed, at that moment, Zuo truly regretted his actions.

The story began yesterday.

The senior brother, who hadn't popped up in the chat group for ages, suddenly dropped a bombshell without any preamble: "Tan Jingrong, you're awesome! Your paper made it to an international top-tier journal, and you're even the second author!!!"

This statement instantly shook Zuo Jie.

He knew all too well what level Tan Jingrong was at.

Not to say that he was worse, but at least they were on the same level.

And this guy managed to be the second author on a top-tier journal paper?

Zuo initially thought the senior brother must have been mistaken.

But before he could express his doubts, the senior brother shared a link in the group chat.

When Zuo clicked on it, he found it was indeed a top-tier publication.

The corresponding author was their advisor, the first author's name was somewhat familiar, and the second author was truly Tan Jingrong; as for the third author, he hadn't heard of them.

Before he could recover from his shock, Tan Jingrong, the damn guy, posted a naive smile in the group and followed up, "Actually, Qiao Ze wrote the paper, the advisor polished it, and I was just helping out."

"Don't be modest, even just helping out and getting the second author position on such a journal is amazing. I might need to cling to your coattails in the future."

"You flatter me, senior brother."

In just a few short exchanges in the group chat, Zuo Jie felt like he was being clawed at the heart.

Actually, he didn't want to talk much about the project team either, because he genuinely felt his contribution wasn't significant.

Even though Qiao Ze has always been appreciative of his work.

In the project team, no one else had taken the initiative to collect and archive all the data every day and make extremely detailed summaries of all the daily reports every week.

Qiao Ze had the ability but not the leisure to care about it.

Chen Yiwen might be willing to do it, but she lacked the skill in this area.

There's no need to mention Su Mucheng.

Li Jiangao had a bunch of external affairs to handle.

So in a way, Tan Jingrong really was the backbone of the research group.

Although he was indeed replaceable, there weren't many who could settle down and handle these trivial matters thoroughly before the project's success.

"Alright, I'll wait for the good news from Bro Tan. Let's not talk about this anymore, let's eat. Oh, are we drinking something today?"

"No, no, I have to go back to the research group later tonight, and it's not good to have the smell of alcohol on me."

"Then let's just eat, come, let me serve you some rice." Zuo Jie said enthusiastically.

"By the way, what exactly is your project about?"

"Hmm, it's in the papers, haven't you read them?"

"Uh... I've been busy these last few days, I've only glanced over, I think it said..."

The sound of "whoosh" interrupted Zuo Jie's words.

Zuo Jie looked at Tan Jingrong with suspicion.

Tan Jingrong also took out his own phone, and as soon as he unlocked it, he saw a new message in his X-Pay treasure.

After opening it and taking a glance, he was bewildered.

What's going on?

An enterprise X-Pay treasure account named Licheng Software transferred 660,000 to him?

Zuo Jie, who had already leaned in, exclaimed subconsciously: "Fuck, Old Tan, what did you do? Is that 60,000... no, wait, 660,000?"

"I don't know? This... Maybe it's a mistake? I've never even heard of this company!" Tan Jingrong said, baffled.

For an honest person, receiving such a huge sum of money all at once was stupefying.

Luckily, at the next moment, WeChat pinged. He opened it and saw a message from Su Mucheng.

"Bro Tan, the transfer from Licheng Software just now is a bonus from our project team's successful research, a neat 660,000. Please receive it with confidence. We used my dad's company's X-Pay treasure account due to taxes and daily transfer limits. Wishing Bro Tan a smooth academic journey and a soaring future."

"Holy shit! Your research group gives out bonuses of 660,000?"

At this moment, not only was Tan Jingrong stunned, but Zuo Jie was as well.

Seriously, seeing a peer get a bonus of 660,000 made him feel a thousand times worse than if he had lost 660,000 himself.