Reality Programming Association

Chapter 130: Chapter 53: The Evacuating Research Group

”Ahem, everyone, please quiet down.” A hesitant voice came from the front of the room.

Yu Xian looked up, a little surprised.

Standing at the front of the classroom was an unfamiliar young man. He looked to be about twenty-six or twenty-seven, and his expression was a bit awkward and nervous.

”Huh? Where’s Old Shu?” Shi Zuozhou also noticed something was off and asked in a low voice,

”Who’s this guy? The TA?”

Yu Xian shook his head. A bad feeling started to creep in.

”Um... Hello, everyone. I’m a third-year doctoral student from the High Energy Institute, and my surname is Chen.” He pushed up his glasses and continued,

”Professor Shu has other work commitments, so I’ll be taking over his classes for the rest of the semester.”

A low buzz of chatter and commotion instantly filled the classroom.

Yu Xian didn’t say anything, but he suddenly turned his head to look at Shi Zuozhou beside him.

Shi Zuozhou was looking at him at the same time.

Their eyes met, and they both read the flash of dread in the other’s gaze.

An expert in the field of high-energy physics.

A sudden absence.

A vague, non-specific reason.

The circumstances surrounding Professor Gao Jiguo’s suicide hung over them like a dark cloud once more.

’Professor Shu... Don’t tell me he’s run into the same situation as Professor Gao?’

”Please, no wild speculation.” Dr. Chen, who seemed to have heard the chatter from the class, quickly explained from the front of the room,

”Professor Shu is fine. His research group just has an urgent, important project that requires an overseas academic visit. Now, if everyone could turn to Chapter four in the PowerPoint...”

”Chen Bo, what really happened to Professor Shu?” a bold student interrupted, raising his hand.

”First, Professor Gao passed away unexpectedly, and now this is so sudden. Has something happened to him?”

”Yeah, what kind of project? Which country is he going to? Can you give us any details?” another student chimed in.

Dr. Chen looked like he’d never dealt with a situation like this before. He picked up the air conditioner remote and tapped it on the desk, trying to restore order.

”I’m not at liberty to disclose the specifics of the project. In any case, Professor Shu and his entire research group are going on this exchange, and it’s highly unlikely they’ll be back this semester.”

Dr. Chen clearly didn’t want to get bogged down in the topic. He opened the PowerPoint and began rattling off the material, reading straight from the slides.

This did nothing to quell the commotion in the classroom; in fact, it only grew louder.

After all, not much time had passed since Professor Gao Jiguo’s death. No one was saying it out loud, but everyone was on edge.

Yu Xian didn’t join the clamor. His brow was furrowed in thought.

’An overseas exchange?’

For a field like high-energy physics, which relies heavily on large-scale experimental facilities, visiting top labs overseas was indeed common.

But those visits were usually short-term. Even for a major experiment, it would typically last only a month or two, or they would just send a few doctoral students to be resident researchers.

Besides, under normal circumstances, a long-term visiting scholar program like that would require applications and approvals to be processed far in advance. If that were the case, he wouldn’t have offered a class this semester in the first place.

Doing it so hastily, just grabbing a random doctoral student to cover for him... it all felt incredibly strange.

Yu Xian thought about the recent riots and the rumors that blamed them on the physics experiments.

’Don’t tell me... he fled?’

Yu Xian’s heart clenched.

He suddenly remembered the box trucks he had seen parked at the entrance to the School of Physics on his way back to the dorm at noon.

At the time, he had assumed they were there to deliver new equipment after the riots.

But thinking back on it now, the direction the workers were moving... it seemed a little off.

The precision instruments wrapped in layers of packing foam, the tightly sealed black transit cases—they weren’t being unloaded from the trucks and moved into the building.

They were being moved out of the building and onto the trucks!

’Like they were moving out?’

’Or... evacuating?’