Shen Jingyi had not expected that Professor Zhao would have already asked Professor Guo about this and had received confirmation that Tan Mo had more than enough time and energy to do all these three things at the same time.
The only question was, how could she do that?
How was it possible for a person to multitask that many important things at once?
“And don’t forget that you only used half a semester to complete all the questions I gave you.” Professor Zhao smiled as he pointed at the stack of papers in Wu Xiaoye’s hand, which was the perfect evidence. “Let’s not forget that when you were answering the questions, you were also doing your studies and research with Professor Guo, and you even won the Ancient Text Competition. Professor Guo has told me that ever since you joined his team, they have been reviewing the literature of the Warring States Period at twice their normal speed.
All the students’ eyes got wider and wider every time Professor Zhao added another thing to the list.
All they knew was that Tan Mo had won the Ancient Text Competition. They had completely forgotten about all the other things that she had been doing at the same time.
“I don’t think you know this, but it took all your seniors here in this classroom at least a whole semester to complete all the questions. When we factor in the fact that they only had to focus on their History Department courses and didn’t have to help another research team, you have completed these questions with just one-third of the effort that it took them. And their answers aren’t as detailed as yours. I’m not saying that their answers were bad. They did make all the important points, but yours are just better. They didn’t even include a reference list.”
Tan Mo was speechless. At the same time, she felt as if she had been played by the professor. “Why are you asking me when you know everything?”
She was thinking that the professor could have just told Shen Jingyi the same thing he just had recounted without calling her into the classroom.
Tan Mo pouted. She was hoping that she might have the chance of some free time.
HMPH! Professor Zhao knew that he was right, that Tan Mo was planning something else. “So, you admit that you can help us out without straining yourself, right?”
In all honesty, Tan Mo had never planned to ditch the History Department in order to loaf around a little bit. However, when Professor Zhao had brought the question up, she did have a slight hope that she might be able to.
Of course, deep down in her heart, she knew she should not. Yet, she still would have liked to give it a try.
Just as she had told Wang Yuemu and Professor Guo’s team, Professor Zhao had shown her respect, and she knew she had to repay that respect.
As long as people were nice to her, she would be nice to them as well.
That was why she had worked so hard to answer the questions given to her by Professor Zhao, because she knew she had to meet his expectations.
“Of course,” Tan Mo said, nodding.
Professor Zhao looked satisfied, and he smiled and turned to Wu Xiaoye. “Xiaoye, why don’t you introduce the research team and the work we do to Tan Mo before assigning something for her to do? Once you are finished, come to my office.”
“Okay,” Wu Xiaoye replied. She began to show Tan Mo around as Professor Zhao left.
After making sure Tan Mo was familiar with her surroundings, Wu Xiaoye chose a part of their research for Tan Mo to work on.
“Can you do this then?” Wu Xiaoye asked.
Tan Mo took a look and replied, “Yes.”
They had a whiteboard in the research room so that the members could note down when they had the time to come and do their work, just like the one Professor Guo had in his research room.
Most of the requirements for Professor Zhao’s research group were the same as Professor Guo’s.
After checking her own schedule, Tan Mo wrote down her name in the time slots when she was free.
Now that she had another research project to work on, she had to adjust her time with Professor Guo’s research team as well.
“You’ll be on the same team as Zhong Liusi and Yu Jianan,” Wu Xiaoye said.
He assigned Tan Mo to a different group than Shen Jingyi, since Shen Jingyi had made those catty comments about Tan Mo. Even though Shen Jingyi had thought that no one would understand her real motivation, Wu Xiaoye had. Whether the rest of the team had, he really couldn’t say.
That was why he purposefully put Tan Mo on a different team than Shen Jingyi.
At first, he was worried that Tan Mo might not like the research topics this team was doing so he would have no choice but to put her on Shen Jingyi’s team, but, fortunately, Tan Mo was happy with the topic.
Wu Xiaoye then introduced Tan Mo to Zhong Liusi and Yu Jianan.
At first, Tan Mo didn’t know who they were since they hadn’t spoken after she’d entered the room, but, after they introduced themselves, she could immediately tell who they were.
“Nice to meet you,” Tan Mo greeted them with a smile. Other than Shen Jingyi, Tan Mo had a good impression of the whole research team.
She couldn’t help but sigh and wonder how a person like Shen Jingyi could actually make it into such a team.
“I’ll leave Tan Mo to you two then,” Wu Xiaoye said. “Just make sure she gets familiar with what she’s going to do first today. Don’t make her start her work on the first day, okay? We don’t want to scare her. Just give her a day or so to familiarize herself with the topic.”
“We know,” Yu Jianan scolded. “Do we look like we are that inconsiderate?”
“Just leave Tan Mo to us.” Zhong Liusi laughed. “You don’t have to worry about a thing.”
“Good. Then I’m going to go to Professor Zhao’s office now,” Wu Xiaoye laughed and left the research room to go to the professor’s office.
Zhong Liusi was very fond of her new junior, who had brought pride to their university.
It was her first time meeting Tan Mo in person, but when she’d first seen the young lady through the livestream, she knew she would like her personality.
“Oh, right! I watched the livestream of the Ancient Text Competition. What you did there was amazing,” Zhong Liusi exclaimed. “To h*ll with friendship first, competition later. There’s no way we can be friends with such an arrogant Tsinghua University, right? Those people deserved to be punished for being boastful and bullies. I liked how you were willing to take revenge on them for trying to humiliate us.”
Tan Mo was dumbstruck once again.
Wait, no, I’m not that kind of person. I’m a gentle and kindhearted little snow fairy. I am not the type that seeks revenge.
Tan Mo suddenly realized that she might be in a pinch since her cuteness might not work on Zhong Liusi.
No, I’ve worked hard to make sure people think I’m a kind person. I can’t let people think otherwise.
She quickly came to the conclusion that Zhong Liusi just didn’t know her well enough.
Tan Mo was confident that once they got to know each other, her senior would see that she was a kindhearted person.
“She’s right! Didn’t you know that the big screen in the University’s plaza was showing the livestream of the competition? Everyone cheered when they saw you winning round after round. The cheers were even louder when a few of the Tsinghua University contestants cried when they lost. (Yu Jianan was trying to explain the situation to Tan Mo.) And when you won the whole thing, everyone was cheering as if we had just won the World Cup or something!”
The first thing that caught Tan Mo’s attention was that everyone thought she had made the other competitors cry, and she quickly explained, “They weren’t crying because of me. They just couldn’t accept the fact that they had lost.” She pouted. “Seriously, how can they cry like that now that they are adults? Even I’m not a crybaby like them…”
Her pouting was so cute that Zhong Liusi and Yu Jianan began to like their new junior even more.
“Right? I think so too,” Zhong Liusi agreed with a poker face, but she was planning something sly in her head. “I think they cried on purpose so that the others would think that you were bullying them.”
