Rebirth of a Top Student's Handbook

Seeing Zhou Min's stunned expression, Zhang Kun believed her earlier words and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, saying, "It's good that you didn't lie to me! It seems that Teacher Gong is quite generous."

"Generous is more than just generous!" Zhou Min exclaimed, stunned.

After Zhou Min finished speaking, she thought of Yang Zixuan in Professor Gong's lab and asked curiously, "Have you seen the paper where Yang Zixuan is the second author?"

Zhang Kun looked at him with a disdainful expression, saying, "Do you think academic papers are like cabbages, something you can produce as many as you want? Professor Gong's output is already quite impressive. Besides, the project Yang Zixuan participated in is a classified mission; it won't be announced to the public until it's successful. How could there possibly be any papers?"

"Okay then!" Zhou Min said regretfully.

Seeing Zhou Min's expression, Zhang Kun said angrily, "Don't be so smug! With this paper, you've basically secured your place in graduate school."

Zhou Min knew she had gotten a great deal, but she couldn't stand Zhang Kun's lecturing manner, so she deliberately said, "But Professor Gong said that more than 90% of the students in our Turing class can be recommended for graduate school."

"You! You..." Zhang Kun was speechless, feeling utterly choked up by Zhou Min.

Seeing that Zhang Kun was about to get angry, Zhou Min also stopped smiling and said seriously, "I know what you mean. Teacher Gong is indeed very generous."

Professor Gong's published paper is of a very high level. With this paper as an endorsement, Zhou Min will have a great deal of autonomy in choosing a supervisor for her future postgraduate studies and in joining a research institution.

After all, which graduate advisor or research institution wouldn't want to admit a student who has achieved such academic results during their undergraduate studies?

In particular, graduate supervisors are actually looking for their own assistants when they recruit students. Many students, after entering graduate school, follow their supervisors to do experimental research in their projects.

Therefore, a supervisor's research direction directly determines a student's future career path.

Furthermore, many schools require graduate students to publish 2 to 3 papers in core journals as part of their graduation requirements.

When students are pursuing graduate studies, they are most exposed to their supervisor's projects, so most students' graduate theses revolve around aspects of their supervisor's projects.

Furthermore, this thesis cannot overlap too much with the supervisor's thesis, otherwise it will affect the publication of the supervisor's research results and may also make it difficult to graduate.

It can be said that writing a thesis is a major challenge for all graduate students.

Graduate students with high-quality papers are not only more likely to graduate smoothly, but may even have the opportunity to meet better doctoral supervisors.

In the future, there will be more opportunities to enter prestigious research institutions or teach at renowned universities.

It can be said that publishing a thesis is something that everyone engaged in academia dreams of.

Even in many universities, professors need to have published papers to be evaluated for promotion and title.

Zhou Min believed that there must be many teachers in the school who longed for Professor Gong to include their names on their papers.

If they knew that Zhou Min had simply helped Professor Gong translate an article and thus gained second authorship on a paper published in a top-tier academic journal, they would probably be green with envy.

Zhang Kun breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's why I want to join Teacher Gong's team even more now."

After Zhang Kun finished speaking, he turned to Zhou Min and said with a serious expression, "Zhou Min, have I ever told you that I have an older brother?"

Zhou Min shook her head. Although she and Zhang Kun had a good relationship, Zhang Kun rarely talked to Zhou Min about his family.

Up to this point, all Zhou Min knew was that Zhang Kun's family was in business and had a good financial situation.

Zhang Kun took a deep breath and said, "Actually, I originally had an older brother who was eight years older than me."

He was exceptionally intelligent and outstanding. From a young age, he dreamed of becoming a scientist; he grasped knowledge instantly, skipped three grades in elementary school, and was directly admitted to the neighboring University of Washington. He was my idol since childhood, and I always considered him my role model. But this exceptional person had to extend his graduate studies three times, and during his doctoral studies, he suffered from severe depression. By the time our family found out, it was too late; I didn't even get to see him one last time…”

Zhang Kun choked up before he could finish speaking.

Although Zhou Min herself had no siblings, she could fully understand Zhang Kun's pain.

Zhang Kun raised his head, forcing back the tears that were about to spill from his eyes.

She took a deep breath and continued, "My brother committed suicide due to depression. By the time our family received the news and rushed over, it was too late. His phone and computer were gone, and even his dorm room had been cleared out. There was no evidence left! Nobody knows why my brother had depression, and nobody knows why he committed suicide."

Zhang Kun paused here, took a few seconds to catch his breath, and calmed himself down.

Although Zhang Kun held his head high, trying his best not to let the tears fall, Zhou Min still saw his tears flowing down his cheeks, temples, and neck.

After a while, Zhang Kun's emotions gradually calmed down.

He turned his head and looked directly at Zhou Min, saying, "But just last year, I suddenly realized why all of this happened."

After Zhang Kun finished speaking, he laughed. Although he was laughing, the tears that kept falling from the corners of his eyes made Zhou Min, who was standing next to him, feel heartbroken.

“Last year, I found a paper in this journal, a paper written by my brother. Although the paper was not authored by my brother, I knew that it was written by him, and that project had always been an idea of ​​his. Later, I checked other papers by that person and found that his papers in recent years were all written by my brother. My brother is my science mentor. He often talks to me about his ideas and plans, so I know about his papers and research projects.”

Zhang Kun choked up for a moment, then continued, "Later, I looked up the author's information and found that he was a professor at MIT, and he had been my brother's advisor. After the incident, he went abroad. Later, he even used my brother's research results and thrived abroad..."

By this point, Zhang Kun was practically gritting his teeth in hatred.

"I'm sorry!" Zhou Min said, wiping away her tears.

Zhou Min never expected that Zhang Kun, with his usual carefree and jovial exterior, had such a past.

Zhang Kun rubbed his eyes and said, "Why are you saying sorry?"

"I didn't know you had this past. If I had known, I probably wouldn't have tried to take Teacher Gong from you," Zhou Min said, her voice thick with tears.

Zhou Min was serious. Although she was now determined to do scientific research, there was more than one good teacher than Professor Gong, and she didn't need to cling to Professor Gong.

But Zhang Kun's situation is different; he has a deep-seated blood feud. The person who killed his brother is currently enjoying glory at MIT!

Among the teachers at the school, Professor Gong is probably the only one who returned from MIT!

If Zhang Kun wants revenge, wants to surpass that person in international prestige, and wants to expose that person, then Teacher Gong is probably the best choice.

As Zhou Min's words became increasingly rambling, Zhang Kun quickly interrupted, "Stop, stop. I'm not telling you this to make you quit, but to tell you that there are many scumbags in this world, and many hypocritical thieves. If you encounter a good mentor like Teacher Gong who is open-minded and magnanimous, you must cherish him."