After a period of mutual revelation, the atmosphere in the club has changed a lot.

Even Williams and Kelvin were able to sit and drink together.

The two are not enemies,

But in terms of academic opinions, there are some differences,

It's really rare to be able to sit down and drink.

This is one of the reasons why it is necessary to continue the Nobel Prize-

Give scientists the opportunity to take a break from their work, sit together, and communicate with each other.

The scientists present were all humble gentlemen (at least on the surface), and they asked Lu Shi to create a satirical satire on the darkness of the academic circle, not to catch ducks on the shelves, but to joke most of them.

So, no one ever mentioned it again.

Entertainment has changed back to the old three-

Drinking, chatting, board games.

Planck, George Bernard Shaw, Albert Einstein, and Lu Shi sit at a table and play Monopoly.

Albert Einstein threw a dice,

"Speaking of which, I'm now working at the Bern Patent Office, and I feel that academic pressure is really getting more and more."

The Berne Patent Office is the oldest and largest,

Working there, you can see the world's most cutting-edge technology and scientific research results, and of course, you can also see the most cutting-edge pressing methods.

Einstein retracted the dice and began to move the pieces.

Planck coughed lightly,

"Albert, the number you just rolled is 5, and you moved one square less."

"Is that so?"

Einstein didn't blush at all, and pushed the chess piece one step further to Planck's land.

He counted out the $20 piece of paper and handed it to Planck.

The latter "snorted" and turned to Lu Shi,

"Professor Lu, what do you think?"

Lu Shi understood what the other party was asking.

He couldn't help but ponder,

After the promotion of the Global University Rankings and Impact Factor, academic squeeze will become more and more serious, which has long been expected.

In the circle, no one is cleaner than the other.

Still, it's surprising how quickly the deterioration can spread to cancer cells.

Thinking about this, Einstein suddenly said: "Marx, no! You're taking the wrong number of steps~"

Planck: "Huh? "With a bang,

"I didn't even notice. Chatting and chatting, a little distracted. ”

Albert Einstein nodded,

"yes, I was too."

The devil believes this.

Top physicists can't count numbers below 6, and it's a joke to say it.

Lu Shi spreads his hands,

"Forget it~ Forget it~ Don't play."

He took a sip from his teacup and asked, "Albert, you work in the patent office and have seen a lot of similar things?" ”

Einstein didn't know what to do, but he still answered truthfully: "I've seen a lot." ”

Lu Shi got up,

"Okay, you come with me. I may need you to act as a consultant and give me some examples to prototype. ”

Planck: ???

George bernard shaw:???

Einstein:???

"You really want to write?!" ×3

The three of them spoke in unison.

Because the sound was a little loud, many people around heard it and subconsciously cast their eyes.

A moment later, the table where Lu Shi was sitting was surrounded by clusters,

"Lu, do you want to write about the academic circle?"

"I can provide a story!"

"Give me a cameo role~"

……

Scientists are gossiping,

The club became noisy.

Lu Shi hurriedly got up and said to the surroundings: "Everyone, what I am going to write is a short story, and the plot has already been thought out." Due to space limitations, I can't arrange too many characters, sorry, sorry~"

After saying that, he ran out of the gate in a hurry.

He didn't lie, he did have the plot thought out.

……

The next day, early in the morning.

Balcony cabin with sea view on the top floor, room on land.

Through the porthole, the sea and the sky are the same,

On the surface of the sea, the microwave ripples, flashing with fine light, as if countless small stars are jumping.

Comfortable and quiet in the cabin,

The soft seats have a subtle leather scent that makes people feel comfortable.

On the modular sofa on one side of the room, Einstein, George Bernard Shaw, and Planck were sleeping in their clothes.

Planck's face was still covered with a piece of manuscript paper,

As he breathed, the corner of the manuscript paper was blown up.

On the other side, the first draft that Lu Shi had just completed,

Title:

"Stealing Fire".

This is an allusion from Western mythology,

The protagonist of the story, Prometheus,

He stole fire from the sun god Apollo and gave it to mankind, bringing light to mankind, but he was punished by Zeus for this, tied to the Caucasus Mountain, and endured the wind and sun and the eagle pecking every day.

This myth has even been selected as a textbook in China, which shows its high recognition.

Lu Shi stretched his waist and opened the door to ask the crew for a cup of coffee,

Unexpectedly, there were a few scientists outside.

Tom stepped forward,

"Professor Lu, have you written?"

Lu Shi looked left and right,

I didn't expect even the old man Kelvin to be there,

"What are you doing...... Wake up early and wait for me at the door? ”

Thomson waved his hand again and again,

"How is that possible? We just happened to be passing by. ”

happened to pass by the top first class,

It's enough.

Lu Shi was too lazy to think about it, and said: "I did write it, but it was only the first draft." If you don't mind, you can suggest some changes. ”

He went back to the house to get the manuscript,

As a result, because of the noise outside, the three people in the house have already woken up.

Lu Shi simply let everyone outside in,

A group of scientists and writers all gathered at their desks and read carefully.

"Stealing Fire" has a total of less than 10,000 words,

The plot is not too complicated, and it is based on the background of the academic circle that has become increasingly oppressive after the implementation of the impact factor.

The story takes place at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Berlin,

Professors control the resources and control the graduation of their master's and doctoral degrees, and use this as a threat, letting the students be cattle and horses, doing experiments, writing papers, and desperately producing them.

And the professors just painted the pie:

"As long as this paper is well written, I will give you the first author."

"I'll graduate you next year!"

"After this project is completed, I will allocate funds to you and give you experimenters! When the time comes, you won't have to wash the bottles yourself. ”

……

Of course, just the words are good,

But lip service doesn't come true.

That's what Chapter 1 is about.

“Shiit！”

Thomson couldn't help but spit out a dirty word and muttered, "Real! It's so real! ”

When he looked at Lu,

"Professor Lu, you have been in a liberal arts and business university like London Politics and Economics, how can you be so familiar with this kind of thing?"

Planck and Einstein also asked this question last night.

Lu Shi's answer was:

"Different paths lead to the same end. You don't think that's the case only in the academic world, do you? ”

In this way, everyone understands.

Lu Shi is not only a professor, but also a business tycoon and a British KBE.

is both a business tycoon and a political figure, and he must have eaten and seen it.

Kelvin was curious,

"Who is the main character of this one?"

Lu Shixiao,

"The next chapter will be there."

Everyone looked at the length of the first chapter,

Just introduced the background, and used more than 1,000 words, and it wouldn't seem too procrastinating if the protagonist didn't appear.

They rolled back,

Unexpectedly, the protagonist created by Lu Shi has a special identity, neither a student who is being oppressed, nor a professor who oppresses others, but a middle layer-

A lecturer who just came up.

The main character's name is Toyce,

In a way, he is also a character who is squeezed from above, with no resources, no funds, and no upward channel.

So, he opened up a new business, tutoring doctoral students under the big guy's water papers, and earned a lot of commissions.

Toyce is a good guy at what he does.

But at the same time, he should also pay attention to the control of the paper not too much dry goods,

On the one hand, they are worried that the disciples of the church will starve the master to death;

On the other hand

The dissertation is so well written, and the doctoral students can successfully obtain the degree, so who else is a cow and a horse for the big guy?

Tois was afraid that he would tutor too well, and that the superior would not be able to get off the stage.

Therefore, he controls the paper and makes it have a certain level, but the level is not high enough to be in a journal with a high impact factor.

Because many professors have one of the graduation requirements:

Doctoral students are required to publish X papers in journals with an impact factor higher than X as the first author.

This is the easiest condition for students to graduate,

Moreover, because it is a real data indicator, students can't find fault with it.

Others can graduate, why can't you?

Carstens muttered:

"! Chapter 2 is more real than Chapter 1! ”

This brother will graduate this year and will inherit the mantle of his teacher, Planck's blackbody radiation research.

It was not difficult to hear from the tone that he was doing something similar now.

Planck looked at him,

"Hein, you can't be ......"

Carstens quickly looked away, looked out the window, and said with a smile: "Teacher, the weather is really good today." See! Seagull! ”

"Tsk......"

Planck staggered,

"It looks like some people want to get another degree next year."

Carstens almost didn't cry when she heard it.

Lu Shi chuckled,

"Heinrich, Marx, why did you two give us a background for the story of "Stealing Fire" on the spot?"

Professors kill and rob students' graduates,

can't be said to be exactly the same,

It can only be said that there is no difference.

Planck was embarrassed, glared at his disciple, and didn't say anything more.

On the other side, Rutherford asked, "Professor Lu, I don't understand this very well. Isn't it better for professors that doctoral students produce better and better quality and graduate early? ”

The corners of Lu Shi's mouth are hooked,

"First of all, will the factory owner give more vacation time to a worker with good output?"

"This ......"

Rutherford was speechless.

Lu Shi continued: "The second point, you also talked about it yesterday. Many professors work socially, and their research skills are not as good as their students. In this case, these professors must ensure the number of students under their command. ”

Rutherford looked at his teacher,

Thomson shrugged,

"Look, I'm still good. At my age, I am still on the front line of scientific research, and there are not many people who can take students to do experiments. ”

Rutherford's head is full of black lines,

￣□￣｜｜

However, he agreed with the teacher's statement in his heart.

It's Thomson who loses money,

If you change to someone else, you don't know that your degree will have to wait until the Year of the Monkey.

What he didn't know, however, was that the academic world at the beginning of the 20th century was very clean.

In the 21st century, even Science and Nature will begin to falsify a lot of data, and it will become more common for other top journal experiments to be completely unrepeatable.

And the crowd began to read the third chapter,

Toyce has been doing this for more than ten years, and he is still a small lecturer.

However, there is a major twist in the plot,

One of the students he tutored hanged himself in his dorm room because he couldn't graduate for six years in a row.

The body was found seven days later,

Before committing suicide, he wrote on the wall:

I QUIT！

That is, "I quit!" Or, "I'm quitting!" ”。

There was a long silence in the cabin,

“……”

“……”

“……”

Because of this paragraph, Lu Shi described it too well.

——

Toyce's every breath was drowned out by the stench.

It was as if a manipulating consciousness spell was ordering him to flee, while also ordering his stomach to drain itself.

The corpse's skin was green, and the decaying blood vessels formed marble-like lines that were covered with corpse spots.

Seven-day ......

Toyce could not have imagined,

"Why did it take seven days to find out?"

——

Albert Einstein sighed,

"It can be seen that the student's boss really doesn't treat him as a human being. It took seven days to find out that the student was not there, and it was enough to send someone to look for him. ”

The rest of the scientists nodded slowly.

George Bernard Shaw paid more attention to description,

He wondered, "Is this how corpses should be?" ”

No one on the scene could answer.

So, he turned to Lu Shi.

Lu Shi spread his hands and said, "Doctor Doyle has given me popular science." ”

George Bernard Shaw couldn't help but complain: "It's okay for the two of you to get together to study the plot, why do you still study this?" It's hard to understand the detective writer. ”

Lu Shi laughed,

"Basically, Dr. Doyle said it alone, and I listened to it. I don't know if he's right or not. ”

In these years, it was relatively conservative, which made it easier for doctors to access corpses.

George Bernard Shaw didn't think much of it, and turned his attention back again.

In the third chapter, Toyce completes the transformation of his mind,

However, he is too soft-spoken,

A lecturer can't change anything.

Therefore, he could only try his best to help the doctoral students do experiments and publish papers to meet the threshold of graduation.

End of Chapter 3.

George Bernard Shaw nodded,

"The protagonist completes his metamorphosis and begins redemption. I understand why this is called "Stealing Fire". ”

Albert Einstein chimed in: "It's a good name." ”

Prometheus,

His father, Iapetus, a titan in Greek mythology;

His mother, Cleomene, was the goddess of fame in ancient Greek mythology.

In other words, Prometheus is God,

He rebelled against the gods and sided with humanity, much like Tois.

Even more interesting is that Zeus's punishment for Prometheus, in addition to tying him to the cliffs of the Caucasus Mountains, also sent a vulture eagle to peck at his liver every day,

Because in ancient Greek mythology, the liver was believed to be the seat of human emotions.

In other words, the god-king Zeus believed that Prometheus already possessed human characteristics.

George Bernard Shaw said: "No wonder the protagonist has that name. ”

"How?"

Kelvin wondered, "What are the details of the name?" ”

George Bernard Shaw looked around, picked up a pen and paper, and wrote down the English spelling of Prometheus' name—

Prometheus。

He drew a line under the last five letters.

Everyone suddenly realized,

It turns out that Toyce's spelling "Theus" is a portrayal.

Lu Shi said: "Keep looking. ”

Then they read chapter 4,

Unexpectedly, the beginning of the fourth chapter is:

——

Half a year later.

Academic Review Board.

——

Because the number of PhD students in physics who can obtain degrees is exponentially increasing,

1 / 2 years→ 8 / 1 year,

It is equivalent to a quadruple increase.

The University of Berlin set up a committee to investigate the matter, and rightfully so, Toyce's head was found.

The members of the committee looked at him,

Someone asked, "Do you know that your actions are academic fraud?" Students who can obtain a degree must have their own scientific research ability, and your guidance has made our judging criteria a dead letter! ”

But Toyce did not answer,

He just looked at the commissioners and laughed.

The committee member asked: "Which students have you written papers for and said truthfully." ”

Toyce laughed even louder.

The plot comes to an abrupt end.

Inside, the atmosphere has become unusually quiet.

Rutherford suddenly asked, "Professor Lu, why did Tois neither defend nor confess, but just laugh?" ”

His teacher, Thomson, looked at him,

"Toyce has always kept a hand when he was tutoring doctoral students, and even earned a commission. How long has this behavior continued? ”

Rutherford replied, "More than ten years." ”

Thomson asked again: "After more than ten years of nonsense, no one has investigated him." As a result, when he really poured his money in, he was investigated in just half a year. ”

Rutherford was speechless,

“……”

Whoever stands in Toyce's point of view will think it's ridiculous, right?

After a while,

“Fxxk！”

Someone muttered,

"It's so real! It's so real! ”

(End of chapter)