Chapter 282: Tan Mo’s Solution
Professor Yue had to listen to the boastings from those two professors frequently.
Every single day, Professor Guo and Professor Zhao would mention that their mentee, Tan Mo, did this or that.
The best decision they had done in the last two years was to discover Tan Mo.
The two not only showed off to others, but they also even competed with each other.
What Tan Mo did today in Professor Guo’s team…
What Tan Mo did the next day in Professor Zhao’s team…
Whoever heard them would get angry and at the same time envious.
The professors from other majors couldn’t help but think that it would be great if only Tan Mo was able to understand their majors as well.
Only Professor Yue was slightly better off than the other professors. He at least had Ming Yeqing.
It was just that Ming Yeqing usually kept a low profile and had yet to partic.i.p.ate in any compet.i.tions.
However, Professor Yue felt pretty certain that Ming Yeqing would not lose to Tan Mo.
One should not forget that they both had successfully enrolled in Beijing University at the same time when they were 15.
The reason why President Mu had not solicited Ming Yeqing was because Mrs. Ming was a director of Beijing University.
Ming Yeqing naturally would enter Beijing University without the need for solicitation.
Otherwise, President Mu would have had to pay a hefty price again.
Not soliciting him did not mean that Ming Yeqing was inferior to Tan Mo.
Ming Yeqing’s talent in the field of aeros.p.a.ce engineering was exceptional.
Otherwise, Professor Yue would not have let him join the research team at such an early stage.
However, Professor Yue had originally estimated that Ming Yeqing would be the first to solve this question.
He did not expect that before Ming Yeqing could answer it, Tan Mo had already done so.
“Professor Yue,” Tan Mo greeted him.
“Let me have a look.” Professor Yue looked toward the steps Tan Mo had written on the whiteboard.
Tan Mo then retreated to the side and did not speak.
The others looked on nervously.
Ming Yeqing knew that Tan Mo’s answer was correct.
This was because he had almost solved the question and was only missing the last bit.
He was still able to make a judgment.
While for the others, most of them were still quite a distance away from the final step and were not at all able to judge if Tan Mo’s answer was right or wrong.
Some of the people were near the result, although they were not at Ming Yeqing’s level. They only had the intuition that Tan Mo was most likely correct in her answer.
At least from the processes in her solution and her use of the formulas, they could see that Tan Mo truly understood their major.
She was not being a showoff to try to impress the spectators.
Moreover, Tan Mo seemed very familiar with the tools of their trade. They had never imagined that certain formulas could be used in this manner.
Everyone therefore experienced conflicting feelings.
Could it be that Tan Mo who was from the Finance Department could understand aeros.p.a.ce engineering better than they did?
Yuan Keqing couldn’t understand the solution at all.
She could not understand even the tiniest bit of it.
Looking at all these numbers and formulas was to her the same as looking at a book written in a different language.
She could only wait for Professor Yue’s answer anxiously.
“That is right!” Professor Yue also picked up a whiteboard marker and circled Tan Mo’s third step. “This part is ingenious!”
“For this question, you used the simplest and most direct method.” The professor nodded his head. “Good, very good.”
“Professor Yue, are there really many different methods to solve this question?” someone asked.
“Really?” Professor Yue found it odd that the student who asked this question would use the word really.
Had someone told him that before?
Another student said, “Tan Mo told us that. She said that she had a few methods to solve the question. She waited to write it down because she was choosing the comparably simpler and most direct solution.”
Professor Yue nodded and smiled. “Of course, even normal multiplication questions with more than two digits have cross multiplication, square multiplication, the commonly used binary multiplication, and more.
“How can there only be one type of solution for a question? You feel that there is only one because you only thought of that one. When you master more, and know more, the solutions that you can think of naturally will be more.” Professor Yue smiled. “Everyone should understand such easy logic.”
Everyone: “……”
To think that there really are more.
This was actually not shocking.
However, was Tan Mo bragging or had she really been able to use a few different methods to answer the question?
Professor Yue asked Tan Mo directly, “How many more methods can you use to solve the question?”
It was not that Tan Mo was proud, but she was afraid that if she said more than was necessary, Professor Yue would also approach her to join his team.
And then she would become even busier.
“Yeqing also solved the problem. Let him go ahead first. He definitely knows many methods as well,” Tan Mo said.
She couldn’t use up all the methods and have Ming Yeqing be unable to use any, right?
“Cousin, it can’t be that you’re unable to come up with different methods and so you’re pulling Ming Yeqing into it, right?” Yuan Keqing might not be able to understand what was written down, but that did not stop her from trying to expose Tan Mo.
Tan Mo tilted her head back and laughed as if she heard a joke. Then she said, “When I said that I could solve the question earlier, you did not believe me. Now I have solved it. I said that I know a few methods. Are you sure that you still don’t believe me?”
Yuan Keqing opened her mouth, but did not dare to say anything.
She’s sure that Tan Mo really knows a few methods.
She had spoken before thinking and had subconsciously wanted to embarra.s.s Tan Mo. It was an instinctive reaction.
When Tan Mo asked the question, Yuan Keqing felt guilty.
“Then let’s have Ming Yeqing go ahead first.” Professor Yue smiled.
Professor Yue first took a picture of Tan Mo’s solution with his phone. “I will print a copy of Tan Mo’s solution and paste it in the cla.s.sroom. In future, I will set a question for everyone to solve every once in a while. Those who can provide an answer the earliest and also have a different solution will have their answers printed and pasted, labelled with their names, and be put up on our walls for presentation purposes and as a souvenir.”
Everyone who heard it felt that this would be something to be proud of.
And it could even make a good impression on Professor Yue.
It was possible that in the near future, they could be like Ming Yeqing and be added onto Professor Yue’s team.
“I had thought of two methods,” Ming Yeqing said.
“Come and try it.” Professor Yue nodded.
So Tan Mo’s solution had been captured in a photo by Professor Yue.
Ming Yeqing then erased the words on the whiteboard with peace of mind and wrote his own solution.
Both solutions obtained Professor Yue’s approval and were photographed.
“Tan Mo, do you have more?” Professor Yue asked Tan Mo with a smile.
Tan Mo glanced at Yuan Keqing and smiled. “I do have another method.”
Ming Yeqing wiped the board clean for Tan Mo.
Tan Mo quickly wrote her solution down.
This time, the solution was more complicated, and there were more steps to the process.
However, the result was still the same.
“That’s right!” Professor Yue praised her with a nod. “I will print and paste the four solutions by you and Ming Yeqing.”
Professor Yue spoke to the other students, “There are still different methods to answer this question. You still have a chance.”