On Sunday evening, there was a program recording, so Ye Qiusuo drove herself over.
Gaoxing TV Station has an underground parking lot, but only the station's own vehicles or those of invited guests are allowed in. Ordinary people like her couldn't drive in, so she had to park on the street near the station. Fortunately, there were empty spots.
It was late October, and the nights tended to be chilly. When Ye Qiusuo got out of the car, she casually picked up a coat from the passenger seat and draped it over her wrist.
As she approached the entrance of the TV station, Professor Ye noticed crowds of girls lining both sides, holding various support banners. A van was parked horizontally right in front of the main door.
Ye Qiusuo's gaze swept over the banners, which read things like 'Take care of yourself, Xixi,' 'Go Xixi!'...
Unfamiliar.
Professor Ye continued walking forward just as people began to disembark from the van. A man and a woman were shielding a tall, slender man as they moved ahead.
Big fans on both sides were trying to maintain order, but in that moment, screams still pierced the night sky.
Ye Qiusuo could only see the man's tall, straight back, not his face. She gave a brief, indifferent glance and didn't look again, failing to notice that the group had stopped, with the man being shielded to the side to sign autographs for fans.
Professor Ye remained completely unaffected. With the blue access pass hanging around her neck, she strode forward purposefully, utterly indifferent to the screams from both sides.
The fans nearby, seeing her walk forward nonchalantly, couldn't help but whisper to each other.
"Who is that?"
Her walking aura alone seemed extraordinary, and she was good-looking too.
"Maybe a minor celebrity?"
"Doesn't seem like it. Would a minor celebrity have such a presence? Maybe she's some powerful agent?"
Professor Ye was unaware of their discussions about her and walked straight into the Gaoxing TV recording studio. The recording would last three hours, meaning she probably wouldn't get back until after 1 a.m.
As the recording began, all the civilian contestants once again took their previous seats, except the lights over the twenty eliminated contestants' seats were now off.
In the center of the stage sat the same five resident guests.
"Which of the following four options is the standard for domestic transport networks?" the host asked. "A. PHD, B. SDH, C. DWDM, D. OTN."
Ye Qiusuo's finger hovered over the D answer button. After hesitating for a moment, she moved to another button. Just as she was about to press it, the host on stage spoke up.
"Don't rush to choose yet. Starting from the second episode, as the questions become more specialized and difficult, we'll discuss first and then select our answers."
Ye Qiusuo frowned. This format wasn't supposed to appear until the third episode. It was through this 'discuss first, choose later' mode that the female lead would later attract more fans, and a group of civilian contestants would start following her answers.
Regardless of Professor Ye's thoughts, the premature change in rules was an indisputable fact.
Naturally, the five resident guests spoke first, from left to right. The first to speak was Dong Junjian, the eldest among them, who had spent his first thirty years as a host before moving behind the scenes.
"I'm not really clear on this sort of thing, just picked an answer randomly."
"I don't understand it either. Young people probably know more about this?" Jiang Fei turned to ask the two younger people beside him.
Xia Zhoubing immediately waved his hands. "Brother Jiang, I'm not sure either. This sounds too technical."
"What about Yurou? I think you know," Jiang Fei said affirmatively.
Wan Yurou, with her long hair cascading over her shoulders and wearing a soft yellow short skirt that day—gentle yet lively—smiled lightly and said in a soft voice, "It should be D, OTN."
"See? Xia, you should learn more from Yurou," Jiang Fei tapped the table. "Both young people, yet such a big difference."
Wan Yurou explained from the side, "The standard we used before was DWDM, but with the advent of the 5G era, we now use OTN. OTN technology primarily uses point-to-point, chain, star, and ring networking methods."
The guests on stage were confused and clearly not understanding, but this string of technical terms made them instantly feel that Wan Yurou was impressive.
Sitting in her seat, Professor Ye heard the latter part of her explanation and couldn't help but frown: Did she remember it wrong?
After the resident guests finished, the host then randomly selected civilian contestants to explain their reasoning. The first contestant thought it was A, giving the reason that it looked familiar.
Ye Qiusuo looked down at the answer button in her hand. Several people were called upon, some of whom knew a bit about OTN, but no one corrected Wan Yurou's mistake.
As a professor with a rigorous nature, she couldn't quite tolerate such a low-level mistake.
At that moment, the host cued her: "What does contestant number 43 choose?"
The director had specifically instructed today to give contestant number 43 more screen time, enough shots, firstly to let her expose herself, and secondly to generate program popularity. This kind of person that the audience hates easily attracted traffic.
Once again under the spotlight and camera, Professor Ye: "..."
The production team really had it out for her.
Thinking calmly, Ye Qiusuo spoke succinctly: "D."
Sure enough, the host's next question asked for her reason.
Professor Ye embarked on the path of correction: "A is the first-generation technology, B the second, C the third, and D is the current latest, fourth-generation technology."
"Additionally, OTN typically uses ring, mesh, and other networking methods. What Wan Yurou mentioned earlier were the DWDM networking methods."
Everyone: "..."
Even without knowing the truth, contestant number 43 seemed more convincing than Wan Yurou on stage.
Having learned from the previous episode, Wan Yurou reacted very quickly this time. She immediately corrected herself with a faint smile: "Perhaps I didn't remember clearly. Thank you, contestant number 43, for the correction."
These were all the analyses she had memorized verbatim. If asked to explain in detail, Wan Yurou couldn't either, and she wasn't sure if she had remembered incorrectly.
Moreover, her assistant below, holding a phone, kept making gestures at her. Seeing the gestures, Wan Yurou understood she had made an error.
“Yurou, knowing this much is already quite impressive. After all, you’re not a professional,” Jiang Fei comforted her on stage.
Professor Ye frowned. If one isn't professional, one shouldn't speak out, especially since this program was aimed at the public.
However, she didn't say anything more. The guests on stage weren't her students; there was no need for excessive criticism.
However, clearly, the production team had no intention of letting Ye Qiusuo off the hook. Throughout the rest of the recording, they frequently cued her.
Professor Ye: "..."
Since she had to answer, Professor Ye answered flawlessly, explaining meticulously in more detail than even what the staff could find on Baidu, even pointing out errors on the Baike page.
By the end, everyone on stage, in the audience, and behind the scenes: "..."
Putting aside the malicious behavior of this person impersonating Professor Ye and taking over the project leader for Tianqiu Tech, her strength was truly impressive.
As she was leaving, Ye Qiusuo was called over by a friend.
"Ye Qiusuo." Her friend, who had been watching from backstage, also noticed the production team's maneuvering and said somewhat apologetically, "You attracted a lot of attention in the last episode. The director probably wants to keep more footage of you, that's why they... If you feel it's affecting your life, you can get eliminated early. Just answer randomly or get things wrong, it's fine."
"I know," Ye Qiusuo said calmly. It was just that they kept calling on her, and Professor Ye's professional habits kicked in; she couldn't help but explain and correct the mistakes.
"Sorry for dragging you into this." Her friend had just started the job, only a small intern. Recruiting Ye Qiusuo back then was out of sheer necessity, and she didn't want to cause her any trouble.
"I chose to stay myself." Ye Qiusuo waved her hand. Now, she just wanted to see how much the plot would change if she kept participating.
Her friend wanted to say more but was called away to pack up props, so she had to leave.
...
"Director, the name of contestant number 43... should we add it to the subtitles?" asked the post-production staff member.
In the first episode, contestant number 43 had neither a name tag nor her name added in post-production subtitles. Viewers were already asking about it.
"Did you find anything else on Huajing University's official website?" The director turned to ask his assistant.
"There are several professors surnamed Ye, but only Professor Ye Qiusu is relevant in terms of specialization. I called the department's number, but no one answered." The assistant had been checking the staff list on Huajing University's official website for several days and hadn't found any professor named Ye Qiusuo.
Generally, a prerequisite for leading a project at such a tech company is a doctoral degree.
The director thought for a moment: "Put her name up. Remember to make a name tag for her for the next episode."
The 'project lead' title might be fake, but her performance this episode was undeniable—it wasn't just a little impressive. The entire second episode was captivated by Ye Qiusuo. Broadcasting it would definitely generate a lot of buzz. As for later when netizens might dig up the fake credentials, the production team could simply kick her out then.
"Director, could someone have leaked the question bank in advance? And she studied all the questions beforehand?" The staff member who had earlier pointed out there was a Professor Ye Qiusu at Huajing University stepped forward and whispered his guess.
"This..." The director frowned. The whole thing did seem odd from top to bottom. He looked at his assistant beside him. "You guys go investigate. Also, find out who recruited contestant number 43 and bring them here to ask."
While the second episode was still being edited, the show "Knowledge Q&A" had already begun its massive promotional campaign across major platforms. As a locally produced program by a high-rated TV station, it received significant attention.
Even Lin Lu, who spent every day in the lab, had heard about it—of course, it was strongly recommended by his enthusiastic younger sister.
"The data should be fine this time. Remember to give it to Professor Ye later," a team member said, handing the compiled data to Lin Lu before leaving.
After finishing his organization, Lin Lu wanted to relax a bit and clicked on the show his sister had so strongly recommended.
Watching the first half, Lin Lu almost fell asleep. This show wasn't suitable for people like them. A lot of the knowledge sounded professional but was really just to impress laymen. Anyone with slightly broader knowledge would find it uninteresting.
He completely didn't understand what the barrage comments were praising the guests for.
By the second half, Lin Lu was ready to exit, but then the host suddenly called on a contestant. The camera cut to her, and Lin Lu instantly woke up.
Wasn't that his professor?!
Lin Lu immediately sat up straight, watching as the professor meticulously corrected the mistakes made by the guests on stage.
How did the professor have time to participate in such a show? It didn't seem like Professor Ye's style.
While he was still pondering, Lin Lu suddenly saw a wave of barrage comments mocking Professor Ye. Later, when the teacher said she was the project lead for Tianqiu Tech, the barrage filled the entire screen, all saying she was impersonating the lead. The few comments praising contestant number 43 were quickly drowned out.
Lin Lu's hand slipped, and he exited to search for the show on Weibo, only to find everyone saying contestant number 43 would do anything for fame.
What a mess of comments!
'Do anything for fame'? His teacher was so young and accomplished, did she need such tactics?
Although Lin Lu wasn't entirely clear on whose hands the project was actually in, it was true that Tianqiu Tech had always collaborated with Huajing University. There were only a few professors in their department; Professor Ye wouldn't lie. It was likely the professor had set up the project with other students.
Lin Lu quickly found the gossip influencer posting these Weibo messages and privately messaged them, saying Professor Ye was amazing and couldn't possibly be lying, that they must have misunderstood.
He typed out a long argument describing why Professor Ye absolutely could not be impersonating a project lead, wanting to show how incredibly brilliant their young professor was!
"Data revised?" Ye Qiusuo asked casually as soon as she entered, seeing her student leaning against the wall playing with his phone.
Hearing the very person he was describing appear before him, Lin Lu panicked, his hand jerked, and his phone clattered to the floor.
"What's the rush?" Ye Qiusuo bent down, picked up his phone for him, and handed it directly over without looking at the screen. She asked him, "Is the thesis revision done? Let me see. I have the whole afternoon today."
Lin Lu took the phone and immediately stuffed it into his pocket, not daring to take it out again. He hurried over to the computer, opened the file, and let Ye Qiusuo check it.
He didn't know the gossip influencer had already received and seen his half-finished private message.
Lin Lu had only managed to righteously declare how amazing Professor Ye was; he hadn't written out any actual accomplishments yet. The entire message didn't even contain a complete name.
Seeing this kind of private message content, the gossip influencer sneered, then immediately posted it: 【So contestant #43 is starting to hire influencers for brainwashing now? Too bad I don't take money; I do this purely as a hobby. Maybe check your own looks and age before impersonating a project lead.】
This influencer account was maintained by a certain company and acted quite arrogantly towards news unrelated to the company's artists.
The comments below immediately praised the influencer for being bold, and for a while, the account attracted even more traffic.
That day was a Friday, one day before the broadcast of the second episode.
