Top Student at Their Peak-Chapter 243 - 110 Is from Mathematical Yearbook_5

What can ease worries? Only good food.

The dining hall at Yanbei University soothed Qiao Yu’s heartache quite well.

After eating, he planned to follow his mentor’s advice and stroll around the lake, check out the pretty senior to ease his gloomy mood, but when he got to the research center’s entrance, he was too lazy to move.

Actually, there wasn’t much to see. After all, the senior couldn’t help him with his project, so it was better to go back and take a nap.

Not long after returning to the dorm, Old Xue came by.

"Did you go to class this morning? Haven’t you been saying you need to finish your paper these days?"

Qiao Yu felt that Old Xue seemed a bit strange lately, as if he couldn’t feel comfortable without seeing him for a day, dropping by every day.

Actually, he’d already passed the initial adaptation phase and didn’t need someone watching over him every day. But it was nice that Old Xue liked checking in on him daily since people always need some contact with the outside world.

"I finished writing it yesterday and sent it to Director Tian. He called me over this morning to keep him company in his office and review the paper together," Qiao Yu explained.

"Oh? What did Director Tian say?" Old Xue became interested.

He understood Qiao Yu’s level in paper writing, so he wasn’t worried about the basics, naturally asking about the evaluation of results and the proof process.

"Director Tian said my samples weren’t enough, and it needed verification with a supercomputer. If it matches the results in the database, it qualifies for the top four journals! If not, the paper might need revisions.

Oh, and Director Tian suggested I submit it to Princeton’s Mathematical Yearbook. Mr. Xue, you did your Ph.D. at Princeton, right? Is it impressive to get published in the Mathematical Yearbook?"

Mentioning this, Qiao Yu finally overcame his depression and felt a bit happier.

After all, it’s one of the world’s top four mathematical journals. Many professors take pride in having their work published in such high-caliber journals.

However, Qiao Yu seemed to forget that Old Xue was also one of them, making this remark akin to stabbing Old Xue in the chest, though he really didn’t mean it.

Thus, he heard Old Xue respond indifferently: "Yeah, impressive."

From his tone, Qiao Yu felt a twinge of melancholy. Wasn’t it true that he might unintentionally touch upon the professor’s sensitive side?

Thinking it over, he added, "It’s okay, Mr. Xue, since it hasn’t been successfully verified yet. It might fail the supercomputer verification, and I’d need to revise it."

Xue Song thought for a moment and seemed to find his emotions unreasonable; then, he proactively smiled and said, "Alright, you go ahead and be proud. Let me put it this way: when I was doing my Ph.D. at Princeton, my mentor was a good friend of Professor Lott Degen, the editor-in-chief of the Mathematical Yearbook.

But even so, I couldn’t get an article published in the Mathematical Yearbook. Of course, it wasn’t that I didn’t want to, or that my mentor deliberately avoided suspicion by not recommending me; it was purely because my results couldn’t reach that level, so you just secretly enjoy it."

"Heh heh..." Qiao Yu chuckled dryly.

Old Xue was a sincere person, and it’s against his moral code to take advantage of the sincere. Besides, there were quite a few insincere people around him, such as Yu Yongjun and Yu Wei, who didn’t fall into the sincere category.

"Alright, I mainly came to check on you, so I’m not staying to celebrate with you. I’m off to be busy now." After saying this, Xue Song turned and left without hesitation.

Although being Qiao Yu’s mentor felt like the joy of nurturing someone, it inevitably also brought feelings of being hit. He, too, needed to work on psychological adjustment.

Just like he said, despite all the favorable conditions, he had never been able to publish a paper in the Mathematical Yearbook. Regardless of whether or not Qiao Yu’s paper could eventually be published, it was at least recognized by Huaxia’s top mathematicians as having the potential to be published.

In this aspect alone, Qiao Yu already surpassed 80% of Huaxia’s mathematics researchers.

This actually made Xue Song very happy, but if that 80% also included him, it wouldn’t feel so good. The emotional complexity naturally required some adjustment.

Watching Old Xue leave without hesitation, Qiao Yu felt pretty complicated too, but what could he do? He could only say, "Mr. Xue, take care; I won’t see you out."

Xue Song didn’t turn back, just casually waved his hand.

Qiao Yu sighed, just about to take a nap, when Senior Brother Chen came down from upstairs, holding a bound stack of A4 papers in one hand and his teacup in the other, stepping into his room, not forgetting to explain upon entering, "I just saw Professor Xue leave from the window, so I came down."

Indeed, when you’re unlucky, nothing seems to go your way. With that, Qiao Yu sighed inwardly but still warmly welcomed his senior brother.

"Senior Brother Chen, have a seat, is this your paper completed already?"

"Yes, actually, it was almost done last month. I just wanted to polish it more, constantly revising the content to perfect the proof process. Since you’re heading to Huaqing on Wednesday, I wanted you to take a look first; if you have any suggestions, I still have time to make changes tomorrow," Chen Zhuoyang said earnestly, making Qiao Yu feel a bit embarrassed.

"Um, I don’t really have the qualifications to critique your paper, Senior Brother. I’ll just take a look and learn." With that, Qiao Yu took the paper from Senior Brother Chen.

Chen Zhuoyang directly sat on the stool in front of Qiao Yu’s desk, putting his teacup on Qiao Yu’s desk and said, "Hey, don’t be so modest. Finishing a paper so quickly, being called in by the boss for a morning discussion, shows you really have a knack for writing papers.