Chapter 2: The Gift of Teaching

"X Professor System"

"Why not 'X Doctor'?"

Wang Hao quickly found a chair by the roadside and sat down, pondering over the system that appeared in his mind.

[Open System!]

Two modules appeared in the system: "Personal Module" and "Task Module."

[Open Personal Module!]

After issuing the command, several pieces of information appeared instantly—

[Teaching Coins: 0.]

[You have gained a new ability, "The Gift of Teaching"!]

["The Gift of Teaching" (Level One): Your explanations will increase others' understanding efficiency by twenty percent. Additionally, your explanations will aid others in correctly understanding and thinking about the knowledge, resulting in a one hundred percent feedback to yourself.]

[Ability Upgrade Task, Phase One: Publish ten influential academic papers.]

(To gain the next ability, teaching coins need to be consumed.)

"The Gift of Teaching"

Wang Hao read it carefully several times, comprehending it thoroughly after careful reading.

"Explaining can help others understand better, and their understanding and related correct thinking will be reflected back..."

"It seems quite powerful."

In the ability "The Gift of Teaching," improving others' understanding efficiency would undoubtedly make his courses more efficient. Moreover, the feedback on understanding and thinking about knowledge while explaining would deepen his own understanding of knowledge. Teaching and learning complement each other!

He immediately turned his attention to the first item, "Teaching Coins."

Teaching coins, with a brief introduction below.

[Teaching Coins: Used for oneself, to enter focus mode and increase thinking speed; designated for others, to increase understanding speed.]

(Current daily acquisition limit: 10.)

"It can increase thinking speed for oneself in focus mode, making learning and research much more efficient."

"However, the daily acquisition limit is too low—only ten a day. To gain the next ability, I need ten thousand."

Wang Hao was still very much looking forward to it. Teaching coins could increase thinking speed, whether for learning or research, it would undoubtedly greatly increase efficiency.

With "The Gift of Teaching," he could help others better understand knowledge while deepening his own understanding when explaining to others.

He then issued a command to open the "Task Module" and found only a row of simple introductions—

[Establish research tasks, obtain inspiration.]

(Current available task creation quantity: 2.)

"Establish research tasks to obtain inspiration," Wang Hao tried to understand. "It means research tasks are related to obtaining inspiration."

"Knowledge is acquired from the Personal Module, while inspiration is obtained from the Task Module..."

With knowledge and inspiration, there's no need to worry about lack of research results.

Wang Hao was filled with anticipation for the future.

He didn't rush to establish tasks but instead closed the system, intending to familiarize himself with the environment first.

Strolling through the university campus, he felt the strong atmosphere of learning, basking in the bright spring sunshine. He couldn't help but notice the couples nestled among the trees and grass, although it wasn't nighttime, and he lacked a shiny flashlight in his hand.

Unknowingly, he walked to the Comprehensive Office Building.

Located on the west side of the campus, it was the largest comprehensive building on the campus, with a total of twenty-one floors. The first six floors housed offices for various departments, while the upper floors contained computer rooms, faculty dormitories, and many vacant rooms.

The entrance of the building was bustling with people, many students coming and going.

Wang Hao's age didn't stand out in the crowd, and he quietly went up to the sixth floor, pushed open the door of a teacher's office, and went in.

"Excuse me, who are you looking for?" A female teacher sitting at the adjacent desk pushed up her glasses and asked.

Wang Hao extended his hand in greeting, "Hello, I'm Wang Hao, just arrived at the school. Could you please tell me where my desk is?"

"Wang Hao."

The people in the office all looked over. Some couldn't help but whisper, "So he's Wang Hao."

"That 23-year-old doctor who appeared in the news is really a pity. How could such a basic error occur while doing a project?"

"It's probably because he's too young."

"I know, I know, introduced by Professor Zhou Qingyuan, substituting for Old Li's class. I guess he won't stay long, maybe just this semester."

"With such problems arising, it's hard to mix in the academic circle..."

The female teacher facing him was also somewhat surprised. She carefully scrutinized Wang Hao for a while before pointing to a position near the door, saying, "That's the position left for you."

Wang Hao nodded and walked over. He found that his desk was the worst one in the office—

By the door.

There would definitely be significant disturbances from the constant flow of people passing by.

He didn't mind, knowing that the last to arrive would always end up here, as the better spots had already been taken.

Wang Hao didn't pay attention to the others and continued to tidy up his desk. He then noticed there was no computer on it, which felt very awkward.

The female teacher from earlier came over again and kindly reminded him, "There's no computer on your desk. If you need one, you can go to the computer room upstairs and get one."

Wang Hao turned his head and thanked her before asking, "I don't know your name yet."

"I'm Zhu Ping. You can call me 'Sister Zhu' if you don't mind. I teach basic computer courses," the female teacher said cheerfully.

"Okay, Sister Zhu."

"The Partial Differential Equations."

His course was "Partial Differential Equations," and he was teaching it to three majors and seven classes. Each class consisted of two to three groups, with one main lecture and one exercise class per week, in addition to course preparation, homework grading, exam preparation, and so on...

Still quite relaxed!

Comparing it to the workload in his previous life, being a university lecturer was indeed a dream job.

He opened the textbook and looked at it carefully. He found that he remembered everything from his memory. Just a simple glance through, and he could understand most of it. Many concepts came naturally to him, and he could think of various extensions, transformations, and deeper insights into the material.

With so much knowledge in his mind, coupled with rich teaching experience, teaching was naturally not a problem for him.

As he looked at the content in the textbook, he also pondered research questions.

Currently, he had signed a one-year contract with the school, but the benefits were equivalent to those of other contracted Ph.D. holders.

Xihai University employed Ph.D. lecturers under a seven-year contract system, included in the postdoctoral management. Within the seven-year contract period, if they reached the academic level of associate professorship or achieved outstanding results in their field of study, they could be included in the teaching staff.

To stay and continue teaching at the university, research and academic achievements were crucial.

As a former Ph.D. in Mathematics from Donggang University, he felt that it would be difficult to achieve significant results in pure mathematical research. Hence, he hoped to explore new directions.

That's why he decided to join the project at the Material Science Laboratory, hoping to combine basic mathematics with data modeling and analysis to achieve some results in the field of applied science and technology. He had even read many books on materials science for this purpose.

"Other directions" were not suitable for him at the moment.

He couldn't participate in large-scale experimental projects, and even applying for a provincial-level youth project was very difficult.

"The best direction is the one that doesn't cost money." Wang Hao carefully considered it and knew where to start.

Near yet far.

Partial Differential Equations!

During his Ph.D. studies, he had researched a partial differential equation analytical problem very seriously.

Analytical solutions of partial differential equations are fundamental in the study of differential equations.

Some mathematics professors spend their entire careers researching analytical solutions of partial differential equations, with very few significant results that hardly get noticed.

In the field of mathematics, research on the analytical solutions of partial differential equations is still very meaningful because partial differential equations have wide applications. Each small advancement in this field can lower the difficulty of using partial differential equations as analytical tools in other applications.

"This is it!"

Wang Hao carefully considered it and found it very suitable. Because his course was "Partial Differential Equations," in terms of understanding the system's abilities, explaining to students could also help him gain a deeper understanding.

So, teaching and research would be connected, which might be helpful for his research.

He didn't stay long in the office.

Formal work would start next Monday. He just came to take a look today and didn't have anything else to do.

After leaving the Comprehensive Building and wandering around the campus for a while, he went to his rented house.

Because he was temporarily coming to Xihai University to teach, the university didn't assign dormitories immediately, so he just rented a house in the nearby neighborhood.

Two girls were walking in front of the building.

One was thin, with braids and two dimples on her face, always smiling; the other was short and chubby, wearing glasses.

They chatted as they walked, "It's time to pay the rent again, and I don't have enough living expenses."

"There's no choice. The school's dorms are so bad, with six people in one room. It's worse than the dorms I had in high school!"

"Yeah, this lousy school doesn't treat graduate students like humans!"

The chubby girl suddenly looked at Wang Hao, who entered the elevator, with a puzzled expression and asked, "Are you living across from us?"

Wang Hao hesitated for a moment with a slightly open mouth, but he couldn't recall any relevant memories.

"I'm Li Qian, and she's Gu Youyou." Li Qian asked cheerfully, "You live on the fifth floor, right?"

"501." Wang Hao nodded.

"I thought so. I saw you that day." After Li Qian finished speaking, she suddenly asked, "How much do you rent your place for?"

"2300 yuan per month." This memory he had.

"2300 yuan?" Li Qian exclaimed in surprise, summing it up in two words, "So expensive!"

"Maybe it's a bit larger." Wang Hao had a thought in his mind and continued, "My rented place is twenty square meters larger and fully furnished, with all the furniture and appliances inside, just like new. It's five hundred yuan more expensive than yours, which is reasonable."

[Teaching Coin +1.]

"―!" Wang Hao was stunned by the system prompt, then heard Li Qian ask curiously, "Do you live alone?"

He nodded thoughtfully.

"Rich guy!" Li Qian gave a thumbs-up, and the elevator had already reached the fifth floor.

Wang Hao couldn't help but smile and shook his head. He didn't say anything more, just got off the elevator and entered his apartment.

Li Qian followed step by step and glanced inside, but was pulled back by Gu Youyou, who looked dissatisfied, before reluctantly returning.

The two entered the room.

With her back to the door, Gu Youyou furrowed her brows slightly and said thoughtfully, "The room across from us, I've seen it when we were house hunting. I was quite interested, but it's a bit expensive, exceeding our budget."

"But, it's strange!"

Li Qian changed into slippers, puzzled, and asked, "What's wrong? What are you thinking about now?"

Gu Youyou lightly said, "Just now in the elevator, when he said it wasn't expensive, I was thinking, it's normal for the room across to be larger, fully furnished, and five hundred yuan more expensive."

"Then, he said it."

"Moreover, he said that the rent was five hundred yuan more than ours. How did he know our rent is 1800 yuan?"

After listening, Li Qian's eyes lit up, and she exaggeratedly pointed with her hand, "Could it be the legendary telepathy?"

"You should be concerned about why he knew our rent, right? Did he investigate...?"

"It's a bit scary!"

Gu Youyou suddenly realized and covered her face with her hands, saying shyly, "It seems that I need to dress up a bit nicer when going out in the future."

"What if that handsome guy isn't interested in you?"

"―!"