I Inherited 5,000 Years of Family Property

The information for the 158 projects was sent directly to Jiangnan University of Science and Technology the next day. Upon hearing this, the entire school's faculty and students entered a state of preparation for battle.

The 158 projects were assigned to 158 teachers at the school. Even though everyone's domain of research differed slightly, with Zhang Menglong's guidance material, as long as the foundational disciplines were the same, there was hardly any difficulty.

Lack staff? With tens of thousands of students in the school, if you told them that national-level projects were recruiting, every student in science and engineering would go crazy. They would definitely scramble to secure a spot in a research team.

If they could be part of a national project, it was an absolute bonus for their future job prospects or academic advancement!

Of course, if these materials were to be published, it wouldn't be a matter of just a moment, after all, theoretical analyses and experimental plans could be written up quickly, but papers needed lots of data for support; you surely couldn't just put predicted data in a paper, right? That would count as academic fraud.

Even though not a single paper had been published yet, their second evaluation's score had already reached 1580 points, together with the previous 320 points, making it 1900 points in total.

With this score, among the dozens of universities competing, they could already rank in the top 20!

But there is never a wall that doesn't let the breeze through. The news of Jiangnan University of Science and Technology cornering this year's 158 scientific research projects had spread within a few days, sparking a storm across all the universities in the country.

Who could accept this? It wasn't just Jiangnan University of Science and Technology eyeing these projects; other schools also wanted to use the scores from these 158 projects to boost their rankings.

Usually, the evaluation takes place at the end of June every year. For this national scientific research project competition, many schools' research teams had put in a great deal of effort, with some even having published some of their research findings in leading international journals.

It felt as if a duck already cooking in a pot had suddenly flown away; claiming there was no trickery involved, who would believe that?

On the surface, all the universities remained quite calm, and many principals even called the principal of Jiangnan University of Science and Technology to "seek advice" on their experiences. But behind the scenes, the competition among these top universities was not so clean, and many articles began to fiercely criticize Jiangnan University of Science and Technology.

The provocative power of the written word is immense. These messages quickly spread from the universities to the national graduate and doctoral student groups. You see, many of them also wanted to join these national-level projects to soar in their careers. The actions of Jiangnan University of Science and Technology undoubtedly cut off their opportunities. How could they tolerate this?

"Academic Fraud or Behind-The-Scenes Capital at Play, How Exactly did Jiangnan University of Science and Technology Secure 158 National-Level Projects?"

An article running into tens of thousands of words appeared online, raising massive doubts about Jiangnan University of Science and Technology and containing a large amount of sharp criticism that virtually dismissed the university as worthless.

As the article heated up the trend lists, an academic row exploded between the academic communities.

"Jiangnan University of Science and Technology, a third-tier university, dares to do this? 158 projects? Do they even have the scientific capability?"

"Heh, I finally understand now. As long as a school has money, even national projects are up for sale."

"Though the projects were bought, and the school's scientific hardware facilities are among the top in the world, can their people cut it? I remember, Jiangnan University of Science and Technology doesn't even have one academician, right?"

"What are you saying, haha, isn't there a Professor Han who was nominated for an academician this year? I remember Jiangnan University of Science and Technology publicized this for an entire week; they nearly announced it to the whole world."

"An academician, wow, how impressive. How many academicians does our school have again? 20? 30? They are so awesome, daring to take on so many projects with just one academician; there must be some dirty PY trading behind it, right?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, true enough. After all, the current world's richest person is from their Jiangnan University of Science and Technology, they really are loaded now."

...

Online, the mockery of Jiangnan University of Science and Technology had been unending, but, of course, they didn't have the tone of those who couldn't eat grapes and say they're sour; instead, they started attacking the faculty directly. Regarding the faculty, the people at Jiangnan University of Science and Technology really couldn't find any point to argue against.

The truth is, their academic heritage is lacking, and there really isn't much they can do about it. Now, with such severe competition within the country, all the genuinely capable and excellent people naturally go to those prestigious universities like 985 and 211, and the compensation offered by those institutions is also higher.

With no rebuttal heard, the curses online grew even more intense.

"@Jiangnan University of Science and Technology, are you left speechless? If you had a bit of self-awareness, you'd quickly return the project and stop engaging in these underhanded tactics. Just wait two or three years when you can't present any research results, and see how you wrap things up."

"This kind of school, can they even produce any decent research results? I remember their last national-level project, and the best academic achievement was just getting a paper published in a tier-one SCI journal."

The slightly better schools can make any national project flourish, not to mention tier-one SCI articles. Sometimes they even appear in those top-tier academic journals.

"They really are too much!"

As the director of the research center of the school, Han Jinyu felt an urge to flip the table as he read these comments.

"If they are so capable, why don't I see them taking all the projects?"

"Mr. Han, they now suspect we got the projects through backdoor dealings," said Zhang Menglong, flippng through documents, "Actually, silencing them is quite simple."

"How so?"

"The thing is, they feel unfair because our school's research capabilities are poor. If it were Qingbei University or Yanjing University, these top-tier universities taking on so many research projects, they would only feel discontent."

"But that's an indisputable fact. Our professors are at most Yangtze Scholars or part of the Hundred Talents Program, Thousand Talents Plan. In institutions like the Huaxia Academy of Science, maybe even a Tai Chi-playing old man at the park or on the street is an academician. How can we compare?"

"Research capabilities are merely about articles. Since they aren't satisfied, why don't we just publish more papers to settle this?"

"Zhang Menglong, this is no joke," Han Jinyu said, "You might not have experienced the process of publishing a paper. From submission to initial review, it can take several months, and it might take up to a year to get it published."

"I remember my senior said that those top-tier journals respond within just a week or two, right?"

"Those journals have high submission thresholds. If the quality of the paper isn't up to par, they'll reject it outright. With a rejection rate over 95%, quick results are typical. But if it passes the review, things like expert evaluations also take several months. By then, the pilot university selection would be over, and we would have already drowned in spit."

"Is there a way to speed up the whole process?"

"Yes!" said Han Jinyu, "If the level of your article surpasses everyone else in the world, even reaching the level of a Nobel Prize, they will definitely publish your article at the fastest speed."

"Nobel Prize, huh?" Zhang Menglong nodded.

"What are you thinking about?" Han Jinyu laughed, "Are you perhaps thinking of publishing a Nobel Prize-worthy article within a month?"

"No," Zhang Menglong said calmly, "I'm just thinking about which invention I should use to win the Nobel Prize."