Chapter 9: Should It Be Confidence?

That day, there was no "coincidental encounter." After the afternoon classes ended, Li Qian and Gu Youyou returned home early. They huddled in their room, discussing how the "coincidental encounter" might happen.

Li Qian suggested staying in the room. "If we don't go out, how can he arrange a coincidental encounter?"

"Would he come to knock on our door under the pretext of living opposite to us and invite us to dinner?"

"That's possible..." Li Qian's eyes lit up. "Let's have hotpot! We must go for hotpot..."

"With spicy soup base!" She drooled as she spoke.

Gu Youyou also had a little anticipation, but she pretended to be indifferent. "I'm not going."

"The homework isn't done yet, and the advisor also suggested that we should learn differential equations well. But, the differential equations questions are so difficult!"

"What are you worried about? Let him help you with the homework!" Li Qian couldn't resist rushing to the hotpot restaurant.

They waited and waited... From five o'clock to seven, from seven to eight-thirty, hunger made them anxious and haggard.

Li Qian lay on the sofa and ordered takeout. When the delivery arrived, they finally saw Wang Hao, but he didn't come to invite them for dinner; he just went upstairs with the delivery person.

"Hello!" When Wang Hao opened the door, he saw the door opposite also opening, so he waved and gave a suggestion, "Why not order takeout? It's better than eating out. There's a nice little restaurant on the west side of the campus."

With that, he went into his room.

As Li Qian, who was about to pick up the delivery, looked at Gu Youyou with suspicion, she said, "Did we guess wrong?"

"Maybe, he just didn't plan for a coincidental encounter today," Gu Youyou doubted.

Wang Hao had no idea about the two "imagination Sherlock Holmes" across from him, who felt anxious because he had gone hungry for over an hour.

There was a problem-solving class in the evening, and he had just returned.

The next day was the weekend. One of the perks of being a university lecturer was that there was hardly any overtime work, so weekends were relatively leisurely.

However, Wang Hao couldn't relax. He focused on his teaching work, hoping to do better, so he prepared for next week's lessons seriously.

Following the textbook's outline, next week's lesson was on explaining "one-dimensional non-homogeneous problems," or more precisely, solving one-dimensional non-homogeneous equations.

He carefully studied the content in the textbook and felt that explaining according to the textbook would be sufficient. Mainly because solving one-dimensional non-homogeneous equations was relatively simple. At the undergraduate level, one only needed to grasp the basic methods of solving them, which involved transforming the equation into a homogeneous one and then solving it, followed by considering the non-zero values to obtain the corresponding general solution.

"One-dimensional non-homogeneous equations are different from Fourier transforms. It's difficult to determine corresponding research directions. However, they still belong to partial differential equations. Maybe studying them could provide some inspiration for solving partial differential equations more generally," Wang Hao thought as he opened the task system.

Task Two, which involved researching the application of Fourier transform algorithms, had a creativity value of 73 points. From Tuesday's class until now, it had only increased by 72 points. Essentially, it had reached a standstill.

Switching to explaining "one-dimensional non-homogeneous problems" next week wasn't likely to provide inspiration for researching Fourier transforms.

"Settle the task," Wang Hao realized tasks could be settled. The option to "abandon the task" had turned into "settle the task."

The prompt indicated: [Settling the task earns teaching coins.]

"Settle!" He decided to settle the task. The system immediately provided a new prompt:

[Task Two, settled!]

[You have earned teaching coins. Quantity: 36.]

"Thirty-six teaching coins isn't bad!" Wang Hao felt quite relieved. Ten teaching coins per day sounded like a lot, but they weren't always enough.

One class required two coins. Studying, doing research, everything required teaching coins. With a daily income of ten coins, and using at least six coins per day, it wasn't easy to earn ten coins on weekends when there were no classes.

Previously, he only had eleven teaching coins left. With thirty-six teaching coins, he no longer worried about running out.

[Teaching coins: 47.]

"Task Two, settled. Can establish a new task," Wang Hao thought for a moment and decided to try establishing a research task related to homogeneous equations. Teaching correlated with research, and the creativity value increased rapidly.

Even if there were no major achievements, earning some teaching coins would be good.

[Establishment successful, new task initiated!]

[Task Two]

[Research Project Name: In-depth Study of One-Dimensional Non-Homogeneous Equation Solutions (Difficulty: D).]

[Creativity Value: 0.]

"The difficulty level is only D." Wang Hao tried clicking "Abandon Task" and immediately received a new system prompt:

[Abandoning the task requires consuming ten teaching coins. Confirm abandonment?]

[Continue!]

"Forget it, even if it's a D-level difficulty, it's still something!" Ten teaching coins were still quite painful to give up. Lower difficulty also meant easier results, and even the smallest achievement was still an achievement!

Sunday morning.

Wang Hao got up early and went to the school's playground for a run and exercise. In his previous life, it only took ten years for him to go from a young lad to a middle-aged uncle with a Mediterranean lifestyle. He didn't want to go down that path again; maintaining exercise was important.

He ran a lap, then another... His physical fitness wasn't great; he got out of breath after just a few laps of jogging. But it was an improvement from when he first crossed over. Consistent exercise was effective.

A graceful figure surpassed him. She had her hair in a ponytail, wearing tight sportswear, rhythmically jogging forward, exuding a sporty vibe.

At first, Wang Hao didn't recognize her. He followed behind, carefully observing for a while, feeling a sense of familiarity.

The figure in front slowed down, matching Wang Hao's pace, and called out, "Mr. Wang."

"It's... Manager Su," Wang Hao turned his head and suddenly realized. She was wearing sportswear, her short hair tied into a braid, which was why he hadn't recognized her at first.

Her figure... indeed looked great.

He silently praised her and casually asked, "Do you live nearby too?"

"Just on the other side of Central Street," Su Yingshu pointed in a direction, then asked with interest, "Mr. Wang, do you also enjoy exercising?"

Wang Hao panted heavily, continuing to run forward step by step. "Who enjoys exercising? But I have no choice. If I don't exercise, my body will rust. I don't want to be called a middle-aged uncle in a few years when I go out."

"You're quite funny!" Su Yingshu chuckled. "You speak as if you're so old. You're probably not even twenty-four yet."

"What about you?" Wang Hao didn't answer. Instead, he responded calmly, "You know, it's impolite to ask a woman's age."

"I haven't been in a relationship, so I don't know." Wang Hao responded calmly.

"Not even once?"

"Nope."

Su Yingshu smiled and didn't answer. Instead, she said, "You don't know that asking a woman's age is very impolite."

"I've never been in a relationship, so I don't know." Wang Hao gave a calm response.

The two of them continued running in silence for another lap. After a while, Wang Hao felt like he couldn't run anymore, so he stopped at the side of the track. He was about to say goodbye and leave when he saw Su Yingshu also following him.

"Mr. Wang, please don't leave yet."

"What's the matter?"

"I have something to ask you." Su Yingshu became more serious. "Last time at the restaurant, we talked about the cooperation between our company and Nano Lab. Do you think investing in the research on high magnetic field separation microspheres is worthwhile?"

"Well, um..." Wang Hao felt like leaving immediately. How would he know if the research was worth investing in?

He reiterated, "Manager Su, as I said last time, you should find a professional for this question."

"Mr. Wang, you're very professional." Su Yingshu said firmly, "I have some experimental data from other institutions. Could you help establish a mathematical model and do an analysis?"

Mathematical modeling analysis was a very professional issue. Material science mathematical analysis required proficiency in both mathematics and material science. In relative terms, it leaned more towards mathematics.

Different people might come up with different results for similar analyses.

This was a very difficult question to answer.

Wang Hao also understood Su Yingshu's intention. He was annoyed by this kind of work. Doing an analysis wouldn't bring any benefits, but if the analysis conclusions were beneficial to Nano Lab, what if the research failed? It wouldn't be beneficial to Nano Lab. Professor Xia Guobin would probably blame him for ruining the agreed-upon research sponsorship.

He decided to say, "Well, I'm very busy lately. I'll help you when I have time in the future."

"Okay." Su Yingshu stared at Wang Hao, nodding vigorously with her mouth pursed.

Wang Hao hurried away.

"I'm sorry I don't have time; I'll never have time. I'll always be busy!"

Behind him, Su Yingshu's eyes were full of curiosity.

She naturally knew that Wang Hao was making excuses and didn't want to help with the analysis. In fact, she had two reasons for approaching Wang Hao. One was the need for data analysis; she hoped to get different conclusions.

The other reason was curiosity.

She always felt that Wang Hao was very unusual.

Generally, people who had experienced what Wang Hao had would be knocked down for a while. Even with a positive personality, they would definitely feel down for a long time. Wang Hao seemed unaffected.

His confident eyes, performance in class, and the humor just now all indicated that he didn't care about what happened.

Why was that?

In Su Yingshu's mind, she couldn't help but recall their first encounter in the corridor. She pursed her lips and thought, "It must be confidence."

"Perhaps he can draw very meaningful conclusions."