What on Earth Are You Writing!

The moment Wang Lili laid eyes on this paper, her heart surged with wild joy.

What a small world!

Could it be someone with the same name? "Zhang Yuan" was such a common name that one could find ten thousand of them across the entire Xia Kingdom!

It probably isn't a coincidence. A few days ago, I seem to recall hearing he was writing some kind of paper on kinematics...

"Haha, you little stable boy, you've actually fallen into my hands!"

The more Wang Lili thought about it, the more excited she became. Recalling how her intelligence had been severely insulted that afternoon without any way to get back at him, she had been nursing a grudge.

"You lowly stable boy, what kind of good stuff could you possibly write in a paper?"

"I will surely tear it to shreds, criticize it until it's worthless, and make the boss give you a massive scolding!"

Thinking of this, she quickly said to her boyfriend, "I'm sorry, I have something to take care of, I have to go."

"Huh? What!" This poor boy had spent ages fawning over her just to get her out on a date, planning to get up to some mischief.

And yet, this happened again.

"The professor sent an assignment. No choice, I have to go read this paper."

But he had no way to complain...

"Then I'll ask you out again tomorrow..."

"Fine, we'll see if I have time tomorrow."

Just like that, Wang Lili abandoned her boyfriend and excitedly threw herself into the "revolutionary cause" of reading the paper.

Two hours later, she sat blankly in front of her computer.

"The writing is really long-winded, is he just padding it with nonsense to increase the length?"

"This point actually has some substance to it."

Huh? What is this?

Hmm... let me think.

Perhaps I need to look up some other papers.

Gradually, her face began to flush.

Her entire body felt a strange sense of dizziness; the dense, packed text seemed like an ancient, undecipherable script, to the point where, by the end, she had no idea what it was even talking about.

Read it again!

Still not working...

Read it again!

Wang Lili felt her thoughts becoming completely blocked; she was practically suffocating.

So frustrating!

I actually can't understand it!

After Zhang Yuan and Han Ziyue finished dinner, they took a stroll through the pedestrian street near the campus. They didn't buy anything; for women, window shopping and actually buying things were two completely different matters...

Then, slipping past the watchful eyes of the dorm warden, he went to the dormitory to "fix her computer."

The computer wasn't broken, but due to aging components, it was running slowly.

Zhang Yuan, of course, had no way to solve a world-class problem like this, so he just went through the motions of taking the computer apart, cleaning out the dust, and deleting a pile of junk software.

At the same time, he was surrounded by a group of girls, their chirping and chaotic questions making Zhang Yuan feel quite uncomfortable.

He should have known better than to come.

"He looks a bit familiar, have I seen him somewhere before?"

"He was just on a livestream."

"Is he your new boyfriend?"

Han Ziyue replied, "No, no, he's my sister's ex-boyfriend. He's an astronaut, the kind who's about to head into space."

"Haha, that's a pretty strange relationship."

"...Do all astronauts know how to fix things? If a computer chip actually breaks, how are you supposed to fix it? I heard that spaceship is going to fly for three thousand years."

Zhang Yuan patiently explained, "The main chips in the spaceship are very traditional military-grade silicon-based chips, low frequency, micron-level. The simpler and more robust something is, the less likely it is to break. Of course, the performance isn't great, and we'll be carrying a large number of spare replacements; if one breaks, we just swap it out."

"If it's the electronic equipment we bring ourselves, if it breaks, it just stays broken. We can't fix it."

"Is that so? How miserable. I'd better pray my phone doesn't break!"

The girls couldn't imagine a miserable life without their phones.

Watching them chat, Han Ziyue just smiled from the side, a faint blush on her face.

Zhang Yuan knew exactly what this girl was thinking.

Girls, after all, always have a little bit of vanity. Zhang Yuan was a minor celebrity now, and taking him back to the dormitory for a tour would certainly satisfy that "vanity" to a great extent.

This kind of thing was perfectly normal, as long as it didn't go too far.

In fact, he himself had a little bit of vanity too; who doesn't like being fawned over?

All in all, it had been a very comfortable day—no brain-racking, no studying, and he had enjoyed a wave of unprecedented attention and the feeling of being surrounded by a halo.

When he returned to the dormitory, Zhang Yuan couldn't help but feel a sense of guilt.

Too decadent!

If Ye Kaifu were still here, I would probably be ruthlessly mocked!

He thought to himself, Anyway, I, Zhang Yuan, am neither a backup option nor a sycophant. I'm leaving on a spaceship in five days, so why should I be afraid of you girls? Even if you ask me out tomorrow, I won't go; I'll just stay in the dorm and study.

Yes, that's it.

He read for a while, studied for a bit, and then went to bed.

He had a good habit: he rested before twelve o'clock every night and woke up promptly at seven the next morning.

I wonder if Professor Wang has actually read my manuscript yet?

He closed his eyes, drifting into a haze.

Just as he was fast asleep, his phone suddenly rang.

Ring-ring!

Zhang Yuan woke up with a start. He checked the time and asked angrily, "Senior Wang Lili, what are you doing? Do you know it's two in the morning... You have a boyfriend, can you please not disturb me in the middle of the night?"

Wang Lili stuck out her tongue and asked sheepishly, "...I have a question. What reference books are there for Geometric Group Theory and Topology? Could you recommend some?"

She couldn't understand it.

She really couldn't understand Zhang Yuan's paper.

She had studied both Group Theory and Topology, but when the two branches of mathematics were combined and utilized some of their more profound concepts, she was completely lost.

Both were vast and deep fields of mathematics; even if one studied them for a lifetime, one might not necessarily master them completely.

She had asked a few good friends, and they couldn't understand it either.

She then asked a few doctoral seniors, and they were still in that confused state, somewhere between understanding and not. But everyone said it was a highly innovative paper that required careful study.

If she couldn't even read it, how the hell was she supposed to edit the paper!

She might even get criticized by her boss!

Thinking of her boss looking miserable, sighing, and looking at her like she was an idiot, Wang Lili felt very anxious.

Therefore, she could only resort to this roundabout strategy: find out what books Zhang Yuan had read, read them herself, and then she would surely be able to understand his paper.

I am a genius! To think I came up with such a plan.

I must never let this guy know that I'm editing his paper and can't even understand it. Otherwise, I'll be ruthlessly mocked, the kind where I'm trampled into the ground...

But the next second, Wang Lili's face turned ashen.

She only heard Zhang Yuan say, "You want to learn Group Theory and Topology? These are two different branches of mathematics; there isn't really one complete textbook that introduces the connection between them."

"Then hurry up and introduce them."

Wang Lili almost blurted out her true intentions.

"Oh... a topological structure on a group is called a topological group. It's a group with a topological structure, or a topological space with a group structure. The key is that the group operation must be continuous. An important subclass of topological groups is what we call Lie Groups, and within that, there is an important subclass called Classical Groups (Matrix Groups). For example, the GL(n), O(n), U(n), etc., that you might have encountered in Linear Algebra all belong to this category..."

"If you want to study it completely, I can recommend five books here, and you can also refer to the following literature..."

Five books? I'd have to study until the end of time!

I have to hand this in tomorrow!

Wang Lili almost fainted.