Top Student at Their Peak
Chapter 330 - 125: It’s All About the Mindset_6

Chapter 330: Chapter 125: It’s All About the Mindset_6

Liu Hao cleared his throat twice and said, "Alright, Zhang Haoyuan, now you’re just being argumentative. Undervaluing ourselves isn’t the way to go either. Without a lab, without us working, where would the firsthand initial data come from? Without data, how could those in the Math School do their analysis? Just making it up?"

The senior brother in the lab spoke up, and the office area completely quieted down.

Actually, Zhang Haoyuan knew his words were quite unreasonable. But he couldn’t help it; if he didn’t say something, that inexplicable feeling of frustration just wouldn’t go away.

Think about it, the team spent three weeks just preparing for this project, and then they all worked hard in the lab for over two months. In the end, some kid came for a day and got it done, and it turns out they get more credit than us.

There’s nothing more painful than being outmatched.

After looking around the office area, Liu Hao clapped his hands and spoke again, "Everyone, cheer up. It’s common to invite professors from the Math School when we’re stuck. Usually, the professors just help us debug models, but this time Qiao Yu gave us some advice, that’s all.

And his advice did help us solve a problem. I think that’s something to celebrate. If you really feel dissatisfied, then the next time we encounter such a problem, I’ll make the decision not to ask the Math Research Center for help. We’ll grind out the results on our own, let everyone enjoy the feeling of relying solely on themselves, how about that?"

The office area immediately fell silent again.

Zhang Haoyuan’s mouth was shut tightly.

He was just complaining a bit. Given the senior brother’s temperament, if he really got serious, it wouldn’t be impossible for them to tough it out without asking for help. If we also happen to be in a hurry, it would be a nightmare.

Let’s put it this way, today, everyone just felt a little uncomfortable at most.

But if we had to stay in the lab every day hunting for problems and rushing to meet deadlines, it would be torture for both body and mind. Adding a huge amount of pressure on top of that... really, having experienced that kind of pain once, you definitely wouldn’t want to go through it a second time.

It’s wise to choose the lesser of two evils, especially at the PhD stage.

"Seems like everyone’s mindset has improved. Not bad, it shows you’ve got some awareness! Let’s divvy up the tasks and get to work. This time, prepare more materials and conduct sustained reaction data collection. Based on the previous design, use carbon nanotubes to modify the activated portion.

They’ve already spoon-fed us the data, now let’s produce some beautiful results. It’ll make discussions with the boss and the client easier. Old Qin, you’re not involved in the specific experiments, so hurry up and write the preliminary report, the boss wants a copy."

"Got it, senior brother!"

"Alright, today’s group meeting ends here, everyone get to work."

...

Qiao Yu didn’t know that just one day in the chemistry lab left such a deep impression on a project team, and even caused some trouble for many people because of his efficiency.

Of course, even if he knew, he wouldn’t care, because he was still busy writing his paper.

The good news is that this paper isn’t too difficult.

After all, he had already written out the main proof process in detail and rigorously, most of which could be directly copied and pasted.

However, even though Qiao Yu intends to play it safe with the paper, he still has ambitions for his academic reputation. He decided to add some content, such as a rough analysis and prediction of higher-order singular points with more complex structures that might emerge similar to spine-like singularities at the end of the paper.

The main reason the paper isn’t finished yet is because he’s contemplating this section.

If this part is perfected, it will definitely be the finishing touch of the paper.

You have to know that this isn’t wasted effort; it has practical significance. In mathematics, fields like differential geometry, complex analysis, and graph theory all have related applications, and in computer science, recognizing higher-order singular points can help improve the performance of algorithms for image segmentation, feature extraction, and object recognition.

The most important thing is that the previous proof process has already been made public, which can’t give the reviewers any sense of novelty. If it only contained that content, Qiao Yu felt it wouldn’t hold up for a paper aimed at top journals.

Not to mention he still had to pass Director Tian and Elder Yuan’s hurdles.

As for what other people thought, to Qiao Yu right now, it was all just clouds, completely unnecessary to focus on.

Of course, Qiao Yu didn’t foolishly try to handle all this by himself anymore. He wrote the program and then handed it over to the supercomputer, while he continued pondering the topic from Professor Li’s side.

He tried many methods, but most of them hit a snag.

And so Qiao Yu spent a mundane day, had dinner at the cafeteria, and received a landline call when he got back to his dormitory.

When he answered, unsurprisingly, a familiar voice came right into his ear.

"Hey, hey, brother."

"Where are you calling from? It’s not the dorm room number you mentioned last time."

Boarding students at Changjun Middle School weren’t allowed to have cell phones, but each dorm floor had a public telephone they could use with a campus card.

"I’m on another floor. The phone upstairs was occupied."

"Oh, why aren’t you attending your evening self-study? Calling me instead?" Qiao Yu asked seriously.

As the saying goes, an elder brother is like a father...

Although Old Xia was alive and well, he was a bit rough and often had to drive, leaving him unable to help Xia Keke with his studies. So Qiao Yu felt that even for Old Xia and Aunt Liu looking after their mom on a daily basis, he had to make sure Xia Keke studied hard, got into Huaqing or Yanbei, and brought glory to the Xia Family.

"There’s something I need to ask you! Our math teacher says I have a lot of potential and wants to recommend me for Yanbei University’s summer camp this year. I’m calling to see if you approve?"

Qiao Yu thought for a moment and asked, "Is high school math tough for you?"

"Textbook stuff is manageable, but for the advanced papers you gave me, I can probably score thirty or forty marks."

"Then sign up." Qiao Yu agreed with the math teacher’s suggestion, then immediately added, "But I can’t guarantee you’ll definitely get selected."

"Hehe... as long as you agree, brother. I’m hanging up then."

"Mhm."

After hanging up the phone, Qiao Yu felt he might return home a few days later this summer break.