My autobiography is definitely not a tragedy!
Chapter 233 - 177: Take Seats According to Number

Chapter 233: Chapter 177: Take Seats According to Number

"Phew~" Meng Lang wiped his sweat after finishing his morning run, slowly catching his breath.

After 16 days of relentless training.

From barely managing 2 kilometers to now easily running 4 kilometers, Meng Lang had visibly regained the peak physical condition of his university days.

Although he had neglected his fitness for a while, his body was still young after all.

Endurance and persistence might be painful, but they gradually bring benefits to the body.

In fact, people often don’t lack determination; what they lack is the sense of "delayed gratification."

You might not see much result from one day of exercise.

So, persisting for one day is fine, and two days is okay too, but after three days, most people would give up their plans due to the lack of visible results from their exercise.

Many people intermittently get excited and then subsequently do nothing, all because the rewards from exercise are a form of "delayed gratification."

It’s fair to say that the ability to overcome the disappointment from not seeing immediate results is what most distinguishes one person from another.

However, for Meng Lang, the emergence of the "autobiography" significantly brought forward this "sense of delayed gratification" to become a sense of "immediate gratification."

Choosing to persist could, at most, result in mental issues after over twenty years, but giving up meant welcoming stomach cancer in ten years...

This sense of gratification... shot right up!

Feeling satisfied on the 16th day of his "breakup with stomach cancer," Meng Lang entered his community with a cheerful mood.

Unexpectedly, just as he entered the community, he bumped into the couple from yesterday, and the woman was holding that "lucky" little one, Fan Fan.

"Eh? Little brother, it’s you!"

The man immediately walked up with enthusiasm upon seeing Meng Lang.

"Haha! What a coincidence, are you out for a walk?"

"Yeah! Not to make you laugh, but we hardly dare to walk near tall buildings now, once bitten, twice shy," the man said with a bitter smile.

"It’s not necessary, after all, such accidents are rare, and there’s a saying, right, ’A blessing in disguise,’" Meng Lang said with a comforting smile.

"That would still be thanks to the little brother! I didn’t have a chance last time, meeting now must be fate! Come on, let’s go to my place, it’s on me!"

"Right! Let’s go! The sister-in-law should show off her cooking skills!"

"No need, no need."

After several polite refusals, he finally managed to decline the couple’s enthusiastic invitation.

Through further introductions and conversation, Meng Lang found out that both of the couple were university professors at Suzhou University, one teaching mathematics and the other physics.

"Brother Chen and sister-in-law come from an educated family!" Meng Lang exclaimed, slightly stunned.

Especially the thin, tall man wearing glasses, looking very scholarly — Chen Youwei — turned out to be a university mathematics professor, which made Meng Lang pay more attention.

Did he conduct a family background check when selecting his rescue target?

Seems unlikely; could this be another "echo of fate"?

According to the "Xiao Yu law," could he... possibly be the key person for solving the three math problems?

"Haha! It’s nothing like an educated family; we just happen to be in academia," Chen Youwei said with a laugh.

"Although I’m terrible at math, mathematicians are among the people I admire the most!"

Admiration comes from necessity.

"Haha! Little brother, you flatter me. I am hardly a mathematician, just a simple educator," Chen Youwei humbly replied.

"Eh! Brother Chen, you must be always researching some conjectures or hypotheses about difficult world problems at the university, right?" Meng Lang asked eagerly.

Upon hearing this, Chen Youwei laughed.

"The NP-complete problems, the Hodge conjecture, the Poincaré conjecture, the Riemann hypothesis — of course, I’ve thought about solving such world problems, but I’m far from that level.

There are generally two types of university lecturers: those who love teaching and those who love researching. I belong to the former."

Meng Lang felt somewhat disappointed upon hearing this.

Saving a person and solving a problem, it seems he was thinking too much.

If it were that easy, couldn’t he become a saint just by helping an old lady cross the street each day?

Unaware of Meng Lang’s disappointment, Chen Youwei continued somewhat self-mockingly.

"Back then, the primary task of a university teacher was educating and teaching. Later, to meet the strategic needs of the country, research became necessary.

So, the main tasks of a university teacher shifted toward research.

Even educators are expected to fulfill research and publication requirements for professional evaluations, and academic achievements are indispensable for promotions.

Teachers like us, with limited talents, are also quite helpless."

"Brother Chen is being too modest. Teaching is very important, and while research benefits the present, education benefits future generations!"

"Haha! Elder Meng hits the nail on the head.

Luckily, in recent years, the Ministry of Education has emphasized that teaching and research should be equally prioritized, leading many schools to revise their professional title evaluation criteria.

The research system is becoming more complex; to achieve something significant, there is a higher demand for specialization, particularly in fields like mathematics.

Whether or not one has a good teacher, or even a supportive home environment, makes a tremendous difference."

"Oh? I would love to hear more about that!" Meng Lang showed genuine interest.

Seeing that Meng Lang seemed truly interested, Chen Youwei, obviously a bit of a talker himself, opened up.