Chapter 67 Professor Zhang, This Is My Paper

Gao Ke and Yan Weihao's gazes focused on the textbook in Xu Ming's hand, surprise flashing in their eyes.

The information they had received from Liu Xinjie was only that Xu Ming was the top-performing student among the new freshmen, having achieved a full score in the diagnostic test, and they had only agreed to let him join the study group out of consideration for their senior fellow student.

After all, freshmen could offer them no real help and instead required them to spend time helping with homework.

Yet now, Xu Ming revealed that he had already begun studying sophomore-level knowledge, which was truly an unexpected pleasant surprise.

"Junior has got some real talent, no wonder Senior Liu is paying so much attention to him."

"Wait a second."

Yan Weihao snapped back to his senses, replied with a softened tone, and stood up to rummage through a pile of cluttered books.

He was surprised by what Xu Ming said, but he didn't doubt it. For a freshman to self-study all the compulsory courses of the freshman year before entering the university might earn them special attention as a mathematical genius at other schools.

However, this was the School of Mathematical Sciences at Yenching University, the domestic temple of mathematics and a gathering place for geniuses.

Nothing was impossible here.

Soon.

He found another exercise notebook and handed it to Xu Ming, making sure to provide a detailed explanation.

"All the sophomore-level homework exercises are in here, including Ordinary Differential Equations, Functions of a Complex Variable, as well as the compulsory coursework for Abstract Algebra and Probability Theory."

"Thank you, Senior."

Xu Ming quickly took the notebook and expressed his gratitude, finally beginning to appreciate the benefits of being in a study group.

Resources like this question bank could help him quickly and solidly master theorems, and it would have taken a considerable amount of effort to find them on his own.

With that, the group stopped wasting time. Aside from Xu Ming, who began studying functions of a complex variable, Yan Weihao and Gao Ke started working on their junior-level real analysis homework.

It was worth mentioning that Gao Ke clearly had the potential to be a teaching assistant.

He didn't forget to offer a few pointers in between.

"The common pitfalls and difficulties in functions of a complex variable mainly stem from the multi-valued nature of complex numbers, the special properties of analytic functions, the path-dependence of complex line integrals, and besides, the expansions of Taylor series and Laurent series are easy to confuse."

"When studying, you should strengthen the logical chain of core theorems, and then tackle those exercise problems with targeted practice."

Xu Ming had just been introduced to functions of a complex variable and was wondering how best to approach them; hearing these words immediately made his thoughts much clearer.

"Thank you for the reminder, Senior." He turned his head and expressed his sincere gratitude.

As time slipped away like sand through an hourglass, Xu Ming became completely immersed in the ocean of theorems regarding functions of a complex variable.

Whenever he mastered a theorem, he would find related types of problems from the question bank to practice.

He would also derive formulas to explore multiple methods of solution, figuring out the underlying structure to achieve flexible application.

---

[Through diligent study, your [Mathematics] proficiency has improved, and you have gained 6 experience points.]

A little past eleven in the evening.

For people like Yan Weihao and Gao Ke, who were capable of disheartening study group members to the point of quitting, this time of night was still considered early.

They merely felt a bit tired.

Standing up to stretch their limbs briefly, they could battle the homework for another two more hours.

Xu Ming, however, maintained his boundless energy. At this moment, he was working on a multi-valued problem involving argument functions; after providing two methods of solution, he was still trying to derive a more concise proof.

Yan Weihao noticed Xu Ming's movements, perhaps recalling the time he was stumped by functions of a complex variable during his sophomore year.

He subconsciously smiled and said, "Back in our honors class, functions of a complex variable had the highest failure rate among all the compulsory courses. It's completely normal for you to be stumped by the example problems when you're just starting out."

Hearing this, Xu Ming raised his gaze and nodded in deep agreement, "Senior is right. I've only managed to come up with two proof methods for this problem, and it is indeed much harder than ordinary differential equations."

Yet when these words reached Yan Weihao's ears, he froze abruptly.

"What?"

"You solved it... and there are two methods?"

The next second, he walked right over, lowered his gaze to the draft paper in front of Xu Ming, and after checking the proof process to confirm there were no errors at all, an expression of embarrassment instantly appeared on his face.

He never expected that not only did Xu Ming learn extremely quickly, but more importantly, he had truly achieved genuine comprehension and mastery.

If this speed kept up, it probably wouldn't be long before Xu Ming could join them in discussing the theory of functions of a real variable.

Gao Ke was also drawn over. Even though he fancied himself a genius, after looking at the work, he had to admit that Xu Ming's mathematical talent was far superior to theirs. Indeed, any freshman who could make Liu Xinjie take such a keen interest was bound to be extraordinary.

"Looks like our study group is going to get more and more interesting from now on."

His eyes rolled as he first looked at Xu Ming, and finally let his gaze linger on Yan Weihao as they exchanged glances, a smile blooming on his face with growing anticipation.

...

Xu Ming was quite satisfied with his study group; it could indeed improve efficiency quite a bit.

Returning to dormitory 203 in the middle of the night, although everyone was lying in bed, they had no sleepiness at all and continued chatting spiritedly.

They somehow managed to transition from a trivial matter to profound topics like the global geopolitical landscape and whether aliens existed.

The reason behind it all was simply that they didn't have early morning classes at eight tomorrow.

Ever since everyone joined their respective study groups, they rarely discussed academic matters in the dorm to create pressure, effectively treating the dormitory as a psychological buffer zone.

After washing up, Xu Ming joined in the chat for a bit before drifting into a state of deep sleep.

The next day.

Awakened precisely by his biological clock, Xu Ming got up, went for a morning run around Yan Garden, and after finishing breakfast at the Xue Wu cafeteria, he set off for Professor Zhang Luping's office.

Since he had accompanied Zhang Luping there last time, he was quite familiar with the route.

Just as he walked to the corresponding floor, he heard Zhang Luping's booming voice echoing from the office down the hallway.

"How can you omit the steps here? The proof is far too disjointed."

"The narrative is also somewhat lengthy."

"And it's not like you're writing a paper for the first time, how can you still make basic notation errors like this?"

...

Following the sound to the office door, Xu Ming saw Senior Liu standing next to Zhang Luping, sweating profusely and exhibiting a flustered state of being soaked in sweat—something never seen in the classroom.

Hesitating slightly, he raised his hand to knock on the office door and called out softly, "Professor Zhang."

Zhang Luping was not in a very good mood today.

As soon as he arrived at the office, he saw that his student had finished the paper. Initially, he was quite pleased and intended to offer a few words of praise, but he ended up thoroughly infuriated by the errors and problems present in the paper.

Hearing the voice and discovering that the visitor was Xu Ming, his expression softened considerably.

"Ah, Xiao Xu, come on in."

Xu Ming stepped toward the desk, casually closing the door behind him. Only when he got closer did he notice the two heavy dark circles beneath Liu Xinjie's eyelids.

He immediately expressed his concern, "Senior Liu, didn't you get enough rest last night?"

Meanwhile, Liu Xinjie felt utterly exhausted. He had pulled an all-nighter to rush out the paper, hoping to receive praise from his advisor, only to be ruthlessly chewed out by reality. It wasn't until he saw Xu Ming that he felt he had found a savior, his eyes lighting up.

Too tired to respond properly, he hurriedly spoke up, "Advisor."

"Xu Ming is here to see you about his paper today. His mathematical analysis paper is already finished."

Before he finished speaking, he didn't forget to cast an apologetic glance toward Xu Ming.

Since his own paper hadn't met the advisor's standards, he had no choice but to shift the focus by finding someone even worse to make himself look better.

He figured that since Xu Ming was writing a paper for the very first time and had rushed it through, there would definitely be far more problems in his work than in his own.

"I'm sorry, Junior. Senior will make it up to you properly later."

Just as he was thinking this to himself, Zhang Luping beamed with pleasant surprise and quickly asked Xu Ming, "Xiao Xu."

"Did you really finish that mathematical analysis paper? That efficiency is much faster than your Senior Liu's."

"Do you have it with you?"

"Professor Zhang, this is my paper." Hearing this and without overthinking it, Xu Ming pulled out a flash drive and handed it over.