Chapter 139: Geniuses Are Always Misunderstood

Li Tiejun sat at his desk feeling bored and clicked open the official website of the Legion Ant Company.

Because he always got first-hand information by following the news about the Legion Ant Company, he was promoted and no longer needed to run around outside often.

He discovered a pattern: many of the Legion Ant Company’s major announcements were posted on their official website. The Legion Ant official website had become a place many reporters kept an eye on.

Besides, the Internet Conference had just ended not long ago, and the buzz about robots was still ongoing, so many people were still paying attention here. Robots represented the future, and the Artificial Intelligence of the Legion Ant Company was already at the cutting edge.

No one could say for sure when the Legion Ant Company would drop another bombshell.

Suddenly, Li Tiejun froze when he saw the updated announcement.

“Research on Earthquake Early Warning? Is this a paper? Signed by Chen Mo?”

In just a few short lines, Li Tiejun immediately spotted the keywords. Earthquake Early Warning? These four words carried a heavy weight—the weight of lives.

Chen Mo published a paper on Earthquake Early Warning? If it were true, this would be another huge step for humanity against nature, truly a great merit.

Before he even finished reading, Li Tiejun quickly loaded the article and gave it the headline “Legion Ant Releases Research Paper on Earthquake Early Warning.”

Anyway, whether the paper was true or false, it wasn’t him who would be praised or criticized. As a media person, his job was to report the news truthfully.

Once Li Tiejun’s news was released, the number of clicks and reads rose quickly. The Legion Ant Company truly was the media’s favorite—within just one minute, clicks broke a thousand, which was simply terrifying.

Not only did Li Tiejun repost it, but other media outlets quickly reposted it as well. No one wanted to miss the chance to catch news about the Legion Ant Company.

Less than five minutes after the paper was posted, more than ten media outlets had already loaded it.

The buzz about robots had just passed, and now an Earthquake Early Warning appeared. This indicated that Chen Mo was currently working on related research.

Now, the Legion Ant Company was already a cutting-edge enterprise. Any major event in such a company would become big news.

If Earthquake Early Warning were really developed based on Chen Mo’s theory, Chen Mo would definitely become a great man remembered for generations. The evolution of humanity was a process of fighting against nature.

Humans could already predict typhoons, but the biggest natural disaster now was earthquakes.

However, not long after Chen Mo’s paper came out, different voices began to emerge.

Earthquake Early Warning was too terrifying—it was a matter of immense merit.

Countless physicists and seismology experts had been researching Earthquake Early Warning, but after years of effort, they only managed to advance the warning time by a dozen seconds, and even that wasn’t very accurate.

Now that Chen Mo claimed to have researched it, where would they put their faces? And it was just a theoretical paper.

“The idea is imaginative, but science is a rigorous discipline. Without experimental data to support it, it’s all just empty talk. This paper is full of theory without a single piece of data—how can it be proven?

I admit, Chen Mo is a computer genius, but he’s not an all-around genius. Young man, don’t get carried away with a little success; don’t become the next Fang Zhongyong. Keeping your feet on the ground is your future.”

After the first expert spoke, more and more experts came forward to voice their opinions. Everyone’s arguments were surprisingly consistent—they didn’t think highly of this theoretical paper.

Chen Mo was an expert in the field of computers and could be considered half an expert in materials. But in seismology, Chen Mo had never been involved before; they didn’t believe Chen Mo could produce any useful theory.

With many authoritative experts opposing him, numerous netizens also came out to mock him. Few people sided with Chen Mo—less than ten percent—and various supportive comments were drowned out by the ridicule.

“God said: ‘Oh no, even when I make the ‘Earth’ shake, Chen Mo will know.'”

“In the Earth, gods don’t cry, ghosts don’t call. Little Chen Mo, laughable, laughable. Can you match this couplet?”

“Although I know it’s not very reliable, the people of Sichuan still hold a little hope, supporting Chen Mo and hoping he is a great man.”

“The so-called earthquake is just the Earth giving back all the energy accumulated from bed-shaking, car-shaking, horse-shaking, wild-shaking, high-speed rail-shaking, airplane-shaking, and space-shaking all at once. Why does the Island Nation have so many earthquakes? They made too many adult videos! That makes sense—suddenly I find it very logical.”

…

All kinds of weird mocking comments and various sarcastic articles appeared online, even on the official Weibo of the Legion Ant Company.

The matter escalated amid the insults.

This was why Chen Mo originally wanted to publish in an authoritative journal.

Authoritative channels were approved by authoritative experts, which could prevent arguments among ordinary people and generate a bigger response. Non-authoritative channels would make many people think it was just a joke.

Chen Mo never expected that an academic paper would cause such a big reaction.

The topic of earthquakes was too sensitive and involved too many things. People had experienced too many disasters, so they naturally paid attention to such news.

The day after the paper was published, the entrance of the Legion Ant Company was once again surrounded by reporters hoping to interview Chen Mo and ask for his response.

“Should we respond?” Zhao Min stood next to Chen Mo, looking at the reporters outside the company. She was feeling a bit of a headache.

This boss had an extraordinary ability to create news. Every time he appeared, he was like a magnet attracting attention from all sides.

The influence of one paper was beyond her imagination.

“Make it bigger?” Chen Mo laughed as he looked at the reporters outside. “Let’s make a shocking bet, a bet of ten billion, on whether I can create the Seismograph.”

“Are you not from Earth? I want to make things smaller, not blow up the Earth.”

Zhao Min looked at Chen Mo speechlessly. If she followed along with his antics, the company’s reputation could suffer. This wasn’t something to joke about.

“How do we make it smaller?” Chen Mo said. “Withdraw the paper? When Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity came out, it wasn’t accepted either. Time is the best answer.”

“I’m not asking you to withdraw the paper.”

Right now, Chen Mo just hadn’t proven his theoretical hypothesis. If they withdrew it, it would make the Legion Ant Company look guilty, and surely even more mockery would follow.

Online bullying had persisted since the Legion Ant Company started growing. Some people were eager for the Legion Ant Company to have problems so they could come and tear off a piece of meat.

To those giants, the Legion Ant Company was an anomaly. They were like hungry wolves watching them all the time. That one paper caused such a stir not just because people were paying attention—there must have been someone pushing it behind the scenes.

“Just give any response, and I’ll have someone announce it. As long as things don’t get too big, it’s fine,” Zhao Min said.

“Lu Xun said, geniuses are always misunderstood.” Chen Mo shook his head with a serious expression.

This was a theory taken from the Science and Technology Library. He didn’t think the Science and Technology Library would collect incorrect technology.

Hearing this, Zhao Min was amused by him.

“Then I’ll use that as the response,” Zhao Min said.

At this point, she figured it was already broken, so she might as well let it be—whether it got big or not, it was already big.

One paper wasn’t something evil, and it couldn’t really harm the Legion Ant Company.

“Whatever,” Chen Mo said.

“I’ll have Xiaoyu deal with you, or I’ll dock her pay,” Zhao Min said.

“Hey, threatening the Boss now? Don’t you believe I’ll dock your pay right now?” Chen Mo was also amused by Zhao Min’s words.

A simple joke lightened the mood a lot.

After confirming Chen Mo’s determination, Zhao Min left his office. She felt like managing the company was just about cleaning up after Chen Mo.

Not long after Zhao Min left, the official Weibo of the Legion Ant Company updated with a new message: The Boss said: Lu Xun said, geniuses are always misunderstood.