Chapter 143 - She Called This Decent
Chapter 143: She Called This Decent
Tan Mo took the class schedule and books back to her dorm.
Professor Zhao was willing to put her in a sophomore class without even knowing her very well. That alone showed how much confidence the professor had in her.
On the first day of school, Tan Mo didn’t waste any time and took her translated work to Professor Guo.
“So fast!” Professor Guo was shocked. Tan Mo’s efficiency was way beyond what would normally be expected from a student.
Professor Guo knew all the content of the document by heart, and he knew which part was the hardest.
He looked over her work, including some of the more difficult words and the harder-to-translate places.
Everything was extremely accurate.
Tan Mo had done a very detailed job.
She had first translated the original text into modern simplified words.
Then, under every sentence, she had used a smaller font and translated each sentence into modern-day language for easier understanding.
Archaic Chinese often used very short sentences. However, this also meant that each word held much more meaning.
This is clearly shown through how the sentences increased in length after being translated.
After Tan Mo’s sentence-by-sentence translation, the thin stack of paper quickly grew in size and turned into a thick pile.
However, this also made understanding it much easier.
Looking at her organization alone, one could tell Tan Mo had really put some thought into it.
Professor Guo read it, nodding, “Not bad at all. I wasn’t expecting you to finish so soon.”
“These ancient writings…” Professor Guo smiled, “Don’t tell me you know all the words. You didn’t look up any references?”
Just looking up words would take a huge chunk of time.
“My memory is decent, so I remembered a lot of what l had learned in the past,” Tan Mo answered humbly.
Professor Guo: “…”
She called this decent.
Was this little girl trying to be humble or was she being sarcastic?
“Do you have another class after this?” Professor Guo checked the time.
“No.” Tan Mo shook her head.
She had come looking for Professor Guo knowing that she would be free for the rest of the day.
“Let’s go. I want to take you on a tour of the lab.” Professor Guo stood up, still holding the documents Tan Mo had translated.
“Professor Guo, I can carry them.” Tan Mo stretched out her hand.
That thick stack of paper was rather heavy.
Professor Guo smiled and handed the papers to Tan Mo without hesitation.
“The project that my team is working on is the organization of the ancient documents of the Hua Empire. After they’re organized, we will translate them all and publish them.” Professor Guo explained what they were working on on the way to the lab. “There are so many records, not limited to written ones on paper. Before paper-crafting techniques were popularized, china, metal, turtle shells, animal bones, cloth, and bamboo sheets were all used as writing mediums.
“In addition, on some archaeology expeditions, we found writings on walls and on rocks. A lot of these writings were eroded and parts of them obscured. We try our best to read what is left and piece together the truth of history.
“All of these records are within our collection.” Professor Guo finished.
Although Professor Guo had explained all this to her in a conversational tone, she could feel how big the project was.
Once finished, it would be a great contribution toward the study of human civilization.
“We are collaborating with the history department on this project. They are responsible for sorting through the files. We are here to organize them into books and translate them.” Professor Guo continued, “The part of “Liye Qinjian” I asked you to work on is actually a part of our work as well.
Professor Guo looked at the pile of pages Tan Mo was holding and smiled, “Although this was only a test for you, you have also helped us by doing this work. Thank you for lightening our workload.”
Tan Mo’s efficiency and accuracy alone would make her a valuable addition to the team. Professor Guo had to make her join the team.
Tan Mo followed Professor Guo into the lab. It looked different from what she had been expecting.
She had been expecting everyone to be working quietly in little cells.
However, it was rather lively in here.
Piles of books were stacked upon lines of bookcases, each tagged with different colors.
Tan Mo did not take a closer look, so she didn’t know what each tag meant.
In the middle of the lab, there were four whiteboards 60 to 70 inches wide, raised like TV screens. Together, they formed a cube.
Each whiteboard was covered in pieces of A4 paper.
All kinds of ancient writings were printed on the pieces of paper.
“Found it!” A girl cried out in joy and took a paper off the whiteboard, recorded something on the paper, and entered it into a laptop.
“Professor Guo, Tan Mo!” Wang Yuemu noticed them first and ran over to greet them.
The others didn’t drop their work right away.
They chose to finish what they were doing first.
Then they paused one after another and looked over.
“Tan Mo?” Everyone looked at the little girl standing next to Professor Guo.
She was dressed casually, without any flamboyant makeup.
A common pair of jeans with two holes on the knees…
Regardless of gender, everyone’s jeans had some holes.
She was wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with a floral print. A decorative string ran around the cuffs as well as the collar.
The orange flowers of the print made her skin look very fair. In turn, her pretty skin made the flowers look brighter.
Although it was only a small detail, it still grabbed the onlookers’ eyes.
“Let me introduce Tan Mo to everyone.” Professor Guo smiled. “Tan Mo will be joining our team from now on. She will be doing the organization and translation of ancient records with us.”
Professor Guo waited for someone to object. Once the objections arose, he would show everyone Tan Mo’s work to prove her worth to everyone on the team.
Unexpectedly, everyone just stared at Tan Mo with curiosity as if she was a panda. No one objected.
Finally, a girl raised her hand.
Tan Mo looked at her. She was the one who had just taken a piece of paper off the whiteboard as they came in.
“Professor, ” the girl spoke, “Big Sister Wang said that you gave part of “Liye Qinjian” to Tan Mo to translate. After she was finished, you were going to bring her to meet us. Since she is here today, does that mean she finished it already?”
Professor Guo smiled at Wang Yuemu.
“I was wondering why all of you children were being so nice today. Not a single arrogant one to jump up and complain. It seems as if Wang Yuemu has explained the situation beforehand.” Otherwise, there were sure to have been some objections.
“Since Tan Mo is going to join our team, we will all be teammates. I thought it would be better for us to get along from the start. Should there be any conflicts that arose at the start, even if we ended up talking them out and resolving them, we might still hold some grudges. Nothing good could come from that, ” Wang Yuemu explained her thinking.
Professor Guo nodded with pleasure.
Wang Yuemu was well-respected by this team. Her words carried weight.
Professor Guo valued Wang Yuemu’s work ethic. She put everything aside for her academic studies and focused on the work. She even attempted to resolve any potential obstacles.
With Wang Yuemu on the team, their whole team would work better together.