The Yanbei University campus during the sumr break feels quite empty. Ever since security was tightened and tourists need appointnts to enter, the sumr and winter break periods can’t compare to the bustling scene when classes are in session.
In fact, there are still plenty of graduate students who stay on campus.
Here’s a little-known fact: at super universities like Huaqing and Yanbei, graduate students who are desensitized to sumr and winter breaks actually outnumber regular undergraduates.
Every year during the sumr and winter breaks, many graduate students remain on campus, which is why libraries at super universities stay open even during these breaks.
However, these graduate students are usually not as free as undergraduates. For instance, take soone like Senior Liu Hao, who spends every day in the lab. Whenever he has so personal ti, his obvious choice is to go back to the dorm and get plenty of sleep for three or five days straight, with no ti to wander outside the campus.
There are many graduate students like Senior Liu Hao.
Their daily routine involves either scouring the library for literature and reading materials or working hard in the lab for their future.
The imnse academic pressure is the real culprit for the campus’s apparent emptiness.
When Qiao Yu was helping Liu Hao with materials calculations, he actually had many misconceptions about this kind of engineering research.
For instance, many lab results might co from sudden flashes of inspiration or accidental lab occurrences.
This stereotype cos from both early education and his personal experiences.
Like Newton seeing an apple fall from a tree and thinking of gravity. After talking with Zhang Yuantang, he thought of the Generalized Modal Axiomatic System...
Or how Fleming, while researching staphylococcus, accidentally had his petri dishes contaminated by penicillin and thus discovered it.
But after getting to know Liu Hao, Qiao Yu realized that most scientific research results actually co from tedious, repetitive work, year after year, without end.
New materials, gene editing, various physics experints, not to ntion new rockets and lunar missions...
Every tiny data point requires ticulous study, every experintal condition needs careful adjustnts, repeated countless tis in monotony, until finally resulting in sothing classic.
This sounds very competitive, but Qiao Yu thinks the competitiveness is in the wrong direction—it’s futile.
So maybe everyone needs a new way to compete. As long as everyone around him keeps achieving new results, neither Director Tian nor Elder Yuan will keep feeling like he isn’t accomplishing anything...
The professor teaching Marxism-Leninism said that at this stage of history, mathematical research should strive to serve applications.
Qiao Yu wholeheartedly agrees.
Most importantly, Qiao Yu also understands that if he pushes mathematical theory to its limits, he could beco a world-renowned mathematician. Perhaps even achieve authoritative status in theoretical mathematics.
It sounds thrilling, but it’s not very aningful.
Pure mathematical research, being a basic discipline, offers little funding if it doesn’t translate into practical applications.
Of course, that’s not to say pure math doesn’t create economic benefits—it just mainly uses brainpower.
Unlike physics, chemistry, or engineering, where setting up a lab involves an investnt of hundreds of thousands to millions.
CERN’s LHC collider was constructed over decades with an investnt of over a billion euros, and crucially, it started building in the 1990s when money was far more valuable than now.
So Qiao Yu’s promise to Zheng Xiweng was very sincere.
...
Back at school, Zheng Xiweng had already contacted Tian Yanzhen and headed straight to the Yanbei International Mathematics Research Center’s office building.
As Qiao Yu expected, after eting with Director Tian, he received several glaring looks.
Then it was a cordial exchange between Old Zheng and Old Tian.
Mainly Old Tian expressing his gratitude to Old Zheng, noting the trouble Zheng Xiweng went through for over a month with Zhang Mingyu following Qiao Yu.
After saying goodbye to each other, Zheng Xiweng turned and left without hesitation.
"Did you have fun in Star City this ti?" asked Tian Yanzhen when only the two of them were left.
"Oh, don’t ntion it. It felt like ti flew by. I hadn’t even had the chance to experience anything before the break was over!"
Qiao Yu remarked with a bitter face.
"How about I give you another month off? Go back, have a proper romance, and then co back? Don’t you think, considering your age, is it really the right ti for a romance?"
Tian Yanzhen casually chided Qiao Yu.
"No, Director Tian, if I don’t date at my age, am I supposed to wait until my twenties when I’m achieving results? Or in my thirties when I’m deep in scientific research?
Surely, you don’t expect to start dating at your age? At your age, one has to consider how to ntor students, right... Honestly, what’s so heartbreaking about trying to have a romance in one’s life?"
After hearing Qiao Yu’s rambling, Tian Yanzhen wasn’t annoyed; instead, he laughed.
He simply leaned back in his office chair, targeting Qiao Yu with his gaze, and said with a smile: "It seems you really need to win an award. Once you beco a Fields dal winner, you speak with a different confidence."
"Haha, Director Tian, co on. If I won an award, it’s because you taught well. This is called balancing work and rest. Surely, you can’t expect to have my brain strings stretched so tight all the ti, right?"
After finishing, Qiao Yu eagerly expressed his determination to focus on research moving forward.
"To be honest, I’ve already made up my mind since coming back. I’m going to form a team, apply for a major project, and then rally and lead the team to work hard for an entire sester."
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