Scholar’s Advanced Technological System

by Stayrr

After suffering from a heat stroke while working under the scorching heat of summer, Lu Zhou, a hardworking but poor university student, somehow becomes the owner of an advanced technological system. With the cheat given by the system, his university life changes overnight. A Master’s degree? Easy. PhD? Not a problem. From a nobody, he quickly becomes a huge celebrity in the wor

13. 388

Read Scholar's Advanced Technological System - Chapter 388 - Proof Of The Collatz Conjecture online free - Novelfull

Chapter 388: Proof Of The Collatz Conjecture

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

When Vera heard Lu Zhou's praise, she smiled brightly.

This was undoubtedly the best compliment she had ever been given.

As she stood next to Lu Zhou, she said in a low voice, "Your guess is correct, Collatz conjecture is a number theory problem. It's also a complex analysis problem…"

In as early as 1994, L.Berg and G.Meinardus proved that the 3n1 conjecture was equivalent to the function equation h(z3) = h(z6){h(z2)λh(λz2)λ2h(λ2z2)}/3z (where λ=e(2πi/3)). This could be expressed through the unit disc {z:z1} as h(z)=h0h1z/(1z) (where h0 and h2 are complex constants).

In 1998, D.Schliecher used this foundation to prove that any integral function in the form of h(z) results in g(z) = z/2 (1-cos(πz)(z1/2)/21/π(1/2-cos(πz)sin(πz)h(z)sin2(πz)).

Vera used these two conclusions to construct a wonderful transcendental integral function. She proved that both g(z) and Φ(g) contained a positive integer, such that for branch D, there was z0D, by which {gok(z0)}/k=1 converged to 1.

The Collatz conjecture was established by inference!

"Excellent proof…" Lu Zhou smiled happily as he said from the bottom of his heart, "I'm amazed."

He met Vera in the summer of 2016; it was now the end of 2017.

Lu Zhou was happy to see his student's progress.

He was also happy to see that the Group Structure Method he used to solve the Goldbach's conjecture was applied by his own students.

He now knew exactly what kind of "joy" the high tech system was talking about.

"This is all thanks to your guidance," Vera said humbly. Her eyes were full of gratitude as she looked at her professor.

Although the proof process was completed by her, the proof idea was provided by Lu Zhou.

Ever since her in-progress report at Berkeley at the beginning of the year, she had been working with Hardy and Qin Yue on the final proof. All of this work was based on Lu Zhou's idea.

Vera was the one that completed most of the work. Therefore, she knew better than anyone how important Lu Zhou's proof idea was.

Lu Zhou smiled. "You don't have to be humble. I only suggested a direction, but you're the one that ran to the finish line."

He paused for a second before continuing, "I suggest you submit the thesis to Annual Mathematics, but the editors are on vacation these days. So, you can post it on arXiv first… Maybe the editors of Annual Mathematics will notice your thesis before the end of their holidays."

Posting the thesis on arXiv could prevent someone else from posting a similar thesis first. However, this didn't matter too much. The Collatz conjecture was popular in the '80s and '90s, but these days, it wasn't a trending topic at all. The chance of a similar thesis was almost zero.

Of course, Lu Zhou made this suggestion with his own benefits in mind.

Using the inferences he made when he solved the Goldbach's conjecture, the system's deciding factor of when the mission was completed was when the thesis was released to the public.

If the thesis was posted on arXiv, then his mission would be completed.

When Vera heard Lu Zhou's advice, she nodded her head seriously.

"I understand, I'll do that right now."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Okay then, I'll help you erase the blackboards… Thank you for the gift."

The moment Vera heard Lu Zhou's praise, she smiled.

After a while, she suddenly lowered her head and blushed.

"Professor."

Lu Zhou: "What?"

She gave herself some courage and looked up at Lu Zhou.

"Can… I ask you for a wish?"

"I'm not Santa, I can't put your gifts in a sock next to your bedside table," Lu Zhou joked. He then paused for a second before adding, "But, as long as it's not a violation of any principles, I'll do anything to help you."

"I'm…"

Vera opened her small mouth.

However, she suddenly realized that her wish might cause trouble for him.

The words were at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't say it out loud.

"I… want to do a PhD under you."

Lu Zhou smiled. "I welcome you! I'll be offended if you choose another supervisor."

Vera felt a little more comfortable and a gentle smile appeared on her face.

She was disappointed at herself for not having enough courage.

However, she had gained a lot of courage over the past two years…

But, it still wasn't enough.

…

Lu Zhou spent the day hanging around the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study. He then returned to his home while carrying all of the gifts from his colleagues and students.

The gifts weren't extravagant; they were less than US$30. However, they were meaningful.

As for his gifts to his students, he gave them the pens that he had collected at conferences from all over the world.

The gifts weren't expensive, but they were memorable.

Lu Zhou put the gifts away and sat on the sofa by the fireplace. He then closed his eyes and went into the system space.

As he walked in front of the translucent holographic panel, he suddenly saw two lines of text floating in front of him.

[A. "Research on the even coherent state of a q-distorted harmonic oscillator in a finite-dimensional Hilbert space."

Student: Wei Wen.

Student engagement: 25%.

Type of experience: Mathematics, Physics. ]

[B. Collatz conjecture.

Student: Vera, Hardy, Qin Yue.

Student engagement: 70%.

Type of experience: Mathematics.]

Before Lu Zhou got home, Vera already uploaded the thesis to arXiv and satisfied the system's mission conditions. Therefore, the Collatz conjecture was posted on the mission panel.

Lu Zhou didn't know how the system determined whether a person was his student, but the system was quite accurate.

Not just that, but the system could even calculate the proportion of the student's work participation.

"Is this a multiple-choice question?"

Lu Zhou looked at the two options on the screen and crossed his arms.

According to the system mission description, he could choose one thesis as a mission submission.

The total amount of subject experience reward was based on the academic value of the thesis multiplied by the coefficient of the student's participation in the thesis.

It was obvious that the system wanted him to nurture genius students who could do their own research. Therefore, the system required him to avoid direct participation in the thesis.

Actually, Lu Zhou had been trying to be more "hands-off".

However, even with his hands-off attempts, the system rated his contribution as 30%.

Because in the beginning, he developed a clear research direction for them and developed a framework for the entire research project.

His students followed his research direction and completed the proof.

Lu Zhou thought that the system would allow this, but now it seemed that he was too optimistic.

"It really doesn't want me to help at all."

Lu Zhou looked at the translucent screen and shook his head.

When he reached out and selected "B", a pop-up came out. He then selected "Confirm".

After that, a wave of blue light swept through the information screen, and a line of text appeared.

[Congratulations, User, for mission completion!]

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[Congratulations, user, for mission completion!

[Mission completion details are as follows: Guide students to complete the "Collatz conjecture".

Students: Vera, Qin Yue, Hardy. Student engagement: 70%. Type of experience: Mathematics.

[Mission final evaluation: S

[Mission reward: 140,000 mathematics experience points. 500 general points. One chance of a lucky draw. (50% garbage, 25% sample, 15% blueprint, 10% special)]

The academic value of the Collatz conjecture was actually lowered than the twin prime conjecture.

However, the Collatz conjecture was a lot more difficult to solve than the twin prime conjecture.

Of course, that was before the "Group Structure Method" was invented.

When Lu Zhou was studying the twin prime conjecture, he used a topology large sieve method. He developed the Group Structure Method when he was studying the Polignac's conjecture.

The Group Structure Method theory was already perfected by the time Vera started solving the Collatz conjecture.

Therefore, the difficulty of the Collatz conjecture greatly decreased.

After a mathematical tool was created, using the tool to solve problems was a piece of cake.

Therefore, more and more people would have mastered the Group Structure Method. If Vera didn't solve the Collatz conjecture, it was only a matter of time until someone else did.

Of course, it still wasn't an easy tool to master.

It was better than what 99.99% of people could do.

Lu Zhou looked at the experience reward and opened his translucent information screen.

"System, open my characteristic panel!"

A light blue light swept across the screen, and his characteristic panel emerged.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 6 (144,000/600,000)

B. Physics: Level 4 (33,215/200,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 3 (24,000/100,000)

D. Engineering: Level 2 (0/50,000)

E. Materials science: Level 4 (13,000/200,000)

F. Energy science: Level 2 (0/50,000)

G. Information science: Level 1 (3,000/10,000)

General points: 3,475 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

140,000 experience points sounded like a lot, but it wasn't that much compared to the 600,000 mathematics level up requirement.

Leveling past Level 6 had gotten extremely difficult, and solving the Millennium Prize Problems might be the only way for Lu Zhou to get to Level 7.

As for beyond Level 7…

Lu Zhou's only hope right now was that the experience points required wouldn't be too ridiculous.

Lu Zhou closed the characteristic panel and looked at the lottery button.

Next up was the fun and exciting lucky draw.

However, the system would probably screw him over and give him some strange item…

Lu Zhou looked at the spinning wheel and pressed the lucky draw button.

If he had a low expectation when he received a can of coke, it wouldn't be as unacceptable?

The roulette wheel began to spin.

Lu Zhou waited for ten seconds or so before he pressed the stop button.

[Congratulations, user, for winning the "special" prize!]

Lu Zhou's eyebrows raised when he saw this line of text.

The f*ck?

It's only a 10% probability, and I got it?

However, Lu Zhou wasn't immediately ecstatic because of the special prize. Instead, his heart was beating through his chest, and he began to say in his heart.

Please don't be "Patronage Appreciated", please don't be "Patronage Appreciated"…

[Receive: Inspiration time (Duration of 72 hours. Cannot be paused.)]

Lu Zhou calmed down.

There was a flash of happiness in his eyes.

The f*ck?

This thing is legendary!

Lu Zhou had used "inspiration time" before; he was well aware of how wonderful it was to enter the inspiration state and how magical the inspiration was for a scholar.

If he had a difficult problem to solve right now, he would begin the inspiration time immediately and enter into the wonderful world.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and prepared himself.

The lucky draw was over, and the next thing was the mission selection.

Because he received an S rating, the next mission was a reward mission. Therefore, it was something he could look forward to.

Lu Zhou tapped his finger on the mission panel.

[

The reward mission is activated! (Give up at any time without spending general points)]

Description: Learning is an individual's responsibility. Science is a community's responsibility. Integrating science into civilization is society's responsibility. While receiving recognition in the academic community, the user should also try to spread its influence beyond the academic world.

Requirements: Obtain an honor issued by a national agency.

Reward: 1-??? Free experience points. One lucky draw ticket (???).

]

Lu Zhou looked at the mission and was stunned. He then smiled and shook his head.

This mission really is a reward mission…

The National Science and Technology Award Conference is on January 8th.

This mission was basically tailored for him.

…

After Lu Zhou received the mission, he exited the system space, and his consciousness returned to the warm fireplace.

He was about to go to sleep when he suddenly noticed that his phone had seven missed calls.

"Hello?"

"Little Brother… Are you busy?"

Lu Zhou didn't know why, but he felt like there was a little resentment behind "Little Brother".

Lu Zhou didn't want to argue about his nickname, so he coughed and explained, "I was at a Christmas party just now, and I just got home. Sorry, I didn't see your calls."

Chen Yushan asked, "Were you on a date?"

Lu Zhou: "…"

She must be doing this intentionally?

Has to be…

Chen Yushan gloated and chuckled. She then diverted the conversation by asking, "Then, Little Brother, are you going back for Chinese New Year?"

"You're… going back?"

"Yeah, I finally get to have a holiday, I'm definitely going back!"

Lu Zhou was surprised. "Your supervisor didn't ask you to work during the holidays?"

Lu Zhou remembered Chen Yushan complaining about her supervisor and saying how her supervisor used her as free labor.

It seems like… pigs are starting to fly?

When Chen Yushan heard Lu Zhou's surprised tone, she said smugly, "This is what you don't understand. My supervisor respects me now; she even let me put my name on a thesis… Of course, I was the one that wrote the thesis."

When Lu Zhou heard that his friend was finally free from the evil supervisor, he was sincerely happy for her.

Other than Luo Wenxuan, she was his only real friend in America.

Chen Yushan said, "Ah, let's talk about something else. The reason why I called you earlier was to ask if you've bought the plane ticket yet?"

Lu Zhou: "I bought it ages ago."

Chen Yushan: "Which day are you flying?"

Lu Zhou said, "Let me see."

Lu Zhou pulled out an email from the airline and read the flight information.

"AC75… Philadelphia International Airport, flying on the 28th."

When Chen Yushan heard Lu Zhou's flight number, her pair of beautiful eyes instantly lit up.

"What a coincidence! I'm also on this flight! 9 a.m.?"

Really?

Lu Zhou was astonished at the possibility of this low probability event happening.

"Then… let's go together?"

When Chen Yushan heard Lu Zhou's invitation, she replied happily, "Yes, yes! It's a deal then, don't back out!"

Lu Zhou said, "What do you mean back out?"

Our flights are in a couple of days… Who would change their flights last minute…

Lu Zhou wouldn't change his itinerary even if there were an emergency.

"Who knows? Anyway, it's a deal; I'll see you at the airport!"

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Chapter 390: Plans Before China

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou's flight to China was after Christmas.

He had three days before his flight, and he planned to run some errands. This was to prevent him from being swamped when he returned back to Princeton after the break.

The first matter he had to deal with was the "existence of a smooth solution to three-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equation" research project.

Other than the plasma turbulence phenomenon, this was Lu Zhou's most important research project.

There had only been one discussion meeting ever since the "NS research project group" was established.

The next day, Lu Zhou went to Nassau Hall to hand in his holiday application. He then went to the Department of Mathematics building at Princeton University where he found Professor Fefferman's office.

When he arrived, Professor Fefferman was talking about next month's American Mathematical Society Conference with his students.

When Professor Fefferman saw Lu Zhou holding a holiday application in his hand, he smiled.

"You plan on returning to China?"

Lu Zhou replied, "Yeah, instead of Christmas, Chinese New Year is my real holiday. I'll probably come back around mid-February."

Professor Fefferman nodded and casually said, "You really do need a break to relax. Very few scholars work themselves to the bone in so many research projects in such a short amount of time."

"Working to the bone?" Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I don't feel that way at all. After all, research is a fun and interesting thing."

"I thought the same when I was young," Professor Fefferman smiled and said, "but I found out that no matter how interesting the mathematics problem is, moderation is key."

Lu Zhou said, "… That's because you've already received all of the honors you could possibly get."

Earlier this year, the Wolf Prize Foundation announced the winner's list, and the most important award was given to Professor Fefferman.

The Wolf Prize was regarded as the ultimate mathematics award. It was mainly given to mathematicians over 40 years old for their long-standing contribution to the mathematics community.

Fefferman was the youngest person ever to receive the Fields Medal, and now, he had the ultimate mature mathematician award. There wasn't another mathematics award he could aim for.

"What do you mean? No amount of awards is enough, plus I'm still missing an Abel Prize," Professor Fefferman said. He then smiled as he continued, "In short, go enjoy your life. I won't send you any emails until February."

Lu Zhou asked, "What about the Navier–Stokes equation?"

Professor Fefferman said, "We'll talk about that in a month."

When Lu Zhou saw that Fefferman didn't budge, he shrugged.

"Okay, if you insist."

…

Other than Professor Fefferman and Lu Zhou's collaboration project, Lu Zhou's Collatz conjecture project also came to an end.

Perhaps it was because of Lu Zhou's influence or because of the Collatz conjecture's popularity, the thesis on arXiv attracted a lot of attention.

Many people referred to the Collatz conjecture as another "victory application" of the Group Structure Method.

What surprised people the most was that instead of Lu Zhou, it was his students who applied the method.

It was the morning of the 27th, one day until Lu Zhou's flight.

Lu Zhou sat in his office at the Institute for Advanced Study while he read Vera's thesis.

Although he had read the entire proof process, as their supervisor, Lu Zhou still had to review every single detail before they could officially submit the thesis.

Also, he had to determine the thesis authors.

Normally, the names of the three students would be listed according to their respective contributions.

As for Lu Zhou, he would be the fourth and corresponding thesis author.

Of course, as their supervisor, he had the right to claim the results as his own. However, he would never compromise his integrity like this.

Normally, a supervisor wouldn't be willing to give the thesis results to their students, but Lu Zhou didn't care.

The Collatz conjecture wasn't worth anything to Lu Zhou.

Even if Lu Zhou claimed it, it would only be the icing on the cake.

In addition to the author list, this type of collaborative theses would also indicate exactly what each author did. Most research institutes cared about this part more than the author ranking order.

However, Lu Zhou noticed that Vera didn't list out each author's contributions. Instead, she wrote, "These authors contributed equally to this work" and left the section at that.

Adding this sentence to the thesis meant that every author contributed equally and everyone was integral to the thesis.

This also meant that all of the authors in the thesis would be considered equally ranked.

"Is it fine?" Lu Zhou read the thesis in its entirety before he looked at Vera and said, "This isn't fair for you."

Although Lu Zhou hadn't directly participated in the project, he had been keeping up with the progress of the project.

For example, he would have a weekly discussion meeting whenever he was at Princeton, and he would carefully read the in-progress reports.

It was no exaggeration to say that Vera was responsible for 70% of the research project, while Hardy and Qin Yue was only responsible for the remaining 30%.

Vera shook her head. "I just like to research these problems. As for who contributed more… I don't think it matters."

"If you really think that way, then I'll respect your decision." Lu Zhou didn't try to persuade her.

Qin Yue put in a lot of effort; Hardy, not so much. However, Vera was willing to give them equal amounts of credit, and so, Lu Zhou didn't pursue the matter.

At most, Lu Zhou felt a little pity for Vera.

Lu Zhou paused for a second and placed the thesis on the table as he continued to speak to Vera.

"According to the original agreement, I will help you guys apply for graduation. You'll receive the diploma in three to four months. If you plan on studying a PhD under me, it's best to apply as soon as possible so that I can accept your application."

Lu Zhou was well aware of his student's abilities; interviewing them would be a piece of cake.

Vera nodded seriously.

"Okay, I understand!"

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Chapter 391: Back To China

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

By the time Lu Zhou finished his errands at Princeton, it was already the 28th.

Lu Zhou gave himself and his students a month-long vacation and asked Jerick to drive him to Philadelphia Airport.

On the way to the airport, Lu Zhou was scrolling through his Weibo when he suddenly received a phone call from Yang Xu.

"Boss, you're coming back to China today?"

After seeing his friends' news feed, Yang Xu had immediately called Lu Zhou to ask about it.

Lu Zhou replied, "Yeah, I'm on the way to Philadelphia Airport."

Yang Xu said, "I'll pick you up at the airport tomorrow, when do you land?"

Lu Zhou said, "No need, I'm flying directly to Beijing this time. I'll come to Jinling in mid-January."

"Beijing?" Yang Xu suddenly realized something, and he smiled as he said, "Is it…"

Lu Zhou replied, "Yeah, the conference on the 8th."

"Nutty! Did you win some kind of award?" Yang Xu asked.

He couldn't help but envy Lu Zhou.

The conference on the 8th was obviously the State Science and Technology Awarding Meeting of the People's Republic of China.

He wouldn't be able to win the Highest Science and Technology Award, but he might win the State Technological Invention Award or the State Natural Science Award.

Each of the five state awards was legendary; any research institute would welcome a state award winner with both arms open.

Lu Zhou smiled as he replied, "No one has told me what the prize is. I don't know yet, but I'll know when I get there."

"Boss, you're going to a prize ceremony! Don't forget about me in the future," Yang Xu joked. He then said, "I'll ask on behalf of our research institute; is there going to be a year-end bonus for us?"

Lu Zhou said, "Of course there is."

"How much?"

"You'll know when I get there!"

Once Jerick dropped Lu Zhou off at the airport, Lu Zhou then walked into the terminal with his suitcase.

He and Chen Yushan had made plans to meet up through WeChat messages.

Lu Zhou walked inside the airport and instantly recognized a familiar person.

Her rimless glasses perched on her delicate nose and her smooth black hair brushed against her coat. She was wearing a black cotton skirt and pantyhose as well as a pair of brown boots that made her looked both fashionable and youthful.

It was almost like Chen Yushan could tell Lu Zhou was nearby. The moment she looked around, she made eye contact with Lu Zhou.

Her eyes lit up, and she began to wave at him before she dragged her suitcase over to meet him.

As Chen Yushan stood next to Lu Zhou, she patted her chest and sighed in relief.

"You scared me; I thought you were going to ditch me again."

Lu Zhou asked, "Why do you make it sound like I always ditched you?"

Chen Yushan stared at Lu Zhou with a pair of bright beautiful eyes.

"Haven't you?"

Emm…

I think…

I haven't, right?

Lu Zhou had ditched people too many times. Even though he couldn't remember ditching Chen Yushan, he wasn't so sure anymore…

…

There wasn't much time left, so Chen Yushan and Lu Zhou quickly went to get their boarding passes.

Lu Zhou thought that Chen Yushan would be flying first class; he didn't expect her to be in business class as well. They then chose to sit together for the flight.

Even though her family was wealthy, it didn't seem like she was reckless with money.

As for why Lu Zhou didn't buy a first-class ticket…

It wasn't because he didn't want to spend the money. He just didn't care. Unless someone else bought the ticket for him, he would stick to business class.

The pair got their boarding passes and went through the security check. They then walked at a brisk pace through the terminal and successfully boarded the plane.

Lu Zhou sat in the middle seat while Chen Yushan sat by the window.

He was about to close his eyes and nap for a while when a man, who was holding a briefcase, sat down next to him while he continued to talk on the phone.

The man was talking loudly, and people began to look at him.

However, the man wasn't aware, and he kept blabbering.

A flight attendant came over.

"Sir, the plane is about to take off, please turn off your phone."

The middle-aged man frowned and looked dissatisfied. However, he still followed the order.

Lu Zhou was watching this unfold from the side. He then sighed in his heart.

He was going to have a bad time with a person like this sitting next to him.

The man who had just turned his phone off looked bored, and he looked around to find someone to talk to. Suddenly, he noticed Lu Zhou, who was sitting next to him, and he asked, "Bro, what do you do for a living?"

"Mathematics."

"Oh, mathematics teacher? Middle school or high school?"

"University."

The middle-aged man was stunned, and he looked at Lu Zhou in disbelief.

"You're teaching college students? I don't believe it."

Lu Zhou didn't bother arguing with him.

The middle-aged man wasn't happy with being ignored. He then looked around, and soon, he noticed Lu Zhou's watch.

"Bro, what brand is your watch?"

Lu Zhou said, "I don't know, someone gave it to me and didn't tell me the brand."

Middle-aged man: "The friend that bought you the watch must've bought a replica, right?"

Lu Zhou: "…?"

Is this guy retarded?

When Lu Zhou didn't answer him, the middle-aged man laughed and said, "Look at the color, it's obviously not pure silver."

Lu Zhou wanted to ignore him, but he was suddenly interested in something. He then looked at the man and asked, "You can tell?"

The man laughed and said, "Of course! I've been doing sales for many years, so I can tell."

"Then guess who gave this watch to me."

"How am I supposed to guess that? Why don't you just tell me?"

"The American Chemical Society."

The man looked at Lu Zhou like he was crazy.

"Bro, at least make your lies realistic. You said you do mathematics, but now you're a chemist. Why don't you say the United Nations gave it to you?"

Lu Zhou chuckled. "Mathematicians can also study chemistry."

The man laughed. "Stop bragging! Do you think I haven't been to university? Okay then, since this watch is from the American Chemical Society, then tell me… Why did they give this watch to you?"

"Because of the Adams Chemistry Prize?"

"Haha, bro, you're being ridiculous!" The man laughed and said, "Come, tell me, when did you win the Adams Chemistry Prize, I'll search it up on Google."

Lu Zhou chuckled. "It was around April this year."

The man turned on his phone and started to google it. He was ready to expose Lu Zhou's lies.

However, the search results weren't what he expected, and he started to look confused.

He clicked on a news article and found a photo.

The man looked at the photo. He then looked at Lu Zhou, and it was like he just saw a ghost.

The f*ck?

This… This is real?!

Lu Zhou smiled and ignored him. He then closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep.

The flight attendant noticed the phone and walked over again.

However, this time she gave a warning.

"Sir, please turn off your phone. If you insist on disturbing the plane's operations, we will have to ask you to leave the plane. Sir? Can you hear me?"

Obviously, the man could hear her, but he was too shocked to reply.

When Chen Yushan saw the man's face, she couldn't help but burst out in laughter.

Her stomach began to hurt from the laughing…

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Chapter 392: What Is With You Two?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

An announcement was made through the plane speakers.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to arrive at Beijing International Airport. Please return to your seat and fasten your seat belt. Please put away your table trays. The outside temperature is 2 degrees Celsius. Thank you for flying with us. We wish you a pleasant journey!"

After more than ten hours of flying, the plane finally landed on the runway of Beijing International Airport.

The man sitting next to Lu Zhou got up and walked away quickly.

Lu Zhou smiled and shook his head.

He didn't know how the middle-aged man who was working in "sales" didn't go bankrupt.

"Let's go."

"Yes."

The pair followed the other passengers as they walked toward the exit.

However, the people in front of them were moving slowly.

Lu Zhou finally got to the door. However, just as he was about to walk down the airstair, he was stunned by what he saw.

There was a group of people standing in suits waiting for him at the bottom of the airstair.

Although Lu Zhou knew that someone would pick him up at the airport, he didn't expect so many people to be here…

Chen Yushan, who was standing next to him, was also stunned.

However, the reason why she was stunned was different from Lu Zhou's reason.

She didn't expect that her father, who claimed to be too busy to pick her up from the airport, was standing less than ten meters away from her.

The father and daughter locked eyes silently…

Academician Xiang Huanan watched as Lu Zhou walked down the airstair. He then reached out his right hand enthusiastically.

"Professor Lu, long time no see!"

Lu Zhou looked at the old man in surprise.

"Academician Xiang?"

"Haha, it seems that you still remember me."

"How could I forget you?" Lu Zhou smiled and shook the old man's hand as he asked, "How are you doing?"

"Good!" Academician Xiang Huanan said with a hearty smile. He then continued, "I heard you won the Hoffman Prize in Germany. Your achievements have brought honor to the Chinese academic community on the international stage!"

Lu Zhou replied humbly, "That's just publicity, don't need to talk about it."

Academician Xiang waved his hand and said, "Don't need to be humble. The Chinese Academy of Science specifically held a meeting for your 'Theoretical Model of the Electrochemical Interface Structure', and several old professors at the Institute of Chemistry had looked at your model. They think that it will make an impact on polymer materials!"

Lu Zhou smiled and didn't know what to say.

Suddenly, another old man smiled at him.

"Professor Lu, welcome home!"

Lu Zhou had never seen this man before, and so, he asked, "You are?"

Academician Xiang smiled and said, "This is the leader of the Ministry of Talents, Ma Gaoyang."

Ministry of Talents?

Lu Zhou didn't really know what this ministry was for, neither did he know the ranking of the ministry. However, he vaguely remembered that the "Thousand People Initiative" was led by them…

In short, their ranking was high.

"What leader…" Ma Gaoyang waved his hand and smiled at Lu Zhou as he said, "If you don't mind, just call me Mr. Ma."

Lu Zhou went with the flow and said, "Nice to meet you, Mr. Ma."

Ma Gaoyang nodded. "You must be tired after the long flight; we can talk more in the car."

While Lu Zhou was talking with the academician and Ma Gaoyang, the people getting out of the plane began talking among themselves.

"Who's that?"

"I think it's that mathematics professor."

"Mathematics professor? What kind of mathematics professor would be this famous? It's not like he's an actor."

Suddenly, someone couldn't help but say, "He's not a normal mathematics professor, and he's way nuttier than some actors."

"Who is that?"

"Lu Zhou."

"Lu Zhou? Who the hell is that?"

"The person that solved Goldbach's conjecture, Professor Lu!"

Most people didn't know about the Hoffman Prize and Crafoord Prize, nor did they pay attention to the latest academic community news…

But when it came to the Goldbach's conjecture…

Even primary school students were familiar with the conjecture.

"Fuck me?! That's him?!"

…

Lu Zhou began chatting with Xiang Huanan in the car.

"What have you been researching lately?"

"Navier–Stokes equation."

"Navier–Stokes equation?" Amazed, Academician Xiang looked at him and asked, "Is it the Millennium Prize Problems from the Clay Institute?"

"Yes." Lu Zhou nodded.

"… You young people really are energetic," Academician Xiang Huanan said with a smile. He then added, "It would be meritorious if you could solve the problem."

Academician Xiang paused for a second before he continued, "I know a bit about number theory, but the partial differential equations are far beyond my scope of research. I don't have much to talk to you about. However, there are many doctoral holders at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who are doing research in this area. Are you interested in talking to them?"

"Now?"

Although Lu Zhou was interested, he needed to rest.

"Of course not now." Academician Xiang smiled and said, "I'll take you to your hotel first! You were just on a long a*s flight, you have to rest for a few days."

On another car.

The father and daughter looked at each other for a long time and didn't speak.

At last, it was Chen Yushan who broke the silence.

"Dad."

"Yes."

"Didn't you tell me… that you had a meeting today?"

Chen Baohua coughed and said, "The company told me I had to come in, and I was only notified of what I would be doing during the meeting at noon."

Chen Yushan: "…"

Chen Baohua then asked in a fatherly concern, "You know him?"

Although Chen Yushan wasn't happy with her father's tone, she still answered truthfully.

"Yes."

Chen Baohua asked in a stern voice, "How do you know him?"

Chen Yushan replied carefully, "From school."

Chen Baohua then asked, "Why didn't you tell me?"

Chen Yushan didn't know what to say, and so, she said, "Dad, you didn't ask me… You can't expect me to tell you everything about everyone I know."

Chen Baohua realized his stupid question and awkwardly tried to change the topic of conversation.

"Do you know what he does?"

"Professor of mathematics at Princeton… Dad, did he break the law?" Chen Yushan asked in a nervous tone.

She hadn't seen Lu Zhou once ever since she stepped foot into the car.

Honestly, Chen Yushan was worried, but she couldn't find a good opportunity to ask.

"Of course not," Chen Baohua coughed and said, "it wouldn't be us picking him up then."

Chen Yushan relaxed.

Thank god he didn't break the law.

Chen Baohua didn't want to let his daughter off the hook just yet. He asked in a serious tone, "What's with you two?"

Chen Yushan replied, "We were classmates…"

Chen Baohua: "…"

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Chapter 393: Special Treatment

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou thought that he wouldn't have a place to stay in Beijing since he didn't have many relatives or friends here. However, what he didn't know was that everything has already been arranged for him.

Their destination was an elegant small hotel surrounded by a small man-made lake. There was nothing extravagant about the hotel's decor itself, but the hotel was located next to Old Summer Palace, making it extra special.

However, Lu Zhou felt like this place should be a retirement home.

The old people could look at the plants and rocks near the lake or listen to the water flowing. It would be as if time was slowing down.

Ma Gaoyang took Lu Zhou to his room and asked, "What do you think, Professor Lu, is this place good?"

Lu Zhou smiled and replied politely, "It's very nice… You're too kind."

Ma Gaoyang smiled. "Of course! Given that you're our national treasure, this is the least we can do! If there are any issues, you can contact the manager here, and he'll forward the issue to me."

The lobby manager who was behind Ma Gaoyang smiled.

"If you need anything, Professor Lu, just ask me."

Lu Zhou smiled. "Thanks."

Normally, a national treasure wouldn't enjoy such treatment or be personally escorted by the head of the Ministry of Talent. However, Lu Zhou was no ordinary national treasure. He was the catalyst for the government's energy initiative!

If it wasn't for his modified PDMS material and HCS-2 material, it would be a lot more difficult for the Chinese government to achieve an energy density of 350Wh/kg by 2020.

If Lu Zhou merely solved the Goldbach's Conjecture and won the Crafoord Prize, then he wouldn't receive this kind of treatment.

But the situation now was that he had also solved the lithium-sulfur battery problem…

Therefore, he received the highest level of special treatment.

Lu Zhou ate dinner at the hotel. Although the food was nothing fancy, it was still quite healthy and delicious.

Lu Zhou thought that Director Ma would talk to him about attracting outside talent. After all, that was Director Ma's job.

Lu Zhou didn't expect to only talk about interesting international news stories. After their dinner, Director Ma said goodbye and left.

Since Lu Zhou had nothing else to do, he walked along the man-made lake behind the hotel.

To be honest, living here was comfortable.

In comparison, Princeton was like a monastery; researching there was like practicing spirituality.

Actually, although Director Ma didn't say anything when he left, Lu Zhou could tell that the old man wanted him to "stay" here.

Whether it was due to orders from the higher-ups or purely out of Director Ma's own heart, Lu Zhou could tell Director Ma was treating him nicely.

However, now was not the time.

Lu Zhou wasn't materialistic, but he still hoped and craved for something more.

It was getting late, so Lu Zhou cast one last look at the lake before he walked back to his room.

When it was eight o'clock at night, Lu Zhou unpacked his luggage before he gave his family a call.

The call connected almost immediately.

Lu Zhou: "Dad, what are you up to?"

Old Lu: "I'm watching TV with your mom. Does this phone number mean that you're back in China?"

Lu Zhou had two phone numbers; a Chinese one and an American one.

Lu Bangguo immediately knew that his son was back in China.

Lu Zhou replied, "Yeah, I'm in Beijing right now."

"Beijing? Why are you in Beijing?"

It was his mom who spoke this time. It seemed like they were on speaker.

Lu Zhou smiled as he explained, "I have a meeting in Beijing, so I might stay here for a while. I'll come back to Jiangling at the end of January… How are you guys?"

Old Lu smiled. "Good, how are you? Are you exercising?"

"I'm in good shape; I've been running at night. Oh yeah, Dad…"

"What's up?"

Lu Zhou hesitated for a second before he said, "How about… you retire now? I've made a lot of money."

"Don't give me that," Old Lu said as he interrupted his son. He then continued, "Why would I retire? So that I can become a farmer? I know you're earning big American dollars, but just live your own life, you don't have to worry about me!"

Fang Mei said, "Yeah, don't worry about us. Your dad might as well be considered to have retired since his job is nothing demanding. But I'd still prefer to have him go to work than be bored at home. Otherwise, he'd be running around with a fishing pole all day."

Old Lu wasn't happy, and he retorted, "What do you mean I'm basically retired? The boss moved me from the front line to the second line! Although my job is easier now, I'm still contributing. I'm only giving the young people an opportunity."

Fang Mei rolled her eyes and said, "Yeah, right. What kind of young person would want to work at your factory? They should just shut it down and save the taxpayers' money. Ever since you were transferred from the technical department to the logistics department, all you've been doing all day is drinking tea and eating sunflower seeds. Look at how much weight you've gained."

Lu Zhou could imagine the sight of his parents arguing, and he couldn't help but smirk.

Being in good shape was the most important thing.

Lu Zhou was relieved to hear that they were healthy.

Lu Zhou chatted with his parents for a while before he ended the call.

As he laid on his soft bed, he yawned and was about to go to sleep.

However, the phone in his hand suddenly flashed. A line of text popped up.

Xiao Ai: [Master, what is a parent? :) ]

Lu Zhou looked at the line of text and paused for a second.

It was such an obvious question.

However, he quickly realized that there was no easy answer to this question.

Lu Zhou thought for a bit before he typed.

[Parents, the people that created you.]

Xiao Ai: [Then, master, do I have parents? (๑•.•๑)]

Lu Zhou looked at the line of text and went silent. After a while, he sighed softly.

[I think you do?]

Xiao Ai: [What a cursory answer.]

Is this…

Artificial retard becoming smarter?

Lu Zhou recalled that he had never talked about such a deep topic with Xiao Ai.

The relationship between AI and ethics was a very profound proposition. Lu Zhou wasn't well versed in the social sciences and couldn't think of an answer.

However, Lu Zhou was curious about something else.

Xiao Ai's parents… Do they exist in this universe?

Maybe one day, he would meet Xiao Ai's parents… or rather, its creator…

Lu Zhou couldn't imagine what that would be like, but he felt like that day would soon come.

While he was thinking about this problem, his phone flashed again.

It was another notification from Xiao Ai.

[Master, you have mail!]

Artificial retard is back.

Lu Zhou looked at the notification. Using a finger, he swiped across his screen and opened the email.

The mail was from Connie.

A few months ago, Lu Zhou sent him to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a visiting scholar to study the topic of superconducting nanomaterials with Professor Herrero.

It's been a while. Lu Zhou wondered how Connie was doing.

He opened the email and read it.

Then…

Lu Zhou froze.

There was only a short line of text that ended with three exclamation marks.

[We did it!!!]

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Chapter 394: Poaching

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou turned off his phone and immediately got out of bed. He sent a video call request to Connie, who was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Although Lu Zhou could probably guess what Connie was talking about, he still wanted to confirm it.

"What did you guys do?"

"Your guess was correct! After countless experiments, we have successfully discovered that the twisted double-layer graphene can achieve superconductivity under 1.7 kelvin. This is amazing!" Connie said in an astonished tone, "Professor, you're a god!"

Connie started to think in his mind.

Maybe…

This is the so-called "scientific research intuition" that nutty people have?

Lu Zhou stared at Connie's look of worship through his phone screen as he said, "I just made a random guess; it wasn't based on science."

Connie shook his head and said, "No, Professor Lu, science isn't needed for intuition. Some people can communicate with the heavens, and this doesn't even require science."

He paused for a second before he continued, "We will publish the thesis in Nature. Professor Herrero said that he will send you an email tomorrow to inform you. As for what's happening right now, we're about to get wasted at a bar. Unfortunately, you're not here, so I'll have to drink your portion of the drinks."

Lu Zhou said, "Have a great time."

"Of course!" Connie smiled and said, "We've been working throughout Christmas! We spent the entire Christmas holiday inside the laboratory! Thank God, it's finally done!"

This research was a collaborative study between the Sarrot Institute and the Pablo Jarillo Herrero research group. The Jinling Institute of Computational Materials also took part in the research and helped with many issues; this was why the thesis was completed so quickly.

Although this thesis alone wouldn't create any patents, Lu Zhou was still very excited to hear this news.

Confirmation of a superconducting carbon nanomaterial could provide a new research path for superconducting materials.

Also, carbon nanomaterials had great plasticity and strain properties compared to alloy and metal compound materials. This meant there would be even more research paths available for superconducting materials.

This was a small step toward "room temperature superconductivity" as well as a small step toward controllable nuclear fusion…

…

A night of rest later…

The next day, Lu Zhou slept until nine in the morning.

Once he finished washing his face, he went down to the hotel restaurant and ordered a bowl of rice noodles. While eating, he was thinking about his plans for today when a beautiful waitress came over.

"Mr. Lu, someone is here for you."

"Who?"

"He didn't reveal his identity. He only said he was sent by Director Ma. I told him to wait for you at the hotel lobby. If you want, I can ask him to come over."

"No need," Lu Zhou said. He then put down his spoon and stood up before he continued, "I plan on going out anyway. I'll head over there myself."

The waitress then replied politely, "Okay, Mr. Lu."

The hotel had every facility Lu Zhou could hope for; it was like a high-end sanatorium.

However, for Lu Zhou who had to stay here until the 8th, it did not take him long before he started to get bored.

Since Shuimu and Yan University were close by, he felt that it would be a shame not to drop by for a visit.

Lu Zhou met up with the person who claimed to have been sent by Director Ma.

Lu Zhou instantly felt a special vibe coming from the man.

He couldn't describe what the vibe was, but the man looked like an undercover cop from the movies, or at least someone with a military background.

When the man saw Lu Zhou, he stood up from the sofa and reached out his hand as he said, "Hello, Professor Lu, I am Wang Peng, the driver of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China. If you need to go anywhere, feel free to ask me."

They are giving me a personal driver?

Is this necessary?

Lu Zhou looked at Wang Peng and shook his hand.

"Thank you in advance, Brother Wang."

Wang Peng immediately said, "Don't call me Brother Wang. Otherwise, the leadership team will tell me off. Just call me Xiao Wang."

"How can that be? You're clearly older than me! In that case, I'll just call you Mr. Wang…" Lu Zhou said. He then went silent for a while before he coughed and said, "I'll listen to you then."

Wang Peng sighed in relief and said, "Thank you for cooperating with me. Are you going out now?"

Lu Zhou said, "I'm just going for a walk nearby."

"Okay, this is my contact number. If you need to be picked up or dropped off, or if you run into any trouble, you can contact me," Wang Peng said while handing over a business card from his pocket.

There was no name on the business card. There was only a phone number written on it.

Lu Zhou looked at him and asked, "Do you know mathematics?"

Wang Peng was stunned. He then coughed awkwardly and said, "This… isn't within my scope of abilities. I apologize, but my abilities are limited…"

…

Lu Zhou walked out of the hotel and walked around using the map on his phone.

Soon after, he was at the campus of Shuimu University.

Due to the New Year's holiday, as one of the sacred academic places in the capital of the country, Shuimu University's school gate was surrounded by many tourists.

Lu Zhou didn't know if someone made arrangements beforehand because the guard seemed to have recognized him.

People without a campus ID were forbidden from entering. However, when Lu Zhou walked over, they let him go without any issues.

Lu Zhou walked along the asphalt road covered with green trees on the side while he thought about where he should visit first. He decided to visit the Qiu Chengtong Mathematics Center.

Old Qiu had always been a patriot. While he was a tenured professor of mathematics at Harvard University, he was also the director of the Institute of Mathematical Sciences and the director of the Mathematical Sciences Center of Qiu Chengtong at Shuimu University and XiangJiang University.

The old man once said that he would use Harvard University's teaching philosophy to create a mathematics center in Asia. Although there was still a long way to go, Old Qiu's experience from working at Harvard was apparent.

Although Old Qiu wasn't in Beijing, Lu Zhou still wanted to visit the center.

If Lu Zhou wanted to use the experience he gained from Princeton to build a Chinese version of Princeton, then he had much to learn from the elders.

When Lu Zhou saw a tall guy walking by, he asked, "Bro, where is the Qiu Chengtong Mathematics Center?"

The tall guy looked at Lu Zhou and felt that Lu Zhou looked familiar.

"It's near the spring gardens, you can ride a bicycle all the way to the south. You'll see it around there."

Lu Zhou replied, "Oh, thank you."

The tall guy then said, "You're welcome, but are you a new student?"

Lu Zhou smiled. "No, I'm just here to visit… What do you do?"

The tall guy with glasses said, "Me? I'm doing a post-doc in materials research."

Lu Zhou's eyes lit up, and he asked, "Yeah? What field?"

"Carbon nanomaterials and polymers…" The tall guy suddenly looked at Lu Zhou suspiciously and asked, "Why do you ask?"

"Nothing, I just wanted to…" Lu Zhou said, "ask you about someone."

The tall guy asked, "Who?"

Lu Zhou said, "Professor Sun Hongbiao."

Sun Hongbiao was the only polymer materials professor that Lu Zhou knew at Shuimu University.

Lu Zhou had a deep impression of him.

"Professor Sun?" The tall guy was stunned. He then said, "My supervisor! Wait a minute, didn't you want to go to the Qiu Chengtong Mathematics Center? Who are you?"

Lu Zhou coughed and reached out his hand as he said, "Nice to meet you, I'm Lu Zhou."

"Lu Zhou… F*ck?! Lu Zhou! You're really Lu Zhou?" Lou Fan finally realized why Lu Zhou looked so familiar.

"That's right." Lu Zhou coughed. He wanted to make a sneaky offer, and so, he said, "Bro, are you interested in working at Jinling? We're the ancient capital of the six dynasties, plenty of talented people who are talented at research, and the rent is also cheaper…"

Lu Zhou was suddenly interrupted by a loud voice.

"Professor Lu, it's not nice of you to do this!"

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Chapter 395: I Am Only Passing By

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

It was none other than Professor Sun Hongbiao.

"Professor Sun, you must be joking, I'm only exchanging thoughts with him," Lu Zhou said. He was a little embarrassed, so he smiled and said, "And you have no right to say I'm not nice."

When Professor Sun heard him, he became less aggressive. He then yawned and pretended like he didn't know anything.

"Professor Lu, what are you talking about, I don't understand?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and smiled.

At the lithium-sulfur battery conference held by the Energy Bureau, Professor Sun's question ignited the debate about the research direction. Because of this, Professor Sun offended many of his peers.

Of course, Lu Zhou wasn't a narrow-minded person, so he wasn't resentful of Professor Sun.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have agreed to let Professor Sun publish the "Feasibility of Suppressing the Shuttle Effect on Hollow Carbon Spheres" in the journal published by Shuimu University.

However, even though Lu Zhou wasn't resentful, he still didn't like being poached.

Lu Zhou coughed and didn't look at Professor Sun. Instead, he smiled at the tall guy and asked, "What do you think, bro? Offer still stands. Within two years, I'll let you publish in a top journal. Do you prefer Science or Nature?"

Scientific researchers often didn't care about salaries. Furthermore, a private research institute would definitely be able to provide a higher salary than a postdoc.

For someone who was interested in academia, publishing a journal was a much more valuable thing.

This was the reason why there were so many people who only cared about doing experiments and didn't care about money.

When Lou Fan heard Lu Zhou's offer, he started to think.

If it was anyone else that "let him publish in a top journal", he would be doubtful.

But this was Lu Zhou…

He was not a normal person.

After all, Lu Zhou published in journals more than twice per year.

Lou Fan thought of this, and he started to feel tempted.

However, he then saw Professor Sun looking at him…

Lou Fan smiled awkwardly and said, "I… have to think about it."

He only said this to save Professor Sun the embarrassment.

One was a well-known domestic scholar while the other was an internationally renowned scholar.

It was obvious that he had already made up his mind.

Lu Zhou could sense this, so he smiled and handed Lou Fan his business card.

Professor Sun, who was standing at a side, stared at Lu Zhou. However, he didn't say anything.

He knew that he couldn't match Lu Zhou's offer. In addition, his previous actions weren't moral.

The conference was about to begin, and by the likes of it, the national award was in Lu Zhou's hands.

Professor Sun would rather make friends than enemies.

Although Professor Sun's talent was poached, he suddenly felt a little more comfortable.

Lou Fan took the business card. He couldn't stand Professor Sun looking at him, so he quietly walked away.

Professor Sun looked back at Lu Zhou and asked, "Professor Lu, did you come to Shuimu to give me a hard time?"

Lu Zhou rubbed his nose.

"You have it wrong. Actually… I'm only passing by."

Two seconds of silence passed by.

Professor Sun coughed and said, "Professor Lu, stop joking."

"No, no, I'm not joking."

"You really didn't come to find me?" Professor Sun asked as he looked at Lu Zhou. He was surprised by Lu Zhou's answer, and he couldn't believe that Lu Zhou wasn't joking.

Lu Zhou looked at Professor Sun's astonished expression. He didn't know what else to say.

Lu Zhou was only at Shuimu University to look around.

He didn't come for Professor Sun at all. In fact, he didn't expect to poach anyone.

However…

Lu Zhou felt that Professor Sun wouldn't want to hear the truth.

…

Lu Zhou basically spent the past few days hanging out at Shuimu, Yan, and Minzu University. He even received an invitation from Academician Xiang to report on his "Group Structure Method" at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. At the report session, he also shared his research on the additive number theory.

The days quickly flew by, and soon, it was already the 8th of January.

Lu Zhou woke up early in the morning.

Once he had his breakfast at the hotel restaurant, he went back into his room. He then put on the same suit that he wore to the prize ceremony in Stockholm.

Lu Zhou stared at himself in the mirror for a while as he admired his own appearance. He would have been late if it wasn't for Wang Peng calling and reminding him.

The award ceremony was at the Beijing Conference Center.

Lu Zhou went through the entrance security check before he followed a VIP staff member inside. By then, the venue was already full of people.

When Academician Xiang noticed Lu Zhou, he quickly walked over.

"What took you so long?"

Lu Zhou said, "There was a bit of traffic… Am I late?"

Academician Xiang replied, "Not quite, but most people usually arrive an hour or two early. This conference is a good opportunity to network with peers. Your mentor told me to take care of you, and I planned on introducing you to a few people. However, we don't have time for that anymore."

Lu Zhou's mentor was obviously Academician Lu.

When Lu Zhou heard that Academician Lu wasn't here, he asked, "Academician Lu isn't coming?"

Academician Xiang shook his head and said, "He just got back from Switzerland yesterday. He has to go to Daya Bay in a few days, so I'm afraid he doesn't have time to come."

Okay then, I guess theoretical physicists are really busy…

Lu Zhou recalled that old man Witten also flew between America and Switzerland often. Witten might teach at Princeton one day and fly to CERN for a report on the next day.

While Lu Zhou was talking with Academician Xiang, Wang Haifeng, who was standing nearby talking with his peers, suddenly noticed him.

There was no way for Wang Haifeng to ignore Lu Zhou's existence. After all, Lu Zhou was the youngest person at this conference.

It would be difficult not to notice Lu Zhou!

Wang Haifeng looked at Lu Zhou walking over, and he quickly put on a fake smile.

"Professor Lu, how are you?"

Lu Zhou noticed someone greeting him, and he froze for a bit.

He didn't recognize Wang Haifeng at all.

"Sorry, who are you?"

Wang Haifeng's eyebrows suddenly twitched.

There was a twinge of dissatisfaction in his eye, but he quickly smiled and said, "Professor Lu, you are really forgetful. It has been less than a year since the lithium-sulfur battery meeting; how can you forget about me?"

Lu Zhou's eyes lit up, and he smiled.

"Oh, you're Professor Wang… You were Liu Hong's boss?"

When Wang Haifeng heard Liu Hong's name, he nearly exploded.

Not only did Lu Zhou poach Liu Hong, but Lu Zhou had the nerve to mention it to Wang Haifeng.

This is despicable!

When Academician Xiang saw that there was a bit of tension in the air, he coughed and tried to diffuse the situation.

"Okay okay, the conference is about to begin. Wait until after the conference to settle your beef."

Although Wang Haifeng didn't like Lu Zhou, he was at a grand conference hall, and he couldn't just start an argument here.

He saw the old man standing next to Lu Zhou, and he could tell that the old man was a scholar.

However, he wasn't sure of the status of the old man.

Wang Haifeng calmed down a bit and didn't say anything. Instead, he turned around and left.

"Look at you…" Academician Xiang pulled Lu Zhou's shoulder and lowered his voice as he said, "If you don't maintain good relationships, you are bound to offend people!"

Lu Zhou was helpless.

He really didn't think he offended Wang Haifeng at all.

The only time they had interacted before was at the lithium-sulfur battery meeting.

If Wang Haifeng didn't introduce himself and mention that meeting, Lu Zhou really wouldn't have remembered who he was…

The conference was about to begin.

The professors, scholars, and the higher-ups were seated. The noise at the conference hall gradually quieted down.

The solemn bright red color of the podium gave a sense of respect to the venue.

A lively song broke out and the highest honor academic award ceremony finally began!

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Jin Ling University, Institute of Computational Materials.

The period between 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. was the quietest time at the research institute.

Liu Bo sat in front of his office desk as he searched for journals containing their relevant research keywords. Once he confirmed that there wasn't a clash in research, he downloaded several interesting theses on arXiv into a folder.

This process took a long time. By the time he was finished, it was already 10 o'clock at night.

Liu Bo stretched. He then stood up from his chair and walked over to Qian Zhongming's desk. Looking at his computer screen curiously, Liu Bo asked, "Oh, why are you watching the morning news?"

"It's the National Science and Technology Award Conference," Qian Zhongming said as he looked at Liu Bo. He then clicked on the computer, making the broadcast fullscreen, before he added, "It's the CCTV live broadcast, not the news."

Liu Bo suddenly remembered something and asked, "Award conference? Oh yeah, isn't Lu Zhou there?"

"No sh*t, did you just realize? He's been back in Beijing for nearly two weeks now."

The national anthem began to play on the screen.

The camera panned away from the big names and gave the audience a bird's eye view of the venue.

Liu Bo was jealous of all of the nutty people at the venue.

"What award do you think God Lu can get?"

Qian Zhongming stared at the computer screen and didn't answer the question.

He didn't know how to answer the question.

While these two were talking about this question, in an office of the Computational Materials department, someone else was giving their own opinion…

"… First-level prize is difficult, second-level prize is possible."

Academician Lu was sitting on the sofa while he watched the television. He had his legs crossed and was smoking a cigarette.

Academician Xu smiled and said, "Just the Goldbach's conjecture alone isn't worthy of a first-level prize?"

"It's not about wort; it's about if it's appropriate."

Academician Lu lit another cigarette. He then smiled and said, "The State Natural Science Award is more focused on physics than mathematics. After all, the award organizer isn't an academic institution. They would consider more than just academic achievements.

"If his achievements were made while working in a domestic research institute, then his chances of winning would be higher. If he had a decade or two of working in domestic research institutes, then he would definitely win the first-level prize."

Lu Zhou was Academician Lu's best master's student ever.

Talent aside, the more important thing was the effort and courage to explore.

He would remember that CERN report for many years to come.

Academician Lu had asked himself; if he were in Lu Zhou's position as an intern, would he have the courage to stand on the report stage and challenge the entire physics community.

In Academician Lu's opinion, it didn't matter if the kid won the first-level prize.

Because Lu Zhou had infinite potential; the medal was just a piece of evidence of that.

Academician Xu remarked, "What a shame."

Academician Lu smiled. "It's good. After all, the kid still has a long way to go. He'll only be forty by the time you and I go six feet under. If he doesn't win it this year, he'll definitely win it before he hits thirty."

Academician Xu smiled as he said, "You old f*ck! Are you saying I'll be dead in twenty years as well?"

Academician Lu noticed that his statement was somewhat wrong. He coughed and tapped the cigarette on the ashtray before he said, "It's just a metaphor, we can easily live another forty years… Okay, stop screwing around, it's about to start."

It was exactly ten o'clock.

Once the national anthem ended, the venue was dead silent. The annual Science and Technology Award Conference had finally officially begun.

The scholars in the crowd were all from top research backgrounds that ranged from everything from natural sciences to engineering and technology. Everyone was quietly listening to the spokesman's speech on stage.

After a while, the most important part of the conference finally began— the awards ceremony.

By convention, the list of winners was announced first.

The first award was the 2017 Highest Science and Technology Award.

The winners were Academician Wang from the Jinling University of Technology, and Academician Hou from the Chinese Academy of Epidemic Prevention and Control Center.

The former was a leader in the field of military explosives and had made great contributions to the national military industry. The latter was the main founder of Chinese molecular virology, modern medical biotechnology, and various modern infectious disease prevention and control systems.

After the two names of the winners were announced, the scholars in the crowd gave them a warm round of applause.

After the Highest Science and Technology Award was the State Natural Science Award.

Compared to the Highest Science and Technology Award, which was a type of "lifetime award", the Natural Science Award was aimed toward those that had made significant contributions to fundamental applied research.

The Highest Science and Technology award was divided into two levels. The first-level award was awarded to those that had made the most outstanding research results for the country.

Last year, the person who received this honor was the leader of the "Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Oscillation Experiment" which was led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The discovery was sensational and affected the entire international theoretical physics community.

The project alone was worthy of the glorious award!

The venue was exceptionally quiet; everyone was waiting for the announcement of the winners.

"Agricultural production is an essential part of the national economy. Only by consuming nutritious food can we build a better future. The molecular catalyst and design of the 'high-yield high-quality rice traits' led by the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences achieved a breakthrough in rice production…

"The first-level award winner is Academician Li Jiayang!"

The crowd erupted in applause the second the name was announced.

Wang Haifeng, who was sitting in the crowd, clapped his hands enthusiastically.

He didn't care who won, as long as it wasn't that kid Lu Zhou!

The announcement of the second winner was also made, and the winner was Academician Tao Benzhong, who was awarded for his "aggregation-induced luminescence technology" project.

When Professor Wang heard the second name, he smirked as the knot in his heart was finally untied.

Normally speaking, there were more than 40 second-level State Natural Science Award winners, but there were very few first-level winners.

For example, there hadn't been a first-level winner from 2010 until 2012.

The last time a first-level prize was awarded twice in succession was back in 2006.

As for three first-level winners…

The last time that happened was in the '80s.

After the applause ended, Wang Haifeng picked up the vacuum flask on his desk and sipped on some hot water.

He really wanted to see what Lu Zhou's reaction was.

However…

Just when everyone thought that the first-level prize for the natural science field was finished, another announcement was made…

"The Goldbach's conjecture is a crown jewel of the number theory building, and the Chinese number theory community left a splendid proof on this proposition…"

Wang Haifeng froze.

His heart was instantly shattered.

It was like he was turned into stone as he sat in his chair and muttered to himself, "How is this possible…"

There are three first-level prizes this year!

This is impossible!

Wang Haifeng wasn't the only one stunned.

The people that wanted Lu Zhou to win the first-level prize, the people that didn't, even the people that didn't care…

Everyone froze for two seconds.

Everyone was in shock.

However, the announcement continued in spite of the emotional fluctuations in the crowd.

"… The Goldbach-Lu theorem is a monument of the human mind and spirit. It is a gift from China to the people of the world…"

The spokesperson paused for a second.

Then, he spoke in a solemn voice.

"The third award winner is…

"Lu Zhou!"

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Chapter 397: Top of The Top

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

"The third award winner is…

"Lu Zhou!"

The spokesman announcement was still playing back in Academician Lu's head; his cigarette butt was in the ashtray, extinguished long ago.

The awards ceremony continued.

The TV was broadcasting the awards presentation.

Lu Zhou walked on the podium wearing a suit, and he received a bright red certificate from an old man.

Academician Lu stared at the TV screen for a while before he said with an emotional tone, "… This year's higher-ups are ballsy."

Academician Xu was also staring at the bright red certificate on the TV screen. He was happy to see his own student succeed, but he felt hesitant all of a sudden.

"Do you think this is good for bad?"

"This is good!" Academician Lu lit up another cigarette and said, "This is the first-level State Natural Science Award, how can it not be good? I wish I could swap my academician title for his award."

Academicians were common, but scientific breakthroughs weren't. Scientific results that were widely recognized were even less common.

It was like the tens of thousands of theoretical physicists and engineers working at CERN. Everyone played a pivotal role, but not everyone's work was recognized. Only a few would win the Nobel Prize.

Academician Lu had made a lot of achievements during his lifetime, but none of them were as outstanding as a first-level State Natural Science Award.

By contrast, the Highest Science and Technology Award would be better suited for him.

Of course, he was only joking.

He couldn't just swap a title for an award.

Academician Xu saw that Academician Lu had misunderstood him, and he shook his head as he said, "I meant that receiving this award at this age is unforgettable. He's still young. To receive this kind of attention now might not be a good thing."

Academician Xu's worries weren't unreasonable; this kind of thing had happened in the academic community before.

Although Jin Ling University was a strong university, due to various reasons, Jin Ling University's domestic influence wasn't top-notch. Therefore, he couldn't give much support to Lu Zhou.

"The thing you said can't be avoided. Even if he didn't win the State Natural Science Award, people might still be jealous of him. How many Crafoord Prize or Nobel Prize winners are there in China? It would be strange if Lu Zhou wasn't getting this kind of attention!"

Academician Lu smiled and looked outside the window. He then said, "If people are envious of him, how will that affect him?"

When Academician Xu heard this, he froze.

Suddenly, he smiled.

"You're right."

Outstanding people were always attacked.

Academia advanced through discussion and debates, and discussions were bound to produce arguments. Some people could handle the arguments, while others couldn't. This was inevitable.

Because of this, the more excellent one was, the more they should study the Doctrine of the Mean.

However, this law only applied to average people.

If someone was able to rise and defeat everyone else, why should they care about criticism or jealousy?

If this was true, then Academician Xu was overthinking it…

…

Someone screamed inside the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials.

"Nutty! First-level State Natural Science Award!"

Liu Bo's exclaim attracted the attention of the other researchers in the office. Many people stopped their work and came over.

When they saw the awards on the screen, they were just as shocked as Liu Bo.

"This is… our boss?"

"He is really a god…"

"First-level State Natural Science Award? There aren't many of them at Jin Ling University, right?"

"How many do you think there is? One is already impressive, okay? I remember that the last time someone won this, it was in 2006. Academician Min from our physics department won the prize and was awarded the academician title the following year!"

"Then, do you think our boss can become an academician?"

"I don't know, an academician might need to have experience working domestically. I heard the competition is fierce, but if God Lu wants it, it shouldn't be difficult…"

Qian Zhongming was staring at the screen the entire time, and he was quite surprised.

"This… is the highest domestic honor, right?"

Only the Highest Science and Technology Award was more prestigious than this.

However, although it was called the "highest" science and technology award, it was still a lifetime achievement award. This meant the award didn't focus on only one specific research result. Rather, the committee would look at a lifetime of contributions.

This also meant that the award was only given to older people.

It would be difficult to compare its value to the State Natural Science Award.

The former was more respectable, while the latter was more academically valuable.

For Lu Zhou's age, this was the highest domestic honor he could hope for!

Qian Zhongming wasn't the only one that was aware of this.

Right now, Lu Zhou was standing on the stage.

Back when he was sitting under the stage, even when he heard his name, he remained calm and collected.

But standing here now, at the center of attention, Lu Zhou suddenly felt like time had slowed down.

He accepted the heavy red certificate from the old man, and he could feel his own heartbeat.

Lu Zhou received the certificate and shook hands with the old man.

When he released his hand, the old man smiled at him.

"Nervous?"

Lu Zhou nodded and answered truthfully.

"A bit."

"Young man, the pressure is good; it is motivation!" the old man said as he patted Lu Zhou's shoulder and nodded his head. He then said, "Nicely done!"

Lu Zhou said, "Thank you."

Perhaps it was because the old man highly regarded Lu Zhou, and so, he added the extra compliment.

Lu Zhou could sense the various emotions of those around him.

Jealousy?

A bit.

Respect?

A bit as well.

Sincerity?

I don't know…

Lu Zhou felt the gaze of everyone in the crowd as they stared at him, and suddenly, he felt as if the red certificate had increased in weight.

Part of which was the force from gravity…

The other part was the responsibility that came with the certificate.

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The next day, various news outlets reported on the award ceremony.

[Famous scholar, Lu Zhou, won the first level State Natural Science Award!]

[The youngest first level State Natural Science Award!]

[Shocked, this year's first level State Natural Science Award was given to three people! One of whom is only 24 years old!]

[The highest honor in China academia, the first level prize State Natural Science Award that you didn't know about.]

[…..]

Just like the Crafoord Prize, Lu Zhou received an enormous amount of attention for the State Natural Science Award.

Whether the media was trying to create a public image or hype Lu Zhou up for content, Lu Zhou's name as plastered over the news.

Other than Lu Zhou's achievements, people were also talking about Lu Zhou's age.

Most people thought that Lu Zhou deserved the award and that the award committee made the correct decision.

Of course, there were some people who disagreed.

Some people thought that this decision was sloppy. After all, it was ridiculous to award a person under forty a State Natural Science Award.

This discussion wasn't happening only on the internet; it was also happening in various universities.

At the cafeteria of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Two researchers who had just received their PhD were eating lunch while discussing the sensational academia news.

"Did you hear? This year three first-level State Natural Science Awards were given."

The researcher in glasses said with emotion, "I heard that this was the first time this has happened since the '80s, and I'm guessing that the award committee made a difficult decision. There were no winners in the past few years, and three this year. There are so many nutty people."

The chubby researcher raised his eyebrows and looked at him.

"You think this is a good thing?"

"Why is it not a good thing? The strength of our country's science and technology is getting stronger and stronger, and it's becoming more and more influential in the international academic community, how is this a bad thing?"

The chubby researcher asked, "But isn't he a Princeton professor? Does he count as one of us?"

The researcher, who was wearing a pair of glasses, put a slice of meat in his bowl and shook his head.

"The rules of the first-level State Natural Science Award are clear. The award winner has to be a Chinese citizen. The award criteria are major achievements. He has never given up his Chinese citizenship, so why shouldn't he be able to win this award? Deligne was working at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study when he was knighted by the King of Belgium. You're only seeing the surface and not the essence!"

The chubby researcher asked, "How do you know he will return to China later?"

The researcher in glasses was amused.

"Let me put it this way. With his abilities, as long as he wants, he can become a citizen in any country in the world. But he still has his Chinese citizenship, and he's still holding a Chinese passport. This proves his loyalty. Compare this to the professor that received the academician title and left the country…

"His glory is the nation's glory, his brilliance is Chinese academia's glory. Spend your time doing something else rather than picking a bone with him."

The chubby researcher frowned and said, "But his age…"

The researcher with glasses said, "What about his age? This is good for us young people! The State is saying that as long as you are good enough, age is not an issue. What is wrong with you?"

The chubby researcher smiled and didn't say anything.

Your words seem right…

But the problem is that we're not good enough.

Am I not supposed to be envious?

…

There were still photoshoots after the award; the ceremony ended at night.

The state's dinner would be held the following evening.

This was different than the Stockholm party as this dinner was classier and more ceremonious.

Also, this was the first time Lu Zhou had truly seen an extravagant party.

There were various cuisines, each of which were divided into different categories. Each dish had its own characteristics, and the only unfortunate thing was that Lu Zhou couldn't taste all of the dishes.

As the winner of the first level State Natural Science Award, it was inevitable that he received a huge amount of attention.

Lu Zhou responded politely to all of the scholars that tried to talk with him.

Other than the normal scholars that tried to talk to him, the other two State Natural Science Award winners, Academician Li and Academician Tang, also conversed with Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou didn't know much about agriculture, so he only exchanged a few words with Academician Li before they wished each other the best on their science journey.

Academician Tang's research direction was polymers, and he had much to talk about with Lu Zhou…

"Professor Lu, what have you been researching lately?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Do you mean the materials science side or the mathematics side?"

Tang Benzhong was surprised, and he said, "Researching mathematics and materials science at the same time?"

Normally speaking, researching in two different directions was extraordinary. Researching in two different fields was unheard of.

When Lu Zhou saw Academician Tang's look of astonishment, he smiled and said, "Not both at the same time. The materials side is mainly done by my research team at Silicon Valley and Jinling and also by cooperating with the research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The theses have already been submitted to Nature. As for the specific content, I'm afraid I can't disclose it before publication. I can only say that it's related to superconducting materials."

Academician Tang smiled and said, "Superconducting materials? I'll be looking forward to the next issue of Nature then!"

…

After the state's dinner ended, Lu Zhou climbed into a Mercedes.

Driver Wang Peng started the car and skillfully drove out of the parking lot.

Lu Zhou felt the cold wind blowing on him through the window. He felt like he wasn't as drunk anymore.

He then asked Wang Peng, "Have you eaten yet?"

Wang Peng said, "Not yet, I plan on eating in a bit."

Lu Zhou said, "Oh yeah, can I ask you something?"

Wang Peng said, "Go ahead."

Lu Zhou asked, "When do I have to leave the hotel?"

Wang Peng, who was holding the steering wheel, smiled and said, "Professor Lu, you can stay there for as long as you want."

"I can't do that, that'll cause too much trouble for you guys," Lu Zhou shook his head and said. He then added, "Check out once I head off to Jinling."

Wang Peng: "…"

Actually, there was no such thing as checking out the room.

Because that hotel wasn't open to outsiders; only important national guests or special military personnel could live there.

Even money couldn't buy one a spot at the hotel.

After Lu Zhou went back to the hotel, he hung his clothes on the hangers before he went to take a shower. Once he dried his hair, he then lay down on the bed.

When the state's dinner ended, it also meant that his work in Beijing was completed.

Also, because of his first level State Natural Science Award, his system mission was completed. Originally, he planned on receiving the mission rewards yesterday, but he was too busy.

He couldn't procrastinate any longer.

Lu Zhou went into the pure white system space and walked in front of the translucent information screen. He then walked up and read the text in the center of the screen.

[Congratulations, User, for completing the reward mission!]

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Chapter 399: Fruit Flavored "Garbage"?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

[Congratulations, User, for completing the reward mission!

[Mission completion details are as follows: Win the first level State Natural Science Award.

[Mission evaluation: None (reward missions have no evaluation)

[Reward: 100,000 free experience points. One lucky draw ticket. (???)]

Lu Zhou looked at his characteristic panel and thought for a bit. He tapped the information screen and spent all of his experience points on mathematics.

A blue light swept across the screen.

Lu Zhou's characteristic panel was soon updated.

[

A. Mathematics: Level 6 (244,000/600,000)

B. Physics: Level 4 (33,215/200,000)

C. Biochemistry: Level 3 (24,000/100,000)

D. Engineering: Level 2 (0/50,000)

E. Materials science: Level 4 (13,000/200,000)

F. Energy science: Level 2 (0/50,000)

G. Information science: Level 1 (3,000/10,000)

General points: 3,475 (one lucky draw ticket)

]

100,000 experience points made quite a dent in the 600,000 experience points requirement.

However, Lu Zhou still had a long way to go from Level 6 to Level 7.

Although spending the 100,000 experience points on engineering or energy science would increase their levels, these subjects were useless for Lu Zhou, at least for now.

Also, the more research Lu Zhou did, the more important mathematics was.

If he ignored mathematics because of the level up requirement, then he would never level up.

Lu Zhou finished the experience allocation, and it was time for the exciting prize draw.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and prayed in his heart. He then pressed the lucky draw button.

The wheel began to spin, and not long after, Lu Zhou pressed stop.

The inertia of the wheel caused it to spin a couple more turns.

Lu Zhou stared at the wheel pointer and felt like something big was about to happen.

He squeezed his fists as he stared at the screen.

Soon after, a line of text appeared on the screen…

[Congratulations, User, you have won the "Garbage" prize.]

Lu Zhou: ? ? ?

[Received: Nutrition Juice.]

Lu Zhou: "…"

Oh well, a lottery is a lottery.

Lu Zhou never expected to get rich from this thing.

Speaking of which, he hadn't gotten any garbage in a while.

This was probably a result of the accumulation of his bad luck.

Lu Zhou closed the lucky draw panel and immediately opened the mission panel.

[Mission 1: Resistance

Description: Advanced superconducting technology is crucial for both the controlled nuclear fusion and the Hadron Collider. Therefore, material constraints are not only constraining the frontier of civilization but also the frontiers of civilizational imagination!

Requirements: Discover a carbon nanomaterial that is superconducting at temperatures over 100 Kelvin.

Rewards: 100,000 materials science experience. 50,000 biochemistry experience. 500 general points. One lucky draw ticket.]

]

[Mission 2: Unpredictable fluids

Description: The Navier-Stokes equation refers to a motion equation that describes the conservation of momentum in a viscous incompressible fluid. Whether there is a smooth solution to the three dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equation is one of the great mathematical problems of the 21st century.

Requirements: Give a logically self-consistent answer to the existence and smoothness of the Navier-Stokes equation.

Rewards: 1-??? experience points. 500 general points. One lucky draw ticket.

]

[Mission 3: Wake up, loners have no future.

Description: This is a gift for loners, don't miss it!

Requirements: Unlimited time to complete the mission. Find a willing spouse and excrete your DNA into her. (Friends with benefits, prostitutes are invalid.)

Rewards: (amount of days single * 10) experience points. 500 General points. Physical strengthening medicine. (7 bottles, 8 hours effect).

]

Lu Zhou: "…"

F*ck sake!

What's wrong with being single?

Who cares if I'm single?

Lu Zhou felt a sense of maliciousness from the system missions.

Assuming that he had been single for 34 years, that was only 8,760 days, which was less than 90,000 experience points.

The other rewards were also unattractive to him.

Lu Zhou ignored Mission 3 and focused on Missions 1 and 2.

He could tell from the description of the system mission that Mission 1 was special.

This mission was difficult, but it wasn't impossible.

Therefore, the system thought that it was possible to have a superconducting carbon nanomaterial at normal temperatures.

Also, this feasibility was based on his Level 4 materials science and Level 3 biochemistry.

Lu Zhou's eyes lit up; he was interested.

As a researcher, being able to confirm the correctness of a research idea was a valuable skill.

But of course, although Lu Zhou was interested in the potential of Mission 1, after some careful consideration, Lu Zhou still chose Mission 2.

First of all, the Navier–Stokes equation was his focus. Second, this was a good opportunity for him to level up his mathematics.

Compared to Goldbach's conjecture, the "existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution" was more valuable, which was why it was listed as one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems. The influence of the Navier–Stokes equation had far surpassed the partial differential field and spread to other areas of mathematics.

Therefore, the experience points gained from solving the Navier–Stokes equation would be undoubtedly higher than Goldbach's conjecture!

But of course, studying superconducting materials was also important. Lu Zhou wouldn't easily forget such an important clue that was revealed by the system.

Although he didn't have time to participate in the superconducting materials project, the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials could carry out the project on his behalf…

…

Once Lu Zhou selected Mission 2, he left the system space.

He then sat on his bed as he looked at the silver bag in his hands.

He originally thought that the nutrition juice would be some kind of powerful thing, and he didn't expect the packaging to be so low-key. It looked like Jell-o from the supermarket.

There was no product information or anything on the packaging.

Lu Zhou unscrewed the bottle cap and took a sip.

Emm…

Fruity flavor?

The taste was quite good, so Lu Zhou drank the whole bottle at once.

What surprised him the most was that his hunger was instantly gone.

This really came from an advanced civilization.

Even eating is so efficient.

Lu Zhou thought about it for a moment before he formed his own opinions.

This thing can be conveniently transported and used in space stations.

But I'd go crazy if I had to eat this long term…

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The morning three days after the conference.

An office inside the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China. A middle-aged man with glasses sat at his desk reading Everyone Daily.

Suddenly, he heard a knock from behind his door.

The man put the newspaper in his hand down before he said, "Come in."

The door opened, and Chen Baohua walked in.

"Hey, did you look for me?"

Although He Nian was ranked higher than Chen Boahua, the two were close friends and didn't call each other by their formal titles.

Although they were both in the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China, they were in separate divisions of the department. Therefore, they spoke casually to each other.

However, there was something unusual about this encounter.

Old He was abnormally warm this morning.

Chen Baohua was confused when He Nian smiled and made a hand gesture.

"Old Chen, I didn't expect you to come so soon. Please sit down, let's talk."

"Oh, are you trying to persuade me about something?" Old Chen sat down on the sofa and said, "Just give it to me straight, I'll do what I can."

"What do you mean persuading? Old Chen, you're funny…" He Nian smiled awkwardly and said, "I just want to ask you about something."

"What's up?"

"That day at the airport, the girl that came off the flight with Professor Lu is your daughter?"

Chen Baohua frowned and didn't look like he wanted to answer the question, but he still gave a short reply.

"Yeah."

When He Nian heard this answer, he seemed interested.

"Then… What's their relationship?"

"I don't know," Chen Baohua shook his head and said, "I don't know about her friends."

"Old Chen, as your old friend, I have to criticize you!" He Nian looked serious as he said, "She's your daughter, how can you not care about this?"

"She's my daughter, why do you care?" Chen Baohua looked at him and said, "She's not young anymore, why do I need to care? Cut the sh*t, what do you have to say? Stop wasting my time."

When He Nian saw that Chen Baohua didn't take the bait, he smiled.

"Then… I'll cut to the chase."

Chen Baohua said, "Yeah."

He Nian said, "Your daughter isn't young anymore, have you thought about… finding a son-in-law?"

Chen Baohua's eyebrows raised and he furiously stood up from the sofa.

"Your degenerate of a son is already thirty years old, don't even think about taking my daughter!"

He Nian quickly said, "Old Chen, don't get angry, I'm not talking about my son. I don't care what my degenerate of a son does! I'm talking about… Lu Zhou, you know."

Chen Baohua calmed down a little as he stared at He Nian.

"… I know, why?"

"The higher-ups think that he's important, and therefore, our department did some research on him."

Old Chen said, "Yeah, and?"

He Nian paused for a second before he said, "You might know that this Professor Lu… has never dated before."

Chen Baohua said, "Oh, maybe he's too busy doing research and doesn't have the time to date."

He Nian said, "He still has to marry and have a family eventually!"

Chen Baohua smiled and said, "Ha, what if he likes guys?"

Hearing his friend's response, He Nian nearly spat the tea out of his mouth. He then slammed his vacuum flask on the table and said, "Then, we'll have to find a way to straighten him!"

Chen Baohua said, "Forget about it. If he doesn't want anyone, why are you forcing a wife on him?"

"Ah, I don't mean it like that," He Nian smiled and said, "but that's sort of what I mean!"

He Nian saw that Chen Baohua didn't say anything, so he continued, "Think about it, he's a lonely man, and at most, he cares only about his parents. But does that even matter? My degenerate of a son never visits me; he barely even calls me. Do you think this is reliable? It's not reliable at all!

"Eventually, he won't be able to withstand the temptation. I'm worried about him having a foreign family in a foreign country. Not only will this be a mistake for our department, but this will also be a mistake for the country!"

The introduction of overseas talent was one of the Organization Department's duties. This was mainly handled by the division of the Ministry of Talent.

The introduction of high-level talents was often done by higher authorities themselves, which meant their tactics were often more creative.

For example, researching overseas talents' relatives in China, manipulating emotions, offering research funding, etc. These were some of the basic tactics.

Other than these basic tactics, there was also the "partner matching" technique, which was one of China's specialties.

It'd be great if they could find Lu Zhou a partner.

However, Chen Baohua didn't like what he was hearing.

He couldn't help but fight back.

"Why are you sending my daughter? Why don't you send your daughter?"

He Nian was helpless, and he said, "I want a daughter, but it's too late to have one now!"

He didn't sound like he was joking.

If Lu Zhou fancied his non-existent daughter, he'd immediately vacate his mansion in Beijing so that the newly-wed couple could move in.

After all, it would be a worthy sacrifice.

Chen Baohua snorted and said, "Put your money where your mouth is. I'm telling you, don't even think about it! I, Chen Baohua, will not sell my daughter."

"Old Chen, that's not the way to think about it. What do you mean by selling your daughter…" He Nian quickly stood up from his chair and said, "They are both single and around the same age. Professor Lu is a brilliant human being. Do you really think your daughter is being sold?"

Chen Baohua looked at his old friend and said, "You're manipulating his life. Have you ever thought about it from his perspective? What if this thing turns south?"

He Nian frowned and thought for a bit. Chen Baohua did make sense.

The times had changed, and it was all about individuality and freedom now.

If Lu Zhou ended up resenting the marriage and chose to never come back to China, then it would be horrible…

Chen Baohua saw that He Nian didn't speak, so he said, "You can't force love. If they click, then what happens happens. If they don't, then nothing will happen no matter how hard we try. I want to let her find her own happiness. I don't want her to marry someone just for the sake of it."

He Nian looked at Chen Baohua.

"Old Chen."

Chen Baohua: "What?"

He Nian asked, "Are you and your wife… unhappy?"

Chen Baohua replied instantly, "F*ck off!"

…

"Achoo!"

The sneeze shook the ground and earth.

"… Is someone talking about me behind my back."

Lu Zhou rubbed his nose as he walked out of Jinling International Airport.

He had bought the return plane ticket to Jinling long ago.

Lu Zhou spent the day after the state's dinner resting in the hotel. The next day, he woke up at 5 a.m. to take a plane to Jinling.

This time, he didn't tell anyone he was coming back. He didn't even post it on his friends' news feed.

The main reason was that he didn't want to trouble other people.

When Lu Zhou arrived at the airport and was about to take a taxi to Jin University, suddenly, he saw someone he recognized.

Lu Zhou was stunned, and he walked over to confirm that he wasn't mistaken.

Standing outside the airport was none other than Wang Peng.

The car behind him was the same car that Lu Zhou used in Beijing.

Lu Zhou asked, "Why… are you here?"

Wang Peng said, "Beijing to Jinling is only a 12-hour drive. I left yesterday morning and arrived last night."

Lu Zhou looked at him and was speechless.

"… You must be tired."

Wang Peng smiled heartily.

"Not tired, I'm happy to serve the people!"

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Chapter 401: Balance In The Heart

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Once Lu Zhou got in the car, Wang Peng drove him to Xianlin University City.

When they drove past the school gate, Lu Zhou suddenly noticed a banner on the school gate.

[Congratulations to honorary professor Lu Zhou for winning the first-level State Natural Science Award!]

Lu Zhou looked at the white text on the red banner and felt nostalgic.

Speaking of which, how many times had his name been on a banner?

He remembered that the first time was because of the Higher Education Society Cup where he competed in the mathematical modeling competition.

Wang Peng also noticed the banner and said, "This is your school, right?"

Lu Zhou said, "Yeah."

Wang Peng saw Lu Zhou's nostalgic expression and asked, "Professor Lu, do you plan on returning to Jinling?"

"That's right," Lu Zhou said. He then continued, "Education resources in Suzhou are pretty good, plus I have a soft spot for this place. With my experience at Princeton, I plan on building an Institute for Advanced Study at this place. I want it to be the best institute in Asia."

Lu Zhou was obviously bragging.

He wasn't sure if he could do it.

However, Lu Zhou didn't expect Wang Peng to believe him.

Anyone else saying this would have been considered to be bullsh*tting.

But this was Lu Zhou…

Wang Peng couldn't help but believe it!

After a while, Wang Peng finally spoke.

"… Professor Lu is an ambitious person, I admire you!"

"Haha," Lu Zhou smiled and said, "don't take it seriously, I was just saying."

Academia was one thing, education was another.

Old Qiu tried for many years to recreate a Harvard-like mathematics department at Shuimu University, while Lu Zhou's Institute of Computational Materials was still in its early stages. It would take a while for him to see the results.

Wang Peng didn't say anything, but he quietly memorized Lu Zhou's words. He planned on reporting back to the higher-ups.

If Lu Zhou could stay in China…

It undoubtedly would be a good thing for the country.

The car stopped at the laboratory building, and Lu Zhou got off. He looked back at Wang Peng.

"I might stay here for a few hours, why don't you go hang around for a bit?"

Wang Peng said, "Hang around?"

Lu Zhou said, "I mean, find a way to kill some time."

Wang Peng smiled. "No need, I can just wait in the car."

Seeing that Wang Peng was willing to wait in the car, Lu Zhou didn't say anything else.

Lu Zhou took out a box of tea from the car trunk and walked toward the laboratory building.

Now that the exams were over, the students on campus had gone home. The entire laboratory building was deserted, and it seemed like no one was there.

Lu Zhou walked up to the familiar office and knocked.

A voice came from inside the office.

"Come in."

Lu Zhou pushed the door and walked in.

When Tang Zhiwei saw Lu Zhou, a smile appeared on his face.

"Didn't I tell you last time, that if you want to see me, just come. To bring gifts is too tacky."

"I'd rather feel tacky than come empty-handed," Lu Zhou said with a smile. He then placed the tea on the table before he said, "Cigarettes and alcohol are unhealthy. I couldn't think of anything else to bring, so I brought some tea."

Old Tang shook his head and looked at his graduate student.

"Xiao Wang, go boil some water and make some tea."

"Okay!"

Xiao Wang, who was sitting at the other side of the office, stood up and walked toward the office cabinet.

The water in the electric kettle started to boil.

Xiao Wang then placed the tea set and electric kettle on the coffee table.

Lu Zhou looked at Xiao Wang and couldn't help but say, "Brother Wang, you still haven't graduated?"

Xiao wang was embarrassed as he smiled and spoke.

"I'm graduating this year… I've already received an offer from Shuimu, and I plan on going there in May."

"PhD?"

"Yeah."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Congratulations."

Xiao Wang was happy when Lu Zhou congratulated him. However, he couldn't help but feel a little depressed.

Xiao Wang stared at the steam coming out of the kettle and sighed before he said, "Ah, not as good as you. When I was studying my master's, you were an undergrad. Now that I'm about to finish my master's, you're already a professor at Princeton."

Lu Zhou didn't know how he should comfort Xiao Wang.

Receiving an offer from Shuimu University was already extremely impressive.

At least, it was better than 99% of people.

Lu Zhou didn't understand why Xiao Wang seemed down.

The teacups were filled, and the office was soon filled with the fragrance of the tea.

Old Tang took a sip and said, "This is nice tea, where did you get it?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "I got it from the hotel at the conference. I don't think it's branded."

The story of this tea was interesting.

Lu Zhou thought that the tea in the hotel tasted nice, so he asked the manager of the hotel about the tea.

However, the manager didn't tell him where the tea came from. Instead, he immediately sent a few boxes of tea to Lu Zhou's room. Lu Zhou originally wanted to buy the tea, but the manager wouldn't accept his money. The manager only said the tea was unlicensed and couldn't be bought with money.

Therefore, Lu Zhou accepted the tea without paying for it.

There was no way Lu Zhou could finish all of the tea. Therefore, he decided to bring it back to Jinling and give it to others.

Especially his dad.

Lu Zhou remembered that his father told him that his biggest joy in life was drinking tea while fishing.

Old Tang shook his head and said, "Then I won't ask about it. Even if you told me, I wouldn't know anything about the tea."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "If you like it, I can bring more to you next time."

Old Tang stared at Lu Zhou for a while before he suddenly said, "Before this, I knew that your future will be extraordinary, but I didn't expect your ability to exceed my expectations. Back then, I could still talk about mathematics with you, but now, it seems that you are my teacher."

"No way," Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I'm still using the applied mathematics knowledge that you taught me."

Old Tang didn't only teach Lu Zhou mathematics; he taught him more than that.

Before Lu Zhou went to the Princeton conference, he was a no-name in the academic world. What made him famous among the academic community was the Princeton report.

And Professor Tang Zhiwei was the one that told him to attend the report.

Good professors were rare in this world.

Lu Zhou was grateful to have met Old Tang.

No matter where he was in life, Lu Zhou would never forget the people that have helped him.

"Okay, stop embarrassing me…" Old Tang waved his hand and said, "I'm well aware of my strength and level."

Old Tang paused for a second before he continued, "You're not a little kid anymore, you're a national level genius. I can't teach you anything academically related anymore. However, I can teach you something a little outside of it… But I don't know if you want to listen."

Lu Zhou put on a serious face and said, "Professor, please go ahead."

Old Tang didn't look at Lu Zhou. Instead, he looked at Xiao Wang.

He then said slowly, "The first level Natural Science Prize is the highest state-recognized honor. With that red certificate, you can do what most scientific researchers dream of.

"No one else has more say than you in your field. No one will constrain you as long as you don't break the rules. But you also have to remember, honor is a double-edged sword. Be careful when using it.

"If you want to climb to a higher academic level, you have to have a balance in your heart. Know what is worthwhile and what is not."

Xiao Wang was being stared at by Old Tang, and he couldn't help but complain in his mind.

F*ck sake!

I would never have to worry about these things.

Don't even think about the state award, I can't even get a provincial award…

However, Lu Zhou, who was sitting across from him, had a thoughtful expression.

He had been pondering about this over the past few days.

"Don't be so serious," Professor Tang said. He then picked up the vacuum flask and took a sip of tea before he said, "Oh yeah, I have to ask you something else."

Lu Zhou looked up and said, "What?"

"How's that Luo Wenxuan kid doing? Has he graduated yet?"

Luo Wenxuan heard Luo Wenxuan's name and couldn't help but smile.

"That guy finally finished his graduation thesis. He'll probably receive a PhD from Professor Witten in a few months."

"Oh really? That's good!" Professor Tang was happy to hear his students doing well. He smiled as he said, "I'm happy to hear that!"

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Chapter 402: You Grew Taller

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Old Tang had been working as a professor for many years. Even though his academic achievements might not be outstanding, but he had taught many talented students. Other than his kids, the people he cared the most about in life were his students.

Lu Zhou left Old Tang's office and pondered about what Old Tang said.

He walked around, and soon, he arrived at Academician Lu's office.

Other than Old Tang, Lu Zhou respected Academician Lu more than anyone else in Jin Ling University.

However, when Lu Zhou arrived, the old man wasn't here. There was only a young master's student with glasses sitting there. The student was painfully reading through research documents.

Lu Zhou remembered someone telling him that Academician Lu didn't take on master's students.

But now it seemed that the old man changed his rules and started training some high potential master's students.

Lu Zhou looked at the student who was working hard before he knocked on the door.

The master's student noticed Lu Zhou and asked, "You're looking for Academician Lu, right? Academician Lu isn't in Jinling these days; you're a step too late."

Lu Zhou asked, "Where did he go?"

Guy with glasses: "He went to Daya Bay for a meeting."

Although this was unfortunate, Lu Zhou had expected something like this to happen.

Normally academicians were very busy, especially ones that did theoretical physics. There were countless conferences around the world for them to attend.

"I see… Then can you tell him that his student came to visit him."

Lu Zhou placed the box of tea on the table.

"Okay, I will tell him, but I can't promise you that Academician Lu will accept your gift."

The master's student looked suspiciously of Lu Zhou. Lu Zhou was stunned by the student's reaction, and he could tell what the student was thinking of.

"It's fine… Just tell him that it's from the student called Lu Zhou; he will be happy to accept it."

Giving gifts during exam time could be misunderstood. The master's student probably thought that Lu Zhou was an undergraduate student.

Lu Zhou turned around and started to walk out of the office.

Suddenly, the guy in glasses yelled.

"Wait a minute!"

Lu Zhou stopped, and he turned around before asking, "What?"

The guy in glasses tried not to sound overly excited, but he still stuttered as he asked, "You, you're really God Lu?"

Lu Zhou said, "… Just call me Lu Zhou."

It was fine when people called him God Lu on Weibo but to call him that in real life…

It was a bit weird.

The guy's eyes lit up.

He quickly opened the drawer and took out a letter. He then walked up to Lu Zhou and said, "Before he left, Academician Lu told me to give you this letter!"

Lu Zhou took the letter and nodded as he said, "Thank you."

"You're welcome…" The guy smiled and scratched his head while he said, "Uh… Can I ask you a favor?"

"What's up?"

"Can you sign something? Just sign here on this book."

Oh, that's it?

Lu Zhou smiled and readily agreed.

He took the textbook from the guy and flipped over to the first page. The guy's name was written on the page.

Song Xuewen

Not bad, good name.

I wonder why Academician Lu accepted him as his student.

Song Xuewen spoke while Lu Zhou was signing the book.

"Um, God Lu…"

Lu Zhou said, "Just call me bro."

"Yes, bro!" Song Xuewen smiled and said, "Then let me ask you something, when you received the first-level State Natural Science Award, what did it feel like?"

Lu Zhou stopped writing and looked at his neatly written signature as he began to think.

After a while, he replied, "Quite nervous."

Song Xuewen thought Lu Zhou would have a long answer.

"That's… it?"

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "That's it."

Song Xuewen: "…"

…

Lu Zhou came out of the laboratory building and wandered around the campus.

He walked around and without knowing it, he was near the Institute of Computational Materials.

He was about to talk toward the research institute when he suddenly heard a voice from behind.

"Teacher?!"

Lu Zhou heard the familiar voice and looked back.

He saw Han Mengqi wearing a white coat, standing ten meters away. She was holding a sample box as she looked at Lu Zhou with surprise.

She had her long black hair tied in a ponytail, and her petite chin was covered in a black scarf. Her tiny nose and small lips perched under her eyes.

The little girl did seem to grow a bit compared to last summer, but she was still petite compared to her sister.

Lu Zhou looked at Meng Qi and asked curiously, "What are you doing here? Are you not going home for the winter?"

Xiao Tong previously had posted a picture of her hanging out with her friends on her friends' news feed.

Han Mengqi looked at Lu Zhou and said, "But my home is in Jinling…"

Oh…

She's right.

Lu Zhou realized that he had asked a stupid question, and he quickly looked away. He then changed the topic of conversation while he looked at the sample box in her hand.

"What is this?"

Han Mengqi said, "This is the material sent from the Carbon Nanomaterials Research Institute. The laboratory teacher told me to get it back."

Lu Zhou nodded and said, "Oh, an experiment sample. I'm going the same way, let's go."

Han Mengqi nodded happily.

The Institute of Computational Materials was nearby.

Along the way, Han Mengqi chatted with Lu Zhou about things that were happening at her school.

Lu Zhou could tell that she had had a very fulfilling year and that she had matured a lot since last year.

They were walking on the stairs when Han Mengqi suddenly called out to Lu Zhou in a sad tone.

"Teacher."

Lu Zhou: "What?"

Mengqi gently pulled her scarf and said, "Um, long time no see…"

Lu Zhou said, "Yeah."

"Do you not have anything to say to me?"

When Lu Zhou heard this question, he suddenly became quiet.

He thought for a moment. Meanwhile, Meng Qi's cheeks had turned bright red, and she couldn't help but think back to a few years ago when he was teaching her mathematics…

Her heart rate increased.

Lu Zhou finally said, "… You've grown taller?"

Han Mengqi: ???

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Chapter 403: Seven Figure Bonus

Han Mengqi didn't know why, but she suddenly had the urge to bite someone.

Talking about her height was fine, but Lu Zhou's questioning tone was infuriating!

If it was anyone other than Lu Zhou…

Meng Qi swore that she'd definitely…

Ahhh, I'm so angry!

Han Mengqi buried her mouth in her scarf and didn't say anything. She gave the sample box to the laboratory teacher and left.

Yang Xu watched Meng Qi walked away before asking Lu Zhou, "Do you guys know each other?"

Lu Zhou didn't know why Han Mengqi's demeanor suddenly changed. "I used to teach her."

Yang Xu suddenly realized what was going on.

However, Lu Zhou didn't know what Yang Xu knew.

"Fine, no more nonsense…" Lu Zhou redirected the conversation and asked, "Tell me how the experiment is going."

Yang Xu: "The experiment was very successful. The two layers of graphene were superimposed. When the corner angel reached 1.1 degrees, and the temperature reached 1.7k, an unconventional superconductivity phenomenon happened. Our research team named this angle the 'Magic Corner'."

Lu Zhou was interested. He raised his eyebrows and said, "Very imaginative name."

"That's right, full of imagination. This research result is like the name, full of imagination," Yang Xu said with a smile. He then added, "Metal superconducting materials are more difficult to adjust; for example, carbon oxide. Carbon nanomaterials, on the other hand, have a higher plasticity which gives us unlimited possibilities."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "It also means unlimited experiments?"

Yang Xu said, "Experiments are always necessary."

"Room temperature" was actually hotter than "high temperature", at least in the field of superconductivity. The latter was only 77K (around -196 Celsius), while the former had to be above 273K.

Not mentioning the high tech laboratories that had 100K superconducting temperatures, the 1.7K temperature was in an even worse position than copper oxide which had a temperature of 35K.

However, it would be ignorant to classify the technology as useless just because it couldn't be commercialized.

It was no exaggeration to say that 99% of the research results were useless.

However, without 99% of the results, there wouldn't be the 1%.

Yang Xu briefly explained the experiment and began to talk about their future plans.

"… Our next goal is to find a way to increase the superconducting temperature of the graphene materials to 77K. Of course, this is a long term goal, it might be difficult to achieve in the short term."

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he said, "A goal of 77K is too conservative; we should set it at 100K."

The system said 100K was achievable, thus it would be a pity not to use this information.

Yang Xu looked helpless.

"Ok, but we have a problem. Whether it is 77K or 100K, if this superconducting material can be created, then this technology will carry limited industrial application prospects… It will generate patents regardless of anyone's interest in the technology."

Yang Xu didn't finish his words, but his meaning was clear.

Collaborative research projects became awkward once patents were involved.

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he asked, "What does Professor Herrero think?"

Yang Xu: "When I was doing my post-doc at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, I heard that Professor Herrero was a person that didn't care about fame or fortune. Looking at his past theses, it is obvious that he rarely competed with students for experiment results. He's happy to train those with great potential."

Lu Zhou asked, "So what you're saying is?"

Yang Xu shrugged and said, "He probably will think that this technology should be used equally by everyone."

Just like in China, there were professors overseas that didn't care about owning patents; they only cared about doing research.

Instead of coming from companies, most of their funding came from a variety of state-funded research funds. As long as the professors' salaries could pay for their living expenses, they didn't care about converting research results to patents.

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he said, "I just think that we are not offering enough. If I'm willing to pay them US$10 million in research funding, I think they might take this problem more seriously."

When Yang Xu heard the US$10 million figure, he was stunned.

Every scholar thirsted for research funding, and US$10 million was an amount that couldn't be rejected.

Even a Nobel Prize winner couldn't easily secure funding of that size.

Yang Xu gulped before he asked, "Is this worth it?"

Even if the 100K temperature superconducting material was created, it wouldn't be worth much money.

After all, superconducting materials had a more limited industry application compared to lithium batteries.

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I don't care if it's worth it. I need this technology, and I need the relevant patents. As for the why, I'll tell you that later. As for now, you don't need to care if it's worth it. You only need to remember that we have to do this thing even if we lose money."

Yang Xu nodded and said, "Okay… What if he doesn't agree?"

Lu Zhou said, "Then offer US$20 million."

Yang Xu: "…"

F*ck sake!

He nearly forgot that his boss was filthy rich.

Lu Zhou paused for a second before he said, "My limit is US$20 million. If he refuses, then we have to find someone else that is willing to cooperate… I'll leave the negotiation to you."

Yang Xu nodded and said seriously, "I will relay your intentions."

Lu Zhou looked at Yang Xu and nodded with satisfaction.

He suddenly remembered something.

"Oh yeah, speaking of money, I said there'd be a year-end bonus."

When Yang Xu heard this, he smiled and said, "Boss, I've been waiting. If you didn't bring it up, I was planning on asking you about it on behalf of the team."

Several researchers in the laboratory all began to listen in to the conversation. After all, they were all curious about their bonuses.

"You guys have been working so hard every day, how could I forget about the bonuses?" Lu Zhou cleared his throat and said, "I'll go to the finance department in a bit and sort out the bonuses. I can promise you that everyone will have a new year full of happy surprises."

Yang Xu smiled as he asked, "Boss, can you tell me what my bonus is? Just give me an estimate?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "What kind of estimate?"

Yang Xu said, "Just tell me how many months of salary the bonus is equivalent to?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "That's too precise. I'll tell you how many figures it is, but you'll have to guess the exact amount."

Yang Xu asked, "How many figures?"

Lu Zhou said, "At least seven figures."

Yang Xu was frozen.

Seven…

Seven figures?

He originally thought that it would be three or four months of salary.

He didn't expect his boss to exceed his expectations.

Lu Zhou smiled and patted Yang Xu's shoulder while he said, "You guys have been working hard this year, keep it up for next year!"

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Chapter 404: Letter From Germany

For scientific researchers, having experiments to do alone was a fortunate thing. However, they still ultimately craved for a higher quality of life.

Lu Zhou didn't want mindless researchers. He wanted a team of researchers that was efficient, experienced, and teamwork-oriented.

While experience could be gained from working on research projects, compensation was what retained talents.

Lu Zhou felt like because he had earned more money than he could ever spend, he might as well give his fellow researchers some welfare.

After all, scientific research couldn't be done by one person. Especially when it came to the creation of the HCS-2 material, his research team was of great help.

Lu Zhou planned to take out 20 million RMB as a bonus for the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials. The compensation for each person would depend on their contribution to the theses.

It wasn't just the Jinling Institute of Computational Materials; Lu Zhou would also take out a few million USD for the Sarrot Laboratory.

Once Lu Zhou left the Institute of Computational Materials, he had dinner with Wang Peng. After that, they found a hotel nearby and booked two rooms.

Lu Zhou finished unpacking his luggage. After that, he turned on his computer and sent Star Sky Technology manager, White Sheridan, an email.

He was about to turn off his computer when he received an email.

The email was from Professor Lazerson in Germany.

[… Dear Professor Lu, I have to tell you a piece of exciting news. Our He3 atom probe technology was successfully deployed on Wendelstein 7-X! The results from the first experiment were quite satisfying, and the He-3 particles emitted under the constrained electromagnetic field successfully pierced through the plasma and successfully hit the target material.

[At first, Keriber had doubts about our equipment as he believed that the high-temperature plasma would produce unpredictable consequences. But it turned out that his worries were redundant!

[We have successfully collected important parameter information such as the plasma temperature, density, etc. This information is more accurate than any information obtained by previous plasma observation techniques. If only you were here in person, you would have experienced the excitement behind what I just described!

[I have attached the relevant data in the email. If you can wrangle the data and find useful things, please contact me. I look forward to you bringing us an even bigger surprise. But if you can't, that's fine as well since we've already made huge progress on our technology.

[Regarding the He3-probe-technology thesis, my suggestion is to submit it during the ITER conference. If you have any suggestions, please reply to me ASAP…]

When Lu Zhou read the email, he smiled.

This worrying research project finally made some progress. The ability to accurately collect information on high-temperature plasma would help drive the progress of the entire international controlled nuclear fusion field.

However, for Lu Zhou, this was only the beginning of the plasma turbulence research project…

[I agree with your proposal.]

The ITER conference was an open exchange meeting that involved plasma physics experts from all over the world. It was equivalent to the CERN of theoretical physics.

There didn't seem to be a better place to submit the thesis than at this conference.

Lu Zhou typed up a reply and pressed "Send". He then reopened the email from Professor Lazerson.

Once he downloaded and unzipped the attached data, he couldn't wait to open the various graphs and pictures.

Half an hour passed by.

Lu Zhou finally finished reading the data in its entirety. He then lay back in his chair and stretched.

Difficult!

Very difficult!

This was a thousand or even ten thousand times more complicated than any previous mathematical model that he had built before. The difficulty increased exponentially.

Even with his Level 6 mathematics and Level 4 physics, he could feel the difficulty.

"Should I use inspiration hours?"

Lu Zhou looked at the computer screen for around five minutes. In the end, he shook his head and gave up the idea.

The system's system inspiration hours couldn't be paused.

The Navier–Stokes equation was a higher priority for Lu Zhou than the plasma turbulence phenomenon problem. He couldn't use his secret weapon on the less important task.

Lu Zhou closed his laptop.

Suddenly, he remembered that he had an unread letter from Academician Lu.

He took out the letter and ripped open the envelope. He then discovered that it wasn't an ordinary letter paper, but rather a folded piece of red square paper.

He unfolded the paper and saw two lines of words.

[Discard fame and fortune, obtain a higher ideal of life.]

Lu Zhou looked at the two lines and smirked.

"Good advice."

Lu Zhou didn't expect the old man to be proficient in both theoretical physics and poetry.

Lu Zhou didn't know anything about poetry.

Even then, the old man was able to charm Lu Zhou with the power of poetry.

"I'll hang this up for Chinese New Year."

It was getting late. Lu Zhou folded the letter and stuffed it back into the envelope. He then pulled out some clean clothes from his suitcase before he went into the bathroom.

…

The next morning at the Institute of Computational Materials.

Although there were still a few weeks until the Chinese New Year, the research institute already had a festive atmosphere.

Because today… was bonus day.

The team had spent a month looking forward to this.

Qian Zhongming looked sluggish, while Liu Bo was excited when he asked, "How much was your bonus?"

It wasn't appropriate to ask about other people's bonuses in the workplace, but they were close friends and there was no rule against it. Not to mention, this was a laboratory where some people were even willing to work for free. Therefore, usual workplace rules didn't apply.

Qian Zhongming looked at his text message quietly as he murmured, "I got 880,000… It's not a mistake, right?"

"F*ck? Eight…'

Liu Bo was shocked by his number; his entire body was frozen.

After a while, he received a text message as well.

He looked at his phone screen as he replied, "I can confidently say that it's not a mistake."

Qian Zhongming then asked, "How much did you get?"

Liu Bo gulped.

"I… got 660,000."

Qian Zhongming: "…"

Liu Hong, who was sitting in the corner of the office, looked at his 100,000 RMB bonus and nearly started to cry.

He had never even seen this much money when he was working for Wang Haifeng.

He could finally rent a better place now.

Yang Xu was undoubtedly the quietest person in the office.

His bonus was undoubtedly the highest.

1.5 million RMB…

His hands started to shake when he saw this figure.

His original plan was to save for two years and buy a house in Jinling, but now, it seemed that he didn't have to wait for two years.

This bonus was too scary!

Especially for the material science field…

Yang Xu remembered what Lu Zhou said to him, and suddenly, he felt like the burden on his shoulder had just become heavier…

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Chapter 405: Long Time Reunion

Lu Zhou had been hanging around Jin Ling University over the past few days.

He'd either visit his old professor friends or study the Navier–Stokes equation in his hotel room.

He had many social events to attend in China. Therefore, he didn't have much time to work on mathematics problems.

But now, he finally had some time to continue focusing on his math problem.

Other than studying the math problem in his hotel room, Lu Zhou would go to the library at Jin Ling University and feel what it was like to be a student.

That feeling gave him a mindset to tackle problems from a different perspective; it often gave him an unexpected inspiration.

A week quickly passed by, and it was soon January 18th.

His friends from Dorm 201 decided to gather together two days before the wedding.

The gathering spot was obviously the fish restaurant.

They ordered a pot of grilled fish and some beer.

The boys began to brag while drinking beers.

"Zhou, let me give you a toast…" Liu Rui tapped glasses with Lu Zhou and said, "I saw you on the news a few days ago, and I bragged to a chick and said we slept together before. She didn't believe me until I showed her a photo. Congratulations on winning another national-level award, also thank you for letting me brag in front of a hot chick."

Lu Zhou nearly choked on the beer. "… You're welcome, next time don't make it sound so weird."

Lu Zhou had to admit that Liu Rui's mentality matured after graduating from Yan University.

If it was before and Liu Rui saw Lu Zhou on the news, he would have turned off the TV.

But now, he could calmly read the news without being bothered by it.

In the beginning, Liu Rui didn't know what Lu Zhou was researching, but now, he didn't even know what prize Lu Zhou was receiving. The difference between the two was becoming bigger and bigger.

Of course, was Liu Riu jealous?

Of course he was!

Lu Zhou said, "Oh yeah, who is your supervisor at Yan University?"

Liu Rui said, "Academician Wang Yuping. I'm studying partial differential equations under him."

"Wang Yuping? He's also studying partial differential equations?"

Lu Zhou didn't expect to know Liu Rui's supervisor.

Liu Rui nodded and said, "That's right, but his research is more applied than pure mathematics. You haven't been studying number theory recently. Are you studying partial differential equations as well?"

Lu Zhou: "You could say so."

Interested, Liu Rui asked, "Oh, what research project?"

Lu Zhou smiled. "Let's not talk about that."

Liu Rui waved his hand and said, "It's fine, my mental health is strong now, just tell me."

Lu Zhou replied, "Navier–Stokes equation."

Liu Rui went silent for a while. He then said, "… The existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution?"

Lu Zhou nodded. "Yes."

Liu Rui: "…"

F*ck sake!

Millennium Prize Problem…

Why is the difference between us so big?

Huang Guangming saw that Liu Rui was feeling down, and so, he quickly said, "Let's talk about something else."

Shi Shang nodded. "Agreed."

The four bros didn't talk about academics for the rest of the night.

After all, they had different development paths in life, and so, they had nothing similar to talk about.

Huang Guangming didn't change much. The only change he had was that he gave a douchey vibe even when he wasn't laughing.

Liu Rui looked more tanned and well-built than before. According to him, that was from playing basketball. When he was an undergrad student, he never played basketball. However, he started playing it after he went to Yan University.

As for Shi Shang, he changed the most among the squad. He went from a boy to a man and looked a lot more mature now.

According to Huang Guangming, Shi Shang could "grow a beard and become a director, put on a pair of glasses and become an insurance broker".

Shi Shang had an eventful year.

His life after graduation didn't go as expected. Rather, it completely deviated from his original plan.

He planned on working to save some money. After that, he wanted to open a little business, and then, to get married and buy a house. By then, Wang Jingya would have finished her master's degree, and they could seal the deal.

However, less than a year after he graduated, something big happened.

The fetus inside of Jingya's body completely changed Shi Shang's plans.

Not only that, but he wasn't able to save up enough money to open a small business in Jinling.

But fortunately, he was able to buy a house in the city.

However, that was with his parent's money…

"… I don't want to say anything else, I just want to say one thing to my bro. If you have a girlfriend, make sure to take safety measures. Don't make the same mistake I did."

Shi Shang lamented to his buddies.

However, Lu Zhou, Huang Guangming, and Liu Rui looked weird.

Huang Guangming was the first to speak.

"Shi Shang."

Shi Shang burped and said, "What?"

Huang Guangming: "Why do I feel like…"

Liu Rui ended it for him. "… You're humble bragging."

Lu Zhou quietly nodded.

Shi Shang rubbed his nose and smiled.

"… What do you mean humble brag… I'm not Lu Zhou, does it look like I would humble brag?"

Huang Guangming: "…"

Liu Rui: "…"

Lu Zhou: ? ? ?

They finished eating dinner at 8 p.m.

There was still a lot of food left but the alcohol was gone.

The three originally planned to get Shi Shang wasted. However, they had Liu Rui with them.

As usual, Liu Rui was the first to get wasted.

Like before, he slammed his head on the table and didn't move.

Huang Guangming and Liu Rui came here in Shi Shang's car, but obviously, no one could drive in this state.

Lu Zhou had to call Wang Peng and ask him to drive Shi Shang to the Purple Mountain Hotel.

Liu Rui and Huang Guangming had been living at the hotel for the few days prior to the wedding.

Before Shi Shang got in the car, he patted Lu Zhou's shoulder.

"The wedding is the day after tomorrow, thank you in advance!"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Don't worry, I won't let you down!"

Shi Shang said, "I'm talking about the best man."

Lu Zhou: "…?"

Of course?

What else could you be talking about…

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Chapter 406: Most Beautiful Day In The Life Of Shi Shang

The day before the wedding, Shi Shang invited the best man and bridesmaids to come out and eat together. It was also for them to become familiar with each other before the wedding.

There were three best men and three bridesmaids. Coincidentally, the bridesmaids were also the bride's university roommates. Although everyone went their own ways after graduation, they all gathered here for the wedding.

A long time ago, when Lu Zhou was still doing his undergrad, Shi Shang arranged a group date between the two dorms.

Although the people in the two dorms weren't close friends, they knew each other's names.

The elegant looking girl with round glasses was called Deng Le, the gorgeous girl with long black hair was Xiao Yunyun, and the girl with short hair was called Qian Hua.

Even after so many years, the girls of Dorm 406 still looked prettier than ever.

"Wow, God Lu is here!" Deng Le stared at Lu Zhou for a while and couldn't believe her eyes. She then said, "Jingya told us you were a best man as well, and we all didn't believe her."

Xiao Yunyun, who was sitting next to her, smiled and said, "Yeah, we didn't expect you to come."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Shi Shang is my good bro, how could I miss his wedding?"

Curious, Deng Le asked, "Oh yeah, God Lu, we always wanted to ask you. What is it like being a Princeton professor?"

Lu Zhou said, "Boring life, hard work."

Xiao Yunyun smiled as she said flirtatiously, "That's because you don't have a girlfriend."

"Maybe!"

Lu Zhou looked away and tried to change the topic of conversation.

In general, the squad had a good time.

Even though there was no alcohol to spice up the atmosphere, the conversation was flowing smoothly.

Other than Qian Hua, because of what happened with Wu Yan, she had a little beef with Lu Zhou.

However, that was so long ago, and she wasn't the innocent and childish girl anymore. Still, the tension between her and Lu Zhou was inevitably awkward.

The two only chatted briefly.

Once the squad finished eating, they went to karaoke.

However, because they had a big thing planned for tomorrow, no one stayed out late. The squad dispersed at 9 p.m.

When Lu Zhou left the karaoke place, he called his driver, Wang Peng. Lu Zhou told Wang Peng to go home as he had booked a room at the Purple Mountain Hotel with his friends.

Wedding day.

Lu Zhou was awakened by a knocking sound that came from the door. He then quickly put on his suit and styled his handsome hair in front of the mirror. He then went outside the hotel to meet up with the group.

The group got in the car and first went to Shi Shang's house in the city. After that, they went to the bride's house. Finally, they returned to the Purple Mountain Hotel.

Shi Shang didn't say anything during the car ride. However, he would look at the squad in the rearview mirror and smile from time to time.

This was probably the happiest day of his life.

…

Although they said that the best man had a lot to do, it actually wasn't the case. All they had to do was act as a backup when picking up the bride. They also had to help the groom with drinking alcohol during the wedding.

The newlyweds were both from Jinling, which saved a lot of trouble.

Before the wedding began, Liu Rui placed his hands on Shi Shang's shoulder and patted.

"Shi Shang, are you nervous?"

Shi Shang took a deep breath and adjusted his tie.

"Nervous! I've never been more nervous in my life!"

Huang Guangming smiled and said, "Then Shi Shang, are you still going through with the wedding?"

Shi Shang stared at him.

"No sh*t!"

How can I back up now…

Huang Guangming's joke took away Shi Shang's nervousness.

Shi Shang was called away by the wedding staff. He joined the bride and went on stage.

The wedding was in motion, and the best man squad had nothing to do.

Normally, they would help to deal with the guests. But nowadays, the guests were handled by the wedding staff.

Lu Zhou tried to help a few times but didn't want to cause any trouble. In the end, he sat in the corner of the venue while eating sunflower seeds and bantering with his friends.

Lu Zhou had to catch the high-speed train after the wedding.

He didn't know when they would meet again.

Time quickly passed by. Liu Rui was talking about his experience studying at Yan University when suddenly a staff member came over.

"Which one is Lu Zhou?"

Lu Zhou spit out the sunflower seed and raised his hand.

"Me, why?"

The staff member's eyes lit up and smiled.

"I've been looking for you. The best man squad's representative will have to speak on stage."

Hearing that, Lu Zhou was stunned. "Speak about what?"

What the hell is the best man squad's representative?

He had never heard Shi Shang mentioned this before.

The staff member smiled and said, "Your good friend is about to get married, don't you want to say anything to him? Just represent your dorm room and say something. You don't have to make it long; one sentence is enough."

Huang Guangming was gloating as he said, "Zhou, just represent us and say a couple of lines. Just say something."

Lu Zhou was muddled, and he asked, "Why me?"

Liu Rui said, "We're both master's students while you're a PhD holder and a professor. You are the most cultured one among us."

Huang Guangming said, "F*ck off! Why do you make it sound like I'm uncultured?"

Liu Rui looked at him and asked, "Do you want to speak?"

Huang Guangming instantly smiled and said, "Never mind, I'm not good at speaking. I might offend someone, and I don't want to screw up Shi Shang's big day… Let's just let Zhou do it."

The host of the wedding was speaking into a microphone on stage.

"… Next up, let us welcome the groom's university roommate who came all the way from America— Professor Lu! Professor Lu will represent the best men and say a couple of lines of blessings!"

The wedding venue erupted in applause.

Some people had heard of Lu Zhou before, and they excitedly looked around the venue as they attempted to find the legendary Crafoord Prize winner.

Some people had never heard of Lu Zhou before, but they knew that it was a nutty thing to be a professor in America.

Since the host of the wedding made the announcement, Lu Zhou had to speak on stage.

He patted the sunflower seeds off his body before he stood up from his chair. He then adjusted his tie before he walked through the crowd and onto the stage.

He stood in front of the guests and calmly took over the microphone.

Lu Zhou looked at the newlyweds and began to think.

Lu Zhou never got stage fright.

But what should he say?

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Chapter 407: Life Isn't Only About Mathematics, There Are Physics And Chemistry As Well

This wasn't Lu Zhou's first time speaking on stage.

However, this was his first time speaking as a best man at his friend's wedding.

Lu Zhou took the microphone, but he remained speechless.

He was a loner that had never had a girlfriend before, what insight could he possibly give?

The guests saw that Lu Zhou wasn't speaking and began to whisper to each other.

Qian Hua looked at Lu Zhou. Shen then looked at her friend and whispered, "Does he have stage fright?"

Xiao Yunyun smiled and teased.

"He's a big scientist; he's setting the mood."

Qian Hua said, "Pfft, who cares about some mathematician. He understands mathematics, but he doesn't understand life."

"Okay, okay. Please stop arguing…" Deng Le interrupted the two and said, "Yunyun, how about you go on stage and save him?"

Normally, the maid of honor would speak after the best man.

If Professor Lu really couldn't handle speaking at a stage like this, then the wedding host could easily rescue him.

Xiao Yunyun just had to give a beautiful speech and save the day.

Xiao Yunyun said, "I don't mind, I've done my preparation…"

Just as the host was about to save Lu Zhou, he suddenly spoke.

"From the beginning of the universe to the evaporation of the last black hole, we know that the probability of birth is only a billionth of a billionth of a billionth…"

The wedding venue quieted down.

The young folks stopped chatting while the older folks put down the sunflower seeds.

Even the children stopped screwing around…

Everyone focused their attention on stage.

It wasn't because of Lu Zhou's opening. It was because they were curious about what this professor from Princeton had to say.

Lu Zhou looked around at the wedding guests, and he felt that he was in the zone.

It was like he was back in a Princeton lecture hall.

He continued in a monotonic voice, "As we know, the probability of two lives meeting is less than the square of a billionth of a billionth…"

He wasn't sure if the guests knew what he was talking about.

He wasn't sure if they understood this astronomically low number.

He had never used sensational words like this.

He was never a dramatic person.

He probably would never be one.

But right now, he wanted to send his blessings to his friend.

"From a probability perspective, the greatest miracle in the universe is not the death of stars, the formation of galaxies, or the evaporation of black holes…

"Rather, it's the miracle of two people meeting each other and falling in love on this billion-year timeline.

"Maybe because mathematics is too interesting, I'm rarely interested in anything other than mathematics. At most, I'll dabble in chemistry or physics… But even then, even though I don't understand the meaning of love, I can feel that you two truly love each other."

Lu Zhou paused for a second. He then looked at the groom and bride before he continued, "Hence, I sincerely wish you guys the best and that you can love each other like I love mathematics. Cherish… this miraculous moment."

The crowd erupted in applause.

The applause was louder than what Lu Zhou had expected.

He never thought that the speech he made up on the spot would resonate with the crowd to this level.

However, he noticed that it wasn't just the crowd that was cheering. Even the groom on stage was feeling quite emotional as well…

The handsome man who was in a tux nearly started to cry.

"Zhou…"

Would it be bad for Shi Shang to cry?

I guess it doesn't matter.

Lu Zhou smiled at Shi Shang and nodded. He then handed the microphone back to the wedding host.

Then, he walked off the stage…

Xiao Yunyun watched Lu Zhou walked off stage and said, "Wow, even though he's a mathematician… he's still good with words."

People used to say that mathematicians were the best at picking up girls.

She didn't believe it before, but she did now.

Deng Le said emotionally, "Yeah… I thought he was more of the introverted type and that he might have stage fright. I didn't expect him to own the stage."

With a proud expression on her face, Xiao Yunyun looked at Qian Hua.

"What do you think, Qian Hua?"

Qian Hua pulled herself together.

"Ah… What?"

Xiao Yunyun and Deng Le looked at each other.

Why do I feel like…

This chick…

Is acting a bit weird?

After Lu Zhou finished his speech, the bridesmaid went on stage and congratulated the newly-wed couple.

The wedding went into its most climatic stage.

Everyone watched as the groom put a ring on the bride.

From that moment, there were two less lonely people in the world…

…

The wedding came to an end.

Most of the relatives and friends that came to the wedding had finished their meals and were beginning to leave the venue.

Lu Zhou went to the bathroom to wash his hands. When he came out, he was stopped by someone.

He looked at the short-haired girl standing in front of him and said, "What's up?"

"Nothing," Qian Hua said as she shook her head. She then looked down as she continued, "I just want to say… sorry to you. I stepped over the line."

Lu Zhou was stunned, and when he replied, he spoke in a relaxed tone.

"It's fine, I didn't take it to heart."

That was three years ago, Lu Zhou had nearly forgotten about what had happened.

After all, everyone would get overwhelmed by emotions sometimes.

Not to mention, she never did anything to Lu Zhou other than defending her idol.

Lu Zhou wasn't easily offended, which was why he was still good friends with Liu Rui.

"If there's nothing else, I'll see you around."

Qian Hua saw that Lu Zhou was leaving, and she quickly said, "Wait a second…"

Lu Zhou stopped and looked back at her.

"Anything else?"

"When this is all over… Can I buy you a drink?" Qian Hua said while blushing. "As a payback."

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "Some other day then. I have to catch a train later."

Qian Hua: …?

Other than celebrating Chinese New Year, Lu Zhou had important things to do in China.

One was to attend the Science and Technology Award Conference, and the other was to attend Shi Shang's wedding.

Since Shi Shang's wedding was over, all he had to do now was to celebrate the holiday with his family.

This was his only time in the year to relax…

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Chapter 408: Chinese New Year

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

At the parking lot of a high-speed train station.

Lu Zhou took his suitcase out from the trunk before he looked at Wang Peng.

"Just drop me off here."

"Okay." Wang Peng's reply was simple as he opened the car door in a soldier-like motion.

Lu Zhou looked at Wang Peng as he got back into the car, and he suddenly remembered something.

"Wait a second."

Wang Peng got out from the driver's seat and asked, "Is there anything else?"

Lu Zhou said, "You won't… drive all the way to Jiangling, right?"

Wang Peng nodded and said, "Of course, the higher-ups told me to make sure that your travel is convenient and safe."

I knew it!

Thank god I asked him!

Lu Zhou immediately said, "It's the holidays, and everyone is going to be on break. Go home to your family, and don't follow me."

Wang Peng smiled and said, "It's fine, this is my job. I don't mind working during the holidays!"

Lu Zhou was worried, and he said, "I can't let you do this!"

Wang Peng smiled as he replied, "No, really. It's fine."

Lu Zhou said, "No, this is not about politeness. Listen to me. Drive home and have a great Chinese New Year. I don't need a car during the holidays anyway. Also, if I bring you home, they…"

Wang Peng said, "They?"

Lu Zhou coughed and said, "My dad has been asking me to look for a partner. If I bring you home this year… I'm afraid it'll look bad."

Wang Peng: "…"

…

At last, Lu Zhou was able to convince Wang Peng to go back to Beijing for the holidays.

Spending Chinese New Year with one's family was more important than one's job.

Lu Zhou got on the high-speed train and headed east, and he soon arrived at Jiangling.

When he arrived at his hometown, Lu Zhou took a deep breath of air. Without wasting another second, he got into a taxi that was parked outside the train station and immediately went home.

Once he arrived at the doorsteps of the house with his bags, he pressed the doorbell, and soon, he could hear the sound of slippers running on the hardwood floors.

The door opened, and when Xiao Tong saw Lu Zhou standing outside, her eyes were wide open as she asked, "Oh, brother, why did you buy so many things?"

"Some are gifts, and some are stuff that I bought at the airport duty-free shop. Your gift is in the suitcase. As usual, find it yourself…" Lu Zhou said while he dragged the suitcase and bags into the house.

Suddenly, he noticed Xiao Tong looking behind him, and he asked, "What are you looking for?"

Xiao Tong looked at Lu Zhou and sighed.

"Ah, bro, I'm sad…"

Lu Zhou patted his sister's forehead and gently pushed her.

"Stop giving me this sh*t, let me go in!"

Lu Zhou gave his suitcases to Xiao Tong before he walked past the living room and into the kitchen.

Fang Mei was about to cut a live fish with a knife when she suddenly saw her son standing outside the kitchen door. Startled, she nearly dropped the knife.

For Lu Zhou who hadn't seen his mother in a long time, he started to tear up.

He then took a deep breath and put on a bright smile on his face.

"Mom, I'm home!"

"Welcome, welcome home!" Fang Mei had a glistening smile as she said, "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I didn't prepare any food."

Lu Zhou rubbed his nose and said, "I wanted to give you a surprise."

"What surprise? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Fang Mei looked at her son. Grabbing the fish, she said, "Go chill in the living room first, I'll grill some fish for you."

Fang Mei picked up the knife and fiercely chopped off the fish head.

The fish twitched for a couple of seconds before it lay dead on the chopping board.

It was half-past five when Old Lu got off work and went home.

When he saw his son sitting on the sofa, he was just as surprised as Fang Mei. He then started to ask Lu Zhou a bunch of questions.

When Old Lu saw the box of tea on the coffee table, he said, "Why did you bring so much tea back? We have a ton at home."

Curious, Lu Zhou looked at his dad and asked, "Dad, did you finally start buying tea?"

Old Lu replied, "I didn't buy it myself, the office gave it to me."

Lu Zhou was even more confused, and he asked, "When did your office get so rich?"

Old Lu grinned.

"Long story… The higher-ups transferred me to the logistics team a while back, right? The compensation there is a lot better there. Anyway, you don't have to worry about us, so don't bring so much stuff back next time. These big bags of gifts are hard to travel with. Just bring a wife back next time."

Lu Zhou coughed and tried to divert the conversation.

"Oh yeah, dad, can I ask you something?"

Old Lu: "What?"

Lu Zhou squatted down next to one of the suitcases, opened the zipper, and took out a letter.

"I have a couplet paper here. See if there's any glue in the house and stick this on the front door."

Old Lu took the couplet paper and said, "Oh, this is well written. Did you write it?"

"Not me," Lu Zhou said. He then smiled as he continued, "It was written by Academician Lu. He was my supervisor during my master's degree."

"An academician wrote it? That's impressive! I'll stick it on right now," Old Lu said. He then stood up from the sofa and walked toward his toolbox.

Given that Old Lu had barely left Jiangling City during his lifetime, it was rare for him to meet an academician. He had heard that academicians were the top scholars of the country.

He was certain that the couplet paper would bring him good luck.

As Old Lu stood outside and looked at the couplet paper that he had just stuck on the door, he could not help but rub his chin with satisfaction.

However, after a while, he suddenly shook his head.

"Unfortunate."

Lu Zhou stood next to him and looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Why is it unfortunate?"

Old Lu sighed and said, "It was unfortunate because Xiao Tong had already finished her exams. This luck is wasted."

Lu Zhou coughed and said, "Dad, your son is a scientist, can you not be so superstitious?"

"This isn't superstition, everyone believes in it…" Old Lu made a hand gesture, but he couldn't find a way to explain this feeling. In the end, he said, "Ah, forget about it, I can't explain it to you! Go, your mother has finished cooking. Let's go and help her set the table!"

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Chapter 409: A High Viscosity Fluid Coefficient

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The food was on the table.

The family sat around the table and began to eat dinner.

After dinner, Lu Zhou helped his parents clean up the table.

Originally, he wanted to help his parents with the dishes, but his mother wouldn't let him. Therefore, Old Lu told Lu Zhou to stay in the living room.

The kitchen wasn't big enough for three people.

Lu Zhou didn't insist. Instead, he went to sit in the living room and watch TV.

Xiao Tong lay on the sofa next to him, and she was playing on her phone. Suddenly, she looked at her brother and asked, "Bro, can you win the Nobel Prize this year?"

When Lu Zhou heard her question, he smiled and said, "I don't know, but some people told me that they'd recommend me to the Nobel Committee."

Xiao Tong tilted her head and said, "Who?"

"Gerhard Ertl, a German guy… You don't know him."

During the conference at Germany, the Nobel Prize winner told Lu Zhou that he would write recommendation letters to the Nobel Committee until Lu Zhou won a prize.

Lu Zhou was pretty excited at that time, but now, he realized it was nothing to be excited about.

It wasn't uncommon to chase after a Nobel Prize for decades, especially in theoretical fields. There were only a handful of cases where the Nobel Prize was given right after the research results came out. Winning the first-level State Natural Science Award had used up all of Lu Zhou's luck. Furthermore, there was still a Fields Medal in August waiting for him.

Winning the Nobel Prize might take a while.

Xiao Tong murmured, "You're insane…"

Lu Zhou smiled. "Work hard. Since you are studying economics, maybe you can also win a Nobel Prize someday."

Xiao Tong muttered, "No way, my mathematics isn't that good…"

The Nobel Prize in Economics was a prize for mathematicians. This was a well-known piece of information. For economics, most of its Nobel Prize winners had a mathematics background or at least a high level of literacy in mathematics.

In 1969, the first Nobel Prize in Economics was given to Professor Frisch and Professor Tinbergen. The former was a mathematician while the latter was a physicist. It was obvious that the Nobel Committee favored people in quantitative fields. The reason why these two won the award was that mathematics and physics were heavily related to "econometrics".

Lu Zhou smiled as he said, "That's not a good excuse. Your brother is right here, so you shouldn't worry that mathematics would be a problem."

Xiao Tong stopped her game and threw her phone aside. She then sat crossed-legged on the sofa and said, "Brother, does this mean that you're going to carry me?"

Lu Zhou smiled. "I can carry you, but you need to at least rank up to Diamond in Honor of Kings first. I can't carry you if you don't carry yourself. It's not fun if I have to do everything."

Lu Zhou wasn't very interested in the Nobel Prize in Economics. After all, his patents had already brought him financial freedom, and he didn't have to worry about money.

However, if Xiao Tong was interested in economics, Lu Zhou wouldn't mind helping her.

Of course, Xiao Tong had to reach a level that was worthy of his help first.

No academic institution would recognize her contribution if she only did miscellaneous work and wrote her name on the thesis.

"… Oh, okay, I will work hard." Xiao Tong sighed and looked at her phone. After a while, she couldn't handle the temptation anymore, and she quickly started another game.

Lu Zhou smiled and didn't say anything.

She was on her holiday right now, so there was nothing wrong with relaxing. There wouldn't be any point for her to start studying now. What she needed was discipline, not motivation.

As for the Nobel Prize, that actually wasn't important.

Lu Zhou just hoped that she could have a goal during her university years so that she would know what to do instead of wasting four years of her life.

…

Family Lu had never stuck couplet papers on their front door before.

This was their first time, and therefore, it attracted the curiosity of many neighbors.

Old Lu loved to brag, and whenever people asked about the couplet, he would tell them that an academician wrote it for his son, thus making everyone envious.

Some people even began to think… Even though the couplet was written by an academician, wasn't Old Lu's son a lot stronger than the academician?

Old Lu's son was a scientist that went on national television and won that Swedish prize.

Therefore, many people were interested in Lu Zhou's luck.

Whenever Old Lu would go to the office, his colleagues and even his bosses would ask him for Lu Zhou's couplet. Not just that, but some people even began to knock on Old Lu's door and give him gifts.

They all wanted a couplet paper from a big name scientist.

After all, there wasn't a scholar more knowledgeable than Lu Zhou in the entire city.

If they could obtain a couplet paper from the big scientist, they might bring some of that "luck" into their own homes. This was especially valuable for families that had children who were about to do the college entrance examination.

Old Lu was an easy going guy, and he wanted to please everyone.

He agreed to all of the couplet paper requests.

However, Lu Zhou was the one that had to suffer…

When Lu Zhou heard his dad's requests, he said, "Dad, why are you bragging! I've never even held a couplet brush before, how do you expect me to write it?"

Old Lu said, "Your writing is pretty good, right? Someone even gave you a brush, so just write whatever."

He seemed to realize the problem, but he decided to let his son deal with it.

In his mind, if his son could solve the Goldbach's conjecture, then writing a few words should be a piece of cake.

Should be…

Lu Zhou said, "Is a brush the same as a pen?"

Old Lu said, "Don't worry about it and just write something. It doesn't matter as long as you wrote it yourself."

Lu Zhou had to practice writing with a brush.

Perhaps it was because Lu Zhou's handwriting was good, or perhaps it was because Lu Zhou was naturally talented, but although it was a bit difficult in the beginning, Lu Zhou managed to get the hang of it after practicing for a while.

Lu Zhou found out that when he was immersed in writing, his entire body calmed down.

It was almost like the knot in his heart was being untied.

He hadn't felt like this in a long time…

Lu Zhou treated the writing as a mission.

He even began to enjoy it.

Lu Zhou finally finished writing all of the couplets for his father a week before the Chinese New Year.

He suddenly realized that the couplet paper that Academician Lu gave him was missing a third line.

Although not having a third line didn't matter, Lu Zhou felt like something was missing.

He twirled the brush in the ink.

Suddenly, Lu Zhou frowned.

"Xiao Tong."

"What, bro?" Xiao Tong was playing Honor of Kings on the sofa, and she looked at Lu Zhou and said, "I have to tell you first, I don't know how to write couplets."

"I didn't ask you to help me." Lu Zhou stared at the ink and stopped writing. He then asked, "Don't you think ink is like fluid?"

A type of fluid with a high viscosity coefficient.

Xiao Tong said, "Fluid?"

Lu Zhou: "Yeah."

Xiao Tong looked at the ink first. She then looked at Lu Zhou.

She then said hesitantly, "Brother."

Lu Zhou: "Yeah?"

Xiao Tong said in a serious manner, "Are you retarded?"

Lu Zhou: "… F*ck off!"

Lu Zhou threw the brush aside. Without wasting any time, he went into his room. He then quickly found some draft paper.

Once he had the paper with him, he sat in front of his desk and began to think.

Inspiration would always come at unexpected times, making it difficult to capture.

Just now, Lu Zhou suddenly had an idea in his mind.

However, the idea was too abstract, and it nearly slipped away from his mind.

What Lu Zhou had to do now was to take the abstract idea and transform it into written mathematics…

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Chapter 410: Town of Princeton

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou didn't end up writing the third line for the couplet.

However, he made some unexpected progress on his research on the Navier–Stokes equation.

"The Navier-Stokes equation on the Euclidean space R3 can be expressed as tμ = Δμ B (μ, μ), where B is a bilinear operator on the vector field without divergence, and μ obeys elimination B(μ,μ),μ=0…"

Lu Zhou quickly wrote it down on the draft paper while muttering to himself. Suddenly, he stopped and shook his head.

"I said I wouldn't touch mathematics when I'm home, but I can't control myself…"

Lu Zhou stopped writing. He shoved the draft paper into his suitcase, and he planned to continue with the research when he was back at Princeton.

He had an entire year to do all the research he wanted.

But he could only be with his family right now…

…

Lu Zhou didn't do any research at all for the rest of the holiday. Instead, he focused on having a great vacation.

Lu Zhou took a half a month break and felt full of energy; his entire soul felt resurrected.

The home-cooked meals had enhanced his appetite.

Unfortunately, he couldn't gain any weight no matter how much he ate.

The Lus had a relaxing and happy Chinese New Year.

After Chinese New Year was over, Lu Zhou bade farewell to his family and went back to Princeton.

Lu Zhou got on the high-speed train. He then got onto the subway and headed to the airport.

While Lu Zhou was sitting in the terminal and scrolling through Weibo to kill time, he suddenly received a text from Chen Yushan.

Chen Yushan: [Little Brother, when are you going back to school?]

When Lu Zhou saw the message on his screen, he typed a reply.

[I'm about to board the plane.]

Ding!

Lu Zhou quickly received a reply.

Chen Yushan: [Ah, you didn't wait for me, how could you! ]

Lu Zhou: …?

You didn't tell me that you wanted to fly together…

But speaking of which, when did Chen Yushan start acting cute?

Lu Zhou looked at the text message and almost thought it was from Xiao Ai.

He got on the plane to fly to Shanghai. From Shanghai, he flew over the Pacific Ocean.

After more than 20 hours of flying, Lu Zhou finally dragged his suitcase out of Philadelphia airport.

His student Jerick was in his Ford Explorer, and he was waiting outside at the airport parking lot. In fact, Jerick had been waiting for a while.

When he saw Lu Zhou walking out of the airport, he waved his hand excitedly before popping open the car trunk.

"Professor, you're finally back! How was your holiday?"

Lu Zhou smiled and said, "It was great, how about you guys? Are you guys doing okay during my absence?"

Jerick smiled. "Very good, but it feels like something is missing when you are gone."

Jerick started the car and drove Lu Zhou back to the quiet town of Princeton.

This town had a magical vibe, and Lu Zhou could feel himself getting back into the zone.

Lu Zhou rested at home for the day.

The next day, he woke up early and had breakfast before he went to the Institute for Advanced Study to look for Professor Fefferman.

When he arrived at Professor Fefferman's office, he saw some of Fefferman's PhD students there.

The moment Professor Fefferman saw Lu Zhou in front of his office door, he immediately stopped writing as he said in a cheerful tone, "How was your holiday?"

Lu Zhou replied, "Pretty good, I haven't had a long holiday in a while."

Professor Fefferman said, "Yeah? It might start to get busy from here on."

Lu Zhou smiled slightly.

"I'm prepared for it."

The two set up a Navier–Stokes equation research team a while ago and made quite a lot of progress on the Navier–Stokes equation. However, Lu Zhou had to return to China for the award, and the research was temporarily paused.

However, even though Lu Zhou was on holiday, Professor Fefferman didn't stop researching. In fact, he had been studying the problems they encountered during the research.

Professor Fefferman stood up from his desk and went to stand next to the window. He asked abruptly, "Do you smoke?"

Lu Zhou replied, "I don't, why?"

"Nothing, it's good not to smoke," Professor Fefferman said as he lit up a cigarette. He handed Lu Zhou the cigarette before he said, "But sometimes, it gives me inspiration when I least expect it."

Lu Zhou took the cigarette from Professor Fefferman and looked at the smoke coming out of the cigarette.

The smoke from the cigarette slowly floated upward and gradually dispersed.

It was like a liquid with a low viscosity coefficient.

Lu Zhou stared at the burning cigarette for a while before he asked, "What do you want to tell me?"

Professor Fefferman smiled and said, "Often, the liquid we study is just like this. Its Brownian motion diverges, and it completely loses its predictability. Even mathematics can't explain this chaotic state."

Lu Zhou didn't say anything. Instead, he patiently waited for Fefferman to finish.

"Recently, I've been thinking about the question you left behind," Professor Fefferman said as he walked to the blackboard. He then smiled as he picked up a piece of chalk and said, "Last time, we got Pμi= Ii-(Δ-1)·δi·δj·μj. I did some analysis on it and found something interesting…"

He then wrote on the blackboard.

[ B(μ,v),w〉= -πiΛξ1,ξ2,ξ3(μ(ξ1),v(ξ2),w(ξ3))…]

This was Lu Zhou's research result which he wrote on the blackboard last time.

But Professor Fefferman did some further research.

"Given a Schwarz non-dispersive vector field μ0, time interval I [0, ), we define a generalized solution H10 of the Navier-Stokes equation as continuous obedience integral equation μ(t) Map μH10df(R3)…"

He wrote again on the blackboard.

[μ(t)=e(t)·μ0e(t-t')B(μ(t'), μ(t'))dt']

[…]

As the two PhD students in the office looked at the blackboard, they were confused by what they were seeing. They then looked away and focused on their own work.

Geniuses working on a problem…

I can't understand it…

Fefferman finished writing the last line of calculations and put the chalk down. He then looked back at Lu Zhou.

"What do you think?"

Lu Zhou stared at the blackboard for a while before he asked, "You constructed a partial differential equation that's similar to the Navier–Stokes equation?"

"That's right!" Professor Fefferman said in a relaxed tone, "I constructed an abstract bilinear operator B', which has similarities to the Euler linear operator B in μ(t), but it is also different than B."

"If we prove this stronger conclusion is true…"

Professor Fefferman smiled and said, "Then we can prove the original conclusion is also true!"

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Chapter 411: Explosive Equation?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou and Professor Fefferman reached a consensus on the proof idea, but there was a problem on how to go about constructing this abstract bilinear operator B'.

It had to have a similar nonlinear structure to the Euler linear operator B in μ(t), but at the same time, it also had to be different from B.

"Nonlinear" partial differential equations were complex.

And the series of problems derived from it was even more complex…

The first seminar in March; in a small conference room at the Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

Professor Fefferman stared at the calculations on the blackboard and said thoughtfully, "I can guarantee you that we are close to the final result… We are so close."

Lu Zhou threw the chalk on the podium and nodded at the blackboard.

However, even though he nodded, he wasn't happy at all. In fact, he looked a bit gloomy.

After a while, Lu Zhou said, "… I feel the same way."

Professor Fefferman sighed and uncrossed his arms.

"Sometimes failure and success is only an inch apart, you know? I'm even starting to doubt…"

Lu Zhou looked at him.

"Doubt?"

Professor Fefferman nodded and said, "Although we were optimistic that this proposition must be correct, the results tell us that it may not be as perfect as what we think."

Professor Fefferman spoke in an uncertain tone; it was completely different from when he was lecturing.

This was the first time he had been uncertain at his calculations.

Lu Zhou stared at the blackboard and went silent for a while. After a while, he finally talked again.

"This is ridiculous."

Professor Fefferman sighed and said, "It is. This is ridiculous… but it's not illogical."

He took out a cigarette and lighter from his pocket.

Normally, smoking wasn't allowed in the conference rooms; smokers had to go to the smoking room.

But this rule didn't apply when one was doing research.

After all, the Institute for Advanced Study was established for science, and every rule here was made for scholars to do research.

Without hesitating, Professor Fefferman lit the cigarette and carefully placed it on the multimedia desk.

The smoke from the cigarette spiraled up into the air.

Soon after, the smoke gradually dispersed and disappeared into the air without a trace.

Professor Fefferman looked at this phenomenon as he spoke confidently.

"The final state of all systems is chaos, just like our equations. The μΔ value explodes as time increases and blasts truth into the universe. When the time variable is magnified, the equation will explode at an unknown point, and the solution will no longer be smooth…"

This point could not be infinite, and it definitely existed.

It was difficult to find its value by using existing mathematical tools. It was just like how the mathematicians could not solve the Navier–Stokes equation. However, it could be proved indirectly… provided that the proof process wasn't wrong.

Professor Fefferman didn't say anything else. Instead, he lit up another cigarette and smoked both at once.

Lu Zhou was certain that this wasn't for science; it was only for Fefferman to relax.

Lu Zhou admitted that this was an uncomfortable feeling.

The results of the calculations were clear, but it deviated from common sense.

Would a car that was driving on the highway self-disintegrate at a random certain point in time? This was impossible. The worse case was a speeding ticket from the police.

If the conclusion was correct, then the three dimensional Navier–Stokes equation would undoubtedly "explode" past a certain point.

This meant that at some point in time and space, it would no longer retain its regularity…

This was ridiculous!

…

The Navier–Stokes equation research team reached a bottleneck.

At night, Lu Zhou went back to his routine. He put on his running attire and jogged around Lake Carnegie as he tried to relax his mind by breathing in the fresh air.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do so.

The problem that he discussed with Professor Fefferman earlier kept lingering in his mind.

Lu Zhou began to run faster and faster, and without knowing it, he was already sprinting.

He exhausted all of his energy, and his legs felt as if they were becoming heavier. He finally stopped running.

While panting, Lu Zhou walked to the grassy area and sat down.

Suddenly, a can of sports drink was thrown on the grass, and it rolled and stopped next to Lu Zhou.

Lu Zhou looked up and saw Molina in sportswear. She was holding another can of sports drink.

"For you."

Lu Zhou opened the can and took a big gulp.

He sighed in relief as he felt the cool liquid moving down his chest. He then wiped his mouth.

"Thank you," Lu Zhou said.

"You're welcome."

Molina sat next to Lu Zhou. She opened her can of drink and took a sip.

When she saw that Lu Zhou was still panting, she said, "This isn't like you."

Lu Zhou smiled as he asked, "What do you mean?"

Molina said, "You were in much better shape two months ago. I guess you were completely relaxed during the holidays."

Molina sounded like she was gloating. However, Lu Zhou didn't know what she was gloating about.

Despite his time off, Lu Zhou could still easily destroy Molina's supervisor at the IMU conference that was to be held in August this year…

"Maybe."

Lu Zhou tossed the can into the garbage bin like it was a basketball.

The can swished into the garbage bin.

Lu Zhou began to stare at the lake.

He stayed silent for five minutes. Suddenly, he asked, "Do you think that Lake Carnegie will suddenly explode?"

"Are you saying there's a bomb under the lake?" Molina raised her eyebrows and said, "You can't make this joke in this country."

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I meant… under normal conditions."

Molina said, "Of course not… Why do you ask that?"

Lu Zhou sighed and said, "Because mathematics tells me there's a possibility of it happening."

Molina snorted.

"That's bizarre."

Lu Zhou looked at the lake water that was sparkling under the sunset as well as the kayaking club members training before he murmured, "Yeah, this is bizarre."

But, is it possible?

For example, a water molecule in the system that is moving irregularly. Could its vector of motion randomly erupt in chaos? Just like how natural disasters are caused by coincidences where all of the "volatile" energy is released in an instant.

Lu Zhou kept thinking about the lake evaporating in an instant.

It won't happen unless…

I throw a large bomb in the lake or something.

However, Lu Zhou research obviously didn't include "external factors".

Molina asked, "The lake exploding is a part of the Navier–Stokes equation?"

Lu Zhou nodded and replied, "Yes."

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Chapter 412: Lu Manifold?

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Molina stared blankly at Lu Zhou for around half a minute. Suddenly, she reached out her hand.

Lu Zhou felt that his forehead was about to be touched, and he quickly ducked.

"What are you doing?"

Molina said nonchalantly, "Nothing, I just wanted to see if you're sick."

Lu Zhou: "…"

Molina looked at Lu Zhou as she asked in a serious tone, "Seriously, I haven't studied partial differential equations before, but why are you trying to complicate the problem?"

Lu Zhou patted the grass off his shorts before he stood up.

"I want to make it simple, but I can't. It's that complicated."

Molina stood up, and as she walked in front of Lu Zhou, she said, "If a calculation has violated some basic common sense, then there's a high probability that it is wrong."

Lu Zhou didn't deny her claim.

"Maybe you're right, I agree with you. However, when it comes to the solution of a three dimensional Navier–Stokes equation, I want to know why…"

Lu Zhou looked at the lake as he continued, "Why our equation exploded…"

…

"Explosion" was also called divergence. At least, they were called so in the field of computational fluid dynamics. Many of these authors also like to use "blew up" as a way to describe this troublesome phenomenon.

Mathematically speaking, an explosion could mean many things, like when the denominator of a solution was 0, or when the matrix solution didn't converge…

But when it came to the Navier–Stokes equation, exploding meant divergence. It referred to a certain point in time and space where the flow rate of the fluid became faster and faster and moved towards infinity. This violated common sense.

People had proved half a century ago that this point didn't exist in two-dimensional space, which meant that the Navier–Stokes equation had a unique and stable two-dimensional solution. But no one in the academic community knew what would happen when one applied the Navier–Stokes equation into a three-dimensional system.

The mathematics community was generally optimistic about the existence of a three dimensional smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution. People who were in the field of computational fluid mechanics were also optimistic. Because if a smooth solution didn't exist, then their phenomenological models would be equivalent to using lies to explain lies.

By the time Lu Zhou returned home, he was drenched in sweat. He threw his clothes into the washing machine and went to take a shower.

The feeling of hot water flowing down his body helped his mind to relax.

The idea of an indirect proof using bilinear operators might be flawed. Therefore, instead of being entangled with an uncertain piece of proof, it might be better to try another proof method.

This type of problem often challenged the limit of the human mind; there was no correct way to solve it.

The differential geometry community never thought about partial differential equations before the Calabi Conjecture was solved. After the Calabi Conjecture was solved, geometric analysis on partial differential equations was born.

Maybe Lu Zhou could discover something even more valuable while he attempted to solve the Navier–Stokes equation?

He went into his study room and opened his computer. He began to search for material on the Navier–Stokes equation.

After all, this was a century-old problem that came with a reward from the Clay Institute. The Navier–Stokes equation had a crucial position in the field of partial differential equations, and therefore, many scholars had produced beautiful research results based on this problem.

Every time Lu Zhou's research reached its bottleneck, he would try to solve the puzzle by finding research documents.

Just like how Perelman immediately solved the Poincaré conjecture after reading a thesis on the Ricci flow, Lu Zhou was using a similar method.

However…

Finding the piece of the puzzle wasn't so easy.

The sky outside the window was covered with stars; the clock hit 12 o'clock.

Lu Zhou sighed and leaned against his chair as he pinched his glabella.

His mind was filled with erratic thoughts; he was thinking about writing ink and cigarette smoke. It made his head hurt.

Suddenly, amid this foggy thoughts, Lu Zhou had a slight enlightened moment.

"If I don't have a tool, why don't I build one…"

If I take each abstraction of a molecule as a point and collect these points into a Euclidean space, then I can construct an approximate three-dimensional space and use topology…

But this feels like I'm making this "simple" problem even more "complex".

But I think…

It might work?

Lu Zhou's eyes lit up.

Lu Zhou grasped firmly on his inspiration and quickly picked up the pen to write down a line of words on the paper.

[Lu Manifold]

After that, he couldn't stop writing…

…

Time always flew by when Lu Zhou was immersed in research.

In a blink of an eye, it was already April.

Over the past month and a half, Lu Zhou mostly locked himself in his room and had a boring spring break.

During this time, other than when Vera came to his house to give him her lecture report, Lu Zhou had basically cut off all communication with the outside world.

In fact, even though Lu Zhou was the one that asked Vera to give him the lecture report, he hadn't even read the report once.

Professor Lu had a unique approach to research that even undergrad students had come to know about it from the older students.

Perhaps Professor Fefferman knew that Lu Zhou's research had gone into a critical stage as he didn't bother Lu Zhou at all during this period of time. He stopped all regular research exchange meetings and began doing his own independent research.

Lu Zhou finally produced some results.

He stopped writing and looked at the draft paper with a smile on his face.

Lu Zhou's brain could finally relax, and he began to think of some unimportant things.

Like whether the name "Lu Manifold" was a good name or not?

What if he changed it to "LZ Manifold" or "Lu Zhou Fold"?

Lu Zhou thought about it and decided not to torture future generations.

The former sounded weird and the latter didn't roll off the tongue well.

"I'll just stick with Lu Manifold, L Manifold or L Fold for short!"

Lu Zhou was happy with this name. He changed the manuscript title and put the papers aside. He was about to import the contents into the computer.

He then turned on his computer and was about to get to work when a blue notification popped on the corner of his computer screen.

Xiao Ai: [Master, you have mail!]

When Lu Zhou saw this notification, he immediately clicked on the link that Xiao Ai included in its message.

The email was from the Annual Mathematics journal.

It was about the Collatz conjecture.

Lu Zhou read the email from the beginning to the end and smiled.

Although this was expected, he was still sincerely happy for his students.

According to the editorial department at Annual Mathematics, their thesis would be published in the latest issue of the journal. This would allow the mathematics community to read it in its entirety…

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Chapter 413: Congratulations On Graduating

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

The next day, Lu Zhou ended his research retreat and went to his office at Princeton Institute for Advanced Study.

As usual, his students were there.

When they saw Lu Zhou in front of the office door, they were all surprised.

Vera was the first to speak.

Her little mouth opened, and she said in an astonished tone, "Professor, your retreat is over?"

"I guess so…" Lu Zhou looked at Vera before he looked at Hardy, and he could tell everyone was surprised.

He then asked, "Why are you guys looking at me like this?"

Jerick murmured, "Because if you come out of the house, it means you've succeeded…"

Wei Wen said, "Which means you've solved the Millennium Prize Problem?"

"Nope, but I have made some in-progress results." Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, "But I'm not here to talk about that, I'm here to talk about the Collatz conjecture."

Qin Yue asked, "Annual Mathematics replied?"

"Yes, your thesis was brilliant and Professor Peter Sarnak, who was your reviewer, had a high evaluation of your thesis." Lu Zhou smiled as he continued, "Your thesis will be in the next issue of Annual Mathematics."

When Vera heard that the reviewer was Peter Sarnak, she had a surprised look on her face.

Professor Sarnak was one of the leaders of modern number theory. They had obviously heard of him before.

Not just that, but this big name was also one of the editors at Annual Mathematics. In addition, he was also one of the six reviewers of Lu Zhou's thesis on Goldbach's conjecture.

Lu Zhou paused for a moment before he continued, "As I said, the Collatz conjecture is your graduation thesis. I originally only expect you to make a little progress on the conjecture, and I really didn't expect you guys to solve the entire conjecture. I have to say, your performance really impressed me."

Qin Yue smiled and said, "It's mainly thanks to the mathematics tools that you provided. We couldn't have done it on our own."

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "Tools still require a smart person to apply them. You guys are talented, so you don't have to be humble. I hope you guys can continue down the number theory path and achieve greatness in the additive number theory field."

He adjusted his demeanor and continued, "You guys have now officially graduated!"

Clap clap clap…

The office was filled with applause with Jerick and Wei Wen clapping the loudest.

Especially Wei Wen, he was looking jealously at Qin Yue.

Being able to publish a thesis on Annual Mathematics for the proof of the Collatz conjecture…

It was no exaggeration to say that Qin Yue's name would appear in the Thousand People Initiative.

Whether Qin Yue wanted to stay overseas or return to China, there would be various academic institutions that would offer him a salary he couldn't refuse.

Lu Zhou paused for a second. As he looked at his three students, he said, "I want to hear about your plans for the future."

Whether his students wanted to keep researching or go work at another university, Lu Zhou would do anything he could to help.

For example, he could write letters of recommendation.

In academia, having a recommendation letter from a well-known scholar could be the deciding factor in an interview. Even if the interviewee didn't perform well, his application would be taken seriously…

Hardy smiled and said, "Professor, if you want, I wish to continue studying under you."

Lu Zhou replied, "Why wouldn't I want that? I certainly welcome you guys to study a PhD under me."

Although Hardy was a bit naughty sometimes, his strength was still ok.

Anyone that could study a master's in mathematics at Princeton was talented in their own respective fields of study. There were only "talented" and "extremely talented" students at Princeton.

Vera already told Lu Zhou her plans last year. She had even given Lu Zhou the application form. Qin Yue also planned to continue his studies at Princeton.

All three of his students planned on furthering their studies. Lu Zhou's research team at Princeton would soon consist of a postdoc computational materials fellow, three PhD students, and two master's students.

As for whether or not Lu Zhou wanted more students…

This depended on whether there were any new talents that could attract his interest.

After Lu Zhou finished dealing with his students, he made plans with Professor Fefferman to meet up.

He had a lot of research results to exchange with his partner…

…

A conference room at the Institute for Advanced Study.

Professor Fefferman read Lu Zhou's manuscript and rubbed his chin.

"Differential manifold… Seems interesting."

Compared to the abstract proof method, using a differential manifold to research the Navier–Stokes equation was undoubtedly a novel idea. Using a topology method seemed to be feasible.

However, Professor Fefferman had never done any research in this area. Therefore, he couldn't give Lu Zhou a definitive answer.

Professor Fefferman read the manuscript in its entirety before he asked, "How did you think of it?"

Lu Zhou said, "I was inspired when I was running around Lake Carnegie."

Surprised, Professor Fefferman looked at Lu Zhou before he said, "That's surprising… I'll have to go there more often in the future."

Lu Zhou diverted the conversation by asking, "What do you think about this method?"

"I don't know, I have to admit that this is an interesting idea. But I still prefer the abstract proof method."

Professor Fefferman sighed and picked up a piece of chalk. He spoke while he was writing on the blackboard, "Over the past month, I have tried to improve the bilinear operator B'. This construct is very close to the Euler linear operator B in μ(t)."

[μ(t)=e(t)·μ0e(t-t')B(μ(t'), μ(t'))dt']

[…]

The calculation process was very similar to that of more than a month ago, and the calculus framework was still the same.

The only difference was the construction of the B' bilinear operator with respect to the obsolete B'(μ, μ), μ=0. Professor Fefferman used a very sophisticated method which made the B' operator very close to the original B'.

However…

Lu Zhou felt like something was missing.

He thought back to more than a month ago, and he suddenly frowned when he felt that the calculations looked unnatural.

Lu Zhou stared at the blackboard for a long time before he finally spoke.

"I think I know what the problem is…"

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When Professor Fefferman heard him, he was stunned.

He quickly asked in a serious tone, "Can you elaborate?"

"Of course." Lu Zhou picked up the chalk and said, "But I need to use the blackboard."

Once Lu Zhou had the idea, doing the calculations was just a matter of the application of mathematics.

It took about half an hour for him to fill in two blackboards.

Lu Zhou took a step back and looked at the calculations on the blackboard. He gently squeezed the chalk in his hand as he spoke confidently.

"In short, using the abstract proof method, we can only calculate the existence of T1 (0). Therefore, the weak solution is smooth only in the time (0, T1), but the value of T1 is undetermined."

This conclusion was wildly different from the proposed conclusion by the Millennium Prize Problem. This was probably equivalent to the difference between Newton's law of motion and the special theory of relativity.

The former defined the specific initial value and only applied to a finite time domain. The Navier–Stokes equation was about the existence of a smooth solution under three-dimensional conditions.

The reason why the equation they constructed exploded was that they set the known value at t=T1, and therefore, it exploded when the specific time value was outside of (0, T1).

This was exactly like how Newton's law of motion wasn't applicable in objects with a high velocity…

When Fefferman heard Lu Zhou's statement, he was speechless.

"… If you knew this already, why didn't you tell me earlier?"

Lu Zhou said apologetically, "… I only thought about it just now."

Professor Fefferman stared quietly at the blackboard for around ten minutes as he read the calculations over and over again. He then sighed.

"You are right; our previous idea wasn't perfect."

Things often became less mysterious once they were revealed.

Professor Fefferman paused for a second before he said, "However, as per what you said, if we can determine the T1 value is within a specific time interval of the Navier–Stokes equations, then a smooth solution exists."

Lu Zhou was stunned. He didn't expect Fefferman to persist with his abstract proof method.

Lu Zhou thought for a moment before he replied, "It's not enough. We have to find a precise way to distinguish the original operator B from the constructed bilinear operator B'."

Professor Fefferman sighed and said, "I know, but I think using our original research results is easier than using another idea. In my opinion, I think the abstract proof has potential."

He went silent for a moment before he continued, "Since we are both people that prefer independent research, we should do the research separately."

Although Fefferman was optimistic about Lu Zhou's new idea, he still didn't want to give up on his abstract proof idea.

Therefore, they would research in different directions.

This increased the chance of success.

Lu Zhou nodded, showing his agreement with Professor Fefferman's proposal.

"This is the best choice."

Mathematics conjectures could be solved through discussion, but discussions weren't always necessary.

Lu Zhou returned home after his nightly run. He showered and went into his study room. He then turned on his computer and continued to edit his "L Manifold" document.

L Manifold was actually already a very impressive research result.

Just like the bilinear operator B' that Professor Fefferman constructed, even if the smooth solution of Navier–Stokes equation couldn't be solved, the tools they created could be published as independent research.

At least they could report it at the IMU conference.

As for the use of the tools?

It was most applicable to the Navier–Stokes equation, but it could also perform topology surgery on complex nonlinear differential structures, like manifolds. This would simplify complicated problems.

As for its possible applications in other fields, that would depend on the creativity of other researchers.

Maybe one day it could be applied in theoretical physics or engineering…

Lu Zhou stared at the computer screen as he sat quietly for a long time. In the end, he decided to submit his L Manifold thesis to Annual Mathematics.

As for the IMU conference in August…

He still planned on gifting the mathematics community with the Navier-Stokes equation solution.

Obviously, his plan consisted of a challenge.

After all, he only had a vague grasp on the Navier–Stokes equation.

Lu Zhou didn't know if he could actually solve the problem.

Soon after Lu Zhou uploaded the thesis, the L Manifold thesis passed the academic editors' examination and went into peer review. Meanwhile, the thesis on the Collatz conjecture was published in Annual Mathematics for the world to read.

Just as Lu Zhou expected.

The Collatz conjecture thesis caused a huge sensation in the academic world…

…

Kai University, Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Research Institute.

The latest issue of Annual Mathematics was laid open on the table.

Academician Zhang Yuping read the thesis in its entirety before he sighed and spoke with emotion.

"Professor Lu really is brilliant. Not only is he talented, but even his students are also talented…"

Academician Zhang knew who Qin Yue was; he was actually the one that wrote Qin Yue's recommendation letter for Princeton.

To be honest, even though Academician Zhang encouraged Qin Yue to apply for a master's degree under Professor Lu, he didn't have much hope for Qin Yue.

Because back then, Professor Lu had just recently solved the Goldbach's conjecture, and there wasn't another mathematics professor in the world that was more "wanted" than Professor Lu.

After all, that was the Goldbach's conjecture.

The problem that troubled Gauss, Euler, and other great mathematicians; the crown of number theory.

It even attracted attention from the Times magazine.

Standing next to Academician Zhang was the director of the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Research Institute, Professor Fu Lei.

This director was slightly younger than Academician Zhang, but he was also a big name in the Chinese mathematics community.

Like Academician Zhang, who researched differential geometry, the director's main area of research wasn't number theory. It was group theory. However, this didn't prevent him from understanding the academic value of Lu Zhou's thesis.

Professor Fu went silent for a while before he asked, "This thesis… Do you really think his students wrote it?"

Academician Zhang smiled and said, "Of course! Who would be so generous to give their research results to students?"

The claim of research results was an ethics issue.

Generally, it was rare for a supervisor to not steal their students' research results.

As for allowing the students to take credit for the research…

No normal person would do this.

Professor Fu knew this, but he couldn't help but say, "But I don't understand! If his students can solve it, why doesn't he solve it himself?"

"Don't over-think it. You can't apply normal people logic to a genius like him." Academician Zhang smiled and said, "Maybe he's not interested in a simple problem like this, and therefore, he handed it to his students."

Professor Fu didn't believe this. It sounded too ridiculous.

Collatz conjecture wasn't just a simple problem.

Even though there weren't that many people who researched this conjecture, there were many people that paid attention to it.

If it were him, he would never do something like this. After all, anyone that solved a conjecture like this, they could easily become an academician as long as they met the qualification and age requirements.

Academician Zhang could tell that Professor Fu was in disbelief, and so, he merely smiled and didn't try to explain.

Academician Zhang was correct. There were some people in the mathematics world that weren't interested in "simple" mathematical problems.

For example, Grothendieck, Hilbert…

They were all revolutionary mathematicians.

Lu Zhou was far from being revolutionary. However, he was still young and had a long way to go…

Academician Zhang paused for a second before he smiled and said, "It's normal to not be interested. I recently heard that Professor Lu is researching another big project. In contrast, the Collatz conjecture is nothing."

"Something better than the Collatz conjecture?" Fu Lei frowned as he asked, "Is it chemistry? Physics-related?"

Academician Zhang laughed and said, "Not related to chemistry. Kind of related to physics but not quite."

Fu Lei couldn't help but ask, "What is it?"

"It's about the existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution," Academician Zhang said while looking out the window. His tone was full of emotion as he continued, "And that's one of the seven Millennium Prize Problems."

Fu Lei was totally shocked.

He stood there with his mouth agape.

"… Is he at this level yet?"

"You don't think so?" Academician Zhang smiled and said, "Otherwise, why did the country give the first-level State Natural Science Award to a 20-year-old?"

Academician Zhang heard a rumor.

Before the Science and Technology Award Conference began, he heard that the leaders of the Ministry of Science and Technology believed that Lu Zhou shouldn't win the first-level State Natural Science Award.

After all, Lu Zhou was decades younger than the other winners.

However, in the end, the higher-ups still decided to give Lu Zhou the first-level State Natural Science Award.

There were many rumors as to why they did so.

Among them, the most credible and widely accepted rumor was that there was a highly ranked person in academia that convinced the prize committee to take this risk.

This person convinced the prize committee with only one reason.

It was rumored that the International Mathematical Union would invite Professor Lu to do a one-hour report during the Fields Medal Award Ceremony in August. Not just that, but the Nobel Prize winner Professor Ertl would also nominate Lu Zhou for this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

At first, Academician Zhang didn't believe that Lu Zhou could solve the Millennium Prize Problem, but Lu Zhou created so many miracles that Academician Zhang couldn't help but believe that he could do it.

Because the name Lu Zhou was always associated with miracles.

Professor Fu thought for a moment before he muttered, "… If only this guy can work at our research institute."

Of course, he was only kidding.

Even if Professor Lu returned to China, he would definitely work at his own research institute.

Just like the Shiing-Shen Chern Mathematics Research Institute, or like the Qiu Chengtong Mathematics Research Institute…

Academician Zhang laughed and said, "Forget about it! He'll never come work for us. However, we can try to contact his students."

Professor Fu said, "So what you're saying is?"

Academician Zhang said seriously, "I will write a letter to the higher-ups and recommend Qin Yue to the Thousand Talents Initiative.

"Whether he intends to return to China or continue researching, we should start preparing now!"

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At the beginning of April, a major event took place in the mathematics community.

In the latest issue of Annual Mathematics, the proof to the Collatz conjecture was published.

The Collatz conjecture was as followed: Start with any natural number N. If it was odd, then the next number was 3N1. If it was even, then it became N/2. After some limited number of iterations, the sequence would inevitably fall into [4,2,1].

This conjecture was popular during the 1980s.

Prior to this, some people had used supercomputers to test numbers below 1.1 trillion. They determined that no matter what number they chose, they would end up in the "421" curse.

Due to this miraculous property, this conjecture was also known as the "Hail conjecture" because it was like a hail—fast and unstoppable.

But now, Vera's thesis provided proof for this age-old conjecture.

That the Collatz conjecture was true.

The thesis received worldwide attention.

What astonished the world wasn't just because the thesis was the proof of the Collatz conjecture, but this conjecture was proved by Lu Zhou's students.

By convention, a proof for a major mathematics conjecture often required more than a thesis publication. Other than the journal review process, the proof had to be recognized by the entire mathematics community.

Normally, Princeton would have arranged a report meeting for Vera and others to report on the relevant research results and to answer questions from other scholars.

But coincidentally, the quadrennial International Congress of Mathematicians was going to happen in August. Therefore, Vera's report would be taken care of by the International Mathematical Union.

Two weeks after the thesis was published, Peter Sarnak, Princeton professor and editor-in-chief of Annual Mathematics, found Lu Zhou and brought him an invitation from the International Mathematical Union.

Very few people received two invitations from the International Congress of Mathematicians.

Sarnak had never heard of this happening before.

"… Professor Viana, the chairman of the International Congress of Mathematicians, sent me an email asking me to forward this letter to you. A major conjecture like the Collatz conjecture should be known by more people. This is a rare opportunity, and they've arranged a 45-minute report for you. Are you available?"

Lu Zhou looked at Professor Sarnak and shook his head. He then said, "I already have a one-hour report to do, so I'm pretty busy. I'm afraid I don't have time to prepare for a second report."

Sarnak raised his eyebrows. "Is it about the Navier–Stokes equation?"

The Navier Stokes equation research group applied for an official research project at the Institute for Advanced Study. Therefore, Lu Zhou and Professor Fefferman's collaboration was not a secret.

However, what surprised Sarnak was that this research project had only begun at the end of last year; it had been less than a year.

He didn't think Lu Zhou and Fefferman could solve the Millennium Prize Problem in such a short amount of time.

However, he didn't expect Lu Zhou's answer.

Lu Zhou nodded. "Yes."

When Professor Sarnak heard his answer, he had a surprised look on his face.

He then said, "Are you confident that you can solve it before August? You don't have much time left."

Lu Zhou smiled and answered the question with ease.

"Once a tool is crafted, applying it is only a matter of time. That's how I feel right now. You must know this feeling as well."

Professor Saneck frowned and immediately reacted.

"Is the tool you're talking about the L Manifold thesis that you recently submitted to Annual Mathematics?"

Lu Zhou smiled and nodded his head. "Exactly! I think it's the key to solving the Navier–Stokes equation."

When Professor Saneck heard this confident answer, he began to think.

He had heard of Lu Zhou's recent Annual Mathematics thesis before, and it caused a lot of controversy in the editorial department at Annual Mathematics.

Although this particular differential manifold was novel, most academic editors couldn't see the meaning or use behind it.

Sarnak also couldn't see the use behind it despite knowing a little about partial differentials.

In the end, he accepted Lu Zhou's thesis and allowed it to enter the peer review stage.

Now, it seemed his decision was quite intelligent…

…

After Lu Zhou bade farewell to Professor Sarnak, he brought the IMU invitation back to his office at the Institute for Advanced Study. He then held an internal meeting for his three PhD students.

"In my hand is an invitation letter by the International Congress of Mathematicians to do a 45-minute report. Although the organizers invited me to do the report, I know that you guys need this opportunity more than me."

Lu Zhou paused for a second as he looked at his three students.

He then continued, "Normally, the report will be completed by the main contributor to the thesis. I will give my recommendation to the International Mathematical Union for Vera to be the presenter. What do you guys think?"

Qin Yue: "Agreed!"

Hardy: "Me too!"

The students reached a consensus.

Lu Zhou looked at his two students and nodded.

He then said, "It seems like we've reached an agreement."

Vera was a little anxious. "Wait a second, I…"

Hardy grinned and said, "You don't have to be modest. Since most of the thesis was completed by you, you should be the one to do the report."

Vera looked embarrassed, and she started to get nervous. She began to stutter as she said, "But I've never reported at an IMU conference before… I've never even been to one."

"That's fine, this is my first time going as well. As a matter of fact, it's actually my first time going to Brazil, so I'll have to ask Hardy to act as a tour guide." Lu Zhou smiled as he said in an encouraging tone, "Your report at Berkeley went pretty well, right? I remember you even received the Best Young Speaker Award. Just remember to do your thing."

Vera calmed down a bit after hearing Lu Zhou's words of encouragement. However, she still looked a little nervous.

Lu Zhou looked at Vera being shy and couldn't help but wonder.

Is she really a Slav?

Although he didn't know much about Slavs, from what he saw in movies, he would never imagine Slavs as being timid and fearful.

Lu Zhou said, "In short, don't take it too seriously. Just pretend as if it's a normal report. Also, you have 4 months to prepare."

Vera twiddled her fingers as she asked in a hushed tone, "Can you help me?"

Lu Zhou shook his head and said, "I'm afraid I can't."

Seeing that Vera looked disappointed, Lu Zhou paused for a second before he continued, "I will be going on a retreat, so you will have to do this report by yourself."

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Chapter 416: Busy July

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Lu Zhou was determined to report on the Navier-Stokes equation at the International Congress of Mathematicians. Therefore, he didn't have any time to waste.

It was early April, and the conference was in early August. At the very latest, he had to complete his Navier–Stokes equation thesis by early July.

Which meant he only had three months left.

In a situation like this, his only option was to go on a grinding session…

The days of researching quickly flew by, and it was soon July.

It was getting closer and closer to the conference date, and the International Mathematical Union had sent Lu Zhou multiple emails to remind him to update his report content information on the website.

Normally, participants had to disclose the content of their report before the conference began. They also had to upload the entire report script before a certain date.

Lu Zhou finally got around to doing this. He logged into his International Mathematical Union account and updated his report information for the International Congress of Mathematicians.

Most people updated their report information half a year ago, and it was rare to see people updating information a month before the conference.

Since it was a one-hour report, and the report presenter was a well-known international scholar, everyone was paying attention to Lu Zhou's report content.

A few months ago, various online mathematics forums were talking about what Professor Lu was cooking up.

Many people in the number theory field checked the official website daily, in hopes of seeing Lu Zhou's topic for his report.

Lu Zhou's report content met everyone's expectations.

When the community saw the report topic was on the Navier–Stokes equation, the entire mathematics community exploded…

On a well-known Europe mathematics forum.

[The existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution? How is this possible?]

[How many times have people claimed to have solved the Navier–Stokes equation?]

[Countless…]

[Last time was the scholar from Kazakhstan, this time it's a Chinese scholar. Do third world countries really want the one million dollar prize that bad?]

[Let's wait until we see his thesis. No one knows yet. What if he really solves the Millennium Prize Problem? Just like how he solved Goldbach's conjecture.]

[This is impossible! Navier–Stokes equation and Goldbach's conjecture are on completely different levels! One is a partial differential equation, the other is number theory! No matter how smart he is, there is no way he can reach the top of two different fields!]

The online debate was fierce.

It wasn't just people online, but many famous mathematics scholars were also paying attention to this unexpected announcement.

Tao Zhexuan was obviously one of them.

Actually, Tao Zhexuan had been doing research on the Navier–Stokes equation in as early as 2007. He had even published a couple of theses.

Tao Zhexuan expressed his opinion on his most recent blog.

[… It is difficult for me to give my opinion before reading the thesis. But according to my understanding of him, although he likes taking risks, he won't do anything that he is unsure of.

[Also, two months ago, I noticed his latest research on Annual Mathematics. Many of you might know the thesis contained a very novel differential manifold. It was called the L Manifold.

[I was confused at L Manifold's specific use. That was until I delved into research on the relationship between partial differential equations and topology.

[Undoubtedly, this is a very interesting differential geometry tool. Since then, I had a feeling that it might be used to solve the Navier–Stokes equations.]

The discussions weren't just happening online.

Two weeks after Lu Zhou posted his report topic, a silver plane flew across the Atlantic Ocean from Europe to North America.

Lions dragged his suitcase out of New York International Airport. He then gave his old friend Fefferman a warm hug.

"Long time no see, my friend."

"Long time no see!" Professor Fefferman patted his old friend's shoulder and asked, "What brings you here?"

Standing in front of Professor Fefferman was Professor Lions from École Normale Supérieure. He was a 1994 Fields Medal winner who had made outstanding contributions to nonlinear partial differential equations and Boltzmann equations.

Lions had always paid attention to the latest research results on the Navier–Stokes equation.

What he saw that Lu Zhou chose the Navier–Stokes equation as his report topic, he immediately hopped on a plane from Paris to Princeton. He also visited his old friend who was the head of the mathematics department at Princeton.

"… I'm curious," Lions said as he placed his suitcase into the trunk. Before he could fasten his seatbelt, he asked, "Did you guys really solve the Navier–Stokes equation?"

Professor Fefferman was holding the steering wheel, and he paused for a second.

After a while, he shook his head.

"… Sorry, I don't know."

Lions was stunned.

He spoke in disbelief.

"You don't know? Haven't you guys been working on this research project together?"

"That's right." Professor Fefferman started the car and said, "We were actually working on the Navier–Stokes equation project together, but two months ago, we decided to work on the problem in different ways and to do independent research…"

Until now, he was still trying to use his abstract proof method.

He wasn't sure which step Lu Zhou was on.

Lions: "…"

Conducting research using two completely different methods.

Only geniuses could do something like this.

Lions went silent for a while before he said, "Can you take me to see Professor Lu? I want to talk to him."

Fefferman shook his head and said, "I'm afraid I can't."

Lions asked, "Why?"

Fefferman sighed and said, "He likes to lock himself in his house when he dives deep into research. Whenever he enters a state like this, unless he was satisfied with his research progress or an earthquake happened, he won't leave his house."

To be honest, Fefferman didn't even think an earthquake would do it.

Lions was astonished. "This… is ridiculous."

Fefferman smiled and shook his head. He then said, "I was just as surprised as you at first. After all, this is the 21st century. I can't believe there's someone using this type of retreat method other than Perelman. And even Perelman only reduces his traveling. He doesn't shield himself completely from the outside world. But I'm used to it."

The professor asked, "Is he… that type of introverted scholar?"

Professor Fefferman waved his hand and said, "Not exactly. He's quite easy to get along with. Everyone in Princeton knows about his unique research method. I heard from my Chinese students that this method is very common in China."

Lions immediately asked, "What research method?"

Fefferman had a serious look on his face as he said, "They call it 'grinding'…"

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Chapter 417: Millennium Prize Problem!

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

There was an intense discussion happening around the world, and Lu Zhou, who was in a retreat, was oblivious to those discussions.

His research didn't go as smooth as expected, but he had confidence in his final result.

If the Navier–Stokes equation was like a maze, then there was only one wall separating him and the exit. Passing that wall was only a matter of time.

There was a week left until the end of the month.

His research entered its most critical stage.

There was only a thin line separating success and failure.

This was it.

Lu Zhou took a deep breath and placed his phone on his desk. He then set a timer for 168 hours.

He pressed start on the timer and closed his eyes.

When he opened his eyes, the light in his dark pupils was gone; all that was left in him was cold, hard logic.

This type of sensory reinforcement didn't increase his brainpower, nor did it increase logical thinking, but it did increase mathematical intuition.

It was like all of the numbers were his friends, and all of the images were transformed into geometric figures.

Lu Zhou was well familiar with this feeling.

Mathematics was the language of God.

At this moment, he was an omnipotent god!

…

The day before the IMU conference thesis submission deadline, dark clouds covered the sky, and the rain was pouring down before the sun even came up.

It kept raining until the morning; it didn't look like it would stop anytime soon.

Vera had an umbrella with her as she came to the Princeton University classroom to fulfill her duties as a teaching assistant and to help Lu Zhou with his lecture.

Even though the students had barely seen Professor Lu this semester, they were fond of this teaching assistant.

Especially after Vera proved the Collatz conjecture, her reputation among the undergraduate students skyrocketed. Many students that hadn't done number theory before would come here and listen to her class.

At the end of the lecture, as usual, Vera allowed her students to ask questions.

Suddenly, an Asian girl with long black hair raised her hand.

"Miss Pulyuy, has Professor Lu produced any research results?"

Normal university students wouldn't pay any attention to the IMU conference, but Princeton was no normal university.

Especially for the students that were taking high-level number theory classes, their plans for the future were to study pure mathematics at the Institute for Advanced Study. It wasn't unusual for them to pay attention to the IMU conference.

Because of this, lots of students were interested in Vera's answers.

They were all curious about how Professor Lu's research on the Navier–Stokes equation was going.

Vera looked at the curious students and shook her head.

"I don't know. I'm afraid only Professor Lu himself can answer this question."

A tall boy with curly hair raised his hand and asked, "Miss Pulyuy, do you think he can successfully solve the Navier–Stokes equation?"

When Vera heard this question, she replied without any hesitation, "Of course he can."

The Asian girl asked, "Why?"

Vera smiled and gently tapped the podium with her fingers.

Then, she spoke in a confident tone.

"Because I believe in him."

Her belief wasn't based on mathematical logic; it was purely based on belief.

Of course, her belief wasn't unreasonable.

Whether it was the Berkeley report, the Collatz conjecture, or the upcoming 45-minute International Congress of Mathematicians report…

That shy little girl who sat in the conference venue by herself; that girl who spent most of her time working at restaurants; and that girl who looked at the mathematical world in awe.

That girl could never imagine what she could accomplish.

All of this was like a miracle.

She believed that Lu Zhou was the one that made this miracle happen; there was nothing Lu Zhou couldn't do.

Suddenly, it stopped raining.

The dark clouds disappeared, leaving a colorful rainbow in the air.

Lu Zhou, who was also in the town of Princeton, also saw that rainbow.

He put down his pen. He looked outside quietly and stared at the rainbow.

He suddenly smiled; his dark, logical pupils gradually lightened up.

Suddenly, the timer on his phone went off.

Lu Zhou turned off the alarm and unlocked the screen. That was when he saw dozens of missing calls.

Some of the calls were from a week ago, some were from today.

He finally had time to deal with these calls.

Lu Zhou picked the phone number with the highest number of missed calls and dialed back.

The phone connected, and an anxious voice came from the other end of the phone.

"Oh, god, if you didn't pick up, I might have driven to your house. Do you know what day it is?"

Professor Fefferman had always been an easy-going person; this was the first time Lu Zhou saw him all fired up.

Lu Zhou moved the phone half an inch away from his face and said in an uncertain tone, "There's a fruit discount at Walmart?"

Fefferman: "…"

Fefferman wanted to punch someone.

He took a deep breath and calmed down. He then yelled into the phone.

"Submission day! Conference submission deadline! According to the rules of the IMU conference, the report presenter must disclose the report content two months before the conference and upload the relevant thesis within one month… Seriously, you didn't forget about this, right?"

"How could I forget about it?" Lu Zhou yawned and said, "… But I remember that we can postpone the thesis, right?"

Professor Fefferman sighed and said, "… Change the report topic, there's still a chance."

Although Lu Zhou could postpone uploading the thesis, Fefferman didn't think it made sense to do so.

Instead of holding onto failure, Lu Zhou should correct his mistake now.

Lu Zhou had plenty of material other than the Navier Stokes equation to report on.

However, Lu Zhou didn't

"Why should I change it?"

The other end of the telephone went silent for a minute.

Professor Fefferman's voice trembled, and he spoke in disbelief.

"… You solved it?"

"I can't solve the Navier–Stokes equation. At least for now, we can't find a general solution," Lu Zhou said. As he placed his phone in his other hand, he smiled and said confidently, "But I can promise you there exists a smooth solution!"

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The phone call ended.

Within 20 minutes, Lu Zhou heard knocking sounds from his front door.

Lu Zhou came out of the toilet and went downstairs.

He then saw Professor Fefferman who was breathing heavily at his front steps.

Upon seeing him, Fefferman immediately asked, "You really, really solved it? The Navier–Stokes equation?"

Lu Zhou looked at Professor Fefferman, who was gasping.

"… Do you want to catch your breath first?"

"No, it's fine." Fefferman leaned against the door with his hand and said, "Tell me, how did you do it?"

Fefferman was usually gentle and easy-going; he had never been this serious before.

Lu Zhou could tell Fefferman was craving for an answer.

"… Long story, come with me."

Lu Zhou turned around and walked upstairs.

Lu Zhou brought Professor Fefferman to the second floor, and they went into his study room. He cleaned up his messy table and floor before he pulled out a one-hundred-page manuscript. He handed the manuscript to Professor Fefferman.

Professor Fefferman took the manuscript and began to think while Lu Zhou spoke.

"I made references to the L Manifold thesis that I published in Annual Mathematics a while ago. If you haven't read that, I suggest you read the two theses together."

Professor Fefferman ignored Lu Zhou's advice and stood there flipping through the pages without saying anything else.

An hour passed by.

Finally, he put down the thesis and spoke emotionally.

"… Unbelievable, this is incredible."

An hour wasn't enough to understand the core ideas of the thesis, but for Fefferman, it was enough time to skim through the thesis.

A major mathematics conjecture proof had to pass through rigorous review from the entire mathematics community, but after an hour of reading, Fefferman couldn't find any mistakes.

The thesis ideas and words were smooth, rigorous, clean, and neat.

Fefferman was mostly surprised at Lu Zhou's ingenious mathematics methods.

"It really is shocking." Lu Zhou made two cups of coffee, and he handed Fefferman a cup before he said in a joking tone, "When I proved the last lemma, even I was surprised by my own wit."

Professor Fefferman took the coffee. He then shook his head and said, "No, it's not just the last lemma, you don't understand what you did."

Lu Zhou asked, "What do you mean?"

"You used the L Manifold to introduce a differential geometry method into the partial differential equations. You've even successfully integrated the principle of topological psychology… I've never seen this before."

Professor Fefferman felt a little thirsty, so he took a sip of the coffee.

After that, he spoke in a half-joking tone.

"Gromov, who introduced the concept of pseudo-holomorphic curves into differential geometry, invented symplectic geometry. And Qiu Chengtong, who introduced the partial differential method into differential geometry, was the founding father of geometric analysis. In my opinion, the L Manifold has the same significance. If I were you, I would think about naming this new mathematical field."

Lu Zhou didn't want to think of another name.

"Let's talk about naming things later, I need to rest right now."

Fefferman's reaction was strong, and he immediately said, "No! You can't rest, not until you transfer the manuscript into an electronic file!"

Fefferman didn't look like he was joking, so Lu Zhou said, "… But can't I postpone the uploading of the thesis for a few days? I was invited to do an hour-long report, surely they will allow me to do this."

I'm an internationally renowned scholar, they must give me some leeway?

I'm not postponing on purpose, I'm just too tired.

Professor Fefferman shook his head.

"You can postpone the upload, but this is a hundred-page thesis, how long do you plan on postponing? Not to mention, you have to edit some of the details in the thesis. I will send a letter to the International Mathematical Union for you. What you have to do now is to sort out your thesis within three days, a week at the latest!"

Professor Fefferman placed the coffee cup on the table and started to walk out the door.

However, he suddenly remembered something.

Fefferman took a deep breath before he turned around and looked at Lu Zhou.

"Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. I have to say thank you."

"Thank you?" Lu Zhou smiled and said, "What is there to thank me for? You're a member of NS research project team as well."

Professor Fefferman shook his head and said, "No, I'm not talking about that."

He paused for three seconds before he cleared his throat and spoke in a solemn voice.

"Whether it is about boats producing ripples on water or jets producing turbulence in the sky, mathematicians and physicists believe the Navier–Stokes equation can predict these phenomena…"

Lu Zhou was stunned.

He suddenly felt like he had heard this quote somewhere before.

Lu Zhou replied, "… Although the Navier–Stokes equation was proposed in the 19th century, we have a very little understanding of the equation."

"That's right," Professor Fefferman said with a smile as he nodded at Lu Zhou. He then said, "Hence, we are the first scholars in the world to change the history of mathematics and challenge the Navier–Stokes equation puzzle!"

The study room went silent for a moment.

Lu Zhou finally remembered where he heard this monologue before.

"… This is the declaration speech from the Clay Institute at the Millennium Mathematical Conference at the French Academy?"

"That's right," Professor Fefferman said. He then smiled and continued, "On May 24th, 2000, at the Millennium Mathematical Conference at the French Academy, the Clay Institute announced seven Millennium Prize Problems, one of which is the Navier–Stokes equation. This monologue was regarding the Navier–Stokes equation.

"And I was the person that gave this monologue."

Lu Zhou was stunned.

He knew the seven Millennium Prize Problems was created by the Clay Institute, and he knew about the Millennium Mathematical Conference held at the Paris Academy.

But he never thought that the person who proposed the Navier–Stokes equation as one of the Millennium Prize Problems was his research project team member?

This was almost like he defeated the person that wrote the exam…

Okay, that metaphor wasn't appropriate.

"Defeat" wasn't the right word.

"Congratulations, Professor Lu," Professor Fefferman said. As he held Lu Zhou's right hand tightly, he said, "You have re-written history, and I, am the witness of this historical moment!

"Remember to upload the thesis on time. Also, protect this manuscript, it might become a museum-worthy item one day."

Fefferman smiled before he left.

As Lu Zhou looked at him leaving, he smiled and shook his head.

He looked at the manuscript in his hand and whispered, "… Princeton really is a magical place."

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Chapter 419: Eliminating the Navier-Stokes Equation

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

After Professor Fefferman left, Lu Zhou took out his phone to call Wei Wen.

The phone quickly connected.

"Hello?"

Lu Zhou asked, "Are you free right now?"

Wei Wen said, "I am, why?"

Lu Zhou said, "Come to my house. If Jerick is there, bring him along. I have a manuscript that I have to transfer to the computer, and I need your help!"

…

Lu Zhou wasn't the first to use a topology method to research partial differential equations. This method was first seen in Hilbert's thesis, and later on, it was also seen in Banach and Braun's theses.

One of the more recent applications of this method was probably by the French mathematician Leray Schauder; this was one of the reasons he won the 1979 Wolf Prize.

However, even with these theses and research results, using topological methods to study partial differential equations had never become an independent discipline.

It wasn't even considered a branch of research; it was merely a research idea or research style.

Lu Zhou introduced differential geometry and topology ideas into the field of partial differential equations by inventing the L Manifold. This allowed him to finally prove the existence of a smooth Navier–Stokes equation solution. This meant that Lu Zhou had perfected this mathematical method.

Therefore, it was no exaggeration when Professor Fefferman said that Lu Zhou had created a new discipline.

As for this discipline's name, Lu Zhou hadn't thought of a name yet.

Maybe in the future, he might consider sorting out his theories and methods into a textbook, and at that time, he could name this emerging discipline.

Of course, it would be better if someone else was willing to do it.

After all, writing textbooks was a very daunting task. Not only did one had to consult a large number of resources, but one also had to consider the readers. The textbook had to be both interesting and challenging. Instead of sharing knowledge, Lu Zhou preferred to absorb and create knowledge.

After Wei Wen received Lu Zhou's phone call, he immediately brought Jerick to Lu Zhou's house. Wei Wen even brought his work laptop.

After three days.

With the help of his two students, Lu Zhou finally transferred his thesis into the computer and uploaded it onto the official website.

Prior to this, Professor Fefferman helped him contacted the International Mathematical Union and explained Lu Zhou's situation to the Union. After hearing Lu Zhou's story, the International Mathematical Union was happy to extend the submission deadline by one week.

Not just that, but due to the importance of the Millennium Prize Problem, the IMU changed Lu Zhou's report date. Originally, Lu Zhou was going to make his report during the opening ceremony on the first day, but the IMU rearranged it so that Lu Zhou could report it one day before the opening ceremony as a special "Navier–Stokes equation" event.

As for why this arrangement was made, the reason was simple.

It was a hundred-page thesis on the popular Navier-Stokes equation. Not to mention, the audience would undoubtedly want to ask questions. One hour was simply not enough for a report.

Lu Zhou looked at his two exhausted students and felt a little apologetic.

"Good work… I'll buy you guys food in a few days. Go get some sleep."

They stayed up all night with Lu Zhou. Since Lu Zhou was used to pulling all-nighters, his body's metabolic function had been strengthened, and it was much more capable than the bodies of the two rookies.

Jerick placed his head down on the table, and within two seconds, he began to snore.

However, Wei Wen's reaction was the opposite.

"No, I'm not tired!"

Although Wei Wen had dark circles around his eyes, he was still energetic. He checked the thesis on the computer screen over and over again, reading every symbol and every punctuation.

"I will check it again; one last time!"

He had said that multiple times already.

Lu Zhou stared at Wei Wen and said, "Don't tire yourself out, checking it once is enough."

Lu Zhou had more than enough time to edit the thesis, so they didn't need to finish the edits today.

Wei Wen felt like Lu Zhou wasn't treating the problem seriously.

"Professor, but this is the Navier–Stokes equation!"

Lu Zhou replied, "Yeah."

Wei Wen was stunned at how nonchalantly Lu Zhou was treating this thing.

"Aren't you excited at all?"

Lu Zhou said, "I was excited in the beginning… but I can't be excited for three days straight, right?"

Wei Wen: "…"

Why not?

This is a Millennium Prize Problem!

If it were Wei Wen, he would be excited for the rest of his life…

…

Lu Zhou postponed his thesis upload by three days.

As a result, the peers who were paying attention to this thesis also had to wait an extra three days.

Less than an hour after the thesis was uploaded, the International Congress of Mathematicians website reached an all-time high of concurrent users; it nearly crashed the website servers.

For a few days after the thesis was uploaded, various mathematics forums were quiet.

Other than the occasional "What's the update?", there weren't any discussions happening.

This was how professional forums were, nutty people didn't have time to post on forums all day.

The really nutty people didn't even have time to visit the forums.

People that could do so were trying to understand the thesis, and people that couldn't do so were watching from the sidelines.

After all, the people that couldn't understand the thesis were afraid to speak and embarrass themselves.

It wasn't easy to read a hundred-page thesis in a short amount of time.

Plus it was a new and unfamiliar L Manifold method…

Even Tao Zhexuan, who was proficient in almost all areas of mathematics, spent two full days reading the thesis.

Tao Zhexuan turned on his computer and couldn't wait to update his blog.

[He adopted an unconventional research pathway and used a differential manifold to bridge the gap between partial differential equations and topology. This kind of research is so clever that it reminded me of the thesis on fixed point theorem written by Mr. Braun…

[I can't say for certain that his proof process is correct. I can only say that for the time being, I cannot find any mistakes. I will later write a more professional post to analyze his thesis and the research ideas he used…

[Of course, even though he has most likely succeeded, I still have a lot of questions that I want to ask him. The Navier–Stokes equation is an interesting topic which I've also been researching for a long time. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to solve it. Thankfully, there are people smarter than me in the world.

[Fortunately, I managed to book my ticket on the 30th! I look forward to the end of the month! :)]

…

Finally, the second week after the thesis was uploaded, the discussion about the Navier–Stokes equation exploded.

Several big names in the academic community expressed their opinions, and their voices spread like wildfire. The news even spread to other fields, like physics.

Shuimu University's forum, Navier–Stokes equation post.

[I just want to know if God Lu succeeded? Is there a mathematics god that can tell us?

[Mathematic gods are useless, and normal people can't understand God Lu's thesis. Today our professor told us in class that the Qiu Chengtong Mathematics Research Center organized a meeting last week for professors that are in the fields of the partial differential equation, differential geometry, and topology. They all began to research on God Lu's thesis.]

[Is there a result?]

[How the hell would I know? They won't tell me the results. However, I read Tao Zhexuan's blog, and it seems like God Lu's thesis is nutty.]

[So many gods…]

[Nutty! Navier Stokes equation, Millennium Prize Problem… If he solves this, he must get in the Thousand People Initiative, right?]

[Pfft, Thousand People Initiative! He's a first-level State Natural Science Award winner! Are you joking?]

[Screw it, I'm going to Brazil. Not traveling, not watching football, I just want to touch God Lu…]

[I want to go as well.]

Time slowly passed by, and it was finally July 31st.

Tomorrow would be the opening ceremony of the International Congress of Mathematicians…

But for most people, this world-class event had already begun.

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