After eating, they returned to the office. "Raj, what kind of project are you and Howard working on? It's all so secretive, and you won't let me know," Paige asked curiously.
"This really does need to be kept secret for the time being," Raj said with a smile. "It's not targeting you specifically—we're keeping it secret from everyone."
"The confidentiality level is that high?!" Paige said in surprise. "You're not developing a time machine, are you?"
"Of course that's impossible," Raj laughed. "Time machines are full of logical paradoxes. Unless you're some kind of god who can ignore logic, no one can build one." Then he waved his hand dismissively. "Okay, don't ask any more questions. When I'm able to let you know, I'll definitely tell you. But until then, no matter how many times you ask, I won't say a word."
Hearing this, Paige became even more curious. She blinked her big eyes at Raj and asked coquettishly, "Are you really refusing to tell me?"
Raj shook his head resolutely.
"Fine! Even if you wanted to tell me now, I wouldn't want to know," Paige said with mock petulance.
Raj smiled slightly. After returning from the inspection trip in Geneva, their relationship had deepened considerably, and Paige had become much more lively and playful than before. In truth, she had always been a lively and lovely girl, but after the family tragedy years ago, she had sealed herself away behind layer after layer of emotional walls.
Christmas came and went, and Raj didn't celebrate at all. For one thing, he wasn't American and didn't believe in Christianity, so he had no reason to celebrate it. For another, his friends didn't care much for the holiday either. Leonard had grown up with a traumatic shadow cast over Christmas. In his family, they didn't exchange gifts during the holiday. Instead, each family member wrote a paper explaining "the significance of the festival to human society," then held group discussions and graded each other's work—and Leonard invariably received only a "C."
Howard was Jewish and celebrated Hanukkah instead of Christmas. He had invited Raj, Paige, Penny, Leonard, and the others to his home for the holidays, but everyone had unanimously declined.
Paige didn't like Christmas either. Having been separated from her parents at an early age, she found the holiday—a time meant for family reunions—to be nothing but a painful reminder of her loss. Every Christmas was a sad day for her, not worth celebrating at all.
So Raj didn't hold a party and let the day pass as if it were any other.
After Christmas, the new year—2008—soon arrived. At the beginning of the year, Raj, Howard, and Leslie launched into the development of the quantum navigation system prototype. Under the guise of researching superfluids, they applied for startup funding, then began manufacturing the device according to their previous designs.
Among them, Howard contributed the most. As an engineer, he was responsible for machining parts, assembling equipment, and painstakingly constructing the prototype piece by piece from scratch. Watching this prototype machine gradually materialize from mere blueprints, Raj, Howard, and Leslie grew increasingly excited.
"At most another month and our prototype will be complete," Howard said happily.
"That's really wonderful. After so many days of hard work, it's finally paying off," Leslie added with equal enthusiasm.
They had been working tirelessly for three months, sacrificing their evenings and giving up weekends and holidays, expending countless amounts of energy, physical strength, and brain cells. Now they were finally seeing results.
"Don't get too excited, you two. I need to be crystal clear about something here," Raj said, coughing lightly to get their attention. "Right now is a critical moment in the development of the prototype, and the more critical the moment, the more careful we must be. Each of us must keep our mouths absolutely shut. Except for the three of us, we're not allowed to reveal a single word to anyone outside this room. Otherwise, once the news gets out, all our efforts will be for nothing, and our hard work may go to waste."
Leslie and Howard were taken aback, then nodded solemnly.
"A few days ago, Leonard noticed I was spending all my time with you two and quietly asked me what project I was working on. Fortunately, I didn't tell him," Leslie said with a hint of fear in her voice.
"Yes, and although Leonard is our friend, it would still be inappropriate to tell him," Raj agreed with a nod.
Leonard was a good person and genuinely talented—Raj liked him very much. But unfortunately, he had Sheldon constantly at his side, and Sheldon was a walking disaster waiting to happen. Once provoked, he could be terrible. Sheldon had no sense of teamwork, no understanding of confidentiality, and no legal awareness whatsoever. According to Leonard himself, "He's the bad guy who escaped from the villain's laboratory." If Sheldon learned about this project, he would undoubtedly find some way to sabotage it, either intentionally or through sheer obliviousness. All their hard work would be for nothing, so they had to guard against that possibility vigilantly.
After the new year, in addition to working on the quantum navigation system, Raj also found time to write three papers: "Evidence that the 125GeV Higgs Boson Decays into a Pair of Tau Leptons," "Evidence of the Large Hadron Collider's Left-Right Symmetry and the Charged Higgs Boson," and "Heavy Quark Mass Effect in the Production of the Higgs Boson at the Large Hadron Collider." These would continue to accumulate academic credit for himself.
The publication of these papers added even more luster to Raj's growing reputation as an academic star. He became not only the darling of Caltech's physics department, but also a celebrated young talent in the physics community worldwide.
Even Raj's home country of India began reporting heavily on his achievements, taking immense pride in his accomplishments. The headlines of some reports were so over-the-top that Raj felt genuinely embarrassed. Examples included: "God's Chosen Son, Dr. Koothrappali, Under Divine Guidance, Successively Discovered the Second Earth and the God Particle That Constitutes All Things," "Light of India, Discoverer of the God Particle!" and "The Pride of All India, Dr. Koothrappali, Superior in Wisdom, Has Solved Millennium Physics Problems!"
These reports caused Raj's popularity to soar throughout India. Many top Indian universities—including the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi University, and Jawaharlal Nehru University—extended invitations for him to give lectures. Several universities even offered Raj visiting professorships. All he would need to do was deliver a few lectures each year to receive an annual salary of $100,000, with round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations fully covered.
But Raj was too busy with the quantum navigation system research, so he politely declined these invitations. Even so, his reputation in India remained at its peak.
This brought tremendous honor to the Koothrappali family, which made his parents extraordinarily happy.
"Rajesh, you have done a magnificent job bringing honor to the family," Dr. Koothrappali praised during one of their video calls.
"Raj, Mama always knew you were a good boy with great abilities, and you have not disappointed me," Mrs. Koothrappali added warmly.
"Thank you, Papa. Thank you, Mama," Raj replied with a smile.
"Rajesh, in order to reward you, your father has decided to give you a Maserati," Dr. Koothrappali announced.
"Papa, I'm very happy with the BMW I'm driving now. I don't need to change cars," Raj immediately responded after hearing this.
"Very well, then I'll simply give you the money, and you can buy whatever you like," Dr. Koothrappali said with an indulgent smile.
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