Academician's Request

The Class 3 of Science Stream classroom.

Chinese Language class had just ended, and it was the break between classes. Xiao Yi walked out of the office and returned to the classroom.

Soon, a group of classmates gathered around him, chattering in his ear.

"Holy crap, Brother Xiao, what did the homeroom teacher call you for just now?"

"This was Chinese Language class, Brother Xiao, you didn't see how… resentful Old Zhang's expression was after you left."

Old Zhang was their Chinese Language teacher.

The last time Xiao Yi scored 124 in Chinese Language, ranking third in the entire grade, this Teacher Zhang was overjoyed. He had praised Xiao Yi's reading comprehension skills several times in class, suggesting everyone learn from him.

Who would have thought that this kid's worst subject was Chinese Language!

Regarding this, Xiao Yi expressed that he couldn't help it. Chinese Language was just like that. English was relatively much easier. After all, besides the essay, the answers to every question in English were fixed, so it was naturally relatively easier to do.

Didn't you see that those top students who scored over 700 on the Gaokao had their biggest score deductions mostly in Chinese Language?

Glancing at the curious eyes of his classmates, Xiao Yi shrugged and said casually, "It's nothing, just that an Academician from USTC wanted to see me, so they called me over for a brief video call."

As soon as he said this, the entire room fell silent.

An Academician wanted to see you, and it's "nothing"?

And "it's nothing much"?

Looking at Xiao Yi's expression, his classmates couldn't help but twitch their lips.

What a show-off!

As expected of you!

However, despite their internal complaints, they still felt envious.

What level was an Academician?

They all knew very well that these were among the top people in China's scientific community, absolute big shots.

Yet, such a prominent figure was willing to proactively seek out a student their age.

"If you get rich, don't forget us, Brother Xiao."

The classmates started crowding around Xiao Yi.

"Holy crap, where are you touching? You can't touch there!"

Xiao Yi shouted in alarm.

The bell for class suddenly rang, and everyone quickly returned to their seats. Xiao Yi finally found some peace.

"There are perverts among the masses," Xiao Yi grumbled indignantly.

After calming himself down, he recalled what had happened in the office earlier.

After reading the paper and pointing out the existing problems, he received praise from Academician Hu. Academician Hu then gave him another task.

That was to complete a paper before entering university in the second half of the year.

This paper needed to be of a quality that could be published in a domestic core journal.

He was quite interested in this requirement. Writing a paper and publishing in a core journal were both new experiences for him, and he thought it would be good to give it a try.

However, after Academician Hu stated this requirement, both Professor Liu Bin on the video call and his homeroom teacher Luo Penghua, who was beside him, seemed to show surprised expressions.

It seemed that the difficulty of this requirement might be a bit high?

But then again, if it wasn't difficult, he would find it boring. He was all about tackling difficult challenges!

"Hmm… I should spend the next few days reading more papers."

After all, he needed to see how others wrote their papers before he could start writing his own!

"Academician Hu, isn't the requirement you set for Xiao Yi a bit too difficult? It's less than six months until Xiao Yi enrolls in university."

On the other side, at the Mathematics conference banquet, Liu Bin said to Hu Guangde with some helplessness.

Asking a sophomore to write a paper for a core mathematics journal?

Although their domestic journals were a bit lackluster and didn't rank internationally, a core journal was still roughly equivalent to SCI Zone 3 or 4.

Xiao Yi wasn't the author of "My Academician Father."

He wasn't even the author of "My Professor Father."

Liu Bin really couldn't imagine how a student like Xiao Yi, who had only just begun his professional mathematics studies, could write a paper for a core mathematics journal in less than six months.

But Hu Guangde smiled and said, "Little Liu, why are you so anxious now."

"It's not six months, there are still over five months left."

"Besides, even if he doesn't finish it, it's not like we won't let him into our school."

"But..." Liu Bin wanted to say, what if Xiao Yi didn't succeed in the end, wouldn't it damage his confidence?

But Hu Guangde saw what he was thinking at a glance and said directly, "Are you worried that it will affect Xiao Yi's confidence?"

Seeing Liu Bin nod, Hu Guangde waved his hand and said, "Students like Xiao Yi won't have their confidence hurt by such a simple thing. You underestimate a genius."

"For a genius like him, having a reasonable goal with enough challenging difficulty is the most important thing. With such a goal, he will exert all his abilities to move towards it."

"I've seen many geniuses like this at Paris Normal School and Princeton."

"Perhaps in the end, this Xiao Yi will bring us surprises we can't even imagine?"

"Don't you think so?"

Hu Guangde smiled.

Liu Bin was silent for a moment and said, "I just..."

"Alright, don't worry. You hope to cultivate a genius for our Mathematics Department, and so do I," Hu Guangde patted Liu Bin on the shoulder. "Trust Xiao Yi. After all, he's someone who can read 8 books in 4 days."

Liu Bin was stunned.

That's right.

If Xiao Yi could read so many books in four days, maybe he could really create a miracle?

He had to admit, he was starting to look forward to it.

Time passed quickly.

In the following days, Xiao Yi became even busier than before.

He read the books Professor Liu Bin brought him, and also took a look at the papers in China's core mathematics journals.

To his surprise, while reading the papers, he often encountered ones he didn't understand!

This meant that these papers contained a lot of knowledge he didn't know yet, and it wasn't in the books.

So, in order to understand these papers, he started learning this knowledge, further broadening his channels for acquiring information.

In addition, he also began to strengthen his English studies, because he heard from the teacher that there were more SCI papers in English than in domestic core journals. Therefore, to be able to read these papers fluently in the future, he naturally had to study English well.

Thus, a month passed in the blink of an eye.

[Another chapter will be released later]