Senior Sister, I Have Let You Down!

Chapter 21: Junior Sister, I Have Let You Down!

Therefore, Wang Zhong absolutely refused to allow such crooked, "backdoor" practices to pollute the humanistic environment of the spaceship from the very beginning.

Five hundred thousand people is only the scale of a small city; any minor negative influence would be rapidly amplified. Humans are opportunistic creatures; if everyone followed suit and constantly sought connections to cut corners, how could they possibly build a powerful civilization?

Thinking of this, Wang Zhong said indifferently, "How about this: you take a set of exams first. If your grades are good, I can help you see if there is a suitable mentor."

But the subtext of this sentence was: if you don't have the skills, you'd better get lost as soon as possible!

"Ah?" Zhang Yuan was taken aback.

"Just take some math exams. No matter what your major is, you have to use mathematics."

Zhang Yuan scratched his head, feeling a bit confused. He had only intended to pay a visit to this grand-mentor and describe his ideas for the future; why was he suddenly being asked to take an exam?

However... it didn't matter. He would just treat it as an elder testing a junior.

"Little Xu, go print out a set of exam papers for him to do. I've sent them to your email," Wang Zhong instructed.

"Okay... come with me."

Zhang Yuan followed this "senior sister" and ended up with three exam papers: Introduction to Algebraic Geometry, Lie Algebras, and Modular Forms and Number Theory.

Xu Yunjing certainly didn't know about any grand "Ten-Thousand-Year Plan." True idealists only emerge after experiencing the chaos of war, and she couldn't fathom that her teacher had thought of so many things in such a short time.

She smiled and comforted him, "Don't mind it. Professor Wang is just like that. His temper isn't very good, and as he's gotten older, his train of thought has become quite erratic; most people can't keep up. He probably just wants to check your level."

Zhang Yuan nodded and took the stack of papers.

Xu Yunjing added, "However, for talented young people, Professor Wang is eager to teach them everything he knows. In any case, he is a very good teacher who doesn't tolerate slackers."

Wait a second, is Professor Wang getting senile?

Glancing at the printed exam papers, Xu Yunjing's face turned pale. This, for heaven's sake... weren't these her own exam contents?

She was a graduate student, and she had almost failed these courses; how could she give these papers to an undergraduate?

It wasn't that she wasn't hardworking, but Professor Wang's requirements were simply too high.

Especially Introduction to Algebraic Geometry—it was a perverted subject.

What was the difficulty level of an "Introduction"?

It was like telling you "1+1=2" and then immediately asking you to calculate the integral of ∫{[arctanx]/(1+x^2)^2}dx...

In any case, to the average person, it was like reading a heavenly book.

"Do what you can. I'll go ask him; this exam... it seems a bit strange." Feeling sorry for her little junior brother, Xu Yunjing scurried off.

When she ran to Wang Zhong's office, she discovered to her surprise that the old man was on the phone again with a dark expression, his voice unusually loud.

Then Wang Zhong looked up, "Come with me, we're going to a meeting!"

"Oh, okay!"

Seeing his stern face, Xu Yunjing panicked and forgot the words that had been on the tip of her tongue.

The two of them spent the whole afternoon in meetings, leaving Zhang Yuan alone in a small room, racking his brains.

The difficult problems were like steep mountain peaks; the process of climbing was arduous, but the scenery from the peaks was beautiful.

He was so engrossed that he forgot even to eat dinner.

At eight in the evening, Wang Zhong and Xu Yunjing finally returned to the office.

Professor Wang sighed, "...The foundation must plan for a rainy day. Although we aren't short of money now, it's hard to say about the future. It's good to make use of the remaining value of these astronauts. Sigh, this is fine too; people have to be pushed to create greater value..."

"Five hundred thousand people—if each person generates one hundred thousand in revenue, that's fifty billion..."

Wang Zhong remained sullen for a while. As a retired scientist, having to worry about money—what kind of situation was this?

"Go open the door."

"Oh, right."

Professor Wang was a very traditional man. Whenever a female student was in his office, he habitually kept the door open. In his words, this could reduce unnecessary gossip. Although, at over eighty years old, there wasn't much room for rumors anyway.

"Forget it, forget it. You should head back and get some rest early. Don't participate in these kinds of activities in the future; other than arguing with people, there's no point. Read more literature when you have time."

Xu Yunjing sighed as well, tidying up the meeting materials.

Wait a minute.

It felt like she had forgotten something!

Oh no!

My poor junior brother... Senior sister, I have let you down.

Xu Yunjing coughed, intending to bring up the fact that Zhang Yuan was still taking the exam, but she didn't dare mention the "graduate-level math," otherwise she would have to take the blame.

"Professor Wang, about that..."

"...How much time has passed? Why isn't he done yet? It was only three math papers."

Professor Wang Zhong huffed and puffed, his mood already sour, and recalling this matter only made him more dissatisfied. "Go and call him over here."

He thought to himself that if this Zhang Yuan had only boarded the spaceship by pulling strings through his father, he would have to investigate it thoroughly...

Even if he were Zhang Qiming's son, it wouldn't matter; if he needed to be kicked out, he would be kicked out immediately.

Xu Yunjing walked over to the small classroom and asked in a low voice, "Um, that... junior, have you finished the exam papers?"

"Just finished." Zhang Yuan felt a bit embarrassed. Calculating based on the two hours allotted for each paper, he had actually gone over the time limit.

Finished? He must have just scribbled nonsense, right?

Xu Yunjing curiously glanced over at them.

The handwriting was neat and tidy, and the formatting seemed normal enough, so it probably wasn't just nonsense...

Oh, the first few questions seemed to be correct; that was actually quite good...

Graduate education was no longer like undergraduate studies where everyone was fed from the same pot; it began to cultivate genuine research capabilities. The mathematics papers were all written by the professors themselves, and there were no multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions—they were all proofs. Either you knew it, or you didn't.

After just a few glances, sweat began to bead on Xu Yunjing's forehead.

"Senior sister... er, senior, what's wrong?"

"Ah, it's nothing."

What was written here?

Why couldn't she quite understand it?

With a head full of question marks, Xu Yunjing walked into the office and carefully presented the exam papers to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong frowned, put on his reading glasses, and with a rigorous attitude, began to review the papers.

The old professor had a habit: the first few questions on the paper were always basic.

If you couldn't do them, sorry, this graduate student could say goodbye! If you couldn't even do the basic questions, what the hell were you doing in graduate school? You might as well drop out early and stop wasting everyone's time, right?

The middle questions were of medium difficulty. If you couldn't do those, sorry, this person's foundation wasn't great, and it was unlikely they had any research potential, so they would just be treated as an outer disciple.

They were just master's students; if they could graduate, he would let them graduate, and if they couldn't, they should just get out.

As for the ones at the back, they were high-difficulty problems that his inner disciples were required to solve; otherwise, he would be very disappointed and give them a thorough tongue-lashing.

Inner disciples, after all, were the ones with the potential to advance to a doctorate.

As for the very last question, it was of perverted difficulty.

Whether you were a study god or a top student, just lie down and accept it; the intention of this question was to make you understand the reverence one should have for knowledge!

In the old professor's eyes, scientific research was far more difficult than solving problems, as the math problems on the paper at least had solutions. Using tools already created by others and inventing tools yourself were two different concepts; doing research was like looking for a needle in a haystack—it required not just hard work, but also talent.

Wang Zhong glanced over the first few simple questions. Correct.