"I didn't expect that after so many years, Sheldon is still the same as before." After listening to Howard's story, Paige couldn't help but sigh with emotion.
She and Sheldon had met when they were ten years old. He was almost the same then as he is now—brilliant, rigid, and utterly unchanged by time. In comparison, she had transformed considerably from the girl she once was. The contrast between their paths couldn't help but stir up complicated feelings within her.
"Because he has been protected so well these years," Raj said with a knowing smile. "He has a mother who understands and loves him unconditionally, an elder brother who silently makes money to support him, a twin sister who adores him, and friends who tolerate him and never force him to change. So after all these years, the rough edges of his personality are still there—they haven't been polished smooth by the winds of adversity or the frosts of hardship."
"Yes, that's true," Paige nodded in agreement.
To be honest, she envied Sheldon deeply. His mother loved him fiercely, his father had supported him before he passed, his brother and sister didn't reject him despite his eccentricities, and he had accumulated so many friends who tolerated his quirks. He was really extraordinarily lucky.
In comparison, she hadn't had such good fortune. Her mother controlled every aspect of her life, her father resented her very existence, her sister was consumed with jealousy toward her, and she had no friends to rely on for support. For so many years, she had faced life's ups and downs alone, and it was impossible not to be changed by that isolation.
"But it's also because his edges and corners are still there, and he has never matured emotionally, that he often hurts the people around him," Raj shook his head thoughtfully. "I don't know whether tolerating him so much is truly loving him or ultimately harming him."
Hearing what he said, both Paige and Howard fell into deep contemplation.
Sheldon was embraced and protected by so many friends, which seemed on the surface to be a wonderful thing for him. But in being shielded from consequences, he had also lost crucial opportunities to learn and grow from his mistakes. Now at twenty-six years old, he still behaved like a child who hadn't grown up, seemingly frozen in time.
In the next ten or so days, Raj maintained a busy schedule—working at the university during the day and spending his evenings with Lalita.
In terms of his academic work, he and Paige had successively completed three substantial papers: "Comet Nuclei and Thermochemical Evolution of Kuiper Belt Objects," "Colour of Comet Nuclei—Comparison with Other Primitive Objects in the Solar System and Its Impact on the Origin of Comet Nuclei," and "Orbital Dynamics of Kuiper Belt Objects." Additionally, they had discovered three previously unknown asteroids.
Such an exceptionally high output shocked their colleagues in the field and made the university administration very satisfied with their research team's productivity.
According to Dr. Gablehauser, the dean of the physics department, the school would likely award Raj the prestigious University Science Award next year.
The University Award was a highly prestigious honor, traditionally awarded only to the best and most accomplished elites within the institution. Caltech, as one of the top universities in the United States, gathered an extraordinary concentration of talented individuals and certified geniuses. There were more than seventy Nobel Prize winners affiliated with the school alone.
Therefore, the competition for any recognition was fierce, and the gold content of the award was exceptionally high.
Rajesh Koothrappali—the original owner of this life—hadn't had any realistic chance of winning such an award. He hadn't made any particularly significant contributions in the past two years of his tenure.
But after being replaced by Raj's consciousness, everything had changed dramatically. He had immediately hit his stride, publishing nearly ten influential papers in respected journals, and had independently discovered a habitable exoplanet plus three asteroids.
His academic achievements had become so substantial that he naturally now possessed the qualifications to compete seriously for the university award.
Raj was naturally thrilled about this development. However, in order to ensure he had the highest possible probability of actually winning the prize, he was planning to generate another major newsworthy discovery at the beginning of the new year.
In terms of his engineering projects, he, Leslie Winkle, and Howard had basically completed the prototype design of their quantum navigation system after many intense days of collaborative work and refinement.
They were preparing to officially begin the manufacturing phase at the start of January, with the ambitious goal of producing a working prototype within two months and obtaining crucial first-hand experimental data. Their plan was to use these results to apply for patents and then invite venture capital firms to partner with them for commercialization.
On the romantic front, he and Lalita were getting along remarkably well. The two went out together almost every evening, enjoying a variety of activities—eating at nice restaurants, trying new bars, singing karaoke, watching movies, and exploring the city together.
It could be said that they were as close as glue, their relationship sweet as honey mixed with oil, which made Howard envious to the point of despair.
However, Lalita and Howard still couldn't manage to get along with each other. Although Raj had tried his best to create opportunities for them to understand and tolerate one another—often bringing Howard along on their dates as a third wheel—the dynamic remained strained.
Lalita still actively avoided interacting with Howard whenever possible, and had even suggested directly to Raj that he should stop bringing Howard, "the unwanted third wheel," to their dates anymore.
This incompatibility was Raj's biggest ongoing headache. In truth, after spending these weeks together, he was quite satisfied with Lalita overall. She was beautiful, passionate, intelligent, and affectionate, with relatively few faults and many admirable qualities. Most importantly, she clearly loved him deeply.
But he wasn't entirely certain of his own feelings yet. He wasn't sure if he truly loved Lalita at this point—he definitely liked her, that was certain. But he believed that real love was something you built toward over time through shared experiences, not something that simply happened all at once in a sudden rush. So for now, he was content with how his relationship was progressing and willing to let it develop naturally.
However, as long as she couldn't get along peacefully with Howard, he would have serious reservations about marrying her. His friendship with Howard was too important to him to sacrifice. So he continued trying to find ways to bridge the difficult relationship between them, hoping to create some understanding.
Even if they couldn't become friends, they should at least be able to coexist peacefully in the same social circle.
Meanwhile, his friendship with Paige was also deepening day by day. Since that evening when she'd gotten drunk and confided her innermost thoughts to him, the relationship between them seemed to have broken through an invisible barrier, and suddenly everything flowed much more smoothly.
Before that night, although Paige had always treated him kindly, there had been a subtle trace of alienation beneath her politeness, a wall she kept between herself and others.
Now that barrier had been dismantled, and their relationship was growing steadily closer. Raj had noticed that Paige looked at him with increasingly warm eyes, and she smiled far more frequently when they were together.
Whenever he worked too long without a break, she would take the initiative to remind him to rest and move around. She showed more and more genuine concern for his wellbeing with each passing day.
Of course, Raj liked this beautiful and brilliant girl very much. But he had no intention of actively pursuing her romantically at this point in time.
First, Paige's character was too sensitive and fragile. She had been hurt many times in her past, so a rash or clumsy pursuit might easily scare her away and damage their friendship irreparably.
Howard served as the perfect cautionary example of this approach. Every time he acted too hastily or aggressively with women, he inevitably scared them away with his desperation.
Secondly, Raj was currently getting along very well with Lalita, and he owed it to that relationship to give it a fair chance. Although Lalita wasn't quite as physically beautiful as Paige, her other qualities and circumstances were considerably better in many respects.
For example, in terms of personality, Lalita had grown up in a harmonious, supportive family, which had shaped her into someone cheerful, generous, and tolerant. As long as you weren't as socially inappropriate as Howard could be, you could easily become friends with her. It was comfortable and natural to spend time with a girl like that.
Paige, on the other hand, had a sensitive and fragile personality shaped by her difficult upbringing. When spending time with her, you had to be cautious and mindful, constantly aware of potential emotional landmines, careful not to inadvertently hurt her feelings with a careless word.
It could be emotionally exhausting to maintain a relationship with someone who required such delicate handling.
That said, Rajesh possessed an almost supernatural level of emotional intelligence and warmth. He was exceptionally skilled at listening attentively (a result of his previous selective mutism) and providing genuine care and support. In this particular regard, even Leonard—who was practically a professional "nice guy"—couldn't compare to Rajesh's natural empathy.
Therefore, Paige's emotional complications shouldn't pose an insurmountable problem in Raj's assessment. He felt confident he could navigate her sensitivities if he chose to pursue something more with her.
After entering December, the university organized an exciting trip to Geneva, Switzerland, to visit the famous Large Hadron Collider at CERN.
This trip, though nominally framed as an academic excursion, was actually a significant perk and benefit for the school's faculty and staff. Members of the inspection team were allowed to bring one companion along with them in addition to themselves, making it essentially a subsidized vacation.
December was the prime ski season in Switzerland, when the Alpine resorts were at their most spectacular and the social scene was extremely lively.
Raj had been recommended for inclusion in the inspection team largely because he had collaborated with Dr. Gablehauser, the department head, supporting him in writing two influential papers that had enhanced the dean's academic reputation.
But now he found himself in a pleasant dilemma—he was still thinking carefully about who he should invite to accompany him to Switzerland.
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