Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou tore a small piece of paper from the conference handbook and wrote down his own email address.
As for the Facebook account, he did not have one.
Once Molina received the paper, she said, “My email and Facebook is on the back of the chewing gum wrapper.” She then waved her hand and walked away.
Lu Zhou looked at the chewing gum in his hand. He hesitated for a moment before he peeled it and threw it into his mouth.
Emm…
Vanilla mint flavor?
Lu Zhou copied down Molina’s email before he continued to wander around the hall.
Soon, he discovered that Molina was right. People were being proven wrong all the time.
However, “killing the weak” was not the objective. It was merely the result.
Some people just were not at the level of others. There was bound to be conflict.
The most interesting thing was that Lu Zhou saw someone claiming to prove the last step of the Goldbach’s conjecture. When he walked over to see what was going on, he had not even finished reading the proof before two master’s students disproved the academic poster in front of everyone.
Of course, even if it was embarrassing, it was still brave of them to show their research results here. It would definitely benefit the scholars’ future academic path.
Also, the number of “valueless posters” was still in the minority, and most of the exhibited academic results were quite valuable.
For example, a genius studied the automorphism group of Voter algebra. Even they he had not proved the final solution of “AutWn = ?”, he still put forward many enlightening and interesting ideas, which attracted countless students and even some professors.
Lu Zhou walked around and found out that the little notebook he received from the front door was not enough to write on.
In the end, he had to walk back to the gift booths to get another notebook.
Lu Zhou gained immense knowledge today.
It was not just from the “poster session”.
The focus of these large mathematics conferences was the few presentations that happened every day.
What impressed Lu Zhou the most was the 60 minute presentation from Professor Deligne. He reported the research progress on the transcendence of the Riemann zeta function at odd integer points. He proposed many novel ideas and applications. The mathematical methods were extremely groundbreaking.
Lu Zhou listened to the report presentation intently.
…
Lunch break…
The conference team provided a buffet meal with fruit and meat for all the participants.
Lu Zhou took some ribs and a bowl of salad. Once he found an empty seat, he sat down. He then started to flip through his notes from the conference.
Lu Zhou’s focus was on number theory research.
Especially the study of the twin prime numbers.
Even though Lu Zhou did not gain much knowledge from the delusional Indian guy, he was influenced by his optimistic attitude. So, Lu Zhou’s interest was reignited.
“Algebra is only a tool for studying number theory, it’s not the only way…”
Lu Zhou looked at the formulas in his notes and went into deep thought.
“By picking the right lambda function… What if I used another route?”
It took a lot of courage to think outside of the box.
After all, international mathematician Mr. Zhang Yitang had narrowed the figure of 70 million to 246. As long as he kept trying by choosing an appropriate lambda(n) function, he could narrow this gap to 2 one day…
… Maybe?
This was like the Goldbach conjecture. It was far more difficult to climb that last meter of Everest than the 8843 previous meters.
While he was thinking about this problem, a faint perfume smell drifted over.
A woman carried her plate and sat across Lu Zhou. She then started to chat with him.
“Thinking about mathematics?”
“Yeah.”
When Lu Zhou heard her voice, he already knew who she was, so he did not look up. He continued to think of the problem.
“There is a coffee party upstairs discussing the content of Professor Deligne’s morning report. Are you not interested?”
“I would be interested… But I’m researching something else right now,” said Lu Zhou as he shook his head and flipped through his notebook. He poked a small tomato with his fork and inserted it into his mouth.
Molina looked at Lu Zhou curiously and said, “The academic conference is a place for communication. It might only happen once or twice a year. There are other times for research. Why are you researching mathematics right now?”
Lu Zhou casually replied, “There are many opportunities to attend mathematics conferences, but there are only a few moments of inspirations in life.”
Molina looked at Lu Zhou slyly and laughed.
When Lu Zhou looked up at her, he could not understand.
“What?”
“Sorry, nothing. I just think that you’re an interesting person,” said Molina. She added, “I wish you good luck in your problem solving.”
“Thank you.”
Although he did not know what she meant by “interesting”, he could hear that the blessing from her was genuine.
Lu Zhou then raised his cup of juice and touched cups with her.
…
The afternoon was relaxing, and after four o’clock, the conference would be temporarily paused. The poster stall owners would then leave the hall and reopen at 8 am the next morning.
If one thought they were going to rest after four o’clock, one would be wrong!
The focus of the conference was the free time after four o’clock.
At six o’clock in the evening, the organizers prepared a cocktail party at the Princeton Hotel. A wide range of food and wine would be available to the participants.
For many dumb students that could not understand the presentations during the day, this was their main focus of the conference. This was the time when they felt the closest to the geniuses.
Maybe they could use the power of champagne to receive a laboratory offer.
It was not impossible.
Although Lu Zhou was not that interested in socializing, he still recognized the importance of the party. In fact, he could not miss it.
In the evening, Lu Zhou put on a pair of dress shoes and looked at himself in the mirror. He even styled up his hair.
“Not bad.”
Lu Zhou looked at the handsome guy in the mirror and nodded his head with satisfaction. However, he suddenly felt some worries in his heart.
What if people ignore my talent because of my handsomeness?
I hope that doesn’t happen…
Someone suddenly knocked on the door of his hotel room.