Chapter 9: Graduation Thesis

"Di Ye, are you up?"

"I'm already up. The door isn't locked, just push it open."

On the morning of January 3rd, Feng Shijie came to find Di Ye again to go get breakfast. After entering the room, he saw him sitting at the desk writing on a stack of draft paper and asked, "Are you writing a letter?"

"No, writing the opening thesis statement for my graduation paper."

Feng Shijie walked over to take a look and said in surprise, "The semester is almost over, and you haven't even started your graduation thesis yet?"

"I have a pretty good relationship with my advisor. He told me to focus on studying for the postgraduate entrance exam first and write the thesis next semester. This room was also rented to me by him for studying."

"Your advisor is really nice. What's his name?"

"Liu Shaosong. Do you know him?"

"I know of him, but I don't know him personally. Liu Shaosong is the only returnee PhD in the Computer College. Since you've latched onto his coattails, your graduation thesis will definitely get an 'Excellent' grade."

"That's not necessarily true. He has very strict requirements."

Last night, Di Ye discovered a new function of the Electronic Watch: he could use voice or thought control to take screenshots of the content on the Light Screen and save them to the message box. This way, he could plagiarize various information from 2023 without needing to stay in a call with Di Ye.

While chatting idly with Feng Shijie, he copied keywords from the screenshots in the message box. After writing the last few words, he turned off the Light Screen, stuffed the draft paper into a kraft paper bag, stood up, and said, "Let's go, let's get breakfast."

Feng Shijie had been a counselor at Yuncheng University for several years and was a local insider. He had figured out Di Ye's background in just one day and asked on the way, "I heard you're going to intern at IBM's US headquarters in March?"

"Not certain yet, maybe."

"It's you computer science majors who have a future. Not only is it easy to find a job, but you can also go abroad often."

"What major is Teacher Feng studying?"

"I'm studying materials science. If I hadn't stayed at the school to be a teacher, I would only be able to do manual labor in a factory."

In 2023, China was already the world's factory, and the four majors of biology, chemistry, environment, and materials were still known as the "four major pits." In 1995, China's economy had just started, and its GDP was only 1/10th of the United States', making it even more of a pit. Di Ye was powerless against this and casually comforted him, "Staying at the school to teach is also quite good."

After eating breakfast at the cafeteria, Di Ye went to the office building shared by the Computer College and the Management College. On the 5th floor, he found an office with a "Liu Shaosong" nameplate on the door and knocked with his knuckles.

"Please come in."

The office was also shared. Inside were two desks, each with a person sitting behind it. One was older, a man in his 50s; the other was younger, looking about 30 years old. Following Di Ye's description, Di Ye walked to the younger teacher's desk and greeted him, "Teacher Liu, did you look for me?"

Liu Shaosong cared a lot about his image, sporting a meticulously combed side part and wearing rimless glasses, looking quite scholarly. He stared at the computer screen in front of him and asked without looking up, "Winter break is coming soon. Have you decided on your graduation thesis topic?"

"I have. I plan to develop a new type of Compression Software."

"What kind of 'new type'? Lossy compression or lossless compression?"

"Lossless compression. I plan to improve the LZ77 algorithm and design a piece of software with a higher compression ratio than PKZIP."

Hearing this, Liu Shaosong was somewhat surprised. He looked up at Di Ye and warned, "The LZ77 algorithm isn't that easy to improve. Are you sure about this?"

"I've already roughly figured it out. I should be able to write the software during winter break."

The old man sitting opposite let out a cold laugh and mocked, "Students these days are getting more and more unreliable. They haven't even graduated from undergrad yet, and they want to write software better than PKZIP. Be careful not to blow such a big bubble that you can't graduate."

Di Ye didn't know this old man and couldn't be bothered to pay him any mind. Liu Shaosong, however, retorted tit-for-tat, "A youth isn't a youth without being a bit reckless. It's not a bad thing for a college student to have high aspirations."

After the retort, he pointed to a stool by the window and said, "Di Ye, sit down and tell me how you plan to improve the LZ77 algorithm."

Di Ye took the draft paper out of the kraft paper bag and said, "I plan to add Interval Coding based on a Markov Chain on top of the LZ77 algorithm and Deflate algorithm..."

When he heard last night that Liu Shaosong was looking for him, Di Ye felt it must be related to his graduation thesis. He went back to the rented house to discuss it with Di Ye, and then chose Compression Software as the opening shot to make a name for himself in 1995.

In the 90s, internet speeds were slow and hard drives were small; almost every computer needed to install Compression Software, and the usage scenarios were very broad. However, most Compression Software on the market at this time was paid, and the algorithms were protected by patents, making it easy to get sued if one wasn't careful. For example, in 1993, Microsoft paid 120 million USD because of a compression algorithm called LZS.

The LZ77 algorithm is the foundation of lossless compression algorithms, invented by Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv in 1977. Since then, many improved versions have been derived, the most famous of which are Deflate and LZMA.

The Deflate algorithm was invented by American programmer Philip Katz in 1988. He used this algorithm to develop PKZIP. PKZIP later derived the famous WinZIP, becoming the king of Compression Software in the 90s. Although it declined after 2000, the zip file format it left behind is still widely used as of 2023.

The LZMA algorithm was invented by Russian programmer Igor Pavlov in 1998. He used this algorithm to develop 7-ZIP, known for its high compression ratio and speed. Moreover, it was free and Open Source. After its release, it was very popular and quickly became one of the mainstream Compression Software.

What Di Ye described to Liu Shaosong was the LZMA algorithm. He wasn't great at practical operation, but he had a silver tongue. Furthermore, before transmigrating, he was a loyal user of 7-ZIP and had studied its code while in college, so he understood this software very well. Coupled with the plagiarized manuscript as a foundation, his explanation was clear and logical.

Liu Shaosong only listened for a minute or two before putting down the mouse, turning around to face Di Ye. After listening, he read the draft paper in detail, then applauded and cheered, "Di Ye, you are very talented in the field of computer algorithms. Introducing a Markov Chain is a very ingenious idea. If it can be implemented, the thesis you write won't just be enough for an undergraduate degree—it would be fine even for a master's degree!"

"Software is written, not bragged into existence."

The old man opposite felt he couldn't save face, said a sarcastic, superficial remark, and then walked out of the office carrying his thermos.

Liu Shaosong shook his head and laughed, saying, "Don't mind him. He's an old slacker who only knows how to teach courses like 'Computer Fundamentals Introduction' and can't understand a word of what you just said."

Di Ye hummed in acknowledgment and asked, "Teacher Liu, do you have anything else you need me for?"

Liu Shaosong stood up, walked around the desk, closed the door, and said with a serious face, "I went to your dad's shop on New Year's Day to buy some cut-out discs. I saw that his health is perfectly fine, he's not sick at all. Yet yesterday you told Dean Fei that he was sick, and you gave the IBM internship spot to Shi Yucheng. What exactly is going on?"

Di Ye was a master bullshitter. Being exposed didn't make him panic in the slightest. He changed his narrative: "Teacher Liu, Shi Yucheng and I are both locals of Yuncheng. His family is wealthy and powerful, while mine is ordinary. If I didn't give the IBM internship spot to him, I'm afraid I wouldn't just be unable to take the postgraduate exam, I might even implicate my family. Rather than ending up with nothing and losing both, it's better to sell a favor. After all, the postgraduate exam is my primary goal."

Liu Shaosong, who had just retorted to the old man without mercy like someone who didn't understand the ways of the world, now appeared very calm. He frowned and asked, "Did he threaten you?"

"Not on the surface, but he's been doing a lot of dirty tricks behind the scenes."

Liu Shaosong sat back in his chair, pondered for a moment, and said, "That's fine, too. Just focus on the postgraduate exam. With your talent, continuing your studies has more of a future than looking for a job."

After saying this, he pointed to the stack of draft paper and encouraged, "This compression algorithm has a lot of technical substance. If written into a thesis, it should be publishable in an SCI journal, which will be very helpful for your postgraduate entrance interview. Think it over carefully during winter break and strive to make it perfect. I'm not going back to my hometown for Spring Festival this year; I'll be spending it in Yuncheng. If you encounter any problems, you can come find me at any time."

"Okay, thank you, Teacher Liu."

The office building where the Computer College was located faced the sports field. After Di Ye walked out, he saw many people playing basketball. On a whim, he ran over, joined a team, and played a few 3v3 games, working up a sweat. Since neither the student dorms nor the Tongzi Building had water heaters, if he wanted to take a shower, he had to wait until the public bathhouse opened at 1:00 PM.

"No credit card and no her, no home with 24-hour hot water..."

Di Ye hummed these two lines of lyrics repeatedly, picked up the kraft paper bag from under the basketball hoop, and prepared to go back to the dorm to find some clean clothes and go to a hotel outside the school to rent a room by the hour to shower. Just as he had walked a few steps, the BB Pager in the bag rang. He took it out and looked, seeing a string of phone numbers displayed on it, with the two Chinese characters "Huang Ya" after the number.

According to Di Ye, Huang Ya was his classmate from middle school through high school, and they had even been seatmates for a while. She was a childhood friend, so he couldn't ignore it. Di Ye found a small shop nearby with a public phone and dialed the number on the BB Pager.

"Di Ye, treat me to a big meal at noon. You promised yesterday."

"Let's do it in the evening. I just played basketball and worked up a sweat, I need to go shower."

"Playing basketball? Don't you only like playing soccer?"

Di Ye didn't expect that sports could also trip him up. He smiled bitterly and said, "No one was playing soccer in the morning, so I went to play some basketball to exercise. You looking for me to eat is a lie, you have something to say is the truth. Speak, what is it?"

"Xia Fangfei said you've changed, like a completely different person. Your skin is especially thick, and your mouth is especially glib. I specifically went to buy a Bagua mirror to see if you'd been possessed by some dirty thing."

"I know you wet your pants in middle school, and I know who you had a crush on in high school. Don't force me to go down with you."

"Oh no, it's over. Di Ye, you must have been possessed by a dirty thing, otherwise you wouldn't be so vicious."

"Goodbye!"