Chapter 3 Jelena

A pale blue light streaked with a long tail of flame, stopping momentarily above a checkpoint on the ground. The movement and stillness seemed abrupt.

It wasn't that he didn't want to continue, but he had reached a checkpoint where his identity would be verified. If he continued, he would be considered an intruder and subjected to a brutal attack.

"Stop! You have entered the People's Auditorium. Please show your ID, or you will be treated as an intruder." Two heavily armed sentries rushed over and immediately blocked the approaching person.

Only when they approached the sentries did they realize that within the blue light were two people: a white-haired old man and a young woman behind him.

"Karl Augustus." With a wave of his hand, a flash of white light emanated from his hand.

Faced with this sudden situation, the two sentries were about to attack when they saw a set of ID cards appear on the floating screen in front of them. The name on it was exactly what the other party had mentioned, Karl Augustus.

Without looking down, they immediately bowed at the name. "Dean Karl." The two men separated, stamped their feet, stood at attention, and saluted again, this time with a military salute. Without asking who the girl behind them was, they let them go.

After they left, a sentry spoke excitedly. "Was that really Professor Karl, the honorary director of the Augustus Institute?"

Another soldier said proudly, "Of course I've seen him. It was only a glimpse from afar, but I remember him clearly."

"The Augustus Institute is our chief research institute, and Dean Karl is one of Tianchen's thirteen councilors. He's a powerful figure. Have you ever met him before?"

Hearing this, the sentry who spoke first said with some envy, "I didn't expect even a figure as important as Dean Karl to come to listen to Mr. Lan Jielt's speech. He's truly a young talent." With a grumble, the sentry was about to return to his post.

After all, only a few dared to fly above the People's Auditorium like Karl, and they were needed to maintain order among the throng of reporters below. At that moment, the sentry suddenly remembered something. He paused on his way back to his post and turned to his companion. "Do you know who that girl was with Dean Karl?"

"Girl," the sentry paused, making a long gesture as if to recall something before finally saying, "There's no such person. At least, I haven't seen her."

"But if you think about it, the only person of the right age to be with Dean Karl is probably his granddaughter."

"I heard Dean Karl's granddaughter is the chief researcher at the Augustus Institute. Like Mr. Yuxuan, who's giving the speech here, she's a young talent."

As the two sentries were conversing in mid-air, a suppressed, cold voice rang out over their communicators. "You two don't want to do this anymore, do you? Get down!"

At that voice, the two sentries' faces instantly changed, and they dropped from the air. They quickly clutched their communicators and shouted, "Yes, yes, Captain, we'll be down right away."

In a quiet room within the auditorium, Yuxuan, dressed in a sharp suit, silently sorted through the documents in his hands. His eyes closed slightly, his mind reeling from the information.

Two minutes—just two minutes—he had rushed from distant Chang'an to Jingcheng, the capital of China.

In this era, simple nations were a thing of the past.

To unite and explore the universe, under the call of China, the only great power at the time, they formed an alliance, forging a community with a shared future for mankind.

So now, there was only the Huaxia Alliance.

It was the sole voice of the entire Earth and half of the solar system. It was also the core of the Tianchen Council. Hundreds of nations, large and small, once upon a time on Earth, were now all members of the alliance.

The door gently opened, but it only cracked open before pausing. A gentle knock followed the next moment, as if afraid to disturb him.

"Come in," Yu Xuan said, without turning back, still gazing at the information.

It had to be said that Na'er's organization of the information was very logical. Yu Xuan felt absolutely comfortable letting her handle anything he considered a treasure, because she was like a second version of himself, knowing exactly what to do. Na'er was an AI program he'd personally written in high school, materialized using room-scale reconstruction technology.

Of course, these were all his own proprietary technologies, and even the programming for Na'er was modeled after the Tianhe-4, the solar system's top computer, and all the cutting-edge equipment used to create a super-AI.

Throughout the process, he hadn't achieved any breakthroughs; he simply integrated existing technologies, drawing upon the strengths of his predecessors.

She was like his housekeeper, always by his side.

But he'd only installed the materialization technology in his home. This meant that Na'er could move freely around the house, but when she left, she naturally had to rely on his electronic devices.

However, today was a big event for Yu Xuan, and Na'er, worried about disturbing him, stayed home to watch over the house.

The door opened, and Carl walked in with the girl. Seeing it was Carl, Yu Xuan quickly stood up, bowed slightly, and said, "Grandpa Carl."

Carl nodded, motioning for him to sit down. A gentle smile crossed his face. He said, "Heroes have always emerged from youth. I never thought your reputation would surpass mine."

"As long as your concept of imaginary equations is recognized by the scientific community, it will be a groundbreaking step forward, and it will promote the progress of all mankind."

Yu Xuan nodded, without any modesty.

He had been obsessed with academic research since childhood, pursuing his passions. In school, he was a bit of a nerd, introverted person, and had few friends. It's safe to say that throughout high school, he didn't even know everyone in his class.

In this day and age, high school students can actually choose their subjects.

Because he was interested in tactics and strategy, fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a general, he chose tactical command as a minor subject, while naturally pursuing academic research as his main focus.

He possessed an exceptional academic acumen and won numerous awards in elementary and middle school. He loved imaginary concepts like imaginary numbers and antimatter, and he loved using science to verify theories hypothesized by previous generations. In high school, when he had the opportunity, he specialized in imaginary numbers and antimatter.

Once, while crunching data, he stumbled upon a strange set of equations. After a few empirical calculations, he stumbled upon the relationship between imaginary numbers and antimatter, which thrilled him immensely.

After hundreds of millions of calculations, he successfully refined this concept and named it the imaginary equation.

This concept existed only conceptually; after all, no one had ever been to imaginary space, nor had anyone seen antimatter.

If this concept were accepted, it would, in a sense, open the door to antimatter. It would be no exaggeration to say that it would advance the entire academic community, and even human civilization.

Patting him on the shoulder, Carl stood up. "Your Lan Jielt family is truly remarkable. If this succeeds, I wonder how proud old Gu Rong will be."

At this, Yu Xuan's eyes flickered with an indescribable emotion. There was excitement, yet also hesitation. After a moment's silence, he spoke. "Are they here?"

Karl shrugged and said, "No. Before I came, I asked old man Gu Rong if he wanted to come with us. He said he didn't want to bother you, but they'd be watching you on TV."

Yu Xuan nodded, somewhat helplessly. Just as the atmosphere was about to cool, Karl seemed to remember something and stepped aside, revealing the girl behind him.

"Come, let me introduce you. This is my granddaughter, Jelena Augustus."

Although he felt helpless, upon hearing this, Yu Xuan immediately stepped forward, gracefully shaking her hand and giving her a slight nod of greeting.

In a sense, Jelena was very beautiful. Her beauty was different from Na'er's. Na'er was a combination of all the perfect qualities of human beings, a kind of all-pervasive, ultimate beauty. Jelena's beauty was one of pure perfection: long, lustrous white hair, lavender eyes, a delicate face, delicate skin, a curvaceous figure, and an innate scholarly air—each of these features instantly captivated the audience.

As academics, they naturally weren't focused on this aspect. He had never heard of Jelena, but he knew that Dean Karl's granddaughter was the chief researcher at the Augustus Institute, known as a prodigy.

When outsiders thought of Jelena, the prodigy of the Augustus family, some naturally associated her with Yuxuan, the prodigy of the Lan Jielt family. The two were a perfect match, both in family background and status.

This was only their first meeting, but reporters had already gossiped about how many children they both had.

"Hello, my name is Jelena," Jelena said, bowing her head slightly.

"My name is Yuxuan," Yuxuan introduced himself confidently. Before they could exchange any more pleasantries, Karl pulled his granddaughter aside and said to Yuxuan with an apologetic smile, "We're running out of time, so we won't bother you anymore."

He then looked at his granddaughter and said, "Let's go, Jelena. We've kept him busy for quite some time. Let's talk later."

As they left, Jelena shrugged off her grandfather's hand, somewhat disgruntled, and said angrily, "I, I didn't have anything to say just now. Why did I have to look for him later..."

It wasn't that she disliked Yuxuan; after all, it was only their first meeting. She just felt a slight flush on her face.

This was also his first time speaking to someone of the opposite sex his own age. She was so nervous she didn't dare see Yuxuan again, hence her excitement.

Karl, however, acted as if he hadn't heard him and looked at his granddaughter with a look of interest. "Well, my dear Jelena, are you attracted to me? I'm the heir to the Lan Jielt family, the eldest grandson of Gurung Lan Jielt."

"And among the Thirteen Senators, Gurung holds a seat, just like me. If his speech is successful, the other five major families will surely come to propose marriage. What do you think? You should make your own judgment."

Hearing her grandfather's words, Jelena's face flushed red as if blood could drip out, and she felt like threatening to run herself into a wall.

Although she had already guessed what her grandfather meant, she had assumed he would at least state it subtly. But when Karl spoke bluntly and pointedly to her face, she felt so ashamed she almost crawled into the ground.

Karl wasn't doing this for the sake of an alliance. Augustus wasn't even a family; he only started a family when he reached the pinnacle of his scholarship.

His family consisted of only two people, a grandfather and a grandson. Jelena's parents had been accidentally infected by the virus while fighting the Sixth "Nirvana" and were killed by their own forces. Looking at the six major families in Tianchen, only Yu Xuan's younger generation was worthy of his granddaughter in terms of status and family background.

The others were either prodigal sons who spent money lavishly and harmed the girl, or wealthy second-generations who spent their days idle and stirring up trouble. He simply looked down on them.

If he married his granddaughter to him, he would die with regret. Therefore, if it weren't for this, Carl wouldn't be so anxious.