Sarah Brooks quickly said thank you, handed over the draft directly, and then took out her phone, apologetically and softly asked, “Um... senior, can I add you on WeChat? If I run into questions I can’t solve, I’d like to ask you.”

“No problem.” William Carter didn’t think much of it, took out his low-end Xiaomi, and let the girl scan his QR code.

“Thank you, I’ll treat you to a meal next time.” Sarah Brooks blushed and thanked him again, then moved her chair back and continued to write diligently.

At this moment, William Carter suddenly realized that he seemed to have forgotten to clear up a misunderstanding.

He wasn’t a graduate student at all, just a freshman.

Although in a few months, he’d be a sophomore.

But thinking about it, going over just to clarify this seemed a bit neurotic, and it would be awkward for the other person too. Maybe it’s better to wait for another chance to explain.

With that thought, he shook his head, put the matter out of his mind, fixed his eyes back on the screen, and started typing on the keyboard, focusing on writing his paper.

……

Although the system’s solution was based on a mathematics LV0 level, one thing William Carter could be sure of was that the knowledge points used in this solution definitely didn’t come from his own knowledge base, but were called from the system’s own database.

While writing the paper, William Carter was also taking notes in a handwritten notebook on the side, listing out the knowledge points he didn’t understand, and marking the steps he had questions about with a question mark.

For others, writing a paper was like squeezing water from a sponge, but for him, it was more like using a rubber dropper to drip water into a sponge. Rather than output, it felt more like an input process.

The whole day, William Carter stayed in the library. Even lunch was settled with the buns he bought in the morning.

Looking at the thousands of words on the screen and the two full pages of notes, he leaned back in his chair and stretched hard.

“All that’s left is to fully understand the knowledge points in the notes, look up as much as I can... If I can’t find it in books, I’ll ask the teacher.”

“And for the overly lengthy parts in the argument section of the paper, I can trim them down a bit. When I check on CNKI later, if something has already been proven in other papers, I’ll just delete the proof process and cite it.”

“Finally, there’s the plagiarism check... For me, it shouldn’t be a problem, after all, every word was written by myself.”

Or rather, written by the system—anyway, it’s the same.

It was getting late, and his stomach was already growling. William Carter stood up from his seat with a grunt and walked out of the library.

Should he have barbecue rice for dinner again? Or curry rice?

After dinner, he’d stop by Old Turner’s office. If William Carter remembered correctly, at this time he should be on duty in the senior year’s graduate school Q&A classroom.

Alright, that’s the plan!

Chapter 9: I’m Afraid I Went to a Fake University

The Q&A room was packed.

Juniors and seniors aspiring to take the graduate entrance exam were all buried in their books, studying hard.

By the lectern sat Professor James Turner from the Jin University Mathematics Department. At this moment, he had already put down his newspaper and was meticulously staring at the problem on the draft paper, his right hand repeatedly flipping the cap of his fountain pen.

Standing beside him, William Carter knew very well that this little gesture meant he was deep in thought.

“...Where did you get this problem?” After staring at the equations on the draft paper for a long time, James Turner suddenly asked.

“The reference book mentioned Fourier coefficients, so I went to the library to look up related materials. I found that it mentioned several variants of the Fourier inversion theorem and their applications, so I tried to work through the derivation, but I got stuck at this step and just couldn’t solve it.” William Carter smiled awkwardly, with an expression that said sorry to trouble you.

James Turner glanced at William Carter, then turned his attention back to the draft paper. This time, he put down the pen cap, picked up a piece of chalk, walked to the blackboard, paused, and started working out the problem on the board.

William Carter stared at the blackboard without blinking. Maybe because he had done some prep work in this area, he found that he could surprisingly keep up with the teacher’s pace.

Attracted by the sound of chalk on the blackboard, the juniors and seniors below who were reviewing advanced math would occasionally look up, staring blankly at the equations on the board, then quickly bury their heads back in their books.

Emmm...

What on earth is he writing?

Time ticked by, and before anyone realized it, the entire blackboard was filled.

From the top left to the bottom right, James Turner stopped writing, turned around, and asked William Carter, “Did you understand this part?”

William Carter, who had been watching the blackboard intently, nodded. “I understood.”

James Turner raised an eyebrow and asked, “Really understood, or just pretending?”

William Carter said, “Really understood.”

James Turner said nothing, picked up the blackboard eraser, wiped the board clean, and continued writing the next step with the chalk. However, his evaluation of William Carter in his mind dropped a notch.

He had always disliked two kinds of students the most: those who tried to bribe him for better grades, and those who brought over-the-top problems to him and pretended to ask for help.