Super God-Level Top Student

However, Professor Zhu, who taught politics, differed from the professors of specialized courses in that whether one could pass his class really depended on the usual performance, because the final exam truly allowed open-book answers.

As Professor Zhu would put it, studying politics is about helping everyone understand righteousness and possessing a scientific worldview and methodology. Having fully grasped these concepts, the most concrete feedback would be reflected in everyday performance.

If one performs well on a daily basis, it means that the purpose of studying politics has been achieved, and there's no need for rote memorization of rigid principles.

Even if you later want to take postgraduate entrance exams or civil service exams, understanding these principles is sufficient. Just cram the key points when the time comes.

Therefore, despite being quite serious and strict on a daily basis, Professor Zhu still had considerable prestige among the students.

Whether the school would accept Qiao Ze's suggestions was another matter, but being mischievous in Professor Zhu's class could genuinely result in having to retake politics.

Another characteristic of Professor Zhu was that he neither arrived late nor left early for class, always entering the classroom precisely as the class bell sounded.

Hence, even if Qiao Ze's last remark was astounding, everyone still obediently scattered like birds and beasts when the bell rang and returned to their seats.

Professor Zhu stepped onto the podium and habitually glanced towards the back row of the classroom. Seeing Qiao Ze and Su Mucheng were present, he couldn't help but smile with satisfaction.

"Hmm, Qiao Ze has insisted on attending class today, which is excellent and comforts me. I hope everyone can learn from Qiao Ze."

The students, who had just been struck by Qiao Ze's words, couldn't help but start to buzz.

"Professor Zhu, Qiao Ze gets praised for simply attending class? We also come to class every day without skipping, but you have never praised us! It's so unfair."

"Yes, yes, if you're going to praise God Qiao for something else like academic performance or mathematical ability, that would make sense. But this point is truly embarrassing."

"Seconded..."

It must be said that a year of interaction had taught these smart kids how to deal with this serious professor.

Although speaking out without raising hands and buzzing was somewhat against classroom etiquette.

Addressing him with respect and raising reasonable doubts did not anger the professor, who had taught philosophy and politics all his life.

"What, you think my praise for Qiao Ze's persistence in coming to class is wrong? If so, that only shows that your philosophical thinking is not sufficient. You should have learned in middle school that the world is dynamic and continuous. Therefore, we must also view problems with a dynamic perspective.

So what was the premise of my praise for Qiao Ze today? It was because yesterday Qiao Ze received an invitation from a very prestigious and highly esteemed mathematics professor. Now, ask yourselves, if Professor Daniel had extended the same invitation to you, would you really have chosen to attend this class today?

I won't say all, but perhaps half of you are already planning to apply for visas, aren't you? So by the way, I want to tell you that often the praise or criticism you receive may not be solely because of your actions; it's more likely due to the attitude reflected behind those actions.

Politics is one of the subjects you've been studying since childhood. I have always emphasized that this course is not about rote learning, but about understanding scientific worldviews and methodologies. It's about grasping the thinking logic behind human behavior. Have you all got it now?"

Now, no one buzzed, and numerous gazes began to focus on where Qiao Ze was sitting.

What they saw was Qiao Ze's usual unsmiling, calm face, and beside him, the class representative's beaming smile.

The majority of the kids had mixed feelings.

Alas, if they really asked themselves, if they had the opportunity to take up a teaching position at Princeton, they might indeed set aside the pesky politics class.

Who would care about a mere politics class when you're about to become a professor or an academician?

In this light, God Qiao's vision was indeed elevated, at least as high as several stories.

Ultimately, it was their lack of depth.

"Qiao Ze, you don't have to attend the Thursday afternoon politics class for freshmen anymore. I'll talk to Dean Xu about it, and as long as you can keep up with this Tuesday class every week, that will be enough. By the way, academically I definitely can't be of any help to you, but if you ever encounter something in life that you can't figure out, feel free to email me."

Having said this, Professor Zhu did not wait for Qiao Ze's response and averted his gaze, addressing the bunch of kids: "Alright, class is now in session. Last lesson we talked about the stable psychological traits that people exhibit under the guidance of certain ideologies within the same social framework..."

...

Qiao Ze listened to the class very attentively.

How to put it, although Qiao Ze's expression didn't change throughout the whole time, the feeling of being praised publicly in class was actually quite special for him.

Or perhaps this was the first time Qiao Ze had ever been praised in a classroom.

Professor Zhu also inadvertently became the first teacher to take the initiative to praise Qiao Ze in a class.

Yes, even though Qiao Ze had already made a name for himself in the mathematical community, sought after by Princeton's dean and former Fields Medal winners, who went out of their way to invite him, and received affirmations from many first-class university professors, with his research papers topping journals like it was child's play...

Even within the school, the dean listened to him, holding his own in discussions with academicians and easily earning the worship of his roommates, even doctoral students were willing to assist him.

But...

Since graduating from primary school, he truly hadn't been praised by any teacher in front of the whole class like today!

He had faced plenty of public criticism, though.

Which was indeed quite odd.

It just so happened that Qiao Ze's indifferent nature to daily matters, combined with his accumulated knowledge, often caused many misunderstandings among those around him. The most obvious was probably how people subconsciously overlooked his psychological age.

No matter how advanced his brain was, or how intelligent he was, Qiao Ze was after all just an eighteen-year-old child.

He had an extremely clear mind and strong rational control, but that didn't mean he really was like an elderly person in his twilight years, utterly devoid of all kinds of spiritual needs. After all, Qiao wasn't a real machine that only needed scientific achievements to fulfill all his psychological needs.

Hence, probably even Professor Zhu himself didn't expect that, in his reflection before class, a few casual words of praise would make him, apart from Li Jiangao, the best and most responsible mentor in Qiao Ze's eyes throughout the whole college.

Well, one can only say that sometimes life's encounters are just so inexplicably arranged.

If Professor Ma, who taught Qiao Ze his first class at Xilin University of Technology, knew of Qiao Ze's thoughts at this moment, he would probably feel very dejected.

Such a great opportunity, and he had missed it.

Unfortunately, at this time, no one knew Qiao Ze's psychological state, not even Su Mucheng had sensed it.

After all, in recent times, not to mention praise, there were too many people flattering Qiao Ze, so by comparison, what was Professor Zhu's praise?

So Su Mucheng really didn't feel that Qiao Ze was any different today.

Finally, the bell rang for the end of two classes.

After packing up their textbooks, before Qiao Ze's three roommates eagerly gathered around, Qiao Ze suddenly commented, "This Professor Zhu is quite nice."

This took Su Mucheng by surprise.

This was the first time Qiao Ze had commented on a professor from the school.

Whether from inside or outside the school.

"Yes. Although Professor Zhu can be quite strict in his criticism, it is said that he argued on good grounds and helped several colleges in science and engineering secure an open-book exam format for his course."

Qiao Ze nodded, not really caring whether the exam was open book or not.

Xu Dajiang said, all he needed to do was attend classes.

However, today he decided that he must take the exam at the end of this term, because if he didn't, he would be graduating.

"Qiao, want to go have a meal together today?"

While they exchanged a few words, several roommates had already joined them. Qiao Ze nodded.

"Sure."