Chapter 308 Homework

In the third week of the semester, the first major assignment for my major course came out.

In the "Principles of Management" course for Business Administration majors, Professor Wang assigned a case analysis question. The question itself was not difficult, but it required analysis using at least three different management theoretical frameworks, and finally, an executable optimization solution had to be proposed.

The word count requirement is 3,000 words or more, with no upper limit.

On Wednesday afternoon, when Professor Wang projected the assignment requirements onto the big screen, a suppressed wail erupted in the classroom.

Three thousand words? Three thousand words for a freshman?

"The case study materials are over ten pages long; it would take half a day to read them all."

Professor Wang pushed up his glasses and said expressionlessly, silencing the entire room: "This is the easiest assignment you've ever had in your four years of university. You'll miss it later."

Zhou Heng sat in the third row by the window, opened his notebook, and copied down the assignment requirements one by one.

His handwriting was neat, the entries were clear, and there were evenly spaced margins between each entry. After he finished copying, he checked it against the projection screen to make sure nothing was missing before closing the notebook.

On his way back to the dormitory, he stopped at the library entrance and went in to borrow three reference books that Professor Wang had recommended in class.

Two of the books had already been borrowed. He stood in front of the bookshelf for a while, then found a similar book on an adjacent shelf to replace it before leaving.

That night, Cheng Yue tossed and turned in bed, sighing repeatedly, the light from his phone screen flickering on the ceiling.

"Three thousand words! I only wrote eight hundred words in my college entrance exam essay. This is going to kill me."

Fang Yuzhou quietly replied below: "If you find it difficult, you can come to me, and I'll help you take a look at the framework."

Cheng Yue let out a loud "Aww!": "Yuzhou, you're my own brother!"

Xiao Jue didn't participate in the topic; he was playing a game, wearing headphones, the keyboard clattering loudly, sounding like an intense battle.

Zhou Heng sat under the lamp and read through the dozen or so pages of case materials from beginning to end.

The case study describes the challenges of digital transformation for a traditional manufacturing company. The materials provide a wealth of data—financial statements for the past five years, interview records from various departments, and specific problems and obstacles encountered during the transformation process.

He used a pencil to mark the blank spaces in the material, circling the key data and contradictions, and writing brief annotations next to them.

After reading it the first time, he made an outline in his notebook.

The three theoretical frameworks—contingency theory, systems theory, and process reengineering theory—are presented in separate chapters. Each chapter is further divided into three sections: "Theoretical Overview," "Case Analysis," and "Applicability Demonstration," culminating in a comprehensive optimization solution.

After the framework was in place, he began to carefully read the case materials a second time, this time specifically looking for the arguments corresponding to each theory.

Green highlights indicate data, blue indicates contradictions, and red indicates cited sources.

Zhou Heng's pace of doing things is different from others. He is not in a hurry, but he doesn't stop either.

Unlike some people who write until two or three in the morning and then sleep until noon the next day.

His progress was even.

I write for two hours every night without fail, and I add an extra afternoon on weekends.

When you get tired of writing, stop and read through what you've written, adjust the word order, delete a few unnecessary adjectives, and add one or two more accurate transition sentences.

He has a very clean and straightforward style when he writes; he doesn't pile up fancy words or show off technical terms. Every sentence honestly and clearly expresses its meaning.

By Sunday afternoon, his first draft was complete. It was 3,600 words, 600 more than required, not much, but enough to explain the issue clearly.

He read it through, corrected a few places where the wording was not precise enough, standardized the format of the references, then saved the document, turned off the computer, leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes.

It's finished.

Across from him, Xiao Jue was staring blankly at his laptop screen.

He hasn't written a single word of his homework yet.

It wasn't that he didn't want to write it; the assignment for the Finance Department's Microeconomics course was equally challenging. It was a comprehensive analysis question about supply and demand curves and elasticity theory. Although the word count requirement wasn't as high as Zhou Heng's, it still involved just as much calculation and chart analysis.

Xiao Jue read the question three times, but his mind was still a complete mess.

Of course, he's capable of learning it.

His college entrance exam scores speak for themselves; everyone who gets into the finance department of this university is someone who truly can't learn.

He just—in his own words—"hadn't found his rhythm yet."

He opened his textbook, compared the example problems with the actual problems, and did two steps, but then got stuck.

He flipped through the pages again and found that the later content required the foundation laid in the earlier parts, which he hadn't quite understood.

He closed his textbook, looked up at the ceiling, and sighed.

Xiao Jue turned his gaze to Zhou Heng, who had been sitting quietly in the corner.

Zhou Heng was leaning back in his chair with his eyes closed. The lamp was still on, and the warm yellow light fell on his face, casting the shadow of his eyelashes under his eyes.

He looked like he was about to fall asleep, his breathing was very light and slow, and he was slumped in the chair like a bird with its wings folded.

Xiao Jue glanced again at the empty document on his computer screen, the cursor blinking on the white page like a mocking expression.