Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Lu Zhou grabbed two pieces of bread from the food trays before he rushed back to his room. Once he threw his two notebooks on the table, he pulled out some draft paper from his suitcase.
Everything was ready.
He took a deep breath and went into the system space. He then started the “inspiration hours”.
It felt different than immersive learning or the focus capsule. When Lu Zhou left the system space, he felt purely rational and not impetuous at all.
A warm sensation traveled from his spine to his brain, it was like a flame that ignited his mind.
“… Strange feeling.”
Lu Zhou squeezed his fist before he rubbed his eyes. He felt like everything in front of him was shaking lightly.
At the same time, the inspiration in his mind was like a tsunami, washing away in his cerebral cortex.
It was hard to describe that feeling.
Suddenly, it was like all of the nerve endings in his body expanded, like his body directly connected with the cosmos…
The rings on his curtains looked like an abstract elongated Mobius ring.
The texture of his sheets looked like the Fibonacci sequence.
The paper cup on the desk, the bed, and the chandelier formed a three-point golden ratio.
These small details were obvious to him.
It was like his vision was reduced to pure geometric images, and he was breaking down data into pure numbers and arithmetic symbols.
This kind of feeling was a paradise for any artist.
Of course, it was also hell for OCD patients…
Lu Zhou took a deep breath and tried not to pay any attention to the sense of distraction in the room while he concentrated on the paper.
It was whether there was an infinite pair of (P, P+2) prime numbers!
…
The functions of the system had been very user-friendly.
A total of 24 inspiration hours could be paused and resumed at any time. However, after each pause, there would be symptoms of “inspiration exhaustion” such as slow thinking, slow reaction speeds, and etc.
After several experiments, Lu Zhou finally became familiar with the use of the function.
He was stuck on the twin prime number problem for more than half a year, so this burst of inspiration made him ecstatic.
As a result, Lu Zhou almost forgot why he came to Princeton in the first place. He forgot about his presentation on the fifth day, and he even forgot about the system mission.
In order to make use of every hour, he would only use four inspiration hours a day, over four sessions. He wanted to utilize every hour and every minute.
He was immersed in the search for answers.
It was like he became a detective, desperately searching for clues.
Every time Lu Zhou found a clue, he was one step closer to solving the problem.
This kind of experience was unprecedented for him.
Lu Zhou did not leave the hotel room for three days.
He completely shut himself in his ten-square-meter room, and he even called room service for food.
Those used draft papers piled up in the corner of his table while crunched up draft papers were on the floor.
The fourth night…
Lu Zhou looked at the mountain of draft papers while he changed the ink in his pen. He could not help but yawn.
“There are only two hours left?”
Lu Zhou looked at the timer on his phone before he went into system space to pause the inspiration hours.
Finally, it was time for a break.
However, that wonderful feeling of inspiration was gone.
With Lu Zhou’s boiling brain gradually cooled down, he took a deep breath and sighed.
Since the academic conference was a waste of time. he had not left his room the past few days.
However, the other gains he received over the past few days was substantial.
He could clearly feel that he was getting closer and closer to solving the twin prime number conjecture.
He was so close…
Lu Zhou stretched and stood up from his chair.
He planned to go for a walk, shower, then lie in bed and have a good night’s sleep. He would wait until the next day to continue.
He walked out of the hotel, through Palmer Square and walked along the Princeton Campus road. The cold evening wind blew on his face and it helped to relax his overheated brain.
Lu Zhou felt like this university looked more like a castle than a university. The students here were very enthusiastic. They would party every night. However, when the time arrived, they would use a 200% effort to study.
This was his observations.
When Lu Zhou was walking along the park, he suddenly met an acquaintance.
The guy walked over to Lu Zhou.
“What happened to you? I was about to look for you.”
“Is there a problem?”
“Nothing,” said Luo Wenxuan. He looked at Lu Zhou strangely and asked, “Are you stuck on something or what…”
“You’re right,” said Lu Zhou. He admitted, “I’m stuck on a problem.”
Luo Wenxuan sighed and asked, “What problem?”
“It’s about the infinity of twin primes.”
Luo Wenxuan shook his head and said, “Sorry, I can’t help you on this one. It’s not in my research field.”
Lu Zhou asked casually, “How’s your research going?”
Luo Wenxuan sighed and said, “The six-sided dice thrown by god produced seven results. This is both a mathematics problem and a quantum mechanics problem. This is the dilemma our research institute is facing.”
Lu Zhou said with sympathy, “That is quite troubling…”
“Yeah, it’s hell,” sighed Luo Wenxuan. He then added, “Yesterday, I talked with Professor Wang Yuping for a long time on how to solve this physics problem from a mathematics perspective, but nothing came of it.”
“Seven results for a six-sided dice…” said Lu Zhou. As he repeated the sentence, he went into deep thinking mode.
Without knowing it, the two soon walked back to Palmer Square.
This place was always lively at night with people going to bars like they were celebrating a victory…
When Luo Wenxuan saw that Lu Zhou did not speak, he asked, “What’s up?”
“Nothing…” said Lu Zhou. He suddenly stopped walking and looked up. His pupils enlarged and he said in an excited tone, “Is that a white pigeon?”
Luo Wenxuan looked at him and said, “What?”
“That pigeon!”
“Where?”
Luo Wenxuan tried to look for the pigeon in the sky.
He could not find anything and when he turned around, Lu Zhou had disappeared…