Chapter 45 Nafis's Support
Harold said this, smiling kindly from the bottom of his heart.
After he came to this world, he had only set short-term goals for himself, including domesticating and breeding the lily flower, using lily nectar to replace sugar, researching sugar-making from Dun Dun peaches, sugar-making from date palms, and desert rice cultivation, etc.
Then he chose a series of recent activities based on these short-term goals. These things have occupied all his free time, and he may have to devote the next ten years to these projects. As for what he should do after graduation, he had never thought about it before today.
But since Nafis asked, he thought about it carefully, and after carefully considering various factors, he gave an answer that was most beneficial to him.
Work as a tutor in the Ordinance House.
In the academy, tutors and teachers are two different professions. Teachers are mainly responsible for teaching large classes and imparting systematic professional knowledge to students in a unified manner, while tutors only need to occasionally teach or hold lectures in the academy and have the qualifications to accept students and guide their papers.
In other words, the teachers were more like the teachers in junior high and high school in his previous life. The difference was that the teachers in the teaching academy had an easier job. They did not need to teach several classes by themselves, did not need to get up at six in the morning to watch students reading, and did not need to accompany students for morning jogging.
But they can get higher salaries because in Xumi, the kingdom of wisdom, those who can help scholars complete their studies will enjoy higher treatment.
Moreover, under the system of the Council of Eminence, scholars often needed to go out for inspection, and studying abroad was part of their studies.
The research direction of the Life Theory School is linked to biology and ecology, so the number of scholars from the Life Theory School who travel abroad is the largest among the six colleges, and the teachers of the Life Theory School also have the easiest work.
The fewer people in the class, the easier the teacher's job is. This is a simple truth.
Tutors are more like university professors. As long as they give two or three lectures and teach a few classes a week, they can get their monthly salary from the College of Teaching. However, they are also responsible for guiding students who have completed their studies at the college to write papers. They also have the right to nominate several talented students who have not completed their studies and directly accept them as disciples to participate in their own research projects.
This was what Harold desperately needed.
He needed smart students to work with him on projects such as making sugar from Dun Dun peaches and cultivating sea rice, and he needed to form a professional research team.
Working alone is damn tiring.
There are benefits to following his students. His research direction can benefit all the people of Teyvat, and he is also willing to seek some fame or other more tangible benefits for his students after the research is fruitful.
Of course, as he said, they will have more opportunities to stay in the Faith Council after graduation, but it is probably unnecessary to gradually implement top-down reforms.
The main reason is that the time is too short and no results can be seen.
According to Elhaisen's age, in another five or six years, the traveler will come to Xumi with his food reserves and start a violent revolution to drive the great sage and his cronies out of power. The grass god will also take the opportunity to reorganize the House of Ecclesiastical Orders and neatly cut off the rotten branches and leaves.
...It is an opportunity for his future students. Maybe some of those guys can take advantage of the opportunity to rise to high positions.
The premise is that they can resist the temptation during those years and do not get together with Hazard for the sake of interests.
Hmm? No one really thought he would exploit his students like the unscrupulous mentor in his previous life, did they?
Does he look like the kind of guy who would tear up other people's umbrellas if he gets caught in the rain?
Although hoeing the fields and raising pigs are hard work, just imagine the actual results. As long as he shouts at the gate of the academy to recruit students, a bunch of young scholars will rush to him in minutes.
In addition to signing the projects, he will also guide these students in writing papers. In his previous life, he was the tutor's exclusive paper writing tool. Writing papers is a professional. His students will definitely be very lucky to have met such a good tutor like him who is so good at writing papers.
However, the threshold for becoming a mentor is much higher than that for ordinary teachers. If he wants to become a mentor, he must establish a certain reputation in the academic community.
Haroldt was not worried about this. He was only fifteen years old and he would complete the project of deceiving flowers within two years. If this project could achieve the goal of improving people's livelihood as he expected, it would not be a problem for him to graduate immediately and become a tutor.
Seeing the warm smile on Harold's face after he expressed his true feelings, the older man's heart was touched. He couldn't help but recall his dreams when he was young, and how he was also like the young man in front of him, speaking bold words and determined to rectify the atmosphere of the Ordinance House.
Looking at his gray beard and the wrinkles on the back of his hands, the old man sighed with relief and heaviness: "This is not an easy road to walk on."
Receiving the key word "road", Harold blurted out under the influence of his past life memories:
“There are no roads in the world, but when more people walk on them, they become roads.”
After saying this, he found that this sentence was indeed appropriate in this context, and it was exactly what he wanted to say.
Sure enough, after hearing these words, the smile on Nafis's face became even more kind, but he said words that were completely the opposite and very discouraging.
"It's easy to talk big, but it's hard to do it. When you really become a mentor, you will find that the guys you recruit all have their own tricks and always want to do something out of the ordinary. None of them take me, their mentor, seriously. Humph!"
Hmm? "My mentor"?
Well... I can probably guess what you encountered.
Haroldt sighed inwardly, as expected, teachers everywhere will be angered by their students.
Fortunately, he had low expectations of his students, as long as they could help him hoe the fields.
"Well...it sounds annoying, but I prefer energetic students," Harold said with a smile.
It’s good to be energetic, as it helps in farming quickly and feeding pigs efficiently.
He would be annoyed if the students looked sick all day long, as if they had kidney deficiency due to staying up late and working too hard.
Nafis nodded. What he didn't say was that students and mentors are never of the same mind. They will be tied together because of interests, and will also be untied because of interests.
Just as he had accepted many students since he became a sage of the Shenglun school, he believed that these students were all of good character and promising talents. He had placed high hopes on them, hoping that they could become rivets in constructing the new system of the House of Decrees. However, after the news of his discord with Azar spread, nearly half of the students distanced themselves from him.
Maybe I just don't have a good eye for people.
Thinking of this, Nafis blinked slightly in embarrassment, but felt that it was inappropriate to do this in front of the younger generation, so he simply pretended that there was something dirty in his eyes, took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and then put the glasses back on.
Harold's blurry figure became clear again. The young man in front of him was indeed a handsome man, exuding many excellent qualities such as gentleness, affinity, and friendliness from the inside out.
People's luck won't always be so bad. Think about the kid Tinari and then look at Haroldt. I have a good vision.
Nafis said this to himself in his heart.
Unfortunately, Tinari is determined to leave the Church after graduation and run into nature to be a free little fox. It is great that Harold is willing to stay.
Well, now that I have kept it, wouldn’t it be a pity not to make a sage of it?
"Good boy, now I know what you're thinking, and you also know what kind of old man I am. We know each other very well. Ahem... Then I'll ask you again, do you want to inherit my legacy?"
Nafis tilted his head and looked at Harold with anticipation. Although he was an old man, his little eyes were shining with the mischievous light that only young people have.
Harold was indeed amused, but on the surface he still refused decisively.
"I'm sorry, Lord Nafis. My abilities are only enough to support me to become a mentor and teach two or three students. Leading an academy is beyond my ability. Moreover, becoming a sage is not part of my plan. I also lack the sense of responsibility and commitment necessary to become a leader."
After that, he paused, and then said respectfully: "I believe Lord Nafis will find a more suitable candidate."
If he is a person who enjoys fun, it would be nice for him to become a sage of the Shenglun School. He could set up a scoring hourglass for the six colleges in the Institute of Teachings, arrange for specialists to record the points added and deducted for each college, and take the opportunity to provoke a battle among the six colleges, watching the scholars of the six colleges fight each other with stationery for fun.
Or he could go to the sage meetings every day to give out some rubbish suggestions and have fun poking at Hazard and Old Deng.
Anyway, in our 12+ mini-game, if Azar doesn't kill the Sage, he will just lock him up for ten days or half a month at most when he gets angry.
But he is a serious scholar and he just wants to live a peaceful life. Why should he waste his time and energy on meaningless things? Wouldn't it be better to read a few more books with that time?
"Well, if you don't want to, then don't. There's no need to distance yourself from me. My position as a sage of the Astronomy School is a hot potato that I can't give away no matter how you try," Nafis muttered softly.
Nafis: "I won't force you. You don't need to be modest, and you don't need to lower your opinion of yourself in my heart by self-defamation. In my opinion, your future plans are equally great. There is no difference between the work of a mentor and a sage. It doesn't mean that being a leader of an academy is superior to others.
Do you know why I am optimistic about you, Harold? I like the changes you have brought, not only your courage in submitting the documents on growing rice in the desert to the great sage, but also your pragmatism and focus on small things.
Our Amiledo College was originally composed of scholars who followed the Great Compassionate Tree King to cultivate the rainforest. We protect the rainforest ecology, cultivate fruits and vegetables, raise animals, study medicine... and improve people's livelihood. This is what we have always been doing. However, in order to write more unique papers and apply for research funds, scholars nowadays always want to take a different approach, which has deviated from the original intention of our college.
I am very happy to see that after the Great Sage allocated funds for your project to improve the sugar industry, many scholars put aside their initial disdain and doubt and refocused their attention on people's livelihood. Some scholars have begun to study how to make mushroom pork more delicious, how to make spice fruit ripe four times a year...
You made a good start, cough cough cough——"
"Lord Nafis!"
Harold had been listening very carefully. As an elder and leader of the academy, Nafis pointed out the problem clearly and to the point, which gave him a lot of inspiration. However, when he was immersed in it and began to reflect on his recent actions, Nafis suddenly coughed, and Harold's heart was in suspense.
"It's okay, it's okay. I just choked on my saliva because I spoke too fast." Nafis coughed a few more times and cleared his throat with his hand. "Ahem, people tend to have all kinds of problems when they get old."
Harold breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't be so nervous. I'm in good health," Nafis waved his hand and said gently, "It's a pity that many of your projects were rejected by the Great Sage. In my opinion, they are all very good research. Growing rice in the desert? I'm glad you came up with it. Before I saw the documents you submitted, I had never thought of such a possibility."
"This is a miracle created by an old immortal from my hometown."
Harold naturally would not take all the credit for himself, and quickly repeated to Nafis what he had said to Setale.
"This is a miracle, my good boy. I understand why you signed your name like that on the research document. Was that the language of your hometown? Did you leave the name of that immortal? Although I can't understand it, I can feel the beauty and power contained in it. You must have had respect in your heart when you wrote those words."
After listening to Harold's explanation, Nafis sighed and said, "I sincerely hope that you can reproduce this miracle in the desert of Xumi, and I am willing to be your behind-the-scenes sponsor.
Having been a sage in the Ordinance House for so many years, I still have some assets, although... probably... maybe... ahem, it is definitely not as much as the Great Sage can directly give you, but I think the lack of funds will not become a shackle that traps you——"
"Put the subject on hold," Harold continued.
Nafis nodded with satisfaction, and he liked this junior more and more.
After a brief chat, Harold said goodbye to Nafis.
On the way home, he was still thinking about what Nafis had said to him.
Phew... starting small and being pragmatic? This is the first time I've received such an evaluation.
I might as well add these words to my life principles.
Harold was in a good mood, and on his way home he bought some paper of different materials, spending five hundred molas.
After returning home, he took out several books he had borrowed from Elhaisen and made paper covers for them.
Take the first step small and pay attention to the details.
His laboratories and fields are all in the process of turning cities into cities. He will definitely take these books into the wild in the future. These measures are necessary. He cannot dirty the books that Elhaisen inherited from his ancestors, although Elhaisen himself may not care as much about the books he has read as he imagined.
I looked at the time again. It was seven o'clock in the evening, a great time to study.
Harold took out his notes and continued his translation and deciphering work until twelve o'clock. Then he made half a cup of tea, washed up and went to bed.
At five o'clock on Sunday, I got up, washed, picked up a few things from the freezer, put them in the pot and cooked them.
Add water, drink tea, work until one o'clock in the afternoon, and eat something casually.
I felt a little tired after eating, so I slept for thirty minutes, got up, drank tea, and continued working.
It was six o'clock in the evening and I was hungry. There was one last bottle of ice cream and milk left in the freezer. I drank it but still wasn't full, so I picked up two peaches from the fruit plate in the living room and ate them.
At 6:10, continue studying.
At 6:40, I went to Elhaisen's house to participate in the society activities with the results of a day and a half of research.