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Chapter 114 Professor Frank, are you willing to be a reviewer?

Mathematics and physics have combined to divide the earth into 24 time zones. When the young man in the Eastern Hemisphere seeks spiritual comfort from his loved ones on this night, the sun in Princeton has just risen.

Lott Dugan walked into his office at eight o'clock in the morning.

Although he could wait until nine o'clock, at his age, he could not sleep that long and was unwilling to listen to the nagging of women at home. It would be better to start his day's work in the office early.

At least sitting in front of his messy desk can bring him an incomparable sense of accomplishment. But at home, if there is a little mess, he can only listen to his wife's endless complaints.

But Lott Dugan has always had a quirk: no one can touch his desk, and it must remain in a messy state, because only in this way can he easily find what he needs.

Once the things on the table are tidy, he will need to spend more time looking for exactly what he needs.

Ever since the previous new secretary was scolded and sent away for tidying up his desk, no one except himself has touched his desk at the academy. But it is different at home. The desk in the study is always tidy, no matter what he says, it is useless.

His wife was different from when she was young. She seemed to have developed a mysophobia and could not see anything that was not neat. This also made Lott Dugan, who was already 63 years old, feel depressed.

Lott Dugan has always felt that his messy desk is like the N-body problem he has been studying for a lifetime. Humans cannot accurately map the motion of the planets in the solar system, but there are always ways to predict the approximate positions of these planets at a certain time and find them quickly.

The desktop arranged according to his wishes may seem messy, but it is like a nearly perfect coordinate system, where everything is fixed at a certain coordinate according to his needs. It is not only convenient, but also gives Lotte Dugan a sense of accomplishment.

……

After sitting down at his desk with satisfaction, Lott Dugan turned on his computer and logged into his personal email account first.

I don't know when it started, but putting private interests first and public interests second has become the principle of doing things that every ordinary person in the Federation silently follows.

This is true even for someone Lott Dugan's age.

In fact, for those who have experienced the 1970s and 1980s, most of them do not like the current federal government.

Although the Federation is still huge and looks strong, one can clearly feel that something inside is decaying, and as time goes by, the area of ​​decay is expanding.

Lott Dugan can even sense this from the soap opera screen.

When he was young, the most popular TV series were "Growing Pains", "Little Britain", "The Rescue Team", "Family Matters", "Friends" and other similar stories that conveyed that life should be positive.

In this era, the TV series that people usually talk about have become "Shameless", "Breaking Bad", "House of Cards"...

Of course, these were things he couldn't change, so he just chose to go with the flow.

After checking several emails, he saw an email from Tian from Hua Xia Yan Bei University.

In the past, Lott Dugan had no interest in China, including when he went to the capital of China to attend a mathematician conference in 02, and he did not have a very good impression of this country. But this impression began to change the year before last.

In 2022, he was invited to attend the Global Mathematics Forum in a place called Xiaozhou in China and gave a 60-minute report at the conference. This mathematics conference was initiated by the Number Theory Conference, one of the satellite conferences of the International Congress of Mathematicians, and mainly discussed topics in number theory and arithmetic geometry.

That trip to Xiaozhou also opened Lot Dugan's eyes.

Before this, Lott Dugan only knew that there were three cities in China: Jingcheng, Linhai, and Zhenguan, and had no impression of other cities. However, it was this city, which he had never heard of before he went there, that overturned all his perceptions of China.

The hotel where the meeting was held had an empty bar, unmanned robots that delivered meals, and a well-developed public transportation system. There was even a large screen next to the bus stop that broadcast vehicle information at any time, and there were wireless charging devices on the seats nearby.

The streets in the city center are clean and safe, and some people even ask him out for a walk at night.

There are also high-rise buildings everywhere and an underground transportation system that looks like the future.

He did not even return to Princeton directly after the conference, but stayed in Huaxia for another week. Accompanied by a doctoral student, he visited three surrounding cities, enjoyed the convenience of high-speed rail, visited the scenery of the water town, and even took a look at the countryside below.

While waiting for his flight at the seaside airport, Lott Dugan's mind was full of question marks - how many truths are there in those damn media and can this still be considered a developing country?
After he came back, he naturally paid more attention to China, and everything about China was constantly refreshing Lott Dugan's originally deeply rooted cognition.

By the way, the doctoral student who accompanied him during the week he stayed in China was arranged by Tian Yanzhen.

So after seeing Tian Yanzhen’s email, he clicked on it immediately.

The email was received the day before yesterday morning.

However, he was attending an academic exchange at Columbia University, about a hundred kilometers away, yesterday and did not log into his email, so he only saw this email today.

"Dear Professor Dugan, hello. Nice to meet you..."

Lott Dugan took a quick look at the letter. It was a letter of recommendation, a type he received often, both as the dean of Princeton's School of Mathematics and as the editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics.

Familiar professor friends often write him such recommendation letters. The former are mainly to recommend students to come to Princeton's School of Mathematics for exchange or study, while the latter are to hope that the submitted papers can receive certain attention.

Many people outside of mathematics may not be aware of the importance of Annals of Mathematics in the international mathematics community. After all, there are not as many people who really pay attention to the development of cutting-edge mathematics as one might imagine. People are more concerned about the scientific development that can be seen.

For example, brain-computer interaction, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving...

So for the general public, journals like Nature and Science are more likely to arouse people's interest.

But if you look at the number of articles published in these journals, you can see how difficult it is to publish in the four top journals.

Last year, only 34 papers were included in Annals of Mathematics, while 1017 papers were published in Nature and 815 papers were included in Science. Last year was also the year when Ann.Math included more papers, and sometimes less than ten papers were included in a year.

Due to its high popularity and few accepted papers, the screening work is naturally very troublesome.

As the editor-in-chief, Lott Dugan is well aware that half a year is considered fast for a submitted paper to be reviewed. If there are some unexpected factors, such as the editor taking a vacation, the original reviewer suddenly resigning or running away, and problems with layout design, the review time will be further extended.

Sometimes, for various reasons, mathematicians want their papers to be published as soon as possible, so they often send him an email at the same time as submitting their papers, hoping to receive special care.

Especially when the annual Mathematician Congress is approaching, he often receives similar emails. Because every four years, the World Mathematician Congress awards the Fields Medal, the Nevanlinna Prize, the Gauss Prize, the Chern Prize, etc.

Whether a paper can be published in an authoritative journal in a timely manner sometimes does affect the outcome of the award.

Although some mathematicians are very confident in their papers and will publish them on pre-publication websites such as ArXiver in advance and accept peer review in advance, the problem is that everyone knows that ArXiv is not authoritative, and the bigwigs on the award review committee are unlikely to focus on the results on the pre-publication website.

This year happens to be 2025, and next year is the year of the World Congress of Mathematicians. So Tian Yanzhen is not the first person to send him such an email. Everyone hopes that their papers can be published in journals in advance and noticed by the bigwigs on the review committee.

So Lott Dugan was used to it.

But what interested him was that the paper that Tian Yanzhen recommended to him this time was written by a man who had just turned sixteen. Moreover, the paper combined Schultz's theory with the curve, derived the rational points of the upper bound, gave a general formula, and verified it with a supercomputer.

This made Lott Dugan decide to take a look at the paper himself.

If this paper is really as creative as Tian Yanzhen said, he would not mind personally serving as the editor of the paper and finding suitable reviewers for it.

It's not just because the content of the paper is very innovative, but also because of the age of the first author Qiao Yu.

Mathematicians who have already achieved a certain status are generally more interested in young geniuses because they all know the importance of mathematical talent.

In natural sciences such as physics and chemistry, even when people get older, they can still rely on their rich experience to continue to shine by guiding students in conducting experiments and finding bright spots in complex data, so the research life is generally long.

But once mathematicians reach a certain age, they will lose their creativity. Mathematics is a subject that requires creative thinking. It is not bound by the laws set by predecessors, but must be logically self-consistent within a perfect framework in order to promote the development of the entire subject.

Let's put it this way: a brilliant mathematical idea can create a completely different world. But such brilliant ideas are often the preserve of young people. That's why the Fields Medal is awarded every four years and only to scholars under the age of 40.

It would be so imaginative if a sixteen-year-old could really complete such research independently.

So Lott Dugan did not continue to browse his private emails, but directly logged into the backend of the "Annals of Mathematics" submission system. By searching by keywords, he soon found the paper recommended by Tian Yanzhen.

“Application of Schulz's Complete Space Theory and P-Algebra Methods in Deriving Upper Bounds for Rational Points on Curves”

The formula given directly in the introduction was enough to attract him. How could it be so concise?
Well, it was indeed a very interesting paper, and soon Lott Dugan was immersed in it.

He quickly read the previous part about analyzing curves by citing Schultz's complete space, which is not his area of ​​expertise. Although this part of the work is also very creative, based on his understanding of quasi-complete space, he does not think this part is the most eye-catching content of the paper.

Because Schultz's theory is very complex, it is not sufficient to support the author's ability to derive the upper bound formula of the rational number points on the curve to such a concise level.

Soon Lotte Dugan saw the important part - the derivation of the invariant parameters of the geometric constraints.

It’s really a genius idea!
The genus, homology relations, modular forms, and P-geometric quantization are cleverly combined together through the BSD conjecture, radiating from local complexity to overall complexity, unifying the constraints of all variables into a geometrically constrained invariant parameter!
Beautiful, so beautiful!
Combined with the final supercomputing analysis results of the paper, Lott Dugan also became excited. He picked up his phone and wanted to call Tian Yanzhen to confirm that the main work of this paper was indeed completed by a sixteen-year-old mathematical genius.

But when I looked at the time, I realized that it was already past eleven o'clock in the morning.

This prevented him from dialing the number immediately. Considering the time difference between the two countries, it was already late at night in China, and this should be Tian Yanzhen's private time.

I was planning to put down my phone and directly reply to Tian Yanzhen's email, but I still felt itchy...

No, this guy was the one who wrote to him and sent him an email recommending his paper first. Even if this phone call was not very polite, I think the other party would understand.

With this thought in mind, Lott Dugan still dialed the number.

However, Lott Dugan had also made up his mind that if the other party did not answer the phone within 30 seconds, he would not harass him today. He thought that this would not be considered impolite.

Fortunately, the call was answered in less than ten seconds.

"Hello, Professor Dugan, I guess you saw my email?"

Lott Dugan could hear the excitement in the other party's tone, which reassured him that the other party had not yet gone to bed and did not feel that his call had disturbed his life. Perhaps even Professor Tian was looking forward to his response.

"Yes, Professor Tian. I'm sorry, I was busy at Columbia University all day yesterday, so I didn't see your email until this morning. Then I just read the paper, and I have to say that the geometric constraint invariants proposed in the paper are simply a stroke of genius.

So after the Supercomputing Center reviewed the results of the paper, I decided to serve as the editor of this paper myself, but there is one thing, Professor Tian, ​​you know, I hope to confirm again whether the main work of this paper is really completed independently by the first author of the paper, Joe Yu? "

Lott Dugan, who has taken the initiative to learn about Chinese culture, has become accustomed to respecting Chinese cultural customs and putting the surname before the given name when addressing Chinese people. In fact, in more and more contexts in recent years, everyone has begun to respect this custom subtly.

For example, when commenting on international sports events with Chinese people participating, some international journals began to use the format of surname plus space and then name for Chinese scientists, such as Qiao Yu.

This is not a common situation, as most international academic journals still put the first name before the last name when publishing names. But it is undeniable that this is already a developing trend.

And we still use this method mainly for the consistency of inputting retrieval. Because it was always arranged like this before, everyone is used to searching papers in this way when searching for papers. It will be very troublesome to change it rashly.

"You know what? Professor Dugan, I know you will have this question, because when my student first proposed to do this proposition, I couldn't believe that he could do it to this extent. But there is no doubt that he did it independently.

I believe you can see from the letter I sent you that I am willing to provide academic guarantee for him. Because we have sufficient evidence to prove this. By the way, maybe you can ask Professor Zhang Shuwen who is currently working at Princeton and Professor Robert Greene of New York University.

When my student proposed this proposition, we were both in Huaxia and were invited to attend a seminar on this proposition, where Qiao Yu was the main speaker. Even the proposal of geometric constraint invariants was a request made by Professor Zhang Shuwen to Qiao Yu personally at that seminar.

After hearing this, Lot Dugan probably had his own judgment in his mind.

Well, if a student can make a world-renowned mathematician mentor risk everything he has built over the years to provide academic guarantee, this is enough to explain many problems if the student is not the mathematician's biological son or grandson.

Lott Dugan didn't even think about infringing on other people's achievements.

After all, no matter what benefits are promised, the original author will never give up such results.

"Well, I am very happy to hear this answer. I will personally serve as the editor of this paper and find suitable reviewers for this paper. If there is a chance, I would like to meet your student. Congratulations, Professor Tian, ​​for finding such a student.

To be honest, before this, I really didn’t believe that someone could read Schultz’s paper at the age of sixteen and apply his mathematical methods to their own research. It sounded like a science fiction story.

"Thank you, Professor Dugan. In fact, he is indeed extraordinary and has brought me many surprises. Thank you for personally finding suitable reviewers for him. By the way, I also believe that you can understand my concerns, so the paper has been published on ArXiv. Of course, we have not carried out any publicity for the time being."

"Okay, I understand. But... never mind. Then it can only be a single-blind review. But it doesn't matter, because I believe your student is not a well-known person. Not many people have heard of his name. This is just his first paper completed independently, right?"

"You are wrong again, Professor Dugan. In fact, this is the second paper he completed independently. His first paper was published in the Journal of Number Theory. When he was fifteen years old, he summarized a method for solving a type of cubic Diophantine equation."

"Well... well, I'm more interested in your students. If there is a chance, maybe you can ask him to come to Princeton for an exchange."

"Of course, but he's too young. Maybe in two or three years?"

"It's a deal. Okay, I won't disturb your rest. Professor Tian, ​​I'm glad to have talked to you for so long. Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

……

After hanging up the phone, Lott Dugan thought for a moment, then took out his cell phone and called Zhang Shuwen.

It must be said that Tian Yanzhen's introduction made him even more curious about Qiao Yu. He really wanted to talk to Zhang Shuwen, who had met Qiao Yu, in person about this young genius whom he had never met before.

The call was answered quickly.

"Hello, Professor Zhang, are you free now?"

"Not yet. It's my office Q&A time now, and it will end in twenty-five minutes."

This is indeed a busy schedule, answering questions in the office is also known as Office Hour. This is a task that professors at Princeton University must complete every week.

During this period of time, the professor needs to stay in the office, waiting for students to come to him to discuss and communicate with him about academic issues, course content, research methods, and even life direction...anything.

It is common for professors to ask teaching assistants to teach in their place when they are too busy. The school also allows teaching assistants to take on some teaching duties, especially in discussion classes and tutorials.

But professors must stay in their offices in person during office hours, otherwise they will definitely be complained by students.

After all, Princeton is a private university with expensive tuition. If students feel that the professors do not provide them with the help they deserve in accordance with the regulations, they will definitely be dissatisfied.

"Okay, how about having lunch together?"

"Yeah, okay, but what's up?"

"I want to discuss with you a person who is a very talented rising star in Chinese mathematics."

"You mean Qiao Yu? How do you know him?"

"Haha, it looks like we've reached a consensus. Let's talk about it during lunch. How about Laurea? I haven't had Italian food for a long time." "Okay, Dean Dugan."

After hanging up the phone, Lott Dugan immediately and enthusiastically began to arrange for Princeton's supercomputing center to verify the formula given in Qiao Yu's paper.

Although there is a report issued by the Supercomputing Center of Yanbei University at the end of the paper, the unit of the paper is also written by Yanbei University, right?

Having this report can save a lot of time for secondary verification. For example, the program does not need to be rewritten. After checking once and confirming that there are no problems, it can be used directly.

After the work was arranged, he sent another email to Robert Greene.

I then logged into Princeton's document system and found Qiao Yu's paper published in the Journal of Number Theory, downloaded it and printed it out.

This series of actions can probably be understood as a basic background check conducted by the editor-in-chief of the paper on a new author. Everything is based on the rigor of academic papers.

As for the second author of the paper, he was simply ignored by Lott Dugan.

The paper clearly states the extent of the two authors’ contributions to the paper. To be honest, as an independent researcher who only provided some inspiration to the paper’s authors, it is a bit of a stretch to list him as the second author…

But people are always somewhat tolerant of unknown young geniuses.

After finishing all this, Lott Dugan looked at the time, it was almost half past eleven, so he picked up the printed paper and prepared to go to the appointment.

Although we don’t have the habit of having a full meal at noon, the Laurea restaurant at the school gate is still very good and suitable for occasional snacks. But the most important thing is that although this is an Italian restaurant, it has the style of a French restaurant - the dishes are served very slowly.

Although this can hardly be called an advantage in most cases, it is different when it is necessary to discuss something.

And there are few people at noon, so no reservation is required.

……

When Lott Dugan arrived at the restaurant, Zhang Shuwen had already arrived.

After greeting each other, the two sat down at the dining table. Lot Dugan didn't say much nonsense and directly handed the paper to Zhang Shuwen: "Look at this paper and you will understand why I want to talk to you about Qiao Yu. For me, this is a rare surprise in recent years.

To be honest, even if Professor Tian is willing to provide academic guarantee for this child, I still find it hard to believe that this is a paper completed independently by a 16-year-old child. "

Zhang Shuwen took the paper handed over by Lott Dugan, glanced at it, and said in surprise: "He actually came up with this proposition? How long has it been?"

"Yes, not only did he accomplish it, but the conclusion is perfect. It seems that you have indeed attended his research seminar. I suddenly want to know when he finalized the topic. However, I still suggest that you read the introduction first. I am willing to keep this expectation for a while."

Lott Dugan said expectantly.

Zhang Shuwen glanced at Lott Dugan and continued reading.

Obviously, after seeing the general formula, Zhang Shuwen showed a surprised expression again. Then, just as Dugan thought, the professor quickly began to flip through the table of contents, skipping most of the previous proofs, and went straight to the proof process of geometric constraint invariants and began to read more carefully.

Even after the waiter brought the Italian barbecue they ordered, Professor Zhang remained indifferent to the food.

Lott Dugan did not disturb the other party, but picked up the knife and fork and started eating with relish.

Fortunately, Zhang Shuwen still remembered that he was in a restaurant and did not read the paper in depth. He just glanced through it quickly and carefully read the verification report given by the Yanbei University Supercomputing Center at the end of the paper, then put the paper aside.

Yes, he didn't give it back to Lott Dugan.

"There's no need for that. Professor Tian has already published the paper on ArXiv." Lott Dugan said after taking a look at the paper.

Zhang Shuwen answered directly: "I can't believe that Qiao Yu could achieve such a level in such a short time, so I hope to be one of the reviewers. Please rest assured that I will review this article with the most rigorous attitude and prudence."

Lott Dugan was stunned. It was obvious that he had found Zhang Shuwen today just to talk to him about Qiao Yu, and he did not invite the professor to be a reviewer. However, for this kind of initiative...

"Well, you know, Professor Zhang, I do plan to invite some Chinese scholars to review this paper. If you insist, why not? I have asked someone to verify the results using TIGER. If the final results are consistent with the paper report, then you will be one of the reviewers.

Now it's time for you to satisfy the curiosity of a paper editor. Professor Tian asked, "Not only did you attend the seminar, but you also requested the concise results of this paper? Is that true? When was the seminar held?"

Lott Dugan shrugged and gave his answer, as well as his question.

"Yes. I was invited to attend that seminar when I went to Huaqing this year..."

Zhang Shuwen just started to explain when he was interrupted by Lott Dugan: "Wait, this year? I remember you just went to China and you haven't been back for a few days."

"Yes, if I remember correctly, the seminar was on February 2th, of course it was China time, which was early morning of February 7th here," Zhang Shuwen said with certainty.

There's no way, the memory of that day is too vivid.

"Wait, February 2th? Today is February 7rd. If I remember correctly, when I talked to Professor Tian today, you discussed the feasibility report for this topic on February 2th? In other words, from the time we decided to do this project to the time we completed it, um... it only took half a month?"

Lott Dugan asked in surprise.

Zhang Shuwen nodded, and looked at the Dean of the School of Mathematics opposite him, holding a knife and fork, looking up in surprise, and felt a little happy. After all, Qiao Yu was a Chinese, and a young Chinese who had not received systematic Western education.

“Yes, Professor Dugan. That’s why I wanted to be a reviewer for this paper. To be honest, I was surprised to see his results because his ideas were still immature at that time. I gave him a suggestion.

That is, all the complicated things should be left to the proof process. The result must be simple to be a truly useful mathematical theorem. If the result of the paper is correct, it means that he not only listened, but also did it. "

Zhang Shuwen answered calmly.

"Well, I'm more interested in the story. Your barbecue is almost cold. You can eat while you talk. I'm very interested in knowing what happened that day."

……

This lunch, which was too sumptuous for Westerners, took about two hours.

Excluding the time Zhang Shuwen spent on his paper, the time spent on Qiao Yu was about half. However, this was enough to make the image of Qiao Yu three-dimensional and full in Lott Dugan's mind.

Add some filters...

This is a humble and well-behaved genius.

He had not received a relatively complete mathematics education. Most of his mathematical knowledge came from self-study. Even before he had this idea, he did not know the basic tool of the Riemann-Roch theorem.

Even without any guidance, I could understand Schultz's paper.

Of course, the latter is just what Zhang Shuwen heard, and there is no way to prove it for now. But even if someone is tutoring, this is already amazing enough.

After lunch, Zhang Shuwen asked, "Professor Dugan, I would like to ask, if the supercomputer verification proves the correctness of the formula, which experts do you plan to invite to be reviewers of this paper?"

Lott Dugan smiled and replied, "Obviously, Schultz is a good candidate. I think if he knew that there was a child with the same talent as him who extended his theory, he would be very interested."

Zhang Shuwen asked, "What else?"

Lott Dugan asked in a questioning tone, "What do you think of Dennis from Harvard?"

"Didn't the team he formed with Professor Raskin just publish the geometric Langlands conjecture? He should be busy during this period, right?" Zhang Shuwen said with a frown.

"I remember there are two Chinese professors in his team. Even if Dennis doesn't have time, I think he would hand over a paper of this magnitude to capable professors for review instead of just finding any student." Lott Dugan smiled and said confidently.

Of course, this confidence does not only come from his confidence in this paper, but also from his own status in the mathematics community.

Zhang Shuwen nodded. Including him, there were three reviewers in total, which was enough for an ordinary paper, not to mention that Lott Dugan had found reviewers of sufficient quality.

Although high-level and high-importance papers often mean that journal editorial offices will look for more reviewers out of prudence.

But this is not necessary for papers where the results can be verified by supercomputing and have passed verification.

Unless the editor does not trust the author of the paper.

"In addition, I have also contacted Professor Robert Greene of New York University. If he agrees, I plan to have him serve as a reviewer as well. What do you think?" Lott Dugan asked again.

Zhang Shuwen thought about it and then nodded.

He knew Robert Greene's feelings towards Qiao Yu. If it was another reviewer, it could be interpreted as distrust, but if it was this professor, it could only mean that he valued him. Of course, it could also be because he was not the reviewer selected by Lott Dugan.

But it doesn’t matter, Zhang Shuwen doesn’t care about these.

……

Not surprisingly, two days later, Princeton's supercomputer came to the same conclusion as Yanbei's supercomputer.

In fact, this was expected.

Unless it is a technical issue, no one would falsify something that can be easily verified.

Lott Dugan also began to contact the selected professors step by step.

This step went smoothly. The top professors he selected all showed great interest in the paper, especially Schultz.

When he heard that the author of the paper was only sixteen years old, he just asked: "Really?"

After getting a definite answer, I gladly accepted the invitation and became one of the reviewers.

But some things were just as Zhang Shuwen had expected. After agreeing to be a reviewer, Professor Dennis of Harvard University did not intend to review the manuscript personally, but instead found a Chinese-American professor in the team who taught at the University of Berkeley.

"Professor Frank, Professor Dugan, the editor-in-chief of the Annals of Mathematics, invited me to review a paper. It is said to be the work of a young genius from your China. It is about the derivation of the upper bound of rational points on a curve, and it uses many new methods. I think you will definitely be interested in taking a look."

"Young genius? Isn't he blind?"

“No, the authors have already published the paper on ArXiv, so Lott Dugan doesn’t think it’s necessary to use a double-blind approach.”

"Oh? What do you think of the level?"

"After reading the introduction and the data verified by supercomputing at the end, I think it makes sense to submit the paper to Annals of Mathematics. It is a very important achievement."

"A young genius from China? Well, I think I am indeed somewhat interested. However, you may not know that China is very keen on hyping up young geniuses. I do not doubt the quality of the paper itself, but I do doubt the author behind it."

"Haha, Frank, you have to believe in Professor Dugan's ability. At least he is optimistic about it. And as reviewers, we are only responsible for the paper itself. Since you agree, I will send the paper to you right away."

"Okay, Dennis."

……

In the office on the third floor of the Department of Mathematics at the Berkeley campus, Feng Yu, no, it should be said that Professor Universe Frank put down the phone and opened his email.

He has given himself an English name since he became a naturalized American citizen.

Feng Yu felt that he should not be a person who forgot his roots, so he used Frank as his last name. The pronunciation of this word in English is actually very similar to Feng. As for the name Univos, it was taken from the word Yu in his name.

The word "universe" in English is "Universe".

This is how he always introduces the origin of his name to the international students from China at school, even though it has been so many years and he has never returned to China since he came to this country to study.

Of course, as a young and promising professor studying basic mathematics, there is nothing wrong with this.

Soon, there was movement in the mailbox.

Feng Yu downloaded the paper casually and then took a look at the corresponding author.

Yan-zhen Tian (Yanbei University), then smiled, he was indeed a student of the big boss of the Huaxia Academy.

However, when his eyes moved from the first author Yu Qiao (Yanbei University) to the second author, he was suddenly stunned and frowned subconsciously.

Xi Qiao (independent researcher)?
Unprepared, a memory that had long been dead suddenly came flooding back to me.

Without rushing to read the paper, Feng Yu took a deep breath, and somehow logged into the browser on his computer, then awkwardly typed in the website of Baidu, the search engine most used by Chinese people.

He was used to using Google, so he felt a little uncomfortable with Baidu's interface.

Then he typed Qiao Xi's name into the search bar, and there were results, but it was a celebrity, not the person he had in mind, and the rest were just some random results. So he started searching for Qiao Xi, an independent mathematical researcher, but still found no useful results.

Feng Yu thought about it, then looked at the first author.

Damn Chinese, there are too many characters represented by yu.

However, he still entered Qiao Yu first. If it was as he guessed, this name was the most likely...

This name is very popular, but most of it does not match his guess, nor does it match the introduction of Dennis as a young genius.

For a moment, he felt an urge to find Tian Yanzhen's contact information and then make a phone call to ask about the author of the paper, but he held back.

Regardless of whether you are a reviewer or not, it is unreasonable to contact the corresponding author of a paper to inquire about the author's situation before the paper is reviewed.

But after thinking about it, I still feel unwilling.

So Feng Yu simply tried the word "yu" one by one using the input method.

Finally, when he used the word "metaphor", he saw the result he wanted.

"Good news! Qiao Yu from Xingtie No. 1 Middle School in our city won the first place in CMO!"

Feng Yu immediately clicked on the website where the news was published - Xingcheng Morning News. Suddenly, his mind made a buzzing sound, as if he had been hit by a precise bolt of lightning!
Below the article is a huge photo, which was taken at the gate of Xingtie No. 1 Middle School. There are congratulatory words hanging on the arched balloons in the back, and the young boy standing between the two adults below has such familiar eyes and eyebrows...

Just like—how he looked when he was young.

Qiao Yu? Qiao Xi?
　PS: The 29th day of updating words has been completed!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)