Top academic

Chapter 77 A Phone Call That Changed My Perception (Part )

Qiao Yu admitted his mistake very straightforwardly.

face?

nonexistent!

He is only fifteen years old, and it is not time for him to care about his reputation.

If a group of professors really want to save face with him, then those professors will appear to have no face.

Come on, if you have the guts, come and quarrel with me, a fifteen-year-old kid. Let’s see who will be embarrassed if news gets out!

This is the unstoppable and shameless age advantage. If it gets out, it will be socially disastrous for the professor.

But it was obvious that Qiao Yu overestimated the composition of the people in this forum.

It would be fine if it was just a private chat with professors, but posting such a message directly on the forum really made many graduate students lose their defense.

"This account has been hacked, right? Please show us your method for solving the equation first before we talk!"

"I feel offended!"

"Haha? Middle school student, do you think we would believe it?"

"No? Qiao Yu? Could it be the one from Xingcheng Railway Middle School?"

"What is Star City Railway No. 1 Middle School?"

"The list of Xiaolibaba finalists has been announced. The only gold medalist in the Algebra and Number Theory category is Qiao Yu, and his school is Xingcheng Railway No. 1 Middle School. You can check the official website to find out."

"What? Does that mean this rookie is really a middle school student?"

"Ha, ha, ha, ha... Rookie?"

"Oh my god, brothers, this is real! Sorry to bother you, I'll take my leave now!"

"Wait for me, let's delete the account together, I don't want to play anymore!"

"Student Qiao Yu, I advise you to be sensible. I'll give you two minutes to delete your post before my tutor sees it!"

"Everyone, I've taken a screenshot of the ranking of Xiaolibaba's Algebra and Number Theory Group. Please evaluate it for yourselves."

……

Yes, to these graduate students, is Qiao Yu here to apologize? He is here to get close to me and start a fight!
The application and answering system has ensured that only those who can hang out in this forum are good at mathematics.

So no one’s heart is cleaner than anyone else’s.

Today is Saturday, and the day after tomorrow is Monday.

Although it is summer vacation now, everyone who has studied for a master's degree knows that in order to maintain the consistency of research progress and academic achievements, in most cases, these graduate students, who are no longer worth much, need to continue working and studying during the winter and summer vacations.

Even though pure mathematics research is not as hard as engineering, and you don't need to spend twenty hours a day in the laboratory, and even an enlightened supervisor may allow you to go home for the summer vacation, but if you want to graduate on time, weekly reports are generally necessary, even if they are remote reports through WeChat or other software.

If the supervisor is not available, there will usually be a junior supervisor keeping an eye on him. Graduate students who have not yet completed the tasks at hand can already imagine the supervisor's face and what he is likely to say after the news spreads.

"That's it? After all this time you've handed in this piece of crap? You're really going backwards. You're not even as good as a junior high school student, do you know that?"

What is even more tragic is those domestic students in the forum who participated in the Xiaolibaba Mathematics Competition, made it to the finals, and won awards.

Although there are five tracks in the Xiaolibaba Mathematics Competition finals, this forum is about discussing algebra and number theory. The graduate students hanging out here must have chosen their tracks in the same way as Qiao Yu.

At this time, someone took a screenshot of the final result and posted it on the forum, which did not look very good.

"Tsk tsk tsk... This ranking... Forget it, I won't comment on it. Let's go to the next one."

"I don't understand either. Next one."

"Brother Zheng from Huaqing, first of all, congratulations on winning the bronze medal. But I'm not trying to cause trouble. I think Qiao Yu came to the forum and posted this at this time just to hit me in the face."

"Ahem, I also think this is a bit too much. The administrator should come out and delete this post. It attracts too much hatred."

"I say, don't do that. That high school student might be peeking at the screen and enjoying himself."

……

Qiao Yu was indeed peeking at the screen, and he kept refreshing the screen.

This forum is too rudimentary. There is no real-time notification function for replying to posts. It is even worse than Tieba. You can only refresh manually to see new comments. It is just a matter of adding a few lines of code between the front-end and the back-end. Most likely, the administrator is too lazy to add such a practical function.

But I have to say that the emotional value obtained in the forum is much better than that in the group chat of Class 13.

The only pity is that the forums that keep complaining are not high-ranking, let alone math experts, there are not many weirdos. Most of them are math masters and math experts, with a few math upstarts in between.

But this is also good, you can play more relaxed.

For example, when he saw a math genius saying that he was peeking at the screen, Qiao Yu responded without hesitation.

"Uncle, please don't slander me. I didn't peek at all! And I won't be a freshman in high school until September, so you can only say that I'm a prospective high school student. After all, I'm here to apologize to all the uncles and aunts, and I can't let down the group of high school students!"

With such a low level of title, he is definitely not a professor.

Since they are all students, Qiao Yu will definitely not be timid at all and must show an apologetic attitude.

Now thinking back, when a bunch of math geeks were mocking him, these little Karamis were also watching and joining in. So he absolutely cannot refuse to apologize to them just because they are all students. We should all be equal.

……

China, Xiaozhou.

It’s already the end of August, and school is about to start…

So Professor Xue Song from Yujiang University is busy going on a blind date today.

Anyone who has worked as a professor in a university basically knows that as long as one has a regular position and has established a leading position in the research field, life during the semester and during the winter and summer vacations is actually pretty much the same, and there is no concept of whether school is in session or not.

It’s just that some professors attach more importance to teaching, and they will review the courseware before the semester, and even make certain modifications and updates.

Some professors are probably more relaxed, and if their graduate students don’t remind them, they would forget that school is about to start. They are confident that they are knowledgeable enough and can improvise in every class, making those silly undergraduates bow down to them without having to make any special preparations.

Of course, for some young professors, well, there is actually not much difference between winter and summer vacations and the school term.

Under the pressure of being promoted or leaving, I couldn't delay my research and teaching. I worked overtime during the winter and summer vacations, either busy with projects or busy with publishing articles.
Xue Song is actually somewhere in between the two.

In fact, he cannot be considered a top academic leader in the mathematics department of Yujiang University, but he is definitely a leader among professors of the same age.

Moreover, Xue Song has a lot of say in the areas related to his research.

Not only because he has published two heavyweight papers, but also because some related research groups often invite him to participate in seminars when doing research projects, and he can indeed put forward some very good suggestions.

These suggestions certainly cannot be written into papers, but colleagues in related research fields know that Professor Xue Song of Yujiang University has a solid theoretical foundation, active thinking, and strong comprehensive strength.

This is also one of the manifestations of one's status in the academic circle. Contributing unique ideas in high-level academic discussions is also a source of fame.

It’s just that this kind of fame is hard to break through.

Xue Song is only 35 years old this year, which is the age when he is in his prime and can produce results. He focuses his energy mainly on his career, so some personal matters are naturally delayed.

In addition, there are very few women in the mathematics circle, both in China and abroad.

So Xue Song, like Lan Jie, is still single in his thirties.

The difference is that Ranger's parents are open-minded enough and don't think being single for a lifetime is a big deal.

But Professor Xue's parents are quite traditional, holding the idea that the worst of the three unfilial acts is to have no offspring, so they get anxious about their son's singleness every day. Naturally, they mobilize everyone around them to help Xue Song find his future partner.

There is no way to get rid of it. There is no way to get rid of it.

Yesterday, his aunt introduced a new female colleague to a public institution. Today happened to be Saturday, so they made an appointment to have dinner together.

Originally, Xue Song was just doing the job and was planning to leave after dinner.

As soon as they walked out of the mall, the girl said thank you to Xue Song for treating her to dinner. There happened to be a movie called "Chicken Baby" in the summer that she had always wanted to watch, but she didn't make it because she was very busy at work.

Plus it’s still early today, so I would like to invite Professor Xue to go watch a movie with me.

The girl took the initiative to invite him, and Xue Song couldn't refuse, so he could only agree happily.

By the time they arrived at the nearest cinema, only tickets for the 7:40 show were left.

The girl bought the tickets, and Xue Song bought two drinks and two buckets of popcorn, and started watching the movie when the time came.

The first half of the movie went fine, but in the second half, Xue Song's phone started to become restless again, vibrating back and forth in his pocket.

It was certainly inappropriate to take out a cell phone in a movie theater, so Xue Song used the excuse of going to the restroom and walked out of the screening room before taking out his phone to take a look.

Wow, in just a short while, there were three missed calls, and they were not from the same person.

What kind of emergency is this?
Xue Song called back directly in the order in which the calls came.

"Professor Chen, what's up?"

"Old Xue, I remember you were in the grading group for this Xiaolibaba competition, right? Please send me a screenshot of Qiao Yu's answers."

"Hmm? Professor Chen, you may have misunderstood. Qiao Yu just graduated from junior high school and hasn't reached..." "Hey, I know. Oh, you haven't been to the forum yet? You can find out if you go to the forum. That guy is the rookie who solved your equation before."

"What? Qiao Yu is the rookie?" Xue Song was stunned.

But now thinking back, it does fit the rookie status.

The forum IP shows that the address when the rookie posted was Xingnan Province. Qiao Yu is indeed from Xingcheng, Xingnan Province, and goes to Xingtie No. 1 Middle School. There is also a word "Yu" in his ID. The most important thing is that he can obviously handle Xiaolibaba's competition questions with ease.

But why didn't he think of it at that time?
"Lao Xue, Lao Xue...I've been talking to you for a long time, why are you silent?" the person on the other side urged.

"Oh, I was thinking about something else just now. Huh...it's him, no wonder I couldn't find him! But he is still a junior high school student..." Xue Song sighed subconsciously.

It's not just emotion, there's actually some horror in the emotion.

I didn't expect that I was just deceived by Qiao Yu's age.

15 years old!

Even though he could skillfully solve math problems given by a group of professors, solving the equations he gave was not as simple as simply solving a problem, but involved some of the latest research directions.

For example, modular forms, number-theoretic geometry, and local field theory such as p-adic number theory.

The Xiaolibaba Math Contest is also difficult, but in a different way. The format of the contest questions is very straightforward. Even if the questions are about integer solutions, they are usually limited to a specific range. The contestants are tested on their basic problem-solving skills and their flexible use of theorems and methods.

Solving his equations directly involves the theoretical depth of modern number theory, and its solution requires more complex algebraic geometry tools, arithmetic geometry tools, and advanced techniques in numerical analysis.

The simplest and easiest to understand difference is that the person who sets the competition questions knows the correct answer and can provide detailed problem-solving steps as a reference answer.

But the equation he gave on the forum, he, the person who set the question, didn't even know the correct answer.

He just confirmed that there was an integer solution, but he didn't know what the numerical solution was.

In other words, although Qiao Yu was only fifteen years old and had not yet had time to go to high school, let alone college, he already had the ability to do mathematical research, and this ability had even been indirectly verified.

It can even be said that Qiao Yu's ability is not just in answering competition questions, his research ability is stronger than many mathematics graduate students in China.

Where is the gap?
Let me put it this way. On the day Qiao Yu published the solution to the equation, he assigned the task of finding the numerical solution to the equation to his graduate students as an extra task. There were master's students, doctoral students, and students studying for both master's and doctoral degrees. But more than a month had passed, and none of his students had found a way to solve the problem.

It took only more than ten days from the time he gave the equation on the forum to the time Qiao Yu gave the correct numerical solution.

Comparing yourself to others will really make you angry! At this moment, Xue Song didn't know whether to say that his students were too stupid or Qiao Yu was too capable.

"Yes, it is because he is still a junior high school student, so we can't let him go. In this kind of matter, everyone has their own means. If we can get such a student, the tutor won't have to worry about anything during the master's and doctoral studies. He can be used as a junior tutor. So can you send me a screenshot of his answer? I want to see his train of thought."

After hearing this, Xue Song took a deep breath and said, "I'm out now, it's not convenient. But you don't have to look at it. He is the only one who got full marks in the number theory track this year. The solution process is not much different from the standard answer, and it is even more detailed.

Also, don't think about him. He can't compete with Huaqing and Yanbei. I have talked to him. This kid has a clear plan for the future. Even our Yu family doesn't like him, let alone your school. "

"No, have you communicated with him?"

"Yes, I treated him to a meal. He was one of the contestants invited to compete in the finals at Xiaohu. I happened to be here to take a look."

"What about his tutor? To be able to tutor such a student, his level must be very high, right?"

"The teacher who brought him here is called Lan Jie. He has a bachelor's and master's degree from Shuangdan University. I looked up his master's thesis on CNKI. It's called "Combinatorial Design and Experimental Optimization: A Study Based on Response Surface Methodology". You can read it and see how good his level is. Anyway, my evaluation is that he has the basic master's degree from Shuangdan University."

"No, then how did he accumulate so much knowledge in algebra and number theory? Don't say he taught himself."

"What else? Don't ask me everything. Why don't you find out by yourself the admission rate of Xingcheng Railway No. 1 Middle School and the admission rate of Tsinghua University and Peking University in recent years? That's all I know. I'll hang up now."

After saying that, Xue Song hung up the phone.

He was too lazy to say too much to his colleagues who were obviously trying to take advantage of the other party's ignorance.

He has been teaching at Yujiang University for five years, so he naturally knows a lot about the bullshit in the academic world. Even if he doesn't deliberately ask about it, many things will automatically come to his ears.

There are all kinds of traditions and factions. Even because a director has a little overt or covert competition with another director on a certain project, a student who has graduated and is unaware of the situation and has some simple cooperation with the other director will be regarded as rebellion by his peers...

Many highly educated people who are already at the top of the pyramid have minds smaller than the tip of a needle, and Xue Song has always been unwilling to get involved in these messes.

As for the competition for results, there are even more things. On the surface, they are all friendly, but secretly they probably wish the other person to die.

Xue Song has already offended many people for this reason, so naturally he doesn't care about offending more people.

After roughly understanding what the situation was, Xue Song did not call everyone back, but directly logged into the forum with his mobile phone.

Sure enough, I saw Qiao Yu’s post again, and also a private message.

Xue Song first glanced at the private message, ignored Qiao Yu's little thoughts, and clicked on Qiao Yu's post.

After seeing that there were a bunch of students complaining there, I quit the browser and opened WeChat.

It was just as he imagined. The professor group that had been chatting animatedly to guess who the rookie was was now completely silent.

He couldn't help but sneer twice, then pulled up the address book and was about to call Qiao Yu, but hesitated for a moment, then walked into the screening room, found the girl he was going on a blind date with today, and said, "Sorry, the school just called and said there's something urgent, so I have to leave today. Shall we get in touch later?"

"Oh, okay, Professor Xue, work is more important."

"Thank you for understanding."

Xue Song smiled apologetically, turned around and walked out of the screening room and directly called Qiao Yu.

There was no other way. Xue Song felt that this call would take a long time, and he couldn't let the girl wait in the screening room all the time. He could dislike her, but he couldn't disrespect her.

……

Qiao Yu, who was having a lot of fun on the forum, immediately picked up the phone when he saw it coming.

Qiao Yu had already prepared an excuse in his mind. After all, some things had to be faced sooner or later. Fortunately, this call was not about accusing anyone.

"Hello, Professor Xue, hello."

"Well, Qiao Yu, that Yu Jian Xiao Qian Qian is really you, right?"

"hey-hey……"

Qiao Yu laughed dryly twice and was about to start to quibble, but the other party asked directly: "Have you told others about the solution of the equation?"

"Well, I explained it to Teacher Lan, but Teacher Lan said she didn't quite understand it." Qiao Yu said honestly.

"It's normal that he doesn't understand. If someone asks about it on the forum, don't talk about it for now. Your solution can be used to write a paper that is eligible for submission to Zone 1."

After hearing this, Qiao Yu immediately replied: "Teacher Lan also told me the same thing, but he said that I must first make sure that my solution is universal."

"No need to be sure. Since you can find the numerical solution to this equation, you can definitely solve this type of Diophantine equation. It's just a matter of how much computing power is consumed. I'm sure of this question."

"Is that so..." Qiao Yu sighed. It seems that there is indeed a big difference between university professors and high school teachers.

"So don't tell anyone about it for now. If other professors call and ask about it, don't mention it either."

"Not really? Would a university professor covet my little tricks?" Qiao Yu said in surprise.

"Don't think professors are that noble. Let me tell you a story. Two professors were drinking together and discussing a point. They had a relatively in-depth argument.

One of the professors wrote an article and published it directly. Because of this, another professor fought a lawsuit with him for several years, arguing about who was the originator of this view.

A point that has not been widely argued can be argued like this. Do you think there will be people coveting your paper, which is likely to get results immediately?"

Xue Song's answer made Qiao Yu feel astonished.

It seems that professors in the eyes of good people are all good people, but according to what Professor Xue said, it seems that is not the case?
But speaking of it, Xue Song's answer seemed to be more in line with his understanding of people, so he immediately replied seriously: "I understand."

"Okay, I understand. We can talk about this matter later. I'm calling about another very important question. What are your plans for the future?" The person on the other end asked straight to the point, catching Qiao Yu off guard.

So I could only answer honestly: "Actually, I haven't thought about it yet."

"Okay, let me ask you more specifically. Are you planning to go abroad?"

This time Qiao Yu answered firmly: "No, I have to take care of my mother in China."

"Then your future choice is between Huaqing and Yanbei. Which one do you plan to go to?"

Qiao Yu hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Well... I'm still hesitating about this, too. Do you think I can negotiate terms with these two universities? For example, scholarships?"

"Who told you that you have the capital to negotiate with the university?"

Qiao Yu was somewhat bewildered, and asked, "Is it not possible?"

"I can tell you clearly that if you only have a gold medal from the Little Libaba Mathematics Competition, it's not enough."

Qiao Yu asked: "What if I can still win the IMO gold medal?"

"After I hang up the phone, go check the list of members and their scores who represented China in the IMO in 2005. If I remember correctly, there should be a person named Zhang Bin, who was one of the only two people on the Chinese team who won a perfect gold medal.

At that time, he told me that Huaqing University and Yanbei University had indeed contacted him, but they just asked him briefly whether he was interested in going there. After he said he would consider it, there was no further contact, and they didn't even contact him a second time.

Do you understand? Don't be fooled by the messy news from the outside world. They are just to encourage parents. At least in China, the so-called top scorer in the college entrance examination is no different from the cabbage in the field for Huaqing and Yanbei.

If the top scorer in the college entrance examination went to another school, he might indeed be looked up to. The reality is that those precious top students in the eyes of high school teachers are just ordinary scum in the eyes of professors at China's top universities. Do you understand?"

　Thanks to Riyuetonghui3768 and book friend 20180502233628331 for their rewards and encouragement!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)