I Think I Went to a Fake University

The Q&A room was packed to capacity.

Third-year students preparing for graduate school entrance exams had their heads down, studying diligently.

Sitting beside the lectern was Tang Zhiwei, a professor from Jin University's Mathematics department. He had already set aside the newspaper in his hands and was now staring intently at the problem on the draft paper, his right fingers repeatedly flipping the cap of his pen.

Lu Zhou, standing beside him, knew very well that this little gesture meant Tang had fallen into deep thought.

"...Where did you get this problem?" After staring at the calculations on the draft paper for a long time, Tang suddenly asked.

"One of my reference books mentioned Fourier coefficients, so I went to the library and looked up some related materials. I found several variants of the Fourier inversion theorem, as well as applications for those variants, so I tried deriving it myself. But once I got to this step, I couldn't solve it no matter what." Lu Zhou smiled awkwardly, his expression clearly saying, Please help me.

Tang glanced at Lu Zhou, then turned his gaze back to the draft paper. This time, he put down the pen cap, picked up a piece of chalk, walked to the blackboard, paused briefly, and began working through the calculations.

Lu Zhou stared at the blackboard without blinking. Perhaps because he had done some preliminary reading on the subject, he found that he could unexpectedly keep up with the professor's pace.

Drawn by the scratch-scratch of chalk at the lectern, the third-year students below, who had been reviewing advanced mathematics, occasionally looked up. They stared blankly at the equations on the board before quickly lowering their heads again.

Um...

What the heck was that?

Second by second, time passed. Before anyone realized it, the entire blackboard had been filled.

Having written from the upper left corner of the board to the lower right, Tang stopped, turned around, and asked Lu Zhou, "Did you understand this part?"

Lu Zhou, who had been watching the board intently, nodded. "I understood."

Tang raised an eyebrow. "Did you really understand, or are you just pretending?"

"I really understood."

Tang said nothing. He picked up the eraser and wiped away what was on the board, then took up the chalk again and began writing out the next step. Yet his opinion of Lu Zhou had dropped a little.

There were two kinds of students he hated most in his life. One was those who brought gifts and begged him to change their grades. The other was those who brought out-of-syllabus problems to him and pretended to seek guidance.

Especially the latter. They were simply wasting his time!

They clearly had no interest in Mathematics, yet still put on airs as though they were serious scholars. Just looking at them made him sick! Such people spent all day trying to curry favor with teachers, without ever figuring out what they were studying for in the first place.

When he reached the end, with only a few lines of calculations left unwritten, Professor Tang suddenly stopped. He turned back to Lu Zhou and suddenly smiled. "I've calculated it to this point. You should understand now, right?"

Lu Zhou nodded. "I understand... Thank you, Professor!"

Chen Yushan, sitting in the corner of the first row reviewing advanced mathematics, had been secretly watching the two at the lectern. Listening to their constant exchange of "Do you understand?" "I understand," her mind was completely foggy.

What did they mean, understand or not understand?

What exactly were they talking about?

Realizing that she could not understand their conversation at all, Chen Yushan felt despair over her own Mathematics ability.

Could it be... that I'm actually a terrible student?

Hearing Lu Zhou's answer, Tang smiled. He gently set the chalk on the lectern, returned to his chair, took a sip of tea from his thermos, and said leisurely, "You really understand? Then come finish writing the remaining steps for me."

You don't understand shit!

I was writing up there while you stood around like an idiot, not even taking notes. If you can understand all that, I'll eat this cup!

The moment Lu Zhou saw Professor Tang's expression, he understood. The professor suspected that he had not been listening at all and was testing him!

Thinking of that, Lu Zhou did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Heaven knows, I really did understand!

He did not know why, but while Professor Tang had been calculating on the board, every formula had seemed strangely familiar to him. He felt as though he had seen them somewhere before, yet he could not remember where.

Was it because the knowledge he had exchanged system points for covered these concepts? Or because his increased Mathematics experience had improved his intuition for Mathematics?

In any case, he really had understood.

Lu Zhou did not know the exact reason, but now was clearly not the time to think about it. Professor Tang was still waiting leisurely for him to perform. If he wanted to publish that paper next semester without any trouble, he could not mess up at such a crucial moment.

Lu Zhou smiled confidently, picked up the chalk, and walked to the blackboard.

Professor Tang's eyebrow twitched. Could this kid really write out the remaining steps?

Impossible.

Absolutely impossible!

Even though he had already completed more than half of the proof, the calculations in those remaining lines were absolutely not something a first-year undergraduate could finish! Even the graduate students under his supervision would have to study his proof over and over from beginning to end before they could grasp the trick!

And this Guy had not even taken notes while listening!

Second by second, Professor Tang's astonishment turned into deep shock, and finally into approval.

All his doubts melted away like snow on a roofless eave in spring, vanishing the instant sunlight shone upon them.

When Lu Zhou wrote the final symbol on the blackboard, Professor Tang, who had been staring at the board without blinking, nodded approvingly. "Not bad... Very well written."

His method for the final few steps differed slightly from Tang's own approach and was a bit more cumbersome, but it was still a novel idea. That showed that Lu Zhou had not only absorbed what he had been taught, but had also incorporated his own thinking into it.

And that was the most valuable thing of all.

It seemed he had wronged him...

"It was still thanks to your guidance, Professor. If I had been on my own, I definitely wouldn't have been able to calculate this far..." Lu Zhou smiled sheepishly.

That was not a lie. In the calculation steps provided by the system, many places similar to "a = b" did not explicitly explain why the two sides could be set equal.

And what he had come to ask Professor Tang about was precisely the specific proof for that part.

"No need to be modest with me. I can see your level," Professor Tang said as he screwed the lid onto his thermos. "Which class are you in?"

"First-year, Class One. Lu Zhou," Lu Zhou answered honestly.

"Lu Zhou..." Professor Tang nodded and repeated the name several times, seemingly trying to remember it.

So this senior's name was Lu Zhou...

Chen Yushan, who had been eavesdropping from the corner, nodded in realization. Then she suddenly felt that something was off, and immediately reacted.

F-first year?!

Thinking of how she had called him senior for so long, Chen Yushan's face instantly turned red. Like an ostrich, she dropped her head onto the desk.

Chen Yushan was not the only one shaken. The several third-year students in the first row of the Q&A room also glanced at this junior with dumbfounded expressions, while ten thousand alpacas stampeded through their hearts.

Were first-year freshmen really this incredible nowadays?

Were they supposed to just die, then?

"You're about to take Advanced Algebra, right? How's your review going?"

"I've mostly finished reviewing. I just wanted to read some extracurricular books." Lu Zhou smiled shyly.

"Heh, I might have underestimated you by giving you that exam paper." Tang Zhiwei chuckled and joked, "How about I make a separate paper just for you?"

"Please don't, Professor. That'll kill me!" Lu Zhou said, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Hmph. Can doing a few problems kill someone? I don't believe it." Tang Zhiwei looked Lu Zhou up and down, then nodded approvingly. "Not bad. Very, very good. I rarely praise a student like this. If you weren't only a first-year, I'd really want to speak to the people in Academic Affairs and transfer you to my office to do research."

"Professor, you're overpraising me. I still have a lot to learn. If I really did research with you, I'd definitely just hold you back," Lu Zhou said modestly, knowing that Professor Tang was joking.

Tang Zhiwei snorted and scolded, "Hmph, cut out that polite nonsense. If you're doing scholarship, then do scholarship properly. Stop stuffing your belly full of empty pleasantries."

Although he had been criticized for no apparent reason, Lu Zhou knew that Professor Tang was not truly angry. He had genuinely begun treating him as his student and was teaching him.

When this old professor was angry, he would definitely wear a smile. For example, when he had been writing on the blackboard earlier and thought Lu Zhou was putting on an act and pretending to be scholarly, he must have been furious.

"You're right, Professor. I understand."

Seeing Lu Zhou's sincere expression, Tang Zhiwei nodded. His tone softened somewhat as he continued, "Being interested in Mathematics is a good thing. I hope you can keep it up. And the direction you chose is good. It may not be a particularly popular field, but it's easy to produce results in it. If you have any good ideas, boldly pursue them. Read more and ask more about anything you don't understand. That's how scholarship gets done. Maybe you'll discover something others haven't."

After a brief pause, Professor Tang continued, "Our Mathematics department at Jin University may not be especially strong, but our Physics department is beyond reproach. Fourier transform applications are quite widespread in areas such as spectrum analysis, data compression, and orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing. If you achieve something in this field, I believe that by your senior year, several professors from the Physics department next door will be fighting to have you."

At that, Professor Tang smiled and said, "Study more, read more, practice more, and research more deeply. That's all the nonsense I have to say. Go think it over yourself. I won't take up any more of your time."

"Thank you, Professor! I will remember your heartfelt words," Lu Zhou said sincerely.

"Don't give me that damn empty talk. What did I just tell you? If you want to thank me, just say thank you. Now get out of here. Do you need me to stand up and see you off?" Tang Zhiwei said with a smiling curse.

Lu Zhou chuckled, gathered his draft paper and pen, turned, and left the room, closing the Q&A room door behind him.

Looking back at the blackboard, Tang Zhiwei smacked his lips and sighed, his heart filled with emotion.

Jinling truly deserved its reputation as the ancient capital of six dynasties. It was a place blessed with outstanding people and rich spiritual energy.

With Jin University standing atop this dragon vein, it truly produced talents one after another!

The undergraduates below looked utterly bewildered. They looked at the dizzying equations on the blackboard, then at their own exercise books, their hearts filled with mixed feelings.

I think I went to a fake university...