Reality Programming Association

Chapter 22: Chapter 10: Hot Pot, Obituary, and Dissenting Votes

Shi Zuozhou scrolled down the screen a couple of times, his tone filled with excitement. ”See that? The first name on the draft list for the expert panel is Gao Jiguo. Old Gao’s life is finally complete this time.”

Yu Xian was also slightly taken aback. Shi Zuozhou’s grapevine was incredibly well-informed; he had just mentioned on Monday that the Science and Technology Commission would restart the voting, and the public notice was already out today on Wednesday.

”That’s wonderful,” Yu Xian sighed from the bottom of his heart. No matter how you looked at it, for an old man who had dedicated his entire life to basic science, living to see his dream come true in his twilight years was a tremendous stroke of luck.

”Come on, come on, we have to drink to this! Even though we aren’t qualified to join the panel, we’re witnessing history here.” Shi Zuozhou filled his glass to the brim. ”To the grand edifice of physics, cheers!”

”To Teacher Gao.” Yu Xian also downed the alcohol in his glass.

”Cheers!” Even though the male committee member next to them had no idea what was going on, he joined in the revelry.

Five glass cups clinked together once more. The beer, paired with instant-boiled mutton thickly coated in sesame paste, drove away the chill of the rainy winter night.

Congratulations, Teacher Gao.

***

It was almost nine o’clock by the time the gathering ended.

Pushing open the heavy windbreaker curtain, the heat of the hotpot restaurant was cut off behind them, while a damp, cold wind carrying fine drizzle blew against their faces. Yu Xian shivered, sobering up a little. Shi Zuozhou, his face red and neck flushed, was humming some unrecognizable tune, evidently having thoroughly enjoyed his drinks.

Yang Yiyi shook her head helplessly and hailed a cab. She stuffed the three of them into the backseat before taking the passenger seat herself.

”Old Yu, are you really not going back to the dorms?” Shi Zuozhou shouted, clinging to the car window. ”It should be my turn to host you for the night, shouldn’t it!”

Yu Xian smiled and waved his hand, watching the taillights disappear into the misty rain at the street corner. He also hailed a cab. On the way home, the aftereffects of the alcohol hit him, making his head feel heavy.

”It’s not very safe recently.”

His phone screen rested on the chat interface with his older cousin. He wanted to ask about the situation but ultimately locked the screen. Asking would be pointless; his cousin wouldn’t tell him about police squad matters anyway.

The accumulated rainwater had already submerged the steps. The living room remained exactly as it was when he left in the morning. Sure enough, his cousin still hadn’t returned. It seemed he had genuinely run into a tricky case.

His head was spinning. It looked like his alcohol tolerance was truly poor. Lacking the energy to think about anything else, he sent his cousin a message to let him know he was home safe, then threw himself onto the bed, put on a random radio station, and drifted off to sleep.

***

Thursday was another day of waking up freezing.

The bed in the master bedroom was neatly made; Yu Zhengze hadn’t returned for another entire night. Yu Xian frowned and dialed his cousin’s number. The dialing tone rang for a long time without anyone answering, until it automatically hung up.

He was worried, but there was nothing he could do right now. He tidied himself up briefly, grabbed his umbrella, and headed out.

His 8:00 AM class was Theoretical Acoustics. The moment he arrived at the lecture hall, Yu Xian’s footsteps faltered.

The atmosphere in the classroom felt off.

Normally, before class started, everyone would either be catching up on sleep or eating breakfast in a noisy uproar. Today, however, while people were still talking, their voices were kept very low. It was a constant BUZZ, as if a swarm of bees had gathered in the room.

Yu Xian scanned the area and found a seat next to Shi Zuozhou.

”Old Yu...”

He had never seen Shi Zuozhou look as awful as he did today. It felt like his voice was even trembling as he handed over his phone.

It was a screenshot of an article published by the JCU Official Account. The main text was densely packed within a black border, bearing the title:

”Obituary: In Deep Mourning for Comrade Gao Jiguo”

A loud BUZZ echoed in Yu Xian’s mind.

”Wh... at...?”

Weren’t they just at the hotpot restaurant last night, watching the news and raising their glasses to celebrate Old Gao’s dream coming true?

He looked down at the main text:

”Comrade Gao Jiguo, an academician of the National Academy of Sciences, a renowned expert in experimental high-energy physics, and the former dean of the School of Physics at Jiangcheng University, passed away on November 6, 2025, at the age of 67. In accordance with his family’s wishes, the funeral arrangements will be kept simple, and no farewell ceremony will be held. We hereby issue this sorrowful obituary.”

It was signed by the ”Working Group for the Funeral of Academician Gao Jiguo, November 8, 2025.”

”November 6th...”

Yu Xian stared at the date, his throat turning somewhat dry.

That was the day before yesterday. Tuesday.

In other words, last night, while they were in that lively hotpot restaurant watching the exhilarating news of the project launch, the old man had already been lying cold for a whole day and night?

They had been...

Toasting a dead man.

”How could it be the day before yesterday?” Yu Xian returned the phone to Shi Zuozhou. He kept his voice extremely low, afraid of disturbing the eerie solemnity inside the classroom. ”What’s the cause of death? Since he passed away on Tuesday, why is the obituary only being published now?”

”The cause of death... I heard from a senior getting his Ph.D. that...” Shi Zuozhou paused, glanced around, and leaned in close to Yu Xian’s ear. ”It was suicide.”

”Suicide?”

”Yeah. The cause of death wasn’t written in the obituary, but word has already spread throughout the School of Physics.”

Yu Xian turned his head to look out the window, where gray water streaks meandered across the glass.

Did that make any sense?

A man who had spent most of his life running around for the collider chose to commit suicide the day before the resolution was passed?

It was like an ascetic monk on a pilgrimage to a holy land, bowing every three steps and kneeling every five, who suddenly turned around and jumped off a cliff the night before he was about to step foot in it.

Wasn’t this logic downright absurd?

”Do you think...” Shi Zuozhou swallowed hard. ”Could it have been the doing of those extreme opponents of the collider? And they faked it as a suicide?”

Yu Xian didn’t say anything. His first reaction had been the exact same thing.

But the resolution had still passed. In fact, due to Professor Gao’s death, the project’s progress might even be accelerated. How could the national will yield to such despicable conspirators? ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

For the entire class period, Professor Sheng seemed absent-minded at the podium, and the students below were in no mood to listen.

The incident was just too bizarre. None of the teachers or students at the School of Physics could accept the current conclusion.

Various versions of rumors bred within the rainwater:

”Did you hear? It seems that foreign exchange scholar did it. Someone saw them arguing in the lecture hall on Monday, and it was a really fierce fight.”

”I don’t think academic conflicts would escalate to the point of murder; only conflicts of interest would. I think that ’junior boss’ he was mentoring wanted to move up in rank, but Old Gao kept suppressing him, driving him to desperate measures.”

The whispers drilled into his ears from all directions. Yu Xian felt that these people didn’t care about the truth; they just wanted an outlet to vent their emotions.

As for conjectures, Yu Xian had his own:

Suicide.

Wasn’t this word the most suspicious of all?

Weren’t all the victims in those photos on his cousin’s desk cases of illogical suicides?

However, this was only a baseless intuition on his part. If it truly were the case, the nature of the matter would change entirely.

He refused to make blind guesses; this was his most basic respect for the deceased, for a dedicated teacher, and for an outstanding physicist.

***

The day passed in a daze.

The oppressive atmosphere lasted until dinner time, completely detonating with a trending topic reaching the number one spot.

Professor Gao Jiguo held a very high academic status. Coupled with the approval of the collider project and the extremely bizarre timing of his passing, the search term ”Gao Jiguo’s Passing” rushed to the top of the trending charts.

Fueled by the interpretations and conspiracy theories from numerous marketing accounts, countless netizens began attacking the ”pragmatist” scholars who had previously opposed the construction of the collider. They believed that their obstruction and cyberbullying had forced this old man, who had dedicated his life to science, to his death.

Public opinion boiled over.

Forced by immense public pressure, the National Major Scientific Engineering Committee had no choice but to urgently publish the detailed voting results on this rainy night to prove their innocence.

Yu Xian saw this news on the subway ride back to his cousin’s house.

The train car was packed; dripping umbrellas and the exhausted faces of people finishing their evening shifts were everywhere.

His phone vibrated. It was a screenshot sent by Shi Zuozhou, followed by a long string of question marks.

The image was the public notice document the committee had just released. It had black text on a white background, stamped with a blood-red official seal.

It clearly listed the voting breakdown of the eleven committee members.

Nine votes in favor, two votes against. The resolution had passed smoothly on schedule.

Yu Xian’s gaze moved down the list, skimming past the unfamiliar names, before finally fixating on a single line of text.

His heart felt like it had been violently squeezed by something.

His breathing abruptly stopped in that instant.

Committee member who cast a dissenting vote:

Gao Jiguo.