Every week, Xu Lin would accompany Ning Yuhuan to the city library.

The city library is very large, with plenty of seats, and though there are quite a few people, it's never full.

So Xu Lin and the others could easily choose good spots.

Ning Yuhuan was working on a PowerPoint presentation on her laptop, saying she was doing a paper overview.

Xu Lin, who had never dealt with papers, glanced at it and didn't understand things like data sources, project overviews, paper references, etc.

For a freshman who knew nothing about papers, even these simple concepts seemed a bit complicated.

Xu Lin grabbed a copy of the "Jin Book."

This is also one of the Twenty-Four Histories, with over 1.1 million characters in the full text, and Xu Lin had the full version without any additional explanatory content.

This book is in two volumes.

Xu Lin planned to finish reading the Twenty-Four Histories this semester.

Seeing Xu Lin return with a book, Ning Yuhuan asked him, "Hubby, a professor at the college recently asked me to work with her on a paper project, what do you think?"

"What kind of paper project?"

"She said it's an SCI paper, do you know what an SCI paper is?"

"I've heard of it, but I'm not too familiar with it."

Then Ning Yuhuan briefly explained what an SCI paper is.

"Professor Huang said if I follow her on some projects, it would be smoother if I wanted to get into graduate school at Jiangdu University."

Having an SCI paper as an undergraduate basically secures a guaranteed admission to graduate school, even for students from non-double-first-class universities. The value of an SCI paper is so high that even if you aren't the first author, it's still significant. However, it's very challenging, and truly valuable papers are not something that ordinary undergraduates can write.

"Is the professor a man or a woman?"

"Woman!"

Ning Yuhuan was curious, "Does it matter if they're a man or a woman?"

"In the past, when the internet wasn't developed, a nasty teacher or professor could threaten not to let you graduate, withholding your diploma and degree. You'd have to do whatever they said, especially girls from average families, since those scumbags would exploit your lack of power or influence. You can't waste four years of college, with your family working hard to support your education, only to end up without both certificates; that would be a wasted effort. Under pressure, some might even be driven to suicidal thoughts, so in the end, you had to comply."

"Ah, could that really happen?"

"Probably less so these days. With the internet being so developed, scoundrels wouldn't dare to be too blatant."

"The professor I'm working with is a woman, well-regarded and of good repute, and she's also in our college."

Actually, the professor recognized Ning Yuhuan as a promising talent with good character and wanted to mentor her. In universities, indeed, there are many good professors and teachers, who possess a keen interest in nurturing talent.

"What's her name? I'll look her up on the website."

"Huang Caiying!"

Xu Lin logged onto the school's official website using Ning Yuhuan's laptop, where all the teacher information was accessible.

He looked over Huang Caiying's information.

Professor Huang was nearly sixty years old, an economics PhD, and one of the well-known economists in the country.

"Research on property rights theory... market economy theory... hmm... author of 'Introduction to Property Economy and Modern Market Systems'..."

"She seems pretty impressive, you should work with her!"

Xu Lin glanced at it; the whole page was filled with her resume, and she had published several books.

Xu Lin had nothing to say about it; after all, the more words someone had, the more impressive they seemed.

"Mm, I'll go find her next week, Professor Huang asked me to meet her at noon next Monday!"

"Sure, just stick with her, let me know if anything comes up."

"Okay."

Ning Yuhuan felt quite moved; although she was very independent, she would still seek Xu Lin's opinion, hoping he'd help make a decision.

Because to Ning Yuhuan, Xu Lin was someone to look up to, with greater abilities than her.

"Are you reading 'Jin Book' this time?"

"Yes, 'Jin Book,' I plan to finish the Twenty-Four Histories this semester!"

"Hubby, you're amazing!"

Ning Yuhuan exclaimed, admiring him greatly.

The Twenty-Four Histories, although just twenty-four books, could take at least ten to twenty years or more for an average reader or general history enthusiast to finish. Books like 'Records of the Grand Historian,' 'Records of the Three Kingdoms,' and 'Han Shu,' which are less than a million characters, are not included, and then there are 'Old Tang History' with two million characters, 'Ming History' nearing three million, and 'Song History' with five million.

These aren't online novels you can skim through; they're ancient texts, with the well-known characteristic of historical accounts often glossing over events. To understand a sentence, you might need to research it, only to find it's about a major historical event, requiring detailed understanding of its origins and consequences. Yet sometimes, such significant events are described in a few words or less than ten characters.

So reading the Twenty-Four Histories takes a very long time, reading a little each day, and even ten or eight years would be considered fast. Anyone online claiming to have thoroughly read the Twenty-Four Histories is full of it, especially if they're young, as it's purely to deceive uninformed netizens. Many probably don't even know how many characters are in the Twenty-Four Histories or 'Records of the Grand Historian.'

This is not something an average person can finish reading.

Only someone like Xu Lin, with extraordinary abilities, would dare to tackle such ancient texts.

Xu Lin and Ning Yuhuan chatted for a bit, then each returned to their own task.

He read very quickly; this time, he'd flip through both volumes, memorize them, and later digest them mentally.

"This period of history is quite lousy."

Xu Lin slightly immersed himself; people always extoll the elegance of the Wei and Jin eras, but this historical period was indeed quite dark.

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