CHAPTER 525: CHAPTER 165: A CHAPTER WHERE IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO THINK OF A TITLE_2

So, I can only say that there’s probably a part of human nature that’s a bit base. Qiao Yu felt that he wasn’t able to completely stay away from it either, and the thought was quite scary.

Muttering to himself about how his own mentor was heartless, he stepped out of the teaching building, only to suddenly see the senior sister who had left earlier standing by the flower bed outside the building.

Upon seeing him, she came straight over, greeted him warmly and confidently: "Hello, Qiao Yu, nice to see you again."

Qiao Yu looked around but didn’t see any sign of Professor Lu. Curiously, he asked, "Has Professor Lu already left?"

"Yes, the boss left first. Before leaving, the boss told me that if I want to learn real stuff, I’ve got to have thick skin, so he asked me to wait here for you to have a chat."

Zhang Xiao cheerfully explained.

Qiao Yu marveled, "What Professor Lu said is really insightful. But do all professors at the School of Mathematics teach their students like this?"

Zhang Xiao covered her mouth and chuckled, saying, "I don’t know about other mentors, but Director Lu is usually quite good. He often says that taking students is too exhausting. When he’s alone, he doesn’t need to take on any projects. He can study whatever he likes, and no one can bother him.

But after taking us on, he even has to figure out how to secure a few projects every year to get some project funding, so he can give us graduate students allowances. So as students, we should also understand our mentors and try not to trouble them unless necessary, right?"

Qiao Yu nodded, and curiously asked, "So what else does Professor Lu usually tell you guys? Let me learn too, otherwise, I really don’t know how to go about it."

Zhang Xiao straightforwardly said, "Why don’t we take a walk around Weiming Lake while we chat?"

Qiao Yu thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "Sure."

...

"Director Lu is very responsible in his work, and often tells us to be thoroughly familiar with the state of the art and related advancements in our research field. Otherwise, we might be left behind by the times.

So no matter how busy we are, we need to set aside at least three days a week to read relevant literature, and we have to read carefully. Every month, there’s a spot check on our literature reading volume.

As for Director Lu’s own projects, he rarely lets us participate. It’s just sometimes when he collaborates with the chemistry lab, he asks me to help with some data processing.

Moreover, even though Director Lu always says he doesn’t want to guide us, he’s actually quite strict with us. Oh, and Director Lu really hates it when we say ’obviously.’ If during our reports we dare to say ’obviously, obviously’ like you did today, we’ll definitely get scolded.

Speaking of which, there’s an interesting story. Once, during a group meeting, a junior brother was presenting his paper. Director Lu wasn’t supposed to be there because he had to go out, but he forgot his car keys in the meeting room.

When he came back to get them, he happened to glance at the junior brother’s PPT and pointed to a part in the article saying ’obviously’ and asked, ’How is this obvious? Explain it to me.’

The junior brother was completely dumbfounded and said it was quite obvious. But after explaining for a long time, he realized he couldn’t prove it at all. Director Lu simply decided not to go out anymore and spent the entire morning in the meeting room, almost driving the junior brother into a state of near-breakdown... "

On the way to the lake, Zhang Xiao was sharing some interesting stories from learning with Professor Lu with Qiao Yu. Qiao Yu was listening intently.

The main thing was, he hadn’t experienced many of these things.

Director Tian had taught him a lot as well, but he’d never questioned his ’obviously.’ Okay, maybe questioned sometimes, but he always managed to give proof, so perhaps the mentor just didn’t bother asking afterwards.

Of course, Qiao Yu wasn’t just listening to stories. From someone’s expressed opinions, you can roughly judge if both parties are on the same page, or if their worldviews align.

Otherwise, if you agree to something hastily, it could turn out that you end up as enemies, which would be bad.

Fortunately, it seemed that this senior sister was alright, at least she didn’t talk about anything nonsensical. When she talked about some mathematical difficulties she encountered, she didn’t seem to give up on herself either.

Overall, her attitude seemed quite positive.

"By the way, it’s not just me talking. How about you, talented junior, at least express your opinion? Can I join you to learn that axiom system?" Zhang Xiao asked, probably feeling a bit tired from talking.

Qiao Yu didn’t respond directly but instead asked, "Um... well, senior sister, did you do your undergraduate studies at Yanbei University too?"

"No, I graduated from next door, participated in Yanbei University’s summer camp, and got the exemption qualification. Oh, my interview score for graduate school was first." Zhang Xiao replied.

Qiao Yu nodded, acknowledging she was from nearby Huaqing, and asked, "Then your undergraduate grades must’ve been excellent, right?"

Zhang Xiao nodded and said, "Well, can’t compare with you, but they were okay, in the top five in the grade, and all subject grades were A."

Qiao Yu nodded, thinking that she was even more impressive than Senior Brother Chen.

After all, the school where Senior Brother Chen was probably couldn’t compare to Huaqing. To consistently maintain a top five position among such a group of people isn’t something that just any effort can achieve.

"Impressive, senior sister. If you’re interested in our modal axiom system, it’s not impossible to join our research group and study together. But you know, we’re also doing data analysis for the lab, mainly to expand the application range of the whole system.

So, this period will be very tough. You must know Chen Zhuoyang, right? My Senior Brother Chen — for a long time, he could only sleep five hours a day because there was so much data to verify. It’s extremely tough; can you handle it?"

After having a rough understanding of Zhang Xiao’s situation, Qiao Yu asked the most crucial question.