The Great Worm Lich

Tao Lulu was very snappy, causing Zhang Lisheng to reply in confusion, “What capability do I have? I went there because I was forced to do so!”

“Forced to do so? Oh, as though somebody would put a gun on your head if you didn’t go! Fine then! Even if you were really forced to go, explain to me then! What have you done in the US all these years? Can you please enlighten me?”

“Er, nothing much actually. Just go to school, do some small business, carry out some experiments and researches, erm, as well as publishing papers…”

“You’re a sophomore, so tell me, what kind of small business, research and paper you’re doing? Huh, Zhang Lisheng?” When Tao Lulu saw the young man hemming and hawing, she could not help but interrupt him.

At this moment, a burly and tall young white man with blonde hair, who suddenly came running over from across the bonfire, had his eyes widen as he ran up to Zhang Lisheng. After staring at Zhang Lisheng for a while, he suddenly stuttered in English, “Oh my God! Oh my God! You’re… You’re that LS’ Mr. Zhang, no wait! I should call you Dr. Zhang instead!”

Zhang Lisheng, who had just received his Ph.D. a few days ago, froze right away. After studying the white young man for a while, thousands of thoughts flashed across his mind. Standing up, he blocked Tao Lulu’s sight and whispered, “Do I know you, Sir?”

The white young man shook drunkenly a few times and said in excitement, “No no no! I didn’t have the honor to meet you before, but I’ve always admired you, the world’s youngest self-made billionaire; the youngest biologist who published a paper in the first volume of Science journal; the youngest scientist who hosted the official scientific laboratory of the Ivy League school; the youngest recipient of the Medal of Honor personally awarded by the President; and the youngest Nobel Prize winner in the future! It’s said that you have been nominated this year and if you’re unfortunate enough to not win anything, you’d have to wait till 50 years later before you can verify again. However, regardless of whether you win the award or not, you’re still the coolest and most dazzling scientist in the US. You’d rather watch those demonstrating workers freeze to death instead of making concessions and all because you’re a genius with a heart of stone! Aha! This is just so damn awesome! You’re my spiritual teacher, yes, spiritual teacher! I collect all your information online and speaking of it, you’re a low-key famous person. Even if you appear on the news, it’ll only be the slight mention of your name. This is so f*cked up man! Don’t tell me that the news of Johnny Depp deciding to play in the movie ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ is even more important than the historical moment where the future ‘Enlightener’ of the human species is receiving a medal from the leader of the free world?”

When Zhang Lisheng heard this part, he finally understood that this crazy white young man in front seemed to be a fanatical admirer of him.

Ever since the rapid expansion of the LS Group, Zhang Lisheng had been trying to suppress those eye-catching news about himself with force by relying on his more and more extensive contacts and relationships. however, in the US where information dissemination was extremely unrestrained and developed, it was impossible for this news to be completely halted. Just take his obtaining of Ph.D. for example, his name and the thesis of his degree would definitely be published on Stanford University’s website.

If one did not pay particular attention to it, such publishing of information would basically be negligible on the Internet that housed hundreds of billions, or even trillions of articles of information. However, if a person purposely searched for it, some of the public information would be easily sorted out.

However, before meeting this white young man, Zhang Lisheng had never thought that he would have a fanatical admirer on Earth, and of all the places, it abruptly appeared here instead.

He was stunned for a while, before finally spreading his hands and saying, “Sir, first of all, I’m not the genius with a heart of stone that you said, that demonstrator who died outside the LS factory in New York was completely an unexpected incident; secondly, I’m not the host of Shrimp World No. 2’s Stanford biological laboratory but just a mere temporary host; thirdly, I’ve never thought of myself as the ‘future ‘Enlightener’ of the human species’ or something. In truth, I can’t even lead my own company well as everything relies on my professional manager. In short, I’m completely different from the person you’ve imagined so I’m sorry to disappoint you but can you please leave immediately? Goodbye!”

“Oh, hey, I understand! I understand! A big personage would always have to maintain a sham attitude!” The white young man stared straight in a daze and suddenly took off his white sweatshirt, revealing a body of solid muscles. Eagerly with anticipation, he said, “I’ll leave right away, Dr. But before that, can you please sign on my shirt?”

“I don’t have a pen, sorry.”

“I have a Ph.D. so I always carry pens and notes when I travel. Sometimes they can save lives at critical moments. Oh yeah, I’m called Iverson!” The young man excitedly pulled out a thick-wick marker from his trouser pocket and handed it to Zhang Lisheng together with his sweatshirt.

With no other choice, Zhang Lisheng took over the pen and the sweatshirt and wrote a sentence on it before signing his name and returning the sweatshirt back to the white young man.

When Iverson saw the words on the sweatshirt, he read it out loud, “Dear Iverson, I hope alcohol will not burn a hole in your brain and let us meet again in a mental asylum next time —Your sincere friend, Zhang Lisheng. Oh, very humorous, I like it! Thank you for the sign, Dr.! I’ll keep this forever, thank you!” Clutching his sweatshirt, he turned and staggered away.

“I can guarantee that he won’t even be able to keep the sign till tomorrow!” Looking at the back of the leaving young white man, Zhang Lisheng shrugged and sat down again, deliberately pretending that nothing had happened.

“Mountain Worm, did that person call you ‘Doctor’?” Tao Lulu was not that particularly talented in language so from the fast chattering of Iverson, she could only catch one word.

“Yes, because my pre-university journal paper was somewhat groundbreaking, I studied Ph.D. directly in Stanford. I’ve just gotten my degree last month.”

“From high school directly to Ph.D.? is there even such a skip?” the girl asked with bewilderment.

Zhang Lisheng shrugged and did not say anything.

“What was the man talking about? I saw him spouting out a lot of words,” the girl became silent for a while before asking again.

“He’s drunk, so he kept repeating some drunken words.”

Upon hearing Zhang Lisheng’s answer, Tao Lulu was stunned for a while before suddenly pulling at the hand of a short-haired girl wearing a light green T-shirt and shorts beside her. “Taozi, didn’t you become an exchange student in the US before? Help me translate please. What did that man say just now?”

The short-haired girl kept sneaking glances at Zhang Lisheng from time to time as she replied, “He said your fellow villager here is more talented than you are. He’s one of the youngest billionaires in the world; the youngest biologist who published a paper in Science journal; the youngest scientist who hosts the Ivy League School’s ‘laboratory’; the youngest recipient of the Medal of Honor; the future Nobel Prize winner; and some human’s Enlightener or something. All in all, your fellow villager here is leading the best of the best life in the US.”

Before tonight, Tao Lulu had been worried that Zhang Lisheng would not return to the correct track and would still continue with his ‘eerie deity’ thing but now that she heard him obtaining so many unbelievable achievements, the girl was overcome with a lot of thoughts and she felt that her brain had seemingly gone haywire.

She was stunned for quite a while. It was only until the fat sheep that was the first to be barbecued had been cut into pieces, pierced by thick long bamboo sticks and were given to the visitors in skewers that she finally looked at Zhang Lisheng and asked, “Are all of those things uttered by that man true?”

“More or less.”

“So why didn’t you tell me before?”

“What is there to tell you? Haven’t I told you before? No matter how amazing my accomplishments are, I wouldn’t find it to be amazing in front of you,” Zhang Lisheng casually replied.

Women are weak to words. The instant this sentence left his mouth, it caused Tao Lulu’s mood to turn a 180. She deliberately frowned and put on an angry look, but her mouth still showed a smile that could not be concealed. “Zhang Lisheng, being over-modest is being a hypocrite! It has honestly never crossed my mind that the Father in our Guawo Village’s Zhang Family is actually so different from the others, that he can make a name for himself no matter where he goes.”

Zhang Lisheng smiled noncommittally and did not say anything.

When Li Cheng, the university student from Beijing Normal University by the side, saw the faint smile on the young man’s face, he whispered to his friend, Lu Xiao, whose face had become extremely grave, “Okay that’s it bro! I first thought that he’s only amazing but now, he’s like the reincarnation of both Rockefeller and Einstein! We’re not at the same level with him at all. You’re done for dude, there’s no need to think about it anymore…”

The bright moon was sparking and luminous in the night sky, with the sea of stars twinkling dazzlingly. As time went by, some people were in high spirits, while some were immersed in sadness at Guawo Village’s campfire party. Some people began to sing loudly in their drunkenness while some started to cry after getting tipsy, so just like this, the campfire finally came to an end.

The campfire gradually went out and the crowds slowly dispersed. Before going home, Tao Lulu sat on the ground with reluctance. Watching the firelight that was getting smaller, she told Zhang Lisheng, “Mountain Worm, we’re going to take a bus to Hengze City to chill tomorrow for a day and then we’ll proceed to go to Inner Mongolia the day after. How nice it would be if you could follow us.”

“But I’m here on the expenses of Sichuan University now. I get 500 Yuan car allowance a day, a star-hotel standard accommodation and free buffets from two restaurants as they hope that I can give two lectures during the summer vacation. If you want me to follow you guys and go as a backpacker, well, that’s really um… um…” Of course Zhang Lisheng would never follow a group of university students to go on a backpacking trip, so he cooked up some excuses randomly.

“I know, I was merely making a casual remark.” The girl smiled dimly. “Since we’re still young and have more time in the future, I’ve decided that once I’ve graduated from the university, I want to enter a US university too!”

When Tao Lulu reached this part, she stood up from the ground and it was apparent that her spirit had been lifted a lot.

“Okay! I can help you and I can promise that you can…”

“I don’t want your help!” The girl grinned and took out her mobile phone. She looked for a photo and then showed it to Zhang Lisheng. “Do you think that you’re a genius and that you’re amazing? Let me tell you, Mountain Worm, a famous professor in our Beijing Normal University called Lu Tiandao also hit it off well with me and has accepted me as her ‘inner disciple’! I can skip a year and study as a graduate student when the semester starts again. By that time, it’d be very easy for me to go abroad as an exchange student. The few students under her all have the experience of studying abroad.”

It was a group photo of Tao Lulu and a kind-looking old lady with two young girls snuggling up to her, one girl had dashing eyebrows who looked as though she was full of heroic spirit while the other red-dressed girl appeared to be studious and quiet in terms of her look and temperament. Zhang Lisheng took a glance and casually remarked, “I thought the history course in a Normal University is created to produce teachers. What a waste of time if you do your postgraduate study in this course but don’t become a teacher in China in the end.”

“Stop spouting nonsense if you don’t know anything, there are also many non-teaching courses in a Normal University. And besides, a graduate student can also transfer to other relevant departments. I have my own plans so I won’t waste time at all!” Tao Lulu glared at the young man but her spirit had become dampened as tears began to fill her eyes. “I’ll go back first, Mountain Worm. It’s already so late so you better go back and sleep now! I won’t say goodbye to you tomorrow to save the trouble!” Turning around, she joined her companions to mingle with the crowds and gradually walked away along the mountain road.