Chapter 551: Please Do Not Make Our Professor Go Crazy
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“Oh? Have you already met Professor Guo?” President Mu asked with a huge grin.
After a few seconds of silence, Tan Mo finally replied, “No, I haven’t met Professor Guo before. But as a student at Beijing University, there’s no way I wouldn’t know Professor Guo from the Department of Mathematics.”
Professor Guo’s importance to Beijing University was almost as much as Professor Gu’s.
It wasn’t as if Professor Guo was more important than Professor Gu, but the former was a prominent figure in the country’s mathematics scene.
In the past, not only Hua University but even the Ma.s.sachusetts Inst.i.tute of Technology tried to recruit Professor Guo to give lectures at their campuses.
However, the famous professor was an alum of Beijing University. He declined all the offers from other universities and decided to stay with Beijing University.
It was a fact that Beijing University’s Department of Mathematics was weaker than Hua University’s. It was evident from the compet.i.tion between the students from both universities in Jiaoyuan City.
Even though both teams could answer the questions before Tan Mo arrived, it was evident that the students from Beijing University took longer to solve them.
Of course, one could say that the students from Hua University were interrupting the students from Beijing University. Even if the former didn’t do that, the latter would still be slower in terms of calculating speed.
Yet, despite the situation with Beijing University’s Department of Mathematics, Professor Guo declined Hua University’s offer and chose to stay with his alma mater and become the face of the department.
It wasn’t too much to say that most of the students who decided to study at Beijing University’s Department of Mathematics did so because of Professor Guo.
It showed how important the professor was to the university.
“I heard from Professor Yao that you have shown great talents in mathematics,” Professor Guo said with a kind smile on his face.
“No, no. Professor Yao only saw me solving one question,” Tan Mo replied.
“I also saw you setting up questions,” Professor Yao added with a wide grin. “And you came up with that question yourself. No one could find the same one online. That’s more than enough to prove that you are the one who thought of it.”
“If you’re that talented, there’s no need to hide it.” Professor Guo smiled. “The reason I’m here is to see it for myself.”
In the end, Professor Yao wasn’t as good as Professor Guo, but the latter didn’t want to say that aloud.
However, everyone present understood what Professor Guo meant.
Professor Yao looked at his colleague speechlessly.
‘I’m sorry for not being good!’ he wailed in his head.
Professor Guo took out two pieces of folded paper from his pocket.
He opened them to reveal three questions he had prepared.
“Tan Mo, can you try solving them?” Professor Guo asked with a smile.
It was then that Tan Mo confirmed that Professor Guo had a poker face on.
He always had a smile on, to the point where Tan Mo felt wrong to refuse his request.
“Right now?” Tan Mo blinked as she focused on the papers in the professor’s hand.
“Yes. Right now.” Professor Guo nodded. “I want to see how good you are.”
“What if I take a long time?” Tan Mo asked. “It’s almost lunchtime. If I can’t finish them by then…”
“No worries. I’ll have someone bring us lunch,” Professor Guo replied.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to trouble someone else.” Tan Mo sighed, finally knowing what kind of game the professor was playing. “I don’t know how to solve them.”
Professor Guo looked at the young lady. The smile almost disappeared from his face.
“Tan Mo. Focus,” President Mu reminded. He didn’t want Tan Mo to make their treasured professor go crazy. “Why do you even want to hide the fact that you are good in mathematics too? If it’s other students, they would do anything to show how good they are.”
“Because I’m already too good at too many things…” Tan Mo sighed. “I’m already as busy as I can get from all those subjects. I only have one body and one mind, and the other students aren’t as busy as I am…”
Both President Mu and Professor Guo looked at each other as they understood what Tan Mo meant.
It wasn’t as if she didn’t know how to solve the questions, but she didn’t want to solve them.
Since she was too busy with other stuff, she didn’t want to, or couldn’t, divide any more attention to help the Department of Mathematics.
“Pretty please?” Professor Yao begged. “You don’t have to join any research group or attend any courses. You can do whatever you want with most of your time. We won’t take much of your time when we need you.”
Professor Yao also understood that Tan Mo really had a tight schedule.
She even had a hard time finding time for herself.
It was almost impossible to ask her to do any of the things he mentioned above.
“Then, what do you need me to do?” Tan Mo asked.
Professor Guo could tell that Tan Mo believed that she could solve all the three questions he had written on the papers. It was evident that she was confident in her mathematic skills and was already starting to bargain.
Backed up with the fact that Professor Yao was confident in Tan Mo’s ability after witnessing it, Professor Guo was also convinced that Tan Mo was indeed talented in mathematics as well.
That was why he had decided to meet Tan Mo’s end of the deal.
“Nothing much. All you need to do is partic.i.p.ate in some of the bigger national compet.i.tions,” Professor Yao said.
“That’s all?” Tan Mo asked. “Nothing else?”
“Nope. All you have to do is compete,” Professor Yao confirmed.
President Mu raised a brow. He did not expect Professor Yao to get what Tan Mo cared about the most after spending one day with her.
“Tan Mo,” the president said, “you know that our Department of Mathematics is weaker than other universities. If not for Professor Guo, the department would’ve lost even worse to Hua University’s Department of Mathematics.”
“If all I need to do is partic.i.p.ate in compet.i.tions, then I can consider it.” Tan Mo nodded, thinking that there weren’t many compet.i.tions annually.
Unlike going to courses or partic.i.p.ating in research, she wouldn’t have time for compet.i.tions every day.
“Then,” Professor Yao grabbed the papers from Professor Guo and asked, “why don’t you try solving these first?”
The professor had decided to ignore what Professor Guo thought as he knew his colleague had given all his heart to Beijing University.
“Both President Mu and I believe in your ability,” Professor Yao added. “If it’s only us here, you don’t have to solve these. If you say you’re good at something, then we believe you definitely are. I mean, you never even once said that you are good at aeronautic engineering, and now you’re their ace!”
Professor Guo wasn’t smiling anymore, but Professor Yao didn’t care and continued, “But you almost admitted you are good in mathematics just now, right? Doesn’t that mean your mathematic skill is better than aeronautic engineering?”
The more Professor Yao thought about it, the more excited he got.
He would’ve been satisfied even if Tan Mo’s mathematic skill was as good as her aeronautic engineering.
However, from her att.i.tude, it seemed as if she was confident that in terms of proficiency, she was better in mathematics when compared to aeronautic engineering.. There was no way he was going to let her go.