Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
The popularity of the twin prime number conjecture gradually faded.
Lu Zhou was happy to see himself removed from the trending page.
He could finally go to the library.
He was in his final thesis writing stage. The only thing left for him to do was to edit it. He could start the oral defense stage in mid-March. Then he would receive his undergraduate degree at the end of March, and he could then start to challenge his master’s degree.
Lu Zhou woke up in the morning and went to the library. Before he could even enter the library, he was recognized by a girl.
“Wow, you’re Lu Zhou? You’re a legend? I’m a mathematics major as well! Can you help me? My thesis keeps getting rejected. Can you look at it for me?”
Lu Zhou was pretty easy going, so he was willing to look at it.
“Right here? What if you send it to my email…”
The people around him quickly started to come over.
“It’s Lu Zhou… Nutty, he looks so young.”
“F*ck, it’s him!”
“Are you preparing for the graduate entrance exam as well? Why are you at the library so early.”
A third-year student excitedly came over and asked, “God Lu, can I shake your hand?”
Lu Zhou’s hand was grabbed before he could respond.
“I’ve got the spirit of the god. I won’t wash my hand before my exam!” said the guy after he released Lu Zhou’s hand. He then quickly walked away.
Lu Zhou: ? ? ?
“Genius student, do you have a WeChat? Can you add me?”
“God! Do you still use your mathematical analysis and advanced algebra notebooks? I’ll buy them off you for a thousand!”
“I’ll pay a thousand five hundred!”
Lu Zhou: ? ? ?
The crowd was getting more and more excited, so Lu Zhou took the chance and slipped through the library door.
…
The library was the same.
His internet fame might have faded slightly, but his reputation in the school was still there.
He then went to the mathematics building and found an empty classroom.
Once Lu Zhou found a seat to sit down, he sighed and took his laptop out of his bag. Just as he was about to edit his thesis, Xiao Ai’s window popped up.
The window contained chat records of the mathematical modeling group chat.
They were chatting about him.
Chang Qing: [… What a god, solved Zhou’s conjecture last year, and solved twin prime number this year.]
Xian Zong: [Ah, he’s too quiet though. He hasn’t said a word since joining our group chat.]
Kedu: [What if, we slide into his dm?]
Chu Chu: [F*ck off.]
Chang Qing: [I wonder if he’s joining the modeling competition this year? Hopefully, I can join his team, I want to win the Higher Education Society Cup.]
Dayday: [Modeling competition? He’s not even joining the US Competition, why would he join the domestic one?]
Lu Zhou looked at the chat records and smiled.
Xiao Ai: [Master, are you happy?]
Lu Zhou smiled and typed: [Happy. When I save up to 2 million yuan, I’ll buy you a new home.]
Allowing this little AI to live in a tiny laptop was quite annoying as the CPU would constantly be burning. The noise from the fan was especially annoying.
The university was prepared to give him another million yuan for solving the twin prime number conjecture.
He had already asked Dean Lu. When the TV interview was over, the award would be presented to him by Principal Xu.
Plus his savings, he could buy the 2 million yuan server!
Xiao Ai: [It’s 2.9 million though.]
Lu Zhou: “…”
He suddenly felt as if he was spoiling this guy.
He edited his thesis for around an hour before people starting to come into the classroom.
When Lu Zhou looked up at the podium, he saw a young glasses wearing PhD student adjusting the projector.
There’s a class here?
The PhD student made eye contact with Lu Zhou.
He was stunned.
Suddenly, the class bell rang.
The PhD student did not say anything. Instead, he gently coughed and started his PowerPoint presentation.
“Today, we’ll talk about basic number theory… Let me introduce myself, I’m Wang Shijie. I’m still studying my PhD in the field of number theory. If you are interested in the field of number theory, feel free to consult Professor Li Zhongshu.]
He then turned to the next page.
Most middle school students knew about prime numbers and natural numbers.
This was precisely the magic of number theory.
Even though many conclusions could be expressed in basic mathematics, without further knowledge in mathematics, it was almost impossible to study or prove these conjectures in depth.
Lu Zhou was getting a bit tired, so he closed his laptop. He wanted to see what the lecture was about.
He looked at the blackboard curiously.
[
The contribution of Chinese scholars to prime numbers.
Zhou’s theorem: When 2^(2^n)<P<2^(2^(n+1)), MP has 2^(n+1)-1 which are prime numbers.
Presented by: Zhou Haizhong.
Proved by: Lu Zhou.
]
This was not the main problem.
The main problem was that the PowerPoint presentation contained a photo of Lu Zhou.
When Lu Zhou saw the photo, he instantly blushed. He wanted to bury his head in his keyboard.
This is so embarrassing!
Where did they even get this photo! It doesn’t even reflect my true handsomeness!
This…
This is unacceptable!
Lu Zhou did not know what to do.
The PhD student on stage was also feeling awkward.
F*ck sake!
I found this photo online. Who knew that you would come to my class!
Next slide of the powerpoint.
It was related to Lu Zhou as well.
[
Twin prime conjecture
The Polignac conjecture proposes that for all natural numbers k, there is an infinite number of prime pairs (P, P + 2K). The case of k=1 is the twin prime guess.
Proof: Define theta(n)=lnn if n is a prime number; define theta(n)=0 if n is a composite number. If we can properly select the function lambda(n)…
The Chinese scholar Zhang Yitang proposed the above proof, the current best result is 246.
]
A student sitting in the front row saw this slide and raised his hand.
“Teacher, I think this conjecture was proved a few days ago.”
The PhD student was a little embarrassed, so he coughed and said, “I made this powerpoint two weeks ago and I forgot to change it. This conjecture was proven by Lu Zhou from our University of Jin Ling. The specific proof process is too long, so it won’t be tested in the exam. Oh yeah, also, Lu Zhou is sitting in the fourth row of our classroom.”
The PhD student smiled at Lu Zhou.
Suddenly, everyone turned their heads toward Lu Zhou.
Especially the guy sitting next to Lu Zhou, his eyeballs nearly popped out.
He was probably wondering how he did not notice.
Lu Zhou smiled at the PhD student on the podium and sighed.
I can’t even go to class.
Soon after, the class ended.
Lu Zhou packed up his stuff and left.