Chapter 13

Some long-forgotten names stirred awake, memories and old acquaintances surging to mind.

To be honest, Horkheimer and Larry Maye were not close; beyond their colleague relationship, they had little personal interaction, and their academic research topics barely overlapped.

He had never heard that Larry Maye had ever had a Chinese student.

“Alright, boy, what do you want from me?” Horkheimer asked, suppressing his inner doubts.

Lin Ran chose Larry Maye over Li Junnan, Li Xiaoman’s great-grandfather, precisely because Larry Maye was dead—in this era of poor information flow, neither Horkheimer nor any other big names of the Frankfurt School could easily verify the truth of what he said.

Li Junnan’s son, Li Xiaoman’s great-grandfather, was alive and well in New York; if Lin Ran produced the badge claiming it belonged to Li Junnan, and someone with ill intent found the same badge from Li Xiaoman’s great-grandfather, it would become a minor but troublesome Yinhuan .

More importantly, for Lin Ran, he needed the protection of the Frankfurt School—and didn’t the Frankfurt School, in turn, need a top-tier talent like him to boost their reputation in government and academia?

Who says the Frankfurt School’s critical theory can only be applied to humanities and social sciences? Applied to mathematics, it solved Fermat’s Last Theorem, centuries-old; applied to engineering, it helped America beat the Soviet Union to manned lunar landing.

Remember, before Lin Ran, a top talent of the Frankfurt School, joined NASA, NASA lagged far behind the Soviet space agency in artificial satellites and manned spaceflight.

By then, the Frankfurt School’s vast influence in America would naturally promote him—most of its key members were Jewish.

And Lin Ran would become the Frankfurt School’s representative in STEM, helping expand the influence of critical theory across academia.

It was a win-win.

“I wish to take up a professorship in the Mathematics Department at Columbia University,” Lin Ran said.

Horkheimer raised an eyebrow: “That’s not an easy thing. Do you have a Ph.D. from a European university?”

Horkheimer was clearly amused by the young man’s fantasy—this drastically lowered the credibility of his claim to be Larry Maye’s descendant.

In his mind, Larry Maye was at best a literary critic, impossibly distant from a mathematician.

“No,” Lin Ran said bluntly.

Horkheimer shook his head: “Then it’s not easy at all—even with my recommendation, you still need to convince Ralph Fox.”

“He’s not easy to convince.”

Ralph Fox served as Chair of Columbia’s Mathematics Department from 1952 to 1962; in 1960, he was midway through his term.

Lin Ran chose Columbia University as his first foothold for another crucial reason: it was exceptionally welcoming to Chinese.

At this moment, Zhou Yuanshen was an assistant professor in Columbia’s Statistics Department, and on New Year’s Day, 1960—the very day Lin Ran arrived in the 1960s—he was transferred to IBM’s Watson Laboratory.

For a long time, IBM maintained close ties with the military; Zhou Yuanshen’s transfer to IBM’s most core Watson Laboratory was no small matter.

Add to that Wang An, future founder of Wang Laboratories, who rose to prominence in New York, and later, Zhou Yuanshen’s student Professor Shaw-Hwa Lo, who directly became Chair of Columbia’s Mathematics Department.

Taken together, these facts clearly show how welcoming New York—and Columbia University—was to Chinese in this era.

“I have full confidence I can convince Professor Fox.”

Lin Ran’s sudden confidence gave Horkheimer an inexplicable feeling.

The room fell silent.

Before Horkheimer could speak, a flurry of footsteps echoed outside, followed by a guard’s loud shout: “Sir, you cannot enter the professor’s office without permission!”

The door burst open. Leading the group was a man with typical Germanic features; one of them Lin Ran recognized: Ebenezer Haines.

Ebenezer Haines said apologetically: “Randolph, this is Arthur Rudolph, my superior.

I’m sorry—I gave him your manuscript, and he insisted I bring him to see you.”

Before Haines finished, Arthur Rudolph cut in: “Enough, Randolph. NASA needs your help. Come with us.”

Haines had originally not told Rudolph about Lin Ran, but because he’d lingered too long in New York under Rudolph’s pressure, he finally revealed the whole story.

After hearing it, Rudolph was displeased that Haines had let the man escape; after reviewing the Newtonian gravitational perturbation correction derivation Haines had sent back, his displeasure reached its peak.

You let this genius slip away? Whether he’s a genius or not, he should’ve been brought back first for verification.

Under performance pressure, Rudolph personally came to New York with two federal agents from Redstone Base to apprehend him.

Lin Ran sensed trouble—he knew only Horkheimer could save him now.

Given Arthur Rudolph’s methods, if he truly went to NASA, who knew what chaos would follow?

Though he had a way to guarantee his safety, he had no intention of exposing that ability.

“Professor Horkheimer, these two are NASA personnel. Do they not prove my ability?”

Then Lin Ran stepped beside Horkheimer, pulled out the Fabian Society badge from his pocket, and whispered: “Professor, this is proof my father once followed Larry Maye.

And I have proven Fermat’s Last Theorem.”

No further words were needed.

Horkheimer took the Fabian Society badge from Lin Ran’s hand, stroking it, then turned to the four men with a furious expression: “Get out!

I doubt the President has granted NASA the power to forcibly conscript personnel. This is Columbia University—this is not your place to speak.”

Hearing Horkheimer’s words, the security guards waiting outside rushed in and dragged the four men out.

As they left, Haines bowed his head, palms pressed together in apology to Lin Ran—but Lin Ran didn’t even glance at him.

When the office fell silent again, Horkheimer’s earlier rage had vanished entirely; he looked once more like an innocuous, ordinary professor:

“Don’t think too much—I didn’t do this for you. Arthur Rudolph, that butcher, is no good man. I never expected to meet him here.”