Brampton-Pill University Blackmail Mystery

Chapter 1: The Best Theme Award

Every day starts with a golden sunrise. It is now slightly past 6:00 AM in the morning. Jim Stalk, a Computer Science PhD student at Brampton-Pill University, is taking a morning run around his campus.

“The sun seems to be late.” Jim arrives at a lake shore, stops running. He then takes out his camera, and starts waiting for the sun to rise.

A barn owl flies by, Jim quickly takes a few pictures of it.

“Jim, it’s you, you are so early.” One of the two young women already walking along the shore, shouts at Jim.

“Hey, Claire, Good Morning!” says Jim, “and Amy, Hello!”

“Hi, Jim.” says another one of the two young girls.

Claire Halls, is also a Computer Science PhD student at Brampton-Pill University. She and Jim, are both doing PhDs under the supervision of Professor Bullock Usher. And Amy Fallow, is a friend of Claire, who also studies at Brampton-Pill.

“Claire, it’s so nice to see you, wanna take a walk together?” Jim walks closer towards Claire, and politely asks.

“Ah.., OK.., sure.” Claire muffles.

“Claire, Claire …” Jim wants to talk, but gets interrupted by Claire.

“Listen, Jim, we are not meant to be together.” Claire speaks loudly, “Please stop, let me go, stop chasing after me.”

“No, I won’t stop.” Jim insists, “I like you, Claire, I like you very much, let me prove it.”

“Oh, JeZZ.” Claire breaths hopelessly.

“Come on, please stop.” Amy interferes.

“You are disgusting!” Claire shouts out carelessly.

“What did you say?” Jim interrogates.

“Stop, now! Both of you!” Amy interrupted Jim and Claire, “Jim is such a nice guy, how could you say anything like that?”

“Oh, you are now siding with him?” says Claire, “You are MY friend, and now you are speaking for HIM?”

“Of course, I like him.” says Amy, “Jim is such a nice guy, if you treat him like that, I will take him.”

“You will, ‘take’, him!?” Claire just does not believe what she just heard.

“Yeah sure, why not.” says Amy, “You know why, I don't know what Jim thinks about you right now. But even me, already had enough of you.”

“Common, haven’t I been a very good friend to you?” asks Claire.

“Yes. But I mean I cannot take the way you treat Jim.” says Amy.

“Heh.” Claire laughs, “Fine, ‘take’ him, if you can, and I’d be very happy.”

“By the way,” Claire adds another comment, “Jim, there is one piece of advice from me about Amy: Don’t ever wager against her. We always used to bet against each other on who will be our country's next President, who will win the war on the world stage, etc. You know what, she just always wins. What a witch!”

“Stop fighting like that.” Jim finally speaks, “You know we are both Computer Science PhD students under the same supervisor Professor Bullock Usher. At least we should work together, like a team, you know.”

“Oh, yeah!? You know that the graduation rate for PhD students at Brampton-Pill, is 50%, right?” Claire speaks in fierce, “That means, statistically speaking, one of us has to go, right? So I should be very happy seeing you fall, shouldn’t I?”

“Well, I really don’t know what I should say right now.” Jim speaks, and feels like a train being blown off of a rail.

“You two should really stop.” Amy interrupts again, “OK, let’s talk about something else. Like, … hmm, Jim what are you doing for your PhD thesis? ”

“Eh, it’s about machine learning, comparing the similarity of different images or photos.” Jim says.

“Wow, that sounds cool.” Amy says, “Can you explain it in a little bit more detail? For me? Thanks.”

“Yes, it is like, if you upload a photo onto a web site, then the website will use Artificial Intelligence to compare your image with other template images, like the images of birds, or images of cars, and find similarities in between them.” Jim explains, “So, let’s say, if your image is very similar to images of birds, then the system will tag your image with a keyword, ‘bird’. So when people go to that website, and search for ‘bird’, your image will show up in the results.”

“Hmm I see, and that does sound cool.” Says Amy.

“Yep, if you want to hear more details, you can ask Claire too.” Jim says, “I already have shared everything about my PhD thesis, with Claire.”

“Wow, that is cool.” Amy says, “Or, I can just ask you. You know it is just something to talk about for us to spend time together.”

“Yep, sure, if that is what you want. Oh look, the sunrise!” Jim stares at the sunrise with big surprise, he pulls out his camera, and then takes a bunch of pictures.

“You like photography, don’t you?” Amy asks.

“Yes. In fact, I was doing wedding photography for my friends and buddies, to earn some money to pay for college, you know.” Jim says.

“And does a photograph of a sunrise sell for a lot of money too?” Amy asks.

“Well, it all depends.” Jim says, “I am doing this to compete for a photography award.”

“What, award?” Amy asks.

“Well, it is called the Best Theme Award.” Jim explains, “You pick any theme you want, and photograph a bunch of images for your theme. And they pick the winner.”

“And your theme is?” Amy keeps asking.

“My University Campus Life.” Jim says,”Why not, right? Since I live in such a beautiful campus, I should be taking a lot of pictures of it.”

“True.” Says Amy.

“And the award money is very good, I can upgrade to a very good camera and lens with that money.” Jim says, with sparks popping out of his eyes.

“Then I really hope you take a lot of good photos and win.” Claire finally speaks, “It is time to get back to my residence, I am a little bit hungry, you know.”

“Sure, but I still need to take a few more photos.” Says Jim, “So see you later.”

“See you.” Says Claire, and walks away with Amy.

Chapter 2: Affair

Jim is so into photography, that he begins to borrow some of his school time into photographing birds, buildings, and sunsets.

One day at dusk, Jim sits in a study room, but his heart is all out, into the wild. All he has in mind is to win the Best Theme photography award.

A reddish bird, one that looks much like in the game called Angry Bird, stops by the window.

Jim quickly takes out his camera as soon as he spots the bird. But the bird quickly flies away.

Jim quickly grabs his backpack. With a camera in his hand, he runs out into the University Campus, chasing after the bird.

The bird seems to play hide and seek. It always runs away, just before Jim could catch up to it, and take a good portrait of the bird.

Jim chases tirelessly, for a fraction of an hour. Jim feels it is just an equivalent of a break time during study. And during that break time, the sky has already gone from dawn to dark.

Jim finally arrives at the Baren Building inside the Campus, where the bird has lastly appeared.

“Isn’t this the building for Computer Science at Brampton-Pill? Isn’t this the building I, Claire, and Bullock have spent most of our time in.” Jim wonders, “I definitely should take a good picture of this building, and include it in the photography competition.”

Jim then takes out his camera and tripod, and attempts to photograph a beautiful night scene of this building.

The day is now completely dark.

“It seems there aren’t a lot of students around here right now. Well it is reading week, after all.” Jim talks to himself. “And that is definitely a good thing. It means there are less movements and distractions, and less faces and privacy issues to deal with.”

Jim carefully adjusts his camera’s settings, and then takes a series of long exposures with these different settings.

“Isn’t that, Professor Bullock, with Claire?” Jim sees Bullock and Claire through the window, while keeping himself hidden in the dark outside, “Wait, wait, are they kissing each other right now? Are they having an affair? Isn't this prohibited by the faculty laws and regulations?”

Jim remains stunned and speechless, while his camera has captured another clear shot of the entire scene.

“What is going on here? How could Claire do this to me?” Jim now feels a bit lost and depressed, “Oh, man, that is too much for today, I really need to go back and take a rest.”

With certainly no more motive and mood for more photo shooting, Jim slowly packs up his stuff, and leaves the scene.

A few days later, Professor Bullock is sitting inside his office, drinking his coffee, and having another one of his best days.

Suddenly, an email comes through his private and personal mailbox. Titling: “Please read the attachments in this email first.” Bullock opens the mail, finds out in the attachment, a few photos showing that he and Claire are having affairs.

“What? What is this? Who is doing this?” Bullock is in shock, spouts out the hot coffee he has kept in his mouth, and drops his glasses on the desk.

He then reads the main body of the mail:

“

Dear Professor Bullock Usher,

As you can see, you have been caught having an affair with one of your students. And this is against the faculty’s rules and regulations. Should this information be released to the faculty and the public, you will lose your jobs, reputation and your family. If you do NOT wish any of these to happen, please read on.

You, from now on, must ‘actively participate’ in Jim Stalk’s PhD research thesis. By ‘actively participating’, I basically mean taking over his research, and doing all his work for him, while keeping Jim in idle mode.

While doing this, you must use certain specific sets of data in Jim’s research that you will be taking over. The data will be provided in the link at the bottom of this email.

If you comply with these instructions thoroughly, your little affair will remain a secret. If not, the shit will be hitting the fans.

Do not reply to this message. Do not try to contact me.

I will be watching you.

Sincerely,

Anonymous.

”

Bullock feels like almost having a heart attack. He tries a few deep breaths to calm himself down. He then looks outside of his window, and finds out there seems to be no one who is watching him. He then closes the curtains on his window, and turns on the lights in his office. He carefully examines every little corner inside his office, and finds no hidden cameras in sight.

Bullock is totally thrown out of his mood right now. He cannot sit down anymore. He then picks up his coat, and starts to take a walk outside.

While he is walking outside, Bullock keeps looking, left and right, front and back, to see if there is anyone watching him.

Everyone around him now feels to be a suspect, and yet no one can be logically found guilty.

“Could this guy be Jim Stalk?” Bullock muffles, “He is such a nice kid, like a son for me. It does not feel like he would do something like this. Wait, maybe the rumors about Jim likes Claire, are real? But Claire does not seem to like Jim at all. Could he be jealous and take revenge on me?”

Bullock begins totally losing his mind to his logic. He shakes his head over and over, and keeps losing strength with every little bit of his breath.

“Alright, what choices do I have right now.” Bullock argues, “Call the police? No, if he sees me doing anything outside his lines, he will spread the affair, and I am all done. It seems that I probably would have to do exactly what he said anyways.”

“Oh man, I am too tired right now, I need to just go home and take a deep rest.” Says Bullock, while heading back to his home for a deep rest.

Chapter 3: The Big “Nice” Professor

A few days have passed. One day after class, Jim goes out of the classroom, and he finds out Bullock is already out there waiting for him, smiling.

“Hi, Professor, what brings you here?” Asks Jim.

“Oh Jim, I have looked through your ideas, proposal, and the work you have done so far for your PhD thesis.” Bullock speaks in admiration, “Your thesis proposal is great, and I absolutely love it!”

“Really!? Professor.” Jim talks back, “Thanks for your, eh, encouragement. I will do my best not to let you down.”

“You know what, Jim, do you want to take a walk with me, and let us talk more about your thesis in my office?” Bullock asks politely.

“Sure, why not.”

A few moments later, Jim and Bullock now have arrived at Bullock’s office.

“Jim, please sit.”

“Alright, thanks, Professor.”

“Coffee? Tea?”

“Ah, no, thanks. I am not thirsty right now.”

“Cool.” Bullock sits down also, “You know what, I have read your thesis proposal, and I absolutely loved it. I just did. I cannot help myself to take part in it. And not just to take a part, but very actively invest myself in your, or let’s say, our, research.”

“Eh sure, I am happy that you like my work.” Jim speaks back.

“Do you want to send me on just everything you have done so far on your thesis?” Bullock asks, “So I can look at it thoroughly, and start to put some of my work into it?”

“Sure, I will be sending them to you right after I return to my residence.” Says Jim.

“That is very nice.” Bullock speaks gently, “You know what, son, you sound like in so much of a rush. I want you to slow down, everything will be fine.”

“OK.”

“I see you seem to be working way too hard.” Bullock keeps talking like a father, “I want you to slow down. Just go out, take more pictures, you know, for your photography competition. Stop worrying too much about school, it seems to wear you out, and that can be bad for your mental health and overall performance.”

“Yeah, I feel a little bit tired too, Professor.” says Jim, “But who doesn’t?”

“All I want to see from you right now, is to take a little break.” Bullock says, “You know, just enjoy the campus, the nature, go out and take a few photos, for your photography competition. Can you please do that, for yourself?”

“Oh yes, Professor, I will see.”

“Just relax, you are doing just fine.” Bullock smiles back at Jim.

For the next few days, Jim couldn’t be happier, in his entire life. Jim has put down much of his school work, and goes around campus, and nature, to take a lot of beautiful looking photos.

Amy is there too. She likes Jim, and finds out Jim could not have Claire, so she decides to take a shot with Jim. She goes around with Jim as companion, travels with Jim, while seeing Jim taking a lot of great photos on places where they go together.

In meanwhile, Bullock is double busy, on doing the thesis work for Jim. Jim also gets constant updates from Bullock on how things have progressed on his PhD thesis. While Jim enjoys photographing all the wild, and urban. He has been surprised at how fast Bullock has been working on his thesis.

A few weeks later, Jim finds out that he has won the Best Theme Award for photography. With his award money, Jim has bought himself a brand new expensive camera, with an equally expensive, and decent lens, for that camera. Jim feels that he has his wishes fulfilled, and with his new gears in hand, he believes he could just be the next best photographer in town.

Soon after he wins the award, Jim receives an important email from Bullock, saying all his thesis work has been done, and it is ready to publish. Bullock wants to put Jim’s name in the first, as the primary author, and puts Bullock himself in the second, merely as an advisor. Jim, through his reply, has granted the permission for Bullock to publish the work in the way Bullock has asked.

And so it is, his thesis work is then published. And the work has initially caught the eyes of many faculty members, and other researchers in the same field, around the world.

Chapter 4: The Big Fallout

One day after his class, Jim is walking out of his classroom, and he sees Thomas Friedman, the Dean of the Faculty of Computer Science, is right outside waiting for him.

“Jim Stalk?”Thomas speaks.

“Yes.”

“I am Thomas Friedman, as you should know, since we have seen each other before many times.”

“Yes, I do remember you. Remember that in the last Faculty meeting, held as a party, you talked with me about my work, my PhD thesis, and you said you liked it very much.”

“Oh, yes, about your work. I have to talk to you about your work, right now. Can you walk with me into my office. I want to have a word with you. Do you have time?”

“Ye..es, I do.”

“Then come with me.”

“Sure.”

Jim follows Tom(Thomas for short) into Tom’s office. After Jim enters the office, Tom quickly shuts the door behind Jim.

“Come and sit, I have a few quick questions to ask you about your thesis work.”

“OK.” Jim sits down.

“In your work, you mentioned …” Tom then asks a series of detailed questions about the paper Jim “has done”. But Jim cannot answer any single one of them.

“It seems that you don’t know your work, Jim.” Tom stares in Jim’s eye, and asks.

“Well, of course I do. It’s just because I came out of a class, and it has been a while after I finished my work, I have moved onto a few other things, I might forget, you know.”

“People don’t forget that much, that fast, you know. ” Tom keeps talking, “And they are not hard questions.. They are very simple details about the work you just submitted and published.”

“Well, I do not know what to say.” Jim stammers, running out of words to speak.

“Let me be honest with you.” Tom lays back onto his chair, and says, “A few days ago, some anonymous emails just came through me and other Faculty members, claiming certain data used in your work is fraudulent.”

“What, that is impo…”

“Stay down, kid, let me finish.” Tom interrupts Jim, “I have verified the claim with many other faculty members. We double checked the numbers you put on your paper, and found out that they don’t make any sense, AT ALL!”

“What!? No!” Jim pushes back.

“And I have just asked some basic questions about your paper.” Tom keeps talking, “And it seems that you don’t know your work.”

“I do.”

“Well obvious you don’t.” Tom speaks, “One natural explanation to all this, is that you cooked the whole thing up. Your entire PhD paper is a lie, a fraudulent Project. You do not know what to do, because you do not know your stuff, except to cook up a big lie so you can pass on a thesis to graduate.”

“No, no, that is NOT true.” Jim argues back.

At the same time, someone else is knocking on the door.

“Who is it?” asked, Tom.

“It’s me, Bullock. You have asked me to come here. Am I early?”

“No you don’t.”Tom shouts back through the door, “Just give me one second.”

“OK.” Bullock replies.

“OK kid, we are done here.” Says Tom, “I already have everything I need to know about you. You should go now. I need to have a word with Bullock quick, and move on to my own stuff. Please just don’t waste my time. ”

“But…” Jim tries to speak, but Tom interrupts Jim, by pointing his finger on his watch, and then pointing at the door.

“I have an appointment right now.” Tom says, “If you REALLY have something else to say, we may talk about it later. ”

“OK, fine, I will go, for now.” Jim completely loses his mind, grabs his bag, and leaves the office.

Bullock sees Jim pass right through him. Jim does not make any eye contact with Bullock, he does not even try, at all.

“Professor Bullock Usher, please come in.” Tom requests, “Let’s talk about the kid, and the paper he writes, advised by you.”

“I…, I am sorry Tom, I trusted the kid.” Bullock argues.

“You know we're gonna suspend him, right?” Tom asks.

“Right…” Bullock speaks, and pauses without knowing anything else to say.

“And?” Tom asks, and waits on Bullock to respond, but Bullock still does not say a thing.

“Alright, let’s talk about you then.” Tom finally changes the subject, “You do not know stuff by the student you are advising on?”

“Eh, sorry, I have too much work to do.” Bullock defends himself again, “But I did look into his paper. I trusted the data, and I do not have all the time to test for everything, you know.”

“Well you seem to have looked into his work, as you should. I had already tested you about his paper during our last office meeting. ” Tom speaks,”And you do seem to know more than the kid, about the paper he writes.”

“Eh, Really?” Bullock laughs a little bit.

“Well, you know the faculty cannot let you walk away without a punishment, right?” Tom asks, “Because after all, the kid is under your supervision.”

“What? Why? What punishment?”

“That is what I am trying to figure out here, right now, with you.” Says Tom.

“No, why, why should I be punished?”

“How about we suspend you without pay, for a few years.” Tom speaks, “and during those years, hopefully you will find some other jobs, like teaching computer science at a high school or something. And you pass on your resignation letter once you find yourself another job. So we can make this look easy on you.”

“What? Are you firing me? No!” Bullock fights.

“Yes, you are ultimately getting the same punishment as the kid, that is the only way to make it fair for both of you.” Tom explains, “It’s just because you are a good old friend of the faculty, and we are assuming that you are only advising the kid, so we will try to make the same punishment look easier on you. But ultimately, you two will be punished equally. If you don’t resign within those next few years, we WILL bring this whole thing up again, and fire you.”

“No, No, Tom, you can’t…”

“Take it. You are running out of options, or the faculty will just fire you right now.”

“OK, fine, eh…”

“OK we are done here, I have already said all I have to say.” Says Tom, “Now you just have to go back to your home or office, and sort everything else on your own. I have another appointment coming, you don’t want another person standing here hearing you complain, right?”

“Right, eh, I will go. Bye Tom, then.”

After a short goodbye, Bullock heads back to his own office. He feels used and betrayed, because he has done pretty much all the work, and gets fired by it. Bullock cannot take this anymore, he puts on his coat, and walks directly into Jim’s residence.

“You do NOT know your stuff, and I get punished for it. How could this be fair?” Bullock shouts out those words, at the moment Jim opens his door and lets Bullock in.

“You are the one who actually wrote this whole thing up, and you are blaming me for it?” Jim argues,"Tell me Bullock, did you like Claire? Maybe you also know that I like Claire as well. That makes us enemies after all. Maybe you want to see me fall, so you inserted the bad data into my research, right?"

“Oh, you are pushing it onto me right now?” Bullock ignites the fire inside his mouth, “I am blackmailed to do this, and it isn’t you who has been blackmailing me?”

“What? What are you talking about?” Jim behaves innocently.

“Ah, ha! You don’t know? Are you sure?” Bullock keeps pushing his tone onto Jim, “All of these time, what have you done with your camera? Maybe we should see.”

Bullock spotted Jim’s newly bought camera placed a few meters away. He runs for it, and grabs it, and pulls out the memory card.

“Let’s see what is inside this card, alright?” Bullock insists, and puts the card inside Jim’s computer.

Within the card, Bullock finds the backup folder, where when he looks in , he finds the photo where Bullock himself was having an affair with Claire, inside a school building during a night of the reading week.

“Ha ha, what do you say about this?” Bullock asks, “So you took photos of me and Claire, and used them to blackmail me?”

“Well, I did accidentally take those pictures, but I did not blackmail you.” Jim keeps arguing.

“Well I do NOT believe in that right now.” Bullock speaks in burst mode, “Screw you and your beautiful expensive camera.”

And then Bullock smashes Jim’s newly bought camera hard on the floor. And the glasses of the lens are clearly shattered.

“How could you do this? Do you know how much does it cost me? Bullock, Usher?” Jim bends down, and starts to pick up pieces of his beloved camera.

“Do you know how much all these have cost me?” Bullock fights back,”Compare to my career and life, you stupid camera weights NOTHING! And you are about to get suspended, kiddo, I have heard that from the Dean, so be prepared for it.”

Bullock then leaves in anger after he said those words, and smashed the door loudly on his back.

Chapter 5: Termination

“Me? Blackmailing Bullock? Me? Going to get suspended?” A few days later, Jim still lays down inside his residence, nearly paralyzed, “No, this can NOT be true, this can NOT be me.”

Jim storms over his own head, over and over.

“I think I should talk to Claire.” Jim finally starts to calm down, “I don’t know why, but I do want to talk to her.”

Jim then gives Claire a phone call, asking to meet her at a park in Campus, in private.

It is already winter, snowy everywhere right now. Piercing cold shines white, with purity.

Jim walks into the park, the snow is raining as hard as a haze.

Jim firstly sees a silhouette of Claire’s back, standing right in the middle of the park. Then as Jim walks closer, Claire seems to hear someone is coming. And from that noise, Claire seems to recognize it is Jim. Claire slowly rotates around for 180 degrees, so she is now facing Jim.

“Jim, you are late.”

“Yes, yes.” Jim slowly stops walking, and starts to breathe hard, “I…, I am in a really bad mood, and I really need to talk to you.”

“OK then, please, let’s talk.”

“I, eh, Bullock says I will be suspended.” Says Jim, “For my ‘fraudulent’ PhD thesis paper.”

“Oh, I am sorry to hear that, Jim.” Claire hugs Jim, and says, “Do not worry, no matter what happens, things will always turn out to be alright. Life always has a way to fix things. Jim, I believe you are a good man, you are innocent. I don’t believe you could have done such bad things.”

“Thanks.” says Jim, “But Claire, you don’t seem to be surprised by what I have just said?”

“Of course, I am surprised by your suspension.” says Claire,”What are you talking about?”

“No, nothing.” Jim shakes his head.

“You think I am expecting you to be suspended?”

“I did not say that.”

“Listen Jim, long ago, when I said our school only had 50% graduation rate, and I would like to see you fail,” says Claire, “I did not really mean it.”

“That does not matter anymore.” says Jim, “I know you feel disgusted by me, and always want to get rid of me. I should have listened to that a long time ago, and stop bothering you. Sorry about that.”

“Please don’t take those words personal.” says Claire, “I really don’t hate you that much. In fact, there are a lot of things that I do like about you.”

“Such as!?” ask Jim.

“Eh…” Claire begins to think hard, but cannot pull out a single word out of her head.

“It is OK, Claire.” says Jim, “A lot of things have happened, you must be very tired of all these as well. ”

“That is true.” says Claire.

“Eh, listen, Claire.” says Jim, “Speaking of tiredness, I suddenly feel too tired right now. I need to go back to my residence, and just lay down.”

“Of course.” says Claire, “Go take a rest, if that is what you need.”

“Thanks, Claire”, says Jim, and turns back, walks away slowly, until he has completely disappeared into the snow.

“Could it be Claire, who blackmailed Bullock to insert fraudulent data into my research?” Jim wonders as he walks, “Maybe I should not let any potential suspect walk away freely. After all, she and Bullock did have an affair, and that did break the Faculty rules, and they should be punished for that.”

After arriving at his own residence, Jim looks into his backup photos, and finds out the ones capturing Claire and Bullock are having an affair. He then anonymously emailed those photos to the Staff, and Faculty members at Brampton-Pill University, and every single student he knows the email of, at Brampton-Pill.

As expected, Claire and Bullock both get a sudden suspension soon after that.

Jim, who already receives a suspension letter because of the fraudulent data of his thesis paper, is packing up his stuff inside his residence, and gets ready to leave. All of a sudden Amy comes by.

“I am sorry to see all this shit storm that has been going on.” says Amy, “I wish you the best, Jim, see you around.”

“Thanks, Amy.” says Jim, “You know what Amy, I have been always suspecting people around me of who is behind the insertion of the fraudulent data into my research.”

“And?”

“I have realized, up to this point,” says Jim,”I have suspected almost every single person, except you.”

“Me? Are you mad?” Amy laughs, “Why, why would I do that. We had so much great time together, and I liked you.”

“I…, I don’t know.” says Jim, “Maybe, maybe… eh…”

“Maybe I am sent from the future, and from another country?” says Amy while laughing lightly, “Maybe in that future, you a key founder and CEO of a very powerful corporation, that would change the landscape of global politics. And I am sent to here and now, to prevent you from becoming that person, by screwing up your PhD research?”

“Ah ha, good story.“ Jim laughs, “I like that.”

“But you never know right?” says Amy.

“Yeah, I never know.” says Jim, “But thanks for your nice little story Amy, you humored me, and made me laugh despite all of these. Thank you very much, see you around.”

After the termination of his PhD study, Jim is deciding to start his new life, just like another chapter of a book. He plans to become a freelance software developer, and enjoy spending more time as a photographer, while hopes to make money on both of his professions.