Chapter 61: Dean Lin's Intentions

As soon as the plagiarism check was successfully completed, Zhou Yun promptly contacted Deng Yonghua.

Since it was written on Overleaf, Deng Yonghua could access it as well. Not long after receiving the notification, he logged into the platform.

Just by glancing at the abstract, he pulled several blank sheets of paper from the side. As an expert in cybersecurity and cryptography, Deng Yonghua possessed mathematical skills that ranked among the finest in the computer science department.

Even so, his progress in reviewing Zhou Yun's thesis was exceptionally slow.

Every now and then, he had to pause to work out equations on his scratch paper.

To avoid breaking his train of thought, halfway through the review, he took a moment to message Qiu Yan, asking him to cover today's Theory of Computation lecture.

He then resumed reading Zhou Yun's thesis in his office.

Although master's theses generally spanned dozens of pages, the exposition of core technologies was quite concise. By around ten o'clock in the evening, Deng Yonghua had nearly finished.

Taking off his glasses, he pinched the bridge of his nose. Indeed, it had been a very long time since he had spent such a prolonged period reviewing a single paper, not even for Zhou Yun's earlier short papers had he examined them with such meticulous care.

This was because, in a sense, a graduation thesis was far more important than a preliminary paper. Thus, despite his high confidence in Zhou Yun, he remained extremely thorough during the review.

Fortunately, Zhou Yun did not disappoint him. The thesis was exceptionally well-written; at least from a mathematical standpoint, he could find no flaws whatsoever.

As for its academic contribution, he was not a deep-learning specialist, so he could not fully grasp the ultimate significance of the research. However, the experimental section clearly indicated performance far exceeding current standards.

Yet, the paper involved a massive amount of advanced mathematics. The mere thought of the thesis defense—where certain professors with weaker mathematical backgrounds might fail to comprehend the work yet still insist on raising questions—brought a smile to his face, making him certain the upcoming scene would be highly entertaining.

Having finished reading, he replied to Zhou Yun.

He instructed him to print out the thesis and hand it to him in person, after which he could begin preparing the PowerPoint slides for his graduation defense.

He had previously discussed this matter with Dean Lin, who had expressed agreement. However, whether Zhou Yun would ultimately be permitted to proceed with the defense still depended on the final written thesis.

This arrangement actually provided Zhou Yun with some leeway. Should the thesis turn out poorly, graduating next year or on the regular schedule remained entirely possible.

Although Dean Lin had not yet read the manuscript, Deng Yonghua felt certain that the Dean would raise no objections to a thesis of this caliber.

He planned to take the printed thesis and visit Dean Lin in person the following morning.

The next morning, Deng Yonghua first obtained the printed thesis from Zhou Yun and headed straight to the Dean's office.

"Dean Lin."

"Ah, Professor Deng? Please, have a seat. What brings you here?"

Away from official meetings, Dean Lin lacked the intimidating aura he usually projected, appearing instead remarkably approachable.

"Didn't we mention earlier that my first-year graduate student wanted to graduate early?"

"Right, that was mentioned. Didn't we say we'd wait until the graduation thesis was written before deciding? What, has he already finished it?"

Dean Lin nodded in slight astonishment and poured Deng Yonghua a cup of water.

At the time, he had raised that condition primarily to make the student back down in the face of difficulty, knowing full well how exceptionally challenging it was to write a graduation thesis in such a short span of time.

Yet, contrary to his expectations, not only did the student refuse to back down, but he had actually pressed forward against the current?

Deng Yonghua nodded, placing the still-warm thesis onto the desk. "Yes, the thesis is completed, and the plagiarism similarity score meets the university's standards. As for the content, I reviewed it yesterday and can guarantee that it is unquestionably worthy of being called an outstanding graduation thesis."

Dean Lin raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh? For you to speak of it this way, it must be exceptionally brilliant."

With that, he took the manuscript and began turning the pages.

Having worked with Deng Yonghua for so many years, he was well aware of his colleague's personality. In matters of academia, Deng was consistently rigorous, to the point that virtually none of his students ever delayed their graduation.

Yet, after reading only a few pages, Dean Lin furrowed his brow and looked up at Deng Yonghua. "Your student is in the computer science department, correct?"

"Naturally."

"Then why does this thesis read so much like it was written by a mathematics major?" He rubbed the corners of his eyes with a headache. As the Dean, he rarely reviewed papers personally these days.

Usually, students within research groups would present summaries, allowing him to grasp recent technological trends at a glance. Zhou Yun's thesis, however, was somewhat abstruse, making it rather difficult for him to comprehend easily.

Still, having spent over a decade working on the front lines of scientific research, his foundational skills remained intact. After roughly half an hour of reading, he finally raised his head.

"Very well. Your student is named Zhou Yun, correct? I approve his early graduation. When the time comes, just submit the supplementary paperwork and let him defend his thesis alongside this year's third-year graduate students."

Seeing Dean Lin give his approval, Deng Yonghua smiled slightly. "Great. If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave."

"Wait."

"Does the Dean have anything else to discuss?"

An exceptional talent like Zhou Yun stirred ambitions within him that he had not previously harbored.

"You know as well as I do that all these years, I have been striving to secure a doctoral program authorization for our department."

Upon hearing these words, Deng Yonghua sensed something amiss. "So, our application for the doctoral program has been approved?"

"Ha-ha, nothing ever escapes your keen eye. That's right. Although it hasn't been officially announced yet, our doctoral program has indeed been approved."

Deng Yonghua sighed. "Dean Lin, please speak your mind directly."

Having his intentions exposed did not embarrass Dean Lin in the least. "You know that for the college to develop, my efforts alone are not enough; we also need exceptional talent.

"As for talent, our university might not necessarily be able to retain them. But right now, we have one right here in our department. Therefore, I am wondering if we can persuade him to stay and pursue his doctorate at our institution, with you remaining as his advisor?"

Although the request sounded somewhat brazen, Dean Lin cast aside his pride for the sake of the college's development. "I am aware that this might be somewhat unfair to Zhou Yun.

"After all, given his ability, he could easily choose any university he pleases, nationwide or even globally. However, we can compensate him in other aspects, such as tuition waivers, enhanced scholarships, and so on. We can propose anything, and the university will do its utmost to accommodate him."

Just as he had anticipated, Dean Lin had set his sights on Zhou Yun.

"As for this, I cannot make the decision alone. It ultimately depends on Zhou Yun's own wishes."

To be frank, he was rather reluctant to keep Zhou Yun at the university. As his mentor, he could no longer offer much assistance to Zhou Yun's academic trajectory.

Zhou Yun required a much larger platform to unleash his talents, and frankly speaking, their university fell short of that scale.

Nonetheless, Dean Lin's proposition was not without merit. Therefore, rather than agonizing over it, he decided to leave the choice entirely to Zhou Yun.

If Zhou Yun wished to stay, then as his teacher, he would strive to secure maximum benefits for him. If Zhou Yun chose to leave, he would leverage his own connections to pave the way forward for him.