Senior Sister, I'm Sorry!

Senior Sister, I'm Sorry!

So Wang Zhong absolutely couldn't allow this kind of underhanded "pulling strings" to pollute the culture aboard the ship from the very beginning.

Five hundred thousand people was about the size of a small city. Even the slightest bad influence would quickly spread. People were naturally inclined to seek personal gain. If everyone started copying one another and constantly calling in favors, what hope was there of building a powerful civilization?

With that in mind, Wang Zhong said mildly, "How about this? Take a set of exams first. If you do well, I can help you find out whether there's a suitable advisor for you."

The unspoken meaning was: if you're not up to scratch, you'd better get lost sooner rather than later!

"Huh?" Zhang Yuan was taken aback.

"Let's test you on some math. Whatever your major, you'll need it."

Zhang Yuan scratched his head, a little confused. He'd only meant to pay a visit to this grandmaster and talk about his plans for the future. How had he suddenly ended up taking an exam?

Still... no matter. He'd just treat it as an elder testing a junior.

"Xiao Xu, get him a set of papers to work on. I've sent them to your email," Wang Zhong instructed.

"Okay... come with me."

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

Of course, Xu Yunjing had no idea about any grand "ten-thousand-year plan." True idealists only emerged after enduring the ravages of war, and she couldn't imagine how her teacher had thought of so much in such a short time.

She smiled reassuringly. "Don't take it personally. Professor Wang's just like that. He's not very good-tempered, and now that he's old, his thoughts jump around even more. 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, "But when he meets a talented young person, Professor Wang wants to teach them everything he knows. Anyway, he's a pretty good teacher. He just won't tolerate slackers."

Wait, had Professor Wang gotten senile?

Xu Yunjing glanced at the printed exam papers, and her face turned pale. What the hell... weren't these the questions from her own exams?

She was a graduate student, and she'd almost failed. How could they give these papers to an undergraduate?

It wasn't that she hadn't worked hard. Professor Wang's standards were just too high.

Introduction to Algebraic Geometry in particular was an absolutely insane subject.

What did "introduction" mean here?

It meant that after telling you "1 + 1 = 2," they'd go straight to asking you to evaluate ∫{[arctanx]/(1+x^2)^2}dx...

To ordinary people, it might as well have been written in another language.

"Just do whatever you can. I'll go ask about it. These papers... seem a little strange." Xu Yunjing felt bad for this junior fellow student and hurried off.

When she reached Wang Zhong's office, she found the old man on the phone again, his face dark and his voice unusually loud.

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

"Oh, all right!"

Seeing his stern expression, Xu Yunjing panicked and forgot what she'd been about to say.

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

Each difficult problem was like a steep mountain. The climb was arduous, but the view from the summit was beautiful.

He was completely absorbed and forgot to eat dinner.

It was eight in the evening before Wang Zhong and Xu Yunjing returned to the office.

Professor Wang sighed. "...The foundation needs to plan ahead. We're not short of money right now, but who knows about the future? It'd be good to put these astronauts' remaining energy to use. Sigh, maybe this isn't so bad. People need a little pressure to bring out their full potential..."

"If each of the five hundred thousand people earns an extra hundred thousand yuan, that's fifty billion..."

Wang Zhong fell silent for a while. He was a retired scientist, yet now he had to worry about money. What was the world coming to?

"Go open the door."

"Oh, okay."

Professor Wang was a very traditional man. Whenever a female student was in his office, he always made a point of keeping the door open. As he put it, it helped prevent groundless gossip. Not that anyone was likely to gossip about an octogenarian anyway.

"Forget it, forget it. You should go back too and get some rest. Don't attend events like this again. They're pointless, unless you enjoy arguing with people. Spend your free time reading papers instead."

Xu Yunjing sighed too and gathered up the meeting materials.

Wait.

Had she forgotten something?

Oh no!

My poor junior... Senior sister, I'm so sorry!

Xu Yunjing cleared her throat and brought up the fact that Zhang Yuan was still taking the exam, but she didn't dare mention that these were "graduate-level math" papers. Otherwise, she'd be the one to blame.

"Professor Wang, um..."

"...It's been so long. He still hasn't finished? They're only three math papers."

Professor Wang glared, already in a foul mood. Remembering the matter only made him more annoyed. "Go get him."

He thought that if Zhang Yuan had gotten aboard the ship through his father's connections, he'd have to investigate thoroughly...

Even if he was Zhang Qiming's son, that wouldn't matter. If he needed to be kicked out, then he should be kicked out.

Xu Yunjing went to the small classroom and asked quietly, "Um... junior, have you finished the papers?"

"I just finished." Zhang Yuan looked a little embarrassed. At two hours per paper, he'd actually taken too long.

Finished? Had he just scribbled down random answers?

Xu Yunjing curiously glanced over them.

His handwriting was neat, and the format looked normal. It didn't seem like he'd just written down random things...

Oh, he seemed to have gotten the first few questions right. Not bad...

Graduate education wasn't like undergraduate education, where everyone was taught the same way. It was meant to cultivate genuine research ability. The professors wrote the math exams themselves, and there were no multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank questions; they were all proofs. Either you knew how to do them or you didn't.

After just a few glances, Xu Yunjing was sweating.

"Senior sister... uh, I mean, Xu Yunjing, are you okay?"

"Ah, I'm fine."

What was this supposed to mean?

Why couldn't she understand it?

With her head full of questions, Xu Yunjing entered the office and carefully handed the papers to Wang Zhong.

Wang Zhong frowned, put on his reading glasses, and began reviewing the exam with the utmost rigor.

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

If you couldn't do them, then sorry, you were out of luck, graduate student! If you couldn't even handle the basics, what was the point of studying? You'd be better off dropping out now instead of wasting everyone's time.

The next few questions were of intermediate difficulty. If you couldn't do them, that meant your foundations weren't very strong, and you probably didn't have much research potential. You could be an outer disciple.

You were only a master's student, after all. He'd let you graduate if you could, and if you couldn't, you'd better get out of there.

As for the later questions, they were more challenging. His inner disciples had to be able to solve them; otherwise, he'd be deeply disappointed and give them a thorough scolding.

An inner disciple was someone with a chance of going on to earn a doctorate.

The final question, however, was perversely difficult.

Whether you were a top student or a straight-A student, you could lie down and give up. The purpose of that question was to teach you to respect knowledge!

In the old professor's eyes, research was far harder than solving problems. At least the math problems on an exam had solutions. Using tools that other people had already created and inventing your own tools were two entirely different things. Doing research was like looking for a needle in the ocean. You needed not only hard work, but also talent.

Wang Zhong glanced over the first few simple questions. They were correct.